Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) campaign for a leadership spot in the new Congress as Republican conference chair seems to be floundering as establishment Republicans close ranks around her opponent, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 9, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported on the 7th anniversary of the unsolved disappearance of St. John’s University student Joshua Guimond.

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Summary: The Center for Public Integrity reports that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) wrote behind-the-scenes letters requesting stimulus funds from the federal government. “Porkulus” Bachmann repeatedly badmouths “the failed Pelosi trillion-dollar stimulus,” yet slinks back when she thinks no one is watching to grovel for pork. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 19, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the father of Army Spc. Stephan Mace, killed in action near Kamdesh, Afghanistan, when several hundred Taliban fighters armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked and nearly overran Combat Outpost Keating, said the U.S. was “fighting a war with too few people” and that the troops at Kamdesh were “sitting ducks.”

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Summary: Independence Party (IP) gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner visited St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud Technical and Community College, and St. Cloud Hospital, followed by a fundraiser at the Holiday Inn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 16, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that bombs hidden in plastic bags exploded at a market in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 19 — the latest in a series of bombings targeting Shiites and minorities that have killed more than 160 people in one week.

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Summary: The 2010 election cycle’s first poll in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District race for U.S. Representative has been released. The survey, conducted December 17-20, 2009, shows 53% of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s constituents approve of the job she is doing. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 22, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that the brother of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, claimed al-Zeidi’s apology letter was written against his will after he was tortured in detention. The shoe-throwing incident received worldwide media coverage and al-Zeidi became a potent symbol for opponents of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

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Summary: Calling on supporters to descend on Washington to protest health care reform, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann resurrected the Ghost of Political Stunts Past. Bachmann pulled similar publicity stunts five years ago while crusading in the Minnesota state Senate for a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 14th day of his write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman drew attention to blogger Eric Zaetsch’s pointers for casting a write-in ballot and reported ongoing political wrangling and violence in Iraq.

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Summary: As though vying for the title of “World’s Greatest Exaggerator,” U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, U.S. Fearmonger-in-Chief, this week made the histrionic claim that by next fall “someone’s 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back, and go home on the school bus that night … [with] Mom and Dad … never the wiser.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 23rd day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, provided an October 2008 update of key facts, figures, and statistics on Iraq since the war began in March 2003. He also reported on suicide bombings at two Shiite mosques in Baghdad that killed 24 people and wounded more than 50, a missile strike by a suspected U.S. drone in the northwest Pakistan tribal region near the Afghan border, ongoing violence in Iraq, and the reduction of U.S. military deaths in Iraq as Iraqi security forces increasingly take the lead in counterinsurgency operations.

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Summary: Media reports of former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel’s Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 15th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on the downing of a U.S. drone amid strains between the United States and Pakistan over cross-border incursions; the attempted assassination of the Kabul police’s head of criminal investigations in Afghanistan; and security incidents and U.S. casualties in Iraq.

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Summary: Veteran journalist Al Eisele of the Capitol Hill newspaper, “The Hill,” made astute first-hand observations of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s behavior from the gallery at President Barack Obama’s Sept. 10, 2009 address on health care reform before a Joint Session of Congress, reporting, “I’ve never seen anyone display the disdainful attitude toward a president as Bachmann did.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the third day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported that the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan on September 11 brought the year’s death toll to 112, surpassing the 2007 record toll of 111 and making 2008 the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded the country in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He also reported that Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, “I’m not convinced we are winning in Afghanistan.” In Iraq, followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demonstrated against plans for a U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement, burning U.S. and Israeli flags.

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Summary: First, Michele Bachmann testified that God told her to run for Congress. Then she said she would run for president if called by God. And now, she claims Democrats want to take her down because they fear she could become the first woman president of the United States. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on Primary Election Day, the 57th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman called on 6th District citizens to exercise their right to vote and featured some photos chronicling his final campaign swing through the Sixth District the previous day, down the I-94 / Highway 10 corridor from St. Cloud to Blaine.

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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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