Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has derided Obamacare as “tyranny,” the “crown jewel of socialism,” and “unconstitutional,” trumpeted her presence in the halls of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., to await the epoch-making SCOTUS ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — the signature legislation of Barack Obama’s first term as president. The Supreme Court upheld the law 5-4.

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Summary: At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, former President Bill Clinton said that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s assertion that the United States has the best health care system in the world is not true and that the new crop of Republicans in Congress are living “in a parallel universe divorced from reality with no facts.” Clinton was responding to comments Bachmann made during her Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 10, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Marines fired smoke rounds and armored vehicles maneuvered close to Taliban positions to test insurgent defenses ahead of an anticipated attack on Marjah, the biggest militant-controlled town in southern Afghanistan.

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Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, is calling the 2010 health care reform law — derisively labeled “Obamacare” — “the crown jewel of socialism.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 19, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Taliban militants struck in the heart of the Afghan capital of Kabul, launching suicide attacks at key government targets in a clear sign the insurgents plan to escalate their fight as the U.S. and its allies ramp up their own campaign to end the war.

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Summary: An Associated Press-GfK poll finds disapproval over President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has subsided, with fewer than one-third of respondents strongly opposed to the law and only about one in four saying they want to do away with “Obamacare” completely. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 17, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that despite Pakistani protest, the Obama administration was ramping up its missile campaign against insurgent targets in North Waziristan along Pakistan’s northwest frontier with Afghanistan, where al-Qaida’s top leadership, possibly including Osama bin Laden himself, had taken refuge.

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Summary: “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews” — Part 6: How the New Right Exploits the Media. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 12, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that six Baghdad-area churches were bombed within 24 hours on July 11-12, 2009, killing at least four people and wounding 32. Iraq has lost more than half of the 1.4 million Christians who once called it home, mostly since the war began in 2003, and few who fled have plans to return.

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Summary: “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews” — Part 5: The Rhetoric of the New Right. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 11, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that violence had spiked in Iraq after U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas; that British military deaths in Afghanistan had surpassed their casualties in Iraq; and that the U.S. abandoned the Bush administration policy of destroying opium poppies in Afghanistan.

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Summary: “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews” — Part 3: The Tea Party Movement. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 9, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that declassified notes of FBI interviews with Saddam Hussein in 2004 proved Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003, but that Saddam falsely allowed the world to believe Iraq had WMD because he feared revealing his weakness to Iran, the hostile neighbor he considered a bigger threat than the U.S.

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Summary: “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews” — Part 2: A Deep Dislike for Barack Obama. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 8, 2009 Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases.

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Summary: “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews” — Part 1: Don’t Tread on Me. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 7, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that seven U.S. troops died in three attacks in Afghanistan, on the same day that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, issued new guidelines limiting the use of airstrikes against residential compounds and other locations likely to produce civilian casualties, alienating Afghan villagers and causing loss of support for the Afghan government and the international mission.

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Summary: The growing fear among some citizens of losing their rights and freedoms has created a political backlash toward the U.S. government and manifested itself in violent rhetoric and anti-government groups who want to “take their country back.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews takes a hard look at the recent surge of anger on the political right in “Rise of the New Right: A Hardball Documentary with Chris Matthews.” In this blog entry, Aubrey Immelman chronicles the rise of rightwing extremism in America following the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States in November 2008. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 16, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea threatened a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” if provoked by the U.S., but that U.S. officials were downplaying any imminent threat to the United States of a North Korean missile strike or confrontation between the two countries at sea.

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