Michele Bachmann on O'Reilly Factor: 'I Have a Very Broad, Extensive Background'

Update to my birthday wishes for Representative Bachmann.

From Christian Heinze, "Bachmann: Why I'm qualified to be president" (via Memeorandum):

RELATED: At Cubachi, "Bachmann: We have a strong opportunity to make Obama a one-term president."

Happy Birthday Michele Bachmann!

Congresswoman Bachmann was born April 6, 1956.

Readers can sign her birthday card here. Her election homepage is here.

And check Jonathan Chait (FWIW), "How Michele Bachmann Could Win," and Josh Marshall (same warning), "Is She Unstoppable?"

Unions Made Wisconsin Judicial Election a Referendum on Walker's Budget Reform Bill, and They Still Couldn't Put It Away

And since the election's too close to call, progressives will likely steal a victory in the end. See Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Supreme Court race still too close to call, Kloppenburg has narrow lead":

As of 9:45 this morning, the Associated Press had results for all but 5 of the state's 3,630 precincts and Kloppenburg had taken a 311 vote lead after Prosser had been ahead most of the night by less than 1,000 votes.

That close margin had political insiders from both sides talking about the possibility of a recount, which Wisconsin has avoided in statewide races in recent decades. Any recount could be followed by lawsuits - litigation that potentially would be decided by the high court.

The razor-thin result was the latest twist in Wisconsin's ongoing political turmoil. The state has drawn the attention of the nation in recent weeks because of the fight over a controversial law sharply restricting public employee unions, which caused massive weeks-long protests in the Capitol, a boycott of the Senate by Democrats and attempts to recall senators from both parties.

Interest groups on both sides had portrayed the election as a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker's agenda and particularly on the collective bargaining law. Conservatives backed Prosser, and liberals supported Kloppenburg, even though the candidates themselves insisted they were politically neutral.

As this race goes to recount, conservatives should keep two words in mind: Al Franken.

Ed Morrissey has more, with special attention to the left's epic underperformance:

The recount process may take weeks or even months, depending on who wins the official tally and how hard the other fights. In Minnesota, we have some experience with recounts, of course, and the one that finally settled the 2008 Senate campaign between Al Franken and Norm Coleman took until the following summer to conclude. It’s an easy bet that the unions have already begun to flood the zone with lawyers to assist in the recount and cash for operations supporting Kloppenburg. If anyone in Prosser’s camp wants to heed the lessons of the Minnesota recall, calls should be going out today for a similar effort — and probably should have started a week ago or more.

But the unions have a bigger problem. Many gave Prosser little chance of holding his seat in this off-year, otherwise sleepy election, as unions organized fiercely to unseat him before the state Supreme Court could hear the challenge to Scott Walker’s law. Given the usual lack of turnout for April elections in off years, the organizing power of the unions should have been overwhelming, and Prosser should have been toast even in less-progressive areas of the state. Instead, Wisconsin voters thundered to the polls to support Prosser, and Kloppenburg turned out to do poorly outside of Dane and Milwaukee counties — and even in Milwaukee, Kloppenburg led by just a 57/43 margin.

What should have been a slam-dunk if Walker’s proposal was really as extreme and disaffecting as unions claim turned out to be an even split. Given their power and the investment of time and money by the unions, this is an eye-opening stumble.

Photo Credit: Ann Althouse.

RELATED: "Recount may not be able to start for weeks" (via Memeorandum).

Rough Language, Gay Sex Restored to James Jones' From Here to Eternity in New E-Book Edition

No doubt Scott Eric Kaufman will be thrilled.

At Los Angeles Times, "Profanity and more to be found in uncensored 'From Here to Eternity' e-book":

When James Jones published "From Here to Eternity" in 1951, his editors had pulled back some of the frank language and description in his original draft. The resulting novel, which chronicled the drinking, brawling and illicit affairs of soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the months before Pearl Harbor -- was a titillating, critically acclaimed bestseller. The 1953 movie, which starred Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, got a similar reception, winning eight Oscars, including best picture.

Now, a new e-book edition of the novel will include the profanity and mentions of gay sex that were left out of the 1951 version. The uncensored "From Here to Eternity" is being published by Open Road Media and Jones' heirs, including daughter Kaylie Jones.

"It's been on my mind for quite a few years, and the right moment just hadn't come up yet," Kaylie Jones told the New York Times. “My father fought bitterly to hold on to every four-letter word in the manuscript. The publisher was concerned about getting through the censors."

More at the link. James Jones was one of the greatest American novelists, homosexual sex scenes or not.

NewsBusted — Wisconsin Teacher E-Mailed Death Threats to Legislators

Via Theo Spark:

Portland State Muslim Students Association Boots Citizen Vlogger From Public Event

From Gabriella Hoffman:

Our greatest arsenal to expose the truth on campus is to film/capture footage of blatantly hurtful, anti-Semitic, anti-American, etc. things. We must not let anything slide or go unnoticed. If you’re in a public place, especially Library Walk or any free speech zone on campus, you have every right to film whatever lies before you.

Check out this video from a citizen journalist who went to an MSA meeting at Portland State University:

The MSA's organizing is based on lies. They support terrorism and they don't want any scrutiny. I said the same things to Hamzah Baig at UCLA, when he refused pictures, whining about how I was "harrassing" his people. Oh brother. That was just one more lie. It's all lies, like this dungheap of propaganda:

They will learn that Israel, the Jewish state, is a racist, colonialist, imperialist, apartheid country that was born from the "ethnic cleansing" of the perfectly innocent, indigenous Palestinian population that wanted nothing more than to tend their Sacred Olive Groves in peace when militarist Jews marched out of Europe in the middle of the twentieth century and shoved them off of land that their ancestors had lived on for hundreds of thousands of years... from time immemorial.

They will learn that Hamas, a genocidal organization that calls for the slaughter of the Jews and that owes an ideological debt to the Nazis, is actually a moderate organization that was elected by the good people of Gaza because they are not nearly so corrupt as Fatah, which, because it has considered peace with Israel, is clearly a sell-out to the Jews and the Americans... despite the fact that they rejected that peace and continue to incite hatred toward Israelis.

They will learn that of all the nations on Earth only one is worthy of total condemnation, the Jewish nation. They will learn that of all that states on Earth only one should never have come into existence, the Jewish state. They will learn that since the Jewish state should never have come into existence that it must be opposed on every level and eventually dissolved in favor of a 23rd Arab country.

I'm getting sick to my stomach at the ignorance and stupidity of this, and the minds that hate. And this is taking place at our public universities, where we're supposed to be enlightening and enriching. Even worse is that this is America!! God, they're Nazis!! And that's no lie!!

Union Leader Pledges 'Thousands of Dead Bodies' at Greater Boston 'We Are One' Protest

A report from Nicole J. Pearce.

She covered the Greater Boston Labor Council's "We Are One" MLK exploitation protest at the Massachusetts Republican Party headquarters:

Yesterday I was able to attend the We Are One rally in Boston. This video is of the closing remarks of the event by Greater Boston Labor Council leader Rich Rogers ...

And check Kimberly Morin, "Violent rhetoric from AFL-CIO union rally in Boston":

’And to the Republican party of Massachusetts, if you think this is gonna happen here, it is going to be over thousands of dead people’s bodies. If you think Wisconsin was anything, we need to stop these guys in their tracks now and kill their bills at the State house.”

Another fine example of civility brought to you by a union boss (who is also a Democrat). Death threats from a teacher in Wisconsin ; AFSCME threatening businesses; and a male Wisconsin Democrat State Legislator telling his Republican colleague ‘You’re f*cking dead’ because she voted YEA on Governor Walker’s budget bill . Is this the new tone of the Democrat Party? Or is this just the typical behavior that the Left and unions have been using for decades? Why isn't this violent tone being reported by the main stream media? ...

Well, goes against the narrative, of course --- especially on the anniversary of MLK's assassination. Crass hijacking of the King legacy. Supposed to be all Gandhian non-violence, dontcha know?!!

Progressive union dirtbag thugs. Get the word out on these ghouls.

Added: Linked at Blazing Cat Fur, "We'll at least he's up front about it."

Also, at Maggie's Farm, "Union Civility in Boston," and Lonely Conservative, "Union Leader to MA GOP: If you think this is going to happen here, it’s going to be over thousands of dead bodies."

Plus, at Weasel Zippers, "Mass Labor Leader Pledges “Thousands of Dead Bodies” If Republicans Attempt Wisconsin-Style Union Reforms…"