“China has widespread intellectual property theft of United States’ intellectual property. Don’t forget that,” Bachmann told Ingraham. “They’ve also been engaged in industrial espionage against the West as well. And they actively have engaged in cyber attacks both on our military and on our commercial companies.”

“And don’t forget I sit on the intelligence committee. This is an open source document. I’m not sharing something I shouldn’t,” she said, “but China has blinded United States satellites with their lasers. They’ve also supplied arms to the Taliban, and they’ve helped North Korea deliver missiles to Iran and Pakistan. And they’ve assisted Iran with their nuclear program.”

“Just keep these things in mind when it comes to China, they are a very bad actor,” she added.

China is suspected in a massive hacking incident uncovered last month.

Chinese-made weapons have also turned up in Afghanistan, but most intelligence experts have noted that they came from nation’s friendly to the U.S. such as Pakistan, or through adversaries such as Iran, not through direct sales from China.

And the United Nations has accused China of allowing North Korea to transport weapons to Iran, though China denies it.

As for the claim that China blinded U.S. satellites with lasers, in 2007, U.S. officials announced that a laser had “illuminated” one of its satellites over China. The satellite was unharmed and in the ensuing months, more satellites were hit.

As the Union of Concerned Scientists outlined in its 2009 report on the incident (PDF), the laser was likely deployed to track the orbit of the satellites, something many nations do, which causes no damage to the satellites’ sensory equipment.

Potential presidential contender Herman Cain told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham that he wouldn’t allow Muslims to serve in his administration and that, because Rep. Keith Ellison took his oath of office on the Qur’an instead of the Bible, he supports Sharia law above the Constitution. Cain, a Republican, said that American law is based on the Bible.

“I want people in my administration that are committed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States,” said Cain. “I don’t want any inkling of anybody in my administration who would put Sharia law over American law. I have not found a Muslim that has said that they will denounce Sharia law, you know, in order to support the Constitution of the United States.”

Cain, who was the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and former chair of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, formed an exploratory committee for the Republican nomination in 2012.

Ingraham asked Cain, “So Keith Ellison you think would be more in favor of Sharia law than the Declaration of Independence?”

Cain said, “Didn’t he take his oat on the Qur’an instead of the Bible? Am I wrong in that?”

“I think you are correct in that,” she said. (To be precise, it was a copy of the Qur’an owned by Thomas Jefferson.)

Cain continued, “This is my point. If you take an oath on the Qur’an, that means you support Sharia law. I support American law. Our laws were derived from principles that are biblically based. Maybe not said in the same words that are in the Bible, but our laws are derived from principles based upon the Bible. This is why I’m not going to back down or pander to anyone who wants to call me xenophobic or a bigot simply because I said no. I don’t want anybody in my administration that I’m going to have to be looking over my shoulder to figure out if they are going to try to do something against the principles that I believe in which are also the principles that the majority, the overwhelming majority of the American people believe.”

Here’s the audio:

Rep. Michele Bachmann lashed out at First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday over her promotion of breastfeeding, particularly among black women, to curb obesity. On Laura Ingraham’s radio show, Bachmann said that Obama’s campaign — and an IRS change that makes breast pumps tax deductible — constituted a “nanny state” and that it was part of her “hard left agenda.”

Michelle Obama said last week, “We’re working to promote breastfeeding, especially in the black community, where 40 per cent of our babies never get breastfed at all, even in the first weeks of life, and we know that babies that are breastfed are less likely to be obese as children.”

The first lady wants to encourage employers to be more open to women who are breastfeeding. The IRS also announced on Tuesday that breast pumps are now considered as a tax-deductible expense for Flex Spending Accounts along with other over-the-counter medical items such as pain relievers, bandages and contact lens supplies.

But, on Ingraham’s show, Bachmann was having none of it.

“I think this is very consistent with where the hard left is coming from. For them government is the answer to every problem. Clearly they are wrong because more spending won’t do it,” she said.

Bachmann continued, “I’ve given birth to five babies and I breastfed every single one of these babies. To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies. You wanna talk about the nanny state? I think we just got the new definition of a nanny.”

Ingraham asked if she thought that Michelle Obama’s push for breastfeeding was an indication of a run for U.S. Senate.

“I think she is really committed to the hard left agenda, more than anything else. Can you imagine if Laura Bush was doing this? The media would be after her.”

And thanks to Bachmann they are after the first lady.

Megan Kelly of Fox News provided “Breaking News” on Tuesday morning about Bachmann’s statements immediately following her interview with Ingraham.

Fox contributor Sandy Rios said she had concerns about Mrs. Obama’s proposal because it’s being promoted in the African American community. Rios is the former head of the religious right organization Concerned Women for America and current head of the Culture Campaign, a group “dedicated to involving citizens in the culture war.”

“You have to remember that 75 percent of American women already breast feed,” said Rios. “We are talking about a problem that is specifically in the black community and so for you to change federal law and IRS regulations and start forcing businesses to make accommodations for nursing women to promote it in the black community is the problem that I have with it and I agree with Michele this is the nanny state on steroids.”

Photo: wdcpix.com

The ranks of GOP presidential rivals who poll higher than Gov. Tim Pawlenty may soon thin if doomsayers are correct about Mike Huckabee’s future. Pundits (and Republicans) say the former Arkansas governor is on the ropes for having granted clemency to the suspect (now dead) in Sunday’s Washington State cop-killing. Meanwhile, tea-leaf readers say a significant co-sponsorship of Pawlenty’s Dec. 16 speaking event in New Hampshire bodes well for his Granite State support.

By saying he wouldn’t have offered clemency in the Arkansas case (and never has, in Minnesota), Pawlenty didn’t spare Huckabee during an interview on Laura Ingraham’s radio program Monday.

On the show, T-Paw also shrugged off his sub-Huckabee showing in a Washington Post survey of support for likely GOP 2012 candidates. ”Nobody really knows who I am. That doesn’t surprise me or concern me,” said Pawlenty, making sure to plug his political action committee, Freedom First, by its internet address: timpawlenty.com.

Having scored political points back home by removing 52-inch flat-screen TVs from a state facility where sex offenders who have served their sentences remain confined, Pawlenty applied a TV analogy to the national health-care debate that again centered on screen size:

Laura, if I said to you or your listeners, please go home on your way home tonight from work, buy any television set that you want, any size, any features, any cost, don’t even look at the price, just send me and Mary Pawlenty the bill at the governor’s residence in Minnesota and we’ll pay for it, I mean, how many of your listeners would show up with a 12-inch black-and-white?

In New Hampshire, former U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley has signed on (along with eight other Republicans in the state Senate) as a co-host for a $500-per-person event that Pawlenty is headlining to benefit the state’s Republican Senate Majority Committee.

Bradley told CQ Politics it’s not an endorsement, although “We’re thrilled he’s willing to give up his time to visit our state.”

RedHampshire.com casts a skeptical eye, asking, “Does this visit count towards the traditional ‘I need to meet him 3 times before I support him?‘”