That’s the number of days Rep Margaret Keliher’s recent email to supporters said lay ahead to the hotly contested DFL Gubenatorial primary. That’s how many days lay ahead for me too.
I’ll be delighted to have a big turnout based on the dismal news coming out of the School District and the results of the recent elections. In far western Duluth where I once ran against Mike Jaros three decades ago two once popular DFLers were kicked off the School Board last year by an unkn own anti Red Plan candidate despite the Newspapers fulminations and belittling treatment of his candidacy. If the Press won’t stand up for the rights of voters then it has little to hope for when it defends the Right of a free speech. You can carp all you want but, sorry, you can’t vote.
I’ve sent a letter to all the DFL delegates for tomorrow night’s endorsing convention. One person I called when told that the convention was to be held at the AFSCME (public employee’s union conference hall) asked if that wasn’t a conflict of interest. I chuckled and said I din’t think so although it certainly seemed to give Roger a home court advantage.
I have fiercely protected my family time since the campaign commenced. Now that I have two grandsons I’ll be darned if I’m going to short them as I shorted family time fighting the Red Plan for two years. Ever since I can remember I’ve witnessed the fragility of political families when consumed by the ambition of one member. If the Kiss endured around the world by Tipper and Al Gore in 2004 isn’t enough to ensure lifelong fidelity that’s a pretty troubling sign.
I was going to politic on my drive to see my Mother in the Twin Cities yesterday but instead tuned the Radio to National Public Radio all the way down. There were several excellent in depth sessions the first an interview with the author of a book called EAARTH something or other. Look on the MPR Website for more details. His story which I’m inclined to agree with is that we’ve lost the war on saving the Earth (as we know it) and that our job now is to lose the war as gracefully as possible. (Think saving polar bears without a polar ice cap)
The environmental change denialists who hold humans have played little part in any changes have pooh poohed the rise in temperatures. This fellow claimed that in addition to a 1 percent temp increase the atmosphere is carrying 5% more water vapor. A warmer atmosphere can carry more water as anyone in Minnesota who has suffered dry sinuses in the bitter cold can testify to. He blamed all the recent 100 year floods on this new found capacity of the atmosphere to carry more water.
Even if it turned out that human activity had little to do with environmental change (a position I find laughable and which seems upended by the many semi-arid lands which were once over cultivated to the point of population collapse) it is worth our while to find out if we can keep global temps from skyrocketing. This is something the denialists are quite fatalistic about. Perhaps those without grandchildren can afford to be. I can’t.
Oh, and another startling statistic the “expert” tossed out. Oceans are acidifying and he said are 30% more acidic than some years ago. Anyone who has conducted the elementary school experiment of putting seashells in vinegar knows where that will lead.
All the programs gave me ideas to put in the speech I’ll be able to give at the endorsing convention. The last time I gave a vigorous speech at at GOP convention in 1992 I was booed like crazy. I don’t think that will happen tomorrow.
By listening for three hours instead of yakking on the phone and weaving all over I35 I preserved my voice and had it in me to sing for two hours to my Mother and a few other residents of her Alzheimer’s facility. We even sang a couple duets.
Family first!
