Politics

Approximately 200 concert-goers from last night’s Rage Against the Machine concert at the Target Center organized themselves into a march down 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis, in defiance of Minneapolis Police. The march ended at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street when riot and bicycle police corralled around 50 marchers onto the curb and made arrests. Minnesota Public Radio reported that 102 total arrests were made in Minneapolis last night, at multiple locations. MORE »

Everyone who has watched Sarah Palin up close, friend or foe, attests to what a quick study she is, so it’s no surprise that she read the speech handed to her with verve and moxie. Her performance last night was light years ahead of the one she delivered last week in Dayton, and the aplomb with which she donned her new suit of clothes fulfilled the rags to riches, Pretty Woman-for-Christians mythos that’s been bubbling up between the lines since Friday. In the scant few days since McCain tapped her and then disappeared her, Palin has let her hair down in more ways than one. She has learned to say “nuclear”–in Dayton on Friday, it was “nukular,” a la George W.–even if, as Josh Marshall pointed out, it took a phonetic prompt in her speech text to ensure she got it right. MORE »

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. MORE »

Let’s put things in perspective: The United States faces many problems that threaten our way of life, our standing in the world, and the planet itself: two wars, a recession, an energy quagmire, an overheated planet, a health care crisis, unlawful immigration, and a loss of respect around the world. MORE »