Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Aug 6th, 2010

Summary: NBC Dateline devoted a full hour to the murder mystery of Chris Jenkins, the University of Minnesota student who went missing in downtown Minneapolis on Halloween night, 2002. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 6, 2009 Aubrey Immelman featured a video montage of the bizarre Rep. Michele Bachmann’s more memorable televised statements of the past year, set to the soundtrack of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley.


Aug 5th, 2010

Summary: Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has overturned California’s gay marriage ban in a strongly worded ruling that could eventually force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 5, 2009 Aubrey Immelman described the difficult challenges of mobilizing a cross-partisan majority in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District to defeat U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (who does not have majority support in her district), in the 2010 Minnesota state primary election.


Jul 24th, 2010

Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann says if Republicans win control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm election, “all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another” to “expose all the nonsense that is going on.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 24, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that the National Republican Congressional Committee had added U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to its list of most vulnerable incumbents for 2010 in the NRCC’s “Patriot Program,” while the Swing State Project rated Bachmann as being in “real danger” of losing her seat in the next election. He also noted that a survey of 25 nations conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in spring 2009 found that positive public attitudes toward the United States had surged in many parts of the world since President Barack Obama’s election, to levels not seen since before President George W. Bush took office in 2001.


Jul 19th, 2010

Summary: It’s been a good week for Independent Tom Horner’s campaign for governor of Minnesota. Not only did Horner meet his July 19 fundraising goal to qualify for public campaign funds, he also attracted favorable media attention highlighting the fact that he can win in November. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 19, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that the Pentagon had identified the captured American soldier who went missing from his forward operating base in Afghanistan as Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, Ketchum, Idaho, a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.


Jul 16th, 2010

Summary: Reader comment removed from St. Cloud Times’ online commentary on pro-Bachmann letter to the editor for “violating the terms of service.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 16, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann, in addition to three likely Democratic opponents (Elwyn Tinklenberg, Maureen Reed, and Tarryl Clark), also faced a battle on a second front — a potential primary challenge from within the Republican Party.


Jul 15th, 2010

Summary: Two years ago today, I launched my campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 15, 2009 Aubrey Immelman noted that one year had passed since he launched his campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.


Jul 3rd, 2010

Summary: On Friday, July 2, 2010 Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner described 54-year-old music teacher Dan Rassier as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling at the end of the Rassier driveway on the evening of Oct. 22, 1989. Aubrey Immelman discusses aspects of criminal motive and the likely offender profile, noting the need for a linkage analyis involving the unsolved kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared S. in Cold Spring and the unexplained disappearance of Joshua Guimond from the campus of St. John’s University. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 3, 2009 Aubrey Immelman, on the occasion of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation from office, featured his research on Palin’s personal psychology, conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.


Jul 1st, 2010

Summary: On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 — more than 20 years after Jacob Wetterling’s abduction on Oct. 22, 1989 — law enforcement converged on the farmstead on the outskirts of St. Joseph, Minn., where a masked man took Jacob at gunpoint at the approach to the driveway of 29748 91st Ave, home Robert and Rita Rassier and their son Daniel Rassier. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 1, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Truth-O-Meter rated Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “ridiculously false statement” that the Constitution only requires people to tell the Census Bureau how many individuals are in their home as [Liar, Liar] Pants on Fire.


Jun 19th, 2010

Summary: Father’s Day weekend camping/fishing trip to Father Hennepin State Park, Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 19, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that residents of Tehran, in open defiance of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, climbed to their rooftops and shouted “God is great!” and “Death to the dictator!” in protest to the June 12, 2009 presidential election they believed was rigged in favor of hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


Jun 16th, 2010

Summary: The growing fear among some citizens of losing their rights and freedoms has created a political backlash toward the U.S. government and manifested itself in violent rhetoric and anti-government groups who want to “take their country back.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews takes a hard look at the recent surge of anger on the political right in “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews.” In this blog entry, Aubrey Immelman chronicles the rise of rightwing extremism in America following the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States in November 2008. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 16, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea threatened a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” if provoked by the U.S., but that U.S. officials were downplaying any imminent threat to the United States of a North Korean missile strike or confrontation between the two countries at sea.