It's the remains of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit by an IED in Iraq. If you enlarge and look carefully, you can actually see the 25mm chain gun and the 7.62mm machine gun still intact.
In the first Gulf War, its reported that BFV's with less protection than this were able to take direct hits from old T54/44 Soviet era tanks.
While this story got me to open the magazine, another story made me buy it.
Fittingly, the story that followed the cover story was about US Senate Candidate Al Franken.
While Senator Coleman has gone to Iraq, he has never connected with the troops like Al Franken has. Al went because of his support for our troops. His appreciation for what we stand for and what we do (or did). He's genuine.
Coleman went on his fact finding missions, which have not helped the Senator assert a strong and clear position on Iraq.
But Democratic voters are angry too. According to the campaign, Franken raised
more than $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2007--this despite having been an
official candidate for only 45 days. At a series of stops during the recent
Democratic caucus night in St. Paul, voters cheered Franken when he talked about
"taking out" Coleman. They laughed at his jokes. But being entertained by
someone doesn't necessarily mean you agree with him. And it certainly doesn't
mean you'll vote for him. To win the seat, Franken will need to convince voters
that his past remarks were "just jokes" and that he is more than "just" a
comedian.
An impressive fundraising figure for sure. Beyond the fundraising aspect, Franken is doing this the right way. He's meeting in small towns all throughout Minnesota. He's meeting with delegates and locals alike, sharing his passion for progressive politics.
Last April I saw Al speak at the 7th CD Convention in Bemidji.
I was skeptical at first. I was duped by Jesse Ventura as well.
I saw a lot more from Al that night. While he was not officially a candidate that night, his speech churned tears and laughter from the audience.
He gets it.
His message connects with people.
Norm Coleman knows he's in trouble. He has aligned himself with the neo-cons in Washington and at the same time, shed any strand of Minnesota values he had.
Franken's speech a year ago, and the visualizations from the Time story shed more light onto Franken's progressive politics and Minnesota values.
1 comment:
xsvI disagree with the whole notion that Franklin has to prove his campaing is not a "joke" and start playing the striaght man. Nothing wrong with being funny.
And if politicians had to worry about such matters, why didn't Bush worry about being a LIAR an Coleman being a POSER and former potsmoker who now compares himself to clergy and a great missionary of faith, when he is nothing of the sort.
What is clear about Coleman is that he cannot see any future other than 10 more years of American troops without a clear mission in Iraq, without an exit strategy and billions of dollars a day in taxpayer expense running down the toilet.
Coleman is a desparate whore who believe he (and by extension we) have no choices over our destiny in the world and that he must continue the dirty little acts of morally dubious ethics to survive in the world. That's not leadership, that's amoral compromise that covers his evil intent.
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