Damn Norman

It seems the silent revolt within the MNGOP against Norm Coleman is really gaining some steam. Anecdotally, his number on facebook have been anemic for the last four years. But even with those pathetic numbers, they seem to have been dropping over the last few months. And it's not only the Ron Paulites who just want to watch the party burn out of spite. I myself dropped Norm from my facebook page (although that doesn't mean I won't vote for him). And my good friend Ryan Fluguar, about as partisan a Republican as you can find, is apparently supporting Dean Barkley, although I think that has more to do with Ryan's close relationship to Mark Olson than anything else.

In addition, the chatter has been building, mostly on the left wing blogs in Minnesota, about Norm's womanizing. Talk show host Ed Schultz made a comment about Norm's "unconventional marriage", and it showed up on at least four left leaning blogs. It's quite possible there are more out there, I just haven't read them. My cousin used to work at Maynard's in Excelsior and Norm used to come in all the time and chat up the waitresses, even getting a little fresh with them, ala` Dick Davenport. Keep an eye out, probably two months from now, for some earth shattering story about Norm and his sex life. I can read the writing on the wall and it isn't pretty.

I've written about this before, but now that Dean Barkley is seriously running for office, it's pretty obvious Jesse won't be stepping in. I'm really conflicted on this, but if it had been a choice between Jesse and Norm, I very well could have voted for The Body. Norm and Al Franken are possibly the two weakest senate candidates our state has seen in a long time. The day Jesse would have announced his candidacy he would have started at 25% approval.

Anyway, I have yet to fill out my absentee ballot and I'm truly considering my options, and at this moment, I really don't know. If Dean Barkley can show that he's a serious candidate, maybe I will vote for him. I'll have to look more into his history and record, to make sure he's not just a liberal in moderate's clothing. But if it turns out he runs an effective campaign, he is truly a moderate, and Minnesota responds to him, I may us vote for the man.

Georgia & NATO

If you've been following the news recently you must have heard about the war going on the Caucuses. A boiling cauldron of ethnic tensions and rivalries, the region has seen turmoil ever since the iron hand of The Soviet Union left in the early 90's. Although all these countries have used the boundaries drawn by the Russians since sometime after WWII, they really reflect nothing more than lines on a map. In addition to the two conflict zones of Abkhazia and Ossetia, the southwestern region of Adjara has seen its share of conflict, also fostered by the Russians.

Why is this important you may ask? A tiny Caucasian country that imported about $260 million wort of US products while exporting around $160 million. It's important because certain factions within the US have been pushing to admit Georgia into NATO since the Rose Revolution brought President Saakashveli to power. While NATO has over 26 member states, one as to only take a glance at Afghanistan to see who has to carry the water in any military conflict. Had Georgia been accepted into NATO The United States would have been obligated, under a treaty that's been in place for almost 60 years, to defend their territorial integrity.

It could be argued that had Georgia been under NATO protection the Russians may have thought twice about such blatant aggression. But that's a big maybe and as much as I sympathize with the Georgian people, the last thing I want is a war with Russia.