Summary: The real problem with Michele Bachmann is not her self-centeredness, her unresponsiveness to the needs of her constituents, her meager legislative accomplishments, or even her voting record; it’s her delusion-like paranoia, her shameless conspiracy-peddling, and her incessant fear-mongering. Now it has been revealed that Bachmann’s contact with reality is even more tenuous than previously thought, with the discovery that Bachmann had asked the Minnesota Secretary of State to remove her name from the publicly available voter registration records under a legal provision designed to protect past or potential victims of domestic abuse. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 23, 2009, Aubrey Immelman, in a public service announcement, provided information about the upcoming 2009 St. Cloud-area Veterans Day Parade.

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Summary: Today’s St. Cloud Times has a letter to the editor in which the letter writer offers a broad-ranging indictment of 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). The letter writer characterizes Bachmann as self-centered, unresponsive to the needs of her district, meager in her legislative accomplishments, and shirking the hard work of effective governance. But it’s not until the end of the letter that the writer touches on what I consider the real problem with Bachmann: her delusion-like paranoia, her shameless conspiracy-peddling, and her incessant fear-mongering. This post contains excerpts from the letter annotated with added content for background context. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 21, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that the tragedy of war came home to Minnesota with news that five service members with local connections had died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is proposing an essentially socialist solution to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, favoring a government takeover of the clean-up effort and suggesting the federal government should seize citizens’ private property in its power grab. Bachmann’s socialist proposal clearly constitutes a degree of government overreach that would be nothing less than tyranny and gangster government. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 4, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden released two messages to convince Muslims they should hate President Barack Obama, in a PR offensive that analysts said showed the terrorist organization worried the new president would succeed in improving America’s image in the Muslim world and undermine the group’s jihad, or holy war.

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Summary: On yet another of her many out-of-state political appearances, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) spoke to Hamilton County Republicans in Cincinnati, Ohio. Media reporting with added background context. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Salem-News.com published a commentary on Rep. Michele Bachmann by Dorsett Bennett, a self-described “Independent/Libertarian.” “There’s no point in trying to fact-check such unhinged stupidity,” writes Bennett, “but I should note that none of this is in any way grounded in reality. I should also note that we’re not talking about some strange nut screaming on a street corner; this is all coming from an elected member of Congress.”

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Summary: At a political forum in Rochester, Minn., U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann makes the wild claim that the president’s health reform proposals, beyond being “the crown jewel of socialism,” could lead to “gangster government” and “absolute abject corruption,” with people terrified to speak out against the government for fear of being blacklisted for denial of health care. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 3, 2009, Aubrey Immelman highlighted some Afghanistan-Vietnam parallels: A president, eager to show his toughness, vows to do what it takes to “win”; the nation we’re supposedly rescuing is no nation at all but rather a deeply divided, semi-failed state with an incompetent, corrupt government held to be illegitimate by a significant portion of its population; the enemy is well accustomed to resisting foreign invaders and can escape into convenient refuges across the border; there are constraints on America striking those sanctuaries; neighboring countries may see a chance to bog America down in a costly war; and there is no easy way out.

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Summary: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is making headlines in the British press, where she is touted as “a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota who is being hailed as a new and increasingly powerful voice in American politics.” Excerpts from an article by Paul Harris, New York-based correspondent for The Observer and The Guardian, supplemented with annotated critique. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 16, 2008, I reported that racial incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are shattering the postelection illusion of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America. There have been “hundreds” of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

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Summary: Video montage of the bizarre Rep. Michele Bachmann’s more memorable televised statements of the past year, accompanied by the soundtrack of the song “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 23rd day of his 2008 campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman provided a forum for Sauk Rapids resident Jason Krueger, who volunteers as the Minnesota representative for the Fluoride Action Network, to express his views on the issue of water fluoridation. As a public service announcement to help draw attention to the sacrifice of National Guard citizen soldiers serving in Iraq and the families they leave behind, Immelman featured Part 4 of the Associated Press series, “The Longest Deployment” (the story of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard and its tour of duty in Iraq).

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Comprehensive summary and documentation of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s extremist rhetoric, incendiary demagoguery, and misrepresentation since her 2008 reelection to the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.

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