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:
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."
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."
As regular MPP readers know, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) loves herself some conspiracy theories. She reliably has a new one each month. This time, President Obama is giving out judgeships to bribe Democrats and she wants an investigation. Here's what she had to say on Larry King Live last night:
BACHMANN: Because today, the president offered a judgeship to the brother of a member of Congress. Tonight, the president has that same member of Congress at the White House, pressuring him to change his vote on health care. We need to have an - an independent investigation into this matter, because we've seen the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase the union loophole. And now, the big question is, is the White House trading health care votes for judgeships? This is a pretty serious issue, Larry. ...If you offer a judgeship to a brother of a member of Congress and the same night you have that member at the White House, where the president's twisting his arm to ask that member of Congress to switch his vote on health care?
(Think Progress)
I know you'll be shocked, but this is a lie. Let's examine how Bachmann came to believe in this latest conspiracy theory.
Okay... so this is what she said about the census last year:
...Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) has said she would refuse to answer census questions other than the number of people in her home as a protest against government intrusiveness. "I think there is a point when you say enough is enough," she told Fox News last month.
Ms. Bachmann also claimed - incorrectly - that ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the liberal group whose voter registration activities became a flash point in last year's presidential election, would be "in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public" during next year's national survey.
But this year--Bachmann has flip-flopped on this particular favorite of paranoids:
(CONTINUED)
One of the compensations of spending the past seven years covering the Bachmann beat is the "payoff you get in unintentional humor."
Frank Rich is a big-time newspaper columnist that I actually admire, but this week he put a big smile on my face without even meaning to. It seems that Rich has suddenly discovered that the Tea Party movement is filled with "nuts." I mean "real-live, the end of the world is near, it's all a conspiracy, the Dems are conspiring to end freedom in America" nuts.
The reason that's funny is that the tone of the article indicates that Frank Rich thinks that's news--a new development on the right. I know something about the right because I've been watching Bachmann for many years. So I know it's not news that so many of the people representing grass-roots conservative activism have nutty beliefs about the world and the US government.
But Frank Rich, veteran observer of US political life, did not know that. And that, to me, is funny. (CONTINUED)
A bunch of Minnesota artists and I produce a comic book biography of Michele Bachmann called "False Witness: the Michele Bachmann Story." We've done three issues so far, and today the Huffington Post featured "False Witness" on its front page.
(Well...the bottom of the front page. But it's the HuffPo, and producing False Witness is a Minnesota "published out of my garage" operation, so--not bad, eh?) The HuffPo story links to a review of "False Witness" in Talking Point Memo--another nationally known progressive blog. The reviewer was very kind to us.
As always, you can buy a copy of False Witness by clicking on the link here at the Minnesota Progressive Project. It's on the right side of the page, scroll down to the illustration that says "BUY THE MICHELE BACHMANN COMIC BOOK!" If you use that link, you'll be taken to a web page where you can listen to a little animated cartoon of Michele.
But you can get a copy for free if you call in to Two Putt Tommy's radio show at 950AM on Friday at 6pm--and answer a trivia question about Bachmann.
By the way: a name to watch out for in the GOP 2012 presidential race is John Thune, Republican Senator from South Dakota. He's very low profile, compared to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty. But he's "in good" with the Council for National Policy, an evangelical conservative political machine that I write about in the Bachmann comic book.
That counts for a lot in the GOP these days, more than most journalists and political conservatives know. Other Council for National Policy favorites are Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and--believe it or not--our own Tim Pawlenty. Mitt Romney, not so much--Romney is a Mormon and that's a tough sell to a political machine with a secretive, sectarian, and conspiratorial worldview. Ron Paul? He's more of a John Birch Society favorite, but that doesn't preclude him from building a bridge to the Council for National Policy. They sell conspiracy theories, too.
Here's a profile of Thune that points out that this candidate is also acceptable to the teabagger wing:
http://hotlineoncall.nationalj...
Sometimes I tell progressive and liberal friends that there are American conservatives abroad in the world who are capable of "speaking true" about matters of public concern.
The response is usually an unbelieving stare, which is understandable--because for so long the currency of American conservatism has been "lies;" "movement propaganda."
Nonetheless, I stand by my claim: there is a small, very uninfluential flock of American conservatives whose standard for speaking truth exceeds that of Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh.
The Fargo Forum (of Fargo, North Dakota) was founded in 1878. I have received assurances that these days it is "reliably red"--a Republican and conservative paper. Here is some of what they had to say about Michele Bachmann in wake of her visit to the state:
...the fallout from the visit could very well be...to cause sensible North Dakotans to wonder why the state (GOP) and its marquee candidate--Governor John Hoeven for the US Senate-- would cozy up to Bachmann and her, frankly, loony ideas.
There's "that word" again to describe Rep. Bachmann--"loony." I can remember the day (prior to her entry into Congress and shortly thereafter) when I was castigated for identifying as such on blogs. PiPress columnist Craig Westover threatened to ban my comments his blog because I identified Ms. Bachmann as a "nut, liar and bigot." But now it is permissible for those aspects of Bachmann's character to be featured in newspaper editorials.
Why? Because that "loony" stuff is true, and newsworthy, and always has been--despite the determination of Minnesota political media to screen out that word and others in their regular print profiles of Bachmann.
The Fargo Forum gives several examples of the "loony" stuff. But I can't give you a link because they will charge you $2.50 to pull up the online editorial in their archive. (Colossal nerve, the editorial just appeared on February 12th of this year.) Here are a couple of extra paragraphs:
BACHMANN IS FUN, BUT NO FRIEND
...describing her as "conservative" doesn't do her justice. Nor is it fair to thoughtful conservatives, because she subscribes to a hat full of peculiar notions that could cause her to be mistaken for a mad hatter...
(Ed. note: Obvious, to the editors of this out-of-state conservative newspaper. How to reconcile that statement, with the fact that the obviously "loony" Bachmann is accepted by the MN political press and conservatives--as a conservative in good standing, even a "role model" for politicians?
The editorial give a very abbreviated list of Bachmann "goofy comments" and then proceeds...)
Her goofy comments aside, Bachmann's take on serious policies disqualifies her as a friend of North Dakotans. Her agenda would return North Dakota to a marginal economic outpost instead of its current role as a vibrant player in the nation's energy, research and agribusiness economies.
Facts like that are underappreciated. An extremist in office following a wacky worldview can do a lot of economic damage to the very Americans that they are supposed to be representing. They cost their constituents opportunities, prosperity, money--by chasing a fantasy ideology.
A lot of people don't see why it's so important to keep extremists out of office, out of policymaking. Believe it or not, that's true--a lot of people (including reporters!) simply don't understand why it's "a bad idea to let extremists into the government."
Here we have an example of a conservative editorial board, looking at other conservatives cheering "the loony"--and realizing: this trend could cost us big: in real money, real consequences, the real world.
In Brian Lambert's new profile of Michele Bachmann in this month's Mpls/St. Paul magazine, conservative activist Drew Emmer predicts that Bachmann will challenge Amy Klobuchar for her Minnesota Senate seat in 2012.
Disturbing; one of many disturbing comments in the article.
But where's "the book?"
"The book" I am referring to is "the book on Michele Bachmann," the first attempt at a prose political biography of this fascinating politician. (I'm already doing the first comic book attempt to document and explain her career and significance. That "counts," but I'm wondering who will do the the first serious book about her that doesn't contain "funny cartoon pictures.")
Bachmann is now a national figure and it may be that a book about her is already in the works somewhere--being pitched at least, I bet.
(CONTINUED)
to discuss Michele Bachmann with host Greg Huff on AM 950, KTNF.
I plan to talk about the profile of Bachmann just published in Mpls/St. Paul Magazine. I also hope to discuss two other recent developments:
1) A Newsweek article pointing out that the Tea Party movement is filled with conspiracy nuts and other political outliers.
2) Recent broadcast commentary by none other than Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly used air time to point out that the tea party movement does indeed included what he calls "crazy" people, "nuts," and "loons."But O'Reilly thinks that's not really a big deal.
Don't the politicians and political commentators who attend tea party events need to tell the loons that they are not welcome in politics or the Republican party? Don't the politicians and political commentators need to publicly identify which tea party theories are "loony?" We will discuss that too, tonight, I hope.
That's AM950 on your radio dial, "Minnesota Matters with Greg Huff," at 6 p.m. tonight.
The line she's giving out today is that she's being persecuted in Twin Cities media, again...
Which is another lie, of course--the established media here in Minnesota have always been de facto Bachmann allies, making the election of a kook possible. They spiked Bachmann quotes proving her extremism, prior to her election to Congress.
After her election to Congress Bachmann launched her ongoing series of fantastic and scurrilous charges against her elected colleagues (Barack Obama is "practicing tyranny" and running a "gangster government," members of Congress with "anti-American views" need investigating, Americorps is running political re-education camps, etc. etc.)
The Minnesota political media's response was quick. Editors commissioned a seemingly unending series of "sweetheart interviews" and "what a firecracker she is" political profiles--leaving Bachmann's most inflammatory charges unaddressed, allowing her to talk about what a lovable little fuzzball she is. (Compare MN media mentions of foster kids v. "Obama is practicing tyranny/leading America in economic Marxism" mentions.)
The MinnPost distinguished itself by commissioning a fellow conservative to interview her (that's the lovable little fuzzball interview.) The City Pages, usually pretty good on the Bachmann story, agreed to allow her answer questions submitted in advance (and had the nerve to present that to the public as the "definitive" Michele Bachmann interview.)
You can look through the various Star Tribune profiles of her political career--published over a series of years--and find absolutely nothing on what she's done to address the chronic home foreclosures problem in her district. The Strib's editorial page has acknowledged that she's a conspiracy nut--but their "straight news reporting" and "analytical pieces" on Bachmann don't acknowledge that essential component of her politics.
The PiPress? Well...the PiPress is the "Fredo Corleone" of Bachmann coverage. I've been reading Bachmann coverage since 2003, I can't think of single valuable article about her that came out of the PiPress.
Andy Birkey of MNIndy posts video of Rep. Bachmann promoting the upcoming Keep God in America Rally.
According to Michele, an unidentified group within the United States seeks to end our religious freedom and freedom of expression:
"There's a lot of people in the United States that want to use the power of government to take away yours, and my, and your viewers, freedom of speech and expression in the marketplace of ideas."
...but she didn't name any names, there's an edit in the video right at that point.
I would like to know the names of these people, and I hope that reporters with access to Bachmann ask for those names. It's kind of like when she said that there were people with anti-American views serving with her in Congress. Didn't name the names (in fact she later denied having made the claim, though it was televised.) Gotta name those names, Michele---the amorphous smears are no good, that only serves to increase the paranoia and divisiveness.
And she does it again, same video:
"We have to stand up for those freedoms, because right now there's people that want to take away your liberty and mine, to express our faith and express our opinions and that is completely contrary to what Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers bled and died to give all of us."
Same serious charge...still no naming names, though. It's free-ranging paranoia aimed at some amorphous but sinister domestic enemy--which is after all the Bachmann style.
And by the way... it is not true that Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers "bled and died" to give us the right to express our faith and opinions. Jefferson and other founding fathers did indeed champion those causes, but the average age at which a signer of the Declaration of Independence or delegat to the Constitutional convention died was age 67. As for Jefferson, the accepted historical record holds that he survived the Revolutionary War without serious injury and went on to serve as President of the United States. He died of natural causes.
There are plenty of people who did "bleed and die" to secure American independence, but that struggle ended in 1783. The Constitution in its present form was not adopted until 1787; though many of its framers "bled," those who both "bled and died" would have been unavalable to participate in the framing.
Patriotism is cool, but making up melodrama in the name of patriotism to foster parnoia--is not.
Whoops! Looks like I may have blown a prediction. After looking at Bachmann numbers from earlier this year, I went out on a limb and predicted that Bachmann would try to get into the race for Minnesota governor or senator. Her numbers in Minnesota polling and her district had been surprisingly strong, given the fact that she's a nut, liar and bigot.
But tonight the Minnesota Independent reports that a new poll shows that Minnesotans view Bachmann unfavorably. Excerpt:
Poll: Majority of Minnesotans 'embarrassed' by Bachmann
By Paul Schmelzer 2/11/10 6:00 AM
A new survey of Minnesotans shows that a majority of residents - 56 percent - are embarrassed by Rep. Michele Bachmann. The release of the survey, commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Credo Action, follows recent high-profile statements by Bachmann that she believes President Barack Obama wants to "annihilate" conservatives, that the U.S. faces a "curse" - and extinction - if it fails to support Israel, and that government must "wean" Americans off of social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.
...Predictably, 87 percent of Democrats polled said they were embarrassed, while only 12 percent of Republicans agreed (58 pecent of Republican respondents said they were proud of Bachmann)...
...The survey of 600 Minnesotans gauged feedback based on gender (by four percentage points, more women favored Bachmann than men), race (55 percent of whites are embarrassed by the congresswoman, while 80 percent of people of other races held that sentiment) and congressional district.
Good news for those of us who want to see Michele Bachmann's political career go no higher than the Sixth District level. I'd feel better if it had been a conservative polling outfit that had come to these conclusions, but conservatives are unlikely to disclose findings like that.
I'm not withdrawing my prediction--yet. But this is good news for Bachmann opponents everywhere. If Bachmann is as unpopular in Minnesota as this poll indicates (it's a reversal of a trend found in a poll conducted earlier this year) it's going to be that much harder for her to convince the MN GOP that's she's the go-to candidate for higher office in the state.
And conventional political wisdom holds that a politician has to hold a serious leadership position--state governor, senator or military leader--to get serious consideration for a White House run.
So let's hope that the Progressive Change Campaign Committee/Democracy for America/Credo Action poll findings hold for the foreseeable future.
By the way: since the Minnesota Independent has done the best regular reporting on Bachmann's career in this state, changes in MnIndy are worth noting here.
David Brauer of the MinnPost.com reports that MNIndy editor Paul Schmelzer has been promoted to managing editor of newly renamed parent American Independent News Network (AINN). (Schmelzer, by the way, is the author of this latest Bachmann poll story.)
Schmelzer says that MNIndy will still be his primary duty, and MNIndy still retains Andy Birkey has a reporter. Birkey is perhaps the best regular reporter on the Bachmann story in this state.
Read the MNIndy article on poll results, paying special attention to the findings on the views of independent voters that are mentioned in the fifth paragraph:
http://minnesotaindependent.co...
