Minnesota Independent

Activist behind Planned Parenthood hidden-surveillance videos in Minnesota Monday

By Jon Collins | 10.05.09 | 4:35 pm

Twenty-one-year-old Lila Rose is a superstar of the anti-abortion right, rubbing shoulders with conservatives like Gov. Tim Pawlenty and speaking at national events like last week’s Values Voter Summit. But her tactics — secretly videotaping visits to Planned Parenthood offices and presenting edited footage without context online — raise serious questions about journalistic ethics.

O’Reilly: Did ACORN win the election for Franken?

By Paul Schmelzer | 10.02.09 | 11:18 am

Did ACORN win the U.S. Senate race for Al Franken? Bill O’Reilly raised the topic last night with rightwing pundit Laura Ingraham. ACORN reportedly registered some 43,000 voters here, and O’Reilly says he’ll ask Gov. Pawlenty to…

A Congresswoman Offers Response to Nutjobs who defund ACORN

By Chris Steller | 09.30.09 | 6:05 pm

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum is circulating a bill that would stop federal funding of corporations that commit felony crimes. The ACORN Act (pdf) would also stop such corporations from funding federal campaigns and limit their lobbying. The bill’s…

Smearing Sen. Franken

By David Weigel | 09.29.09 | 12:33 pm

This is some extremely shoddy journalism from Mickey Kaus. The Slate blogger asks if “ACORN chicanery” elected Sen. Al Franken, who won a razor-thin 2008 race for the U.S. Senate after eight months of legal challenges. Kaus links a “tactfully…

House votes to suspend federal funding for ACORN

By Andy Birkey | 09.17.09 | 3:49 pm

The U.S. House voted to suspend all federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) on Thursday afternoon by a vote of 345 to 75. Now the measure heads to the Senate, which passed a…

Having perfected the backpedal, Pawlenty tries the ‘knee-jerk’

By Chris Steller | 09.17.09 | 11:20 am

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has perfected the political backpedal over the past few months, pressing forward then pulling back on one issue after another. He started on topics like whether he’d sign an election certificate for the Franken-Coleman winner…

ACORN: Pawlenty’s ‘piling on’ is politically opportunistic

By Chris Steller | 09.16.09 | 6:11 pm

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s letter cutting off (nonexistent) state funding to ACORN is “pretty clearly political opportunism on the governor’s part,” ACORN state political director Chris Stinson tells the Minnesota Independent. “Gov. Pawlenty is piling on.”

Pawlenty: Stop funding ACORN

By Chris Steller | 09.16.09 | 3:57 pm

Gov. Tim Pawlenty jumped into the ACORN fray Wednesday by ordering a freeze on all state payments to the embattled community-organizer group.
But, as the Star Tribune reports, currently no state funds go to the group.

ACORN blocked from Census, HUD funding

By Andy Birkey | 09.15.09 | 11:36 am

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has a had a rough week. The Census Bureau dropped the organization as a community partner after a FOX News…

Video: Colbert’s Census segment cites Bachmann, ‘Spain-shaped lesion’

By Paul Schmelzer | 07.22.09 | 10:07 am

A Stephen Colbert segment on ACORN’s involvement in the 2010 U.S. Census is locally noteworthy for mentioning Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s opposition to the community organizing group. But it’s entertaining for the Comedy Central host’s other antics: serenading…