Wellstone Memorial Service/Rally

**Reinhold** · 10-31-2002, 11:36 AM

I don't know if any of you saw the Paul Wellstone Memorial Service on Monday night, but toward the end, it became a loud, raucus Democratic election rally.

Trent Lott and Jesse Ventura, who had come to the service to pay their respects, were booed by the crowd as they were seated. Dick Cheney was asked by the family not to come as a representative of the Bush administration, because they knew the "service" would become a campaign rally and would be very uncomfortable for the Vice President.

The death of Paul Wellstone and the others was indeed tragic. I think everyone in this state respected the man and his commitment and willingness to stand alone against the machines of politics, even if they disagreed with his liberal views. I just think that it was disrespectful to turn a service or remembering all the victims into a rally for Walter Mondale, who will be 82 at the end of his term if he wins next week.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 11:54 AM

He will be just barely 81 at the end of his term!

(Born 1/5/28) (Besides, if absolutely necessary, we can always get Chaffee to jump ship.)

Jesse Helms, Republican, one of the finest minds of the 12th. century, is already 81 and he's still in office.

Don't even ask about Strom Thurmond (another person of the Republican persuasion, formerly Democrat, formerly Dixiecrat, formerly Democrat). He'll be 101 years old the same day that youngster Mondale turns 75 (1/5/03). And I believe he's still in office but I'm not sure about the alive part.

Ronald Reagan was almost 78 when he left office, but he doesn't remember too much of what went on... especially that Iran-Contra stuff, whatever that was. They didn't wake him during that part of the briefing.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by Reinhold:

I think everyone in this state...

I guess that means you live on the Minnesota side of the border and commute to work.

**schrocat** · 10-31-2002, 01:05 PM

The event was as unconventional as the man it memorialized.

Kinda fitting IMO.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 01:08 PM

Minnesota politics has been pretty kooky lately. I mean, it always was pretty kooky, with crazy party names and everything, but electing a pro wrestler as governor was something else! Must drive Reinhold nuts. It could be worse. Just think of how much out of place he'd feel in San Francisco! (80% demo).

**wgscott** · 10-31-2002, 01:11 PM

One little piece of bubblegum in the air intake and presto -- Republican Senate once again.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 01:13 PM

Yeah, but some of the "Republicans" are more Democrat than Republican. If worse comes to worst, we can always turn Chaffee.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 01:15 PM

Besides, the last Republican (John Ashcroft) to run against a dead man for the United States Senate, lost to the dead man (Mel Carnahan). I'm not saying that Mondale's dead, but Wellstone... you get the picture.

**Reinhold** · 10-31-2002, 01:24 PM

Ninong:

Norm Coleman, who is running against Walter Mondale, is a moderate Republican who used to be a Democrat. If there is a more liberal state in the union than Minnesota, I'd like to know it.

I'm a Republican on business issues, a Democrat on social issues...and I voted for Jesse Ventura. I would again. When I hear my friends who are state representatives and lobbyists complain that the usual politics just don't work with Ventura, I like that.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 01:56 PM

Originally posted by Reinhold
Ninong:
If there is a more liberal state in the union than Minnesota, I'd like to know it.

The Peoples' Republic of Berkeley (OK, technically it's not a state, but it does make San Francisco look conservative in comparison.)

**wgscott** · 10-31-2002, 03:49 PM

When I was in grad school there we used to refer to the townies as "granola-fascists." They were.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 04:20 PM

Well, now the granola-fascists are determined to see to it that the citizens of the Peoples' Republic of Berkeley shall be served only politically correct coffee!

Measure O
Coffee - Restrict Sale of Brewed Coffee to Organic, Fair-Trade, or Shade-Grown Certified
(Citizen Initiative - majority vote)

If Prop O passes, you can get 6 months in the pokey if you serve coffee that is not politically correct.

Every brewed coffee beverage sold or offered for sale by any business vendor in the City of Berkeley shall be brewed solely from coffee beans that are either certified:
(1) Organic, or
(2) Fair-Trade, or
(3) Shade Grown, or
(4) a combination thereof.

Fair-Trade coffee: http://www.transfairusa.org/products.../criteria.html
Shade Grown coffee: http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/p...ios/coffee.pdf
Organic coffee: Check with the USDA. They keep changing the rules on what's organic and what's not.

The background for this proposition is too funny to be believed. You would have to have experienced life in and around Berkeley to understand it. Let's just say that it has to do with protecting the "little" farmers from the big agri-business farmers so that the little guys won't have to take up growing opium instead of coffee beans. It seems that the little guys in places like Columbia are being undercut by cheaper prices from the big agri-business producers and also by cheaper coffee imports from places like Vietnam. Not that many people in Berkeley speak Vietnamese (relatively speaking) so they're not as concerned about the little guys in Vietnam switching to growing dope.

And anything organic has always gone over big in Berkeley. So that was thrown in for old times sake.

Berkeley may the home of the free speech movement but it may not be the home of the freedom-of-choice coffee movement.

**Reinhold** · 10-31-2002, 04:32 PM

Might I suggest that they emulate the Chinese and eat only fruits and vegetables fertilized with human feces?

They could set their chamber pots out on the curb along with the recycling for pick up and distribution to the fields of the masses.

**Ninong** · 10-31-2002, 04:44 PM

Reinhold,

Are you serious? Do the Chinese do that? I didn't think you could use carnivore feces for fertilizer?

**Reinhold** · 10-31-2002, 05:04 PM

I spent time in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai in 1995. The people set out their daily human waste in pots outside the front door of the dwelling, and large "honey wagons" pick up the contents during the night.

The feces are then spread onto the fields by farmers. We were instructed never to eat unpeeled or uncooked produce, as it could result in a rip-roaring gastroenteritis.

**schrocat** · 10-31-2002, 07:33 PM

...as if the cat meat jokes weren't bad enough.

**Reinhold** · 10-31-2002, 08:35 PM

Here are a couple of photos from a Shanghai (pronounced Shong-hi,) street market.

The first of turtles with their legs bound and fish heads.

**Reinhold** · 10-31-2002, 08:37 PM

And this photo of the eel bins.

Yum yum!

**schrocat** · 10-31-2002, 08:53 PM

Yup...Those turtles will bolt on you if you let your guard down for a second.
Gotta keep em tied up tight.

**wgscott** · 10-31-2002, 11:49 PM

The good thing about Berkeley at least is that they VOTE on this stuff. When I was there I remember there was something on the ballot about whether you could walk your dog without a leash in a certain park, which at first I thought was just nuts, but upon reflection I realized these are decisions that effect everyone, so why shouldn't everyone decide? If everyone is goofy enough to want only pc coffee, then I suppose that will be what they drink, but again at least it isn't some bureaucrat deciding this stuff in a vacuum.

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