Why We Fight

Time once for our semi-regular Sunday cruise through the Star Tribune. Let's start off in the Arts and Entertainment section this time.

In Quick Spins, a rundown of music news, we are advised to:

Look for a Pearl Jam concert tour this fall, playing in 'swing states' for the presidential election.

Look for me to flip the bird to Eddie Vedder if one of their tour stops happens to be Minnesota. Bono, Michael Stipe, Sting, and John Cougar Mellencamp are full of themselves and the seriousness of the various causes (almost without exception left leaning) that they promote, but they can't hold a candle to the Pearl Jam frontman, easily the most self-important, pretentious artist in the land. Do his delusions of grandeur actually lead him to imagine that he can influence the outcome of the election?

"Yes Peter, it appears the factor that tipped that scales in Ohio for Kerry was that Pearl Jam concert in Cleveland last Saturday."

Next stop is the Books area where we find A liberal dose of Minnesota liberals:

No, the University of Minnesota Press isn't itching for another fight with Bill O'Reilly and Laura Schlessinger, both of whom were among the most vocal conservative critics of the press when it published the prize-winning book "Harmful to Minors" a couple of years ago.

But yes, that was an ad for the press that recently ran on the liberal radio network Air America, taking a shot at O'Reilly and Schlessinger and asking its listeners, "Are you looking for the liberal media? Look to the University of Minnesota Press."

Are you looking for an ideologically driven, publicly supported publisher to use your tax dollars (they proudly claim to receive "less than $300K" of such funding) to advertise on a left wing radio network?

While admitting the spot's opener is "pretty aggressive," he said that the ads made sense for the audience. "It's always a question, of course, and in this case it's sort of taken to the extreme, but you are always to some extent matching an ad to the publication, and in this case the publication is Air America. Obviously when we're advertising in the New York Review of Books, we're not doing this sort of ad. But it represents a part of our list."

The ads focus on the Shevory book as well as two books by and about Sen. Paul Wellstone, his "The Conscience of a Liberal" and photographer Terry Gydesen's "Twelve Years and Thirteen Days: Remembering Paul and Sheila Wellstone."

Something tells me we won't be seeing U of M Press spots on AM-1280 The Patriot anytime soon.

Speaking of tax dollar supported, liberal radio:

Anyone who has heard "A Prairie Home Companion" since George W. Bush was elected, or who followed the flap after Garrison Keillor lacerated U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman following the 2002 election, will not be surprised to hear that Keillor is 1) a liberal and 2) jumping into the fray of electoral-season political books with "Homegrown Democrat," published by Viking in mid-July.

"I am a Democrat, which was nothing I decided for myself but simply the way I was brought up, starting with the idea of Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, which is the basis of the simple social compact," he writes in the book's first chapter. The book celebrates liberalism as "the politics of kindness," but it has fangs for Republicans, who Keillor writes "are determined to cripple" that same social compact "by cutting taxes so as to starve government and kill off public services through insolvency and reduce us to a low-wage no-services plantation economy run by an enclave class that I do not wish to be part of."

Damn. He's on to us. When I head down to the X-cel Energy Center next weekend for the Republican State Convention much of our discussion will focus on our plans to implement this "plantation economy" that Keillor speaks of. I'm angling to get me a big spread up in Blaine so I can sit on my porch sipping Mint Juleps, stroking my shotgun, and keeping an eye out for any uppity prols who might cause trouble.

Interesting to note that Keillor claims he does not want to be part of an "enclave class". It sounds like a fairly accurate description of a rich liberal writer who produces programs for NPR and has spent chunks of his life living in Europe and New York.

Finally we conclude with this puffiest of puff pieces by Eric Black on a novice voter who backs Kerry:

Ross Dybvig celebrated his 18th birthday Friday -- the day he attained voting age -- by going to hear a speech by Sen. John Kerry, who will get Dybvig's first-ever vote for president.

Truth to tell, the Massachusetts Democrat is not Dybvig's first choice. That would be former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, whom Dybvig supported during the early stages of the primary season.

Nor is Kerry exactly the second choice of the Burnsville High junior. After Dean dropped out, Dybvig preferred North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

An eighteen year old junior in high school?

And, by way of demonstrating that he is not a Democratic partisan, Dybvig mentions in passing that he would "vote for John McCain in a minute, if I had the opportunity." That's because trust is the number one quality Dybvig looks for in a candidate, and he trusts McCain, the Arizona Republican and archetypal straight shooter.

Get that? He has demonstrated that he is not a Democratic partisan by saying he likes McCain. I've never been a big fan of the Arizona senator and the more I read of support for McCain from Democrats like this kid, the more I grow to dislike him. Wait, Dybvig is not a Democratic partisan according to the article right?

Dybvig came two hours early to the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion. When Kerry appeared at noon, he wore a classic candidate's outfit of navy suit with red tie. Dybvig, by contrast, sported a Paul Wellstone memorial T-shirt ("Stand up. Keep fighting."), a Wellstone button, a Mark Dayton button, a Dean button, a Kerry button and, just to make it an even five, a generic DFL button.

And yet he's not a Democratic partisan? I'm not sure what more Black would need to reach that conclusion. Would a tattoo of Hillary Clinton's face on his ass have been enough?

Dybvig attended the rally on a day off from his summer job selling Cinnabons at Burnsville Center. He is a serious, stolid young man who gives the strong impression that, contrary to the stereotypes about his generation, he reads the paper, knows politics and knows his own mind.

He reads the paper? THE paper? The Star Tribune no doubt? This kid reads the Star Tribune, hates Bush, and is going to vote for John Kerry. Sounds like a perfect mentoring opportunity for Eric Black. And he could probably score some free Cinnabons too.

For all that, he is firm in his intention to vote for Kerry. In fact, he says he has persuaded his parents -- who typically vote Republican --to break from their usual ranks, and he is working on his more rock-ribbed Republican grandparents. If Kerry carries Minnesota narrowly, he will know whom to thank.

If Kerry carries Minnesota narrowly, he will know whom to thank. But it won't be Ross Dybvig.