Tag Archives: Michele Bachmann

The Week in Wingnuts

Wingnuts

The Daily Beast

Legalized abortion causes school shootings, Obamacare will lead to conservatives being denied health services, and other wacky assertions from our political leaders.

North Dakota: Legalized Abortions Cause School Shootings

U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer knows the answer to why there have been so many school shootings in the U.S. over the past few years, and it’s not easy access to guns or inadequate treatment of the mentally ill. No, the Republican from North Dakota insists, the rise in school shootings is directly connected to the legalization of abortion and a supposed decline in Christian values. “We learned this week that the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to rape, and advocated that military personnel and colluding chaplains who proselytize should be court martialed,” Cramer said during a commencement speech at the Catholic University of Mary that, miraculously, went unnoticed by the national media until this week. “Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. And we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often.” Cramer’s link between “normalized perversion” and mass murders rings eerily similar to Michele Bachmann’s argument that the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 and 2012 were God’s way of passing judgement (sic) on our country’s moral demise.

Missouri: The Gays Killed the Bullying Bill

Missouri’s Republican Representative Sue Allen has called on her constituents to contact openly gay lawmakers Jolie Justice and Mike Colona and blame them for the death of her anti-bullying bill. The key difference between Allen’s bill and other, more successful anti-bullying legislation is that it bans enumerated lists of specific groups of people that need protection–such as gay and transgender students–because she believes they are too partisan. “I typically try to keep partisanship out of my message, but this is an issue for the Democrats who wish for certain students (LGBT-gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) to be ‘enumerated’ within school policies…What they [Justus and Colona] don’t seem to understand is that stronger policies help ALL students, even those they would have characterized.” The problem with Allen’s argument is that enumerating specific groups does not, as she suggests, negate protection for anyone else, it simply ensures that any bullying of people who identify with these particularly at-risk groups is reported.

Kansas: Let’s Rise Above the N-Word

Kansas State Board of Education member Steve Roberts stood his ground Tuesdayin the face of offended fellow board members, defending his use of the N-word during last month’s meeting “100 percent.” In response to a comment from Topeka’s former NAACP president about the need for more African-American history in schools, Roberts launched into his own monologue about pushing “the frontiers of political correctness” with regards to the N-word–using it in full. When the board reconvened this week, Roberts was confronted about his use of the word, and how it offended people in the room, but he was remorseless. “I did my best to say the ‘N-word’ clinically. I’m willing to be considered politically incorrect, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Roberts said, suggesting that his critics were simply seeking media attention.

MInnesota: What’s Next, Political Bias for Health Care?

Michele Bachmann wouldn’t say she was happy to find out that the IRS had, in fact, been targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, but the revelation did bring her some satisfaction. The Representative from Minnesota jumped at the chance to use the IRS scandal as evidence that the overreaching of big government has gotten out of control, suggesting that if non-profit organizations were targeted for their political beliefs, who’s to say they same system of discrimination won’t be used for other programs, such as health care. “Knowing it’s the IRS who will be the enforcing mechanism for this new entitlement program of Obamacare, it is very important to ask–and now it is reasonable to ask–could there be potential political implications of access to health care, denial of health care? Will that happen based on a person’s political beliefs or their religiously held beliefs?” Bachmann asked at a Capitol Hill rally on Thursday. “Those questions would have been considered out of bounds a week ago. Today those questions are considered more than reasonable, and more than fair for the American people.”

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What country does the Tea Party represent?

What country does the Tea Party represent?

Salon

House Republicans are no longer swayed by public opinion, imperiling the GOP and grinding government to a halt

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

With an assist from some long-term demographic trends, House Republicans have redistricted, propagandized and policed themselves into another country.

As a result, they have become unmoored from the political incentives that typically drive law-makers’ decision-making process. Public opinion no longer sways them, and that is creating a potentially insurmountable problem for the party establishment’s efforts to broaden the GOP’s appeal beyond angry old white people.

House Republicans may care about the GOP’s national fortunes in the abstract, but too many are impervious to what the public at large wants because of the nature of the districts they represent. At the same time, a steady stream of spin from the conservative media provides insulation from the realities of American politics, and deep-pocketed outside groups punish Republicans for any deviation from right-wing orthodoxy.

This isn’t just a serious problem for establishment Republicans. It’s ground our government to a halt, as Congress is virtually incapable of action, even on issues where there is something approaching a consensus among the public at large — like universal background checks for firearm purchases, for example. They’re supported by 80-90 percent of voters, but face a steep uphill climb in the House.

How did this happen?

The Great Gerrymander of 2010

In 2012, Democratic House candidates got 1.4 million more votes than Republicans, but came away 33 seats short of the majority – only the second time since World War Two that such a reversal has taken place. That was the fruit of a well-funded, multi-year plan by the Republican State Leadership Committee to take over state houses before the 2010 Census, and control the redistricting process that followed.

And they gerrymandered with a vengeance. As Princeton University scholar Sam Wang noted, “although gerrymandering is usually thought of as a bipartisan offense… partisan redistricting is not symmetrical between the political parties.”

By my seat-discrepancy criterion, 10 states are out of whack: [Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin] plus Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Arizona was redistricted by an independent commission, Texas was a combination of Republican and federal court efforts, and Illinois was controlled by Democrats. Republicans designed the other seven maps. Both sides may do it, but one side does it more often.

Surprisingly absent from the guilty list is California, where 62 percent of the two-party vote went to Democrats [which] exactly matched the [proportion of the] newly elected delegation.

Democrats Are “Inefficiently Distributed”

But, as a number of observers pointed out after the mid-terms, even this aggressive effort to redraw districts in their favor wasn’t quite enough to lock in Republicans’ control of the House. This is where the organic trend comes in. Political scientists Jowei Chen of the University of Michigan and Jonathan Rodden of Stamford explain (PDF) that as a result of migration and urbanization, Democrats tend to be “highly clustered in dense central city areas, while Republicans are scattered more evenly through the suburban, exurban, and rural periphery.” This results in what the authors call “unintentional redistricting,” with “a skew in the distribution of partisanship across districts such that with 50 percent of the votes, Democrats can expect fewer than 50 percent of the seats.”

Hyper-Partisan Districts

Those two trends have resulted in a dwindling number of competitive districts. As the New York Times’ numbers-guru Nate Silver pointed out, the number of “landslide districts” – which he defined as those that went for one party by 20 or more percentage points than the electorate as a whole – has doubled since 1992, while the number of swing districts has fallen from 155 to just 64 over the same period.

When you look at the racial composition of districts, the trend becomes even more pronounced. According to the Census Bureau, 111 House republicans represent districts that are at least 80 percent white.

Continue below the chart, here

 

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Wednesday Blog Roundup – 3-20-2013

Gun Reform Package Loses One Major Provision, Another In Danger…

Not Happening
Assault Weapons Ban won’t be in the Senate gun bill .

Crist-mentum
Now Dem Charlie Crist is ahead of current Republican Gov. Rick Scott by 12 points , ..

Sens: We’re Moving Too Fast!
Republican Senators struggle to come up with reasons to slow momentum for immigratio..

Are Paul Ryan’s 15 Minutes Over?
A new Rasmussen poll finds Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) approval rating has plummeted sinc..

“Marriage defender” Bill O’Reilly is divorced
Divorced “marriage defender” O’Reilly says gay marriage could lead men to marry goats..

Obama Arrives in Israel for Two-Day Trip
President Obama landed on Wednesday to begin a highly symbolic two-day visit to Israe..

OOPS: Rand Paul Makes Case Against The Pro-Life Agenda
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced “The Life at Conception Act,”..

Dear Michele Bachmann: 70 percent does not equal 6 percent
Math-challenged. Yes, Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann is still at it, still being a..

Sanford advances to runoff, Colbert Busch wins Democratic nomination i..
Former governor Mark Sanford took a step closer to returning to elected office Tuesd..

NYPD Spent 1 Million Hours In Ten Years On Marijuana Arrests, Analysis..
New York Police Department officers have spent 1 million hours making 440,000 mariju..

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Bachmann Accuses Obama Of Living A Life Of Excess

Michelle Bachmann at CPAC 2013

What color is the sky on Michele Bachmann’s planet?  She is trying so hard to be relevant but fails at every attempt.

In the following clip she talks about the Obamas’ excessive spending (to the tune of $1.8 billion a year) overlooking the fact that each president is allowed a personal budget for himself and his family every year.

Think Progress

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) criticized President Obama’s so-called life of excess at the White House, arguing that the first family is living rich on the taxpayer’s dime as the nation faces sequestration and large deficits.

In one of her first major addresses since winning a close re-election bid in November, the Tea Party favorite conceded during her address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday that Obama and his family “deserve to live in the White House,” before listing “the perks and the excess of the $1.4 billion presidency that we’re paying for”:

BACHMANN: And this is a lifestyle that is one of excess. Now we find out that there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep in the White House in order to be readily available in case the first family wants a really really late show. And I don’t mean to be petty here, but can’t they just push the play button? We are also the ones who are paying to walk the president’s dog. Paying for someone to walk the president’s dog. Now why are we doing that when we can’t even get a disabled veteran into the White House for a White House tour?

Watch it:

Obama has actually one of the lowest net worths of any American president, and has less wealth than Republicans like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Bachmann and her husband Marcus have also done well for themselves and have an estimated net worth of between $1.3 million and $2.8 million.

Bachmann, meanwhile, has faced criticism for refusing to pay $5,000 to five staffers from her failed presidential bid, even though she has more than $2 million in her campaign account.

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House Republicans Can’t Find Any Co-Sponsors For Their Latest Obamacare Repeal Bills

It appears they’re too busy getting ready to impeach the POTUS if he bans their assault weapons via executive powers

Think Progress

Earlier this month, Tea Party darling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) admitted that his plan to introduce yet another Obamacare repeal bill would be unlikely to pass in the wake of President Obama’s decisive re-election. As it turns out, that was an understatement.

In a sign that the GOP’s anti-Obamacare fervor may finally be giving way to political reality, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) latest Obamacare repeal billdoesn’t have a single co-sponsor in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Bachmann made introducing the repeal billher first order of business for the 113th Congress, even as millions of Americans waited for House Republicans to act on a disaster relief package in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

And two other anti-Obamacare bills — one to repeal the law’s individual insurance mandateand another introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to repeal the whole law — also do not have any co-sponsors. By contrast, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) so-called “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” had a total of 182 cosponsors by the fourth day of the 112th Congress, and House Republicans successfully voted to repeal Obamacare a staggering 33 times during the last session — costing taxpayers an approximate $50 million. Public support for repealing the reform law has plunged to an all-time low as Americans begin experiencing its positive effects.

But the latest repeal efforts’ lack of co-sponsors should by no means be taken as a sign that Republicans will embrace health reform altogether. House Republicans can still try to obstruct Obamacare’s implementation by putting the law’s funding mechanisms on the chopping blockand attempting to repeal measures such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). In fact, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) recently advocated for doing exactly that in an editorial for his hometown paper, and former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) went as far as to suggest “civil disobedience” and breaking the law in order to stymie Obamacare.

Still, the full Obamacare repeal effort’s newfound loneliness in the House is a powerful demonstration of the difference an election can make.

 

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Joe Walsh Obamacare Opposition Prompts Tea Party Favorite To Suggest People ‘Break The Law’

Joe Walsh Obamacare

You did in fact lose your bid for re-election Mr. Walsh.  Perhaps you need to gather your marbles and go home.  Game over for you, sir.

Incendiary rhetoric only make you and your party look uh…”out of touch” with reality.

The Huffington Post

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, suggested people “defy and or break the law and engage in civil disobedience” in response to Obamacare restrictions or new gun laws.

“We may have to shed blood every couple hundred years to preserve our freedoms,” Walsh told supporters at a rally, according to Chicago’s DNAinfo.

Walsh also criticized conservatives who don’t “understand we’re at war [with progressives.]“ DNAinfo reports:

Walsh said there is a battle between the old values of freedom against the new emphasis on government control. “These two Americas are having it out,” he said, adding it was the old, traditional conception of America against the new, progressive America.

“I do want to go back,” he said.

Although he talked tough politically, saying, “We have no Republican Party in this state — none,” he added, “I’m not there yet with a third-party movement.”

He also said, “Don’t yet give up on the Republican Party.”

During his time in Congress, Walsh continually expressed opposition to the Affordable Care Act, once saying he “would have voted to repeal ObamaCare” once a month if he were the House Speaker. Walsh spent two years in Congress before being defeatedby Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth in November.

Walsh isn’t the only tea party favorite to have a strong opposition to Obamacare. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) filed the first bill of the new legislative session “to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.”

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House Republicans Snub Sandy Victims to Try and Repeal Obamacare for the 34th Time

bachmann-cantor

We can already get a sense of what the 113th Congress more of the same on the GOP side.

 

Earlier today in Twitter World:

At noon today, I introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.

My response:

@MicheleBachmann: The definition of “crazy” – repeating the same thing over and over expecting different results…

PoliticusUSA

With House Republicans taking heat over not passing the Hurricane Sandy disaster relief bill, Michele Bachmann introduced the first bill of the new Congress to repeal Obamacare.

[...]

House Republicans have voted on zero actual job creation bills (disguising a tax cut as job creation doesn’t count), but they have voted on repealing Obamacare 33 times in the past two years. It is a certainty that Bachmann’s bill will come to the House floor, and the House will vote to repeal Obamacare for the 34th meaningless time.

It would be easy to pick on Bachmann’s priorities, but she is just a symptom of the larger disease. House Republicans don’t care about the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Gov. Chris Christie specifically blamed John Boehner for the bill not being brought to the floor, when the person he really should have blamed was Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Cantor is the loudest and the most powerful GOP voice in the House behind the idea that disaster relief should be offset by spending cuts. InSeptember 2011, Cantor wanted a 40% cut in funding for first responders in exchange for disaster relief. Cantor has a long history of disaster relief hypocrisy. The fact that he chose to call out Boehner instead of the right wing billionaires’ best boy reveals a lot about both Chris Christie and who really controls the Republican Party.

If House Republicans actually cared about the victims of Sandy, disaster relief would have been the first bill introduced today. Instead the nation was given another cheap stunt that is designed to do nothing but waste more time on another meaningless debate and vote that will score ideological points with the right wing zealots who still believe that Obamacare is the root of all evil.

As far as the House is concerned, it is business as usual for the least popular Congress of all time.

Rachel Maddow sums it up here…

 

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Audience Roars In Laughter During Michelle Bachmann’s Debate

Michele Bachmann and a host of other conservatives lie with impunity.  However, last night Bachmann got her just dessert…

Voice 4 America

Republican Michelle Bachmann had the first of three debates against her Democratic challenger Jim Graves earlier this week. One of the statements she made during the debate was, “It’s insulting to say that these are political speech, because that’s one thing I do not do, is political speech”, which caused the audience members to erupt in laughter. Bachmann’s next two debates will be on Nov 1st and 4th.

Here is the full video of the debate.

 

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Politico’s: Week in one liners: Clinton, Romney, Frank

AP Photos

The top quotes in politics …

“I have no earthly idea what she’ll decide to do.” — Former President Bill Clinton on whether his wife will run in 2016.

“And by good day, I mean F— Off.” — State Department spokesman Philippe Reines getting frustrated with a reporter.

“I told folks I’m just supposed to be eye candy here for you guys.” — President Barack Obamachatting with the women of “The View.”

“He’s gotten to be a better dancer.” — Ann Romney naming one way her husband has changed since high school.

“It’s a great day for America.” — White House press secretary Jay Carney noting the deal reached between the NFL and its referees union.

“She had a confidence and was much more ladylike.” — Rep. Todd Akin on what Sen. Claire McCaskill was like in 2006.

“This is somebody who kind of makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie.” — Missouri Sen.Claire McCaskill  responding to Akin.

“I did have a brownie once. It made me sleepy.” — Rep. Barney Frank on his experience with marijuana.

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AP editor: There wasn’t enough time and space to debunk Bachmann lies

Michele Bachmann via Shutterstock

The woman has no idea what “truth” is.  This is yet another dichotomy of the Christian Right.

The Raw Story

An editor for the Associated Press said in a panel discussion on Wednesday that during coverage of the Republican primaries, fact-checkers for the organization would have to limit themselves to a “quota” of misstatements by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) during debates.

According to the Washington Post, the AP’s Jim Drinkard confessed that the sheer volume of factually inaccurate assertions, dubious claims and stretchings of the truth threatened to “overload” the stories of the debates.

“We had to have a self-imposed Michele Bachmann quota in some of those debates,” Drinkard told the audience at the National Press Club on Wednesday. Otherwise, Bachmann would have become the story. Of all the Republican candidates who ran, said Drinkard, “Often she was just more prone to statements that just didn’t add up.”

Some more famous Bachmann flubs include her claim that the HPV vaccine has dangerous side effects, including mental retardation and her assertion that Jimmy Carter was responsible for the swine flu epidemic of the 1970s.

Bachmann also claimed that former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was drinking $100,000 worth of liquor on her taxpayer-funded private jet, and that President Obama’s policies drove up grocery prices 29 percentbetween the 2010 and 2011 Memorial Day holiday weekends.

All of those statements were rated “False” or “Pants-on-Fire” by PolitiFact.

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