McCain supporter gave $50 million to now-notorious Bill Ayers initiative

A recent press release from the McCain campaign boasted “100 U.S. Ambassadors Endorse McCain-Palin.” Right at the top of that list was none other than Lenore Annenberg. Doesn’t ring familiar? It…

Who was the worst offender in Lakeville–the questioner or the candidate?

Much has been made of McCain’s angry crowd in Lakeville last week, where the candidate snatched a microphone from the hands of a questioner asserting that Barack Obama is “an…

When McCain is done with Ayers, will he take the Rashid Khalidi bait?

He’s no Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers, but Palestinian academic and Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi (pictured) may be next in the parade of radical ghosts from Obama’s past.

Turns out Oliver did know about Fannie and Freddie, and lots of other things too

Remember the second questioner from the second presidential debate? His name was Oliver Clark. Remember how John McCain answered Clark’s bailout question? He said lots of things, but you’ll remember this zinger: “The match that lit this fire was…

Building a ‘citizen’s archive’ of the RNC

Nigel Parry wasn’t arrested, harassed or gassed during the RNC. But he was affected.

At the Tilsner Artists’ Cooperative, where he’s lived on and off over the years, he shared a room a friend was renting out to people working for Indy Media and the Glass Bead Collective. “I spent the week with extremely freaked out and justifiably paranoid independent media people.”

He was getting “fog of war” reports all week. It was difficult to get the big picture — it still is.

So Parry — a songwriter, photojournalist, and web designer — started a paper archive of everything that happened outside the Xcel. “I printed everything from Star Tribune reports to St. Paul City Council minutes.”

Nine of Forbes’ richest Americans are Minnesotans; who are they supporting?

Nine Minnesotans made Forbes’ richest Americans list this year. Most of them are peeling off small-fractions of their wealth to support political parties and candidates for national office–shoveling a total of $245,000 into the game since Election Day 2006. A little number crunching turns up a few surprises, like conservative broadcasting magnate Stanley Hubbard giving more to Senator Amy Klobuchar than he did to Norm Coleman.

Five things Michele Bachmann and the “surge” evangelists aren’t telling you

This week at the 6th District congressional debate in Stillwater, Michele Bachmann hailed last year’s “surge” of troops to Iraq as an unmitigated success, saying it has done “what no one thought was possible.”

Not so fast. Here are five things Michele Bachmann and the “surge” evangelists aren’t telling you.

While Biden issued warnings in Kosovo, Palin wept in a Wal-Mart

You could fill an undergraduate survey course in American history with the political, historical, cultural, and geographical differences between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and their respective home states. One state is tiny, the other enormous. One state is the…

Crowd control at the RNC: Fifty million unanswered questions

The RNC is over, and it’s not just Sarah Palin exhaling relief. The mayors of each twin city have issued their unanimous judgment of law enforcement actions during the daily protest rallies and marches of the RNC.

Their one-word summary: Convention police showed “restraint.”

Advocates for the hundreds, perhaps thousands of protesters (and a few journalists) who were pepper sprayed, maced, smoke-bombed, shoved, shot at (with non-lethal “impact rounds”), dispersed, cited, and detained have issued their own consensus message: See you in court.

Down time for the riot police

It’s the last day of the RNC and the parking lot of Catholic Charities has been chosen as a convergence space for a small army of police and their vehicles. It’s R&R out there. The riot gear is piled in minivans, footballs are being tossed. One officer pulls out a disposable camera and takes a photo of another officer talking casually with three protesters passing by on their way to the Capitol building.