Conservative Project Veritas auteur James O’Keefe, last seen upsetting deceased veterans’ widows, has published a new undercover “investigation” that he claims shows “the ease in which individuals may register to vote for themselves or others without identification requirements of any kind” in Minnesota. Progressive blogger Brad Friedman explains why, even if true, it hardly matters. Mediaite explains that it isn’t even true.

Sweater vest fever is sweeping across the Midwest! Rick Santorum has picked up 2 out of 3 states on Tuesday night. CNN has projected Rick Santorum has won Missouri and the winner in Minnesota as well. Colorado, at the moment, is still undecided.

Earlier this year, Senator Amy Koch was one of the many Republicans campaigning for a Constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage so as to protect the holy sanctity of marriage. This week, Koch apologized for cheating on her husband. There is clearly only one possible explanation; that all those marrying gays ruined Koch’s marriage. What jerks. Fortunately the gay community of Minnesota has been thoughtful enough to apologize.

An infuriated Jesse Ventura took the podium at a press conference in Minnesota yesterday after being told that the court in which he filed a lawsuit against the TSA for what he considers an unreasonable search and seizure process did not have jurisdiction over the matter. Railing against the “Fascist States of America,” the former Minnesota governor insisted he will “never stand for a national anthem again” and vowed to apply for Mexican citizenship. Ventura also noted he was “thinking about” running for President.

Tim Pawlenty as 2011 has come to know him is a pretty even-tempered guy: that is to say, about as milquetoast as they come. But he has shown a sense of humor, drawling out Tiger Woods jokes and enthusiastically (well, enthusiastically for Tim Pawlenty) gushing about Lady Gaga‘s oeuvre. Perhaps the national spotlight has kept his sense of humor in check, or the heightened sensory ability of the 24/7, Twitter-driven news cycle to catch off-color jokes has warded him off them, because he was delivering punchline after awkward punchline to Hannity & Colmes in 2008.

Rep. Michele Bachmann is facing the beginnings of what may be the defining scandal of her campaign as more information comes to the fore on her husband’s mental health clinic, which patients therein are now claiming engages in “gay reparative therapy,” a discredited method by which some believe homosexuality can be “cured” away. Tonight, Ed Schultz spoke to an activist that went undercover and asked for the therapy at the clinic, and he classified what he received as “dangerously archaic.”

The small Minnesota town of Tenney, made up of three people (the butcher mayor, the baker city clerk, and the candlestick maker city clerk’s sister), voted to dissolve their town and merge it with nearby Campbell Township.

Given his many years working at Fox News, it may neither be the first nor last time Alan Colmes faces a conversion effort, though this may be the most high-profile. At an Right Online event on Friday, Andrew Breitbart read a supportive email from Colmes to the audience he was speaking with, and added that he would convert the world to conservatism “one Alan Colmes at a time.” On his blog today, Colmes replied graciously, though seems to have been scared off by angry commenters.

It’s official: the anti-Republican presidential glitter protest has now become a national epidemic. After a speech during today’s Right Online conference in Minnesota, a lone protester approached the stage from which Rep. Michele Bachmann was descending and shouted “you can run, but you can’t hide!” at the Republican presidential candidate while tossing some sort of paper in her general direction. It was, to say the least, anticlimactic.

After rolling out his campaign infrastructure with an elaborate video and a gaffe or two, Tim Pawlenty is going negative, mildly, and with polls showing almost anyone but Pawlenty is a viable Republican candidate, it may not be a terrible idea. Pawlenty ended the week attacking President Obama for his European trip on Twitter and even turning on potential candidate Sarah Palin.

In the Minnesota House Friday morning, an anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean opened the legislative session at the invitation of Republican representative Ernie Leidiger. Dean concluded his prayer with a random, not so veiled shot at President Obama and his religion.

A map that declares what each state in the country is worst at has made its rounds this week, leaving many people across America wondering about their fellow citizens. Some states got off easy; after all, it’s not so bad to be highlighted for having the highest cost of living, as Hawaii does. But other those who call Louisiana (the gonorrhea leader), Maine (the dumbest state), or Utah (porn capital of America) home seem to have some explaining to do. Here, a roundup of the opinion from writers around the nation defending their states:

We hear, and write, a lot about certain candidates during this 2010 election cycle, and its not just the ones who are in hotly contested races.

No, we like to hear about the characters – the fun ones. Which of these actually have a chance to win? We ranked them all, based on polls, momentum and more, using what we’re calling the “Minnesota Scale”.

Joel Demos is a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota. He is running against Keith Ellison. He is a good man. He cares about our country. He also frequently forgets to fill up the gas tank in the giant monster truck he tools around in. At least that’s what I’m getting out of his new campaign ad. Maybe I’m misinterpreting it.

The campaign team behind Tom Emmer’s race to be Minnesota’s governor has been trying hard to save face following Emmer’s poorly received comments that there may need to be a lowering of minimum wage for waiters and servers since, with their tips, they can make $100,000 a year. How hard is the team working at damage control? Well, they’ve released a public statement denying Emmer ever made the comments and now they’ve even released a video of him waiting tables at a local restaurant. As hard as they work to dispel the belief that Emmer said these things, they might have a problem in the form of a video him, y’know, saying these things

Uh-oh: someone took those George W. Bush “Miss Me Yet?” billboards seriously. After a group of small business owners saw something funny on the internet and decided to make it a confusing ad looming over a Minnesota highway, anti-Obama advocates are launching an organized campaign to fill the skies with slogans like “Stop the Lies!” and “If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention.” In other words, BillboardsAgainstObama.com is the new Ron Paul Blimp.

Say what you will about the man’s charisma, but Tim Pawlenty gets the internet. The Minnesota governor his following up his CPAC Happy Hour with political bloggers with an online meeting with the American people on Sarah Palin‘s home turf: Facebook. Pawlenty will host the first of his “Facebook Town Hall” events to talk 2010 elections this Wednesday with any web user willing to log on.

Much like LOLCats and Kanye West, the “Miss Me Yet?” billboard phenomenon is the meme that keeps on giving. The next chapter of this compelling story takes us all the way down to Texas, where Jimmy Carter fights back.

The Minnesotan billboard caper plot thickens. It took a few weeks of anonymity to discover the culprit’s of last month’s mystery, where a jovial George W. Bush waved at commuters on Interstate 35 with a caption asking “Miss Me Yet?” This time around, however, it isn’t so much of a joke as a direct conservative message: “Remember Real Hope and Change?” it asks, with a picture of Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat.

The anonymous internet user who came up with the now-famous George W. Bush “Miss Me Yet?” poster must be kicking themselves for not copyrighting the work. The poster, which originally appeared last September around the internet (as these things are wont to do), made a mysterious and unsettling appearance over a Minnesota highway last week and, after much speculation, one of the anonymous businessmen behind the billboard assured everyone that all they wanted to do was tell everyone to “lighten up.” It was enough to spark an online shopping frenzy.

It’s two years away, but speculation surrounding the 2012 presidential race is alive and kicking, if only for the increasingly irrefutable fact that anyone who intends to run without immediate access to a cable news soapbox is starting the 2012 campaign at a severe disadvantage. It is the uphill battle facing possible Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, who, from the Minnesota Governor’s mansion must be watching potential challengers like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich milk their cable news contracts for all they’re worth.

One of the previously anonymous small businessmen who purchased a billboard displaying a goofy-looking George W. Bush asking “Miss Me Yet?” over a Minnesota highway has revealed his identity. And as much as Gretchen Carlson tried to goad some anti-Obama sentiments out of Mike Rivard on Fox and Friends in an exclusive interview this morning, he remained faithful to his ambiguous agenda of pointing out something hilarious and then brushing aside any political repercussions.

Minnesota got a special treat recently when a billboard depicting a jolly-looking former Pres. George W. Bush appeared over Interstate 35 asking, “Miss me yet?”

The idea was too surreal to actually exist for many people who called “Photoshop” at first sight, but NPR confirmed yesterday that it was, in fact, looming over the Minnesota landscape, waving uncomfortably to drivers on their way to work.