It Pays To Be Insane

Iowa has lost its mind, via John Cole.

Rep. Michele Bachmann has been gunning for the support of Iowa voters, the first in the nation to vote for their party’s presidential nominees, and it looks like her efforts may be paying off. 

The conservative congresswoman finished first among the GOP presidential candidates in a poll released today by The Iowa Republican, a blog which bill itself as News for Republicans, by Republicans. Bachmann received support from 25 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 21 percent, putting Bachmann’s lead within the poll’s 4.4 percent margin of error.

In other words, Michele Bachmann has gone crazy, had her husband call gays "barbarians" and then it broke that he was trying to "cure the gay", then she signs a pledge that includes the delightful fallacy that is "black people were better off under slavery because more had two parents than now."

For this, she is rewarded with the lead in the Iowa caucus polls.  I have to tell you, the other 75% of the Republicans in Iowa?  Your party has gone insane.  If we have really gotten to the point where Michele Bachmann is a viable candidate for anything other than "Craziest Person in America" then we deserve the country's destruction, because there is no saving us from ourselves at that point.

Bachmann Has Another StupidiLeak

Michele Bachmann doesn't give a damn about anything our country stands for.  Education, freedom, choice, or Miranda rights for anyone suspected of terrorism.

The thing about rights is everyone has them.  That's what makes them rights, not options.  We should lead by example or be honest about ourselves.  Pretending to be holier than everyone and sinking to new lows is not going to make the problem go away.  If you are right, you know it because you don't have to cheat the system.  Any person detained should know why and a basic understanding of what they can expect.  If we are so obviously right under the circumstances, what do we lose by playing fair?

Michele Bachmann: "This is one thing we know about Barack Obama. He has essentially handed over our interrogation of terrorists to the ACLU. He's outsourced it to them. Our CIA has no ability to have any form of interrogation for terrorists. When the bomber -- or the attempted bomber over Detroit, the underwear bomber -- was intercepted, he was given Miranda warnings within 45 minutes. He was not an American citizen. We don't give Miranda warnings to terrorists, and we don't read them their rights. They don't have any."

In fact, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the "underwear bomber" who attempted to blow up a plane on Christmas Day in 2009, was not told of his right to remain silent until after he had stopped talking to law enforcement officials.

As the Los Angeles Times reported in February 2010, "The source said that Abdulmutallab was not read his rights until he made it clear that he was not going to say anything else."

Conservatives have frequently criticized Obama for allowing suspected terrorists to be read their Miranda rights. But the practice is not exclusive to Obama: President George W. Bush did the same thing.

In December 2001, Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber," was "read or reminded of his Miranda rights four times in two days, beginning five minutes after being taken into custody."

You don't deserve rights unless Michele Bachmann approves of you.  What would happen if this troll of a woman ruled the country?  If you don't like her religion, if you don't agree with her, if you don't meet her standards, do you deserve rights?

If you think being a terrorist makes it different, think again.  It could also be people who are merely  suspected of terrorism.  Which, as the GOP has repeatedly shown, is anyone who doesn't fit their description of ideal.  And if they don't have enough dirt on you, they can abuse the Patriot Act to dig until they get it.  There's no layer to protect you or make sure your rights as a citizen are enforced.  In fact, Bachmann makes it clear she views the ACLU as the enemy, and using the totally incorrect but trendy word "outsourcing" to discredit those who stand up for the little guy.

In other words, how she plans to treat terrorists does void our most basic declarations of justice, freedom and due process.  The other news is it's also how she plans to treat the rest of us.

Bon Calls Mushrooms On Michele Bachmann

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is the hot seat for allegedly stealing a coveted email list in order to target Iowa voters.

The Iowa Republican reports the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators sent an email to its members saying Bachmann's campaign used their email list without permission.

"I want to apologize on behalf of the NICHE Board and advise you that we discovered that our list of homeschool contacts was uploaded without our knowledge or permission by the Michele Bachmann Campaign and used twice for e-mails from her campaign," Justin E. LaVan, president of NICHE, said in an email to its staff.

LaVan told the Des Moines Register he's unsure how the campaign got hold of the emails addresses, which belong to thousands of homeschool families, advocates, donors, vendors and businesses.

They don't know how it happened. I bet not. How does one steal thousands of email addresses? None of the answers look good. Including the Bachmann response, which says it was "inadvertent" and that is so far their only statement. Which part is that, exactly? The part where they were obtained illegally without permission, or the part where it was used to send messages to gain an unfair advantage? If it's the latter, was it an accident the first or second time?

I've called bullshit on her so many times I can't bear to do it again. I'm calling mushrooms! Mushrooms blossom on big piles of bullshit, so it seems appropriate.

Bachmanniac Fought The Law

And the law won.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is going a step beyond simply pledging to fight efforts to pass the health care bill -- she's openly pronouncing that people should personally declare it unconstitutional and defy it, depending on how it ends up getting passed.

At a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday, Bachmann declared illegitimate the potential route that House Democrats could take to pass the health care bill. She was specifically railing against a parliamentary tactic by which the House could skip voting on the Senate bill by declaring it passed as part of the reconciliation bill. Bachmann pronounced this to be taxation without representation. "They have just started a revolution -- and they did it," said Bachmann.

"But mark my words, the American people aren't gonna take this lying down," Bachmann later said. "We aren't gonna play their game, we're not gonna pay their taxes. They want us to pay for this? Because we don't have to. We don't have to. We don't have to follow a bill that isn't law. That's not the American way, and that's not what we're going to do."

To recap, Michele Bachmann, sitting lawmaker in Congress, is advocating open rebellion and revolution against a bill Congress may soon pass into law because...she doesn't like paying for it.  An active member of the federal government is preaching the illegitimacy of that government.  Process questions aside, she's a government employee actively telling people to not pay taxes and not follow the law.  Isn't that, you know, illegal?  Can you imagine the calls for resignation from the entire right wing noise machine if a Democrat went to a rally and said the same thing about legislation Bush passed into law?

At what point does Bachmann resign in protest from the government she so clearly despises?

At what point is she forced out by a Minnesota public embarrassed to have as representing them?

Bachmann Lies Again. Pretend To Be Surprised.

Yahoo News covers Bachmann's newest load of BS:

In several urgent fundraising appeals, Rep. Michele Bachmann falsely claims that biased “liberal judges” redrew her congressional district “in retaliation for repeatedly standing up to President Obama.” The truth is that only two of the five judges were Democratic appointees, and Bachmann’s Minnesota district has become even more Republican than it was before.

It’s true that a bipartisan panel of judges redrew district lines and placed the town where Bachmann lives in an abutting district represented by a Democrat. But she has chosen to again run in the 6th District, the one she has represented since 2007. And she doesn’t even have to move to do that.

I guess I have to change my constant gripe that she can't do anything without working "Obamacare" into the conversation.  But she can still blame everything on him whether it makes sense or not.  I mean, he has nothing better to do than mess with the (snicker) devastating threat that is Michele Bachmann.

But that’s certainly not the impression Bachmann leaves in the email when she states: “As the TEA Party Caucus Chairwoman in the U.S. House and one of President Obama’s sharpest critics, the Democrats are licking their chops over Minnesota’s new political map and will spend MILLIONS to defeat me.”

Delusions of grandeur, methinks.

A Whopper So Big The Village Called Her On It

The fact that Republicans keep getting invited on Sunday political talk shows when they have no credibility is a travesty only magnified by the microscopic number of times they get called out on it.  But every blue moon a Republican tells such an astonishing lie that the Village is forced to say something our of sheer self-defense.

Today was one of those days.  Naturally, the Republican liar?  Michele Bachmann.

The Minnesota congresswoman told Fox News' Chris Wallace that NATO airstrikes had killed up to 30,000 civilians in the country.

"People should be outraged at the foolishness of the president's decision," she said. "He said he wanted to go in for humanitarian purposes and overnight we are hearing that potentially 10 to 30,000 people could have been killed in the strike. Those are some of the reports."

"The NATO strikes killed 10,000 to 30,000 people?" an incredulous Wallace asked.

"A report that came out last night from the Tripoli ambassador said that potentially there could be 10,000 to 30,000," Bachmann insisted.

"You mean the Libyans?" Wallace pressed.

"Yes," Bachmann replied.

And keep in mind, this is FOX News that can't stomach this egregious lie that NATO has killed 30,000.

In fact, the tea party-backed lawmaker seemed to be referring to a statement made by U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz last week.

Cretz had said that U.S. officials believed that 10,000 to 30,000 had been killed by fighting between Gaddafi forces and the rebels, not NATO airstrikes.

To his credit, Wallace corrected Bachmann in a later segment.

"I just want to clear up, because we looked into what Michele Bachmann had been saying. She quoted the U.S. ambassador to Libya saying 30,000 people had been killed in the NATO strike so far. In fact, what Ambassador Gene Cretz said is that he estimated that 30,000 people had been killed by all sides in the entire conflict. That includes the rebels and the Gaddafi forces. So big difference," he said.

So Bachmann comes on FOX News Sunday and declares NATO has murdered 30,000...something that not even FOX News could let go by.

And yet Bachmann is a "serious" candidate for President that the Sunday shows will have on again and again.

Bachmann Goes All Judge Mental, Part 2

Wow, I didn't think I'd get to use that post title again so quickly, but as Bon pointed out the other day, Michele Bachmann really doesn't give a damn about reproductive choice or women's rights.

The kicker?  She was asked about abortion.  Little Miss "government shouldn't control what isn't in the Constitution" flipped at that point.  When it comes to a woman's choice about her body, Bachmann folded like Superman on laundry day, and said she would do everything in her power to restrict abortions.  Just like that.  How our kids are taught should be left up to the small government.  The reproductive choice of millions of women is up to Michele Bachmann.  And the little twit still doesn't understand the concept of choice or freedom, as she illustrates with this little nugget of dumb.  Like with the rest of the Tea Party, your choices only matter when it fits their plan for how you should live.  If you dare believe differently, you don't deserve protection by law. The only choices you should have are the ones they give you.

And given a chance to "clarify" her opinions on women's reproductive rights before Wednesday's debate, Bachmann threw everyone with a uterus under the bus yet again. 







Bachmann basically said that as President, she would sign a bill that directly overturned Roe v. Wade, and would dare the Supreme Court to do something about it.

That's how Miss Limited Government, who thinks Obama is a dictator and a thug, would run her administration.  She doesn't deserve to be in the same room as the President, frankly.

Just About Done

At this point Michele Bachmann's all but wrecked campaign is relying on outright falsehoods in order to generate momentum.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is a candidate for President and a tax attorney, as she is fond of saying. Her website describes her experience as “five years as a federal tax litigation attorney, working on hundreds of civil and criminal cases.” However, that fact didn’t seem to help her in on the campaign trail in Iowa on Saturday.

The Des Moines Register reports that Bachmann, speaking at a campaign appearance in Ottumwa, said “The average amount of taxes that the average family (paid) was 5 percent overall,” in 1950, as way of saying that the tax burden in America has gone through the roof.

There was only one problem with that argument: the overall tax rate in 1950 was five times that much, and that rate is only a little over three percent higher now.

Yes, she thought nobody would bother to check or to question her, because in the Age Of FOX News, facts are whatever Republicans want them to be at the time.  It wasn't the only thing she lied about in Iowa this weekend, either.  Of course it's not like anyone really likes to fact check Republicans, because then you get called all sorts of names, so it's just a "miscalculation" on her part and not a deliberate lie:

The Bachmann campaign responded this afternoon that the 5-percent figure comes from the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, and that Bachmann has cited it for several years.

This evening, a campaign spokeswoman provided two documents that she said were the sources Bachmann relied on when making her comments. The spreadsheets, which contained no information identifying their source, show federal, state and local tax receipts as a percentage of the United States’ gross domestic product over the last several decades.

So of course she's magically correct by comparing "tax burdens" to GDP (which is like comparing apples to 18th century Hungarian cabinetmaking) and if you challenge her numbers, you're a horrible person and SHUT UP THAT'S WHY.

Watching Them Squirm Trying To Be In Two Places At Once

Michele Bachmann's Tea Party Caucus has backfired miserably for pretty much everyone who's not Michele Bachmann.  Plenty of Republicans want to pretend to support the Tea Party (in fact they have to or they will be expunged from the party, ask Sen. Bennett of Utah or Rep. Inglis of South Carolina what happens if you don't) but going on the record as a member is sure to bring up the specter of the dreaded Hoffman Effect.

As a result, every Republican in the House just got put on the hot seat...join the caucus or else...and so far it's looking like the "or elses" are winning hands down.  Steve Benen reports on the kickoff meeting:

As the overlap becomes formalized, Republicans may want to remember what it is the party is enveloping. At yesterday's gathering, Mark Meckler, a leader of a group called the Tea Party Patriots, tried to distance their efforts from "fringe" elements.

Soon after, speakers of the rally accused Democrats of "21st-century Marxism," compared President Obama to Hugo Chavez, and complained bitterly about "socialism."

That, we're supposed to believe, isn't "fringe" at all.

We also learned yesterday precisely what Republicans/Tea Partiers are concerned about when it comes to their collective public image: "Members of the freshly minted House Tea Party Caucus spent their first day trying to quash accusations that they represent a racist movement." Given the frequency with which it came up, the right-wing activists seem pretty sensitive about the allegations. (One speaker insisted, "We are not terrorists," though I'm not sure anyone has accused this crowd of terrorism.)

As for the caucus itself, as of late yesterday, the House Tea Party Caucus reportedly has 29 members, with a membership list that's nearly identical to that of the right-wing Republican Study Committee. There is, however, some ongoing controversy on this front -- some of the members included on Bachmann's list of caucus members hadn't formally given their permission to be included in the group.

Damned if you do in the general election from the Hoffman Effect, purged from the party by the Bennett Effect if you don't.  I'm sure many Republicans in the House want to "thank" Michele Bachmann right about now.

Your Civics Lesson For Today

Last week when New Jersey high school sophomore Amy Myers challenged Michele Bachmann to a debate over the US Constitution, I thought "Well, Bachmann's in trouble if she takes her up on the offer...and in trouble if she doesn't."  Granted, it's a bit of a gotcha moment there, like Stephen Colbert's "Better Know A District" interviews but I figured Bachmann would send the young woman a signed copy of the Constitution from the Capitol gift store or something and move on.

What I didn't count on, and should have, was the reaction of Bachmann's unhinged followers.

A New Jersey teenager says she's received threats since challenging U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to a debate over the Constitution.

Ann Myers challenged the tea party favorite in a letter dated April 29. After it started getting media attention last weekend, commenters on tea party websites have threatened to publish her home address and some have threatened violence.

The 16-year-old from Cherry Hill says several commenters have called her a "whore."

Her father, Wayne, says he's concerned for his daughter's safety. 

Hey, stay classy, internet conservative trolls picking fights with 16-year old girls and giving them the granite countertops treatment.  Threatening to release her address?  Yeesh.

Are we that terrified of exposing Bachmann's ignorance?  She does that on a weekly basis by herself.  There's no excuse for this kind of nonsense, but somebody called Bush "Hitler" once so it's justified.

Bachmann Has A StupidiLeak

WATERLOO, Iowa - Back in her hometown Monday, Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann waxed nostalgic for an era when people were responsible for purchasing their own insurance, rather than being tethered to an employer for coverage.

"When I grew up here in Iowa, we owned our own health insurance. We didn't necessarily have it from our employer," she said.

Uh, Michele? People still have that choice. The reason they go for employer coverage is because that way they can actually afford the coverage. Companies get breaks and enhance competition among insurance providers, letting them provide them at he lowest possible price to employees who choose to utilize those benefits. One would think Bachmann doesn't realize private health insurance is an option we already have. She likes to pretend she is adding a choice when in fact she wants to take one away. Not the first time she's tried this approach.

"I think you should be able to own your plan, so your employer doesn't own it - you get to own it, and you buy it with your own tax-free money," Bachmann responded. She added, "You should be able to set aside whatever amount of your income you need to purchase the kind of health care you need for yourself, for your family."

Hey, if my employer owning my insurance policy means I pay a lot less for it and have better access, I'm all for that. People should be able to set aside whatever amount of income they want.  And we should also be able to afford housing and food, but real world economics don't always allow that.  It would put health care into the same category as other services the middle and lower class cannot afford.

Not that she cares about them.

[Zandar here.  Speaking of Michele Bachmann...]



[These are Republicans, folks. All science is fiction to them.]

Michele M. Bachmann Will You Please Go Now?

The party's over for the Bachmanniac as the floundering Republicans eat their own ahead of January's primaries.

"It's time for Michelle [sic] Bachmann to go," reads the first line of a statement from American Majority President Ned Ryun. His group operates in seven states, trains thousands of tea party supporters and is "liked" by over 371,000 people on Facebook.

"Bachmann, the leader of the so-called tea party caucus in the House and the most vocal about her affiliation with the Tea Party than any other Presidential candidate, has consistently presented herself as a champion of the movement and its values," Ryun's statement continued.

"Bachmann has ridden her tea party credentials from obscurity to a national platform like no other."
Bachmann campaign manager Keith Nahigian responded in a statement.

"The strength of the Tea Party is all individual's opinions are valued but the no single leader speaks for it. Mr. Ryun, who supports Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is entitled to his own opinion. And that's exactly what he is expressing. Michele Bachmann enjoys strong support from Americans across party lines and that certainly includes the Tea Party. She will continue to be a strong advocate for the values and principles reflected by the Tea Party as works toward a victory in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses as she seeks to win the Republican nomination."

Ryun denies he supports Perry, telling CNN: "I liked his plan that he came out with earlier in the week. And I said as much in a blog post. But I have not, and neither has American Majority endorsed anybody."

American Majority's rebuke of Bachmann marks the first time a well-known tea party group has turned on one of its own in the presidential race – a candidate who so frequently pushes tea party values it's become a key underpinning of her White House bid.

Republicans are quickly realizing that the media smokescreen about the "conventional wisdom that President Obama is doomed" is so much bullpucky, and that the President's numbers remain steady while the Republicans are falling on their faces.  President Obama continues to lead head to head match-ups with any Republican, time and time again.

Bachmann's own numbers have dropped off a cliff.  Republicans are clearing the decks of the crazies because they're realizing if one of them is allowed to win the primary, they lose to Obama.  The problem of course is all of them are crazy.

Forever And Ever, Amen

Via BooMan, Michele Bachmann gives away the plan should Republicans retake the House and/or Senate in November: endless investigations of Obama.

Should Republicans take back the House in November, Rep. Michele Bachmann said she wants the GOP to focus all of its attention on issuing subpoenas and holding hearings investigating the Obama administration and Democrats.

“I think that’s all we should do,” Bachmann said at the GOP Youth Convention in Washington on Thursday. “I think all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that has gone on."

Bachmann said that Republicans have all their chips on the table in November. “This is the year — this is it,” she said.

Clinton's second term all over again.  Just what we need:  these idiots fiddling while America burns.  Think of it, endless Birther hearings, endless subpoenas on everything the GOP disagrees with, press conferences daily about how "concerned" Republicans are, the White House guest list, the Shirley Sherrod firing, and all that building up to a critical mass that will absolutely end in impeachment.  And that's just for starters.  Meanwhile, don't expect the GOP-led House to try to move any legislation other that constant attempts to repeal everything Obama has done and then shut down the government over the deficit.  That'll help the economy.

They're giving the game away because they're confident you'll let them do it.  Won't it be fun with the Republicans back in charge?

There's a choice to make in 2010, folks.  Ask yourselves if Bachmann's vision of endless hearings is what you want, because that's what the GOP is offering as a "solution".

Last Call

Can we finally stop pretending that Michele Bachmann was ever a serious candidate for anything?

Michele Bachmann has had her fair share of foreign policy stumbles, but she just hit a whole new level.

According to a tweet from NBC News’ Jamie Novogrod, Bachmann responded to the recent raiding of the British embassy in Iran, by saying that if she was President, she would close down the U.S. embassy there.

There’s just one problem: The U.S. has not had an embassy in Iran ever since the Iranian hostage crisis, when revolutionaries from the budding Islamic state held 52 Americans for 444 days. Indeed, frustration over this helped bring down Bachmann’s bete noire Jimmy Carter by defining his presidency as weak. The two countries have not had official diplomatic relations since that time. Furthermore, President Obama’s short-lived offer of outreach “without preconditions” was a critical part of Republican attacks against his foreign policy.

"Complete ignorance" doesn't begin to describe the woman on one level, and yet it describes her perfectly.  She is so completely, totally, perfectly unqualified for the White House that it pains me to see her having entered the race in the first place, if only to remind us that a functional representative democracy needs at least two functional parties.

The Republican party right now?  Broken.  I'm not sure it can be repaired. At the very least it's going to need a total overhaul.

And here's the kicker:  Even if Bachmann never actually said this, she's still so one hundred percent not qualified for President based on al the other idiotic things she has said, that not even the Republicans are paying attention anymore.

Michele Bachmann Cries Like A Little Girl

Grow up, lady.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) apparently isn't happy with the apology she received from NBC after a vulgar song was played during her recent appearance on "Late Night" with Jimmy Fallon.

As Bachmann walked onstage, the show's band, The Roots, played a 1985 Fishbone song titled "Lyin Ass B----."

Bachmann called the incident "inappropriate, outrageous and disrespectful," and accused NBC of liberal bias. "This wouldn't be tolerated if this was Michelle Obama. It shouldn't be tolerated if it's a conservative woman either," she said on Fox.

Of course she isn't happy with the apology. She hasn't milked it to death. NBC was gracious enough to issue an apology, but she can get more mileage if she keeps beating the dead horse.

"Of course I accept the apology but my guess is that it would have been the president of the NBC that would have been apologizing not a senior vice president," had the song been directed at a liberal woman like Michelle Obama, she said.

I mean, it's only outrageous when you play a song, but not when you're telling outright lies about other candidates.  It's not disrespectful when you disparage the working class voter and tell them they don't deserve a solid education.   It's not inappropriate to tell millions of women what their health care options should be so that other people can be comfortable with their medical decisions.

Nice of her to know what would be tolerated if it was Michelle Obama.  I think it's great how Bachmann knows what might have been.  Because NASCAR fell all over itself apologizing for their rudeness recently, right?  But did the president of NASCAR apologize?  I'm sorry, I have to stop.  Just saying president of NASCAR is making me giggle.

That's it.  I'm writing a song called Stupid Assed Bitch and emailing it to Fallon.  Then they can get it dead right.

Michele Bachmann, Meet My Friend "Reality"

Michele Bachmann is at it again.  This time she is criticizing Obama's plan to help ease student loan debt.  Of course we all know Bachmann is no fan of education, saying she would "do away with" the Department of Education if elected, even going so far as to call the DOE unconstitutional.  It's to the Tea Party's advantage that the future voters have no fancy learnin' so they can see through their copious bullshit.

Let us begin.

Bachmann starts by calling Obama's decision to move the action up by two years as an "abuse of power" and goes on about how he is dooming taxpayers.  Well, not quite.  This was already passed and slated to take place in 2014.  The only change is with the date it takes effect.  So which is a greater abuse of power, moving up aid for young people who desperately need it (freeing up money to put back into the economy) or overruling that aid if elected? 

She then warns of dire repercussions for taxpayers.  Another load of Tea Party BS.  Taxpayers will not shoulder the burden, and the loans still must be repaid in full.  The point is to lower required payments from 15% of income to 10% that must be paid, which allows graduates in a struggling economy to have money to put into housing and other necessities.  Taxpayers won't be footing any of the costs, so that's a direct lie, either out of malice or ignorance on her part, I don't know.  The Huffington Post verifies this as well.

Bachmann has also gone on record saying she would lower minimum wage to compete with overseas labor.  In a different interview she said she would consider eliminating it altogether.  For someone with so little respect for education, she doesn't seem to understand that she is dooming young graduates to choose between an education they can't afford and a job that won't keep them fed and sheltered.  I know, let's have her try to exist on the current minimum wage and see how well she holds it together.  Let's see how $250 a week feeds her family and what kind of home she would be able to afford.  I want to know how her financial expertise helps her when there is no money.

She then goes so far as to call Obama's assistance a "moral hazard" because "there is a morality in keeping our financial promises, and I don't think we should push that off onto the taxpayer.  The individual needs to repay and be responsible for repaying their student loan debt."  Umm... except the students will be paying their debt, and taxpayers will not be responsible for anything.  So where is the moral hazard?  I think it's the idiot talking out of her ass without checking the facts.

Dance, puppet, dance.  Or better yet, somebody get this clown off the stage already.

Village Idiots, Rumble "B" Edition

Politico's Ben Smith notes that Michele Bachmann's campaign staffers have had an unusually high incidence of physical confrontation with the press...but that's not the point.

In less than two months since entering the 2012 race, Bachmann’s campaign staff has become embroiled in at least five unusually hostile encounters with the traveling media marked by pushing, shoving and, in one instance, the allegation of a threat of violence to a reporter.

Some of it has unfolded in full public view: Bachmann aides’ tussles with the press have twice turned into news stories, once when veteran ABC News reporter Brian Ross was shoved and pushed by Bachmann staffers in South Carolina and on a second occasion when Bachmann’s husband and two staffers pushed CNN’s Don Lemon into a cart, producing a furious on-air complaint.

In another incident that did not make the air, a camera captured Fox News correspondent Steve Brown telling a bodyguard in Iowa, “Do not put your hands on me. Don’t ever do it again.”

A foreign reporter also alleged to POLITICO this week that an aide threatened to break his arm — an allegation the Bachmann campaign denied.

The point is not the violence, real or implied, but the fact that the notion of Beat The Press here is A) beneficial to Bachmann as Tea Party red meat ("the liberal media is the enemy and should be treated as such") and B) also beneficial to Villagers like Ben Smith ("we're kind of important, dammit!").  Stories like this are in fact mutually beneficial to both sides, so you can expect Bachmann's staff to continue to act like goons towards the press because the it makes the press into the story, and the press really, really loves that.

In other words, it's professional wrestling, only with suits.  All fake.  All for drama and numbers.  Ben Smith knows damn well this story will encourage Bachmann staffers to pick fights, and will also encourage Villagers to in turn pick fights with Bachmann.  Quite the incestuous relationship.

This is the Village's idea of "adversarial press" and I don't believe it for a second.

Last Call

Taylor Marsh argues that Michele Bachmann is a real threat to Obama in 2012, because she's friendly and empathetic.  Yes, the Bachmanniac is friendly and feels your pain.

Mrs. Bachmann is touching on a real problem for Pres. Obama, which is he just doesn’t connect emotionally and it is his style, but it manifests in the feeling that he doesn’t seem to get what’s going on with people. His recent interview with Ann Curry I highlighted that sounded like he wanted a second term for the sake of it is another part of this problem.

Marsh's proof of this?  Why the words of Karl Rove and John Hindraker, of course.

Going against your type is the strongest counterweight to reveal depth of purpose, if not character. This is the most interesting move from Bachmann, revealing her camp not only gets it’s the economy that is the Right’s best weapon, but that the human element of tapping into the emotions driving how people feel about the economy is something she and her team gets, too.

There are a lot of women out there in Republican primary land who are sick to death of the men running their party. The boys’ club better take Hinderaker’s advice to start paying attention. 

Bachmann's policies of course are besides the point.  It's all about touchy-feely stuff, and Americans just aren't smart enough to handle policy positions.  So once again we're back to cold, unfeeling, overly intellectual Obama (or the GOP equivalent of cold, unfeeling, incredibly stupid Obama) and policies don't matter a damn.

Yes, we're to the point where" progressives" are asking why Obama can't be more like Michele Bachmann.  Awesome.

From The Mouths Of Babes

Michele Bachmann was put in her place by a little boy.

Michele Bachmann was left speechless after an awkward encounter with a young activist named Elijah at a Chicago area book signing.

As seen in the below video, the Republican candidate and Tea Party darling greeted the soft-spoken eight-year-old at a meet-and-greet event for her new book, "Core of Conviction: My Story," which was released last month.



"My mommy -- Miss Bachmann, my mommy's gay but she doesn't need fixing," Elijah said to Bachmann, after some lighthearted coaxing. A dumbfounded Bachmann then shoots the boy's mother an icy look before the pair walk away.

For someone who hates to look stupid, she does it so well!  If she had any reason, any logic-backed argument at all, she could have said something.  Instead she hides behind religion and slaps people in the face with her "wisdom" that they do not deserve recognition and rights under law.  She deserved this.

Bachmann Birther Overdrive

Yesterday I mentioned that Hawaii Democrat Rep Neil Abercrombie was going to bring a resolution to the House floor recognizing the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. The best part was that the resolution described Hawaii as the "birthplace of President Barack Obama", possibly having to put dozens of Republicans on record that they recognized Barack Obama's legal birthplace in America and that he was indeed an American citizen (and throwing the Birthers under the Hawaii tour bus while at it.)

The resolution came up for a voice vote, which wouldn't have put the Republicans on record or anything, but would have gotten them off the hook and out of the neat little trap that Abercrombie laid for them.

Only, one Republican walked right into the trap and dragged the rest of her party along with her by objecting to the voice vote: good ol' Bachmanniac.

This afternoon on the House floor, Abercrombie spoke of his measure and specifically noted that Obama had been born in Hawaii. “It’s also going to be the birthday in a week or so of President Obama, born in Kapiolani hospital just down the road from where I lived,” he said. Just as the presiding chair of the House, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), was about to declare the resolution passed by voice vote, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) stood and objected:

BACHMANN: Mr. Speaker? I object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. [...]

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD): Further procedings on this motion will be postponed.

Nice. And I'm sure GOP Rep. Bill Posey of Florida is writing a big thank you card to Shelly there, because he had to go on record to vote for the Hawaii resolution as Jeff Fecke continues the saga.

Well, the roll call vote was taken, and Our Michele voted aye — congratulating Hawai’i and implicitly agreeing that Barack Obama was not born in Kenya. Indeed, 378 Representatives voted in favor of the resolution, and none voted against it. And of the 55 not voting, only 16 were Republicans. Indeed, even House GOPers who have played wink-wink-nudge-nudge with the birthers, like Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., voted to support the resolution.

One would think this would lay to rest, once and for all, the bizarre notion that five decades ago, a massive conspiracy was carried out to make it look like Barack Obama was actually born in America instead of hatched from an alien pod, so that some day he could run for president (the proof is in the name he was given — Barack Hussein Obama. A name as American as baba ghanoush) and then govern as a center-left, mainstream Democrat. But of course, one would think the fact that we all actually saw airplanes fly into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, would have convinced everyone that those towers were actually destroyed by, you know, airplanes. Or the fact that Tim McVeigh confessed would have convinced people that the Clinton Administration did not actually blow up the Murrah Federal Building. But conspiracies have a tendency only to strengthen in the face of facts. And so while the House unanimously rejected the birther theories today, don’t expect that to stop Lou Dobbs from talking about it tomorrow. That’s just proof that the Republicans are in on it, too. Or that they really don’t want Biden as president.

We salute you, Michele Bachmann, Real Congresswoman Of Genius. Without you, the Birthers in the GOP might have been able to slide under the radar without having to go on record as agreeing that Obama was an American citizen. But thanks to you, we now know that the House unanimously believes he is.

So here's to you, Shelly. You've done America a huge favor. No. Really. She has. (Well, not if you're a Birther...)