Michele Bachmann apparently has a new political director for her presidential run in Iowa, state senator Kent Sorenson, author of a "birther" bill. He and Bachmann agree on a number of issues. Tim Murphy, writing in Mother Jones, lays out the Bachmann-Sorenson plans for a new America. A sad old America, really. A decrepit, clunky America dominated by conspiracy theories.
Introduced in early March, Sorenson's bill, SB 368, would require "birth certificates to be filed with affidavits of candidacy for presidential and vice presidential candidates." The legislation, which died in committee, was one of more than a dozen similar pieces of legislation that have been filed since the start of 2009, arising from the conservative conspiracy theory that President Obama was born in Kenya and is therefore not eligible for office. (The President was born in Hawaii and has released a birth certificate, which you can view here). Sorenson has not commented publicly about the legislation and could not be reached for comment.
But that's not the only conspiratorial view Sorenson shares with his would-be boss. He's also sponsored SF 347, a bill that would designate silver and gold as legal tender in the state of Iowa. The bill, which asserts that Iowa's economic downturn has been "caused in large part" by the use of federal reserve notes as currency instead of precious metals, would more or less return the state to a gold and silver standard. Taxes, for instance, would be calculated in silver and gold coins, rather than standard US dollars.
With, I guess, IRS agents trained to test the value of payments with their teeth?