Coming Out of Hiding...

She's ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Muaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

Where have I been? 2 teenagers with Bipolar Disorder...need I say more?

So what pray tell could bring me out hiding? Well, while our new president has been sworn into office (a history making event indeed), and the economic stimulus package is being hotly debated...Minnesota's senatorial election isn't over yet. Did you know that? While every other states' senators are deciding what to do to help our country Minnesota has no such representation in Washington D.C. yet. This annoys me...

For those who don't know--it is down to the incumbent Norm Coleman (who unmistakably looks like Mr. Ed and has a disturbing Boston accent) and Al Franken...no you aren't seeing things...I said Al Franken as in Stuart Smalley/Saturday Night Live. Now please don't misunderstand me, I harbor no ill will towards the people of Boston or their accents. I just find it hard to overcome a midwestern state having a senator with a very thick Boston accent. And while numerous crass remarks have been made about having someone from SNL become our state senator--may I remind folks that our state voted Jesse "The Body" Ventura--a professional friggin' wrestler--in as governor a few years back... One could reasonably argue that the cold has frozen our brain cells! :)

Because I don't expect you all to have been following Minnesota politics--allow me to give you a quick run down of this particular senatorial race...On election night after many (not all but many) of the votes were counted, Norm Coleman had the audacity to declare himself the winner. Now mind you--Al Franken had NOT conceded defeat. Norm just decided "What the hell, I won!" The race was so close by the end of the night/next morning (within a few hundred votes) that a mandatory recount took place--by state law. Many thought Coleman was ahead at that time. Franken maintained that he would abide by whatever the recount came up with. Coleman swore he'd fight until the bitter end--going to court if necessary. After the recount was all said and done, it turned out that Al Franken won by 225 votes. Think about that--225 votes.

In other words (and to emphasize the gravity of the situation) all the eligible voters in a 6 block radius around my house (including myself) made the difference between winning and losing a major election...225 votes. We aren't talking about a school board member or a small town mayor (not that those people aren't important, because they are)--we are talking about a state senator--someone with major political force/influence.

So Franken won, right? Well kind of...Coleman's camp filed a lawsuit and now the whole deal is in court (as promised), so Minnesota is ass-out of representation for that Senate seat for the time being. While the economy is crumbling more and more every day...while THOUSANDS of people all over the U.S. are being laid-off...while the housing market is dying and small businesses are dropping like flies...my state has an empty Senate seat and the people of Minnesota have no voice.

Well, I said in my last post (before my unexpected hiatus) that I wasn't going to go political...and I tried not too. But enough is enough--this is crazy. In my city alone, IBM just laid off 800 people last week with another 200 expected to be laid off by summertime. The Mayo Clinic made national news by discontinuing their Clinical Trials division--which directly impacted my family. And Minnesota is down a state senator?

Let's stop the madness folks. Someone needs to take this loss on the chin like a man so we can move forward. I vote Coleman off the island because of his arrogance on election night, sore loser lawsuit and striking likeness to Mr. Ed. Let's get Franken suited up and in the game.

The Duck is back--QUACK!