Fish Fear Me

Is Minnesota In Play?

As we enter the the final week of Election 2012, a StarTribune Minnesota Poll has shocked more than a few people here and around the country:

As the presidential race tightens across the country, a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found that it is narrowing here as well, with President Obama holding a 3-point lead and Republican Mitt Romney making gains in the state.

The poll shows Obama with support from 47 percent of likely voters and Romney earning backing from 44 percent -- a lead within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

I'm not going to bet that a majority or even a plurality of Minnesotans will turn away from Obama this election, but that poll says it is a possibility. That feels about right to me this year, at least in my left-leaning first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. Let's go to one measure of enthusiasm, the yard signs.

My admittedly informal guess is that there are roughly half the Obama yard signs in my neck of the woods this year compared to 2008. Yard signs for any candidate for Congress, Republican or Democrat, are almost non-existent(both incumbents are Democrats), unlike the ubiquitous Ellison signs just two years ago. 

There's a marriage amendment on the ballot here and "Vote No" signs are abundant in Minneapolis proper. They aren't even close in my neighborhood. I think I've seen only one "Vote No" sign on the Voter ID amendment around here. On the flip side, I've seen no "Vote Yes" signs for either amendment. That doesn't surprise me though. I think people are afraid to openly support either amendment as that politically correct position may invite abuse and unwanted attention. For the record, at this point I will vote for Voter ID, against the marriage protection amendment.

In 2008, Minnesota went 54-44% in favor of Obama. There is no way to spin a 47-44% poll this cycle as a good thing for Obama. It appears he has lost significant support and anecdotal evidence supports that, though I think it is still most likely that he will win the state. It's looks like it's going to be very close here, and that in itself is a surprise.

Great Moments In WTF?(cont.)

Let me just say right off the bat that I've never before burst out laughing at a crying little girl. Never. I'm not some sort of monster. Really. I couldn't help it though, when I stumbled across what looks like The Onion but is actually a story on a real Denver TV station website:

Slowest. News day. Ever.

I'm sorry, but that's just freakin' hilarious to me. Not that the kid is crying, of course, just that some news director thought that was a story worth posting on their website. Kind of makes me wonder what they are going to do when Abigael falls down and gets a boo-boo.

Things That Make Me Chuckle, Just A Little(cont.)

The Coalition Against Civilization has a website.

Class, Michael Moore/Move On Style

I'm guessing this is supposed to be funny, and maybe it is in a twisted sort of way, but mostly I find it kind of appalling(Warning! NSFW language):

 

I don't remember talking politics much with either set of grandparents. You could probably call my mom's side Hubert Humphrey Democrats, which would be considered somewhat conservative these days. I'm absolutely certain though, that none of them would ever be caught threatening to "cock punch" a politician, or anyone else for that matter, even in jest. Not because they were prudes, though they were, but because they knew that language like that is more likely to degrade the speaker than the target.

It's a simple matter of decency, to others as well as ourselves. Always has been, always will be.

Sandy Update

Sandy landed quite a punch on the East Coast last night, but thankfully it appears that my friends and family have weathered the storm. Both sisters in Brooklyn even have power and internet access at their undamaged homes. Plenty of others are not so fortunate. The Salvation Army and Red Cross are already providing relief to those in need and any donation that you can make will go to good use.

My younger sister did work the local shelter and says it was a great experience. As a teacher she didn't have to volunteer, but she did and will get some compensation for that. How the rest of the week will go is up in the air. She can walk to the middle school where she teaches but my other sister and my niece usually rely on the subway to get to Manhattan for work and high school. The word this morning is the subways will be out " a good 4 or 5 days", however bus service will resume this evening. I'm not sure what that means from a practical sense, but like everybody else they will do what they have to do until things get back to normal.

I hope your family and friends fared as well also.

Remote Hurricane Watching

Here's a list of webcams on the East Coast if you want to check in on Hurricane Sandy(via Instapundit). As long as they have power and internet access, of course.

If you would like to become seasick from many miles away, I highly recommend the one at the 79th Street Boat Basin. I guess it's mounted on the S.S. Gizneyland there. Have a bag handy.

With schools closed and the transit system shut down, big sister and family are hunkered down on Park Slope today. Little sister is an employee of the city and therefore has "volunteered" to work shifts in a shelter near her 2nd floor brownstone apartment in Downtown Brooklyn. I don't want to bug her now, but when this is over I'll have to check with her about that volunteer part. Her email made it sound more like the military kind of volunteering. Oh, and my nephew is waiting it out with about 8,000 other students at SUNY New Paltz. I have to figure the staff there knows what they are doing to keep them safe.

It sounds like everybody I know is as ready and safely housed as they can be. Just have to wait it out. 

You Don't Say

I'm quite certain that the highly intelligent regular visitors of this blog will successfully read between the lines here and know what follows:

A 26-year-old Rosemount woman was shot in the shoulder just before 2:30 a.m. as she rode in a car that was northbound on Interstate 35E, just south of Pilot Knob Road.

She was one of eight people in a Volkswagen Jetta that was entering the interstate from Cliff Road. She was in the front seat, on another passenger's lap, with her back pressed against the front passenger window, said Sgt. Danielle Anselment, an Eagan police spokeswoman.

What comes next goes without saying, but just in case Joe Biden stops by...Eight people in a Jetta? Cruising down a freeway at 2:30 a.m.? Yes indeed:

The investigation has been hampered because many of the witnesses were drunk, Anselment said.

Shocking.

The Volkswagen's driver, a 28-year-old West St. Paul man, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, Anselment confirmed.

More shocking.

I would never want someone to be shot, but since her injury was not life-threatening it's possible the shooter might have actually saved her life. Consider the types of injuries she might have suffered if that drunk driver had slammed into something or rolled that vehicle. If the airbag didn't mess her up she might have gone through the windshield or otherwise been ejected out of the vehicle. Or one of the other unbelted passengers might have taken her out as they hurtled through the vehicle.  Or any number of other gruesome possibilities.

I did some very foolish things in my younger days, but I'm hard-pressed to think of one where one of the better possible endings might have been somebody getting shot.

Hurricane Prep

Family and friends on the East Coast are once again battening down the hatches as Hurricane Sandy approaches. A sturdy brownstone and apartment building should keep my sisters safe, but I'll still be worrying about them and all my friends out that way.

Mr. Bingley and THS have once again published their most excellent hurricane preparation advice, so if you are in the possible path of the storm you may want to check it out. No disrespect to anyone in hurricane country, but I accomplished my simple hurricane prep many years ago:

1. Live in the middle of the freakin' continent.

I know, I know, I know. I'm just being a smart-ass here. Please do not send me angry emails about tornadoes and blizzards.

Setting smartassery aside, this is potentially a deadly storm, so I really am worried for all of you on the East Coast. Get ready and be safe. I'll be thinking about you.

Ready For Some Football

The 5-2 Vikings host the 2-4 Buccaneers tonight. I'm taking it easy at home to hopefully shutdown a cold that is trying to come on. We'll see how that goes.

Christian Ponder has got to step up tonight and prove that he is better than the awful 8-17 and 58 yards he had on Sunday. Not to mention three weeks in a row with 2 interceptions per game. The Bucs will focus on stopping Peterson and hope that Ponder is not up to the task. Ponder has to show them they were wrong.

(knock on wood) Four victories in a row has me back in the FFL hunt. I'm up against the division leader and his main RB Adrian Peterson this week. Here's hoping the Vikes can win without Peterson going absolutely nuts. 

So I'm watching the pregame right now, and this is the NFL Network? I know I've been hard on the on-air talent the last few weeks, but these guys are not exactly off to an impressive start.

And now that the game has started they have the Spanish language broadcast going in the background? That's going to drive me nuts.

More: Cool, now it's all Spanish. Oh wait, the English version is back, this time with reverb. Oops, now just Spanish again. Okay, English again, though the reverb is gone and the Spanish is again there in the background. To be fair to the NFL Network, I'm watching the game on a local broadcast station, so maybe they are screwing up the feed. Whatever, I'm switching to radio for the play-by-play.

Paging Agent Starling

I'm thinking since he's NYPD and able to shoot innocent bystanders without reproach, as long as he sticks with a low-salt/no trans fat recipe and doesn't wash his victim down with a soda larger than 16 oz, he's all good with Nanny Bloomberg:

A New York City police officer plotted to kidnap, cook and eat women, using a crime victim database and possibly an online dating forum to choose potential victims and discussing his twisted scheme in grisly detail online, local and federal law enforcement authorities said.

Six-year NYPD veteran Gilberto Valle, 28, who worked in Harlem, was arrested Wednesday by federal officers on a conspiracy to kidnap charge Wednesday. The U.S. Attorney’s office said Valle conspired with multiple, unnamed people via the Internet “to kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and cannibalize a number of women.” Law enforcement sources said Valle's estranged wife tipped police off to his bizarre online correspondence, which they said may have been more sick fantasy than actual plans to act on.

So if an NYPD officer tells you that "you're going down," now you know what he means. Ditto for "putting you on ice." And I guess if someone is "hot," well that must mean it's dinner time.

Actually, that last line quoted above probably gives it away that this story is a bit overhyped, the question is how much. Given the involvement of an "estranged wife" I'm inclined to hear the other side of the story before rendering judgment. In the meantime, I will of course be more than happy to take any, er, "shot," at Nanny Bloomberg that I can.