Conner's Blog

I’m going to move soon, only I’m moving in the wrong direction.  I’ve decided I need to pack up and head south.  I went through this stage last year after spring took too long to get here, but this year it’s not just the weather making me consider leaving the great state of Minnesota.

True, the weather has been annoying.  Granted, days where the sun shines and the temps get above 40 are great.  The problem with Minnesota spring is the tease before it actually arrives. I know it’s coming every year, but it still gets to me.  I’m not sure how to cope, I was going to fly south in February earlier this year, but I decided to spend my money smartly and pay down some debt instead.  On top of that, I ended up getting sick this Saturday and staying in bed Sunday and Monday.  This meant I missed most of the nice weather this week.  I know I just need to get over it but still, if anyone knows how to combat the annoyance of the Minnesota pseudo-spring please let me know.

However, the weather is not the main reason I’m on the verge of renting a U-haul.  It’s our messed up congressional situation.  By now, everyone and his or her pet bird know we still do not have a second Senator.  If you don’t know about the two imbeciles who basically tied you should set your time machine for 2009 and come join us.  I haven’t written about it because I don’t think either Franken or Coleman deserve the seat, but the law is the law.  It’s just sad it’s going to be six months into the term before Minnesota has a full voice in the Senate

You would think that the recount would be enough idiocy.  But no, Michelle Bachman, who proved herself crazy during the run up to the general election has opened her mouth again.  This time instead of accusing members of Congress of holding anti-American views, she is claiming we are running out of rich people.  I am not sure what to say to this.  Good?  Waaa?  WTF? I had forgiven her district for re-electing her, but honestly what were those people thinking. It’s a mystery to me how someone like this got elected, and how she continues to hold onto that seat.

You can see my dilemma, first I have to put up with Minnesota weather, something I came to terms with before I moved here.  Like other Minnesotans though, complaining about the weather is just what we do.  I did think this congressional thing was different, until I thought about it a bit and realized that I did move to the state that elected Jesse Ventura governor.  It was then that I realized I had made my own bed, and would stick with this state through the winters and the elections.  It may be a little messed up, but Minnesota knows how to combat the insanity.

Circuit City is filing for bankrupcy shortly after announcing they would be closing numerous stores.  From what I’ve read it sounds like Minnesota stores are safe which is good.  I’m not a big fan of Circuit City, but I hope they survive, Best Buy needs some competition keeping them honest. 

I’ve added a few new Minnesota Blogs to my reading list:

• Fresh.mn – Started by swirlspice.  I wrote about Erica’s blog in my previous Minnesota Blogs post.
• Via Fresh.mn I found Because Emily Says So. I read the last 5-6 posts and clicked subscribe.  Well written and funny.
• Aaron Landry – Interesting so far, if for no other reason than the photos from local pizza places.  If you are hungry and trying to eat healthy I don’t recommend visiting.
• We Got Served – Well written restauraunt reviews from around the Metro.

So far the Obama’s search for a puppy seems to have caught the nation’s attention more than anything else.  Bob Collins at MPR’s News Cut takes the press to task for their lack of reporting on real issues.

Am I allowed to rescind my opinion on the Timberwolves?  I’m considering starting a fire Randy Whitman site shortly.  The Timberwolves better start playing defense or they won’t win 10 games this year.

The Vikings defense played a solid game against the Packers.  Lucky for the offense the insane number of mistakes they made didn’t cost the Vikings the game.

For the record the Vikings MVP’s halfway through the season are Adrian Peterson and Jared Allen.  If you didn’t see Sunday’s game and how Peterson willed his team to victory after fumbling on fourth down you need to.  Talk about heart.  Allen played hurt all game and was very effective.  He may not deserve his contract, but at least he’s trying to live up to expectations.

The Franken-Coleman race will never end.  This is what Minnesota gets for voting for either of those imbeciles.  There was another choice.

FiveThirtyEight.com had a front page article on the NYT’s web site today.  I started introducing my offline friends to this site.  I’m usually very hesitant to introduce them to websites but Nate Silver’s site was just too good.

I had a horrid experience at the Applebee’s in the Burnsville Mall this weekend.  I’ve never had bartenders be quite so angry at their customers.  On the other hand Chili’s in Burnsville was, as always, a good experience.  Of course I would prefer a non chain bar, but I live in Burnsville so my options are limited.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  This means Christmas music will start shortly.  I hate this, I like Christmas music, just not for a month straight.

With the change in seasons I’m suddenly craving soups and chili.  This is fairly unusual for me so I’m on a recipe collecting spree.  I’m planning on trying this recipe at some point this week.  Any other soup or chili recipies I should try?

It snowed all day on Saturday.  I had to scrape my windshield for the first time all year.  I am not happy I had to pull out the hat and gloves from storage.

If you are a blogger, please read this article from Lazy Lighting.  There are people out their trying to alter the contents of local blogs.  Let’s keep them from succeeding.

President-Elect Barack Obama.  I can’t believe I am able to say those words and not be presumptuous.  I am a mix of emotions.  I will admit that selfishly I am  happy that I was finally able to vote for a winner of a presidential election.  I’m excited for our country for so many reasons.  Having the successor to Bush elected is just the start.

The thing that excites me more than anything though is that our opinion across the world has just been dramatically improved.  The best story I’ve heard so far came from the morning show on KFAN here in Minneapolis.  If you do not listen to the show, their producer Chris Hockey is currently in France to run a marathon.  He called in this morning and told a story about his morning.  He said he got into his cab and the first thing the cabbie, who couldn’t speak English, said to him is “Go Obama.”  It’s wonderful to think others around the world think we made the right choice.

To John McCain’s supporters, you fought a good fight, and I understand you are disappointed.  But if you truly love this country you need to put down any anger you may have and stand with your country behind your new President.  We all need to work together to fix things.

To John McCain, you would have won this presidency had the Maverick on stage for your concession speech ran.  I’m glad you are back and am thankful you are going back to the Senate.  We need someone with your experience and leadership to work with President Obama to rebuild this country. Disagree with him whenever you can, it’s the debate between our leaders that will lead us back to greatness.

To Sarah Palin and her supporters.  I may not agree with you that Ms. Palin should have been Vice President, and I hope I’m wrong about who will get the blame for yesterday’s loss.  I may not want Sarah Palin in a high office in this country, but I do think she can get out and do good things for us if she wants to.

I said on Twitter last night that I was proud to be an American last night.  I got some responses that said they were always proud of America and their pride didn’t change based on elections.  I can’t say the same.  This country has made so much progress over the last 50 years.  I never thought I would see a black president, let along one with the name Barack Obama.  Race relations in this country will never be perfect, but I hope that my children will grow up and not think about the color of a persons skin.   When I say that I’m not talking about not judging based on the color of someone’s skin, but truly not noticing color at all.

We will never know if we made the best choice yesterday.   But I don’t think we made a wrong choice.  Watching our President-Elect speak in front of thousands of people in Grant Park was awesome.  Obama is an incredibly gifted speaker, but his speech wasn’t just about speaking style.  He knows and admits that nothing has changed yet, but he thinks that he can change things for the better.  He didn’t try to tell the American people that things will be better on January 20th, 2009.  He warned us that hard work is ahead and he will try to lead us through it the best he can.  It’s for that reason that I am confident that American did make the best choice last night and go to work today knowing that things will get better.

This is all I have to say today.  It is your right and responsibility please take it seriously.  If you don’t know where you need to go, Google comes to the rescue.

If you want to find out what I’m thinking today expect a deluge of Twitter updated starting around 4:00 or so.  Follow me here.

As things stand this morning, all signs are pointing to an Obama victory tomorrow.  I am hoping for this result.  One of the reasons I am hoping for an Obama win is the candidate’s tax proposals.  As the election reached the final stages, other than negative ads, the only argument McCain seemed to throw at Obama is that his tax policy is going to cost America jobs.  At first glance, the logic does seem to back up McCain. What McCain and other conservatives seem to ignore is that some of their own policies show Obama’s plan will be better for the economy.  

It is true that until recently, Bush’s tax plans seemed to be working.  Companies were profitable and other than post 9/11 the markets were growing.  This did not continue though, and for the last two or three years, economic indicators showed that the economy was slowing down.  

The fact that the economy slowed down is not an argument against Bush and McCain’s tax plan.  The argument is the economic stimulus plan that both Republicans and Democrats supported in an attempt to stop the slowdown. The economic stimulus plan gave the middle class extra income.  The hope was this extra income would go towards the purchase of goods and services in an attempt to jump-start the economy.  This is counter to the trickle down tax policies of Bush’s eight years.  If trickle down economics worked, the solution to the economic slowdown would have been to send the stimulus package to large companies so they could pay their employees more, or show more profit on their balance sheet.  One could argue that the reason this was not proposed is it sounds insane.  I say that Bush’s argument for trickle down economics sounded just as insane.  

Looking at the two presidential candidate’s tax plans in this context may not be 100% correct, but it is interesting.  In this context, Obama’s plan acts like an economic stimulus plan for anyone making less than $200,000.  Granted he will repeal Bush’s tax cuts, which will hurt some upper income tax payers.  This is not a problem if you believe as I do that everyone is better off if everyone who makes less money than them makes more money.  Why do I think this?  It is simple, for business to thrive it needs customers.  For people to be customers they need money to spend on goods and services.  If you run a business, chances are you can afford your product.  If everyone who bringing home less income than you has more disposable income, you have more potential customers.  More customers mean more opportunities to bring home a profit, which will trickle up to those hurt by Obama’s tax policies. 

Obama’s tax plan acts like an economic stimulus plan.  It gives the middle class extra take home income to the middle class that they can use to purchase goods and services.  If a $600 per person economic stimulus package is good for the economy, how can anyone say that Obama’s tax plan is going to kill job creation.  If that was the case then conservatives should have fought tooth and nail to keep the economic stimulus package from going through.