Commentary

While the steady rise of the nation’s unemployment rate has become shorthand for the recession’s impact, many economists say the grim figures — 8.9 percent in April — don’t tell the whole story of Americans’ financial distress.

Religious right rhetoric on traditional marriage is framed as concern for preserving the institution as a bond between one man and one woman, but an international flap over an anti-gay marriage law in Nigeria has revealed the true intent of “traditional marriage” groups: the imprisonment of gays and lesbians for being gay and lesbian.

“I’m Senator Norm Coleman.” That’s how former Sen. Norm Coleman starts out a new video put out by his campaign today. Conveying similar information to his new fundraising solicitation, the video comes across as an explainer on the upcoming election contest. But, from those first words out of his mouth, politics abound: He refers to [...]

9/11. Warrantless wiretapping. Two wars. Jack Abramoff. CIA black flights. Abu Ghraib. The apparently fake turkey photo-op. Gitmo. “Mission Accomplished.” Bank bailouts. Playing guitar while New Orleans submerged. The Bush years have been, at the least, memorable, and at worst surreal. So perhaps a fitting way to remember his two-term presidency is through a look [...]

Sean Hannity’s “Great American Panel” last night was anything but. Epitomizing America — if I can interpret the name — were cacophonous guests Rev. Al Sharpton, rocker Meat Loaf and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who had a shoutathon about government stimulus packages, “angry and mean” rap and heavy metal, race in the “age of Obama,” [...]

The St. Paul Pioneer Press sees fit today to run a Jan. 5 Wall Street Journal editorial on the Minnesota U.S. Senate recount that nearly everyone but Rush Limbaugh has laughed off for its woolly inaccuracies and hidebound misrepresentations. Does the PiPress editorial staff let stand the errors that their WSJ counterparts committed to print two days [...]

What should we make of Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger Michael Brodkorb’s attack on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie for including a benign mention of The UpTake’s live video feeds of the Canvassing Board’s recent meetings? A tempest in a teapot? An insider media squabble? Try this on for size: Maybe it’s part of a GOP plan to smear the recount process that seems increasingly likely to result in Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s defeat.

Flying Spaghetti Monster and Lizard People got the big press at yesterday’s State Canvassing Board’s review of challenged ballots in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, but another challenge by Coleman shows how the incumbent has, in the words of TPM’s Eric Kleefeld, “puffed up his apparent lead” with “brazenly frivolous attempts to get votes for Al [...]

If you accept taxpayer money, you have to accept that you’re going to receive public scrutiny. That simple point seems to be eluding Minnesota Teen Challenge (MNTC), the faith-based drug treatment program which secured a federal earmark in early 2008 arranged by Rep. Jim Ramstad, for its “Know the Truth” program which aims to prevent drug use.

Last week, the program sent two nearly identical letters to both the Minnesota Independent and the Huffington Post responding to articles critical of their programming.

A sign that the culture war is being waged anew took up an entire page of the New York Times on Friday. United under the moniker “No Mob Veto,” a coalition of religious-right figures vowing to shame “anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry” placed the ad, which has raised ire among gay and lesbian activists and others. But the group’s role in championing religious freedom is suspect: Several of its members have expressed bigotry against Mormons, Muslims and Jews.