Michele Bachmann

• Good As You smartly asks when the Associated Press will start caring about the way OneNewsNow misuses its articles.
• Vanity Fair examines Sarah Palin's disastrous VP run and tries to understand ""why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency?"
• Think Progress notes that Rep. Michelle Bachmann might have a legitimate reason to fear the Census.
• Media Matters reports that Dick Morris has fully joined the black helicopter crowd.
• Steve Benen points out that its hard to find common ground with anti-choice activists when they are against every effort to find common ground.
• The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that Mississippi State Sen. Lydia Chassaniol was the "surprise guest" at the Council of Conservative Citizens' annual conference, where she was introduced as “the right hand to the Governor [Haley Barbour].”

• Who would have ever guessed than an Answers in Genesis special “State of the Nation” program entitled "The Collapse of Christian America" would be so boring?  Not me, which is why I made the mistake of watching it.
• John Hagee says God will judge America for pressuring Israel.
• The Census Bureau tries to set Rep. Michelle Bachmann straight.
• Rob Schenck calls on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign.
• Alan Keyes blasts Republicans who are outraged by Sanford's actions, saying they are no better and "by their silence and inaction on Obama's eligibility for the presidency, have forsworn their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution."
• Gary Bauer on "when gays attack."
• Alveda King proves once again that any and every news story can serve as a hook for a press release decrying abortion.
• Rep. Randy Forbes has been awarded the Distinguished Christian Statesman Award.
• Basically, the Right's opposition to Sonia Sotomayor seems to stem primarily from bitterness over the defeat of Robert Bork.

• Steve Benen reports that S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford has apparently been found. I thought for sure he had "gone Galt."
• David Weigel reports that Rick Santorum doesn't think Republicans should try to filibuster Sonia Sotomayor.
• Speaking of Sotomayor, Jamison Foser points out that the Washington Times seems to be taking an active role in opposing her nomination.
• TPM reviews the new Michelle Bachmann comic book.
• Autumn Sandeen notes that the Traditional Values Coalition continues to use the pejorative "she-male" when it discusses transgender issues.
• Campus Progress offers this profile of Randall Terry.
• Think Progress notes that Obama and Hitler have a lot in common, at least according to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County.

• Our condolences to John Amato on the loss of his father.
• Our best wishes and congratulations to Jeremy and his husband.
• Emily Douglas at RH Reality Check points to NPR's Nina Totenberg setting the record straight on Sonia Sotomayor's temperament.
• Think Progress notes that the Right is blaming President Obama for the election conflict in Iran while praising President Bush's policies for leading to reform.
• The Southern Poverty Law Center covers the arrest of leader of Minutemen American Defense (MAD) who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder Friday for her alleged role in the May 30 slayings of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter in Pima County, Ariz..
• So, is America like England in the 1930s or Germany in the 1930s? Media Matters reports that the Washington Times can't seem to make up its mind.
• As TPM says, maybe Rep. Michelle Bachmann is just waiting for God to tell her to run for Governor.
• Finally, a lesson from Steve Benen in how not to apologize for racist remarks.

• Gov. Bobby Jindal has not yet decided whether to accept an invitation to this year's Values Voter Summit.
• Carrie Prejean is getting some unwelcome attention, which she claims is an attempt to belittle her Christianity.
• Rep. Michelle Bachmann seems to generate a lot of press coverage mainly because journalists "write about the planes that crash, not the ones that land safely [and] Michele just happens to be a plane that crashes a lot — often more than once a week."
• Randall Terry vows further disruption at Notre Dame.
• Is there a Birther civil war brewing?
• Utah Sen. Chris Buttars has gotten a spot on the Interim Senate Judiciary Committee which "is responsible for hearing the bills that are presented in the judiciary and passing or defeating or amending those bills," despite being booted from the same committee a few months ago for his anti-gay tirade.
• While we are all for encouraging and rewarding active Seniors, we probably wouldn't be naming someone Senior Citizen of the Year for starting a local chapter of Concerned Women for America.
• Finally, how soon before we start hearing the Right scream and yell about the US military destroying these Bibles?

• Gary Bauer says DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano should be fired not only for the recent report, but also because of her unwillingness to enforce U.S. immigration laws.
• Politico reports that Ed Gillespie and Whit Ayres are launching a new group called Resurgent Republic, which is aimed at shaping the debate as the party regenerates itself for the upcoming elections.
• Janet Porter says that if hate crimes legislation is passed, then we'll be unable to criticize radical Islamic terrorists and all end up dead.
• Rep. John Fleming says that he has grave concerns "about the very sharp turn to socialism that’s happening in our government" because "where you see socialism, you see a decline in Christianity and religion in general."
• Scott Wheeler claims that Republican Jim Tedisco's loss to Democrat Scott Murphy in the special election for the 20th District in New York is proof that Americans don't like Barack Obama.
• Can Michelle Bachmann go one day without saying something moronic?  Apparently not.
• The Faith and Freedom Institute seems quite pleased with itself in announcing that it has drafted a "21st Century Declaration to Reclaim America" that will be "distributed to The White House and all U.S. Representatives and Senators." If they ever actually release the text of it or put it up on their incoherent website, we'll be sure to report back about what it says.

It seems as if not more than a day can pass without Rep. Michele Bachmann making news with some new conspiracy theory about how Democrats in Congress and the White House are out to destroy this nation … and here she is again warning that the expansion of the AmeriCorps program will lead to indoctrination camps for young Americans:

It’s under the guise of — quote — volunteerism. But it’s not volunteers at all. It’s paying people to do work on behalf of government. …

I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education 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.

Bachmann just barely survived her re-election bid last November after calling for investigations of members of Congress in order to "find out if they are pro-America or anti-America” and has gone on to establish herself as one of the most incoherent, least stable public figures in recent memory.   

But apparently the National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez and right-wing radio host Mark Levin think that what the conservative movement and the GOP need are more candidates like Bachmann – at least according to Lopez’s most recent column based around Levin’s new book” Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto”:

When the actions of a Republican president set the scene for the current commander-in-chief’s CEO firings, we need a new level of attention from all Americans. In Levin’s words, we need “a new generation of conservative activists, larger in number, shrewder, and more articulate than before, who seek to blunt the Statist’s counterrevolution — not to imitate it — and gradually and steadily reverse course. More conservatives than before will need to seek elective and appointed office, fill the ranks of the administrative state, hold teaching positions in public schools and universities, and find positions in Hollywood and the media where they can make a difference in infinite ways.”

We appear to be living in a paradigm shift, in which the government is taking over in unprecedented ways. If you’re uncomfortable with what you’re seeing, get to work.

There are countless examples of citizens who have shared Levin’s concerns at one time or another throughout America’s history and have gotten involved in politics because of them. One of Levin’s contemporary favorites, as anyone who listens to his radio show knows, is Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. She’s someone the Left loves to hate; in fact, left-wing groups pulled out all the stops in their attempt to defeat her last year. She got involved in politics a decade ago after one of her foster children (she and her husband have taken care of 23 over the years, in addition to raising five children of their own) came home from high school with a poster to color for math class, instead of serious homework. She realized there was something wrong with the public-school standards in her home state and got involved in improving things. Her efforts would eventually take her to the state senate and, now, the U.S. House of Representatives. Ask her about it and you’ll get the sense of a woman who is thinking not about an office but about her country.

Talk to Bachmann about politics and the future, and it is clear that she has “liberty and tyranny” on her mind (both literally — she cited the book on Sean Hannity’s show — and foundationally). What she says seems to stem not from political ambition but from those concerns that got her into politics in the first place. She views herself as a back-bencher with an opportunity and a responsibility at a crucial time in American history. She’s a former federal-tax-litigation attorney who now sits on the Financial Services Committee. Also a small-business owner and an educational entrepreneur (she helped found one of the first charter schools in the country, which is still running), Bachmann brings a breadth and depth of experience to Washington that Gotcha! sound bites do not do justice to.

At a moment when the conservative movement is in disarray and the GOP is floundering, Lopez and Levin are suggesting that the best course of action is to rally its Bachmann-like members to take action and get involved in politics at various levels all over the country?  

And they wonder why they keep losing elections.

• David Neiwert reports that Bernie Goldberg doesn't trust dictionaries because they have a liberal bias.
• Something tells me that the Media Research Center is wishing it hadn't asked Joe the Plumber to accept an award at its 2009 gala.
• Media Matters catches Tammy Bruce calling the Obama's "trash" on Laura Ingraham's radio show.
• Pam says that Michael Steele doesn't seem to understand what the First Amendment is all about.
• Truth Wins Out reports that Robert Knight has landed at Coral Ridge Ministries, where he is already having a "deleterious influence."
• Will Michelle Bachmann ever stop embarrassing herself?  Will Sarah Palin?
• A lot of people wrote about Assemblyman Jim Tedisco obligatory apology to Rush Limbaugh, but I'm liking to this post about it at Firedoglake because it had a brilliant title.
• Bill O'Reilly and crew remain as classy as ever and are now stalking bloggers at Think Progress who are on vacation.
• Finally, AU has a good post about the Family Research Council's response to the Obama administration's decision to endorse a UN Declaration on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. FRC says the US should have instead stood with the 58 countries who issued a counter-statement to the UN declaration - among those on that list are Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Libya, Zimbabwe , Sudan, and Iraq.

UPDATE: Here is the actual footage of her saying it:

 Here is the footage from the end of Michael Steele's address to CPAC where, according to CNN, event moderator Rep. Michele Bachmann told Steele he was “da man"

“Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man,” she said.

Unfortunately Bachmann's remark is drowned out by the applause and music.