Liberal in the Land of Conservative

For some time now I have been on the lookout for an addition to this blog. I am pleased to announce that after considerable searching in the deepest darkest recesses of Minnesota, some negotiation, and perhaps a bribe or two, there will be another writer here to bore the crap out of you who insist on returning to this place day after day.

He bills himself as a 2010 gubernatorial candidate (That's right, I have a gubernatorial candidate writing here so suck it MNPublius!) and as such he will have much to say about the direction of this state as well as of the country. Now I am not entirely certain what will be said nor am I entirely certain that this individual is the best person to be taking over the reins of Minnesota government although I am not sure he could do much worse than the last two individuals who cluttered up that office. What I do know is that he has some sort of opinion on some sort of issue.

I will allow him to introduce himself more thoroughly...

I am attempting to install a new comment system through "Intense Debate". You can check out my profile HERE and consider this an open thread...

I am currently in the middle of a redesign of the blog. However, I am having some trouble with a couple items:

Longer post titles are spilling into the post content for some inexplicable reason. If you have any advice on how to solve such a problem, let me know so that I can resolve this problem.

When I view the blog, I see two small question marks in between each post. Is anyone else seeing this? Ideally, I would like to remove these elements but need some advice on how to make it happen.

Everything should be completed by the end of the day today. Let me know what you think or if you have trouble with any features...

Given my current workload and my new need to spend three hours every night putting a two year old to bed over and over and over again, I am going to suspend the daily romp through the Minnesota blogosphere. There just isn't enough time in the day to effectively mock and ridicule the excellent blogs throughout the state.

However, I will be doing a weekly romp through the Minnesota blogosphere beginning this Saturday. My hope is that I can continue to provide the snark once every week.

Comments on this change are welcome from all 6 people who actually read this crap!

Hal Kimball, who also writes at Blue Man in a Red District, is joining me here at Liberal in the Land of Conservative. I am honored to have him and his powerful voice writing on this blog. Whether it is education or veteran issues or politics in general, there are few more reliable sources than Kimball.

Take a moment and welcome him...

On October 15th, I will be twittering the third and final Presidential Debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. While my second attempt at twittering the debate was thwarted by school meetings that ran longer than expected there are no such meetings tomorrow and am ready to rumble. As usual, my twitter cohort Jeff Rosenberg of Twin Cities Daily Liberal will join me.

Don't know what Twitter is? It is a social networking/short messaging service that you can sign up for and use to follow people.

You can follow me on Twitter at Political_Muse or you can keep track of comments on the left sidebar here on Liberal in the Land of Conservative. However, if you are looking for serious commentary of each candidate, then you have come to the wrong place. My Twitter is meant for mockery and high levels of sarcasm!

Also, you can join me in the official Liberal in the Land of Conservative chat room. Click on the image below and chat away (there is no sign up required).

Tuesday, October 7th I will be attempting to twitter (I have a meeting in the evening that may run into the start of the debate) the second Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Hopefully, my tag team partner Jeff Rosenberg of Twin Cities Daily Liberal will join me.

Don't know what Twitter is? It is a social networking/short messaging service that you can sign up for and use to follow people.

You can follow me on Twitter at Political_Muse or you can keep track of comments on the left sidebar here on Liberal in the Land of Conservative. However, if you are looking for serious commentary of each candidate, then you have come to the wrong place. My Twitter is meant for mockery and high levels of sarcasm!

Also, you can join me in the official Liberal in the Land of Conservative chat room. Click on the image below and chat away (there is no sign up required).

Friday, September 26th I will be twittering the first Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Don't know what Twitter is? It is a social networking/short messaging service that you can sign up for and use to follow people.

UPDATE: Jeff Rosenberg of Twin Cities Daily Liberal and I will be teaming up for tonight's Twitterfest of the debate that almost wasn't. Apparently, the economic crisis is over given that McCain decided not only to show up to debate but also to declare advanced victory!

You can follow me on Twitter at Political_Muse or you can keep track of comments on the left sidebar here on Liberal in the Land of Conservative. However, if you are looking for serious commentary of each candidate, then you have come to the wrong place. My Twitter is meant for mockery and high levels of sarcasm! UPDATE: As Jeff Rosenberg calls it, "The snarkiest debate coverage in town".

Also, you can join me in the official Liberal in the Land of Conservative chat room. Click on the image below and chat away (there is no sign up required).

Friday, September 26th I will be twittering the first Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Don't know what Twitter is? It is a social networking/short messaging service that you can sign up for and use to follow people.

You can follow me on Twitter at Political_Muse or you can keep track of comments on the left sidebar here on Liberal in the Land of Conservative. However, if you are looking for serious commentary of each candidate, then you have come to the wrong place. My Twitter is meant for mockery and high levels of sarcasm!

Also, you can join me in the official Liberal in the Land of Conservative chat room. Click on the image below and chat away (there is no sign up required).

Over the past few weeks I have been in search of some brave souls to join me here on "Liberal in the Land of Conservative". Three people have expressed interest and over the next few weeks they will be joining the blog and adding their voice.

I will allow them to introduce themselves and hopefully their writing and their perspective will continue to grow this blog and demonstrate that this land that was once firmly conservative is increasingly becoming a land of liberals, progressives, and independent minded citizens.

For over a year now I have been able to grow this site with the help of several friends from a personal log of grievances to one that is relatively well known within my local area. In fact, I even have a Republican Tracker in the form of Gary Gross. A success? I would like to think so. While I would love to continue the pace of my writing and activism, it simply will not be possible during the coming school year.

So, in an attempt to further the success of this blog, I am extending an invitation to those interested in having their voice heard. If you would like to join me in writing about politics in Minnesota from the State Legislature all the way up to the White House, please send me an email at (political_muse@hotmail.com). My ultimate goal is to have writers from each of the eight Congressional Districts in Minnesota writing about the issues and candidates within those districts. However, at this point I would consider anyone who would like to join.

Obviously, in order to join with me you must be a Democrat/Progressive/Liberal but that does not mean you have to be in any way shape or form beholden to the Democratic Party. I will not dictate to you what you can or should be writing about. All I ask is that you contribute several posts per week of your choosing. There is no pay involved as George Soros continues to ignore my calls. However, I may on occasion provide you with a Bushesque "Heckuva Job".

So, if you are interested in writing for Liberal in the Land of Conservative, then please email me with an example of your writing as well as a brief statement about why you are interested in writing for this blog. If you are selected, I will send you an email so that we can set up a meeting, define your role, and set you up on the blog.

In starting this blog, I had no preconceived notion about becoming nationally known or benefiting financially. It began as a way for me to express my opinions on issues as well as for me to comment on the politics of the day. Since that time, this blog has grown modestly as a resource for politics in and around the St. Cloud area as well as for the 6th Congressional District of Minnesota. My hope is that this site can continue to grow as a resource for liberals, moderates, and even the occasional conservative to know and understand what is really going on in this area of Minnesota.

However, I am finding that in order to grow such a site requires more financial resources than I am able to provide. While I find no enjoyment in asking for money as I have experienced political fund raising first hand, it is necessary for me to do this so that I can bring you more features and most importantly, more information.

So, please consider donating a little or even a lot to build on this site and make it the one stop shop for political information in Central Minnesota. I have placed a donation tool below as well as in the sidebar for your convenience:

Regular visitors may have noticed that there hasn't been a lot of activity here lately. Fortunately, the hectic schedule I have been keeping that has kept me from writing anything of significance has come to an end and regularly scheduled blogging will begin shortly.

To those that have sent me tips and email, I offer my apologies for not responding and hope that you will continue to send me those tips.

Frequent visitors to this blog may notice a new voice contributing a new perspective. I have asked A Tax Paying Liberal to join and, as you can see, he has already written a couple pieces. Hopefully, there is much more to come and his perspective will supplement my own. I can tell you that he is far more experienced than I in the world of politics and especially on the politics of the 6th Congressional District.

So, welcome A Tax Paying Liberal to the neighborhood and just hope and pray he doesn't outshine me and thereby stage a takeover of Liberal in the Land of Conservative.

Inspired by several factors, I have decided to add a new feature to Liberal in the Land of Conservative called MNMuseTube (A hat tip to Blue Man for the title idea). The purpose of this new feature will be to highlight and share with readers the work that Minnesota's Democratic delegation is doing in Congress.

From this point forward, whenever a Minnesota speaks in Congress, you will be able to find that video here and on MNMuseTube. Currently, you will find the most recent appearance of our Minnesota Democrats:

In addition, I have added subscriptions to those Democratic candidates currently utilizing youtube to spread their message. If you know of a candidate that I may be missing, then send me an email so that we can add them to the list. I will continue to utilize my LitloC page for a variety of other video but I hope that MNMuseTube will become a beneficial resource for those people trying to find our Minnesota Democrats in Congress.

One of the things that we can all agree upon, whether Democrat or Republican, is the need to keep a watchful eye upon our elected representatives. Until the advent of the internet, constituents relied on the print media to get the bulk of their information from the legislature.

An important resource that many people throughout the state may have overlooked is the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services website.

Among other things on the site, you can find Session Daily and Session Weekly. As these are nonpartisan publications, they can be used by anyone to get the spin free version of happenings in the legislature.

One of the most important tools found on this site is the live video feed of the legislature as well as the video archives. For example, today the DFL held a press conference to discuss the veto override of the Transportation Bill. I was able to download the press conference and view a triumphant moment from the comfort of my couch.

In fact, here it is:


The only issue I have with this service is that it only uses Windows Media Player for its videos. As a Mac user I am forced to download extra software just to view the archives from the legislature. Additionally, as a blogger I try to add informative video to this page through my youtube site. The addition of a Quicktime option on this site would allow for easy transfer and distribution of legislative activities and press conferences.

In the sidebar to your right you will find a brand new chat feature I have created using Geese. I have created a room meant solely for those visiting Liberal in the Land of Conservative. It allows you, the reader, to chat instantly with myself and others visiting the site. You do not have to sign up or create a username in order to use the feature.

I understand that there is a certain level of redundancy given that there is a comment section for each post. Well, its my blog and I get to do whatever I want with it! I encourage everyone to give it a try and hopefully we can communicate faster and more smoothly than ever before.