Phoenix Woman

It has often been said that politics is the art of the possible. The heart of this concept is the whip count.

The Republican Party has effectively told American Muslims — who they had been openly courting not so long ago — that they can join African Americans and Americans of Latino descent in the ever-growing universe of people the GOP thinks are useless eaters. This is because the dictates of the corporate-bigot alliance known as the “Southern Strategy” have put severe limits on the size of the GOP’s tent.

Bethany settles in at the farm, and dreams of the past; meanwhile, events far away will prove to have an impact on her.

The big story is of course the three-way race of Margaret Kelliher, Mark Dayton, and Matt Entenza. Recent polls indicate Dayton could win going away here, but Dayton doesn’t have Kelliher’s ground game. Entenza, who as a self-funding candidate like Dayton has probably spent the most money, will do well if he can get twenty percent.

Seems like you can’t open the web browser these days without seeing yet another story based on cherry-picked information on how nations must ditch all social spending and cut taxes on the rich in order to be “competitive”. However, the most competitive places are quite often those with the very safety nets the authors of the thumbsuckers (and the folks who sign their paychecks) seem to hate.

One of the first results of the Citizens United ruling is the creation of the business-funded group MN Forward, the allegedly “bipartisan” outfit whose actual political leanings may be divined by the following evidence: Its head honcho is Brian McClung, who less than two months ago was the deputy chief of staff Tim Pawlenty; and its first TV ads have been for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who is essentially Pawlenty without the mullet and even less humanity.
But a funny thing happened on the way to buying yet another corporate-friendly Republican governor. A couple of funny things, actually.

There lives in southern Minnesota a man for whom the old cliché “he lives his life to the fullest” is no cliché at all, but pure and honest truth. His name is Neil Haugerud, and throughout his long life and varied career, there has been one constant driving factor: Service to others, bundled with compassion. Now, at an age when most persons have long since retired, the need to be of service to others keeps drawing him to the issue of crime and how best to deal with it.

(PW’s trying to write a novel. This is Part Two; here’s Part One. Comments welcomed.)

FOX and Breitbart’s response to the NAACP’s, USDA’s and the White House’s falling for their smear of Shirley Sherrod is essentially what Eric “Otter” Stratton told Kent “Flounder” Dorfman in Animal House: “You f—ed up! You trusted us!”

Gentle Readers, tell me now, which is worse — swearing up a storm, or creating a cuss-free cartoon that invokes the old “we must protect our white wimmen!” racist/sexist nastiness that gave us, among other things, the tragedy of the Scottsboro Boys?