It's Been A While...

...since last I posted. Following the historic and overwhelming election of Obama I needed to take a break - you know, sit back, relax with a cold glass of Turkey Hill Southern Brew Iced Tea (yeah Ben!), and figure out what to blog about next. And then, while flipping channels last night, I saw this clip on Olbermann's show...



She's baaa-aaaack... And nuttier than ever!

An urban legend? Seriously?! Is Rep. Bachmann truly under the impression that a bunch of high school kids invented her comments about Obama and the "anti-American" members of Congress for the purpose of scaring awkward freshmen and the voting public? I don't remember any mention of her in the movie.

I think it is of utmost importance - paramount, I say - that someone pulls Ms. Bachmann aside and explains to her that YouTube has exposed her for the blithering idiot (move over, Sarah Palin). WE HAVE THE TAPE, BACHMANN! I understand that this is the fourth or fifth iteration of her making excuses to explain off why she said something stupid out loud while wearing a microphone and being televised across the nation, but c'mon... I am simply in awe of the personal fortitude and firmness required to blatantly and unequivocally deny making statements that you quite obviously made, and not that long ago.

Wow... Full post and comments here...

RE: Make The Pros

As is the American way, it looks like Rep. Michelle Bachmann wants to try and clear her name (and stick it to the Dems) after her fateful interview with Chris Matthews (see a clip in my earlier blog). She wrote an article for Politico defending her statements. Here's a bit of what she had to say:

Despite the way the blogs and the Democratic party are spinning it, I never called all liberals anti-American, I never questioned Barack Obama's patriotism, and I never asked for some House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunt into my colleagues in Congress.
. . .
It's like a political version of the children's game of telephone. I make a statement in an interview. Chris Matthews distorts it -- as he is paid so well to do. The liberal blogs contort it even more. The speaker of the House and aother Democrat leaders utter absolute lies about what was said in the interview. Then the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee picks it up and runs with it, buying $1 million for negative ads so that they don't have to talk about the issues.

And it's the issues that the voters in Minnesota's 6th District want to talk about. Everywhere I go, people ask about the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, and they want to know why we're saddling taxpayers with generations of debt to opay for risky decisions by Wall Street financiers. There's a clear distinction between my position on this bailout -- I opposed it both times it came before the House -- and that of my opponent, who saysa he would have supported it.

Boy oh boy, this woman is absolutely full of it. Though, in her defense she never actually said that all liberals are anti-American (though one could say that was pretty clearly her opinion on the matter). Also, she did not ask for a new House committee to investigate her colleagues committment or disdain for the US - she said the news media should do it. Would that be the liberal, elitist main stream news media?

What she did say during the interview, and now denies, is that she thinks Barack Obama harbors anti-American sentiments. Taken from the transcript:

MATTHEWS: So you think Barack Obama may have anti-American views?

BACHMANN: Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's the same as questioning their patriotism. Now I don't know how Matthews distorted what she said, I don't know what Pelosi and Reid and the rest of them said about it, and I haven't seen the ads that the DCCC is running, so I don't intend to defend them. But for Bachmann to somehow assert that she didn't say what she did say is the height of absurdity.

And someone should fill her in on the fact that McCain also supported that $700 billion bailout she's so against.
Full post and comments here...

Can't Wait To Make The Pros

As this is the first election I've really followed closely, the tone of the rhetoric and exchanges may be standard fare. However, I think the level of "What the hell did (s)he just say?!" is pretty high even for the most weathered politico. The latest fodder: who's pro- and who's anti-America?

And, of course, the majority of the nonsense is coming out of the McCain campaign and its surrogates. Let's start with my favorite: Sarah Palin (as reported by Elizabeth Holmes of the Wall Street Journal):

"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."

She continued: "This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."

Honestly, her point is understandable, although what she says is clearly absurd. Certainly the small, quiet towns scattered throughout the US are crucial to the viability of America...but so are the metropolitan cities. New York doesn't work without Harleysville and visa versa, so there's no point in singling one out as being more "real" or more "pro-America" than the other. Sometimes what you say isn't exactly what you meant (all you Michelle Obama haters should keep that in mind).

For the first time, Palin's comments weren't the worst of the bunch. Here's McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer on MSNBC (Virginians, you may want to sit down for this one):



I wonder if we'll see Pfotenhauer give any more interviews after that humdinger. We'll have to redraw the state lines now: West "Real" Virginia, "Real" Virginia, and Metro DC.

But it gets...much...worse. Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann is probably still picking rubber sole out of her vaselined teeth after this bombshell:



So to recap: small towns are pro-America, southern VA is the "real" Virginia, and some of the elected representatives to the House and Senate may be anti-American. I wonder if all of that made it into the GOP platform?

This drivel is starting to move from amusing and mildly irritating to mind-bogglingly (I think that's a dangling adverb for you grammar buffs) aggravating. I hope that John McCain loses, not just because I think Obama would make a better president, but because I think he really needs to answer for the bulls**t that's coming out of his campaign. In what kind of twisted universe would a surrogate, or a paid staffer, or the freakin' VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE dare to utter such baffling balderdash as this - especially after the incredible backlash Obama met after his Bittergate comments?

Idiots. Full post and comments here...