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Al Gore. Photo: Troy Hooper

Al Gore calls B.S. on corporate polluters

Al Gore 80
By Troy Hooper | 08.07.11 | 2:00 pm

“They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: ‘This climate thing, it’s nonsense,’” an impassioned Al Gore told attendees at the Aspen Institute Thursday. “Bullshit! ‘It may be sun spots.’ Bullshit! ‘It’s not getting warmer.’ Bullshit!”

Coleman, sore loser or artful politician?

By Paul Schmelzer | 06.22.09 | 1:01 pm

Norm Coleman was compared — unfavorably, as I read it — to Richard Nixon in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. Reporter Matt Bai writes that when Nixon foresaw a trouncing in 1960 he “exited quickly to begin plotting…

Freed Fargo reporter honored as two others face 12 years in Korean labor camp

By Paul Schmelzer | 06.08.09 | 4:55 pm

picture-61As Fargo-born reporter Roxana Saberi — freed last month from an Iranian jail — receives the Medill Medal for Courage from Northwestern University, a pair of

Coleman lawyer in ’06: GOP not into ‘whole notion of equal protection’

By Chris Steller | 04.21.09 | 11:57 am

Republican attorney Ben Ginsberg is helping usher Norm Coleman’s equal-protection claims to a high court (Minnesota’s), just as he did with another client, George W. Bush, and another high court (the United States’) eight years ago. Indeed, Coleman’s yet-to-be submitted brief is expected to cite Bush vs. Gore, as have his earlier briefs presented (unsuccessfully) to the state Supreme Court and the election-contest court. Maybe there’s a reason for that. In 2006, Ginsberg admitted to a law school audience:

Just like, really, with the Voting Rights Act, Republicans have some fundamental philosophical difficulties with the whole notion of Equal Protection.

Norm Loserman? Media lets Coleman, unlike Gore, avoid “sore loser” tag

By Chris Steller | 03.31.09 | 12:07 pm

norm-losermanWhen the press won’t call Norm Coleman a sore loser for prolonging Minnesota’s Senate dispute, it’s not just a matter of sticks and stones, Eric Boehlert argues at Media Matters. It’s prolonging the state’s political agony by relieving pressure…

Mere speculation: Did Franken go to D.C. to vote on Lieberman?

By Chris Steller | 11.18.08 | 12:37 pm

Al Franken is in Washington, D.C., today. Why? To meet with Democratic Party leaders, goes the official explanation. But why now, just as the U.S. Senate recount on which his political fate rests is getting under way?
Granted, Franken’s…

Obama campaign to supporters: Don’t get cocky

By Paul Schmelzer | 10.28.08 | 11:41 am

With seven days to go, polls still looking good for Barack Obama, and early-vote returns coming in briskly for the Democratic candidate, the Obama campaign is warning against overconfidence. A new viral video asks…