Video of the Evita moment, when Rep. Bachmann reveals herself to the crowd on the balcony. Life imitates art; I drew this as a panel in my comic book biography of Bachmann long before it happened.
The video gives you a good idea of what American government would be like if the tea party guys ran it. Lots of shouting over the leaders so that even the guys that you like can't be heard. The government of the Planet of Apes looks like Plato's Republic in comparison. It's the "Axis of Eedjits!" At one point Rep. Steve King of Iowa promises that they will dismantle Washington, D.C. so that it no longer threatens the nation. Christ!
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Bachmann caught lying, again, this time about abortion:
(CONTINUED)
A closer look at Bachmann's '30 percent increase in abortions' claim
By Susan Perry | Published Tue, Mar 23 2010 10:19 am
Over the weekend, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) warned that passage of the health-care reform legislation would result in a huge jump in the number of abortions in the United States.
"We know from the Alan Guttmacher Institute that if there is taxpayer funding of abortion, there will be 30 percent more abortions," she said at a press conference.
Jiminy Crickets! That's gonna get the pro-lifers' backs up, if that's true. But is it true? Reporter Susan Perry gave them a call to find out...
(Guttmacher Institute communcations director Rebecca Wind explained that although the Guttmacher Institute does report that if the so-called Hyde Amendment (which has banned federal Medicaid coverage of abortions since 1976) were repealed, the number of abortions in the U.S. would increase about one third — but only among Medicaid-enrolled women and only in states that don’t themselves currently subsidize abortions for poor women.
But, of course, the Hyde amendment isn’t going to be repealed under the new health reform legislation. So the whole issue is moot.
No, it isn't. The issue is whether Bachmann was lying or not. She was; the Guttmacher Institute doesn't believe that the new health law is going to increase the number of abortions in the US by 30%, and it won't. That was utter bullshit, which Bachmann presented to the public as fact.
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I didn't know you could keep God out of America. But apparently there are people who think you can, and they're against it. It may still surprise some professional journalists to learn that the Tea Party movement is tied in to this evangelical conservative movement:
Keep God in America movement sets first rally in Jacksonville this weekend
Posted: March 25, 2010 - 5:10pm
By David Hunt
A growing movement in Northeast Florida says government can find the answers to its problems in scripture.
In an age when church and state don't typically mix, (Editor's note: HA!) a group called Keep God in America draws lessons from the nation's birth, a time people fled oppression and religious persecution to start anew.
(That's going to get a laugh from people familiar with what the people who fled religious persecution did, once they arrived here in the New World. Hint: they started persecuting, anew.)
(Jacksonville City Councilman Clay Yarborough) argues the nation would be stronger if spiritual values were more involved.
"We're so sophisticated. Technologically, we're smart. But we're morally bankrupt," he said.
That's really weird, to find a Florida city councilman parroting Osama bin Laden.
One of several high-profile political endorsements came from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. Bachmann has been a controversial figure because of her adherence to religious views and her assertion on the 2008 presidential campaign trail that Barack Obama had "anti-American" friends and political aspirations.
The group plugged into the First Coast Tea Party for funding and personnel support. Tea party organizer Billie Tucker said the platform fits in well with the tea party's idea that government should be limited and have moral leadership.
Tea party movement/religious right: symbiotic, but the corporate media hasn't caught on yet. Hell, they won't even tell the viewers that Bachmann's the puppet of the national evangelical conservative political machine. Hell, they won't even tell the viewers that there is a national evanglical conservative political machine! SSHH! It's a secret.
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Yet another Michele Bachmann watch effort. This one is called "What the Bachmann?" and is being promoted by Brian Melendez and the DFL. Title's a little too flippant, for my taste. We're going to start seeing more of the "acting out" on her "Washington, D.C. is the enemy of freedom" charges. It's about four years too late for a flippant title for this project, she's not just crazy, she's a hatemonger.
The plan is to send out regular updates about Bachmann's latest. The email announcing the service suggests that coverage of disinformation will not be limited to Bachmann herself:
We all know that some elected officials spout inane nonsense from time to time. So we've created the What The Bachmann? alert system. Once a week, we'll send an update with the ridiculous, dumbfounding, and dangerous things being said and done by some of Minnesota's most notorious politicos. The What The Bachmann? crew will sift the misinformation, disinformation, fear-mongering, and infotainment to bring you the best bites from the public figures who deserve to be called out.
Note that Melendez says the DFL has engaged "a crew" to do this 'insane claim' tracking. It's a good idea. The professional journalists in our state show little or no inclination to do consistent fact-checking to dispel 'insane claims' and outright lies by right wing demagogues like Bachmann. We challenge the insane claims on the blogs, but we don't have the budget that the DFL does.
Their first effort is not too inspiring; it's a clip from the Stephen Colbert show. That's funny, but what is really needed is consistent research and fact checking of specific right wing lies. That's the sort of thing that can dispel the lies as they are told. The DFL has the means and the volunteers to do that sort of factual rebuttal and circulate it; let's hope they're serious about this project.
And I don't know why they decided to start doing this stuff now, as opposed to ten years ago when she first started saying nutty stuff in public--but better late than never, and we'll take any help we can get. Good luck, DFL.
Keep God in America movement in Jacksonville:
http://jacksonville.com/...