Reader Kate writes in to ask whether Bachmann — who told O’Reilly on Wednesday, “I don’t need government to be successful” — has ever received any kind of public assistance. One bit of government help we know her family has received is farm subsidies. As Karl Bremer reported at Eric Black Ink two years ago:

A 949-acre Wisconsin farming operation — in which Bachmann owns up to a quarter-million-dollars interest — collected $47,128 in federal farm subsidies between 2004-2005. That same operation—the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership — has collected as much as $127,868 in federal farm subsidies since the partnership was established in 2001…

…On her 2007 Congressional financial disclosure form, Bachmann lists “Bachmann Farm Family LP, Independence, WI,” as an asset with a value up to $250,000, that produced 2006 income of between $2,501-$5,000…

…Paul Bachmann has collected $127,868 in federal farm subsidies since he formed the Bachmann Farm Family Limited Partnership with Michele and possibly others in 2001, according to the Environmental Working Group.

But even if Bachmann didn’t show up on Olbermann’s show, she did get a characteristically feisty reply from the liberal MSNBC host. To Bachmann’s opinion that interest in her by news outlets like MSNBC is “almost like I have personal stalkers,” Olbermann replied:

“Having had an actual stalker myself, I think the Congresswoman needs to apologize to women (and men) whose lives are blighted and ruined by such terror and threat. Not even in the mildest of senses – of journalists whose aggressiveness might verge colloquially into ’stalking’ – is she anywhere close to being such a victim.”

Watch Bachmann on The O’Reilly Factor:

Photo: WDCpix

Bowing to pressure from some parents in the area, the superintendent of the Fergus Falls school district in west-central Minnesota is directing teachers not to show President Obama’s live “Back to School” speech to students next week.

The decision comes as a sudden national debate about the speech emerges. While some say the speech is unprecedented, in 1991 the roles were reversed: A Republican president gave a speech to school children that Democrats blasted.

Instead of airing the speech live, the Fergus Falls school district will tape the address and preview it first.

“It is always appropriate to preview curriculum, movies, videos, etcetera, before using them for instruction,” Supt. Jerry Ness wrote in a letter to parents on Thursday. “If the message stays in the spirit of its intent, faculty will have the option to use it at a future time and date when they feel it is appropriate as part of a lesson or to encourage their students.”

Ness continued, “Staff will be required to inform parents that this will be shown in their classroom and parents will be invited to attend or to allow your child to opt out of this lesson with no negative consequences.”

The decision not to show the speech live comes as a number of schools are dealing with irate parents who do not want their children exposed to Obama. “This kind of political access to the minds of our young people smacks of propaganda and Big Brotherism,” wrote one parent, according to the Washington Post.

Rep. John Kline, representing the southern suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, was named ranking Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee in June. He sent a letter to the White House on Wednesday asking that text of the speech be released for review before next week.

“While I commend the President’s focus on academic achievement and educational excellence, I believe this unusual approach to reaching out to our students would be improved if he provided parents and educators the opportunity to review the information in advance of the event,” said Kline. “This would allow teachers and families to make fully informed decisions and engage with students on this topic as they see fit.”

Conservative commentators have had a field day with the controversy. Sean Hannity said that “it seems very close to indoctrination.” Fox News commentator Monica Crowley said, “Just when you think this administration can’t get any more surreal and Orwellian, here they come to indoctrinate our kids.” High-profile blogger Michelle Malkin said that “the left has always used kids in public schools as guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda.”

And while many are calling Obama’s speech (and the resulting outrage from the right) unprecedented, it really isn’t. President George H. W. Bush held similar appearances with students, appearances that the Democrats blasted as “paid political advertising for the President.”

Fergus Falls’ Ness said in his letter that Obama’s “message will focus on studying hard, to have high aspirations and to be good students.”

But he added, “Our office has received a few calls about it from concerned parents.”

Update: Under pressure, Becker schools decide not to air Obama speech live

Minneapolis schools on Obama speech: ‘Motivating students is not controversial’

The winner of the straw poll was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, garnering 20 percent of the vote. He was followed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (14 percent), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (13 percent), Texas Rep. Ron Paul (13 percent) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (10 percent).

Of the 10 contenders on the ballot, Pawlenty outpaced only Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who’s become a heretical figure in the GOP for supporting the $787 billion stimulus package.

In another shocking CPAC polling development, Rush Limbaugh was voted the most popular media personality by participants, taking 26 percent of the vote. He easily outpaced Glenn Beck (17 percent), Sean Hannity (11 percent) and Bill O’Reilly (10 percent).

But isn’t Sarlin missing something here?

These books are intended to be satire. Whether you think they succeed or not, they hardly evidence how Franken might act upon becoming a senator. And most of the Franken critics that Sarlin cites — Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Bill O’Reilly — are hardly mainstream conservatives that swing voters are likely to take their cues from. Rather, they’re political pugilists whose sole purpose is to rile up the conservative base (and make boatloads of money).

If anything, the Senate campaign in Minnesota proved that merely attacking Al Franken as an ideolog and an interloper is not enough to convince voters to back the Republican candidate. Norm Coleman’s campaign attacked Franken incessantly throughout the contest — and it doesn’t look to have been a very successful strategy.

Over the past day, Gretchen Carlson, a co-host of “Fox & Friends” and the last Minnesotan to become Miss America (1989), invoked her local roots as part of a full-court press to put the issue – now an annual holiday tradition in its own right at Fox News — back on the national front burner. She started with a segment Wednesday morning on a controversy about a religious display at the Washington state Capitol. That night Bill O’Reilly, who has been working the latest wrinkles in this ratings-boosting war for at least a week, invited Carlson to appear on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Her gist: Freedom of speech is fine, but not on Christmas Day.

Transcript excerpts after the jump. Gretchen Carlson with Bill O’Reilly on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Dec. 10, 2008:

O’REILLY: So you were brought up in Minnesota, right?

CARLSON: Exactly.

O’REILLY: OK, now think back many, many years ago to when you were a child.

CARLSON: Thank you, Bill.

O’REILLY: I do that to everybody. None of this existed, correct?

CARLSON: No, my grandfather was a minister. So I have to – I’ll say that because I grew up spending a lot of time in the church.

O’REILLY: But none of it existed. There was no controversy over Christmas. …

CARLSON: We actually called it Christmas. …

O’REILLY: … What’s changed?

CARLSON: What’s changed is the whole politically correct environment that we live in. I’m all for people to have their rights of free speech. Just don’t choose December 25th to do it.

O’REILLY: Well, don’t be disrespectful. You can have freedom of speech without being disrespectful.

This morning, Carlson’s “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy picked up where O’Reilly left off in trying to talk her down.

DOOCY: We’ve got to be tolerant of people who celebrate holidays in December, like Ramadan [sic]. We’ve got to be tolerant. You’ve got to be tolerant of all people.

CARLSON: I am tolerant. I’m all for free speech and free rights, just not on December 25th.

Easy. You and I pay for it.

Bachmann has built an impressive communications staff in Washington, D.C. She has a press secretary for national media, a press secretary for local media and a “new media director” who harnesses “the networking and outreach power of the internet.”

According to congressional salary data, none of Minnesota’s Congress members has more than one press secretary. Minnesota’s most influential members, Democratic Reps. James Oberstar and Collin Peterson, who chair the House Transportation and Agriculture committees, respectively, each have only one press secretary.

Bachmann’s fellow freshman colleagues, Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison and Tim Walz, each have just one communications lead, and Walz has combined the communications director and district director positions into one entity.

Bachmann’s critics say she has engaged in a self-promotion campaign at the expense of her constituents in the 6th District. In September, the DFL Party criticized Bachmann for her four appearances on CNN’s “Larry King Live” while she was refusing to respond to an invite to a candidate forum in Scandia.

Instead of town hall meetings and constituent gatherings, Bachmann spent the last year engaging in tele-town hall meetings, a system for cold-calling members of the district.

She hasn’t held one public meeting in the district since being elected in 2006, instead opting for meetings with chambers of commerce or relying on robo-calling.

However, she has been on “Larry King Live” seven times in the last three months. Not to mention Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, Bloomberg, Fox’s Neil Cavuto and CNBC’s Squawk Box.

I tried to reach Bachmann’s office and campaign for a list of public events in the district in just the past two months, in the off chance I’m wrong about the lack of public appearances she’s made in the district. None of her three communications staffers has returned my request.

Strib land bids due: Bids, due yesterday, on the Star Tribune’s five blocks of prime downtown Minneapolis real estate are expected to go for as much as $4 million or $5 million per acre, for a potential sale price of $60 million, the Pioneer Press reports. Strib owner Avista needs it: according to an Avista document uncovered by the St. Paul paper, the Strib is the worst-performing company in its portfolio.

Pentagon analysts deliver on MSM: Media Matters follows up on the New York Times expos