Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Archive for August, 2011


Summary: A new report by the Wartime Contracting Commission estimates that about $60 billion in taxpayer money has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade of war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 31, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.



Summary: With the death of at least 66 American service members in Afghanistan, August 2011 has become the deadliest month yet for U.S. forces in the nearly 10-year-old Afghan war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 30, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided information about gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner’s campaign events at the Minnesota State Fair.



Summary: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed as “cheap shots” the criticism leveled at him and others in former Vice President Dick Cheney’s book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 29, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S., as it began to withdraw from Iraq, was leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds had been wasted — more than 10 percent of the approximately $50 billion the U.S. spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.



Summary: A suicide bomber blew himself up inside Baghdad’s largest Sunni mosque, killing 29 people during prayers, including an Iraqi member of parliament. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 28, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Dan Rassier, a teacher whom police call a “person of interest” in the Jacob Wetterling abduction, was assigned to a different elementary school, provoking an outcry from some parents at his new school. “They’ve brought concerns about placing their children in a potentially dangerous situation,” said Sister Sharon Waldoch, principal of St. Boniface School in Cold Spring, Minn.



Summary: Americans are angry at Congress; according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, approval of Congress has dropped to just 12 percent. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 27, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that a total of 46 students and nine teachers were treated in a Kabul, Afghanistan, hospital after what an official at the education ministry described as “an apparent poisoning” attack by “the enemies of women’s education.” However, the pattern of the reported illness displayed key diagnostic features of a group psychological reaction known as mass hysteria.


Aug 26th, 2011

Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 26, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that insurgents launched more than two dozen attacks across the Iraq, killing at least 56 Iraqis.



Summary: Among Republican presidential candidates, only Rep. Michele Bachmann is given relatively high marks by proponents of limited immigration and enforcing immigration law — though even Bachmann has been relatively muted on the issue of immigration. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 25, 2010, Aubrey Immelman featured a biographical profile of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann by Paul Harris of the London Observer, annotated with sidebars for context and background information.



Summary: Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s entrance into the Republican presidential primary is proving to be a headache for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, whose poll numbers are sagging — even in Iowa, where she won the Ames straw poll. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.



Summary: According to a new Gallup poll, the top four Republican presidential candidates are running neck-and-neck with President Obama in national general election matchups. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Tom Horner for Governor of Minnesota campaign released a TV ad for the general election campaign, titled “Eyeballs.”



Summary: Fuel oil tankers destined for U.S. and allied NATO forces in Afghanistan have been attacked and torched yet again by Islamic militants in Pakistan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 22, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the proposed mosque near the site of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center drew hundreds of demonstrators to Lower Manhattan in New York.