Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
Loading

Featured Posts        



categories        



Links        



archives        



meta        





Summary: Video and photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, released by the FBI at a press briefing held April 18, 2013 at the Sheraton Hotel, 39 Dalton Street, Boston. In attendance were Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Office Richard DesLauriers, United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz, and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force law enforcement partners.


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.


May 3rd, 2010

Summary: U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested Faisal Shahzad, 30, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, in connection with the failed bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square as he tried to leave the country on an Emirates airlines flight to Dubai at New York’s JFK airport, May 3, 2010 at 11:45 p.m. ET. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 3, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the sheer weight and volume of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s assault on reason may have reached critical mass, crossing the tipping point beyond which Minnesota media could no longer tune out Bachmann’s insanity or avert their gaze from “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in embarrassed silence.


May 2nd, 2010

Summary: Police investigating a failed car bomb left in Times Square have videotape of a possible suspect shedding clothing in an alley and putting it in a bag. The surveillance video shows a white man in his 40s taking off one shirt, revealing another underneath. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 2, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that an attacker wearing an Iraqi army uniform shot dead two U.S. soldiers outside the volatile northern city of Mosul, Iraq; provided an update of key facts, figures, and statistics on Iraq since the war began in March 2003; and reported the latest security incidents in Iraq.


May 1st, 2010

Summary: Police found an apparent car bomb in a parked sport utility vehicle in New York City’s Times Square, then evacuated buildings and cleared streets of thousands of tourists. Reuters quoted a New York Fire Department official as saying the vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane tanks, and burned wires. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that three U.S. troops had been killed in fighting west of Baghdad, pushing the U.S. toll for April to 18 — double the number killed in March — and making April the deadliest month thus far in 2009 for American forces in Iraq.


Apr 28th, 2010

Summary: An increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan triggered a sharp rise in the number of civilians killed or wounded there last year, pushing South Asia past the Middle East as the top terror region in the world, according to figures compiled by National Counterterrorism Center. The terror threat to the United States is partly a function of the level of violence worldwide, according to Bernard Finel, senior fellow with the American Security Project. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Staff Sgt. Aaron Larson, who as an 11-year-old boy in St. Joseph was with his best friend Jacob Wetterling when Jacob was kidnapped by a masked gunman on Sunday, Oct. 22, 1989, had returned home to Minnesota after a year-long deployment in Iraq.


Apr 9th, 2010

Summary: The White House is warning that al-Qaida is quietly hunting for an atomic bomb, adding urgency to a historic summit next week where President Barack Obama will try to persuade world leaders to step up efforts to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 9, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact debunked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s claim, in an April 7, 2009 op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, that President Barack Obama’s cap and trade proposal would cost every household in America more than $3,000 in energy costs a year. (Still, I don’t believe it’s good policy, but it’s wrong to go and lie about it.)


Mar 11th, 2010

Summary: Before his recent fall from grace, Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) blasted former Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) for their “dishonest, unpatriotic, hypocritical, and highly personal continuing attacks on President Obama.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 11, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a suicide bomber struck tribal leaders touring a market in a Sunni area west of Baghdad killing as many as 33 people in the second major attack in the capital area in two days and raising fears that Sunni insurgents may be escalating operations even as the U.S. phases out its combat role in Iraq.


Feb 19th, 2010

Summary: A small plane has crashed into a multistory office building in Austin, Texas, causing a fire and sending black smoke billowing from the seven-story structure. The building reportedly houses one or more federal agencies, so the possibility exists that this incident could be an intentional act. (Federal law enforcement officials later identified the man as Joseph Stack, 53, a software engineer with a long-standing grudge against the Internal Revenue Service.) … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 19, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that some Republican politicians were taking credit in their home districts for stimulus money coming their way, even though they voted against it, but that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann went the extra mile by claiming the stimulus bill was nothing but a payoff for those who supported President Barack Obama during his election campaign.


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.