When I opened my Minneapolis Star Tribune to the editorial page yesterday morning, I saw their editorial demanding Congress pass health care reform. I thought it was high time these chowderheads came to their senses. Then I realized that they were up to their usual shenanigans. The gave Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) the space below their editorial to counter their well-reasoned argument with lies, fear-mongering and shameless innuendo.
The blatant disregard for public opinion and the arrogance of this Congress and White House are threatening the integrity of our country with parliamentary tricks and backroom deals under misleading claims of bipartisanship.
This is her opening sentence. In this single sentence I find four lies and two instances of hypocrisy.
Lie #1: ...blatant disregard for public opinion... - public opinion polling by respected polling firms has indicated that a large majority of Americans want health care reform. Polls even showed that a majority of Americans wanted the public option which is not (as of this time) in the bill. There is an outside (very outside) chance that the PO might make it in via reconciliation.
Lie #2: ...the arrogance of this Congress and White House... - Barack Obama, Harry Reid and, to a lesser extent, Nancy Pelosi have tried bipartisanship and Republicans have met it with lies and slander. Death panels and birthers are not honest debate. Furthermore, Republicans have used every trick they know to obstruct health care reform. Only after nearly 9 months of attempting to craft a bipartisan solution are they abandoning it.
Lie #3: ...threatening the integrity of our country with parliamentary tricks and backroom deals... - these parliamentary ploys did not threaten America when the Republicans used them. This is simply fearmongering with no basis in fact.
Lie #4: misleading claims of bipartisanship. - I don't know why Obama and Reid tried to work with y'all on this. You Republicans were never going to negotiate in good faith on this. I'm glad we're scrapping the shabby veneer of bipartisanship and pushing this through on a party line vote.
Hypocrisy #1: ...the arrogance of this Congress and White House... - If any Administration was arrogant, the George W. Bush Administration was. Bachmann calling the Obama Administration arrogant is definitely the pot calling the kettle black.
Hypocrisy #2: ...threatening the integrity of our country... - the Bush Administration truly threatened our country. They got rid of the writ of habeaus corpus, passed the Patriot Act, committed war crimes by torturing prisoners, ran up such a massive debt that our national solvency is still in danger, ran the economy off the cliff ... need I go on?
And this was just the first sentence.
The Star Tribune have always let Bachmann get away with lying. On the one hand they've always printed whatever she submits without the slightest care that the vast majority of what she's said on their pages are lies. On the other hand, they've never asked her anything but softball questions without any follow-up questions regardless of how insane or blatantly false those statements are.
Bachmann is on a mission from God. I mean that literally as he has said that God told her to run for office. Since she is fighting such a righteous cause, there are no gray areas. There are the righteous, the sheep and there are the minions of evil. And Democrats are not the sheep.
Consequently, she doesn't simply disagree with Democrats, liberals and progressives -- we must be evil. It's simpler this way. If we are intent on destroying America, the righteous are justified in whatever they do. This also meshs nicely with the evangelical concept that the "saved" cannot commit sin. This justifies her lying.
As month by month her rhetoric intensifies, she has gone beyond claiming on the Chris Matthews Shows that members of Congress hold "anti-American views." To exhort their followers to action, they seem to need to claim that each perceived transgression is worse than the last and that things have never been this bad (regardless of the truth of their claim).
Right wingers like Bachmann and Palin have always talked about the "real America" and the "real people." The Righteous are the only ones who love their country. There is a dangerous pattern here. If we're not children of God just like they are, if we don't love our country, if we are lesser humans than they are, it justifies whatever means they use to achieve their ends.
Think Progess did a great blog piece on Bachmann's latest "treason charge." You can go straight to the link, or you can stay here and listen to me explain why the way Think Progress treated this news item--is an example of blogging at its best. (If you stay here and read me, I promise that I will give you the salient points of the Think Progress item, so you don't miss anything. But here is the link, if you want to go straight there:)
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/...
Now this is good blogging. First of all, it's a "catch": the blogger's reporting an angle that no one has seen before. Think Progress reports this exchange on the Sean Hannity show:
HANNITY: I have never seen such perversion of the law. I've never - whoever heard of deem and pass, the Slaughter rule and whoever thought the whole process, I feel like I need to take a shower watching this.
BACHMANN: Well, yeah, and the other thing is treason media. Where is the mainstream media in all of this not telling this story? This is a compelling story.
"Treason media?" That's a fine catch that deserves the notice of the people who follow politics. The Bachmann interview, ostensibly about health care reform legislative procedure, includes a charge of treason against America's big money corporate media by Bachmann. ThinkProgress is not gonna let that slide, even if your local Minnesota newspeople will.
Rep. Michele Bachmann has accomplished nothing for her districts in the nine years that she's been in politics. That's State Senate and Congress. I mean this literally. I'm not considering resolutions as accomplishments. I'm not considering media appearances as helping her district (cuz often they're embarrassing). Zilch. Nada. Zippo.
However, her perfect record is in danger.
You might disagree with her about her contention that there needs to be a new bridge over the St. Croix river at Stillwater, but you have to admit that she's actually trying to accomplish something. She might actually do some work for her district.
Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann says she will ask Congress to intervene in the ongoing dispute over a new bridge across the St. Croix River near Stillwater.
(MPR)
But have no fear, people. Her immaculate record of accomplishing absolutely nothing for the people in her district will probably remain pristine. Which Democratic Committee Chair would even listen to her at this point?
Sedition is a term of law which refers to overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interests of sedition.
Just this past weekend, Michele Bachmann spoke at a Tea Party rally in St. Paul, saying
"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."
An MPP reader happened to be in the neighborhood of that rally, and noted that there appeared to be many more Wisconsin license plates nearby than one normally sees in St. Paul. Curious. In any case, I'm fairly certain that if Congress passes a bill (even without a single Republican vote despite dozens of concessions to Republican demands) and the President signs it (despite those same Republicans playing footsie with the crazies who fervently believe him not to be a natural-born American citizen), the bill. becomes. law.
Anyone care to disagree?
Now, I'm not casting aspersions on Congresswoman Bachmann's knowledge of the Constitution and how bills become law. And I'm not giving up hope that Bachmann will back off this call to refuse the lawful authority of the United States of America just as she backed off her call for Minnesotans not to answer the 2010 Census.
But if it walks like a duck and talks like a seditionist, at what point do we call the damned thing one thoroughly seditionist waterfowl?
I got bunch of pictures to show you guys. I didn't take them, a fellow blogger directed me to the Flicker site where these photos were posted by "Fibonacci Blue." (A link to the original site appears at the end of this post--it's really worth looking at because there's video there, too.)
This was a "tea party" event in St. Paul last Saturday featuring crowd favorite Michele Bachmann as a highlight. (She also rounded up folks to attend via email invites.) Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo wrote a spectacular analysis of Bachmann's speech--pointing out that she was telling the crowd that the health care reforms would not be law even if they were passed. (Link to that Kleefeld piece below, too.)
By their signs ye shall know them. Obama's going to kill our grandmas:
Lots going on in the wake of Bachmann's "Kill the Bill" rally in St. Paul last Saturday. Much to report in upcoming stories--but for now, let it be known that Minnesota blogger/activist Eric Zaetsch never sleeps. He's cleared up a mystery regarding the disappearance of a "death threat against Obama" in the media coverage of Bachmann's Tea Party event.
The other day I posted an item here about the Star Tribune's coverage of Michele Bachmann's "Kill the Health Care Bill" rally. I noted that the Strib seemed to have erased a reference to an alleged death threat against Obama that had appeared in the original online version of their reporting.
I knew that the Strib had originally reported the threat because different commenters on different blogs had referred to it in threads reacting to the Strib story. But I was unable to find the orignal "cache" version of the article.
Blogger Zaetsch to the rescue. Here is the missing line, as it appeared in the original Strib report of the Bachmann rally:
The rally flashed with anger at times. As Bachmann was saying, "American people are not going to take this lying down," one man shouted, "Kill the bastard!" a reference to President Obama.
If you look for that in the current online version of the story, you won't find it. Apparently the Strib either decided that it did not happen or that they could not substantiate the report.
How did Zaetsch find it after the Strib scrubbed it? He use a cache search called "Bing," which I guess is better than a Google cache search. This is knowledge we may all profit from. Here is the link Zaetsch sent me yesterday, the link to the entire cache version of the "Bachmann's Kill The Bill rally" story:
In an opinion post from last week, my cohort, Bill Prendergast, wrote a comment double-daring anyone to explain how a Democrat could win in Michele Bachmann's district (MN-06). I am taking him up on it.
First of all, the Cook Report ranks MN-06 as R+7. To put this in perspective, Keith Ellison's district, MN-05 encompasses Minneapolis and the western inner ring suburbs, is D+23. Betty McCollum's, MN-04 is St. Paul and inner ring northeastern suburbs, is D+13. John Kline's, MN-02 is the southern suburbs and rural southern MN, is R+4. And Tim Walz's, MN-01 extends across bottom of the state, is R+1. There are numerous instances across the country where Democrats have won in districts more conservative than MN-06.
It is my opinion that ousting Bachmann is tough, but not impossible.
Here are the main factors a winning Democrat must do correctly:
Ground game
Neutralize the independent or Independence Party candidate(s)
Get the media to push key meme's about Bachmann
Capitalize on every Bachmann misstep
Ground game is voter contact. It means knocking on doors, phone banking, appearances and campaign events.
In 2008, 53.58% of voters voted against Bachmann. Unfortunately, DFL candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg only got 43% of it. Despite spending virtually no money and not campaigning, Bob Anderson ran in the Independence Party primary, won it and pulled 10.04% in the general election. A Democrat must convince voters that a vote for the IP is a vote for Bachmann.
The Democrats need to get our state's media to tell the truth about Bachmann. At this blog, we have documented that our TV, radio, dead tree media and even those who have fled the dead tree media and found other havens simply refuse to ask Bachmann any tough questions. They don't ask any tough questions, because if they did, they'd never get access again. There are ways to get them past their timidity and I will elaborate.
Finally, a Democratic candidate has to be ready, willing and prepared to take advantage of every Bachmann misstep, because there are going to be a lot of them. She loves the limelight and seems to be proud that she's viewed as a liar, unstable, erratic, bigoted and one of those burning-eyed crazies who are awaiting the end of times.
Another Bachmann rally, this time in St. Paul. Thousands turn out.
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, an account of the story. And something very weird going on: apparently, in the original of the story that appeared on line today, the Strib reporter wrote this:
"The rally flashed with anger at times. As Bachmann was saying, "American people are not going to take this lying down," one man shouted, "Kill the bastard!" a reference to President Obama. "Impeach them!" another shouted."
How do I know that appeared in the original story? Because it's quoted on another political blog today, and because commenters in the story thread at the Strib website reference it.
But now (apparently) the reporter or his editor or whoever have scrubbed it off the paper's site. If you go to the article at the link below, you won't find the quoted passage--though a Google cache search of the entire quote will take you to the Strib article, I can't find the quote in it, any more. And Google won't let you "look at" the cache any more.
And the story was filed today. That's pretty fast back-trackin' from the Strib, kind of Ministry of Truth/1984 stuff. The "kill the bastard" quote is still referred to in the comments though.
Anyway, here's from the reporting on the rally:
(CONTINUED)
Welcome back to the Sixth District of Minnesota, the place that makes the Twilight Zone look like an island of sanity.
Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent just ran this story today.
Rep. Michele Bachmann told Tea Party activists on Wednesday to "take the town halls to Washington, DC" to defeat the health care bill. Bachmann suggested that passing the health reform bill would be a slam against freedom - and the troops in Afghanistan...
..."The men and women today who are bleeding for us in Afghanistan," she said. "We need to think about them, what they gave to us, and recognize if this goes down in the United States, where does anyone go for freedom? Where do we go for freedom?"
"We the people are going to roll them out," said Bachmann, "and when we roll them out we're going to roll this bill back... Now is the time to see the whites of their eyes.
Birkey thinks the money quote is Bachmann's invocation of "the whites of their eyes," the revolutionary call not to shoot your opponents until they get real, real close. (Bachmann's done a lot of bloodthirsty imagery this year.)
Me, I think the heart this story is the logic of claiming that "supporting the Democratic health care bill equals a betrayal of our troops in Afghanistan."
A close second is Bachmann's suggestion that if this bill goes through, there won't be any freedom left anywhere in the world (Britain, France, Canada, and Germany et al. are too socialist for her taste to be called "free.")
She's said stuff like that before, long before HCR became the top priority of the Obama administration. She's told conservatives we're in the grip of "gangster government" and that there are no other bastions of freedom left in the world if Barack Obama (who is "practicing tyranny" according to Bachmann) isn't stopped. So that's why she's urging supporters to look "for the whites of their eyes."
In case you missed last night's "Minnesota Matters - Wednesday Edition" on AM-950 KTNF, you can listen to it, here! IMNSHO, it was a fascinating conversation, and I'd like to thank Toni and Colonel Joe for sharing their thoughts and answering questions!
One of the highights were both Tomi Backdahl, State Coordinator of the Minnesota Tea Party, and LTC (Ret.) Joe Repya clearly repudiating and distancing themselves from the following quotes:
_ Tom Emmer quote: "I don't think you can call yourself a freedom-loving American and be a Democrat." Marshall Independent, Sept 2009
_ Tim Pawlenty quote: "Children who are victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem for our government." -- Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, April 2001 - as quoted in the Aitkin Independent Newspaper
During the first segment, we played "False Or False Witness!" where one lucky caller ("Bill" from Mpls) correctly identified that the quote I read actually was uttered by Michele Bachmann ("Bill" answered: "False Witness!"). The fabulous prize Bill won, courtesy of show sponsor Common Good Books, was one copy of Bill Prendergast's exceptional comic book: "False Witness! The Michele Bachmann Story (Volume 3)"!!!
The Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive quote I read, is below the fold!
And one question we asked Toni, State Coordinator for the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots was submitted via comment here, on MPP - here's that question!
I'd ask....
If the Tea Party guy actually realized the real Tea Partiers were protesting a tax CUT. The tea partiers were actually protesting the take over by a multi-national corporation, the British East India company. The tax cut made tea super cheap, allowing the British East India (Walmart) the ability to undercut all the American merchants.
So, I would ask the Tea Party guy if he is just as afraid of the corporate take over of America as he is of the government take over.
Thanks,
Alec
Well, thank YOU for submitting that question, Alec!!!
Also, LTC (Ret.) Joe Repya discussed his candidacy for Governor, and clarified that there is a big difference between "suspend" and "end" - and for the record, Colonel Repya has "suspended" his campaign.
So again, if you missed it, you can still listen to it, by linking here!
(Somehow, I think Dusty might be bringing this up on the radio tonight, on AM950, at 6:00 pm.... - promoted by TwoPuttTommy)
I've got a bone to pick with Maureen Reed. Yesterday Maureen Reed's campaign sent out a really whiney email implying that people are trying to twist her campaign's record. I figured I should probably chime in, you know because I'm bored and whatnot.
In the email Reed sent out she says people are claiming that she'll run as an independent and corrects the record saying that she's running as a 'Proud DFLer'. Ok fine, she PREVIOUSLY ran as an independent and claims rather boldly that she can rally independents. The reality is that her 2006 run dramatically underperformed other independents who've run in CD6. I don't know who or what a Binkowski is, but it seems to know more about reaching independents in CD6 than Maureen Reed.
About that independent record of hers... It's probably the reason Tim Pawlenty is waltzing off into the 2012 Presidential campaign sunset right now. Sure T-Paw bested Mike Hatch by 21,108 votes, and much of the blame can be pinned on the Hatch campaign, BUT the 141,735 votes that Maureen Reed helped peel away certainly can't add much to her proud DFLer status. By my count that's 120,000 reasons for us to blame Maureen Reed for Pawlenty's re-election.
Will Abortion Funding Decide the Fate of Health Care?
Americans have voiced their concern with the federal funding of abortion and maybe now, politicians are finally starting to listen. As House Democrats try to garner enough support to pass their health care reform bill, the issue of abortion funding is standing in the way.
The health care bill passed narrowly in the House when it included language to specifically block funds for abortions. However, the House may vote on the Senate-passed version of the bill, which did not include the same provisions. So, House Democrats who voted with a clear conscience knowing funds would not go to abortion may not have that luxury for the final vote.
Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI), the author of the House amendment that excluded funds for abortions, has said that he and eleven other Democrats will vote against the overhaul bill unless a provision subsidizing abortion is removed...
Dixie dog whistle there, but this time re: abortion instead of re: race. Remember--facts don't matter, when you enter this universe. You live over on the conservative side and you see a wedge issue--you grab it and hold on and hack away until the HRC issue is destroyed. It's not that the reconciliaton scenario drove them there--Stupak and company were already "there" at the abortion issue before we even got to the reconcilation issue. Abortion planks are the self-destruct devices for legislation; it's not a strategy so much as a reflex.
But if you are an evangelical conservative, MB's credentials on the abortion issue are impeccable. Even if they're not; there's video of her telling a live audience she'd theoretically permit abortion in cases of rape or incest. That still counts as "impeccable" though, simply because she's Michele Bachmann and her fans believe that "the virtue is in her," not in any particular position she claims to hold. And that is part of the essence of proto-fascism.
I got a copy of this via email on March 9, 2010. She is going to be featured at another rally, this time on the steps of the state capitol:
WHAT: Minnesota Majority Rally Protesting Planned Vote on ObamaCare
WHEN: Saturday, March 13 Noon - 1:00 p.m.
WHERE:
Upper Mall of Minnesota State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
WHO: Minnesota Congressional Representatives and Advocacy Group Leaders. Speakers include:
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Twila Brase, CCHC
Others (to be confirmed)
Even though every major poll clearly shows that a supermajority of the American people oppose the current health care 'reform' bill, Nancy Pelosi is planning to jam the bill through Congress with a vote scheduled for March 18.
...Bring a sign demonstrating your opposition to the bill.
For additional details, visit www.MinnesotaMajority.org.
This communication says it was prepared and paid for by the Republican Party of Minnesota, Tony Sutton, chair. Twila Brase is president of something called the Citizen's Council on Health Care (CCHC), a 501(c)(3) that bills itself as "a free-market resource for designing the future of health care." Ms. Brase likes to publish stuff in the National Review Online, she says:
"Pooling everyone in a government system, as President Obama says, should not be the goal of health-care reform. That's a single-payer system. We're here today in this mess because that's what was done in 1965 with the enactment of Medicare (single-payer for seniors), which is about to go belly up."
Yeah, that Medicare thing back in '65, that's where it all "went wrong," tch, tch. Why didn't Reagan, the Bushes, and the last GOP congress repeal that damn thing--what were they thinking of, backing forty five years of single payer for seniors?
And now it's just "about to go belly up," too--what have we got, about twenty minutes left of Medicare? There's not enough panic in the world, is the National Review's point of view.
Anyway: if Bachmann is there, the TV cameras will be there, documenting her opposition to majority rule in the federal legislature. I expect some fine quotes to be wrung out of this one.
Politifact (the Pulitizer prize winning site that actually fact checks statements by politicians instead of just printing or broadcasting them) determined that Michele Bachmann's latest claim statement about health care reform is a lie.
That makes eight Bachmann statements on public policy that Politifact has reviewed, and that makes eight Bachmann statements on public policy that Politifact has shown to be false. She's batting a thousand over there; I wonder if any other political figure they research can boast a similar record.
Here's the latest Bachmann statement they evaluated:
"President Obama's bill won't bring down the costs (of health care) for average Americans -- or really for very few Americans, if any."
Michele Bachmann on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 in an interview on CNN's Larry King
Here's what they determined:
To test this claim, we turned first to the nonpartisan referee for such questions -- the Congressional Budget Office...
...adding it up, nearly 134 million people should see their premiums go down when subsidies are factored in. That's about 70 percent of all privately insured Americans.
What about the rest? By our calculations, about 45 million people would see their premiums stay the same. Adding them to the 134 million Americans who saw their premiums drop, you get 179 million people, or almost 94 percent of those on private insurance.
Got that? If the plan goes through, 70% of all privately insured Americans will see their premiums go down; about 24% of privately insured Americans will see their benefits stay about the same.
Politifact's conclusion:
...taking into account the subsidies, a full 70 percent would see their premiums fall. And almost 94 percent would see their premiums either fall or stay the same. No matter how you slice it, the overwhelming majority are likely to see a decline. So we find her claim False.
People sometimes ask me whether I think MB actually believes the falsehoods she spreads. My answer is that I think that sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. I think that the reason she makes false statements is to attract and keep the support of people who want to believe those false statements are true: the essence of demagogy, the essence of modern American conservatism.
But it doesn't really matter whether she believes the false statements she keeps making. If you make a statement, find out that it's false, but let the statement stand uncorrected--that's the same as lying and it perpetuates the lie.
And politicians are not "allowed" to lie about important matters of public concern--except in conservative circles, where doing so can make you "an American hero."
