• About
  • The Poetry of Protest

Show Me Progress

~ covering government and politics in Missouri – since 2007

Show Me Progress

Tag Archives: Michele Bachmann

Psychopaths

29 Saturday Jan 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

anti-mask, anti-science, anti-vaccine, Corona virus, COVID-19, Michele Bachmann, pandemic, Psycopaths, right wingnuts, Sarah Palin

Yesterday:

Acyn @Acyn
Michele Bachmann says Sarah Palin should be commended for eating at a restaurant while having COVID
[….]
6:26 PM · Jan 28, 2022

A perfect response:

Michele Bachman commending Sarah Palin on Jesse Watters’ propaganda hour… it’s like a Russian nesting doll of suck. [….]

Is Vicky Hartzler the new Michele Bachmann?

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

conservatives, fringe politics, Michele Bachmann, missouri, tea party, Vicky Hartzler

You know how every year you hear somebody say that such-and-such a color is the new black? Well it seems that Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann is such an icon of rightwing goofiness that now that she has announced her intention to retire at the end of her current term, commentators are searching for the new Michele Bachmann. And guess who the first contender to be named is? Missouri’s own Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-4), author of Running God’s Way, a guide for rightwing Christians in politics, famous locally as the Tea Party darling and mostly closeted birther who is also the recipient of massive governmental farm subsidies.

Makes sense. the Tea Party queen stands down while one of the possible number one ladies in waiting takes the crown. Charles Pierce, who is leading the hunt for Bachmann’s successor, notes that among the  points in Hartzler’s favor is her intellectual acuity:

Among other things, Ms. Hartzler apparently believes that the heathen Chinee are spying on us through our toasters.

and her courageous stand for religious freedom for the right kind of Christians:

She’d also rather the government not tolerate those “fringe religions” because the First Amendment says that Congress Shall Make No Law Unless Vicky Hartzler Thinks Your God Is Freaky.

I’d say Vicky has a good chance of becoming the new Michele Bachmann, but I want to know if her election would mean that Missouri will become known as the Bermuda Triangle of Crazy? Do you feel proud that we’re first-off in the running for the crazy crown, or what?

ADDENDA: This is one account of the record of achievement that Hartzler has to equal or surpass in order to become the new Bachmann.

*Slightly edited.

Dana Loesch thinks Mitt missed an opportunity to identify bigotry with free-speech

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Dana Loesch, free speech, Islamophobia, Michele Bachmann, missouri, Mitt Romney

All this time, I’ve been reading about Mitt Romney’s reluctance to pick up on the Michele Bachmann anti-Islam crusade as an example of his political cowardice. Bachmann’s efforts to instigate a Muslim witch-hunt were so egregiously hateful that even a small number of GOPers – those who still have a remnant of conscience – were willing to risk the ire of their mean-minded base and call her out.  I assumed Mitt’s reluctance to discuss the issue reflected the dilemma of a man who, like John McCain, knows better,  but who can’t afford to alienate his only real supporters – the folks who hate Obama and Muslims enough to vote for Romney just because he isn’t either.

Seems, though, that I was wrong – either that or Mitt’s cowardice just hasn’t paid off as regards the aforementioned base. None other than St. Louis fringewing luminary, Dana Loesch, wants us to read Mitt’s silence on the topic of Bachmann as a simple failure to take up the cudgels for free speech, which she presents as a potentially useful political gambit (via DailyKos):

If I were — which I’m not, I’m not advising him, he couldn’t afford me — it just seems so easy to do. Like, if they’re asking him, “What is your thought on the Chick-fil-A story, what do you think about Michelle Bachmann and the Muslim Brotherhood?” he could say, “I don’t have a problem with free speech, do you?”

And that report that Congresswoman Bachmann — the inquiry that they presented towards Congress — that raised a lot of questions. And who’s against free speech?

Who, indeed, is against free speech? Not I certainly. Michele Bachmann has every right to speak freely – but that does not make the content of her speech right correct, nor does it mean that others should let her get away with inciting hateful action without speaking out. I, for example, also have the right to speak freely and point out that Bachmann’s a hateful moron, which in no way contravenes Bachmann’s free speech rights.  So if Loesch is saying that folks should feel free to speak their minds, I agree – and I’ll go a bit further even and say that it would be great if Mitt Romney would do so and, just once, be up front with us about what he really thinks – and not continually try to game the political angles, even in the way suggested by Loesch.

After all, you can only go so far in politics and avoid all specifics. However, it’s also reasonably clear that you can’t go too far at all if you’re given to defending obvious bigotry. Nobody asked Mitt if Bachmann had a right to say what she did, just whether or not he agreed with the content, her call to take action against Muslims in government. Which fact just might explain why Mitt has hesitated to take advice of the sort Loesch is handing out.

And, just for fun, what’s that business about Mitt Romney (multi-billionaire beneficiary of political donors who fit the same description) not being able to afford Loesch? She’s trying to say she’s too principled to work for his prevaricating likes, or is it the case that the poor baby has delusions of grandeur? It’s hard to say, of course, since her advice seems to consist of just about the same drivel he’d get from any random Tea Party celebrant.

*Last sentence edited for grammar.

I know who I'm voting for when I cross over for the Missouri republican Presidential Primary

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

clowns, Iowa, Michele Bachmann

Representative Michele Bachmann (r).

None of the others even come close.

Representative Michelle Bachmann (r): …But what I want them to know is, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that’s the kind of spirit that I have, too…  

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907.

[emphasis added]

The republican governing philosophy makes a whole lot more sense now, in a Jonathan Swift non-ironic sort of way:

Michele Bachmann promises to be a clown and kill teenagers

Posted on: June 27, 2011 4:09 PM, by Greg Laden

…And she still doesn’t know where anything is…

Michele Bachmann promised, in an interview associated with her announcement to run for President of the United States (POTUS) and Effective Leader of the Free World (ELFW), that she would become a professional clown and murder dozens of teenage boys and young men.

Or, perhaps, she is just confused…

Luetkemeyer joins Akin in the Tea Party Caucus – and on the gravy train?

24 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Blaine Luetkemeyer, Campaign funding, Jo Ann Emerson, Michele Bachmann, missouri, Political contribtions, Roy Blunt, Sam Graves, tea party, Tea Party Caucus, Todd Akin

Last month, when Michele Bachmann put out the list of the first members of her new congressional Tea Party Caucus, I noted the predictable presence of Teetotaler Todd Akin (R-2nd), and asked where the rest of the Missouri Republican delegation was. The answer is that, with one exception, Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-9th), they are still missing.

It might be that Roy Blunt (R-7th), Jo Ann Emerson (R-8th), and Sam Graves(R-6th) still have some capacity for embarrassment. Or that, lacking the sincere conviction that practically oozes from, say, Todd Akin, they want more wiggle room. They may well be worrying about constituents who would think twice about a congressperson whose goal is to “serve as a listening ear to tea parties.” (Are you, like me, wondering what kind of ears aren’t “listening” ears?)

However, a report from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) suggests that those who haven’t yet joined the Tea Party Caucus membership might want to reconsider in the future since:

… analysis shows that the top contributors to the 50 members of a newly-established congressional Tea Party caucus — which so far includes only Republicans — are health professionals, retirees, the real estate industry and oil and gas interests.

Furthermore, donations from health professionals, oil and gas interests and Republican and conservative groups are, on average, higher for Tea Party caucus members than for members of the House of Representatives in general and even their fellow House Republicans.

I have to admit my first reaction was so what? These are exactly the groups I would expect to be lavishing funds on legislators on the Tea Party bandwagon – and many of the Missouri politicians that haven’t joined the caucus get plenty of moola from those groups as well (you can check out their totals by industrial and other donor groups on CPR’s OpenSecrets.org).

However, I began to get the point when I read further:

Tea Party activists have already established political action committees to fund favored candidates. But the formation of the caucus may make it easier to track which industries’ interests are aligned with the movement.

If the pattern of giving that CRP has described becomes more marked, perhaps we’ll see more movement toward the Tea Party caucus from the rest of the Missouri GOP in the future. Political scientist, Jim Hensen, claims that “The guys that are forming the caucus in Congress are trying to, you know, ride the train …”. Could that be the gravy train he’s talking about?

 

An entrepreneurial idea

25 Thursday Feb 2010

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blaine Luetkemeyer, Comics, Jane Cunningham, Michele Bachmann, missouri, republicans, Roy Blunt, Tea Partiers, Todd Akin

Okay, it’s late and I am admittedly fit for nothing serious, but when I came across this TPM review of the new Michele Bachmann comic, a crudely drawn electric bulb lit up in the psychic balloon that is always floating above my head just in case I get an idea. The latest issue of the Bachmann comic series is filled with actual statements about gays made by Bachmann, the current Queen of Crazy Republicanland – and, while tragic, they’re also a scream. Earlier issues emphasize her other pseudo-political preoccupations to equal effect.

Starting from the premise that ridicule is the best way to neutralize folks who are both obscene and absurd, wouldn’t it be just loverly if somebody put out a series of comic books about some of our Missouri crazies? Wouldn’t you buy titles like, say,  Calamity Jane Cunningham Hunts the Disappearing Constitution, Cynthia Davis at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Todd Akin’s Fantastic American History,The Godfather Blunt, or Strange Climate Science with Blaine Luetkemeyer? There are almost unlimited possibilities.  

Alternatively, following the example of baseball cards, one could just print the most outrageous statements made by our fringewing celebs on collectible cards – or maybe put together a flash card game where one would have to guess who said what. So much of what these folks say manages to be so appalling and yet so amusingly fantastical at the same time that I can’t understand why some enterprising soul hasn’t already done something along these lines – perhaps, as a handy campaign aid?

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007

Categories

  • campaign finance
  • Claire McCaskill
  • Congress
  • Democratic Party News
  • Eric Schmitt
  • Healthcare
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Interview
  • Jason Smith
  • Josh Hawley
  • Mark Alford
  • media criticism
  • meta
  • Missouri General Assembly
  • Missouri Governor
  • Missouri House
  • Missouri Senate
  • Resist
  • Roy Blunt
  • social media
  • Standing Rock
  • Town Hall
  • Uncategorized
  • US Senate

Meta

  • Log in

Blogroll

  • Balloon Juice
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Digby
  • I Spy With My Little Eye
  • Lawyers, Guns, and Money
  • No More Mister Nice Blog
  • The Great Orange Satan
  • Washington Monthly
  • Yael Abouhalkah

Donate to Show Me Progress via PayPal

Your modest support helps keep the lights on. Click on the button:

Blog Stats

  • 738,104 hits

Powered by WordPress.com.

 

Loading Comments...