The lawsuit describes Andy as taking “a ‘special interest’ in Plaintiffs Dean and YCR because he is a secularist and/or atheist and gay activist with a politically left ideology who despises people of faith.” However, Andy’s award-winning coverage of YCR has received wide praise, including the Society of Professional Journalist’s (SPJ) first prize for Best Continuing Coverage. SPJ stated that Andy took “an even-handed approach into a weighty subject sure to provoke controversy from various standpoints.” We read your comments, tweets, Facebook messages, and emails and know you agree that Andy’s coverage, along with the rest of the reporting by The American Independent News Network, is excellent. You can help ensure that our work continues by making a donation today to support The American Independent News Network and our Legal Defense Fund.

Make no mistake: This suit is a direct attack not only on us but on the very idea of a free and independent press, as well as an attempt to silence journalists like Andy who expose the views of people like Bradlee Dean.  In short, this is a frivolous and blatant attempt to chill free speech. They think that because we are a small, non-profit organization we will be forced to back down; they think by threatening us with a lawsuit, we will stop. They are wrong. We stand behind Andy and our coverage completely, and know you do too.

The American Independent News Network fully intends to fight this suit and to continue our reporting.  You can help us do both by making a donation to our Legal Defense Fund today.

By making a donation you are helping to provide us with the resources to withstand such challenges and to continue our work of advancing and protecting the common good.  Your donation can help take a stand for freedom of the press and against the suppression of dissent through dubious legal means.

Hanaa Rifaey is the publisher of The American Independent News Network.

Dean, of the ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR), claims that reporting on his May 15, 2010, radio show “maliciously set out to and did harm not only the Plaintiffs but by extension also the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.”

In the article, Minnesota Independent ran a video with the audio of Dean’s statements, as well as a transcription.

“Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,” Dean said on YCR’s May 15 radio show on AM 1280 The Patriot. “This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.”

“If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that,” Dean continued. “That is what you are seeing in America.

“The bottom line is this … they [homosexuals] play the victim when they are, in fact, the predator,” Dean said, before going on to make a claim that has no basis in fact: “On average, they molest 117 people before they’re found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?”

On June 4, 2010, the Minnesota Independent published a follow-up article to the one referenced above, in which Dean said he does not support executing homosexuals. Dean specified that he may not have been clear, then continued:

For example, we have specifically rejected, as all Christians do, the Islamic doctrine, and actual practice, of executing homosexuals. But some have claimed, in effect, that by merely mentioning the execution of homosexuals (as a criminal practice of Islam), on our radio broadcast, we have suggested it for consideration. Obviously this is absurd. The whole point was to contrast the Islamic position with the Christian position. This may not have been as clear as we would have otherwise planned it to be. Live radio is not scripted. But everyone who knows us knows that this is our position because we have stated it consistently for years – long before we ever discussed the topic on the radio. There are board members, and other supporters who can vouch for this. We have never and will never call for the execution of homosexuals. This is a complete misinterpretation by design.

The lawsuit further contends that Rachel Maddow, MSNBC and NBC “disparaged” Dean in Maddow’s segment on the reporting from the Minnesota Independent, alleging that Maddow, too, had an agenda in covering Dean.

The American Independent News Network released the following statement in regards to the Dean press conference in New York City Wednesday morning:

The allegations by Bradlee Dean and You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR) are completely without merit. The American Independent News Network stands firmly behind our news site, The Minnesota Independent; our reporter, Andy Birkey; as well as their reporting on Dean and his ministry. The complaint describes Birkey as taking “a ‘special interest’ in Plaintiffs Dean and YCR because he is a secularist and/or atheist and gay activist with a politically left ideology who despises people of faith.” However, in giving Birkey and The Minnesota Independent first prize for Best Continuing Coverage of their reporting on YCR, the 2010 judges for the Minnesota Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist’s Page One Awards stated, “the reporter [Birkey] takes a deep-dive with an even-handed approach into a weighty subject sure to provoke controversy from various standpoints. Leads readers to think about serious public policy and constitutional issues.”

We are confident that the courts will agree that this lawsuit is completely frivolous and is a blatant attempt to chill freedom of the press.

MSNBC’s statement regarding the lawsuit:

This suit is baseless and we stand by our reporting.

The reporter will help in coverage of the Minnesota Legislature, Minnesota aspects of the 2012 presidential race, local and statewide politics and policy, and a range of other issues important to Minnesotans.

The successful candidate will be a prolific, versatile, tenacious writer who can bring enthusiasm to beat reporting and regularly put together aggressive investigative pieces that focus on accountability in the public realm.

The individual will work with MnIndy Editor Paul Schmelzer in coordination with The American Independent News Network’s (AINN) national editorial staff.

The role’s key criteria for success is generating “impact journalism,” with reporting that demonstrably affects the public debate and advances the common good. MnIndy’ s staff achieves this goal through a combination of aggressive reporting and tenacious, insightful blogging.

Responsibilities include:

• Report and post throughout each weekday, filing the equivalent of 10 stories per week — a minimum of one of which is a feature-length piece.
• Break stories that frequently achieve demonstrable impact, creating tangible effects and changes for the common good.
• Be an active user of Facebook, Twitter and other social media to promote your own pieces and to engage the political blogosphere.
• Participate in all site-wide meetings and daily updates with editor.
• Work with MnIndy and AINN’ s outreach team to help promote your work and the site as needed.
• Adhere to the program’s journalistic code of ethics.

Preferred candidates will have experience in political reporting plus blogging and/or online journalism and will be intimately familiar with Minnesota politics.

To apply send a résumé, a one-page cover letter and three recent clips to paul@tainews.org.

Overview

The Minnesota Independent is a nonprofit, nonpartisan online news site, providing daily original investigative reporting and analysis of state and local issues. Its writers have won numerous awards, including Society of Professional Journalists Page One Awards and the University of Minnesota School of Journalism’s Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism Award.

An American Independent News Network site, it investigates and disseminates news that impacts public debate and advances the common good. The American Independent News Network operates a nonprofit, nonpartisan network of online news sites: The American Independent, The Colorado Independent, The Florida Independent, The Iowa Independent, The Michigan Messenger, The Minnesota Independent, The New Mexico Independent, The North Carolina Independent News, The Texas Independent and The Washington Independent.

The Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage launched a new television ad this week in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. It’s the fourth foray into political advertising for the socially conservative groups this cycle and the second television ad. The ad uses footage of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and says that Emmer is the only candidate that supports putting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the ballot.

“It is important that the citizens of Minnesota know that both Mark Dayton and Tom Horner support imposing gay ‘marriage’ on Minnesotans without a vote of the people,” Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council said in a press release about the ad. “Only Tom Emmer has publicly supported traditional marriage and the right of the people to vote on this important issue. That’s what this ad communicates.”

“The right to vote: our most important civil right,” the ad’s narrator croons over footage from the civil rights movement, before launching into an attack against Tom Emmer’s opponents for apparently deferring to the courts on the issue of gay marriage. Even if you set aside the strangeness of equating the civil rights movement with denying rights to gays and lesbians, haven’t these folks ever heard of Brown v. Board of Education?

You can find the full ad here.

Allen Quist, a Republican who is seeking to defeat Rep. Tim Walz in southern Minnesota’s First Congressional District, told attendees of the Wabasha County Republicans Christmas Party in mid-December that beating the “radical” liberals in Washington, D.C., is a bigger battle than beating terrorism.

“Our country is being destroyed. Every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom… Terrorism? Yes. That’s not the big battle,” he said. “The big battle is in D.C. with the radicals. They aren’t liberals. They are radicals. Obama, Pelosi, Walz: They’re not liberals, they’re radicals. They are destroying our country.”

From The Minnesota Independent:

[O]rganizers of the National Tea Party Convention tweeted that Bachmann would be a speaker at the Feb. 4–6 event in Nashville. Palin keynotes the convention, which is “aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements’ multiple organizations principle goals.”

The Nashville Post reports that Palin’s keynote address will be closed to the press.

Tickets for the convention are available for the bargain price of $549. The fine people at the Opryland inform me that the ticket does not include the price of the hotel, where a three-night package starts at $436.99. You’d better book soon, because the Opryland reservations agent told me that just 160 of the hotel’s 2,881 rooms remain available as of this morning.

From The Minnesota Independent:

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Hirschmann has said, “Obama, like Hitler, is ‘a charismatic leader who promises full pocketbooks.’ Obama’s pro-choice stands, she writes, resembles those of Hitler, who ‘brought abortion to a systematic level and declared the killing of unborn babies a national duty.’”

Hirschmann also told the Gazette, “He could pave the way for a future Antichrist. Obama scares me because he has no record and people flock to him. Hitler also had no record, people flocked to him and both wrote a book. Christians laid flat and Hitler came to power, just like with Obama.”

Tickets for the fundraiser are $75 in advance, $100 at the door.

Also of note, CCHC warns that “Genetic testing could be used for purposes found immoral in the Hippocratic medical tradition” on the front page of its Website.

Here’s video of Bachmann encouraging supporters to attend the CCHC dinner:

And here’s a promotional flyer:

The Same Day Registration Act would let people register at the polling place on Election Day rather than requiring registration weeks or months ahead of time, as most states do.

Same-day registration is already law in seven states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, plus the District of Columbia. Common Cause claims those states see voter-turnout rates as much as 7 percent higher than others. North Dakota is the only state to do without voter registration altogether.

In a statement, Ellison outlined the advantage of such a system:

Minnesota routinely leads the nation in voter turnout – usually over 70 percent. … Enacting a National Election Day Registration law would do for the nation what same day registration has done for our State – give a voice to all who want to vote.

A Caltech/MIT study (pdf) published earlier this year shot down the two biggest criticisms of same-day voter registration — the potential for fraud and additional costs imposed on local election administrators.

[I]n the six states that currently use election day registration, there is not an unusually high number of cases of voting fraud.  In particular, we have interviewed local election officials in Minnesota and Wisconsin, especially in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Milwaukee areas, and have found only a handful of cases of fraud involving a very small number of votes over the last decade. This in our opinion is due not to the unique political cultures of these six states, but instead to the fact that these states have made substantial investments in minimizing the risks  associated with election day registration. [...]

We have been able to find no evidence that election jurisdictions that have election day registration have significantly higher costs per vote, so it is not clear that election day registration is necessarily more costly.  Rather, election day registration simply moves much of the pre-election burden of registration tasks to the post-election period; that is, rather than having to expend resources in the registration period before the election to update databases, most of this work can occur after the election.

Of course, the study also found that same-day registration could increase turnout among certain demographics, especially the young and minorities — which tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Smart money says Republicans will find some reason to oppose it.

From The Minnesota Independent:

“Steve King is mentioned as a potential nominee,” Bachmann said. “I have a very high opinion of Steve King and his ability, so I would encourage him to consider any position for higher office.”

Like Bachmann, King is a very conservative Christian known for stirring controversy with his public statements. He made waves this summer when he opposed a resolution recognizing the role slaves played in building the U.S. Capitol and called hate-crimes legislation “the Pedophile Protection Act.” Our sister site, the Iowa Independent, has continuing coverage of Bachmann’s kindred spirit to the south.

Paul Schmelzer of The Minnesota Independent (which currently ranks No. 29 among U.S. Politics Blogs) explains the rankings, which are designed to be more fluid than in the past:

According to the Personal Democracy Forum, Technorati — a blog search engine which keeps running measurements of the blogosphere — has switched to a new algorithm that takes a more immediate snapshot of a blog’s authority (authority is “based on a site’s linking behavior, categorization and other associated data over a short, finite period of time”). So, instead of generating its rankings based on six months worth of metrics, as it used to, it’ll look only at the past month — which means rankings in the top 100 can change somewhat radically. On Wednesday, the company’s blog explained:

“With the new algorithm, the resulting Authority will better reflect the fast-changing nature of the blogosphere. Its new inherent volatility will also show which blogs are rising and falling in authority, rewarding authors on posting frequency, context and linking behavior, as well as other data inputs.”

Also making Technorati’s list of top U.S. Politics News Sites: TWI’s sister site, The Colorado Independent, at No. 17. The New Mexico Independent ranks No. 87 among U.S. Politics Blogs.