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The First Ring

  • So Long, Farewell, Amen

    Closing time at The First Ring.

    I had no clue what path blogging might take me when I started shortly after the 2004 presidential election, if it would take me anywhere at all. There were no high or mighty ambitions nor was there a particular itch that needed [...]
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    Posted: April 09, 2006, 10:34pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Dissent on Disaster

    Four flowers spring up from the GOP’s ’06 pot of dirt.

    The failure of Republican hopes to snag top-tier challengers to some of the U.S. Senate’s most vulnerable Democrat incumbents has long made NRSC chair Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) the bane of conservative activists and the blogosphere. With the [...]
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    Posted: April 07, 2006, 5:35pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Going, Goering, Gone

    The latest trend in Baath Party dictator role models? Overweight, drug crazed, long-dead Nazis.

    Fresh off of being knighted as media royalty, Ed Morrissey delves into the Saddam Hussein trial with his other writing gig, the Weekly Standard, comparing the effects of Hussein’s court-room antics to those [...]
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    Posted: April 07, 2006, 12:26am EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Game Council

    Legislators look to press ‘Game Over’ for video violence.

    If Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is looking to score points with soccer moms and social conservatives in his likely upcoming quest for the GOP presidential nomination, he may be taking a page out of Tipper Gore’s playbook. While Gore’s aghast [...]
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    Posted: April 06, 2006, 10:34pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Have You Now, Or Have You Ever…

    Written for a blog? Minnesota Public Radio wants to know.

    The brief relationship between Minnesota’s Right-centered blogosphere and MPR’s newly minted political blog, Polinaut, has not quite been a case of the Hatfields and McCoys, but it’s getting there. Of course, it’s of little surprise that those [...]
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    Posted: April 05, 2006, 9:08pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Texas Toast

    Burnt by scandal, DeLay’s departure creates a hot race for his replacement.

    At least six prominent local Republicans have thrown their hats into Tom DeLay’s former ring, the Texas 22nd Congressional District. A bevy of candidates from DeLay’s principle primary opponent, Tom Campbell, to judges, a mayor and [...]
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    Posted: April 04, 2006, 10:59pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • First, Aid

    The Palestinian economy lingers on life support. Might pulling the plug save the patient?

    As the results of the January parliamentary election in the Palestinian territories came in, masses of effete European diplomats nervously pondered the question of what to do with the millions in aid the EU, UN, [...]
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    Posted: April 04, 2006, 9:29pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • From DeLayed to Cancelled

    UPDATE at bottom of post.

    Stop. Hammer time.

    If the word out of Texas is true, then Republicans will have not only lost one of their most effective parliamentarians but perhaps a House seat. Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, whose legal troubles forced him out of his [...]
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    Posted: April 03, 2006, 10:46pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • The Scarlet ‘I’

    Illegal immigration idiocy.

    The normally dispassionate Bill Kristol, co-editor of the Weekly Standard, has often been one of the more level-headed commentators and contributors to conservative thinking, albeit one with an occasionally nasty habit of articulating (both in written and verbal form) like he’s speaking to intellectual inferiors (which [...]
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    Posted: April 03, 2006, 10:36pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Going Backwards with Forward

    Wither withdrawal in the West Bank?

    Despite then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s immense difficulties in executing the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip---many of whom he had encouraged to settle there---and the significant use of his accumulated political capital, the prospect of further unilateral withdrawal from the [...]
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    Posted: April 03, 2006, 8:54pm EDT
    by First Ringer

  • Likely Undecided

    Everybody hates Arnold. Except all those likely to be voting.

    It isn’t easy being California’s political Charles Atlas. At one point bench-pressing political capital that had him overwhelmingly popular in his state and---although rightly quixotic---increasing support for a constitutional change to allow him to seek the presidency, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s [...]
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    Posted: March 31, 2006, 11:48pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Don’t Blame Me, I Just Write Here

    Just a friendly reminder for a few non-so-friendly emailing readers, I don’t have control over the ads on the left side of the screen. So when you see “Anti-Bush” bumper stickers and whatnot, please engage your brain stem before lecturing me in any future email rants.

    I’d cut out [...]
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    Posted: March 31, 2006, 10:19pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Jacked

    Five will get you ten, but Jack Abramoff’s looking more at fifteen-plus.

    Disgraced lobbyist, frustrated filmmaker and financial contributor to, well, everybody, Jack Abramoff can add another title to his resume---convict. With everyone from the Beltway to the blogosphere on pins and needles over who Abramoff might [...]
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    Posted: March 31, 2006, 12:03am EST
    by First Ringer

  • The Spruce Goose Splinters

    Apathy wins in Israel. Kadima comes in a distant second.

    That the unwieldy centrist coalition of Ariel Sharon’s Kadima Party survived his departure from the political scene may have seen astounding months ago when the aged but popular Prime Minister was brought down by a stroke while the party [...]
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    Posted: March 30, 2006, 4:59pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Left Behind

    Casey’s base leaves home.

    For a man whose father was famously barred from speaking at the 1992 Democrat National Convention, the idea that the let-bygones-be-bygones relationship of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. with his party’s liberal base could continue unabated was hardly considered sacrosanct. But for the better [...]
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    Posted: March 29, 2006, 6:15pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Shuffling the Deck

    Card folds.

    As prominent Republicans (including Minnesota’s own Norm Coleman) called for a changing of the guard in the Bush administration, Dubya and company maintained a steely poker face as they seemingly rebuffed such demands. And while some commentators view the departure of White House Chief of [...]
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    Posted: March 28, 2006, 7:23pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Veteran’s Benefits

    Does service serve candidates anymore? CQ asks.

    Despite support for the ongoing conflict in Iraq eroding and Democrats banking on capitalizing with anti-war veterans candidates aided by organizations like the ”Band of Brothers” PAC, the issue of whether or not military service actually helps a candidate [...]
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    Posted: March 27, 2006, 6:32pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Remedial Education

    The Electoral College? That’s so November 6th, 2000.

    In apparently it’s on-going effort to show how topic it can be, the Star Tribune decides that late March of 2006 is the perfect time to argue for the abolition of the Electoral College:

    With no incentive to [...]
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    Posted: March 27, 2006, 1:08am EST
    by First Ringer

  • Faded Orange

    Ukraine’s Orange dawn becomes dusk.

    To the surprise of very few, the coalition of political parties that elevated Victor Yushchenko to the presidency of Ukraine over the myriad of efforts from poisoning to massive electoral fraud committed by the allies of outgoing Russian satellite Leonid Kuchma and his successor [...]
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    Posted: March 26, 2006, 10:44pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Welcome Congestion

    Arnold’s roads to perdition hit a rest stop on the way to defeat.

    For the man who road to Sacramento on fiscal conservatism, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election strategy of pushing for a mammoth $222 billion infrastructure package seemed like quite a detour from the path he started [...]
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    Posted: March 25, 2006, 4:48pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Come Undone

    Kelly Doran’s immaculate dream ends.

    When the brief history of the quixotic Kelly Doran campaign is written, despite his millions and well-paid consultants, the most politically astute advice given to the Eden Prairie real estate developer may well turn out to have been before he announced his [...]
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    Posted: March 24, 2006, 6:36pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • The Overly Visible Primary

    ABC’s 2008 launch has a system failure. But will anyone care?

    Considering The First Ring has written too extensively on the 2008 presidential race for it being only March of 2006, ABC News isn’t about to get chastised for their almost creeply in-depth analysis of both [...]
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    Posted: March 23, 2006, 10:25pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Strike One

    Nicholas Sarkozy shows he isn’t perfect and Dominique de Villepin shows he isn’t politically cautious.

    France’s Interior Minister and great Right hope, Nicholas Sarkozy, may not be all that conservative by American standards but his crackdown against rioters last fall and his willingness to be defined as ”a [...]
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    Posted: March 23, 2006, 8:03pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Your Daily Dose of Asinine

    A cloth bunny and pastel-colored eggs with the words "Happy Easter" were taken down from the lobby of the St. Paul City Council offices Wednesday after someone questioned whether it was appropriate to note the Christian holiday.

    "It's not about being politically correct or anything else. Someone complained,'" [...]
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    Posted: March 23, 2006, 12:09am EST
    by First Ringer

  • Why NOW?

    The National Organization of Women aborts party unity in Pennsylvania.

    PA State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr.’s bid for U.S. Senate hasn’t exactly had to ride a rocky road to November. Drawing upon his father’s past as the Governor of Pennsylvania and his pro-life position, Casey the Younger has drawn [...]
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    Posted: March 22, 2006, 10:30pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • There's No Quit In Quixotic

    Grammatically, yes. But politically speaking…

    They’re either committed or should be. I’m speaking of the hundreds of underfunded, under-organized and overly ambitious average citizens who make congressional challenges every two years. Shining some well-deserved spotlight on some of the more eccentric additions to the 2006 political line-up, The [...]
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    Posted: March 14, 2006, 10:41pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Good Night and Mixed Luck

    The DFL proves it’s proud to be in touch with at least a few political realities on Caucus night by their straw poll choices.

    On a night featuring ice-cold rain, what many thoughts were red-hot races---at least to Minnesota politicos and pundits---were lukewarm in the hearts of DFL activists [...]
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    Posted: March 08, 2006, 10:02pm EST
    by First Ringer

  • Raising The Stakes

    Gov. Pawlenty on Wednesday announced plans for the state government shutdown should no agreement be reached by June 30th.

    • No new drivers licenses issued
    • 16,000 state employees laid off during shutdown, all cashing in on accrued vacation/sick leave, totaling $380 million
    • No gas pump inspections
    • State campsites and [...]
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    Posted: June 16, 2005, 5:55pm EDT
    by Joe Mayo
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