Mustang Rants

A man was shot and killed by Minneapolis police a couple nights ago. After stabbing two people, the criminal in question then fled in a pickup truck with a sawed off shotgun, was chased by police, and was shot when he refused to put the shotgun down after the chase. The criminal's cousin says of the police "I think they were a little overaggressive". WHAT?!?! OVERAGGRESSIVE?!?! He stabbed 2 people and had a friggin sawed off shotgun!!!!! I have no patience whatsoever for this kind of bullshit. I fully expect the police to shoot anyone brandishing a sawed off shotgun following a high speed chase; I would consider them negligent if they didn't. The reporter writing the story, Chao Xiong, has written several extremely biased stories following officer involved shootings. Every story I have read by Xiong had pretty much accused the police of murder and planting evidence. Enough already. Chao, there are a lot of criminals in Minneapolis, and occasionally they do things that make it necessary for police to shoot them. When a man is shot after a drug deal because he won't drop a gun, and a gun and drugs are found next to his body, HE HAD IT COMING! When a suspect in a domestic assault wrestles with police and grabs one of their guns, he deserves to get shot!

The 3 criminals who were so stupid as to necessitate their deaths by the Minneapolis police this year are clearly Darwin award candidates, not victims.

If this guy actually did leak the NIE, he should not be able to cop a Klobuchar deal. The staffer in question should be charged with espionage, because if he gave it to the NYT, it can certainly be argued that he colluded with an enemy of the United States.

Does the Strib have no shame? Just a couple days after they ran a banner headline leaping for joy because the most biased poll on the planet, their own Minnesota poll, showed Hatch in front by 9(?!)for the Governor's race, they trumpet Patty Wetterling leading Michelle Bachman in the MN 6th district, which Wetterling lost by 8 point in 2004. I live 1 block from the 6th district, so I will not be able to vote for Michelle Bachman, but I can tell you my wife and I both wish we could. Jim Ramstad will win handily without our help, but we will vote for him anyway! But anyway, seriously, there is no way in hell that Wetterling is ahead, much less by 8 friggin' points! How they continue to claim that they are not actively trying to influence the election with this horribly distorted poll is beyond me. I believe with all my heart in a free press, but I also believe in consequences for this kind of fraud. All I can do is never pay a dime for that rag, and try to call them to task in front of the 8 people reading this Blog.

*****UPDATE****** This from SCSU Scholars helps to explain a lot.

When I watched the debate between Mark Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar on “Meet the Press” this morning, and read the ensuing screams of victory from both camps on the blogosphere, I tried to analyze why, after every debate, the partisans leap up and down screaming “my candidate wiped the floor with your candidate!” Not just the insiders, but everyone with an opinion. I think it has something to do with the old political phrase “throwing meat to the lions”. The party faithful were all told what they wanted to hear, and what they heard from the opposing candidate was all the things they are opposed to. In the minds of the lions, they got meat and the other side got bones.

I have a different belief about how to win an election. We have become so used to being told what the polls say, and watching politicians legislate to the polls, that we have forgotten what real leadership is. Real leaders have a vision, and then inspire others to follow that vision. I am waiting to hear from someone with a vision. Ronald Reagan, Douglas MacArthur, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher; now there were some leaders. People who stood up and said “I believe this, it is right and good, now follow me.” Just to be fair I should probably add Hubert Humphrey to the list. Politics cannot be about legislating to public opinion; it has to be about showing others why your vision is the best vision for America, and moving people to your views, inspiring them and making them proud of who they are and what their country is. It’s not about telling the people what they want to hear.

I know who I am going to vote for in November, because I believe in the vision of the Republican Party, with some exceptions. Luckily my party has room for those with differing views. I really am an imperialist libertarian, and the Republicans come closest to that vision. I’m just hungry to see someone get up and be proud of that vision!

I saw this article on Yahoo news, and also found it buried in the Strib. Basically, the federal deficit is at it's lowest level in 4 years, and besides that, the Fed is still concerned about inflation, another sign of a booming economy. Unemployment is under 5%, which is, according to my Econ texts, full employment. 10 years ago, this news would have been plastered on the front page; today it is invisible. The article does mention that there were 4 years of "surpluses" ending in 2002, but I have a question about that. You'll forgive me, I'm a business management major, not an accountant or economist. When I look up the public debt, I notice that even when we had a supposed surplus, the public debt rose every year. In fact, the public debt rose from $4.06 Trillion to $5.67 Trillion during the Clinton administration. An additional 1.6 Trillion in debt!? But we had a surplus! We must have, Amy Klobuchar keeps saying so!

As I write this, Al Franken is a few blocks away from me campaigning for Patty Wetterling. I won't be voting for Patty, nor will I be voting for Al in '08, but I do have to give Al his props for one thing. Last Christmas I was sitting at Anaconda waiting for a flight out of Iraq, and Al showed up with a few country acts, some cheerleaders, and Traylor Howard, the girl from "Monk". He was apolitical and funny, and in spite of not being able to stand his politics, I did laugh my ass off. Of course, I had spent the last year in Iraq and I was probably pretty easily entertained .... Nonetheless, he was there, in Iraq, on Christmas. For that, Al, I thank You.

Now if he would just shut up and go back to being funny.

Anyway, here it is and in no time at all I will spreading all sorts of imperialist libertarian commentary for all to revile. Take your best shots.