Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Mar 28th, 2010

Summary: “Welcome Home” event for the Minnesota National Guard 34th Infantry Division Red Bulls and other Central Minnesota military veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), organized by the St. Cloud Times and St. Cloud-area civic organizations and businesses. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured a compilation of reports regarding U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s conspiracy theory that the United States would soon be moving to “give up the dollar as our currency and we would just go with a One World currency,” which would mean the U.S. as a country would be “no more.” (Bachmann grabbed the mythical ball and ran with it after China’s central bank governor suggested replacing the weakening dollar as the world’s reserve currency.)


Mar 24th, 2010

Summary: St. Cloud Times political reporter Mark Sommerhauser has done what good reporters are supposed to: fact-check the public assertions of elected officials — and his preliminary finding is that “independent experts … are disputing [Michele] Bachmann’s abortion claims.” There’s much in the new health care legislation that’s fair game for legitimate criticism. But to shamelessly and dishonestly scare constituents who care about protecting life with baseless fearmongering is not only indefensible; it’s irresponsible and a dereliction of duty. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 24, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann said she wanted people in Minnesota “armed and dangerous” on the issue of an energy tax, “because we need to fight back” and “having a revolution every now and then is a good thing.”


Mar 1st, 2010

Summary: On yet another of her many out-of-state political appearances, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) spoke to Hamilton County Republicans in Cincinnati, Ohio. Media reporting with added background context. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Salem-News.com published a commentary on Rep. Michele Bachmann by Dorsett Bennett, a self-described “Independent/Libertarian.” “There’s no point in trying to fact-check such unhinged stupidity,” writes Bennett, “but I should note that none of this is in any way grounded in reality. I should also note that we’re not talking about some strange nut screaming on a street corner; this is all coming from an elected member of Congress.”


Dec 22nd, 2009

Summary: The 2010 election cycle’s first poll in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District race for U.S. Representative has been released. The survey, conducted December 17-20, 2009, shows 53% of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s constituents approve of the job she is doing. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 22, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that the brother of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, claimed al-Zeidi’s apology letter was written against his will after he was tortured in detention. The shoe-throwing incident received worldwide media coverage and al-Zeidi became a potent symbol for opponents of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.


Nov 23rd, 2009

Summary: After leading the charge in Minnesota earlier this year to set a new standard for calling U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann out for her radical extremism, the St. Cloud Times on Sunday backslid into the longstanding pattern of Minnesota media to gloss over or simply fail to report the full extent of Bachmann’s political paranoia and extremism. … Text of interview, annotated and supplemented by critical content missing from the St. Cloud Times fluff-piece. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 23, 2008, Aubrey Immelman took a break from reporting on events relevant to his campaign issues and filed no report.


Nov 12th, 2009

Summary: U.S. Rep. Steve Israel has called on U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to apologize for Holocaust imagery displayed at a rally organized by Bachmann at the U.S. Capitol on November 5, 2009 to protest health care reform. … Photos and video from Bachmann’s “House Call on Congress” protest rally. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 12, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the pendulum in Mosul, Iraq, had swung several times between stark violence and fragile security and that the future of Mosul hung in the balance. Immelman also reported that Taliban fighters had hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.


Nov 7th, 2009

Summary: News and information about the disappearance and search for Joshua Guimond, missing November 10, 2002 from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 7, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican senator from Rhode Island who endorsed Barack Obama for president, predicted a bloody struggle for the soul of the GOP. The election results demonstrated that the party had hit rock bottom, Chafee said, but he feared that socially conservative party activists — “the Rush Limbaughs, the Bill O’Reillys, the Sean Hannitys” — were incapable of changing course.


Oct 22nd, 2009

Summary: October 22, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction in St. Joseph, Minn. Jacob has never been found and his disappearance remains unsolved. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the fourth day of his write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman thanked supporters for their messages of encouragement and online contributions and published excerpts from Eric Zaetsch’s “Developers are Crabgrass” blog entry for Oct. 20, 2008, regarding his write-in candidacy.


Sep 24th, 2009

Summary: Media reports of former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel’s Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 15th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on the downing of a U.S. drone amid strains between the United States and Pakistan over cross-border incursions; the attempted assassination of the Kabul police’s head of criminal investigations in Afghanistan; and security incidents and U.S. casualties in Iraq.


Sep 23rd, 2009

Summary: Former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Distinguished Professor in the Practice of National Governance at Georgetown University, will deliver the Third Annual Eugene McCarthy Lecture on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater on the campus of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 14th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on security incidents and U.S. military deaths in Iraq, a bombing in Afghanistan, and violence in Pakistan.