If anyone needs proof of the validity of the Daily Kos poll where movement Republicans boast of what callous, heartless, bigoted and delusional folk they are, just know this: Michele Bachmann is one of their biggest heroes right now. In fact, no less a conservative celebrity than George Will says that she’s “an authentic representative of the Republican base”.

Cabin Fever!!!

Featuring music of Ray Bonneville and The Strange Boys

I expect the political team at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. thinks that it might be a win-win. Either they get to sign a bill, no matter how ineffectual, and call it a victory, or they don’t get a bill, and can blame obstructionists in Congress or the flawed process during this year’s elections (and 2012, too). But it’s not going to go down that way.

Some possible sample questions for Tom Tancredo’s Civics Literacy Test to decide who gets to vote.

Yesterday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, its former Chairman Ken Lewis and CFO Joseph L. Price on civil fraud charges. Stay tuned as this could go big.

Brian Beutler reports that the Republicans are prepping to make sure no additional support for jobs gets passed next week. Meanwhile, Vice Chairman and third-most senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has been working on a deal–at least for tax credits for businesses that create jobs–with Republican Orrin Hatch.

Tom Tancredo welcomed the tea partiers with this language:

People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — name is Barack Hussein Obama.

There is no place in America for this type of racial and ethnic hate-mongering.

The Center for Community Change calls on Sarah Palin to cancel her key-note address to the conference in protest of this type of wrongheaded and hateful speech.

David Dayen already wrote this morning about how Sen. Richard Shelby’s attempt to block 70 Obama administration nominees over a couple of earmarks “does amount to what you would call a ‘teachable moment’ about the dysfunctional Senate.”

A confounding jobs report today shows that employers dropped 20,000 more Americans from the payroll in January, but the unemployment rate nevertheless decreased from 10% to 9.7%. This is about the worst way a jobless rate can decrease: by people leaving the job market en masse.