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TO THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION--AND, FOR THE MOST PART, A GOOD CHUNK OF SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA, NORTHEAST IOWA AND WESTERN INTO SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN--such would likely be the plea in the rain department, what with substantial flooding over a number of streams and creeks.

Especially so the Kickapoo River in and around Gays Mills, Wisconsin.

Turtle Creek, Dobbins Creek and the Red Cedar River in and around Austin, Minnesota.

The Zumbro River and Bear Creek around Rochester, Minnesota.

And the Cedar River in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls connurbation of Iowa.

Now, we could use a serious dry spell for once to let all this rain water percolate into the topsoil and get things back to normal.

Not to mention some donations on your part to the Red Cross and/or The Salvation Army for helping flood victims. And, since our supposedly "morally superior" society is pretty much on the verge of socioeconomic collapse thanks to His Fraudulency's Great Within and their mad delusions of grandeur seeing America as Lord and Master of the World, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies, maybe some foreign aid, come to think of it.

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MEANWHILE, WITH REGARDS TO THE RECONSTRUCTION OF LAKE DELTON, Mein Innkeeper Friend is of the opine that the drainage period--so long as it's an extended period of dryness--might be as good an opportunity as any to allow the exposed lakebed to settle as part of its restoration.

Not to mention having a new dam constructed @ the newly-formed channel, with provision for generating hydroelectricity and a navigation lock to allow pleasure craft to move for once between Lake Delton and the Wisconsin River; this along with a bridge on County A over the new-formed channel.

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"TERRORISM SUSPECTS," 1; HIS FRAUDULENCY'S GREAT WITHIN, 0 AND RED CARD: Such the result of the Supreme Court's freshly-issued ruling which holdeth that so-called "terrorism suspects" in detention @ Guantanamo Bay's Camp Xray detention facility are subject to the same Constitutionally-mandated rights, privileges and powers entitled ordinary, run-of-the-mill criminal suspects in forthcoming criminal proceedings, or "reasonable" (to the Great Within's collective mind) facsimilies thereof.

Which, to the Great Within, could likely be as good a time as any to cook up "accidents" as can dispose of the remaining inmates there to try and get around the ruling--and cook up the most incredible of explanations in case suspicions are aroused in the blogosphere, let alone the Dark Satanic Mills of Conservative Propaganda.

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IMAGINE THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO OCCURING IN THE RUNUP TO INDECISION 2008 HERE IN THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" UNITED STATES," as per the BBC:

The BBC has obtained documents suggesting that Zimbabwe's military is actively involved in running Robert Mugabe's re-election campaign.

The documents outline plans by ruling party Zanu-PF to harass and drive out opposition supporters, especially from rural areas.

A run-off presidential vote is due to take place later in the month.

More than 60 people have been killed, thousands beaten and many more driven from their homes in related violence.

Testimony from eye-witnesses and victims from across Zimbabwe as well as internal party documents show that violence and intimidation are being used to try to guarantee the re-election of Robert Mugabe against the challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on 27 June.

The documents suggest that the Joint Operations Command (JOC) is now running logistics and operations.

The JOC is made up of the heads of the military and state security organisations.

Another document lays out the party's tactics, including the use of scarce food supplies as a political weapon.

"Basic commodities should be sold from either people's shops or pro-Zanu-PF shops," it says. "Emphasis should be in party strongholds."

It talks about giving the notorious and feared war veterans, responsible for much of the violence in Zimbabwe, a "leading role in Zanu-PF campaigns".

Fight for survival

The document also outlines the use of covert operations against the MDC including harassing supporters and driving them out of Zanu-PF strongholds and declares a "no-go area" to rural constituencies for the MDC.

The BBC is banned from reporting in the country, which makes it difficult to authenticate some of this material but our investigations found that all of the tactics mentioned in the document are being used by Zanu-PF and its supporters.

The Zimbabwean Deputy Minister of Information, Bright Matonga, denied that the ruling-party is responsible for the violence and he refused to comment on what he described as "illegal documents."

But speaking anonymously, a Zimbabwean police officer confirmed to the BBC that officers had been given orders to support Zanu-PF and turn a blind eye to violence perpetrated against MDC supporters.

We met in a dark car park in Harare. He told me: "We're told to vote for Zanu-PF and they told us it's not now a secret vote, you have to vote in front of your commanding officer."

He complained that the police were no longer independent: "Our police is now politically motivated, whereas it is supposed to be an organisation that stands for not taking part." 

Zimbabwe's deputy information minister denies military involvement in the election

Posters supporting Robert Mugabe are plastered across the walls of the capital. The party has brought in private PR consultants to give the campaign a far more positive image.

It is a slick strategy that promotes sovereignty, independence and empowerment. But under-writing the campaign are the resources of the central bank and a monopoly of air-time in the state-controlled media.

Often the MDC and its supporters are portrayed as the perpetrators of much of the violence but all the evidence points the other way and that is also the conclusion of many observers.

The US ambassador to Harare insisted that Robert Mugabe wants "to retain power through any means possible".

He said Zanu-PF, the military and the war veterans were responsible for most of the violence against those who voted for the MDC in the first round, "ensuring that, number one, they'll be too afraid to vote and, number two, that they're not in their district and cannot vote".

I asked him whether there was any way you could conclude that this election was either free or fair. His answer was swift: "Absolutely none."

We met people across Zimbabwe who all had almost identical stories to tell. Many had been beaten or burnt, many had broken limbs, some had relatives killed, thousands had been driven from their homes.

They were all targeted because they voted for the opposition.

Robert Mugabe has called this an "all-out war". He and his supporters are engaged in a fight for survival and what is now clear is that they will use any means necessary to achieve that.

Now imagine the GOP--no, make that the Constitution Party--deploying the resources of so-called "citizen militias" and so-called "Christian Patriot" groups to harrass and intimidate would-be Democratic (as in Barack Obama) voters "by whatever means necessary" (including fear and violence), and then deny any and all knowledge thereof when asked in debriefings.

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FIRST, IT WAS THE AUSTRALIANS ... AND NOW, IT'S THE CANADIANS' TURN: As in officially apologising and expressing regret for official policies sanctioning the removal of indigenous children from their families and "resettling" such in "mission schools" under the guise of "assimilation" into the Canadian mainstream.

Only it turned out to be sanction for abuse, maltreatment and even episodes of LeTourneauism as an agency of maintaining power, control and fear. All excused in the name of G-d, Queen and Empire.

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AND WHAT DO THESE SO-CALLED "ISSUES" HAVE IN COMMON WHEN IT COMES TO INDECISION 2008:

• Abortion, contraception and family planning.
• "Defending the sanctity and purity of marriage."
• Homosexuality and homosexuals.
• "Defending Traditional Christian and Family Values."
• Die Kulturkrieg.
• High gas prices being complicated all the more by "environmental zealots***with known Communistic tendencies" "preventing" further oil and gas exploration in known environmentally-sensitive areas as would "promote energy self-sufficency."

Answer: They're all non-issues which the Zealots and True Believers in Neoconservatism (and their droogs @ the Elmer Gantry Institute for Religiopolitical Theology) want American voters to think about all the more for Indecision 2008.

Even @ the expense of More Pressing and Serious Issues such as:

• The consequences of His Fraudulency's misadventures in the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism, and their socioeconomic byproducts.
• The growing and worsening disparity between rich and poor.
• The inability of many high-school graduates to find work in a socioeconomic paradigm seeing free-market capitalism as Great White Father.
• The worsening fiscal deficit, made all the more so by the Great Within's misadventures.
• The inability of the poor to obtain a decent standard of health care, job security or even a standard of living within free-market paradigms and algorithms.
• Deteriorating and collapsing infrastructure, and its socioeconomic consequences.
• "Regulatory relief" for businesses @ the expense of consumers, especially such on limited incomes as have to live from paycheck to paycheck.

So: What "issues" would you base your electoral decisions on?

Those that really matter?

Or those manufactured only to distract attention from those that matter?