St. Paul, Minn. — DFL Senate candidate Al Franken is out with a new television ad calling for an end to politicians becoming lobbyists.

In his latest ad, Franken says Congress should not debate how long Representatives and Senators have to wait to become lobbyists after leaving office. Instead, Franken says they should pass an all-out ban on lobbying for former members of Congress.

And to bolster his case, Franken ties his lobby ban proposal to perhaps the biggest political issue of the moment.

"Right now hundreds of former Senators and Congressman are lobbying for big oil and special interests. No wonder gas is at four dollars a gallon. I'm Al Franken in Washington. I'll fight for a new law to prevent members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists," said Al Franken.

In a fund raising message to supporters, the Franken campaign says its new ad will begin running today.

Republican incumbent Norm Coleman's latest ad features Coleman's wife saying that her husband is not influenced by special interests.

Egad. The only thing worse than lobbyist written laws would be the Congressionally written laws. Is there an argument here? Why should former public servants lose the right to pursue lucrative lobbying careers? Would such a ban, which obviously has no (and I mean absolutely zip zero none) chance of ever becoming law, be constitutional under the First Amendment? My gut reaction would be no, but I haven't completely thoght it through.

In any event, it's a stupid idea on its face. Not all that surprising given our choices for Senator in Minnesota this election year.

We've been giving Maddie sections of bones filled with marrow to eat and chew on. She absolutely loves them. Goes nuts for them. We've given her two or three of them in the past without incident, so we didn't think much about it when we gave her one late Wednesday morning. Maddie carefully manaically ate out all of the marrow and began to chew on the bone. In chewing, however, she somehow managed to fit the ring of bone around her mandible, over and behind her canine teeth, in such a way that we could not remove it without hurting her. Maddie remained calm, but was clearly nervous. We decided that this situation would require professional assistance to reach any kind of happy resolution, so off we went to the vet. Here's Maddie en route:

As you can see, she was in quite a state. Fortunately, we were able to be seen almost immediately after arriving. The vet who saw Maddie, Dr. Bob, said that, while rare, Maddie's situation wasn't unheard of; every two to three years he sees a dog in a similar predicament. He determined that the best course of action was to sedate Maddie and to then remove the bone with various bone cutting devices.This is, in fact, what happened.

After passing out, Dr. Bob used a large scissor-like tool to weaken the bone, cutting the part that was actually inside her mouth. Then, as you will see in the following video, he used a hacksaw to cut a deep groove into the side of the bone, and the scissor tool once again to finally remove the bone from her face.

Afterwards, Dr. Bob administered an anti-sedative and in a few minutes Maddie was up and about. She gave us dirty looks and stumbled around for the rest of the night, but by the next morning she was back to her old happy self.  Needless to say, Maddie doesn't get marrow bones as chew toys anymore.

A judge hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay who publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors' refusal to give evidence to the defense has been dismissed, tribunal officials confirmed Friday.

Army Col. Peter Brownback III was presiding over the case of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr. Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, in his role as chief judge at Guantanamo, ordered the dismissal without explanation and announced Brownback's replacement in an e-mail this week to lawyers in Khadr's case.

Let that footnote soak in for a while and get back to me. I'll be reading the rest of the memo.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 are behind bars but that one in 100 black women are.

Mandatory minimums are wrong and unfair. The "war on drugs" is wrong and counterproductive. One in nine is an absolutely shocking number of incarcerated young black men. Wake the fuck up, people.

[I]n “Gulf Music” Pinsky offers us his most valuable contribution yet: not just an argument for but a demonstration of contemporary poetry’s necessity and vitality in our democracy.

“Deciding to remember, and what to remember,” Pinsky has written, “is how we decide who we are.” Poetry’s role in that process is simultaneously to preserve our common American memory and honor our diversity, to make music in the gulf between unum and pluribus. This is an intractable instance of the one-many problem if ever there was one, but Pinsky seeks from the first to address it in his new collection’s opening “Poem of Disconnected Parts.”

At Robben Island the political prisoners studied.
They coined the motto Each one Teach one.

In Argentina the torturers demanded the prisoners
Address them always as “Profesor.”

Many of my friends are moved by guilt, but I
Am a creature of shame, I am ashamed to say.

Culture the lock, culture the key. Imagination
That calls the boiled sheep heads in the market “Smileys.”

With its clear language and sturdy blank verse, the poem offers images of state violence past and present, intimate moments of self-analysis, allusions to Homer’s “Odyssey,” ambiguous references to the poet’s own family history that no reader unfamiliar with his earlier books would understand, philosophical conjectures, even the thoughts of a traditional Zulu healer: “The Sangomo says in our Zulu culture we do not / Worship our ancestors: we consult them.”

Though Mitt isn't going to get the nomination, he came pretty damn close. I first picked Romney to be the nominee in April 2006, when he was a relatively obscure state governor, after watching a rerun of this interview he did with Brian Lamb. Even though he was undeclared at that point, it was clear to me that the conditions were right for Romney to run, and that the field was thin enough for him to actually pull it off. I maintain that both of my premises were correct. Romney just didn't execute (and I may have underestimated the fear and distrust that many Americans have for members of the LDS church). In the final analysis, my political prognosticating was impressive but imperfect.

Romney's loss is Hillary's victory. McCain is really not the guy that the Republicans (should) want as their standard bearer. He might be the most palatable of what's around (due to an irrational dislike of Mormons), but let's face the facts--"McCain has built his presidential aspirations and image on an angry regimen of poking sticks in the eyes of conservatives on basic principles by working to advance liberal goals." Just how much do conservatives dislike is John McCain? Let's put it this way: Ann Coulter is saying that she'll campaign for Hillary if McCain wins the nomination.

I've never wanted Mitt Romney to be president; I just thought that he was the best shot the Republicans had at maintaining the White House. 

This is a complete tangent, but do you remember 2006? Back when George Allen was the presumptive GOP nominee? I wonder where he is right now? Remember the YouTube clip that took him down?  

Ah, good times.

Anyway, the republican party is in complete disarray right now. It's schizophrenic for the GOP to nominate a man who almost defected from the party to be president, but there it is. November will bring new, larger, democratic majorities in both houses of congress, and a democratic president-elect. I'm not saying that Mitt Romney could have stopped this, but maybe he could have stemmed the tide a bit.

What the fuck is wrong with this guy?