Ralph Nader…What a Irritating Loser? Literally.

Fargo ND. Back in Feburary, Ralph Nader suddenly announced his candidacy for the presidency. He went on Meet The Press, did the cable rounds. Then he slunk back into obscurity, because no one had really missed him and he didn’t really add to the proceedings.

Now, months later, he’s back, and has a beef with Barack Obama. Apparently he thinks Obama is trying to “talk white” and is playing to “white guilt” and trying not to “threaten the white power structure.” Nader, who as MSNBC’s First Read points out received less than 0.5% of the vote in 2004, has been widely resented by Democrats since the 2000 election, when he pulled enough votes from Al Gore to have arguably tipped the electoral balance.

The self-styled ‘anti-corporate’ third-party candidate is also apparently an expert on what a black American presidential candidate should be. This can be gleaned from his statement asserting that “[T]he number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas.” I’m not exactly sure how this could have been achieved by “coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful” — something else he accuses Obama of not doing — but he doesn’t elaborate there.

Leave aside for a moment how appalling it is for him to accuse a bi-racial American, famously the son of one white and one black parent, but also famously regarded as African American, as in the first-ever African American nominee for the presidency, as trying to “talk white”; leaving aside how he could have possibly thought his attack would not be perceived as a racial one; leaving aside how random and uncalled for those comments were, here’s the thing: Who cares what Nader thinks?

It’s what I wondered back in February: Who wanted him to run? Where was the demand? Who had been clamoring for Ralph Nader? As someone who is pretty engaged in watching the process, I didn’t see it. Months, umpteen primaries and millions of votes later, I still don’t.

That was for running for president — an office to which Nader has long aspired, with increasingly less support, but still, he did have some. But in this context it’s hard to take his remarks seriously — it would be fair to critique Obama’s platforms and policies on the merits without bringing race into it. But he did bring race into it, and his remarks are nothing short of smear. Never mind that his credibility is significantly affected by his own aspirations, and his seeming lack of interest in truly contributing positively to this process.

I’m sorry, where was the Ralph Nader photo op stuffing sandbags in Iowa? More generally, where has Ralph Nader been really on anything? Again, perhaps I’ve missed it — and it’s possible — but I haven’t seen him really doing much to actively try to effect change himself over the course of this election, other than wave his arms on the sidelines a bit. As an anti-poverty advocate, he could have done more for John Edwards other than start an exploratory committee the day after he dropped out, but even so, there are plenty of ways to draw attention to your issue if you are committed and passionate. There was a long period while watchers were waiting for Edwards to endorse Obama, and he could have used that time to highlight the policy differences between the two on poverty.

Yes, there’s much that Nader could have done to draw attention to poverty issues — like be right. As it happens, Obama does have poverty positions — see here, subdivided for urban and rural areas. But that’s actually not even the point. The point is, he lost any and all credibility the instant he dragged race into it, impugning not only Obama’s worth as a black candidate but his “blackness” — an old and tired argument that I’d hoped we’d done away with a year ago. I mean, sheesh.

The sad thing is that Nader has an amazing record, 2000 and these comments aside, and is responsible for a whole lot of positive change thanks to his efforts as a consumer advocate. It’s something that even Obama was gracious enough to acknowledge, saying “it’s a shame, because if you look at his legacy… it’s an extraordinary one.” But though his stated goal of attacking poverty and helping disenfranchised black Americans may be noble, his methods of getting there are anything but.

Nader is as entitled as anyone else to speak out about this election and to flag the issues that he thinks are being overlooked — even if no one has actually asked him. But let’s face it: This isn’t helping. And it adds to a now well-established legacy of not helping. That’s Nader’s other legacy — and you know what? No one’s asking for that, either

The Mean Mr. Mustard

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Blogger Politics North Dakota.

By:Mean Mr Mustard

Many readers know about Talking Points Memo or Huffington Post. A New York Times article shows that in state races smaller, local blogs may have greater impact on a race. The Franken-Coleman race in Minnesota provides the backdrop to the story. Apparently an independent blogger who has previously worked for the Republican Party in Moorhead has found some anomalies in the management of Franken’s finances. A Democrat-leaning blog in the state has noted that similar issues have arisen in the Republican Party’s management of its finances. In both cases the power of young (one blogger is 34; the other is 24) writers having an impact on the race is striking.

As general point whether this extra information on either side will matter or should matter may be the larger question. The reputation smearing or questioning possible with the Internet can mean that we have more information about candidates. Yet, as many notes the quality of such information can be and often is suspect. Should every candidate have a spotless record? Indeed, could every candidate have a spotless record? What are the right metrics or proxies for character? Do people have the skills to discern what is learning moment, a problem borne of bureaucracy and tax systems, or a tough choice that had no perfect solution? Do people even want these skills or to engage with such nuances?

In political races at least such questions and paths of reflection are likely unwelcome. We seem to prefer some sort of resonance with a candidate and then allow that to color how we judge whatever information comes our way. Perhaps politics has always been that way. Still it seems that the ability to distract and further confuse whatever critical reflection one does has increased. It is a sort of noise pollution. So one can either exert the energy to sort the information or one can flee to a noise cancelling headset with one station that tells one what one wants to hear. Hopefully, the same power that fuels the noise pollution will fuel noise neutralization. Those who offer more nuanced or honest presentations of the good, the bad, and the what was that for both parties may rise and gain acceptance as excellent news sources. Given the way news and politics has proceeded in the recent decade that shift would surprise me. Nonetheless, as long as the Internet stays open enough it seems to keep such a possibility open and that is a good thing.

Watch Led Zeppelin Live Free

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How To Catch a Wild Pig.

Fargo ND. There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’ The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, then you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, et c, etc, etc. while we continue to lose our freedoms – just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free Lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself. So, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘ help ‘ is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America , you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably disreguard this, but God help you when the gate slams shut!
In this ‘very important’ election year, listen closely to what the candidates are promising you – just maybe you will be able to tell who is about to slam the gate on America!

‘A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.’ Thomas Jefferson

Fargo Paranormal Here

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Sad… But True.

Fargo ND. With Mr. Mukasey’s confirmation in doubt over his refusal to state a clear legal position on a classified Central Intelligence Agency program to interrogate terrorism suspects, Mr. Bush took the unusual step of summoning a small group of reporters into the Oval Office to preview remarks he planned to make later in the day at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization here. I believe that the questions he’s been asked are unfair, Mr. Bush said. He’s not been read into the program he has been asked to give opinions of a program or techniques of a program on which he’s not been briefed. I will make the case and I strongly believe this is true, that Judge Mukasey is not being treated fairly. The president’s remarks and a separate address on Thursday by Vice President Dick Cheney demonstrate just how much the White House has been caught off guard by the fight over Mr. Mukasey, a retired federal judge whose confirmation until recently seemed like a sure thing and had been championed by a leading Democratic senator, Charles E. Schumer of New York. But the effort also suggests that the White House believes it can combat criticism of Mr. Mukasey and his views by appealing to public concern about terrorism. With leading Democrats like Mr. Schumer giving Mr. Mukasey positive reviews at the outset the White House hoped to use the Mukasey nomination to mend the bitter partisan feelings left by the resignation of Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general. Now Mr. Schumer says he is undecided, the top Democratic presidential candidates say they will oppose the nomination, and any hope of bipartisan support has been all but erased. The nomination has not moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee a panel vote is expected Tuesday and the committee could decide to keep Mr. Mukasey from receiving a vote on the Senate floor. Mr. Mukasey’s biggest obstacle is his refusal to declare whether he believes a particularly controversial technique known as waterboarding is illegal and a form of torture. One Republican consulted on the nomination said the White House realized only recently that confirmation was in doubt, and had debated whether it was wise to risk a partisan backlash by having the president weigh in. Everybody understands that there’s a price to be paid for the president upping the ante, the Republican said. The price is, you put pressure on the Democrats to have a committee action, and you basically do a warning shot to Republicans, including people like McCain and Graham. The flip side of it is you’re making it far more partisan, so nobody’s expecting now that the vote will be 90 to 0. The warning shot may have done Mr. Bush some good, at least with Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, both of whom have condemned waterboarding as torture. They issued a joint statement Thursday saying they would vote for Mr. Mukasey. Once he is confirmed, however, the statement added, we strongly urge that he publicly make clear that waterboarding is illegal and can never be employed. The senior Republican on the judiciary panel, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said in an interview Thursday that the White House was right to be concerned about the nomination. Mr.
Specter said he was trying to persuade the administration to brief Judiciary Committee members on the C.I.A. program, so that we can talk it out amongst ourselves and try to come to a consensus. But he said Mr. Bush’s aides had been noncommittal. Among Democrats and their outside allies, support for Mr. Mukasey is dwindling. In a sign of how much the debate has shifted, the Alliance for Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group that had spoken kindly of Mr. Mukasey at first, said Thursday that it would oppose him. Based on his record as a judge, we had every expectation that he could show some independence from the administration, Nan Aron, the group’s president, said in an interview. But his testimony and his answers indicate that he’s really unwilling to distance himself from Bush’s illegal, unconstitutional policies Mr. Bush, in the Oval Office meeting, declined to address waterboarding. I’m not going to talk about techniques,he said, adding, My view is this: The American people have got to understand the program is important and the techniques used are within the law. Waterboarding, a centuries-old method that simulates a feeling of drowning, has become a symbol of the larger debate over the C.I.A. detention and interrogation program, and the Mukasey nomination has become a kind of proxy fight for that battle. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney made the war on terror and the C.I.A. program a central theme of their speeches on Thursday, with Mr. Cheney suggesting that the agency’s efforts had spared Americans another terrorist attack. Because we’ve been focused, because we’ve refused to let down our guard, we’ve done gone more now than six years without another 9/11, the vice president said, addressing the American Legion in Indianapolis. Mr. Bush, for his part, took after Congress on a variety of fronts, accusing lawmakers of delaying not only the Mukasey confirmation vote, but also passage of an emergency spending measure to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and legislation that would make permanent the administration’s domestic surveillance program. On too many issues,Mr. Bush said, Congress is behaving as if America is not at war. White House officials said it was Mr. Bush’s idea to invite reporters in for an informal pen and pad briefing, without television cameras, something the White House has not done before. Dana M. Perino, the press secretary, said aides to Mr. Bush had been discussing ways to make him more accessible to the press, and settled upon the Oval Office idea after Mr. Bush saw a photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower conducting a news conference there.

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Fargo ND. Symptoms of A Depressed Economy, Here Even Goes The Crappy Jobs!

1. Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide A company spokeswoman said the company hasn’t revealed which stores will be shuttered. It will let the stores that will close this fiscal year know over the next month.

2. Eddie Bauer to close more stores – Eddie Bauer has already closed 27 shops in the first quarter and plans to close up to two more outlet stores by the end of the year.

3. Cache closing stores – Women’s retailer Cache announced that it is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

4. Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide The owner of retailers Lane Bryant , Fashion Bug , Catherines Plus Sizes will close about 150 underperforming stores this year. The company hasn’t provided a list of specific store closures and can’t say when it will offer that info, spokeswoman Brooke Perry said today.

5. Talbots, J. Jill closing stores – About a month ago, Talbots announced that it will be shuttering all 78 of its kids and men’s stores. Now the company says it will close another 22 underperforming stores.

The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women’s and J. Jill, another chain it owns. The closures will occur this fiscal year, according to a company press release.

6. Gap Inc. closing 85 stores – In addition to its namesake chain, Gap also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic. The company said the closures – all planned for fiscal 2008 – will be weighted toward the Gap brand.

7. Foot Locker to close 140 stores – In the company press release and during its conference call with analysts today, it did not specify where the future store closures – all planned in fiscal 2008 – will be. The company could not be immediately reached for comment

8. Wickes is going out o f business – Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores, Wickes, a 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

9. Goodbye Levitz – The furniture retailer, which is going out of business. Levitz first announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910 when Richard Levitz opened his first furniture store in Lebanon , PA. In the 1960s, the warehouse/showroom concept brought Levitz to the forefront of the furniture industry.

The local Levitz closures will follow the shutdown of Bombay.

10. Zales, Piercing Pagoda closing stores – The owner of Zales and Piercing Pagoda previously said it plans to close 82 stores by July 31. Today, it announc ed that it is closing another 23 underperforming stores. The company said it’s not providing a list of specific store closures. Of the 105 locations planned for closure, 50 are kiosks and 55 are stores.

11. Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores The Walt Disney Company announced it acquired about 220 Disney Stores from subsidiaries of The Children’s Place Retail Stores. The exact number of stores acquired will depend on negotiations with landlords.

Those subsidiaries of Children’s Place filed for bankruptcy protection in late March. Walt Disney in the news release said it has also obtained the right to close about 98 Disney Stores in the U.S. The press release didn’t list those stores.

12. Home Depot store closings – ATLANTA – Nearly 7+ months after its chief executive said there were no plans to cut the number of its core retail stores, The Home Depot I nc.ann ounced Thursday that it is shuttering 15 of them amid a slumping U.S. economy and housing marke The move will affect 1,300 employees.

It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store for performance reasons. Its shares rose almost 5 percent. The Atlanta-based company said the underperforming U.S.stores being closed represent less than 1 percent of its existing stores. They will be shuttered within the next two months.

13. CompUSA clarifies details on store closings Any extended warranties purchased for products through CompUSA will be honored by a third-party provider, Assurant Solutions. Gift cards, rain checks, and rebates purchased prior to December 12 can be redeemed at any time during the final sale. For those w h o h ave a gadget currently in for service with CompUSA, the repair will be completed and the gadget will be returned to

14. Macy’s – 9 stores -

15. Movie Gallery – 160 stores as part of reorganization plan to exit bankruptcyThe video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall.

16. Pep Boys – 33 stores

17. Sprint Nextel – 125 retail locations New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse appears to have inherited a company bleeding subscribers by the thousands, and will now officially be dropping the ax on 4,000 employees and 125 retail locations. Amid the loss of 639,000 postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, Sprint will be cutting a total of 6.7% of its work force (following the 5,000 layoffs last year) and 8% of company-owned brick-and-mortar stores, while remaining mute on other rumors that it will consolidate its headquarters in Kansas. Sprint Nextel shares are down $2.89, or nearly 25%, at the time of this writing.

18. J. C. Penney, Lowe’s and Office Depot are scaling back

19. Ethan Allen Interiors: The company announced plans to close 12 of 300+ stores in an effort to cut costs.

20. Wilsons the Leather Experts – 158 stores

21. Pacific Sunwear will close its 154 Demo stores after a review of strategic alternatives for the urban-apparel brand. Seventy-four underperforming Demo stores closed last May.

22. Sharper Image: The company recently filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that 90 of its 184 stores are closing. The retailer will still operate 94 stores to pay off debts, but 90 of these stores have performed poorly and also may close.

23. Bombay Company: The company unveiled plans to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores. The company’s online storefront has discontinued operations.

24. KB Toys posted a list of 356 stores that it is closing around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. To see the list of store closings, go to the KB Toys Information web site, and click on Press Information

25. Dillard’s to Close More Stores Dillard’s Inc. said it will continue to focus on closing underperforming stores, reducing expenses and improving its merchandise in 2008. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting, CEO William Dillard II said the company will close another six underperforming stores this year.

Fargo ND….So Barack Obama tells Jake Tapper that we can fight terrorists and follow the constitution at the same time (”for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial”), and we get the standard talking point reaction from the McCain team. You know the drill: naive, September 10th mindset, etc. etc. All the usual dumb little campaign comments.

But wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a real conversation about this? We could compare, say, the amount of terrorism we’ve stopped via police work, intelligence, international cooperation, financial interdiction, and so forth, and compare it to the amount of terrorism created by our military intervention in Iraq. And then we could talk about how the real September 10th mindset is the one that says it doesn’t matter what other people think of us because, you know, we’ve got the biggest military in the world and we can squash ‘em all like bugs anyway.

I say: bring ‘em on. Let’s talk about who’s naive vs. who’s learned some lessons from 9/11. The sooner the better.

The Mean Mr. Muster

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The greatest lie in the world…

Fargo ND. “Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world,” declared Thomas Carlyle.

Enter Al Gore. A privliged Senator’s son, a former Vice President, a Global Warming Jihadist, and of course – a Nobel Peace Prize winning statesman right next to Yasser Arafat, who now more than ever -

Mr. Gore has a popular opinion.

This superstar global doomsayer has put on his green cape traveling the world preaching global jihad against industrialism. It is possible that no man today will effect such a profound change in politics, religion, and economics since Einstein’s Manhattan Project or Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, or Guttenberg’s printing press. And thats after losing his presidential bid!

Yet, it is rather difficult to buy the whole enchilada that the sky is falling, the earth is crumbling, and mankind is nearly beyond a point of no return unless he acts now to save himself. Isn’t this Al Gore’s message to America? And to the world?

An excerpt of an interview with Grist Magazine in May 2006, this caped green crusader provides an answer:

“In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think there’s a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.”

An over-representation of the facts? This is what we get from Al, the environmentalist? That maybe we aren’t in a heap of trouble yet- but why wait to get there when we can yell fire in a crowded theater where the Americans are watching their movie? So apparently lying to the American people; not telling them the version of the story that is most accurate is justifiable for personal political gain???

A man’s words is the test of his character. Note how often this global crusader of Green Jihad has exaggerated or outright lied through his career, according to The Free Republic:

shows an amusing 16 lies or exaggerations are tied to this green caped crusader of global warming.

What’s the point of dredging up a closet full of old bones?

Because the famous Green Caped Crusader is famous for not leveling with public!

Gore may have written “An Inconvenient Truth”. But the real “inconvenient truth” occurs when Gore’s test of character is quesitoned concerning his honesty. Superman’s weakness was cryptonite. Gore, the green caped craseder’s cryptonite is his imaginative fabrications that have come so naturally over the years.

Whether it was Love Canal, creating the internet, or the Buddhist fundraising scandal, trusting Gore is like trusting “Slick Willie” to honor Hillary all the days of his life. Does anyone believe that Gore can honor the truth to a greater degree than his former boss can honor Hillary?

Strange as it may sound, when Gore was just Vice President we were OK. But now as the international coronated king of Jihad against Carbon Emissions, the world has panicked. The effect may well be felt in our wallets with significantly higher taxes.

Single-handedly Al Gore has propelled the world of nations to act upon the desperate global warming issue whether or not the facts support action. A world hero, Gore, has taken the mantle to mock and taunt the Bush administration’s perceived failture to act to save the world from mankind. The Green Goracle™, never one to miss a chance to blame the United States in general and George Bush in particular for just about anything, told the delegates that the U.S. was “principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”
So what are we to do with a former Vice President who has a Messianic Complex to save Americans and the world from global warming? What can we do? Let the foolish dribble their opinions; let the facts illuminate the truth. In thirty years Gore may have found a new cause: global cooling???

Fargo Area Woman

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