Here is a video of Bachmann, on the floor of Congress, explaining her dramatic and drastic new policy recommendations:

More details here.

But when we look at Paulsen’s record, it is not surprising that he has done this, because it turns out he is pretty much a clone of Michele Bachmann. Because I think this is a fairly important thing for Third District voters and Minnesotans to know, I’m reposting below an item from my other blog on this topic.

Who Is Erik Paulsen, Anyway?

Erik Paulsen is my representative to the U.S. Congress. This is his first term. He replaced a very centrist Republican (Jim Ramstad), who retired honorably. I worked for the Democratic Party (DFL, we call it in Minnesota) candidate, Ash Madia during that election. Ash was a good candidate, but he was inexperienced (which may or may not have been a factor) and not quite WASPy enough for this very WASPy district (which may or may not have been a factor), and although his politics matched those of the district’s constituents quite well (at least as well as the long-lasting Jim Ramstad’s politics did), he was probably viewed as too liberal, and people chose the “centrist” candidate Erik Paulsen.

But people are not always smart about these things (sorry, people, but I gotta be honest about that). Erik Paulsen was actually one of the more conservative members of the state Republican delegation in the Minnesota state House, far to the right of the average Third District voter, but when he ran for Congress, he disguised himself as a centrist and promised, more or less, to be a Ramstad Republican. But he’s not.

Paulsen opposed the “public option,” claiming that this would be a government takeover of health care. In fact, he claims that the current bill (which does not have public option) is a government takeover anyway. I think Representative Paulsen may not know what the word “option” means. Or “takeover.” Paulsen voted against the recently debated American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. He appears to be a global warming denialist. Paulsen voted against the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, designed to protect consumers. He appears to be against regular people.

He is anti-choice and anti-gay, based on his prior record in Minnesota.

So before he ran in the liberal-for-a-Republican district, he was as right-leaning as any member of the Minnesota Congressional delegation. Then he got liberal-ish. Then he got to Washington. So, where does he stand now?

According to him, he is not like that one particular other member of Congress from Minnesota, the infamous Michele “Investigate My Enemies” Bachmann. Paulsen explicitly separates himself from Bachmann by running an essay by Derek Wallbank on his web site that includes this:

Contrast [Paulsen's position on various issues] … with his neighbor to the north, Michele Bachmann. She has become a regular on Fox News and Sean Hannity’s radio show, emerged as a darling of the Tea Party right and is now called upon by conservatives across the nation to headline their rallies and fundraisers. Several in the Republican caucus are trying to copy her model for a stratospheric rise in the conservative esteem, but seemingly not Paulsen.

So Paulsen is maintaining his distance from Bachmann, as a continuation of the “I’m not too right wing for Plymouth (one of our centrist suburbs)” persona. But is it true? Is Paulsen different from Bachmann?

Well, it turns out that he isn’t except in one area. Paulsen is a bit more liberal on water conservation issues than Bachmann. Otherwise, he seems to be pretty much a Bachmann clone.

So far this year, the house has voted just under 300 times. Of those, Bachmann and Paulsen both voted (i.e, neither was marked as “not voting,” which we presume is absent from the House) a total of 282 times. Of those, they voted the same way 271 times. Michele Bachmann and Erik Paulsen voted the same way, according to this year’s voting record, over 96% of the time.

How were they different?

Paulsen favored recognizing the significant accomplishments of AmeriCorps, and supporting the goals and ideals of National Train Day. Bachmann voted against these things. Paulsen was in favor of reauthorizing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act’s Estuary Program, and two or three other water-related conservation bills. Apparently Michele Bachmann does not like natural water or trains.

They both voted against the Home Star Retrofit Rebate Program (aka “cash for caulkers”) and for Mother’s Day. They both voted for National Assistant Principals Week (those are usually the disciplinarians, right?) and against disaster relief and summer jobs. Generally, they voted against Obama, against regular people, against home owners, and in favor of selected ideals and corporate interests.

In virtual lockstep.

If you would like to see the voting record, here’s a PDF, compiled from data provided on Govtrack.us.

If you are a voter in the Third District who voted for Paulsen, you may already know about this. If you’re a Third Districter who voted for Ash Madia (and good for you if you did), then you really, really want to know about this. Either way, you may want to explore other options this year, because it appears that Representative Paulsen, aka “Son of Bachmann,” is running for re-election.

In 2010, Michele Bachmann has turned into a conservative cultural icon.  We knew Michele in Minnesota when she was quixotically introducing her Marriage Amendment in the Senate, before she was elected to Congress in 2006 to replace Mark Kennedy. Mark, please come back! All is forgiven.

In these four short years, her stock has risen among the conservatives.  Perhaps I should refer to them as the nouveau conservateurs, those unwashed who think that conservatism is all about “God, guns, and lower taxes.”  The representative has been touted as a possible vice presidential candidate. She is a fundraising force for “Tea Party Conservatives.”

She is an embarrassment to most Minnesotans.  I say “most” Minnesotans, because she does have a large following even here.  The rest of us scratch our heads in wonder at how so many people take her seriously.  We also find it amusing to be accused of sexism when we make fun of her, especially since these accusations made by people who hate feminists.

There is much to mock in Michele Bachmann.  I find it hard to listen to her without laughing at her weird claims and conspiracies, but I also find myself agape at the force with which her supporters defend her.  With that, we at Quiche Moraine have decide to revive yet again, a collection of articles and blog posts noting the weird and wonderful world of the representative from Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.

To get you warmed up and in the mood, Buzzfeed gives us the top ten craziest Michele Bachmann quotes Photoshopped for your viewing pleasure.

Michele has a fan. He’s an articulate fan, and we know this because he makes up clever 7th-gradish nicknames for people.  I am glad that this person is not a fan of Quiche Moraine:

Okay, so here she is at the historic confrontation. She is a member of the House Financial Services Committee. She is interrogating international swindlers Little Timmy Geithner, pretend Secretary of the Treasury and “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke, chairman of the non-Federal non-Reserve System. This I know you will find hard to believe, but she speaks without a teleprompter. Don’t believe me? See for yourself on You Tube.

She is a tax attorney, but, as she cut these two smirking mountebanks into uniform chunks of smoking stench, I could not help but think of a surgeon. She kept asking them to cite the constitutional authority for each of their actions. Of course they couldn’t do so. They stumbled. Ben refused to say where the money had gone. The farce ended when her time expired and the committee chairman would not allow Little Timmy to say how much money the Treasury would get back from the anonymous banks it had bailed.

I don’t honestly know what to make of Arlen, but I am happy he is not a fan of Quiche Moraine.

The American Spectator takes aim at Bachmann for either being crazy or loving the limelight (they aren’t sure which is the priority). They point out that she has not, in two terms, passed any meaningful legislation in Congress.

Still, Bachman’s headline-grabbing stunts, time spent on talk radio and cable, and even labels from staff and peers would be worth it if she could put her money where her mouth gabbed. This is her second term as a U.S. Congresswoman. She has yet to sponsor and pass any effective legislation at all, let alone any related to the issues that put her in the spotlight — though in her defense she’s outnumbered, and to her credit, she has co-sponsored some good bills.

She’s one of Hannity’s favorite conservatives and she knows how to draw a crowd, but a November Rasmussen poll showed Bachmann’s district may not love her as much as everyone else does. Fifty-one percent of likely voters said they somewhat approve of Bachmann’s job performance and 45% disapprove. That could be more due to the fact that the district has been trending left in recent years, as local Democrats have picked up several state seats, rather than Bachmann’s vocal conservatism.

Bachmann has introduced us to a new way of looking at economics, with the claim that the “private” economy is in the hands of the government. All of that has happened, of course, since Obama took office 14 months ago. And the sista’s are doing it for themselves:

Bachmann’s speech, which included her typical rhetoric about government takeovers of the “private economy” that was previously “100% private,” focused on what she said was President Obama’s weakness on national security weakness. But, she also made gender a theme. “I think I heard somebody say ‘repeal,’” Bachmann said, in reference to the health care bill. “You better believe it, baby. Repeal is what this girl is gonna be all about after November.”

This event was not in Bachmann’s district, but was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in district of Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison.

In introducing Palin, Bachmann spoke of the admiration they all felt for Palin’s fortitude and determination, and her appeal: “Part of it is that she is so much a one of us. And as absolutely drop-dead gorgeous as this woman is on the outside, I am here to testify she is 20 times more beautiful on the inside.”

In February, she sent out a fundraising letter claiming that Obama is out to “annihilate conservativism:”

Just consider Obama’s ties to the radical group ACORN.

For years Obama worked with, advised, and even trained ACORN and its volunteers in community agitation.

So close is Obama to ACORN that his presidential campaign relied on it for crucial get-out-the-vote drives to win.

But ACORN is a corrupt group, rotten to the core. It’s been investigated for voter fraud in 14 states and its workers have been caught on tape in 5 separate cities willing to help set up brothels for underage illegal alien child prostitutes.

Yet, Obama has used his enormous power as president to funnel millions of dollars into ACORN’s coffers to strengthen this radical group and his base.

Because Obama sees ACORN as his ideological “shock troops” leading his “revolution.”

Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives…

…HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US!

That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.

The frightening thing is that she has been raising money, a lot of money, and the congressional race in the 2010 elections for the 6th district in Minnesota is going to be expensive. Michele Bachmann’s campaign has reported that she has $1.5 million in donations to her credit in this election cycle. Her chief opponent in the race is Tarryl Clark who has raised $1.1 million. Much of the money for both candidates is coming from outside of the district, owing to the fact that Bachmann has been a nationally-known crazy since 2008 when she invited the press to look into “anti-Americans in Congress” and the “anti-Americans” that are Obama’s friends.

The next day I was campaigning for her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg. Most of the people I talked to were extremely embarrassed that their representative had made such a fool of herself, but I knocked at the door of someone who had gotten on to a Democratic list, somehow. She came to the door and saw that I was campaigning against Bachmann and said she was voting for her Congresswoman. I was incredulous and asked her, “Even after what she said on TV last night.” The woman looked me in the eye and told me, “Yes.” Then she shut her door on me.

So, we can all think that only crazy and stupid people will vote for Michele Bachmann this year. If that’s the case, then there are a lot of them in her district. Or we can support the Democratic organizations in the 6th District and the candidate who is running against her in the general election. Quiche Moraine will give you periodic updates on the reasons to help defeat her and get some semblance of sanity back in Minnesota’s 6th District.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is a very small space that separates the behavior of Michele Bachmann and her supporters and the medieval pheasants lampooned by Monte Python in various skits and the movie Holy Grail. The problem is that the Monte Python characters are fiction, obvious jokes, and utterly unbelievable, while the Teabagging Insurgents are real, don’t get the joke, and are…utterly unbelievable.

It will be interesting to see how the National Democratic Party and its cognate organizations will approach Michele Bachmann as the next election approaches. There is a great risk in going after her and not succeeding in replacing her (which is a distinct possibility). But if an opportunity arises…if she stumbles and bleeds and thus allows her opponents to go in for the kill…it will be hard to resist. However, it will be easy for the Democrats to misjudge a stumble. Her famous call for an investigation of all members of Congress to see whether they have anti-American views, while being interviewed on Hardball, would be considered a stumble by most thinking Democrats or Progressives. But it was not. Well, yes, it was a bumble, as in “bumbling idiot,” but not a stumble. It was more like an accidental double play, in which she got the left to hate her vociferously and the right to love her passionately by being an unmitigated ass. If she does that again and the Dems go after her, the Dems lose. But they may not be able to resist. I know I won’t resist.

It is strange for those of us who have followed Bachmann’s career since back before she was in Congress to come to the point where she is likely to be a key figure in national-level politics. It is strange because she has obtained this position by being a moron. An unmitigated, hateful, radical, unthinking jerk. A hypocrite with no fundamental values except to oppose whatever is suggested by the nearest visible liberal political entities. In other words, the archetypal Republican.

Well, thanks for covering this, Ed. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you around quite a bit over the next couple of years!

He went to the speech to stand outside and show off his cammo and his guns. The press took note and had a chat with him. Hendrickson told them, “I’m a pretty laid-back guy that loves his kids and his country.”

Hendrickson was released from jail about a month ago after serving for an assault charge. He had pepper-sprayed a customer at the Cub Foods (a grocery store) in Brooklyn Center. Hendrickson was a security guard at the Cub Foods.

(Until now, I did not know that Cub Foods had security guards.)

The story of Josh’s visit to the President’s talk, carrying two loaded handguns, can be read at the Star Tribune or elsewhere on the Internet.

Actually, Josh told reporters that it really wasn’t any trouble at all to bring his guns. He routinely grabs his car keys, his wallet, and his loaded pistol on the way out the door each day. That is, I would guess, because Josh is a gun nut.

In the meantime, Josh’s congressional representative…that crazy lady who French kissed George Bush and called for an investigation of all Democrats in Congress to check to make sure they agreed with her “American Views”…has been known to tell her constituents to come to the table “Armed and Dangerous.”

Well, apparently they do. I believe it is the case that signs on sticks are against the rules at rallies, protests, or public gatherings such as this one. No sticks allowed. A stick that carries a big sign on which you express your First Amendment rights is not okay. But guns, with which you First-Amendmently express your Second Amendment rights, are okay.

So, the problem as I see it is that our social rules and regulations are often pieced together in somewhat haphazard ways that make no sense. The rule about the sticks is typically a local ordinance, untested in any court. Since sticks are arms and the Second Amendment says “right to bear arms” not “right to bear arms but not sticks” then surely the stick laws would be struck down in a second if challenged. But still, the rules of our society are somewhat haphazard not so much in the logic but in the means by which the rules arise. Collectively what appears to be an illogical mix (sticks no, guns yes) is only illogical because it’s a work in progress (one might even say “half baked”).Given enough time, municipal laws, state or provincial laws, federal or national laws and international laws would all make more sense as a whole because, after all, we one species and we share one planet. How much zany variation (sticks no, guns yes) is required?

But the laws are haphazard, and this confuses the duller individuals such as Josh. The idea that it is okay to visit a speech given by the president of the United States with the gun you normally carry, and in this case with an extra gun thrown in to boot, is absurd. At this moment in our legal and social history, it happens that Josh can get away with it. But that does not make it right. This sort of aggressive and obnoxious behavior is very negative, potentially dangerous, and is only allowed by the quirkiness of our system. The fact that the vast majority of gun-owning Obama-haters kept their guns home while Josh brought his guns is primarily because Josh is confused.

Again, that confusion is understandable. Quite often, people don’t find a sense of direction or guidance from our zany system of rules. Since it is illegal to bring a stick to the rally, but it is legal to pack two loaded handguns, it would be hard for a guy like Josh, who I’m thinking is not the most lucid lure in the tackle box, to know what to do and what not to do and when. Josh needs our help. He needs some social cues. He needs, in fact, to gain a sense of ostracization for his asshatery.

I’d like to let him know what’s going on in other people’s minds when he straps on his Glock and goes to visit the president of the United States.

Josh, most Minnesotans do not think it is appropriate to walk around with a loaded gun unless you are a cop or if you are out hunting. This includes every single gun owner I know in Minnesota whom I’ve asked over the years, and this is a considerable number. Even people I know who collect guns and have large numbers of them or who hunt all the time do not drop the Glock into the pocket on the way out the door. Then again, most of these people…those I know who have guns…did not and would not vote for Michele Bachmann. And they all think Joe Wilson is a jerk. I’m willing to bet, Josh Hendrickson, that you do not think Joe Wilson is a jerk, and that you are a big fan of Bachmann’s. Together, all that makes you a jerk, Josh.

Why am I telling you this, Josh? I’m using my First Amendment rights here. I have strong feelings about a certain issue and I want to make my opinion heard loud and clear. I am exercising my constitutional rights. I certainly hope that you do not have a problem with that.

Josh, I think you are an asshole. I’m in Rogers now and then. When I’m in town, please stay away from me, and under no circumstances are you to approach any member of my family. If we stop at the Antique Mall, or grab a bite at BoBo’s, I expect you to clear the hell out and stay away. For all I know, you are a heavy drinker and a crack head and a psychopath. I don’t trust that the government is any good at keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. Given your known record of violence, I think it is wise to not trust you, Josh. Since I don’t trust you, I don’t want you living in the same society I live in, and if I had my choice, I’d drive you to the edge of the Good Ol’ USA and drop you off at the border. If I knew where you worked, I wouldn’t patronize that place. If I knew what school your kids went to, I would contact that principal and ask them to search you when you showed up at the school for events or to pick up your kids. And if I worked for the Secret Service, I’d be on your ass like ugly on an ape.

I say all these things as though I’m guessing them, but who knows? Maybe someone like me, someone who finds you and your actions to be terribly offensive, is your next door neighbor, or your employer, or the barkeep at the Champps down in Maple Grove. You know those people know who are not saying this stuff to you? They’re just avoiding the issue. Almost everybody you know thinks you are a shithead, Josh. And that’s probably always going to be the case.

And you know what? Most Minnesotans feel roughly like I do. In fact, the legislative sponsor of our Minnesota conceal and carry law did not have nice things to say about you.

I shouldn’t really worry, though. Now that you actually have shown up at a Presidential speech armed with two handguns, and showed off, YOUR ass is on THE list. Forever. For the rest of your life, information about where you live and where you ever have lived, where you work and where you ever have worked, your history of security guard jobs, of pepper spray use, your police record, is all linked into a file and is now the responsibility of some Secret Service agent who really has better things to do than to follow you around on paper until you die. You are wasting taxpayer money, you shithead.

Have a nice life being watched by the Secret Service.

Enjoy the following two videos. In the first, we get a look at Josh himself. In the second, we get a somewhat broader overview of the problem we are seeing today of which Josh is only a tiny, ant-like part.

Last Thursday, I took a field trip to Lake Elmo’s Oakland Junior High in order to see democracy in action. If Michele Bachmann was courageous enough to enter Washington County, which she lost to Elwyn Tinklenburg by 3,000 votes in 2006 and which McCain lost to Obama by 13,000 votes, I could certainly pluck up the courage to wade into an auditorium populated largely with conservatives. I was even prepared for there to be people who would hate me merely for the fact that I’m a liberal.

I had joked at work and on Facebook that I might even take a squirt gun with me, to protest the impending loss of my 2½ Amendment rights.  I considered mocking the teabaggers and wingnuts who were showing up at the town halls of Democratic congresspeople and senators bearing signs reading the “Tree of Liberty Must Be Watered” and other such platitudes from people who have no clue as to what tyranny really is.  The president we have now is certainly more engaged democratically than the previous one; it was only three years ago that as a minority party in the House, the Democrats were excluded from committee meetings, which were not announced so the Republicans could call quorum and debate bills.

I decided not to take the water pistol because while the joke would be cute for a minute or two, I was more interested in trying to speak with one of the lockstep Republicans.  I wanted to find out how they had arrived at their conclusion that if some sort of health care reform is passed, the very foundations of American Freedom would crumble.  I wanted to find out whether they were truly caught up in teabaggism.  I would leave the mocking to other people.

I met up early with a group of Democrats who had been invited to the event through Organizing for America.  OFA is a continuation of the Obama presidential campaign focused on drumming up support for a reform of the health insurance system in the United States.  We came prepared with signs.  Some signs said, “People, not Profits,”  “Health Care for All,” and,  “We Want the Same Coverage That The Congresswoman and Her Staff Enjoy.”

I was expecting a big crowd of people chanting back and forth at each other, but found a small group of like-minded Democrats gathering together to plan our attack on the Representative’s presentation.  We planned to laugh at her misstatements and her anticipated stupidities until I pointed out that I just didn’t think that I would be able to laugh for an entire two hours.  We decided to sit close to microphones so that we would be ready for the Q&A.

I went inside the school and signed in.  One of my co-conspirators demanded to know why we were having to sign in, as though he were going to be tracked and his movements followed by the Bachmann Brownshirts, but I assured him it was okay to put his name on the list of attendees.  I pointed out that we were not being excluded as we would have been from a Bush Social Security privatization event four years ago.

The line inside the building was rather long, and there was a heavy turnout.  We waited for 30 minutes for entry into the auditorium.  Conservatives mixed with liberals. There were no fistfights and no threats.  We were polite to each other, moving out of the way if someone needed to access either bathroom.  We eavesdropped on each other’s conversations.  There was some back and forth between people, and some anger was hidden below the surface as people disagreed on what socialism is and is not.  It remained below the surface, as people waited for anticipated fireworks inside the show hall.

Finally, we were admitted and the auditorium filled up.  I sat next to a couple I had just met, a pair of liberals.  Their son was outside holding up signs to greet the people who were still filing in.  No signs were being allowed inside the building, but a brave crew had held back and dared confrontation with placards that demanded, “Health Coverage for All,” “People not Profits,” “Health Care for Children,” and so forth.

I went outside. I was feeling a bit too crowded and wasn’t really all that interested in what Bachman was going to say. I have heard it all before and didn’t see much opportunity to ask a question. I held up a sign that said I want for everyone the same care the Representative has, and in truth was yelling slogans as people filed in. I asked people whether the roads they drove on to get to the event were toll roads or examples of socialism, whether the school was a socialist school, whether fire departments are socialism.

A pair of older ladies walked by with little signs that simply said, “Enough.” I asked them, because I sincerely didn’t know what the signs meant, “Enough what?” They just looked at me and walked on by. Later, I saw that the signs had the web address of Glennbeck.com printed at the bottom. Later another woman walked towards the entrance with two children in a stroller. She furrowed her brow when she read our signs and yelled out “You are stealing our money!” I asked her how, in a Republic, we were stealing? She gave us a thumbs down and walked in, frightened to engage with liberal, socialist thieves.

The crowd had mostly moved inside, and I decided to remain outside. It was a very nice day, and I really couldn’t see the value on a warm, sunny day of being trapped inside a crowded auditorium having to listen to Michele Bachmann. There were other people to do that. I wanted to try to engage outside with some of her supporters to find out how and why they had come to the conclusion that a democratically elected president, one who had been trying to wrangle support from the opposition in order to pass a health care reform bill, can be compared to a Nazi dictator.

No one, unfortunately, was willing to engage me in a discussion. Sure, I talked to several people with whom I was in agreement. While self-affirming, it wasn’t satisfying for me on this particular occasion. One of the problems that I ran into was that when I had started to engage in a discussion with someone, people from my own side interrupted my conversation.

I saw a man who was holding up a sign that said, “Don’t Take Away My Freedom to Choose.” I went up to talk to him about choice, and how important his freedom is to him when he was also supporting a congresswoman who has made her name trying to prevent gays from having the choice to marry who they wish to marry. I wanted to ask him how much freedom matters to him when he knows that there are millions of people who have no choice in what doctors they go to because they can’t afford insurance under the current system. I wanted to ask him how much he valued the freedom to choose, knowing that the congresswoman he supports doesn’t allow women to choose how to manage their own bodies.

But I was interrupted by someone who saw a target for their own arguments. “Erv,” I said, “I was talking to him.” Erv put up a finger to signify he would only be a moment. So, I politely waited while he finished his point. Then as he walked away, I started to talk to the other man again. Erv again interrupted me. I finally walked away, disappointed at Erv’s rudeness.

I was boiling by the time I got to my car. Not at Bachmann’s supporters, though. I had expected rudeness from them. I was disappointed in my own co-conspirators against insurance company hegemony. I had been on several occasions cut off in conversation, and I got in my car and shifted into gear and was ready to pull out of my parking spot to go home.

Erv came up to me car and knocked on the window. He said “There are times when ageism’s claims about the elderly are justified. I was rude to you, and I sincerely apologize. I shouldn’t have been interrupting you.” I thanked him for apologizing and we shook hands. I left, not quite so angry, but still a bit frustrated that I hadn’t had a chance to engage with someone at the event.

I still think that there is an awful lot of dysfunction in American politics in this debate over what to do about health insurance reform. I can say that nothing was resolved at this particular town hall. I don’t think that people are hearing the problems that arise from the way we handle care right now, instead wrapping themselves in an American Flag to protect their current situation and what they see as The Greatest Health Care System The World Has Ever Known.

Their view ranges from “I am not responsible for my neighbor’s problems” to “The deficit is just too big to add on to it with a national health care system.” They aren’t seeing that they are just one pink slip away from losing their health insurance, or one claim away from finding that a knee surgery they had five years ago will be justification used to deny their claim for coverage of their newly discovered melanoma.

We’re trying to tell them they are placing false trust in large corporations whose purpose is more to make money than cover their customers’ needs. But they like their American Way. Anyone who seeks to change that with a public option, or the now “off the table” single payer plan is a thief trying to steal their money. My life as a thief consists of asking them why they are so willing to entrust their health and financial future with companies that are charging full price for premiums, but providing discount service in exchange.

On Monday, August 31st, I went to a Town Hall Meeting run by Betty McCollum who is in fact my representative. That went a bit differently, but will need to be continued in a separate post.

I actually did watch a bit of TV when I was a kid, but we were only limited to a few channels because I was growing up “B.C.”  Before Cable, the isolated areas of the country were lucky to receive waves from one broadcaster.  In Hallock we were in reach of CBS and CTV from Winnipeg, NBC from Grand Forks and, when the weather conditions were welcoming, we would pull in ABC and CBS from Fargo.  We viewed our reruns of other networks thanks to KCND from an independent in Pembina.

In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, a superstation from Atlanta bought its way onto the cable outlets, and WTBS broadened even further our access to reruns of 1950s and 1960s shows I hadn’t seen as a kid.  I honestly don’t remember the original run of Leave it to Beaver. In fairness, I was way too young to remember it, being only two years old when its final episode aired.  My recall of the show is based on reruns.

We all have the reruns to thank for some of the cultural icons that have arisen from the show, and the character of Eddie Haskell is one of its major contributions to our society.  Eddie was the Beav’s burden.  Eddie’s mischief often caused the young and vulnerable Beaver Cleaver (an IRC sex channel “handle” if ever there was one) to get into gobs of trouble.   Each time Beaver would explain that he had fallen for one of Eddie’s tricks, Haskell would suck up to Mrs. Cleaver with an innocent face and, with modesty oozing from his voice, utter a sweet, “I would never do anything like that, Mrs. Cleaver.”

In the wake of the most egregious examples of attacks on Democrats and the President at town hall meetings on the presumed subject of health care and the bill before Congress, at which events people have shown up with guns, have drawn Hitler mustaches on pictures of Obama, have hung in effigy the President and other Democratic representatives, have shouted down in concert anyone who asks a serious question about the bill and turned the town hall process into a mockery, the right are now responding to the media glare with the Eddie Haskell approach.  “I would never do anything like that, America.”  We are now to believe that those whose missions were to disrupt the meetings and prevent any sort of discussion of the bill were just ordinary citizens exercising their right to speak out.  They’re just ordinary people.

There is no question that the first disruptions were encouraged by insurance lobbyists and pharmacy lobbysists, as “AstroTurf” activists bused around from state to state create the impression that a grassroots movement against Obama is sweeping the country.  They are the last defenders in a Red Dawn against the foreign-born, secretly Muslim, fascist-socialist, anti-white racist usurper in the White House.  If they don’t stop him and his lackeys now, it won’t be long before they are rounded up into a new gulag of internment camps. (Yes, Jason, there are Canadian Wingnuts, too.)

The AstroTurf is getting less expensive now, as the message has gotten through to people who only pay partial attention.  They take Betsy McCaughey’s word when she says that an advanced care directive will lead to doctors getting more favorable ratings and thus higher fees if they encourage patients to forego heroic measures, which is more simply stated as, “Obama wants to kill special-needs kids and Grandma!”  So, their strategy has worked, and as they now disavow any connection to the disruptors, they are turning themselves loose on the Representatives who are dismissive of the kooks at the mike.  “That Barney Frank, he was so rude to a constituent.  Who The Hell does he think he is?!”  Never mind that the constituent was holding up a picture of the president with a Hitler mustache and had asked why Frank supported fascism?  I think Frank insulted dining room tables in this incident.

The events are now being populated by people who have bought into the distorted analyses of HR 32oo, and are genuinely confused at to what the bill includes and what it doesn’t include.  They are now being populated by people genuinely concerned about the deficit (but one wonders where they were when George Bush was out there cutting taxes for the wealthy and raising spending to create the mess we are in).  They are people who are now against a bill that would, in fact, help them, because they have heard the noise and the noise frightens them.

So, as a liberal who has been watching the conservatives and the insurance industry lobbyists play chess against the progressives in Congress using the public as pawns, I wonder what to do next.  I know that many liberals want to continue walking the high road and to patiently review the bill with people who don’t really get it but are accepting the easy answers.

On Thursday, August 27th, 2009 there will be a town hall meeting in Lake Elmo.  The Representative who will be taking the questions?  Why, none other than our dear friend from the 6th District.

Michele Bachmann Town Hall (Health Care Organizing Event)

It is so important for us to have a good showing at this event. The event will discuss health care. Bachmann is bringing Congressman Burgess from Texas. Burgess is a Republican and has been a doctor for over 21 years. Please be there at 1pm at the northeast corner of the parking lot. The doors open at 1:30, and we are hoping to fill in the front rows. Also please wear Obama, Franken etc. attire. Please have a question already formulated in case you get called on.

Time:	Thursday, August 27 from 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Host:	Gail Harless
Location:	Oak-Land Junior High School (Lake Elmo, MN) 820 Manning Avenue North Lake Elmo, MN 55042 Maps: Google Maps MapQuest Yahoo! Maps
Directions:	Manning exit off of 94, north on Manning http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Lake+Elmo&state=MN&address=820+Manning+Avenue+North&zipcode=55042
Associated Groups:	Face to Face for Change – Twin Cities, Feminist Advisory Board for Obama, Obama Works Twin Cities, Shoreview (Northeast suburbs), MN for Barack Obama, USA.CAN

One could think that this would be a good time to go and disrupt the disruptors. I plan on showing up early, but I may stay outside during the event. I will confront any crazies (but not one of the ones who may be brandishing a gun at me). I would like to egg some of them on, to draw out their insanity. But I don’t plan on interrupting or causing a ruckus during the actual meeting itself. I would like to be able to vent my frustrations at the people who have turned a provision for advanced care directives into a plan to have death panels making decisions for people.

No, the disruption and the shouting belong outside, in the parking lot before the event. Those “Eddie Haskells,” who are just exercising their rights to voice their concerns over threats that don’t exist, need to be ridiculed. They need to be taken to task for spreading fear, lest observers think that they have actual points to make.

The election of November 2008 was not the end of the political process for progressives. Yes, our guy got in. Yes, the Democrats held a majority. But not all Democrats are liberal, not all Democrats are clear on the relationship between campaign donations and their responsibilities towards the citizenry as a whole. They say that in order to get a deal with the Republicans, both single-payer and public option plans must be off the table, and cost-containment must be the key issue that will solve the crisis.

Those in our party who seek to obstruct the President’s plan in order to work out a compromise, to get some sort of reform through this fall, need to see rallies in support of a true reform of health insurance and one that includes a way for the great unwashed to have affordable access to health care. We need also to shout down those who make invalid claims about the systems in Canada, Britain, Japan, Germany and Austria, and most especially the French system.

Here’s a little story to remind you why this is an issue:

Yesterday, I went to get my haircut, and I was eavesdropping on the conversation between the operator and the customer in the next stall. “Destinee” was telling her customer that on a Friday night a week ago she and her boyfriend were at a bonfire party. He fell into the fire, and and an ambulance was called to take him in. The EMTs dressed his wounds, and in the emergency room, they were recleaned and bandaged. The ER doctor estimated that he would need at least two weeks in hospital.

Abruptly, things changed when the administrative staff discovered he wasn’t covered by any insurance. The nurses came into his room and told him that he was being sent home. Destinee asked for some instructions on how to clean and rebandage the wound, but apparently that would be a billable service, so they simply told her that she needed to change the dressing twice a day. He went home.

By Monday last week, the pain from the burns was so intense that he had to go back to the ER. This time they had no choice but to admit him, because his wounds had become massively infected. They admitted him to the ICU, and because of the danger he is in, visitors must be super-scrubbed clean in order to see him. Could this have been prevented had he been admitted right off? Perhaps not, but more likely he would have been closely monitored by trained professionals and not left to luck at the untrained hands of a 23-year-old hairdresser.

He just didn’t have coverage, and they couldn’t find a verifiable source of payment for the expensive care he needed, so they sent him home and now they have a much larger problem. The Republican reaction is to say “Boo hoo hoo. It’s not my problem, it’s his. Tough luck, kid!” The Republican reaction is to brandish guns and accuse the president, who is actually using the legislative system as it was intended, of being a Nazi. (Wait, she was a Democrat plant sent there to make the Republicans look bad. Because, you know, the Republicans are the reasoned ones and would never call a Jew a “Nazi!”)

My reaction is to first mock the crazies. I may take a water gun or a toy pistol to the rally before the event. But if I go inside to the rally, I will be respectful, and if I get the opportunity to ask the Rep or the doctor a question, I will ask about the wisdom of leaving stand a broken system that sends a young man home to get severe infections because he couldn’t pay his bill.

I think even Eddie Haskell would have to agree with Mrs. Cleaver that this needs to have a sensible solution. No more “Who me?”

When we last saw our insipid heroine-in-her-own-mind, she was proposing legislation to keep America safe for the dollar and joining her fellow party members in flirting with sedition. Reaction to both behaviors continued long after our last carnival.

Ed Brayton of Dispatches from the Culture Wars, who has chronicled a great deal of stupidity, goggled at her fears of foreign currency. Ranjan X. Roy of Shadow Bankers used the opportunity to write an excellent piece explaining what has actually been proposed. Civilianism, who is unfortunately and unhappily a constituent, tried to make some sense of her conspiracy touting. Political Muse at Dump Bachmann reminded us that the reason Bachmann was in a position to make her ignorance so well known is that she is (somehow) a member of the House Financial Services Committee. watertiger of Firedoglake noted all the Republicans who were willing to join her in sponsoring the pointless bill.

JTNB at State of Protest asked Garrion Keillor to explain how paranoia like Bachmann’s could come out of Minnesota–and called for a recall. sgwhiteinfla at Smooth Like Remy saw a connection between Bachmann’s battle rhetoric and the shootings in Pittsburgh. So did Metavirus at Library Grape, who put her words in the current and historical context of right-wing hate mongering. Charles Blow reminded us at the New York Times that not all dangers come from outside the country. Elizabeth Burke at The Clyde Fitch Report explained the dangers of treating this all like political theater.

Let me add that I am the first person to say “bring on the crazy.” I love watching a good train wreck like everyone else, and Rep. Bachmann obviously has a constitutional right to shout her brand of Minnesota loony from the highest rooftops. That is one of the reasons why our national politics is so much fun, and why foreigners (real foreigners, not Bachmann-style foreigners) risk life and limb to get here. I am so grateful to have been lucky enough to be born here, to have the freedom millions can only dream of having. I can write what I want and say what I want without fear of retribution.

But with such freedom comes great responsibility, especially from elected figures with a rapt and — dare I say armed? — audience. I get the feeling that Bachmann has no idea the power of words, especially her own. I also don’t think she cares. While she blathers on to anyone with a tape recorder or camera, endlessly reiterating her “us against them” view of the nation, she had better hope and pray that her call for revolution is ignored, that her dream of a violent overthrow remains unfulfilled.

Down with Tyrrany continued the theme, showing how Bachmann fits into the general right-wing destructive looniness, including the tea bag protests.

On a lighter note, speaking of Bachmann and teabagging, this month marks the first time I’ve considered subscribing to a YouTube channel. Why? The answer is here and NSFW, unless you’re in a sound-proofed room so people won’t hear you laugh. Also finding Bachmann funny this month is Comically Partisan, which awarded her a second Commedian of the Month award, this one for “[n]othing specific.” Just for being herself.

So what else has Bachmann done this month? She herself noted that she’s wasting more of Congress’s time (as is her wont), joining with Rep. John Kline to sponsor a bill to keep former Guantanamo Bay detainees out of Minnesota. I’m sure that will get broad support. She got upset that the Department of Homeland Security would consider right-wing extremists a threat. Political Muse at Liberal in the Land of Conservatives rightly asked why she was so anxious (or uncharacteristically self-aware) to identify herself with them.

She picked a fight with a fellow Minnesota Representative, Keith Ellison, suggesting the “Flying Imams” (the six scholars who drew attention to US Airways when they were removed from a flight in 2006 at the urging of nervous passengers) were detained after attending Ellison’s election victory party. Greg has Rachel Maddow’s excellent summary of the situation. The City Pages has Ellison’s response. And Kamran Pasha at the Huffington Post explains why, as usual, Bachmann can’t be dismissed as just part of the fringe.

The fact that American Muslims historically identified and voted Republican will likely shock many people. But it shouldn’t, if we remember what the Republican Party used to represent. Growing up as an immigrant from Pakistan in Brooklyn, every Muslim I knew embraced the Republican brand of economic growth and family values. We were entrepreneurs who left our countries to find a better life in America, and loved the Republican promise of free enterprise and social mobility. As people of faith, we embraced the Republicans’ traditional values and social conservatism. And we saw Republicans like President George H.W. Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker as statesmen who were sympathetic to Palestinian suffering and willing to work hard to bring peace between Arabs and Israelis.

And then something started to change within the party. An ugly cancer of anti-Muslim bigotry began to reveal itself during the first Iraq War. I was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where the student body was perhaps the most conservative of the Ivy League schools. At meetings of the College Republicans, I began to hear distressing venom against Muslims. American Muslims were being openly talked of as a fifth column in the country, and my fellow students applauded rumors that internment camps were being set up in the Midwest for Muslim subversives. I was shocked to see my friends suddenly speak of my faith as the enemy. Our fight against Saddam had finally revealed the deeply held hatred for Islam among my fellow conservatives.

Bachmann also expressed concerns that expanding AmeriCorps, the government-run volunteer program, was a plan to…well, here:

Even our esteemed Rep. Michele Bachmann has appeared on various broadcasts with dire warnings about the program: “The real concern is that there are provisions for what I would call reeducation camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums,” the Republican said. “It is a dream come true for people who want to transform our country from a free-market economy to a centralized, government-planned economy.”

Jon Tevlin of the Star Tribune gave this idea all the respect it deserved. Congress Watcher of That’s My Congress put it all very simply and very devastatingly. The Minnesota Independent wondered whether Generation Joshua, a group of homeschooled kids whose assignments included handing out Bachmann campaign literature, might be the pattern for Bachmann’s concerns. Daily Kos was moved to restart its Act Blue anti-Bachmann fundraising.

Still, despite backing down slightly on her calls for Minnesotans to be “armed and dangerous” in order to fight those who are trying to address climate change, Bachmann adopted the issue as her new baby and spent most of the month trying to smother it under a blanket of stupidity and misdirection.

Bachmann penned an op-ed for the Star Tribune claiming the Obama administration’s cap-and-trade proposal would cost each American household over $3,000. She made this claim despite the figure already having been declared by PolitiFact to be so wrong it set their truth meter on fire. The Star Tribune opinion page editor told Think Progress he was embarrassed to have published the figure. Yet, when the MIT professor on whose study Bachmann claimed to have based the figure issued a correction to his math that was still well under $3,000, Bachmann took the opportunity to claim a higher figure yet.

She also held a couple of “forums” in Minnesota, which consisted of her reading her op-ed and a speech by Chris Horner, a global warming denialist. His claim to expertise is that he is an attorney who works for a foundation funded in part by ExxonMobil. Anna commented at Dump Michele Bachmann about why the plans behind the forums were ludicrous. She gave lots of reasons, but this is my favorite:

It’s just loopy that she’s trying to assert any expertise in this area . . . she’s a creationist for pete’s sake . . . for her the earth is only 6,000 years old, and now she’s trying to tell her constituents that she understands holocene era climate change? Give me a break.

Futurism Now gave an excellent report of the forum, as did Political Muse at Dump Bachmann. Ken Avidor at Dump Bachmann also collected much of the fact-checking of the forums. It’s not pretty.

So, what wasn’t Bachmann doing as she sponsored these less-than-fact-filled forums? As Dusty Trice showed us, she wasn’t answering questions from her constituents. This shouldn’t be too surprising, as she’s known for doing things like sending invitations for teleconferences fifteen minutes before they start, but it’s particularly bad right now, as Bachmann’s constituents have plenty to ask her about.

The Minnesota Independent shows that the highest foreclosure rates in the state are in Bachmann’s district, or as they put it, “where congressional representation is doing the least to address the issue.” Pity, seeing as she’s on the House Financial Services Committee and could make a difference. Instead of taking action, Riley of Licking Calcutta points out, Bachmann is simply calling those facing foreclosure “irresponsible.” Bachmann would rather talk about global warming.

Most recently, she tried to fight those who would fight global warming by persuading everyone that carbon dioxide is very friendly and natural and not harmful at all, and besides, there isn’t very much of it, and besides, we don’t have much effect on the amount. PZ Myers at Pharyngula posted the video. Watch it if you can get through the inanity and innumeracy, but believe me, that summary is a public service. Pharyngula also received this lovely comment:

My 8-yo son was stunned that she called CO2 harmless and suggested *exactly* the same demonstration involving a small room, a tank of CO2, and the rep from MN. He said, “After a minute or two, she’ll get it.”

Apparently Bachmann isn’t as smart as a second grader.

Probably the most polite response to Bachmann’s carbon dioxide statements came from Representative Earl Blumenauer, but even he couldn’t resist a dig (at about 1:20).

It’s easy to point to the big gaffes and ask where all this is coming from, but it’s important to remember that this nonsense doesn’t just spring fully-formed from Bachmann’s head (and to anyone now picturing Bachmann in a toga, I apologize). Bill Prendergast at Dump Bachmann had a great piece this month talking about her connections to James Dobson and the evangelical movement. Bill Maher had another in the LA Times looking at why she and the rest of the shreds of the Republican Party are so desperate to indulge in conspiracy theory.

That brings us to the end of our carnival and one more month closer to the next election. What’s the good news on that front? Dump Bachmann found at least a couple of Republicans who are very unhappy with Bachmann. The Minnesota Independent showed us some redistricting maps that look all the better without Bachmann on them and reported about DFL plans for 2010. A newspaper in the largest city in her district officially declared her a “nonfactor.”

The bad news? Bill Prendergast of Dump Bachmann concluded Bachmann doesn’t have  what it takes to be lured away from politics into conservative punditry. Smart Politics looked at Bachmann’s campaign contributions for the first quarter of this year and discovered they overwhelmingly came from within Minnesota.  Ow.

As always, the best way to keep track of lunacy between carnivals is to follow the Dump Michele Bachmann blog. The DCCC has also, finally, set up Bachmann Watch, a fact checking service. And please continue to share your links, both to the insanity and the analysis it inspires, with us at the main carnival page.

What will you find in the next carnival? More climate dishonesty, reactions to her inability to understand the difference between regular birth control pill usage and a single dose, or something else we couldn’t possibly have dreamt up ourselves? We’ll know in a month.

Alas, it was not to be. Bachmann continues to run her mouth (now, there’s an alternative energy source) at every opportunity, regardless of the presence of cameras and microphones, regardless of her whether she had anything to say, regardless of who she’s speaking to. It’s behavior that has a certain effect on those who have to listen to her. Eric Kleefeld of TPMDC has named this, of course, the Bachmann Effect.

Gawker explains what that facial expression really means in English. Greg puts this phenomenon in its proper context. Oh, if only she were trying to be that funny. But no, she means it, and there are enough people taking her seriously that we must too. The Replace Michele Bachmann Blog Carnival is back.

We should have known. It only took her three days after the election to be named Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World for snuggling up to Obama after suggesting he be investigated as anti-American.

It wasn’t much later that Bachmann denied ever calling for his investigation, telling Alan Colmes that the direct quote he was reading was an “urban legend.” Colmes didn’t display the Bachmann Effect, unfortunately. I guess that’s a side effect of having reality denied to his face that often. However, a number of bloggers, fairly new to the train wreck that is the Sixth District’s congressional representative, couldn’t keep the literary equivalent of the effect out of their posts, calling her “crazy” and “out there.”

The local paper reported on the urban legend affair and noted that she also used the opportunity to accuse Al Franken of trying to “stuff the ballot box with rejected ballots.” Emily Kaiser at City Pages has the transcript of the interview and points out that Bachmann was repeating allegations that even Tim Pawlenty, our governor who dreams of a national stage for his hair and smile, had declared false by that point.

What else was Bachmann up to in November? Dump Michele Bachmann has the information on how she used the I-35W bridge collapse as an occasion to flirt with Bush and later tried to turn it into a political lever in her reelection campaign. OneNewsNow covers her defense of Sarah Palin. Bachmann herself used her blog (at Townhall.com) to argue that it’s perfectly reasonable for capital to control political speech in this country and to talk about how she’s finally against executive power now that a Democratic executive was taking office. No kisses for Obama, I guess.

December was a quieter month, starting with speculation that Bachmann might run for governor if she loses her congressional seat to redistricting. She was discovered to have endorsed a ministry that fraudulently wormed its way into public schools under the cover of anti-drug education to deliver their real messages, like:

In the girls’ session a female staffer from the band told the girls that they “would get black spots” on their wedding dresses if they held hands with a boy and would be serving “leftovers” to their husbands if they lost their virginity before marrying a “God-fearing man.”

She made the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s list of 2008 Most Embarrassing Re-Elected Members of Congress. She also made the NY Times list of top 2008 television moments for her appearance on Hardball and won Comedy Central’s contest for the Indecision 2008 Best Campaign Villain. Bachmann herself ended her year by eulogizing Paul Weyrich, dominionist and separatist founder of the Heritage Foundation.

Bachmann started the new year with more awards: third place in Crooks and Liars 2008 Golden Crookie Wingnut of the Year contest, fifth place in Comment Is Free’s American Hall of Shame, and two runner-up spots in City Pages list of Best Minnesota Scandals of 2008. Bachmann, perhaps less than pleased at not coming in first, bitched about Democrats in Congress wielding the power they were elected to use. Twice. She also joined Twitter, so now you can keep up with her every thought and public appearance.

January stayed fairly quiet for Bachmann. She said much of what one would expect from a Republican: No multi-million dollar estate tax for small family businesses. (How small is small, there, Representative?) Cut taxes to stimulate the economy. (Which has such a great track record.) The Hill ran a profile suggesting that she had become cautious.

Still, she managed to sneak in a couple of classic Bachmann moments. She opined again on the Coleman/Franken recount in an interview with Glenn Beck, suggesting that a fair judge would be one who found in favor of Coleman. She also made an appearance on Sean Hannity with Al Sharpton and Meatloaf (yes, really) in which she said, among other things, that African Americans would start voting Republican because of the issue of gay marriage.

January was just a hint of things to come. In February, Bachmann was back to drawing media attention with her appearances. She really does have a knack for making statements that tell in a few quick words how wrong both her priorities and her facts are. “We’re running out of rich people in this country,” is just one of those perfect gems. Bachmann made the comment to protest the stimulus package. The emphasis on the rich instead of those suffering from our current economy shouldn’t need any comment. Not that that stopped people. Dump Michele Bachmann collected many of the links to the outrage.

Bluestem Prairie has the audio clip and was inspired to evaluate Bachmann’s claim that the stimulus package was a conspiracy to direct funds away from Republican districts. Is anyone surprised to discover that Bachmann’s district would be the district best served by the package? Actually, the people who voted for her probably would be. Unsurprisingly, there was even more silliness to the interview, including unfounded allegations about ACORN, fact-checked by CNN. The Huffington Post was moved to collect reader suggestions for things Bachmann would believe if they were printed on the internet (a game also played later by Gawker).

February also brought Bachmann’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and her question, “I just wondered that if our founders thought taxation without representation was bad, what would they think of representation WITH taxation?” Not to mention her applauding RNC chair Michael Steele with the words, “You be da man!” Seriously.

TPM felt the need to end their post on her words with, “And no, this is not from The Onion.” The City Pages offered her some tips to keep her slang up to date. Greg used her words about taxation as an opportunity to talk about levels of understanding, or in this case, levels of misunderstanding.

Whew. That’s a long way to go to catch up with Bachmann, but we’ve finally reached March. Submitted to a Candid World has a nice summary of March in Bachmannland that brings us up to the ides, but most of the fun has really been in the past week or so. So what’s the representative with the crazy eyes been up to lately? Whoo, boy.

There is, of course, the “armed and dangerous” comment. If you’re not already familiar with her exact remarks, Dump Michele Bachmann has the full audio. Some people are calling this sedition and suggesting that, by her own standards, Bachmann should be censured. Bachmann’s representatives are calling her words merely metaphor, although Jefferson was certainly not speaking metaphorically. Prendergast at Dump Michele Bachmann makes a good case that Bachmann meant every word. Crooks and Liars also sees her statements as part of a pattern–paranoia in this case. Athenae at First Draft explains why claiming that Bachmann’s language is metaphorical doesn’t make her statements a whole lot better.

Then there were the questions to Geithner and Bernanke on the constitutional basis for the bailout. There’s a bit of disagreement about which is the worst part of her questions: the fact that she didn’t know without asking that the Constitution states that Congress authorizes spending or the fact that she didn’t understand that her question was being answered. I’m going for the first one, not just because she really should know, but because I believe her questions are merely the echo of a broader, conspiracy-mongering movement.

Truly, the scandal here is that she doesn’t know this, any more than she understands the basis for U.S. currency or the currency used in international trade. After all, as a commenter pointed out at Dump Michele Bachmann, not only is she on the House Financial Services Committee, “in fact it’s been your ONLY committee assignment for your entire tenure in Congress.” Not a quick learner, that Bachmann. Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that she doesn’t “show up to your own committee hearings.”

Whatever the case, Bachmann first pressed both Geithner and Bernanke to pledge to keep the U.S. dollar as our country’s currency. Both were perplexed, but neither thought it was anything but a good idea. Of course, the issue under discussion isn’t the U.S. currency, but the reserve currency used for trading between nations. The difference isn’t rocket science, and if Bachmann needed someone (besides her fellow committee members) to explain it to her, she could have turned to one of our local alternative news weeklies. Or a local liberal blog. Or any of a number of blogs elsewhere. Or the Treasury Department’s release on the state of the U.S. reserves. Or the largest local daily paper. Or a national news outlet. Or anything or anyone connected to reality.

But no, instead Bachmann has proposed a constitutional amendment to keep America safe for the dollar. And last night, she did an interview with Glenn Beck to explain why it was necessary. Think Progress has this excerpt.

BACHMANN: As you know, Russia, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, many nations have lined up now and have called for an international global currency, a One World currency and they want to get off of the dollar as the reserve currency.

BECK: Most people don’t understand, Michele, what that means.

BACHMANN: What that means is all of the countries in the world would have a single currency. We would give up the dollar as our currency and we would just go with a One World currency. … If we give up the dollar as our standard, and co-mingle the value of the dollar with the value of coinage in Zimbabwe, that dilutes our money supply. We lose control over our economy. And economic liberty is inextricably entwined with political liberty. Once you lose your economic freedom, you lose your political freedom. And then we are no more, as an exceptional nation, as we always have been. So this is imperative.

Forget what the rest of the world is actually saying, Bachmann is pushing this as a conspiracy theory. That’s My Congress puts this in the context of existing currency conspiracies, and Dump Michele Bachmann ties this to her apocalyptic religious beliefs. It’s Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly who really ties everything together, though, and it’s to him that I give the final words of this carnival.

Now, Bachmann simply isn’t well. Were she not an elected member of the U.S. Congress, she’d probably be shouting conspiracy theories and holding cardboard signs on some sidewalk somewhere. But what I find especially interesting is that her paranoid delusions are so detached from obvious truths. If Bachmann wanted to complain that a 39.6% top rate was the epitome of Marxism, she’d be just another conservative. But she’s convinced herself that the Obama administration will “move us to an international currency,” due entirely to her breathtaking stupidity.

My fear, at this point, is that lunacy from deranged politicians and their media allies is going to end up getting someone hurt. Republican officials believe they should emulate the insurgency tactics of the Taliban. They see themselves as “freedom fighters” taking on the “slide toward socialism.” They want a “revolution” because Americans “can’t let” Democrats succeed in taking away “our very freedom.”

This is obviously madness, not from some right-wing blog, but from elected federal officials. But I worry it’s more than that. Incendiary rhetoric like this leads strange people to do strange things.

Red River Valley discuss flood plans

As Red River Valley communities prepare sandbags and supplies for spring flooding, forecasters are warning they could face another significant storm.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Frazier said a major storm system tapping into moisture from the Indian Ocean is expected to hit the Northern Plains late this week. Forecasters are still determining its track and whether it will be rain or snow, he said.

Star Tribune

Sandbagging operations shift into high gear

The race to fill 1.5 million sandbags to fight what could be record flooding has shifted into high gear with the addition of 225 National Guard soldiers and more cutting-edge equipment.

Volunteers were being bused in to Fargo’s “Sandbag Central,” a city utility building the size of a football field normally used for housing garbage trucks. About 130,000 sandbags were produced on Friday, and the operation went into 24-hour mode on Saturday.

MPR

Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg: We’ll lose this round

Joe Friedberg, the star attorney who gave the closing arguments for Norm Coleman last week in Minnesota’s Senate trial, predicts his client won’t prevail in the election contest without appealing to the state Supreme Court. When the current three-judge panel rules, Friedberg told a local radio audience, ”Franken will still be ahead and probably by a little bit more (than his 225-vote margin in the recount).”

Minnesota Independent

Did Coleman attorney ‘concede defeat’ or ‘eye appeal’?

Thursday’s statement by Norm Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg has generated plenty of interest at local blogs and national news sites alike, mainly for his opinion that it’s “probably correct” that Al Franken will come out on top when the three-judge panel hearing Coleman’s Senate election contest rules. USA Today responded by asking, ““When can we call him ‘Sen. Franken?’” And while local media have run matter-of-fact heads for the story — like MinnPost: “Norm’s lawyer: We’ll lose” — one outlet launched its story with a bold proclamation, only to replace it with a blander version within the hour.

Minnesota Independent

Michele Bachmann: I Want People “Armed And Dangerous” Over Obama Tax Plan

Asked about the White House-backed cap-and-trade proposal to reduce carbon emissions, Bachmann told WWTC 1280 AM, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”

Huffington Post

Obama’s green plan: lessons from Minnesota

Minnesota and other Midwestern states are several steps ahead of the federal government in addressing the emissions, which scientists blame for climate change. Their experience suggests that real gains can be made.

MinnPost