This time last year (today, in fact) I had just concluded the academic portion of my study abroad semester in Berlin, Germany and was taking a celebratory trip to Prague.  And this seems as good an occasion as any to talk about the experience, now that I've had some time to reflect on it.

Almost none of that reflection has been negative.  If anything, as time has gone on I've been even more glad that I did it.  The memories are richer, I find myself remembering things that I had forgotten that happened, I almost never run out of stories to tell people (see this diary), and I finally learned to drink and appreciate beer!

And something to chalk up in the odd, but amazing coincidence department, a classmate from my intensive German course who is from Prague added me on Facebook on the 1-year anniversary of my trip to Prague and she had no idea that I went.

Anyway, on to my story and the pictures!

Continuing the great track record of proper inspection and repair, a third Minnesota Bridge (fourth if you count the I-35W bridge that collapsed) across the Mississippi River has been closed.

This time it is in Winona.

Karl Rove needs no introduction.  We all know who he is, what he's done, and what he represents.

But now he's making it personal.  He's going to befoul my fair city of Rochester, MN.

And if that isn't enough...Ron Paul's going to be here, too.  So, I need your help.

Minnesota Public Radio and the Humphrey Institute have a new poll out showing Senator Norm Coleman losing to Al Franken.

First, some preliminaries.

Senator Coleman's Approval/Disapproval ratings are 50/34.
Senator Klobuchar's Approval/Disapproval ratings are 66/19.

So, unless you're Mike Huckabee, you probably heard that there was a National Intelligence Estimate released this past week.  In fact, you probably even know that it was bad for President Bush.

Not surprisingly, the right-wing has gone wacko over this saying that the intelligence community cooked the books this time (as opposed to last time), and that there should be investigations into how this estimate was handled.

Well, in unintentional connection to this, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a funny.

One of the more perplexing cases in the U.S. Attorney purging was that in Minnesota.  Former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger had originally appeared on one of the early firing lists, but was removed.  He resigned apparently of his own accord.

Rachel Paulose, a 34 year old with virtually no management experience was slated to be appointed using the USAPATRIOT Act revisions, but was instead submitted through the normal channels.

It's a story that's been reported on before.  Members of the Minnesota National Guard were deployed just long short enough to prevent them from qualifying for the education benefits in the Montgomery GI Bill.

They've tried appealing to President Bush with (predictably) no result.

And the Army won't let them file one joint appeal.  It has to be processed individually.

The members of Daily Kos now have their very own bitchemployee, Bill in Portland Maine.  If you've been stuck in a cave haven't seen one of the 30,000 diaries detailing the community fund raiser that will also pay for A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, Coffee Talk, and Cheers & Jeers, Bill became temporarily between jobs and the outpouring of desire to help him out stunned Kos, who allowed us to do the "Hire Bill Away From Doing Something Productive Fundraiser".  We raised the requisite salary (hopefully plus some), so we now own Bill.

However, as he's never worked for us before as a paid employee, he probably isn't aware of what we expect from him.  To help him out, I have undertaken the task of listing Bill's responsibilities as our bitchemployee.

Read on.

Save Cheers and Jeers from an ignominious fate!  As you may or may not be aware, Cheers and Jeers may be on a permanent hiatus now that Bill in Portland Maine is currently between jobs.

Thankfully, public outcry has been enormous and has spurred Kos, ever the laggard on community issues, into action.

Kos has graciously agreed to hold a fundraiser for the community at large to pay BiPM for his daily column.  To succeed, we need to raise $50,000 by Friday night.

How you can help and what we'll get below the fold.

I was checking out TPM Election Central and a recent story discusses how the Minnesota DFL is looking to try for a clean sweep next year to turn our state completely blue!

We've even recruited another Fighting Dem to take on a Republican incumbent.

More below.

I haven't had a good rant in awhile, but this Congress is pissing me off.

You started off great.  You raised the minimum wage.  You started reforming ethical regulations in Congress, but still have a long way to go with earmarks.

But you guys really fucking bend over like it's couple's night in the prison shower when it comes to oversight.

The Star Tribune and Minnesota Poll have some new polling data on the race for political weasel Norm Coleman's Senate seat.

In short, Coleman's in trouble, but Franken and Cirisi are, so far, not closing the gap.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the raw questions and data online, so I'll have to take the information directly from the article.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is going to begin installing new stall dividers to try to end the infamous rendezvouses.

Is it just me, or would this kind of thing have made more sense (and cost less money) than an undercover sting operation?

Details below.

Technically it's not a letter to the editor.  It's what the Minneapolis Star Tribune calls a "Netlet" or website only LTE.  I'll have to check the print edition of the paper today just to make sure I'm not incorrect.

I sent it in last week after reading about Senator Mel Martinez's speech about how the Webb Amendment demeans our troops.

Video of the speech is available at the link.

The letter follows below.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that Rachel Paulose's office is being investigated due to the amounts of internal turmoil.

The internal upheaval that roiled the upper ranks of the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota last spring has prompted an investigation by an independent federal agency that looks into whistleblower and discrimination complaints involving federal employees.

It was broken by kossack The Big E.

This is the fourth diary for the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker before the Joint Full Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee.  Please recommend the first diary by liveblog instead of this one.

Remember for those of use without high speed internet, please DO NOT post pictures, and for those of us at work or unable to connect to the feeds, transcripts and highlights are appreciated.

Coverage is available from CSPAN, CNN said they'd have online video as well.

The next one comes up about every 250 comments or so, so keep a look-out!

General Petraeus's testimony regarding the White House's report is coming up, and I have several Yes, No, or I don't know questions that I think should be asked.

Now, it would be best if one Senator would take it upon him or herself to just do these one-after-the-other with the following instructions:
"General Petraeus, you will answer my questions with Yes, No, or I don't know.  You will not elaborate upon your answers unless I ask you to."

Questions below the fold.

(Tehran, Abbreviated Press)

Following the reported mishandling of several nuclear Tomahawk Cruse Missiles, the Abbreviated Press has learned that Senator Joseph Lieberman (I, Thumbuphisass) has dropped a nuclear weapon on Iran.

Continuation of this barking story below.