corrente

And we all know what They do when something displeases Them, or is insufficiently genuflectual to Dear Leader. They bring out the wind machines, on the theory that if they just huff and puff enough they can blow inconvenient facts out of public attention.

(via Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Republicans brought their protest of the Star Tribune's polling methods to the newspaper's front doors in downtown Minneapolis on Monday.

About 40 GOP activists again called for the resignation of Minnesota Poll director Rob Daves or the suspension of the poll through the Nov. 2 presidential election.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, Rob Daves has got to go" and "Star and Sickle, you're in a pickle," they chanted, using a nickname to describe what they regard as the newspaper's leftist views.

..Outside the newspaper's Portland Avenue entrance during the lunch hour, demonstrators carried signs with "Real reporters report real results" and "Strib polls are fibs."

[Star Tribune editor Anders] Gyllenhaal said the Star Tribune's poll methodology is available for anyone to review. He also...noted that Gallup and Pew, widely respected national pollsters, last week reported vastly different presidential poll results. Gallup's poll showed Bush leading Kerry 55 percent to 42 percent nationally. Pew's survey showed the two tied at 46 percent.

This was not a repeat of the Republican-staged white collar riots in Dade County in 2000. The jackbooters don't have to be that blatant just to intimidate at this stage of the game.

Oh, and while I've never lived there and see nothing but their Page 1 every day, as best I can tell the Strib is about as "left-wing" as your average turnip. But the campaign continues to make the term "left-wing," like "liberal" before it, something akin to an accusation of child molestation, where the mere invokation of the word is enough to get the accused cast into the outer darkness.