Summary: Tea Party-backed candidates helped and hindered Republicans in the 2010 midterm election, injecting enthusiasm into campaigns but losing Senate seats held by Democrats in Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada that the GOP once had big hopes of capturing. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 7, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured the latest news and information about the disappearance of missing Maple Lake, Minn., student Joshua Guimond.
Summary: The Yemeni branch of al-Qaida, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has claimed responsibility for the two mail bombs sent from Yemen last week and for the downing of a cargo plane in Dubai in September. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 6, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that two U.S. soldiers transporting supplies in Afghanistan were swept away by a river in Badghis province while trying to save two boxes that had fallen into the water while being airdropped during a resupply mission, and that the Taliban said they were holding their bodies.
Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 5, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, due for deployment to Iraq, went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 30.
Summary: On Election Day 2010 Tom Horner — the best candidate in the race and the steady hand on the helm Minnesota needs in these challenging economic times — came up short in his bid for governor. In our polarized political environment the Democratic and Republican nominees were so far-left and far-right that the majority of independents voted their fears — for the “lesser of two evils” rather than casting a ballot for the candidate of their choice. In a civil society, we respect the voters’ choice and think forward to new possibilities to make things right. Against that background, Tom Horner looks to the future. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 4, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured a New York Times report that made the point that Republican victories in the 2009 New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections “put the party in a stronger position to turn back the political wave President Obama unleashed last year, setting the stage for Republicans to raise money, recruit candidates and ride the excitement of an energized base as the party heads into [the 2010] midterm elections.”
Summary: The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, has threatened more attacks on Christians after a siege on a Baghdad Catholic church left 68 people dead. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 3, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Summary: Sixteen bombs went off in at least 10 neighborhoods across Iraq’s capital of Baghdad, many at restaurants and coffee shops full of civilians. The death toll climbed to 76 in the first hours following the blasts, with nearly 300 wounded. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 2, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that of the 364 Iraqis killed in October 2009, 155 died in two nearly simultaneous bombs targeting government buildings on Oct. 25, 2009 in downtown Baghdad — the worst attack in more than two years. Meanwhile, there were more Taliban bombings in retaliation as Pakistan continued its offensive in South Waziristan, a tribal region adjoining Afghanistan, where al-Qaida terrorists are believed to have hideouts.
Summary: For Michele Bachmann to criticize Barack Obama for attending the church of the “anti-American” Rev. Jeremiah Wright is rank hypocrisy, considering that for many years she’s been sitting in the pews of a church that professes that the Pope is the anti-Christ. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann, calling on supporters to descend on Washington to protest health care reform, resurrected “the Ghost of Political Stunts Past” and noted that Bachmann pulled similar publicity stunts five years earlier while crusading in the Minnesota state Senate for a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.
Summary: At least 58 Iraqi Catholics died and more than 70 were wounded when police stormed a Baghdad church where gunmen were holding dozens of parishioners hostage, threatening to kill them if al-Qaida-prisoners were not released. Since the war began, Iraq has lost half of its 1.5 million Christians. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 31, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Microsoft Network (MSN.com), promoting its new Bing! search engine, featured a demo search of “angry Americans.” It caught my attention, because history has shown that times of economic uncertainty — as we’re currently experiencing while bogged down in two wars in the aftermath of 9/11 — can be a fertile breeding ground for extremist ideologies, as we saw in Germany during the Great Depression following a humiliating defeat in World War I.
Summary: Investigators believe the same al-Qaida-affiliated group responsible for the Christmas Day underwear bomb were behind the PETN-based devices hidden in packages sent from Yemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 30, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her first official visit to Pakistan, faced sharp rebukes from Pakistani audiences brimming with resentment toward U.S. foreign policy, including one woman who accused the U.S. of conducting “executions without trial” in aerial drone strikes, equating it to terrorism.
Summary: Election Day 2010 will test the mettle of every Minnesotan tired of business as usual: Will we have the courage of our conviction to vote for the moderate in the middle, or will we fall back into the tired old pattern of voting our fear by casting a ballot for “the lesser of two evils” on the far left or the extreme right? Vote Tom Horner for Governor of Minnesota. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 29, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the New York Times published a poorly researched, superficial, misleading, mostly puff piece on U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, titled “A G.O.P. agitator not named Palin.”