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Super Tuesday on the Iron Range
Nothing knocks over a mountain in one night. But when you combine wind and water and the correct amount of time, the mountain is destined to fall. That’s how I feel about the status of my Democratic party this morning. Barack Obama was down by a million a few months ago and now he’s running…
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Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
I’ve already implored everyone to get out to caucuses tonight, so it’s in your hands now. You have a few more hours to vote in the MinnesotaBrown online poll predicting who will win the Minnesota DFL and Republican caucuses tonight. Right now it looks like the consensus is Obama and McCain. We’ll know soon enough.…
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Just when things were looking up …
In class Monday I was telling my students how important it was to get out to the caucuses Tuesday night. I wasn’t pitching for my candidate, just telling them that they should go to the party caucus of their choice to have a say in who the major party presidential nominees would be in this…
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Vote straight-ticket ‘Gangsta’ in ’08
This clip shows everything that is great and everything that is wrong with politics and the media in the United States of 2008. 1) A thousand-year-old white man can relate to a Gangsta rapper on a mainstream news network, and 2) their conversation is vastly more substantive than most of what you hear elsewhere. Vote…
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Hawaiian Congressman to appear at Tom and Jerry’s today
It’s not often I get to write a headline like that. An update and clarification about U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s (D-Hawaii) visit to the Iron Range to stump for Barack Obama. He will be at Tom and Jerry’s bar in Chisholm at 3 p.m., not at the college as was originally planned. I think this…
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Mesabi Daily News story about Obama’s Range endorsements
Here’s a Mesabi Daily News story about the Iron Range Obama Committee press conference last weekend: Range group backs ObamaBy Charles RamsayCHISHOLM — An area group has stepped up with backing for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, as the Iron Range Leadership Committee voiced its support for the Illinois senator before Minnesota’s Tuesday caucus. Heading…
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Super Tuesday eve
Across the country, people will go to primaries and caucuses tomorrow to make a statement. We will probably know the name of the next Republican nominee for President tomorrow night and we’ll know a lot more about the state of the Democratic race. Regular readers know I’m pretty fond of Barack Obama and, to a…
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Obama tied for national lead; in strangely related story Hawaiian Congressman to visit Range
As the weekend comes to a close, I am about to start drinking beer and/or watching the Super Bowl while temporarily purging my mind of politics. But before then, some notes. According to PoliticalWire, Gallup has Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a statistical tie in a national poll. State polls show a tight race…
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Iron Range stands at modern crossroads
This is my weekly column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune published Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008. Iron Range stands at modern crossroadsBy Aaron J. BrownModern life hums with information and responsibilities, sometimes real and sometimes imagined. Every day I update the blog, prepare classes, and blaze a trail through the woods while connected wirelessly to the…
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U.S. Steel is officially rolling in its 5.0, with its ragtop down so its hair can blow
It’s official. U.S. Steel will invest $300 million into Keewatin Taconite, increasing taconite pellet production by more than 3.5 million. The whole project will take three years to fully implement. This also makes U.S. the big daddy steel company on the Iron Range as they now own the top two taconite operations here. PRESS RELEASEOberstar…
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Endorsements breaking for Obama
I just got word that two prominent Edwards supporters are joining the Barack Obama camp on the Iron Range. Minnesota House Majority Leader Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) and U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (also DFL-Chisholm) will endorse Obama today. Who else is on board? I only know of Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam) who endorsed Obama last…
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Franken vs. Coleman comes to the Range
This e-mail I got from the Franken for Senate campaign shows an interesting window into how both Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman plan to operate on the Iron Range. Norm will try to tell us that if we vote for him he’ll open a box of butterflies and each butterfly will glow with a…
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Where do the Edwards folks go?
The Duluth News-Tribune has an interesting Associated Press story about John Edwards supporters in Minnesota. Interesting to me is that House Majority Leader and Iron Range State Rep. Tony Sertich is holding off on picking between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I think his endorsement will carry a lot of weight on the Range, especially…
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Edwards to drop out, Range votes up for grabs
An update: The AP reports that John Edwards will drop his presidential bid today. The mad scramble is on to win over his supporters. Here on the Iron Range, many prominent Democrats who were supporting Edwards now hold a lot of influence over the Obama/Clinton race in Minnesota. I think this might turn Feb. 5…
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Pipeline? You wish.
So yesterday Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Energy Project got into another news cycle with their environmental hearing regarding the pipeline for their proposed coal gas plant near Taconite. This was a hearing about just the pipeline, which is step 18 of a 50-step process that will never get past the first step of getting the money…