Author: Rich Goldsmith

  • Country, and Republicans, First

    It was Day 2 of the Republican National Convention and The Rake was seated proudly in the "minor local media" section. With CityPages at our side, God as our witness and no actual view of the stage, the event was underway. It was quickly apparent that, in solidarity with the folks displaced by Hurricane Gustav,…

  • Downtown Militarized Zone

    Photos by India Bell Hard to believe that as recently as Sunday, downtown Saint Paul was a bucolic paradise ringed in chain link, the peace kept by strapping young men with plastic handcuffs. Sadly, the photos below didn’t jibe with the reality of yesterday’s protests. While Minnesota’s, and the nation’s, eyes should’ve been turned to…

  • A Pair of Jedi Masters Become One With the Force

    "I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced." Obi-Wan might as well have been talking about last night’s call by Hillary Clinton to nominate Barack Obama by acclamation. Even as cheers rang throughout the assembled DNC crowd, through the MPR broadcast…

  • Eight Crazy Nights: A Political Miniseries

    Save for the lack of scheduled appearances by Valerie Bertinelli, Tiffani Thiessen or Jennie Garth, over the course of the next two weeks America will be treated to two of the best-funded Lifetime miniseries of all time. Featuring exotic settings; heroes and villains a-plenty; a family dynasty forever shattered; and production values that would shame…

  • A Complex Calculus: Boone's = Booty

    It’s all too rare that college presidents, a group often collectively known as "The Man," are celebrated on college campuses. But today, MPR’s college audience raised bottles of Boone’s and boxes of refreshing Franzia in a toast to the 114 college presidents, including Minnesota’s own Jack Ohle – president of Gustavus Adolphus, who signed on…

  • Taking On the Divine Right

    District 6 is a bizarre creature. Stretching in a "C" around the metro area from Stillwater all the way to St. Cloud, the district encompasses a huge range of incomes, lifestyles, political philosophies, albeit a rather narrow range of races – remaining 95 percent white according to census data. One might assume this variety would…