Bachmann's In!

[Howey]

Let the cat fight begin!

[FooFa]

I hope some reporters will put her on the spot about the constitutional conservative claim. There are numerous abrogations of it to provide hard facts which she should have no problem answering and defending her record on.

[Howey]

I hope some reporters will put her on the spot about the constitutional conservative claim. There are numerous abrogations of it to provide hard facts which she should have no problem answering and defending her record on.

Sometimes it's nice to provide a link for those unaware of the term "constitutional conservative".  I know we've discussed the idea here but for some a little more info is necessary:

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/11/10/classes-start-soon-for-bachmanns-constitutional-conservative-ca/

WASHINGTON (Nov. 10) -- Is Glenn Beck University opening a satellite campus on Capitol Hill?
 
If tea party darling Michele Bachmann gets her way, conservative broadcaster Sean Hannity, Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano and David Barton, a Christian evangelist who has said church-state separation is "a myth," will make up the faculty roster when the first classes of her new constitutional conservative caucus convene in the next Congress.
 
The Minnesota Republican recently spoke on Beck's radio show about a new academic counterpart to the tea party caucus she founded earlier this year.

The goal is to bring newly elected lawmakers together for weekly classes on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence before they are "co-opted into the Washington system." If just 20 or 25 new members join her caucus, she said, "we can hang together and if an unconstitutional bill comes before us, something like a stimulus or a government takeover of health care, we can stop that bill."
 
Legal education is in short supply in a GOP freshman class in which 35 members have never served in elective office and that includes funeral directors, car dealers and a pizza restaurant owner.
 
Bachmann said she hoped to bring Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to speak to lawmakers. There was no mention of the Supreme Court's more liberal members, including Stephen Breyer, who has a new book out about the Constitution.
 
The congresswoman said she also wants "other legal experts who understand our nation's founding documents. David Barton would have a lot to say about that as well."
 
"Professor Barton" is a regular lecturer at Beck's "university." He has a bachelor's degree in Christian education from Oral Roberts University and is best known for his conservative group WallBuilders, which teaches that America was founded as a Christian nation.
 
"Scholars such as David Barton, members of the media who cherish [the founding] principles such as Sean Hannity, honorable commentators such as Judge Napolitano, honorable judges and justices, and leading legal minds will and have been invited to speak," Brooke Bialke, Bachmann's deputy chief of staff, said in an e-mail. "Topics ranging from the commerce clause to the intersection of constitutional principles with daily concerns such as Medicare will be covered."
 
Of the three "scholars" named, only Napolitano, a former New Jersey judge who hosts "Freedom Watch" on Fox Business News, is a lawyer. Hannity is a college dropout.
 
"I hope the new members -- as well as returning ones -- do not get their constitutional understanding from an echo chamber rather than from the marketplace of ideas," said New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, outgoing chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

He cited some new members with "bizarre ideas about the Constitution, some of which are dangerous." Among them: the belief that civil rights laws are unconstitutional; that the 14th Amendment, which gives automatic citizenship to anyone born in the United States, applies only to freed slaves and their descendants; and that the 17th Amendment, which provides for direct election of senators by the people instead of state legislatures, should be repealed.
 
Nadler said he hoped such ideas would be "confined to the fringe" of the new Congress.
 
Education or Propaganda?
 
Bachmann's caucus classroom is the culmination of a populist backlash by conservatives who consider the policies of President Barack Obama and his Democrats not just bad policies but unconstitutional ones.
 
Interviews with both liberal and conservative constitutional scholars reveal concerns about the curriculum even as they applauded, in theory, the idea of enlightening lawmakers.
 
"Education is always a good idea, but not if it is so one-sided as to be a form of propaganda," said Ira Lupu, a Harvard-trained law professor at George Washington University. He doubted any sitting Supreme Court justice would participate because "it is overtly political and would involve them speculating on the decisions that might come before them."

Michael McConnell, a former federal judge who heads the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University, thinks Bachmann has "an excellent idea."
 
"It would be nice if all legislators, and not just those who describe themselves as 'constitutional conservatives,' sought further education about the Constitution. Maybe she will inspire some on the left to go and do likewise," he said.
 
But Dennis Goldford, who teaches constitutional law at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and will teach a course titled "Federalism, Federal Power and Tea Parties" in the spring, said Bachmann wants to "cherry pick" not only which judges she would bring in but which parts of the Constitution she prefers.
 
Take states' rights, upon which conservatives claim the federal government has trampled.

Goldford said Beck and other tea party followers routinely insert the word "expressly" into the Constitution's 10th Amendment, which assigns "powers not delegated" to the federal government to states or the people. But it isn't there. The word is, however, in the states' rights section of the Articles of Confederation, the document the Constitution replaced after the framers decided the nation needed a stronger central government.

"The tea partiers are denying that the federal government has any implied powers," he said, even though the Supreme Court ruled that it does as early as 1819. "To read the Articles of Confederation version of national power into the Constitution that replaced [it] is to do both theoretical and historical damage to the proper understanding of that Constitution."
 
"Many tea partiers are either ignorant of or simply unaccepting of the fact that many basic norms of American constitutional law have changed since 1787," said Sanford Levinson, a University of Texas law professor who earned his law degree at Harvard.
 
While Scalia is a champion of constitutional originalism, which tries to hew to the original intent of its authors, his view is controversial in academic circles. Yet even McConnell, a conservative who is a leading authority on originalism, said, "If I were running this project, I would deliberately seek out a range of perspectives."
 
Lupu said many in the tea party talk about the founding document as if the protections of the Reconstruction amendments or the last 75 years of developed constitutional law never happened.
 
And the idea that the Founding Fathers were all on the same page? Nonsense, Lupu said. "Alexander Hamilton favored a broad view of the spending power, James Madison a narrower view."

Curt Levey, the Harvard-trained executive director of the conservative Committee for Justice, said instructors should come from across the political spectrum, "assuming liberal scholars are willing to participate. Given the view on the left that the Constitution is 'living' -- that is, largely malleable -- there may be some resistance to the very idea of teaching enduring constitutional principles."
 
Ideas about what is and isn't constitutional change over time and trail the political winds.

"Obamacare may or may not be constitutional," Levey said, "but all Americans should be concerned that its supporters in Congress arrogantly dismissed questions about its constitutionality as if such questions were silly."
 
Democrats say the law is constitutional and dismiss recent lawsuits as more about politics than law.

Scary stuff up there....

[FooFa]

As anticipated, they haven't a clue. For me it means what the constitution say's, period, no equivocating necessary.

I'm starting to see a crack in my support for our tea party gubna. She's against unions.

[ekg]

oh God help us all..Bachman will force out Romney.. you watch

[uselesslegs]

Bachman is a crazy assed wide eyed zealot.  I use to be forced, at a much younger age, to attend some services at Satellite Churches (congregations that meet anywhere they can find some space) and while I won't say all of them were certified, a lot of them are and the ones I got the pleasure of being drug to were fuck'in koo-koo for cocoapuffs.

She exhibits the EXACT same characteristics I remember from those days.  Speaks her mind in a very matter-as-fact way, with solid conviction behind the words...but being completely or almost completely off base factually.  Reality becomes the emotion strongly felt or the belief preferred. 

When she came out of the gates saying, no insisting, that all members of the House and Senate should be investigated as to their "allegiances"...that told me everything I needed to know about her.

Sarah Palin is an opportunist.  Hick'ish, uninformed, but grifter smart.  She'll ride the money train until it completely dries up, believing half of what she says...but convincing those who follow her she's all in.

Bachmannn ain't play'in.  To her this the real deal.  She sees the barbarians at the gates everywhere she looks and she needs to restore order in the way she just KNOWS America NEEDS to be.  She's the real life version of Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter.  The bitch fuckin scares me.

[Howey]

I guarantee there's dirt out there on her that's going to bring her down (regarding the swarms of kids).


That is unless the Koch Brothers empty the coffers to whichever kid, or more probably the kid's adoptive parent's, mouth shut.

I'll tell ya what...If I had to spend a substantial amount of my childhood going door to door soliciting money for some crazy lady without compensation I'd make damn sure I made some now!

[Howey]

Aha!

http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2011/06/calling-all-bachmann-foster-kids.html#axzz1PNAA1mKE

If you were a foster child of Marcus and Michele Bachmann, I highly encourage you to get an attorney because you will be able to sell your story and go on the talk show circuit.

Aging out the foster care system is living hell, but, why not make a small fortune telling your story to the media?

See, the foster care system was never designed to address electronic information technology. What that means is there is no law preventing the former Bachmann foster care kids to tell all.

Feel free to contact me for the exclusive, now hop to it!

If the Bachmanns can rake in big time dollars off the public welfare entitlement programs of foster care then why can't you make big time dollars off the privatized free market called capitalism?

Let's see what the presidential candidate has to say about foster kids speaking out and getting paid to do it.

I wonder...

How many of these 23 children (for whom Bachmann was paid $30 per day to "care for" - tax free) were minorities? Disabled? Gay?

[ekg]

Bachman is a crazy assed wide eyed zealot.  I use to be forced, at a much younger age, to attend some services at Satellite Churches (congregations that meet anywhere they can find some space) and while I won't say all of them were certified, a lot of them are and the ones I got the pleasure of being drug to were fuck'in koo-koo for cocoapuffs.

She exhibits the EXACT same characteristics I remember from those days.  Speaks her mind in a very matter-as-fact way, with solid conviction behind the words...but being completely or almost completely off base factually.  Reality becomes the emotion strongly felt or the belief preferred. 

When she came out of the gates saying, no insisting, that all members of the House and Senate should be investigated as to their "allegiances"...that told me everything I needed to know about her.

Sarah Palin is an opportunist.  Hick'ish, uninformed, but grifter smart.  She'll ride the money train until it completely dries up, believing half of what she says...but convincing those who follow her she's all in.

Bachmannn ain't play'in.  To her this the real deal.  She sees the barbarians at the gates everywhere she looks and she needs to restore order in the way she just KNOWS America NEEDS to be.  She's the real life version of Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter.  The bitch fuckin scares me.

it scares you because Umbridge went so far as to ally with the devil himself to get her vision of world  the way she wanted it.. she didn't care about the horror,fear and death.. she only wanted her vision.. which is Bachman.. and Palin IMO.

Yes, Palin is more of a grifter.. but she'd sell her soul, that of her family and this country for a buck.. and she wouldn't care who she sold it to either.. Bachman otoh, won't do it for money.. she'll do it for her vision of God and Morality..

Maher was on a/c 360 last night and he said republicanism has turned into a religion.. how many times have we talked about that?  It's not just her, it's the whole fucking party and the voters who vote for them. They are all part of one large 'religious-like' borg experience..where only the world they create is divine... where even a world that is created by a liberal, using their own GOP values and idea's, is a world to destroy because it's been tainted by the stench of liberalism..

My g/pa is worried about where the country is headed.. economically,politically.. the parties..etc.  even tho, as he said, he won't be around to see where it ends, he is still worried. he fought for this country, and he sees it slipping away, not because of Obama, but because of what the hate for Obama has created.... I told him it's going to be one hell of an interesting ride no matter which way it goes and then he smiled and said "Yeah.. so now I'm a little bit jealous that I won't be able to see it"

I've said it before.. we're young.. we've never had the 'religious' uprising and control that so many other countries had for 1000's of years..and we're due..

think about this... if we thought Bush was bad?.... just wait to see who they stuff in there next..

[44nutman]

This should be the symbol of her campaign. The Christian Taliban is trying to take over.

[Howey]

This should be the symbol of her campaign. The Christian Taliban is trying to take over.

Funny you should show us that picture. Yesterday, we were behind an SUV (heading into the gas station) with a "rainbow" sticker on one side and a "Creationism" sticker on the other side.

Huh?

How can someone who professes to be gay also profess to be a creationist?

The evolutionist view of the origin of homosexuality in contrast to the creationist explanation is reviewed. Creationists conclude that the physical bodies and minds of humans were designed to produce heterosexual behaviour for the primary purposes of reproduction and bonding. Darwinism would select for fertility and thus heterosexuality, but would be neutral relative to homosexual behaviour that did not interfere with reproduction rates. No clear evidence exists that most homosexual behaviour is biologically caused or determined, although indications exist that it may be influenced by pathological development of the hypothalamus or other brain structures. It is also concluded that homosexuals as commonly defined are statistically infrequent, primarily homosexual behaviour exists, and the majority of individuals labelled homosexuals are more properly labelled bisexual.

[Howey]

The 10 Craziest things ever said by Bachmann (I seriously doubt it):

(1) BACHMANN WARNED ‘THE LION KING’ WAS GAY PROPAGANDA: At the November 2004 EdWatch National Education Conference, Bachmann said the “normalization” of homosexuality would lead to “desensitization”: “Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of ‘The Lion King’ for instance, and a teacher might say, ‘Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?’ The message is: I’m better at what I do, because I’m gay.”
 
(2) BACHMANN CLAIMED ABOLISHING THE MINIMUM WAGE WOULD CREATE JOBS: While testifying in front of the Minnesota Senate in 2005, Bachmann said, “Literally, if we took away the minimum wage — if conceivably it was gone — we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.” This isn’t remotely true. Even simply reducing the minimum wage would, as Paul Krugman noted, “at best do nothing for employment; more likely it would actually be contractionary.”
 
(3) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT SCIENTISTS ARE SUPPORTERS OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN: During a 2006 debate, Bachmann said, “There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.” This was, and is, not true.
 
(4) BACHMANN CLAIMED TERRI SCHIAVO WAS ‘HEALTHY’: Not long after Terri Schiavo died, Bachmann said she would have voted for the Palm Sunday Compromise because Schiavo “was healthy. She had brain damage — there was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.” An autopsy found that Schiavo had suffered irreversible brain damage and her brain, said the medical examiner, was “profoundly atrophied.”
 
(5) BACHMANN LIKENED VISITING IRAQ TO VISITING MALL OF AMERICA: In 2007, Bachmann returned from a junket to Iraq and told her colleagues, “[T]here’s a commonality with the Mall of America, in that it’s on that proportion. There’s marble everywhere. The other thing I remarked about was there is water everywhere.” As ThinkProgress documented at the time, the comparison was preposterous.
 
(6) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT CARBON DIOXIDE IS ‘HARMLESS’: In 2008, a Stanford scientist revealed “direct links” between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and “increases in human mortality” — globally, he found that as many as “20,000 air-pollution-related deaths per year per degree Celsius may be due to this greenhouse gas.” The next year, Bachmann, who is not a scientist, said that “carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”
 
(7) BACHMANN CALLED FOR A CONGRESSIONAL WITCH HUNT: Pivoting off the news of Barack Obama’s alleged relationship to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bachmann accused the candidate of having “anti-American views.” She then suggested that Congressional liberals — including Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid — ought to be subject to “an exposé” by the media because of their views. “I think people would love to see like that,” she told a stunned Chris Matthews.
 
( BACHMANN SUGGESTED GAY SINGER SHOULD REPENT AFTER GETTING CANCER: Bachmann saw Melissa Etheridge’s cancer as a teachable moment: “Unfortunately she is now suffering from breast cancer, so keep her in your prayers,” she said in November 2004. “This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.”
 
(9) BACHMANN BOASTED ABOUT BREAKING THE LAW: In advance of the 2010 national Census, Bachmann told The Washington Times that she would break the law by not completing the forms. “I know for my family, the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home,” she said. “We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”
 
(10) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT GLENN BECK COULD SOLVE THE DEBT CRISIS: During a February trip to South Carolina, Bachmann told a South Carolina audience, “I think if we give Glenn Beck the numbers, he can solve this [the national debt].”

[FooFa]

(6) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT CARBON DIOXIDE IS ‘HARMLESS’: In 2008, a Stanford scientist revealed “direct links” between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and “increases in human mortality” — globally, he found that as many as “20,000 air-pollution-related deaths per year per degree Celsius may be due to this greenhouse gas.” The next year, Bachmann, who is not a scientist, said that “carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

This whole greenhouse gas stuff is one if not the largest hose jobs ever perpetrated. I was guilty of not being informed enough when it started. Carbon is of course a natural element like water. If the tax nonsense that Gore advocates ever get's in the system it will never get out.

[Howey]

Carbon is of course a natural element like water.

So are...

Arsenic
Mercury
Lead
Cadmium
Nitrogen
Uranium
Cyanide
Plutonium

This whole greenhouse gas stuff is one if not the largest hose jobs ever perpetrated. I was guilty of not being informed enough when it started. Carbon is of course a natural element like water. If the tax nonsense that Gore advocates ever get's in the system it will never get out.

Taxing carbon emissions is probably one of the most effective ways of turning our nation away from it's oil dependency. Yes, Bachmann (and you) are seriously misinformed to think so, but this thread is about Bachmann's campaign. I expect it to stay that way.

http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/carbonmonoxide-factsheet.pdf

[Howey]

Now that she's official, can some tell her the difference between John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy?