Britt Robson

Judicial candidate Hedlund’s Muslim-related email gaffe is not the first time she has generated public controversy

The biggest gaffe of the local campaign season? Against stiff competition from Michele Bachmann, it may have been Deborah Hedlund hitting “reply all” as the candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court responded last month to an email with the provocative title, “Can Muslims Be Good Americans?”

Hedlund has been no stranger to controversy in her tenure on the bench. Let’s review.

Local economists’ gathering questions bailout, sees dicey state economy in near term

This Tuesday, on a day when the federal government announced it will pump a quarter-trillion dollars into our nation’s banks, four of Minnesota’s most prominent economists were by turns caustic and cautionary in their criticism of the federal response to changing financial markets and to the economic crisis that has spread across the globe over the past few weeks.

Scenes from a protest: On RNC’s last night, a march to nowhere

It all went awry on the lawn of the Capitol. A group numbering somewhere around 1,000 was expecting to depart on the last sanctioned protest march of the week at 5:00, but members of the liaison group Minnesota Peace Team told organizers at the last minute that they would not be allowed to march after all. Police with tear gas at the ready began arriving at the scene. And then, with no announcement, a contingent of the protesters abruptly began marching south toward 12th Street, and practically everyone else in the crowd followed.

The Ron Paul people after Minneapolis: All hepped up with no place to vote

Over the course of some eight hours of speechifying, videos and music at yesterday’s Rally For the Republic at the Target Center, I didn’t hear a single laudatory word uttered by Ron Paul or his supporters regarding the current state of the Republican Party. Considering that Paul garnered more votes than supposed party stalwarts [...]

At Paul rally, Jesse Ventura (you guessed it) hints at presidential run in 2012

In a rousing speech at today’s Ron Paul Rally For The Republic, Jesse Ventura scampered all over the political map, variously declaring “the hell with the Patriot Act!,” engaging in 9/11 conspiracy theories, offering up a staunch defense of the right to bear arms, belittling anti-immigration policies as fear of “brown-skinned people coming across our [...]

Odds and ends from Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic

Some random observations from this afternoon at the Ron Paul counter-convention:
The Target Center is between a third and a half full. One of the volunteers asked another if any more tickets were needed because she still had 15 left. The guy with her smirked and slowly shook his head no.
Grover Norquist (pictured) gave a speech [...]

Buttonholing Mr. Bow Tie: A brief talk with Tucker Carlson at the Ron Paul rally

Pundit-without-portfolio Tucker Carlson was one of the featured speakers at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis today. I caught up with Carlson for a brief conversation about the Paul phenomenon and what had brought him to the gathering.
MnIndy: Obvious first question, who are you voting for?
TC: Oh I don’t know. I don’t have [...]

Chatting with Jesse: At Ron Paul event, Ventura says he’s “the most dangerous man in America”

Jesse Ventura, who is a featured speaker at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic today, just held an impromptu press conference of sorts with half a dozen people, myself included, who gathered round him in the hallway at Target Center. Here’s the transcript.
Q: Tell me what you think about the people who are fired up [...]

Bring back Stepin Fetchit: Katherine Kersten’s non-existent “new black leaders”

Mocking Katherine Kersten has become such a lazy person’s game that you need an extraordinarily silly, high-concept premise to indulge the itch. But today’s column, “New black leaders replacing tired Old Guard and its legacy of failure,” certainly qualifies.
Read the headline again. Now consider that Kersten doesn’t name a single “new black leader.” Not [...]

The concrete bungle: If a half-ton chunk of cement falls from a bridge in St. Paul, does it make a sound at the Capitol?

On Saturday night a 1200-pound piece of concrete fell off the bottom of a Maryland Avenue bridge in St. Paul. On Monday morning, four DFL lawmakers stood before the press and proposed a 10-point package of bridge safety reforms that they say is a first step toward a bill they will introduce during next year’s [...]