One more class and then I am finished. It’s been a tough going to school AFTER I graduated. I managed to get through everything but I haven’t had any motivation in a month. I think having the kids out of school factored into my lack of motivation. The toughest assignments are over, so I am in decompression mode already. I can’t wait for my summer vacation to begin. I have lots of plans already, so I doubt there will be much time for relaxing except when I am floating in Tracy’s pool. I’m road tripping to Florida with a friend in early July. We are taking a 15′ U-haul and towing a car behind it. That will be fun. I’ve never been South so I’m looking forward to stops in Memphis, Nashville, and Atlanta. For now, I just have finish a reflection paper and get through a 3 1/2 hour class tomorrow night.

So, this state government shutdown game is crazy. Politics have gone too far. These people seem to be so far removed from reality that they don’t realize how much their lack of being able to compromise affects real people. It’s a dangerous game. Pawlenty will save the streets, but those who need Medical Insurance are tossed asside. That’s showing his true colors. It is a sad day, when the basic needs of the people do not make it into the “core functions” of the state government. Then there is this file: Examples of Government Shutdown Impacts. Note how they show the adverse impacts on Transportation, Board of Water and Soil, and Workman’s Comp, but not the impact on Health, Human Services, and Labor and Industry.

This is so sad.

Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller dies

BY ROSS RAIHALA

Pioneer Press

Karl Mueller, bass player and founding member of the band Soul Asylum, died Friday morning in his Minneapolis home due to complications from esophageal cancer. He was 41.

Soul Asylum rose to local prominence in the ’80s alongside Twin Cities bands the Replacements and Husker Du. In 1989, the band signed its first of two major-label deals. Three years later, Soul Asylum’s disc “Grave Dancers Union” became a breakthrough, double-platinum hit and the band performed at Bill Clinton’s inaugural ball.

In May 2004, doctors discovered a tumor growing between Mueller’s trachea and esophagus, just below his vocal chords. He underwent chemotherapy and was in remission during an October benefit concert that saw performances from Soul Asylum, the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg and a reunion of Husker Du’s

I was watching the cable news networks coverage of the Deep Throat revelation. People are debating whether or not what Felt did was honorable. Of course you have people like Pat Buchanan and Chuck Colson saying that there were other channels Felt could have gone through before leaking it the press, then you have others who say that Felt is a hero. Then there is John Dean who is still skeptical of Deep Throat being Mark Felt. He didn’t say that he wasn’t, but believe that Felt could not have been acting alone because of the information he had.

It was discussed that Felt had a personal reason for leaking information. Does the end justify the means in the case of Felt? Did the leaking information to the press to stop the abuses of power by President Nixon work? Or would he have been better off going directly to the television stations? If Felt would have gone directly to the television news stations, how would the Watergate Scandal have played out differently?

I am not sure how the media would have reacted to Felt’s disclosures in the 1970s. But, I think today, if Felt went directly to the press, Nixon would have had tons of people to back him and nothing would have happened. Look at all the lies Bush gets away with. Our society loves scandals, but we lose interest so quickly. I think the Clinton scandals wore everyone out. We don’t want to hear the same accusations over and over. We want bigger and sexier scandals. And our media is happy to respond. What else keeps those 24/7 cable news channels alive?