For those of you waiting on signs of the apocalypse, I give you the state of Minnesota, where it appears that (I can't believe I'm writing this) Al Franken will be a US Senator.

The point is that the fix seems to be in for Franken.  The latest blow came from the state Supreme Court:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to count an additional 654 rejected absentee ballots in the state's U.S. Senate race, taking away his last option for overtaking Democrat Al Franken in the recount.

The court's ruling paves the way for the state Canvassing Board to certify results showing Franken won the race. But Coleman's attorneys have said they are likely to sue if he loses the recount, meaning it could be weeks more before the outcome is final.

"Today's ruling, which effectively disregards the votes of hundreds of Minnesotans, ensures that an election contest is now inevitable," Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said in a written statement. "The Coleman campaign has consistently and continually fought to have every validly cast vote counted, and for the integrity of Minnesota's election system, we will not stop now."

Of course, the liberals that have shouted from rooftops in elections past about counting every vote (even when they weren't legally cast ballots) have nothing to say in this case.

According to The Fix, Coleman's likely points in a challenge would be:

...that the 654 absentee ballots have been wrongly excluded, that roughly 150 ballots have been double-counted, and that 130 ballots that disappeared from a church between election night Nov. 4 and the manual recount should not be included in the final tally.

Double counted ballots (in a precinct that went big for Franken by the way) and ballots that were counted on election night, but not verified in a recount because they vanished..., just the kind of thing that would be sending the "stolen elections" crowd into orbit, if the tables were reversed.

I'm so sick of the hypocrisy on this type of thing that I sincerely hope that Coleman (and the GOP for that matter) goes to the legal mat on this one...(or, if you're a Godfather fan, "goes to the mattresses")...no matter how long it takes, how many court challenges, or how long Minnesota has to go with just one Senator.

Sometimes our biggest political enemy is ourselves, especially when we're not willing to fight tooth-and-nail like the opposition.

It's a real contest..not Tidily Winks...and it has real consequences. 

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Other Takes:

Ace of Spades: "Yep, Franken stole the election"

Right Wing News: "Franken to be handed Coleman's seat"

Stop the ACLU: "Will they be screaming about unfair, stolen elections now?"

More: The Daily Beast - Michelle Malkin - Hotline -

This thing just keeps getting interestinger and interestinger...not to mention entertaining.

Of course, yesterday, Blago did what he said he wouldn't do, and went ahead and appointed someone to fill Obama's old Senate seat.  Which, of course, left all Democrats hoppin' made as it just complicates things for them.  It keeps the story alive that much longer...sets up a big legal situation where the Dems may vote not to seat the guy and have it drug out in court, etc...and keeps their Lt. Governor from being able to pick who he (they) wants.  Not to mention that the guy Blago picks is black.  And would be the only black member of the Senate.

And today comes word that the federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has petitioned the court for a 90 day extension on bringin his indictment (normally, it's a 30 day window), which makes one wonder...is Blago cooperating?

In the motion filed Wednesday, prosecutors ask for more time because "multiple witnesses" have come forward in recent weeks and investigators have to review "thousands of intercepted phone calls."

A U.S. Attorney spokesman says a federal judge is scheduled to review the motion at a Monday hearing.

Most likely, after this thing blew open, Fitzgerald has been knee-deep in whistle-blowers...or people just looking to come clean to get a good deal, figuring they were going to go down anyway.  Which means that this thing is likely to go waaay beyond just Blago.

And then there's the possibility that Blago himself has hinted that he may be willing to deal.

Either way, there's bound to be a lot of worried people in the Illinois Democrat party right about now.  Should be an entertaining winter.

142.

That is the number of times Caroline Kennedy says "you know" during the course of the entire interview seen below in its edited version for broadcast. 

It's notable - considering what we saw happen with Sarah Palin during the course of the presidential campaign - that every national media outlet has not begun a relentless hammering of Kennedy about this hilarious display.

Maybe, to their credit they've decided to turn a page, though.  Perhaps the MSM has decided to be fair and simply judge Caroline Kennedy on her rich experience in elected office and her thorough grasp of the issues which she has displayed... you know?

The old saying in the news media seems to be holding true; "If it bleeds, it leads."

Well, more so in this case, it seems to be the lack of blood of late that is the tell-tale sign of where the media's priorities lay.

Politico's media analyst Michael Calderone notes today how the networks are... "Losing the war". Aptly titled!

Several major newspapers, with the exception of the New York Times, have significantly reduced Iraq coverage in recent years, amid overall cutbacks. And as Brian Stelter reports today, television networks appear to be doing the same.

The Big Three networks -- ABC, NBC and CBS -- no longer have a full-time correspondent in Iraq, where roughly 130,000 U.S. troops remain.

In Baghdad, ABC, CBS and NBC still maintain skeleton bureaus in heavily fortified compounds. Correspondents rotate in and out when stories warrant, and with producers and Iraqi employees remaining in Baghdad, the networks can still react to breaking news. But employees who are familiar with the staffing pressures of the networks say the bureaus are a shadow of what they used to be. Some of the offices have only one Western staff member.

CNN and Fox still have a correspondent in Iraq. But lately, there's been a tendency to shift the focus to Afghanistan.

As the Iraq War enters its seventh year in March, cash-strapped media companies are finding it difficult to pay for expenses -- most notably, security -- that are associated with staffing in a war-ravaged region.

Ironic, how that sluggish economy excuse can be noted for the lack of coverage in Iraq military victory.  Aren't these the same networks that have been trying to pin the "Recession" label on President Bush for, seemingly, the last 4 years now?

Andrew Breitbart also takes on the media and their diminishing voice regarding Iraq, today in an opinion piece for The Washington Times - Not so much the news media side, but the Hollywood-cultural side's abandonment of their vocal opposition to the war.

This was the year Hollywood finally realized that it couldn't sell an anti-Iraq war film. It also was the year the mainstream media discovered it couldn't report that the war on terror had failed.

Countless prime-time hours and untold acres of celluloid and newsprint were wasted demeaning the American mission. Yet, in the end, the heroic warriors destroyed their media adversaries by defeating our true enemies on the battlefield.

Except for the election of an antiwar candidate, 2008 was a great year for the pro-war side and only an economic meltdown could divert attention from this fact.

Breitbart makes a strong case for Obama's opportunity at hand to actually carry on and bring this victory home, if he decides to carry things through.  Candidate Obama's snatch defeat from the jaws of victory rhetoric we have heard from him for over two years can now go by the wayside, if he only decides to act with reason in bringing about a successful endgame to President Bush's War on Terror.

On the precipice of victory in Iraq, and recommitting to destroy the Taliban in Afghanistan, continuing military victories on a Democratic president's watch would be extraordinarily transforming for a party that pretends to thrive in the shadow of George McGovern.

Throwing antiwar agitators Markos Moulitsas and Arianna Huffington under the biodiesel bus would be a historic act that would cause moderates and traditional liberals to rejoice. What would the nutroots at the Huffington Post and the Daily Kos do: Draft Cindy Sheehan again? Or support the Republican next go-around?

Most conservatives just want to win and don't care who gets the credit. If Mr. Obama crushes al Qaeda over the next four years, he will be re-elected, and he will win over many Republicans, including Mr. Bush, who only cares about winning. Not who gets the credit.

As Breitbart mentions, instead of the Leftist media's continuing retreat into the shadows as we are on the precipice of victory, perhaps now is the time for them, more so than ever, to step up and actually help America win this thing!  Sadly, however, if they were to go about taking this major change in strategy it would only be done by these partisan hacks due to the figurehead they would now fulfill this duty on behalf of, and not for their nation's wellbeing, as a whole.

Well, now we can, and we should fight the war in the media. Hollywood got Mr. Obama elected, and he has an army who will do whatever he says.

Scarlett Johansson has Mr. Obama's e-mail address. Perhaps she can become the new face of the USO. And Ben Affleck is still young enough to enlist. Susan Sarandon can play the part of Martha Raye.

In one epic act of triangulation, deploying America's awesome propaganda power, Hollywood and the Democratic Party can be redeemed.

Are you ready to win a war, President Obama. Or what?

Princess Caroline finally sat down and did her first interview today since announcing she wanted to be appointed to the soon-to-be-vacant New York Senate seat.  And, in her AP interview, after being questioned about her voting record, she exclaimed that she was "shocked" at how poor it was.

No, not the kind of voting record that elected officials have (on bills, etc.), but the kind that, you know, good citizens should have.  That of actually voting in elections on a regular basis.

NEW YORK (AP) — Caroline Kennedy emerged from weeks of near-silence Friday about her bid for a Senate seat by saying that after a lifetime of closely guarded privacy, she felt compelled to answer the call to service issued by her father a generation ago. ...

Since Kennedy expressed interest in the job, she has faced sometimes sharp criticism that she cut in line ahead of politicians with more experience and has acted as if she were entitled to it because of her political lineage. More than a half-dozen elected officials are vying for the seat, including New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and several members of Congress. ...

Kennedy acknowledged that her recent time in the limelight — after a relatively private life as a wife, mother of three, best-selling author and fundraiser in New York City — had not gone entirely smoothly.

But she said she had turned down interview requests and tried not to appear to be campaigning for the job because she knew that the choice rested solely with the Democratic governor.

"I was trying to respect the process. It is not a campaign," she said. "It was misinterpreted. If I were to be selected, I understand public servants have to be accessible."

Asked about criticism from other politicians and members of the public that she seems to regard herself as entitled to the job as a member of America's most storied political dynasty, she said: "Everybody that knows me knows I haven't really lived that way. ... Nobody's entitled to anything, certainly not me." ...

She also was asked to explain why she failed to vote in a number of elections since registering in New York City in 1988, including in 1994 when Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was up for re-election for the seat she hopes to take over.

"I was really surprised and dismayed by my voting record," she said. "I'm glad it's been brought to my attention."

"I'm glad it's been brough to my attention."  Well.

I'm sorry, but if you're not a good enough citizen to vote when the polls are open, not to mention being an intelligent enough (or honest enough) person to know whether or not you did, then you have no place in the United States Senate.

Even the folks over at the Huffington Post seem a little divided over her qualifications and/or entitlement.

Been out to the mountains for a vacation last week, (no phone, no internet...just perfect).  And I come home, go through a stack of mail and what do I find...

Nothing like a stark reminder of your mortality on a day when you're more likely to be thinking about it.  Talk about marketing!

Julius Caesar once said that the only thing necessary to conquer the world was men and money.  Add message to that list and you've got the fundamentals of politics - as in organization, fundraising and communications.

And our party has problems in at least two of those areas.

The first problem is principles, which goes to our message and not adequately communicating our conservative philosophy - or living up to it.

Over the weekend, the RNC released a short video which documents some of the unanswered questions and inconsistencies with the Barack Obama-Rod Blagojevich connection as to the ongoing "Pay to Play" scandal regarding the filling of the President-elect's former Senate seat.

More from the RNC:

WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee (RNC) today launched a new Web video, titled “Questions Remain.”  The video highlights the evolving explanations delivered by President-elect Obama and his advisors concerning their contact with the embattled and scandal-plagued Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich despite Obama’s promises to instill greater transparency and confidence in government.

To view the video, click here.

Ruh-roh:

Chicago  --  The firestorm surrounding Governor Blagojevich is putting some heat on Barack Obama’s transition team. Fox Chicago News has learned about possible conversations between a top Obama aide and the governor regarding the open senate seat. Craig Wall has the exclusive.

There's an awful lot of smoke here for there to be no fire.

Exit question: Will Emanuel actually end up working as Obama's Chief of Staff by the time this is all over?

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More: Malkin - Kurtz - Hot Air