Darn. Here it's only January 3rd and already I'm breaking my New Year's semi-resolution. It's all I can do to keep from declaring, Huckabee-like, that Michael Brodkorb is total dipwad.
Since I don't call people names, I'm repudiating that statement, but showing it to you anyway so know I'm human and had a really good reason for thinking it.
Now, I'll allow you draw your own conclusions.
Brodkorb has been on the warpath against Secretary of State Mark Ritchie ever since Ritchie turned Mary Kiffmeyer out of office in 2006. I won't rehash here the whole tedious history of Brodkorb's campaign.
Let's focus.
Brodkorb's latest brainstorm was to see if the Secretary of State's website has information about Minnesota's upcoming precinct caucuses. He was shocked to find that there was not a mention of these party-managed events evident on the home page, and he detailed how much difficulty he had finding the information on the site:
You'd practically need a map to find the information. From the Secretary of State's homepage, you have to go to "About the Office," and then to "News," and then to "Publications," and then scroll down under "Elections & Voting: Voter Information" to finally find a document called "Minnesota Precinct Caucuses."
Michael, here's a map:
Click on Voting and Election Information on the home page.
Click on the first line of the next page: "Caucus Information"
There's the document you had so much trouble finding. Not ideal getting a PDF after two clicks, but it's hardly an arduous journey.
Brodkorb also invites us back to the Wonder Years under Mary Kiffmeyer when such information was readily at hand, and he provides links to three disembodied and undated jpegs as proof. Note his screen grab lists a 1/16/2006 upcoming event and doesn't show the entire page.
Well, I went to the actual webpages archived by the Wayback Machine to find what Kiffmeyer's SoS site had up exactly two years ago. Here's what I found archived for January 2, 2006 (there was no save done again until January 5).
You will note some important proclamations, such as "Radon Action Month." But no home page mention of caucuses there, either — although there's ample room to feature them.
What about the Kiffmeyer calendar that causes Brodkorb to wax so nostalgically?
As we've already seen, Kiffmeyer like to lard it with listings that appear to have little to do with her office's constitutional duties. Here are a couple pages leading up to January 2, 2006. [Click to enlarge.]
October looks full because someone has helpfully filled in each day as being "Meet the Blind Month."
In an off-year election, November is mainly notable for "Radiologic Technology Week."
December is blank except for an end-of year filing reminder.
Did the calendar for Jan. 2 or Jan 5. have the caucuses? Not promoted to the home page. The archived calendar pages were blank, but that does not mean a listing wasn't there — just that I can't verify Brodkorb's claim was true for an equivalent week.
Oh, and here's the "News and Current Initiatives" page from the January 2, 2006 archive. That's right. Sept. 21, 2005 is the most current item.
Yes, if only we could go back in time to when the SoS was on top of her game.
Brodkorb's screaming headline on his pitiful accusation begins "BUCKING PRECEDENT."
The only precedent I see in evidence is a hack doing his dirty work once again and counting on the gullible to remember the accusation, not the truth.
