Eric Kleefeld has been doing a great job chronicling the strange but true saga that is the Norm Coleman-Al Franken Death Match.

The latest:

We’ve now found a case of lead Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg actually being concerned about ballot fraud, and wanting to keep a vote out as a result — so much so that he’ll speculate about a Franken-voter being mentally disabled.

Really. No joke.

In court just now, lead Franken lawyer Marc Elias went over a rejected ballot envelope for which he said a power of attorney had been granted by a disabled voter, to allow a family member to fill it out. The issue was that the mark made to authorize the family member was not a signature or a conventional “X”, but was instead an amorphous scribble. Elias and Goodhue County elections official Carolyn Holmsted spent some time hashing it out.

Then Friedberg took issue with this whole idea of the power of attorney to fill out a ballot, which is a specifically allowed clause in Minnesota law for disabled voters.

Just maybe:

A Republican is suggesting bank nationalization and a Democrat thinks it is a bad idea.

~ ~ ~

To be honest, this should be an interesting situation to playout in the coming months. My take is that the Obama Administration will opt against a one size fits all approach. I believe they sent a clue as to their intention by Treasury Sec. Geithner’s discussion of “stress tests” on banks.

The tests themselves will publicize just how poorly managed some of the banks are; thereby allowing more leeway from the American public in how best to handle the situation.

This must be sad news to the paragon of intellectual political thought, Mr. Rich “I Seriously Need to Get Laid” Lowry:

By pulling out of CPAC she guarantees February will be relatively quiet. With continual attention from August to January, Palin courted overexposure, but looks to be avoiding it this month. She’s facing criticism in her own state for paying too much attention to her national image, and she wants to rectify that.

Hat Tip: PrettyBoring.com

South Minneapolis Winter / Northstar Chronicle

“Because of what? Some ice? We’re going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town,” Obama said this morning. “I’m saying that when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don’t seem to be able to handle things.”

-President Barack Obama, after Washington, DC schools closed due to wintry weather.

“Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser, who craves attention. His right-wing lunacy sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev, extolling the virtues of communism. Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1 percent of what he wanted us to do, then we’d all need pain killers.”

-Florida Rep. Alan Grayson

Hat Tip: Down With Tyranny

The victimology of Sarah Palin’s worldview is truly astounding.

Not a good look, though. Americans don’t like whiners.

Being a fan of The Simpson’s, I just love this site.

Allright, it is a shameless tie-in with a Burger King marketing promotion. But the site lets you upload a picture of yourself, make some tweaks, and then get a Simpsons-type character version of yourself.

Way cool. Way way cool.

“I see the GOP’s devious plan to become the party of southern whites over the age of 50 continues apace.

Wholly unable to confirm this, but I’m told the talk is now that Mike Duncan may have to perform in black face at the upcoming RNC meeting to remain a credible candidate for the job.”

-Josh Marshall, TPM

Why the hell would he put Hussein as his middle name if his intention was to run for public office someday?

These whack jobs should just go back to drinking their own urine that is stored in their fridge.

Of course would come from sober-minded Marc Ambinder:

But the two-citizen parent rule, which is no longer in effect, applied to people born outside the U.S.  Obama was born in 1961 in Hawaii, a U.S. state since 1959; (had he been born earlier, it wouldn’t matter — U.S. law granted natural born citizenship to every Hawaiian born after 1900.)

Now — the 14th amendment is fairly clear on the subject:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

A further objection: to be “natural born,” as the constitution requires, is to be born on U.S. soil (check) to two citizen parents (x mark.)  Again — that claim has no basis in federal law, Supreme Court precedent, or English common law.

The conspiracy theories are entertaining, and in a down economy, they keep people employed, so I suppose one cannot entirely dismiss their social utility.