From Al Franken's press conference on the news tonight that the Minnesota court had ruled in his favor, declaring him the winner of the 2008 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

Norm Coleman's case was dismissed with prejudice by the court. Coleman is expected to appeal the ruling to the Minnesota Supreme Court. As such, it is not yet clear when a certificate of election will be issued, something Franken will need in order to be seated in the U.S. Senate.

The UpTake is a Minnesota-based citizen journalist organization which has provided yeoman's service in covering the prolonged U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

h/t FairWinds at Daily KOS. From their diary:

On April 6, 2009, the University of Colorado hosted the 61st Annual Conference on World Affairs, which included a panel presentation entitled Rebranding Republicans: Don't Misunderestimate Us, recorded by and broadcast on C-SPAN. Among the panelists was Robert G. Kaufman, author of In Defense of the Bush Doctrine: Moral Democratic Realism and American Grand Strategy, published in 2007. In a ten-minute presentation, Mr. Kaufman posited five "core principles" that Republicans must embrace if they are to succeed "when Obama fails."

There is much to find disturbing in Mr. Kaufman's presentation, such as his assumption that Obama will fail and his assertion that "multiculturalism is a euphemism for the Balkanization of the United States". However, his "recommendation" that the GOP "acquire another television network" to disseminate its message in future elections is both an audacious proposal and a stunning admission.

Kaufman stated: The fifth thing that Republicans have to do is understand the problem of communicating in a world where much of the television media, particularly, is hostile...If I had to recommend one single thing that the Republicans should be doing to help articulate the message, it is to acquire another television network so that there is not just FOX, but multiple sources of alternative information that will do a much better job than we did in 2008 to keep things honest.

Kaufman is not a spokesperson for the GOP but this slip is one that probably deserves some notice as the diarist writes. Heaven forbid that any of them they don't have enough control over our airways as it is already. Right now there are about six media companies that control almost everything we watch on television, at the movies and listen to on the radio. How could the GOP survive without one more Fox News channel to promote their agenda? It just boggles the mind.

My take on this is that it was unusual to have anyone actually admit that the GOP controls Fox, much less say they need another one. Maybe someone can look up Mr. Kaufman to see if he wants to stand by his statement and ask him who told him that the GOP has "acquired" Fox.

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From Countdown April 13, 2009. David Shuster gives an innuendo filled description of the tea bag protests. I think he decided to give Rachel Maddow and Ana Marie Cox a run for their money with this one. Lawrence O'Donnell weighs in on how wrong headed and desperate these protests are. The Republicans have a leadership vacuum and these protests are the best they can come up with to whip up their base who probably doesn't even understand what they're protesting.

Transcript via MSNBC:

SHUSTER: For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15th will be Tax Day. But in our fourth story tonight: It‘s going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they‘re going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals.They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending—spending they did not oppose when they were under presidents Bush and Reagan. They oppose Mr. Obama‘s tax rates—which will be lower for most of them—and they oppose the tax increases Mr. Obama is imposing on the rich, whose taxes will skyrocket to a rate about 10 percent less than it was under Reagan.

That‘s teabagging in a nut shell. Taking its inspiration from the Boston Tea Party when colonists tossed British tea into the sea because the tax in it had not been voted on by their own duly-elected representatives—that‘s exactly the opposite, of course, of today‘s taxes, known in some quarters as taxation with representation.But as “New York Times” columnist, Paul Krugman, points out today, this time, the tea bagging is not a spontaneous uprising. The people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right-wing financiers and lobbyists. As well as Washington prostitute patron, Senator David Vitter, who has issued statements in support of teabagging but is publicly tight-lipped.Then there was the media, specifically the FOX News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Both are looking forward to an up close and personal taste of teabagging themselves at events this Wednesday.

But most amusing of all is Neil Cavuto, a member of the network‘s executive committee. Neil‘s online bio says he joined the network in July of 1996, three months before the FOX News Channel went on the air.Cavuto, defending his network‘s proportion of teabagging said, quote, “We are going to be right in middle of these teabaggers, because at FOX, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March.Can we roll that footage, the FOX News coverage of the Million Man March backing in October of ‘95?Of course, the Million Man March occurred, as NewsHounds.org points out, almost a year before FOX News was on the air.We can only speculate why widespread teabagging made Cavuto think of the Million Man March, unless he got them confused with Dick Armey. And in Cavuto‘s defense, if you are planning simultaneous teabagging all around the country, you‘re going to need a Dick Armey.

While discussing whether gay marriage is a big issue or not and if there has been an appropriate amount of media coverage given to the subject, Dennis Prager ends the segment with this whopper:

Prager: I think we are more likely to survive economically than we are the redefinition of marriage.

Yeah that's it Dennis. Gay marriage is going to end life as we know it but a depression....meh. Or maybe he just meant we have a better chance of coming out of this bad economy than we do not seeing gay marriage become legal?? Maybe someone can explain it to me. Who knows but Dennis, when you use the word "survive" it sounds like you're trying to equate gay marriage with something that's going to kill us.

John Aravosis rightfully has a good chuckle at Prager's expense after he made the statement. These conservatives are getting more ridiculous by the day with their rhetoric. Of course Prager also doesn't understand why this is a civil rights issue and why he and his ilk are looked at as bigots for their stance.

I've got a question that either John or Howard should have asked Dennis. What do you think is a bigger threat to marriage? Gays being allowed to marry or someone like yourself being allowed to get divorced twice and married three times? Come on Dennis! If you can do it three times can't the gay people be allowed to get married even once? Conservative...hypocrisy is thy name.

The President and First Family attended the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. President Obama read to a group of gathered children the classic Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Perhaps it is being struck by the contrast between his predecessor reading My Pet Goat, or that I'm just waiting for the Spike Jonze film version to come out in the fall that this somehow seems noteworthy.

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From 60 Minutes April 12, 2009 Sen. Dianne Feinstein on support for the renewal of the assault weapons ban.

"You have lots and lots of Democrats who got support from the NRA this time, and so they agree with the NRA. They'll vote with the NRA," Stahl told Feinstein.

"I'm not going to disagree with that at all," the senator replied.

She admits she's facing daunting opposition. "The National Rifle Association essentially has a stranglehold on the Congress."

Asked if anybody from the Democratic Senate leadership or from the administration has asked her to back off, Feinstein said, "No. Nobody said a word to me."

And what about President Obama, who NRA supporters like to call the great "gun grabber"?

His Web site says he wants to make "the expired federal assault weapons ban permanent," but the White House doesn't seem to be interested in bringing it up - any time soon.

"There's some sense that the president has so many crisis issues on his plate right now that the idea of bringing up guns - which is considered part of the Culture Wars - would be such a diversion," Stahl told Feinstein.

"I agree with you. I wouldn't bring it up now," she replied.

Feinstein said she's going to hold off, for now, but vowed she would eventually push the issue. "I'll pick the time and the place, no question about that," she told Stahl.

You can watch the rest of the segment here: Gun Sales: Will The "Loophole" Close? From the article:

Just in the last four weeks, there have been at least eight separate deadly shooting sprees all across the country. Some of this can be linked to the recession since several of the gunmen had lost their jobs.

The recession is having an effect in another surprising way: in past downturns, people stocked up on things like canned soups. But this time, it's guns.

Even as the stock market has plummeted, shares in Smith & Wesson have nearly quadrupled since November, and sales of guns are going through the roof.

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Okay Hume...the gloves are off...lol. It's bad enough you go after the President every chance you get but now this?

Hume: Uhhhh....Bo's not my type of dog. I like the name but it doesn't seem to fit that little, sort of girly little dog.

No puppy-bashing Hume! You old sour puss you. When you dislike someone so badly you can't even find something nice to say about an adorable puppy, that's pretty bad. And of course your comment just had to have overtones that the dog might have caught "teh gay". You just couldn't stop yourself from going there, could you?

How does anyone find something bad to say about this?

I await the Stephen Colbert version of Hume where he can't control his emotions and is forced to admit that he's crazy about the cute puppy. I threw this one on the intertubes over at You Tube and am having a bit of fun reading some of the comments already.

How do we know this dog isn't palling around with terrorists?

I don't know but I do know one thing..that dogs a muslim..

If you need a "tough" dog to feel like a man, chances you aren't.

Thank you You Tube commenters for giving me a good laugh tonight.

From Headzup the Week in Cartoons.

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David Gregory channels him some Charles Krauthammer on Meet the Press to frame his question for his panel on how the President's attempts at international diplomacy are going. Of course David Gregory wouldn't say any of these things himself. Why should he when he can just quote a Fox News talking head instead? And Byron York doesn't think that President Obama should be acknowledging that the United States has been arrogant. Where would anyone have ever gotten that idea? I can't imagine. It seems a little honesty is just too much for Byron to handle.

GREGORY: The question is whether the new approach is really working, and conservative critics of the president said this was a feel-good tour of Europe. He went out there and said things Europeans want to hear, including being critical not only of his predecessor, President Bush, and his policies, but arrogance, derisiveness, dismissiveness on the part of the United States. Charles Krauthammer wrote this on Friday: "Our president came [to the G-20] bearing a basketful of mea culpas," he writes. "Obama indicted his own people for arrogance, for dismissiveness, for derisiveness, for genocide, for torture, for Hiroshima, for Guantanamo and for insufficient respect for the Muslim world. And what did he get for this obsessive denigration of his own country? He wanted more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan to match the surge of 17,000 Americans. He was rudely rebuffed. He wanted more stimulus spending from Europe. He got nothing. From Russia, he got no help on Iran. From China, he got the blocking of any action on North Korea. And what did he get for Guantanamo? France, population 64 million, will take one prisoner." Byron.

YORK: You know, the, the apology part of the tour really grated on Republican ears really for a couple of reasons. One, it was one way. When the president said the United States has been arrogant, it's been dismissive and derisive, and then he followed that immediately and said that there had been a casual and insidiousness anti-Americanism in Europe. Well, there weren't any European leaders who said, "You know, that's right, we have been anti-American, and insidiously anti-American, and by golly we're going to change." So there was, there was that fact that it wasn't, that it was one way. And the second fact was it was unnecessary. He could've said--he's obviously sending the message that the United States has new leadership, and he could've said, "We look forward to a new foreign policy of engagement with you. We want to listen to you. We want a spirit of cooperation." Everybody would have gotten the message without him buying into the "United States is arrogant" routine.

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From Countdown April 10, 2009. David Shuster and James Moore dissect Karl Rove's criticism of Joe Biden. Shuster's initial analysis is spot on. I take issue with some of what James Moore said in response.

Moore: But I have to suggest that there's something about Karl that is very...we ought to in many ways feel sad about. There's something pathological about Karl's inability to integrate reality into what he views to be reality. This is a man who has made things up, pathologically, there's a pathology to what Karl is doing. And he goes on and on and on. And we're talking about a man who basically ran a lie factory in the White House under the White House Iraq Group and has completely ignored everything that contradicts what Karl wants to be true.

This is what's going on in his brain. He has this little world that he sees on a video tape in his head and he believes it to be true. I think there's a great sadness in there and I think that we might want to pity Karl because Karl is completely disconnected from what's going on in the real world.

I'm sorry James but Rove doesn't deserve our pity. Yes he is sad, but he only deserves our scorn and our Justice Department finally going after him for the crimes he's committed. I agree with your other points in this segment but Rove deserving our pity isn't one of them. What the man deserves is some time behind bars, not pity.