Update: Blagojevich Kicked Out, But Is Still Talking

Just days after trying to win TV viewers' sympathy in numerous talk show appearances while ignoring his own impeachment trial, Rod Blagojevich is Governor of Illinois no longer.

The Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to remove Blagojevich from office after he was arrested by federal authorities on various charges of bribery and corruption, which included allegedly attempting to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat. Pat Quinn will take over.

Blagojevich decide to show up at his trial Thursday, giving a lengthy speech defending himself. Then he regaled the media with his wisdom outside the Capitol. Soon he will have the opportunity to explain himself in federal court, presumably with no cameras present.

On Monday, the women of ABC's The View begged Blagojevich to do his impression of Richard Nixon. Well, he'll continue to do that because, like the former President, we will have the former Governor of Illinois to kick around for awhile longer.

Politics As Unusual

OK, so the last presidential election didn't solve all our problems. Barack Obama's ascendancy to the White House has created a seismic shift in the halls of Congress, events which have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Here's a rundown:

• Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, facing federal charges of conspiracy and bribery in--among other things--allegedly trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, chose to make TV appearances in New York while his impeachment trial got underway back in the state capitol of Springfield. He and his attorney are boycotting the trial because the Illinois Legislature won't let him use witnesses who might be used to testify in a federal courtroom. There was Blagojevich Monday, pleading his case on nearly every talk show from Today and The View in the morning (why was the Governor in the studio being interviewed by Barbara Walters on a video screen? That looked weird.) to Larry King in the evening. He admitted that the Illinois Legislature could vote to kick him out, and that he once considered Oprah Winfrey for the Senate job before nominating someone else (she said she wasn't interested). Why is Governor Blagojevich doing this? We realize that he's innocent until proven guilty, but he's not attracting much sympathy in his home state and beyond. He's making a sad spectacle of himself that only hurts his cause.
• And the person New York Governor David Paterson chose to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate is . . . Kirsten Gillibrand, a previously unknown second-term Congresswoman. Caroline Kennedy had to drop out for reasons best left to the National Enquirer, and Andrew Cuomo was passed over for whatever reason. Gillibrand is a Democrat whose positions tend to be to the right of the party's mainstream. Whether she is seen as more than a seat-warmer in the Senate until the 2010 election depends on how she handles the job, which is never easy considering who she's replacing.
• In Minnesota, one long, boring process has been replaced by another long, boring process. The Great U.S. Senate recount between Norm Coleman and Al Franken has moved to the state Supreme Court, where a three-judge panel will determine once and for all (we think) whether Franken's 225-vote lead should stand. We should have a decision by . . . where's Jeane Dixon when you really need her? Meanwhile, Democrat Amy Klobuchar has been doing double duty as the state's only Senator, and that's really not fair to the constituents. Is there any good legal reason why Governor Tim Pawlenty couldn't name an interim senator? Maybe he just didn't want to emulate Blagojevich.

Day Six: Git The Mo Outta Here

President Obama promised change during his campaign, and after the inaugural balls were over, he got to work on reversing some of the excesses of the Bush years. The most important so far are the executive orders that the President signed, which would close down Guantanamo Bay prison within a year, and that the practice of torturing terrorism suspects has been suspended.

That's all well and good. But the question now becomes what to do about the 245 detainees who were plucked out of nowhere after the 9/11/01 attacks, without so much as an attorney, or any idea what they were charged with. Security concerns would preclude trying and imprisoning them in this country, whether they're considered dangerous or not. And what other country would want to take them on? Does Obama have a secret location in mind?

As for the torture thing, Obama decided to take the moral high ground on this one. No more waterboarding, or any of the other tactics the government must've cribbed from watching episodes of 24. The Geneva convention will no longer be treated like it was ancient history. Instead, getting suspects to spill the beans about when the next attack might come will be handled differently. They won't say how, but for a rough idea, watch any TV crime show.

Of course, this doesn't mean the war on terror is over. There's still Iraq and Afghanistan to deal with. You'll still be searched from head to toe at airports. They'll continue to listen to your e-mails and phone calls, tracking down the would-be terrorist who just ordered a pizza with everything on it. And they'll still be searching for Osama bin Laden and his minions. It takes more than closing down a despised prison to make Americans feel safer.

The Oscar Nominations--Sight Unseen

As the Academy Award nominations were announced Thursday morning, we here at The Bludog Chronicle give ourselves a special pat on the back for having not seen any of the pictures being honored. But we do have a working knowledge of the films through the reviews we read. We're not snobs or anything. It's just that there's really no good reason to spend $10-12 bucks at the local superplex, spend more on a vat of popcorn drenched with butter of dubious quality, and sit with a bunch of idiots who'd be more at home at a football game. Why do that when you can wait a few months, rent the same movie for a couple of bucks, and watch it in the privacy of your own home?

Among the nominees for Best Picture that will soon be appearing at your favorite video outlet is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which had the most nominations with thirteen . It stars Brad Pitt (who was nominated for Best Actor) as a man who ages in reverse. Didn't the Academy reward a movie like this before? It was called Forrest Gump. (Pitt's significant-other, Angelina Jolie, got a Best Actress nomination for Changeling.)

S------ Millionaire got 10 nominations, including Best Picture. It's from India, cast with Indian actors, and bankrolled by British producers--also known as window dressing. We gave up on the American version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire years ago, because contestants spent so damn much time agonizing over multiple-choice questions. Either you know the answer, or you don't.

The Dark Knight, the most over-hyped comic book movie in recent memory, got what it deserved--a shutout in the major categories, with the exception of Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor. Ledger, who died last year before the movie was released, is considered a sure bet to win. Two questions: (1) Would Ledger have been nominated if he had lived?, and (2) Was the role of a villain wearing clown makeup really the way Ledger would have gone out on?

Mickey Rourke was this once-famous actor (anyone here remember 9 1/2 Weeks?) who had fallen on hard times before someone gave him a shot at the big-time again. The result was The Wrestler, the story of a broken-down athlete not unlike Rourke himself (he had once quit the movies to pursue boxing). Since Hollywood loves a good comeback story, Rourke was rewarded with a Best Actor nomination.

Speaking of comebacks, Robert Downey, Jr. got a Best Supporting Actor nod for Tropic Thunder, in which he plays a white actor in blackface. In a week when Barack Obama became President of the United States, it's disconcerting to see Oscar honor someone who's channeling Al Jolson and the guys who played Amos 'n Andy on the radio.

If you want our predictions about who will take home the golden man (or whatever it is) February 22, we advise you to look elsewhere. We don't really care who wins, but we'll be watching the Awards Presentation on ABC alongside a dwindling number of folks. Besides, who's Hugh Jackman?

The major nominees:

Best Picture The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, S------- Millionaire.

Best Actor Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler).

Best Actress Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Meryl Streep (Doubt), Kate Winslet (The Reader).

Best Supporting Actor Josh Brolin (Milk), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), Robert Downey, Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road).

Best Supporting Actress Amy Adams (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Viola Davis (Doubt), Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler).

Best Director Danny Boyle (S------ Millionaire), David Fincher (Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Stephen Daldry (The Reader), Gus Van Sant (Milk).

President Barack Obama: He's Only Human

Barack Hussein Obama raised one hand and set another on a Bible once used by Abraham Lincoln--the man who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, giving the slaves their freedom--early Tuesday afternoon, swearing to uphold the Constitution as the 44th President of the United States.

It is always a historic occasion when a new President takes office. This time, what made it even more so is when a million people from the steps of the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, and millions more around the world, got to see an African-American man do it.

President Obama came to power on the wings of hope and change, mandated to bring America out of eight years of darkness. Not since John F. Kennedy have so many people put so much expectations on one man's shoulders.

This is what bothers me. Obama is already a role model for those who never thought that anyone but a white male could govern the world's most powerful democracy--and that's just about everyone. He is not God, Jesus Christ or Superman. He can't walk on water, or leap over tall buildings in a single bound. All this adulation the new president is getting will be a big letdown if he stumbles.

With two wars and a recession, Obama will have his challenges. Will you love him when he has a foreign-policy crisis? You either lost your job, or still can't get one? Congress wouldn't pass important legislation? Or when one of his Cabinet nominees has a skeleton in his/her closet?

Still, this is a day people will remember for as long as there's a United States of America. A day when the forces of gloom and doom took a backseat to the sunlight of pride, accomplishment and faith in the future. Then it's back to reality. If President Barack Obama does nothing else during his term in office, history will show that he brought the nation and the world together for one shining moment.

President George W. Bush: A Success Story

President George W. Bush's eight-year term ends Tuesday, turning the White House keys over to Barack Obama. Before that happens, though, let's take a look back at the accomplishments of the 43rd President, which began even before he took office:

Bush and his attorneys successfully persuaded the Supreme Court to declare him the winner of a disputed presidential election over Al Gore.

He successfully found ways around funding stem-cell research, even though it meant lives could have been saved if he did.

He succeeded in convincing people that climate change is just a fad.

He always listened to the advice of his close companion, Vice President Dick Cheney.

He made no rash decisions when faced with intelligence that said terrorists were about to strike the United States.

He went to war in Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden after said intelligence proved to be correct. Bin Laden is now believed to be alive and living in Pakistan, thus rendering the fight against the Taliban to be pointless.

The President went to war in Iraq because he thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Thousands of American military and civilian casualties later, those WMDs were never found. But Bush did succeed in making sure Saddam was never heard from again.

Bush's unique approach to foreign policy succeeded in alienating traditional allies of the United States.

He succeeded in intimidating Americans through politically-timed terror alerts, eavesdropping on phone calls, and sanctioning mysterious trips to Guantanamo Bay and other places.

Succeeded in winning a second term and ruining the career (and life) of a CIA employee through lies and innuendo.

He succeeded in politicizing the Justice Department, where it's not what you know, its agreeing to a conservative manifesto in order to keep your job.

He succeeded in getting Congress to bend to his will, no matter which party was in charge.

The President succeeded in letting New Orleans twist slowly in the wind after Hurricane Katrina, but reacted quickly when another major storm slammed into his home state of Texas.

He succeeded in surrounding himself with people who'll tell him anything but the truth.

He successfully stood back while the stock market tanked, homes were foreclosed, businesses failed, and the auto and banking industries begged Congress for money.

President Bush succeeded in posting the lowest approval numbers since Harry Truman, thus making whoever won the 2008 election look better by comparison.

This is by no means complete, but it is an impressive resume as the soon-to-be-former President Bush goes back to Texas. Let's see if President Barack Obama can improve on that starting Tuesday.

The Strib Files For Bankruptcy, and Other News From The Media Depression .

Like most everything else these days, the local media is taking a sharp hit from the foundering economy. Let us count the ways:

• It's finally happened. After months of hemorrhaging revenues, employee layoffs and mismanaging a once-great newspaper by owner Avista Capital Partners, the Star Tribune announced on its website that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They are the second media company to do that, with the Tribune Company (publishers of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times) having filed a few weeks ago. The paper will keep operating as it is, they say. Once the company comes out of bankruptcy, look for a drastically different paper. If there is one at all.
• Is WCCO ("Newsradio 8-3-0" as they now bill themselves) being run into the ground by owner CBS? The former "Good Neighbor to the Northwest" has shown three talk show hosts--Al Malmberg, Brad Walton and Jack Rice--the door in the name of more budget cutting, and have asked the remaining on-air staff to take pay cuts. Night-owl hosts Malmberg and Walton have been replaced by the syndicated Overnight America, a talk show based out of CBS station KMOX in St. Louis. As for Rice, whose midday current-affairs show always sounded as if it was bound for syndication, he's leaving at the end of the month. The problem with WCCO isn't just that most of their main demographic has one foot in the grave, but it's also the amount of commercials that break up a program's flow, leaving its remaining listeners to change the channel. And CBS doesn't seem interested in fixing the problem.
• Over at KARE, the Twin Cities' NBC affiliate, owner Gannett has told its employees to take an unpaid one-week vacation between now and spring to save the company money.
• KSTP-AM now has Patrick Reusse co-hosting its morning show with Jay Kolls, after the previous co-host was dropped during station budget cutting. (Imagine that. A liberal talk show host on otherwise conservative KSTP) Reusse will continue to write two or three sports columns a week for the Star Tribune, but you have to wonder how long it will be before he gets whacked over there. Maybe that's why he took the radio gig. No word yet on who's replacing Tommy Mischke middays.
• Minnesota Public Radio, busily lobbying to get the new light rail line away from its St. Paul headquarters, has canceled its remaining jazz program--a Saturday-night affair hosted by Maryann Sullivan (It must have been tough replacing a legend like Leigh Kammann). In its place on MPR's news service is "Radio Heartland", two hours of quirky music hosted by Dale Connelly that's normally heard on its HD channel (uh, what's that?). It's the successor to "The Morning Show", which recently ended its run on The Current, 89.3 FM. Now Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" has a real one on Saturdays.

All right, who's next to go on the chopping block?

Pulling The Plug On The Digital Deadline

One of the most pressing issues the newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama will face in his first few days in office does not involve war or fixing a broken economy, but it does affect the lives of millions of Americans. How Obama handles this potential crisis could help determine how people perceive his administration.

We're speaking, of course, about the switch to digital television. By February 17, most over-the-air TV stations must switch their signals from analog to digital. If you have a new TV, cable or satellite service, you're covered. If you don't, you need a converter box and an antenna to put on the TV you already have.

The government and broadcast media outlets (cable too) have been running ads promoting the switch for nearly two years, so you'd think people would have gotten the message by now. You'd be wrong.

• Those $40 coupons which are good toward the purchase of converter boxes? The agency responsible for that says it's running out of money, leaving those who have yet to apply for the coupons (or even if they already have) in the dark come February.
• Government has done a poor job of explaining to people what digital TV is, and why they have to have this cumbersome converter box strapped to their TVs. Oh, and you need an antenna, too.
• For some people who can't afford much because of the recession, let alone cable or satellite, converter boxes might be the biggest purchase they'll make all year. And we're not just talking about the elderly and shut-ins.

One of the advantages of the digital switch the TV industry likes to talk up is that you'll be getting more broadcast channels than ever. We looked into it, hooking up two TVs--a 13-inch color set and a 5-inch black and white--with converter boxes. The picture is much better, though it does tend to break up at times. On the color TV, every station was represented except for Channel 17, the PBS station. On the black-and-white, two public and two commercial stations are missing. As for those extra channels, we saw two that don't simulcast programming that's on the main channel in separate formats. One rebroadcast local news and the other was a weather channel. And we live in the Twin Cities market. So depending on your TV, you might not be getting all the stations you're accustomed to. And cable isn't going to show those extra channels unless you pay more for them.

To put it plainly, the country isn't ready for digital TV. That's why the President-elect and others in Congress want to move the deadline back as long as a year. Because the possibility exists that millions of Americans won't know what the President of the United States looks like, which could affect Obama's re-election chances in 2012. It's not an economic stimulus package or a national security threat, but now is no the time to declare "Let Them Eat Broadband".

Carl Pohlad (1915-2009)

In these (by now cliched) troubled economic times, the last thing you want to hear is how a man picked himself up by his bootstraps in an era much darker than this one, and transformed himself into a self-made billionaire who made an impact on so many lives. Carl Pohlad, who died at the age of 93 Monday, was that man.

Pohlad was best known as the owner of baseball's Minnesota Twins. Before that, he made his name in the banking business, buying and selling two versions of Marquette Bank to the companies that became U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, for example. He also had companies that dabbled in real estate, a Pepsi distributorship, and a local radio station (KTTB-FM, also known as B96). He was also part-owner of the Vikings at one point.

Pohlad bought the Twins in 1984 to keep Calvin Griffith, who brought the team here from Washington in 1961, from moving the franchise to Tampa. Within a few years, the Twins became frequent winners, culminating in world championships in 1987 and 1991 with such players as Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Frank Viola and manager Tom Kelly.

Also as Twins owner, Pohlad oversaw the near-destruction of the franchise with his fruitless attempts at moving out of the Metrodome and into a new outdoor park. He tried to sell the team to a North Carolina businessman who would have moved the Twins to Charlotte. But that fizzled when voters there rejected a tax increase to fund a new ballpark. Pohlad also offered to disband the franchise as part of a plan by Major League Baseball to contract financially struggling teams, which was eventually dropped.

Under Pohlad, the Twins continued the tradition of being a model small market franchise, which was begun under Griffith. Unable to compete financially with the likes of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, they developed young players, then let them go to other teams that offered bigger paychecks.

In spite of that, the Twins have remained competitive in recent years, being at or near the top of the American League Central Division. Players such as Joe Mauer, Joe Nathan, Johan Santana and Justin Morneau became All-Stars under manager Ron Gardenhire.

Pohlad finally got his outdoor ballpark in 2007 when the Minnesota Legislature agreed to a sales tax increase for Hennepin County. Target Field in downtown Minneapolis will open in the spring of 2010--one season too late for Pohlad.

Carl Pohlad was one of the richest men in Minnesota, and he worked hard to get there. Not everyone agreed with the decisions he made, whether in business or in baseball. But he is an example of how it is still possible to succeed in America, even in these tough economic times.

You Can't Call Him "Senator Al" Just Yet

As of Tuesday, Minnesota's sole representative in the U.S. Senate is Democrat Amy Klobuchar. We're still waiting for the other one.

The Minnesota State Canvassing Board concluded its work Monday, giving Democrat Al Franken a 225-vote lead over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. That gave Franken a chance to declare himself the winner, wax pious on the task ahead of him, then go back into his shell without taking questions at what was billed on CNN as a "news conference". Because he, and we, know it's still not over.

Coleman, whose offices have been closed and is legally no longer Senator, would have done everyone a huge favor if he dropped the idea of further legal challenges so every last vote could be counted. He didn't do that, of course, risking his reputation on being seen as a sore loser who has to go running to a friendly courtroom to keep his job.

Governor Tim Pawlenty, who has to certify the election, won't do so until Coleman has exhausted all legal challenges before giving his blessing to the winner. Not to sound cynical, but we're sure the Governor would rather give that honor to his fellow Republican.

Whoever winds up in the Senate chamber has to know that they shouldn't make the same mistake George W. Bush made when he was handed the 2000 presidential election by the U.S. Supreme Court. He started believing he had a mandate to run the country when he really didn't. Of course, the events of 9/11/01 had something to do with it, with everybody too busy with flag waving to take on Bush. But we digress.

The new Senate, which convened Tuesday, would have had a Democratic majority of 18 votes if Franken's victory had been made official. And if they could ever get those messes in Illinois and New York straightened out, there could be two more. When all the pieces finally fit together, it'll be interesting to see if things will be any different than the last Congress.

And the next Senator from Minnesota should be sworn in by the time President Barack Obama picks out his new puppy.

Vikings Beat Blackout, Lose Playoff Game

Coming from a huge deficit, with much riding on the outcome, the Minnesota Vikings needed a second overtime to score a big victory this past weekend.

No, we're not talking about the Vikings' playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles at the Metrodome, which they actually lost 26-14. We're referring to the efforts made to get the stadium sold out so the game could be seen on local television, which included extending the deadline twice, ads during bowl games, and embarrassing begging by players such as Jared Allen just to get folks to buy tickets.

This contrived drama, reported by the local media with the same importance as the recount between Norm Coleman and Al Franken for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat, was necessitated by the National Football League's TV blackout policy. It simply states that, if the stadium isn't sold out for a game 72 hours before kickoff, it is blacked out on local TV.

The rule forces fans to pony up for expensive tickets, even in a down economy, unless some TV station or corporation bought the remainder first. This results in papering the house, as fans buy tickets but don't use them.

In the years B.C. (Before Cable), professional sports leagues routinely limited telecasts of home games out of fear that the gate would be harmed. Now the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball televise nearly every game to its home markets, whether it's a local or network telecast. And the teams' bottom lines haven't been hurt all that much.

So what's the NFL's excuse? Why are they still the only pro sports league with a blackout policy?

The NFL has dwarfed all other leagues in popularity and TV ratings, but still clings to a business model rooted in the 1950s. If Congress hadn't intervened back in the 1970s, the NFL would still be blacking out home games whether they were sold out or not.

Is this any way to encourage fan loyalty if you price them out of the (usually taxpayer-financed) stadium, then threaten to take away their games on TV if there's no sellout?

It's not as if the NFL and its teams are on the verge of bankruptcy. They'll still spend millions on players regardless of talent, and to twist the arms of local politicians to get them to fund new stadiums. But they shouldn't be taking its fans for granted.

There's one sure-fire way to avoid the weekly drama of sellout-or-no sellout: win games. The Vikings won the NFC North division title in spite of inconsistent play, two mediocre quarterbacks, players who have so far avoided suspension for allegedly using a diuretic banned by the league, calls for coach Brad Childress' firing, and the weakness of other teams in its division. No wonder they had trouble selling out this playoff game.