Michele Bachmann: Evil, Dangerous, Perverted Fanatic

I've been trying to spread the word on this woman for a long time. Bachmann is as sick, as demented, and as dishonest a politician as we have in America. She's also a threat to the very survival of this nation. Were she somehow to attain high office, it would signal the effective death of the American Republic and signal to the  broader world that the American age had passed. Think I'm exaggerating? Check this post from Michelle Goldberg at The Daily Beast right here if you doubt me. Excerpts:

(Bachmann shrieked that she was being held against her will when a lesbian named Pamela Arnold merely confronted Bachmann with questions in a public bathroom.) Lots of politicians talk about a sinister homosexual agenda. Bachmann, who has made opposition to gay rights a cornerstone of her career, seems genuinely to believe in one. Her conviction trumps even her once close relationship with her lesbian stepsister. "What an amazing imagination," marvels Arnold. "Her ideology is so powerful that she can construct a reality just on a moment's notice."


*****


Belief is the key to understanding Michele Bachmann, who announced her presidential candidacy during Monday's Republican debate. Her impressive performance, which catapulted her close to the front of the presidential pack, surprised some, who perhaps expected her to be as inarticulate as Sarah Palin, to whom she's often compared. But in Minnesota, even those who don't like her politics say she shouldn't be underestimated. "The fact that she's not a heavy lifter, the fact that she's relatively unconcerned about the substance of legislation, does not mean that she's not crafty, that she's not intelligent and she's not fast," says former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson, a Republican. Her ideological radicalism should not be mistaken for stupidity.


*****


On Monday, Bachmann didn't talk a lot about her religion. She didn't have to—she knows how to signal it in ways that go right over secular heads. In criticizing Obama's Libya policy, for example, she said, "We are the head and not the tail." The phrase comes from Deuteronomy 28:13: "The Lord will make you the head and not the tail." As Rachel Tabachnick has reported, it's often used in theocratic circles to explain why Christians have an obligation to rule.


Indeed, no other candidate in the race is so completely a product of the evangelical right as Bachmann; she could easily become the Christian conservative alternative to the comparatively moderate Mormon Mitt Romney.


*****


A key moment in her political evolution, as for many of her generation, was the film series How Should We Then Live by the theologian Francis Schaeffer, who is widely credited for mobilizing evangelicals against abortion, an issue most had previously ignored. A Presbyterian minister, Schaeffer argued that our entire perception of reality depends on our worldview, and that only those with the right one can understand the true nature of things. Christianity, he argued, is "a whole system of truth, and this system is the only system that will stand up to all the questions that are presented to us as we face the reality of existence." Theories or assertions from outside this system—evolution, for example—can be dismissed as the product of mistaken premises.


*****


At Coburn, Bachmann studied with John Eidsmoe, who she recently described as "one of the professors who had a great influence on me." Bachmann served as his research assistant on the 1987 book Christianity and the Constitution, which argued that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy, and that it should become one again. "The church and the state have separate spheres of authority, but both derive authority from God," Eidsmoe wrote. "In that sense America, like [Old Testament] Israel, is a theocracy."


Eidsmoe, who hung up the phone when asked for an interview, is a contentious figure. Last year, he withdrew from speaking at a Wisconsin Tea Party rally after the Associated Press raised questions about his history of addresses to white-supremacist groups. In 2010, speaking at a rally celebrating Alabama's secession from the Union, he claimed that Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun understood the Constitution better than Abraham Lincoln.


Reading Eidsmoe, though, some of Bachmann's most widely ridiculed statements begin to make sense. Earlier this year, for example, she was mocked for saying that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly" to end slavery. But in books by Eidsmoe and others who approach history from what they call a Christian worldview, this is a truism. Despite his defense of the Confederacy, Eidsmoe also argues that even those founders who owned slaves opposed the institution and wanted it to disappear, and that it was only Christian for them to protect their slaves until it did. "It might be very difficult for a freed slave to make a living in that economy; under such circumstances setting slaves free was both inhumane and irresponsible," he wrote.


*****


After graduating from Coburn in 1986, Bachmann went on to get a degree in tax law from William and Mary School of Law in Virginia, while her husband studied psychology and counseling at Regent University, the school founded by Pat Robertson. His thesis was about the harmful effects of day care on children. "[T]he best interests of the public would be served if one parent did not work outside of the home unless it was absolutely essential," he wrote.


*****


In the statehouse, Bachmann made opposition to same-sex marriage her signature issue. Both she and her husband, by all accounts her most trusted political adviser, believe that homosexuality can be cured. Speaking to a Christian radio station about gay teenagers last year, Marcus, who treats gay people in his counseling practice, said, "Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined, and just because someone feels this or thinks this, doesn't mean that we're supposed to go down that road." [Emphasis added]


In 2004, Bachmann gave a speech warning that same-sex marriage would lead to schoolchildren being indoctrinated into homosexuality. She wanted everyone to know, though, that she doesn't hate gay people. "Any of you who have members of your family in the lifestyle, we have a member of our family that is," she said. "This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is gay."


*****


None of this is likely to sour her many devoted fans. Indeed, it's precisely her unwavering ideological commitment that endears her to them. "She's not afraid to say things that other people on the right are probably thinking, but they're just too wimpy to say," says [a supporter]. "She says these things and she promotes these views because she really believes them."

Hate-filled, violently anti-gay. Determined to make America into a right-wing radical "Christian" [sic] theocracy. Ally to white supremacists. Holds an utterly distorted view of American history. Militantly anti-science. Bachmann is more dangerous than Palin, who is an ignorant fool and a grifter, because she's smarter and more articulate. Bachmann and her supporters are a deadly threat to this country. These people VIOLENTLY HATE AMERICA AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR. Their coming to ultimate power--something to which they ludicrously believe they are entitled--would be a catastrophe of the first order. And remember folks--THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S BASE LOVES THIS PSYCHOTIC WOMAN. She IS the Republican Party, heart and soul. Never forget that history takes wildly unexpected turns, and it is possible--perhaps not yet probable--that this woman and her minions will take over this country. If that happens, America is through.

And it's about that simple.

Rick Perry: Dangerous, Lying Right-Wing Fanatic

From our friends at Think Progress, right here. To summarize the main points:


(1) PERRY ALLOWED THE EXECUTION OF A LIKELY INNOCENT MAN, THEN IMPEDED AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MATTER


(2) PERRY WANTS TO REPEAL THE 16th AND 17th AMENDMENTS, ENDING DIRECT ELECTION OF U.S. SENATORS AND THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX


(3) PERRY PROPOSED LETTING STATES DROP OUT OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICAID


(4) TEXAS IS THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST POLLUTER, BUT PERRY SUED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR DISAPPROVING OF THE STATE’S AIR QUALITY STANDARDS


(5) PERRY DESIGNATED AS “EMERGENCY LEGISLATION” A BILL REQUIRING ALL WOMEN SEEKING ABORTIONS TO HAVE SONOGRAMS FIRST


(6) PERRY GUTTED CHILDCARE SERVICES EVEN AS TEXAS CHILDHOOD POVERTY HIT 25 PERCENT


(7) PERRY WAS A STRONG SUPPORTER OF TEXAS’S ANTI-SODOMY LAWS


(8) PERRY IS A STIMULUS HYPOCRITE WHO LOUDLY CRITICIZED FEDERAL RECOVERY MONEY BUT USED IT TO BALANCE HIS STATE’S BUDGET


(9) PERRY SAID THAT TEXAS MIGHT HAVE TO SECEDE FROM THE UNITED STATES


(10) DESPITE HAVING THE WORST UNINSURED RATE IN THE COUNTRY, PERRY CLAIMS THAT TEXAS HAS “THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE COUNTRY”

And this dangerous ultra-right radical is being talked of for the Presidency.

Wow. A radical right-wing Texas governor. How'd that work out last time?

Let Freedom Ring, You Betcha, By Golly

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Enlarge for Humorous Details

Moron. Just a Freaking Moron.

I used to say that her understanding of American government and U.S. history was at the level of the average 4th grader. I now realize what a disservice to 4th graders those sentiments were.

Talk About a Hopeless Battle

(Click to enlarge, if you want to be both amused and horrified.)

The Republican War on Workers Explained

And explained very well, right here. The key quote:

Since we’re identifying basic goals here, let me name one for the right: degrading the standard of living for the large majority of the American people. You degrade the ability of everyone to make a decent wage by destroying unions, one of the traditional models for how to improve the standard of living of broad groups of the American people. (Including, incidentally, those of non-unionized workers, whose wages were historically inflated due to the threat of unionization.) You eliminate pensions; you replace them with things like 401ks, which don’t provide enough for retirement. You oppose health care reform; in fact, you work to degrade Medicare with a voucher program that doesn’t keep up with the cost of health care. You eliminate social services and government programs everywhere. You do all of it in the name of the free market.


Read the whole thing, as we say in Blogland.

Auggghhh!! Run for Your Lives!!

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Poem: The semantics of flowers on Memorial Day

Historians will tell you my uncle
wouldn’t have called it World War II
or the Great War plus One or Tombstone


over My Head. All of this language
came later. He and his buddies
knew it as get my ass outta here


or fucking trench foot and of course
sex please now. Petunias are an apology
for ignorance, my confidence


that saying high-density bombing
or chunks of brain in my cold coffee
even suggests the athleticism


of his flinch or how casually
he picked the pieces out.
Geraniums symbolize the secrets


life kept from him, the wonder
of variable-speed drill and how
the sky would have changed had he lived


to shout it’s a girl. My hands
enter dirt easily, a premonition.
I sit back on my uncle’s stomach


exactly like I never did, he was
a picture to me, was my father
looking across a field at wheat


laying down to wind. For a while,
Tyrant’s War and War of World Freedom
and Anti-Nazi War skirmished


for linguistic domination. If
my uncle called it anything
but too many holes in too many bodies


no flower can say. I plant marigolds
because they came cheap and who knows
what the earth’s in the mood to eat.

- Bob Hicok, from Insomnia Diary

Hat Tip: My dear friend Paul Claycomb

More Like This, Please

The Next U.S. Senator from Hawaii

BTW, you can find Mazie's record here.

Man, I Just HAD to Steal This.

GINGRICH 2012: HE WILL ALWAYS LOVE AMERICA. UNLESS IT GETS CANCER.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Are There ANY Lies John Boehner WON'T Tell?

My God, this lying clown repeats just about EVERY single right-wing lie imaginable about the economic meltdown. What a mendacious, viciously dishonest so-called "leader". Media Matters is on the case:

CLAIM: Speaker Boehner Claimed That "Government Mortgage Companies...Triggered The Whole Meltdown" In Our Economy


BOEHNER: And the government mortgage companies that triggered the whole meltdown went untouched.


FACT: Lax Oversight And Potentially Fraudulent Financial Practices Caused The Housing Bubble And Ensuing Meltdown


The Collapse Of The Housing Bubble Triggered A Banking Crisis That Lead To A Massive Recession. From Slate: "The only near consensus is on the question of what triggered the not-quite-a-depression. In 2007, the housing bubble burst, leading to a high rate of defaults on subprime mortgages. Exposure to bad mortgages doomed Bear Stearns in March 2008, then led to a banking crisis that fall. A global recession became inevitable once the government decided not to rescue Lehman Bros. from default in September 2008. Lehman's was the biggest bankruptcy in history, and it led promptly to a powerful economic contraction. Somewhere around here, agreement ends." [Slate, 1/9/10]


Subprime Mortgage Data Do Not Support Claim That Government Actions Triggered Housing Bubble. Barry Ritholtz, who wrote the book Bailout Nation about the housing bubble and ensuing financial crisis, reports:


Federal Reserve Board data show that:


-More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.


-Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.


-Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics. [The Big Picture, 12/16/10]


Complex Accounting Tricks By Wall Street Firms Contributed To The Magnitude Of The Recession. From Slate: "A bit farther down on the list are various contributing factors, which didn't fundamentally cause the crisis but either enabled it or made it worse than it otherwise might have been. These include: global savings imbalances, which put upward pressure on U.S. asset prices and downward pressure on interest rates during the bubble years; conflicts of interest and massive misjudgments on the part of credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's about the risks of mortgage-backed securities; the lack of transparency about the risks borne by banks, which used off-balance-sheet entities known as SIVs to hide what they were doing; excessive reliance on mathematical models like the VAR and the dread Gaussian copula function, which led to the underpricing of unpredictable forms of risk; a flawed model of executive compensation and implicit too-big-to-fail guarantees that encouraged traders and executives at financial firms to take on excessive risk; and the non-confidence-inspiring quality of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's initial responses to the crisis." [Slate, 1/9/10, emphasis added]

There's more, much more. This is the person we need to throw OUT of the Speaker's chair next year. I'm ready to help. How about you?

WTF??? Listen to Christiane Amanpour from 2008

The President Announces Bin Laden's Death

JUSTICE AT LAST! OSAMA BIN-LADEN HAS FINALLY BEEN KILLED! THANK YOU TO THE BRAVE WARRIORS WHO DID THIS, AND THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

Heh Heh Heh!