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the cucking stool

  • A place in the sun

    Sometimes, a callow client will wax eloquent about the competition in the market that her or his business is engaged, as if it was a good thing for the business. When that happens, Spot shakes his head sadly, and then says, “NO YOU FOOL, YOU DO NOT WANT COMPETITION.” Spot [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:42am EST

  • Why teachers are leery

    They’re leery of so-called performance compensation. Here’s an example of why. In Edina, the teachers are presently at an impasse with the school board in inking a contract for the period that began last July. There are a few issues in contention, but unsurprisingly, compensation is at the top of [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 7:00pm EST

  • Don’t forget the Drinking Liberally holiday party!

    This is just another friendly reminder of the Drinking Liberally – Twin Cities holiday party this Thursday, December 10th. As we have in past years, we’re doing a Toys for Tots collection. If you can, please bring a new unwrapped toy or gift for a needy child. There is often [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 2:51pm EST

  • Jeebus Christmas, Luke

    Is that all you’ve got? Somebody called this to Spot’s attention this afternoon, because heaven knows, he never would have gone over to MDE without prompting. Luke Hellier or Michael Brodkorb — or whoever is actually writing Minnesota Democrats Exposed these days — posted a bit of video from R.T. [...]
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    Posted: December 06, 2009, 6:28pm EST

  • Gutshot joins pardon bid!

    Governor Gutshot, who recently proclaimed himself as the no-clemency candidate, apparently did join then Senator-elect Coleman and then Republican Party Chair Ron Ebensteiner in trying to obtain a federal pardon for Tom Petters’ associate Frank “I found God in prison” Vennes, who had served time, and was still apparently “on [...]
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    Posted: December 04, 2009, 4:00pm EST

  • Drinking Liberally Holiday Party next week

    Next week is the Drinking Liberally Holiday Party and Toys for Tots collection at the 331 Club. It promises to be an enjoyable evening of music and dancing. Well, okay, no dancing, but lots of fun. We’re still in Santa negotiations, so that part is up in the air. Please [...]
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    Posted: December 04, 2009, 11:42am EST

  • The in-clement governor

    That’s Governor Gutshot to the right-wing sweetheart Laura Ingraham: .  .  . "In Minnesota, I don't think I've ever voted for clemency. We've given out pardons for things after everybody has served out their term, but again, usually for more minor offenses. But clemency, certainly not. Commutation of sentence, certainly'" [...]
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    Posted: December 03, 2009, 9:46am EST

  • Drinking Liberally tomorrow night, December 3rd

    Remember Drinking Liberally meets tomorrow night at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis; Mayor R.T. Rybak will be our guest. He’s a contender for the DFL nomination for governor. We meet from six to nine PM, but we expect the Mayor around seven. He’ll offer a few remarks, stand for [...]
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    Posted: December 02, 2009, 6:47pm EST

  • “Growing an an unsustainable rate”

    That ‘s what Governor Gutshot and Minnesota Republicans said about said about General Assistance Medical Care in Minnesota when Gutshot hived it off the budget. But there have been reports in the Star Tribune this week about another, er, growth that he and his Commissioner of Education, Alice Seagren, don’t [...]
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    Posted: December 02, 2009, 10:44am EST

  • Huckabee’s Horton

    In a piece of good news for Governor Gutshot, Mike Huckabee apparently granted the clemency petition of a guy who just killed four police officers: When Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister then serving as governor of Arkansas, granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons nine years ago, he cited his [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:11pm EST

  • That must be it

    Spot read somewhere – can’t even remember where, at the moment – that the reason for continuing and escalating efforts in Afghanistan is to provide a way to get at western Pakistan, where the bad guys really do live. Not fighting for a democratic Afghanistan, not to protect the women [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:13pm EST

  • “Hand wringing and mumbo jumbo”

    That’s how one thoughtful and obviously intelligent commenter over at the Star Tribune described an op-ed piece in today’s paper by Vice President Walter Mondale and former U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug. The subject of the commentary was the governor’s unallotment last spring before the new biennium began. Their point was [...]
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    Posted: November 29, 2009, 12:51pm EST

  • Comment on the Stool

    Commenting is not kvetching, or at least it shouldn’t be. But commenting of late has become, among some commenters, anyway, not a venue for talking about the subject of a post, but rather a place to just bicker with other commenters, often on subjects other than the post. It inhibits [...]
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    Posted: November 29, 2009, 11:41am EST

  • R.T. Rybak at Drinking Liberally on December 3rd

    It’s still a few days off, but be sure to mark it down and come to Drinking Liberally on Thursday, December 3rd. R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis, and recently-announced candidate for governor, will be our guest. We meet from six to around nine at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis. [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:43pm EST

  • History is a weapon

    From Howard Zinn’s essay in History is a Weapon (and taken from his book A People’s History of the United States):      When the Pilgrims came to New England they too were coming not to vacant land but to territory inhabited by tribes of Indians. The governor of the Massachusetts [...]
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    Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:37am EST

  • The Pequot should have had better border control

    From a Thanksgiving post three years ago: The idea of a city on a hill [John Winthrop, picked up by others, including Ronald Reagan] is heartwarming. It suggests what George Bush has spoken of: that the United States is a beacon of liberty and democracy. People can look to us [...]
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    Posted: November 25, 2009, 7:18pm EST

  • Candidates’ debate

    Not the lyric from the Simon and Garfunkel song, but the one being held tonight for DFL gubernatorial candidates at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts. Spot hopes to attend, and he has a question. Although he doubts he’ll get a chance to ask it. But here it is: [...]
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    Posted: November 24, 2009, 11:18am EST

  • The Climateers

    I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while. The daughter of a friend of mine is a graduate student in Public and Industrial Environmental Management in Berlin. She is the coauthor of a blog dedicated to environmental activism and apparently will be attending the upcoming summit on the environment [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:36pm EST

  • Ebenezer Scrooge: just a misunderstood libertarian

    Alternate title: We are all Bob Cratchit now (from Balloon Juice) Spot had forgotten about these tender Christmas tidings from the Ludwig von Mies Institute: So let's look without preconceptions at Scrooge's allegedly underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit. The fact is, if Cratchit's skills were worth more to anyone than the [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:10am EST

  • Selling the apocalypse in a can

    To paraphrase P.T. Barnum (at least Spot thinks that who it was), nobody every went broke underestimating the intelligence (he said taste) of the American public. Bill Heid, the owner of a company called Solutions From Science, is selling a can of garden seeds for the low, low price of [...]
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    Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:17pm EST

  • Drinking Liberally tonight!

    We meet from six, until about nine, at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis. You can come anytime. Just as a head’s up, there will be NO meeting next week: it’s Thanksgiving. On the 3rd of December, R.T. Rybak will be out guest. The 10th of December is the annual [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:48am EST

  • Editor's note

    Earlier today, the Cucking Stool put up a post dealing with testimony at a June 23, 2005, Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution. The Senate's record of the hearing, which dealt with the effects of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, can be found here. The Committee's record [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:02pm EST

  • It is always an unsettling sight

    To see a grown man piss himself, that is. It is that much worse when it happens on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives: On the House floor last night, Media Matters points out, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) made his case against holding trials for 9/11 suspects in [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2009, 1:23pm EST

  • Katie reads a book!

    And she can’t wait to tell us all about it; well, the one idea from it that stuck in her head, anyway. The book? Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed. Who is Thomas Sowell, Spotty? Mr. Sowell, grasshopper, is a writer from the well-endowed sheltered conservative workshop known as [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2009, 1:17pm EST

  • No wonder we can’t afford healthcare

    From Empire Burlesque: Our American militarists love war so much that they even bankroll the enemy, just to keep the blood money flowing. This odd but absolutely crucial characteristic of the Never-Ending Terror War was borne out again in a remarkable story in the Guardian (with an expanded version in [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 9:58pm EST

  • Bill of Attainder!

    ACORN sued the federal government for enacting a bill of attainder against it. Here’s an interview on Democracy Now with ACORN’s counsel. This one should be a slam dunk for ACORN. Technorati Tags: ACORN,bills of attainder,Democracy Now [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 1:09pm EST

  • It's time for Jim Oberstar to take one for the team

    Katha Pollit said recently: You know what I don't want to hear right now about the Stupak-Pitts amendment banning abortion coverage from federally subsidized health insurance policies? That it's the price of reform, and prochoice women should shut up and take one for the team. "If you want to rebuild" [...]
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    Posted: November 13, 2009, 9:32am EST

  • Governor Gutshot

    TPaw, Pepsodent, Governor Gimmick: you can stow them all. Today’s Spotty™ winner’s got the new — and in Spot’s opinion the best — new moniker for Pawlenty: The similarities between Gov. Tim Pawlenty's abandonment of his deer in northern Minnesota and his departure from the office of governor of this [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2009, 10:19am EST

  • Drinking Liberally tomorrow night

    Don’t forget our regular meeting tomorrow night (November 12th) from six to nine at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis. Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 7:38pm EST

  • We’re on the eve of destruction

    Here’s driftglass on that hopeless windbag Lindsey Graham: On “Face the Nation” Lindsey Graham warned “the public option will destroy private insurance.” Just as public parks and gyms have destroyed for-profit fitness clubs, public beaches have destroyed private seaside resorts, public transit has destroyed the car, Segue, motorcycle, bike and [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 11:13pm EST

  • It must be almost Pavlovian

    A writer of headlines at the Strib is given the task of writing a headline for a Katherine Kersten column. Entirely unbidden, the term “slippery slope” pops into the writer’s head. It could hardly be otherwise; Katie warns an unsuspecting public of a “slippery slope” in every column. And thus [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 1:27pm EST

  • We knew she was a little thug

    Those of us who saw Bachmann & company take over the state capitol a few years ago really can't be all that surprised this happened.That's Michele Bachmann interrupting Congresswomen who try to address the House in turn on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday. Unwilling to even let' [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2009, 9:39am EST

  • Guilty! II

    Here’s an interview with the Italian judge prosecutor who convicted the 23 Americans for kidnapping the Muslim cleric off the streets of Milan. Amy Goodman is joined by human rights lawyer Scott Horton. M corrects points out it is an interview with the prosecutor. Spot meant prosecutor; really he did. [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 2:43pm EST

  • Pirates in blue V

    Alternate title: Jeep lust You can read the earlier installments here: part one, part two, part three, and part four. This is the final installment in the series, bringing the issue back home. Just a week ago, there was an article in the Metro West section of the Star Tribune [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 2:02pm EST

  • Guilty!

    Busy day, not much time to blog. But Spot did want to pass this along: Judgment in Milan An Italian court hearing criminal charges against 26 American officials and a smaller group of Italians arising out of a CIA extraordinary rendition has ruled today. The case relates to the CIA’s [...]
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    Posted: November 05, 2009, 9:53am EST

  • Crowing and kvetching: the Drinking Liberally edition

    Drinking Liberally tomorrow night – Thursday, November 5th – will be a a post mortem on the just-conducted election. Come and tell us why your candidate won, and if your candidate lost, come and explain why the voting public was so sadly misguided. Campaign staff are especially encouraged to attend. [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 4:59pm EST

  • Pirates in blue IV

    In this, probably the penultimate post in the series (part one, part two, part three), we’ll address splitting the forfeiture pot. The basic rule is 70% of the proceeds go to the local cops or other agency responsible for the bust, 20% to the prosecuting agency, and 10% to the [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 2:13pm EST

  • Pirates in blue III

    Alternate title: License to steal This is the third post in a series. Here’s part one and part two. I recommended that readers review the complaint prepared against the Metro Strike Force by attorneys for some of its victims: Rivera v. Metro Gang Strike Force. The Strike Force described in [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 11:21am EST

  • Pirates in blue II

    This is a follow up to the earlier post, Pirates in blue. There are two principal kinds of civil forfeiture in Minnesota: judicial forfeiture, and administrative forfeiture, or as law enforcement probably likes to thinks of it, forfeiture lite! Less work, but the same great taste! It was administrative forfeiture [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 1:57pm EST

  • Read Doug Tice

    Doug Tice had a front page op-ed section piece in the Strib today. When you’re the editor of the opinion page — at least Spot recalls that’s what Tice is up to these days — you can do that once in a while, shoving lesser mortals aside for a spot [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 10:14pm EST

  • Pirates in blue

    Alternate title: Cops on commission Most conservatives have a concern about arbitrary and overreaching government; most liberals worry about unbridled entrepreneurialism. Here’s a story that features both at the same time. It’s about a thing called civil forfeiture. To people who are unfamiliar with it, it sounds bizarre and like [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 9:15pm EDT

  • Fox News and the people who watch it

    Jon Stewart on Fox “News”: The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cFor Fox Sake!www.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth Care Crisis Stewart has a good example of how the Fox “news” and “opinion” sides actually work hand in glove. A lecture delivered in Stewart’s inimitable style. A [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 5:25pm EDT

  • The two most unwinnable wars in human history

    Have come charmingly together: The war in Afghanistan and the war on drugs. We’ve fought the former for eight years now — as long as the Soviets were in Afghanistan, and with similar results — and the latter for decades. But now we have a two-fer. This is just great. [...]
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    Posted: October 30, 2009, 4:43pm EDT

  • The mephitic vapors

    Is what conservatives have got over ACORN, an organization that does a lot of good things, had a few — yes, a few — employees and agents make some serious mistakes, but Spot is tired of liberals and progressives, including members of Congress, running away from the organization. The indefatigable [...]
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    Posted: October 29, 2009, 2:27pm EDT

  • Drinking Liberally on October 29th (tomorrow night)

    Don’t forget DL tomorrow night: six to nine at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis. We don’t have a guest scheduled, but you can wear your Halloween finery if you like. Technorati Tags: Drinking Liberally,331 Club [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 1:08pm EDT

  • Isn’t that Five Mile Rock dead ahead, sir?

    Never mind, sailor; steady as she goes. Captain Fishsticks has a new command, guiding the H.M.S. Pat Anderson through the media shoals in her quest for the Republican endorsement for governor. The Captain’s unwavering adherence to libertarian principle, like a course line laid out on a chart, and irrespective of [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 8:57am EDT

  • Civil liberties 1, Katie 0, part two

    In a comment to Spot’s earlier post on the subject of the settlement of the flying imams’ lawsuit against the MAC and Katherine Kersten’s bilious reaction to it, MNO wrote about the procedural posture of the case at the time of the settlement. The “procedural posture” of a case sounds [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 8:29pm EDT

  • Riding the train to Damascus

    Alternate title: Gettin’ your ticket from Saul George Will’s puff piece in the Strib about Michele Bachmann contains all the stuff we’ve heard before: the accidental politician who went to a caucus on the spur of the moment and was drafted to run for office, raising a gaggle of foster [...]
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    Posted: October 27, 2009, 11:12am EDT

  • The top of the heap, indeed

    Sally Jo Sorensen at Bluestem Prairie has been doing some digging on a guy named Samuel Johnson and the neo-Nazi group he heads in Austin, Minnesota. Apparently, Johnson’s trying to use anti-immigration sentiment in southern Minnesota to gain a foothold for other issues of the so-called “National Socialist Movement.” Among [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 7:38pm EDT

  • Civil liberties 1, Katie 0

    Alternate title: The taste of crow, unsalted Ken Avidor graphic In a column that Spot hopes was therapeutic for Katherine Kersten, she bellows and roars about the vindication of the flying imams where it really matters, in court: The "flying imams" and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are declaring [...]
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    Posted: October 25, 2009, 5:43pm EDT
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