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Minnesota Monthly’s Tim Gihring gives GOP chair Ron Carey an “Uncommon Loon” award for his go-get-’em speech to Republicans at the Mayo Civic Center in May. Decrying Democrats’ “left-wing values,” he predicted — incorrectly — that “the joke’s gonna be on” pundits who suggested an electoral “slaughter” would befall Republicans in November. But here’s the [...]

Denny Hecker undoubtedly could’ve made this call awhile back. But the National Bureau of Economic Research has officially declared that the United States is in the midst of a recession. In fact, the group’s Business Cycle Dating Committee determined that the recession actually began in December 2007. While the commonly used definition of a recession is two [...]

Minnesota’s entire Democratic Congressional delegation, Republican and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman (sort of), and Republican Rep. John Kline (possibly) have all rebuked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Friday statement suggesting that Barack Obama and [...]

Anyone relying exclusively on MnIndy for nightlife recommendations hasn’t been out on the town since the Plastic People of the Universe performed here a month ago. In the interim the economic sky has fallen, so what could be better than a free movie? Tonight, it’s British director Mike Leigh’s 1991 film ”Life Is Sweet” at the Walker [...]

Republican incumbent Rep. Michele Bachmann and two challengers who hope to unseat her to represent Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District in Washington met in Stillwater Wednesday evening for the first candidates’ forum. In front of a standing-room-only crowd, Bachmann, DFL-endorsed El Tinklenberg and Bob Anderson, the unendorsed Independence Party candidate, sparred mainly over the economy, although energy, the war in Iraq and the Stillwater lift bridge each garnered some attention.

The best line of the night came when Tinklenberg criticized Bachmann on her offshore and ANWR drilling proposals: “The strategy that she has proposed of ‘Drain America First’ is a bad strategy.”

Darryl Dahlheimer, a project manager at Lutheran Social Service financial counseling in Minneapolis, points to the main reason we got into this mess: “We’ve been fetishizing free markets for the last 15 years to the detriment of the consumer and families and stable communities.”

Now consumers are experiencing anger and starting to fight back in the face of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

I’ll file a longer story about this later, but for now…

Michele Bachmann joined guests on her convention-week congressional reception cruise (previous MnIndy story) on the St. Croix River Tuesday afternoon. About two dozen members of Congress and staff, along with Bachmann’s husband Marcus, boarded the Afton Princess for a ride with the [...]

John Jansen is not impressed with either of the major presidential candidates. “It’s a real hard choice,” says Jansen a 63-year-old retired electrician who lives in Pine City. “You’ve got the dumbkopf military clown, McCain. He’s too old.”

That sentiment, coupled with a belief that the No. 1 issue facing the country is providing every American with health insurance, would make Jansen seem like an ideal Barack Obama voter. But he’s actually ruled out voting for the Illinois senator. “Obama is real hard for an individual to vote for,” he says. “Why? Experience and race. I don’t want to sugarcoat it.”