There’s always the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderbergers, ZOG, the Pentaveret and a host of other controlling authorities.

Kathryn has it. And, to make up for the short one yesterday, it is long and full of bile — like a trench behind an Irish pub during the World Cup.

Rick Kahn, the friend of Paul Wellstone who made what has been seen as an excessively partisan speech at the late senator’s memorial service was, apparently,  unrepentant afterwards.  According to this report he repeated his call for  certain Minnesota Republicans who were friends of Wellstone to help ensure that he is succeeded by a Democrat: “Can they not one time, just one time, step forward for Paul and honor that friendship? Why can’t they do that? One time, for one week. That’s what we’re asking. That they go out there and say Paul Wellstone did this wonderful work and we need to keep his legacy alive by sending his successor to his seat. ”


A characteristic of Paul Wellstone was the fact that he stuck by his
beliefs.  His friends, therefore, should not ask Republicans to abandon theirs.

The Israeli government’s collapsed. Who’s going to give us our orders now?

AP reports Governor Ventura has reversed course on his previous decision to appoint a Democrat to replace Wellstone for the week leading up to election,
because of the partisan tone of the funeral.  Ventura reportedly walked out
on the funeral, noting that the call by Wellstone friend Rick Kahn to win
the Senate election for Paul drove his wife to tears.

Mondale says he’ll run if nominated.

So, you have already subscribed to National Review On Dead Tree? You’ve bought your college kid a subscription in the hopes of saving his ideological soul. You’ve even gotten your dog a subscription because you’ve bought the Goldberg household spin about how cool canines look when they’re reading National Review. You’ve even donated to NRO because you love the site and don’t want us to spend our last dollar feeding Jonah his last peanut butter (we can’t afford jelly) sandwich. But you want more. You want to wear NRO with pride. You want your co-workers to know exactly where you are spending your lunch and break time by looking at your mug, your mouse pad, the cap you walk in and out of work with. You want your neighbors to know during the block-party cookout that you really do know more about the world than they do. You want the guys at the gym to know your locker-room talk is not just B.S. by just looking at your backpack. You can fulfill all these dreams now, and more. Visit the new NRO store. And come back often. We’ll be adding as the days, weeks, and months advance. Feel free to send us your comments–your suggestions, wants, and needs. But before you do that, BUY SOMETHING. No, don’t do that. BUY SOMETHINGS. You’ll be all the cooler for it. (Seriously.)

Here’s a must-read reflection on the Bat Yeor debacle at Georgetown, and the lure of liberal self-hatred and abasement before authoritarian lies.  

The question, finally, is whether the Minnesota court will follow the law of its state which is quite generous in permitting changes to ballots but which has reasonable limits, or whether it will choose to ignore the law wander down the New Jersey path.

Extending the deadline would set a very bad precedent, allowing absentee voters to cast their votes after the physical polls close. Of course, there could be another motive. As Byron suggests, by stopping the current absentee ballot process, the DFL may be preparing to launch a second suit after the election, claiming disenfranchisement of absentee voters. But this is like the boy who kills his parents and then begs the court for sympathy because he is an orphan: in such a scenario, voters will have been disenfranchised by the DFL, and no one else. That might not be a disappointment for the DFL, however, for it appears that their political calculations may be predicated on maximizing the non-absentee vote, and minimizing the absentee vote.

The complain also alleges voter general voter disenfranchisement, and no doubt they will argue that this statute disenfranchises voters.
This is wrong for two reasons: 1) Voters may still write in candidates’ names. As the NJ Supremes so artfully forgot, a candidate does not have an unmitigated right to appear on the ballot, or to appear at a particular place on the ballot. Where as here the state has a very good reason for not issuing new ballots, a candidate may be excluded.
2) The state has a substantial reason for not issuing new absentee ballots: there simply isn’t enough time to do a complete redistribution of absentee ballots. As I have noted elsewhere, even with the use of overnight mail there and back, it would be difficult to meet the deadline of election day. While voters may turn in the ballots in person on Election Day to make the deadline, they may also simply show up in person to vote with the supplemental ballots, so mailing to have people come in person makes little sense. Thus it appears that the DFL may really be seeking to postpone the deadline for receiving absentee ballots.

There is one problem with this statutory “spoiled” ballot argument: Minnesota law. Section 204B.41 of Minnesota Election Statutes states:
“When a vacancy in nomination occurs through the death or catastrophic illness of a candidate after the 16th day before the general election, the officer in charge of preparing the ballots shall prepare and distribute a sufficient number of separate paper ballots which shall be headed with the words ‘OFFICIAL SUPPLEMENTAL BALLOT.’ . . . Absentee ballots that have been mailed prior to the preparation of official supplemental ballots shall be counted in the same manner as if the vacancy had not occurred. Official supplemental ballots shall not be mailed to absent voters to whom ballots were mailed before the official supplemental ballots were prepared.”

As Byron spells out today, the DFL has already filed suit in Minnesota challenging the absentee ballots. The claim, best as I can make it out by the press accounts, is that Minnesota law permits the replacement of spoiled ballots. Because the absentee ballots have in ineligible candidate on them (dead men can’t be elected), they are “spoiled.” Therefore, the Secretary of State is delinquent in not informing voters of their ability to seek replacement ballots.

During the Wellstone political rally last night, while speakers carried on about the late senator’s devotion to the voiceless and powerless working people, the pilots who lost their lives remained nameless.  Sen. Tom Harkin ignored them entirely, and David Wellstone referenced “the pilots,” Guess the hired help didn’t merit a mention.  Along with the Wellstones, their daughter, and the three campaign aides who were all memorialized, Richard Conry, 55, and Michael Guess, 30 also died.