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Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) is by no means the only member of Congress willing to believe bizarre ideas, but even among her strange colleagues, the right-wing Minnesotan tends to be the most outlandish of the bunch.
This week, for example, Bachmann appeared on Glenn Beck's website, complaining about comments from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who recently explained to lawmakers that contraception access helps lower medical costs overall. The failed former presidential candidate didn't find the observation compelling.
"Going with that logic, according to our own Health and Human Services Secretary, it isn't far-fetched to think that the President of the United States could say, 'We need to save health care expenses -- the federal government will only pay for one baby to be born in the hospital per family, or two babies to be born per family.' That could happen. We think it couldn't?"
It's possible, I suppose, that Bachmann doesn't know what "far-fetched" means.
For what it's worth, one of the network's hosts seemed slightly taken aback, questioning whether it's realistic to think U.S. officials would ever "advocate a one-child policy like communist China."
Let that dynamic linger in your mind for a moment: Glenn Beck's network thinks Michele Bachmann's ideas seem a little over the top.
This is, however, how nutty ideas start. Some politician makes an unhinged claim -- about, say, "death panels" -- and soon Fox News personalities start telling viewers that "some critics of the administration" believe the president may embrace a one-child policy.
For the record, this is madness, and the argument has no foundation in reality.
But for Bachmann, it's par for the course. Remember the time she argued that the U.S. Census may lead to "internment camps"? How about when she warned of a "one-world currency" because she got confused about what a global reserve currency is? Or maybe the time she thought the "Lion King" was secretly gay propaganda? How about the time she said a bipartisan national service bill could lead to "re-education camps"? Or when she labeled public school medical clinics as "sex clinics"?
Given her track record, of course Bachmann thinks a one-child policy "could happen."
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I don't know... I mean, I thought it would be pretty far-fetched to think that people in any state would cast a majority of ballots for an ultraconservative, conspiracy-minded lawyer...
Actually, her peeps are pushing a Forced Birth movement based on Abstinence Only and if you get preggers and can't afford it, the child will be placed in a good Xstain home for you. No welfare for jezabelles.
The Great American Memory Bank is queried:"Who is Michele Bachmann ?"
And the bank manager replies:"That account has been closed for lack of recent activity."
A fiction writer would fail miserably if they ever tried to create a character like Bachmann. And yet she constantly proves that fiction can be much stranger than truth.
I hear that her scenes in The Iron Sky ended up on the cutting room floor because they were too silly and unrealistic.
The woman is batty, nuts, koo-koo-from-Cocoa Puffs. Fortunately, we may all soon be rid of her as Rep. Bachmann's Congressional seat was redistricted and she will face a much tougher Democratic challenge in November. If she loses, which much of Minnesota hopes she will, Ms. Bachmann will be free to spend the rest of her life doing harm to the gullable as she and her equally goofy husband work at "curing the gay."
Thank God! Let her fade into obscurity as quickly as possible. Besides being ignorant and out of touch with reality--has she done much (if anything) for her constituents during all these years she has been trying to run for President, get her own radio show, write a book, etc., etc., etc.?
Anyone from Minnesota--what has she done for you---just asking because I do not know.
When was her redistricting decided - before or after her ascension into the national spotlight?
Don't let her fade quite yet. Make sure she endorses one of the wonder candidates.
She done nothing but made money for herself and the welfare she is on.
Alas it is true that the congressional districts were redrawn, and where 'Chele lives is now part of a solid Democratic voter base. But she now states that her "home" is the MN 6th district, which is now even more likely to keep her in office! Add to this that after many years in Congress she has finally accomplished something with a bill to create a new MN-WI bridge in her district!
First it was Iowa, and now the MN 6th district that she calls home. Apparently home for Michele Bachmann is anywhere that she thinks may get her elected!
I do not know which is scarier. Is her rhetoric thought out or is it off the top of her head? Either way, coming out of the mouth of an elected official, it is sadly reflected of how uneducated voters can be.
Ha, Republican right wing voters may be uneducated!!! According to them, all of us Liberals and left wings are educated by "elite" liberal colleges and they feel that's a "bad thing". Yet, many of the politicians attended some of these so called elite colleges and law schools back in the day, so why do they look down on it now? (Rick Santitarium for one)!!
Going with that logic, according to our own Health and Human Services Secretary, it isn't far-fetched to think that the President of the United States could say, 'We need to save health care expenses -- the federal government will only pay for one baby to be born in the hospital per family, or two babies to be born per family.' That could happen. We think it couldn't?"
WAIT! I thought Bachmann was about gov't NOT paying for all those kids?
But Jeanette, you are assuming that Shelley is a logical person. Logic NEVER plays a role in this woman's brain. Yes. You are right. She and her Teapubvangelical nut jobs don't want govt paying for the 'welfare queen's' babies' (or their contraception) but then she also doesn't want them using contraception . . . . their logic or lack of is truly the dog chasing its tail.
you missed the expansion in circle of life logic of her brain, that lack of access to contraception and opportunity for "welfare queens" leads into having a Bachman house filled with 23 foster children from such difficult circumstances so Ms Bachman can render her Christian charity and get assured a spot in heaven.
See now it makes more sense. \s
Of course you realize that she is receiving money for 23 foster kids. No wonder she is against birth control and abortion. She could lose both jobs.
The problem with her and Palin and that sorry excuse for an AZ governor is what these three do to the reputation of women in official positions in general. American women are starved for some kind of mentor/hero of their own. We've got a classy lady in the White House but no, Republican women are "required" to look to the likes of Bachmann and Palin for their female examples of leadership. The depth of the bad example these three set for future generations of female leadership really steams my biscuits.
Where's Newt's female critique when it's actually relevant?
Please stop talking about this crazy women. She gives our state a bad name.
Thank you,
The Sane Minnesotans.
Please help us out by voting her out of office.
I would if I lived in her district. Please don't make me move into her district.
I love comedian Tim Bedore who now lives in Minnesota where he says"the extroverts stare at your shoes and the introverts stare at their shoes." He previously lived in Los Angeles which he labeled: "where insanity meets the sea."
Michelle Bachmann has no IQ capacity for nuance.
If she can get the drum beat going, this could be the new "death panel" issue. Let's hope people are done taking her seriously.
I hope when Bachmann finally gets out of office they offer her a stint on Saturday Night Live. When she's not actually involved in creating policies that affect the lives of real people, she's hysterically funny.
Bachmann is just one of many crazies on the Republican side. I regularly am exposed to the NRA's current argument that once President Obama is reelected he is going to take away all our guns. Of course, President Obama and the Democrats have stayed far away from making any such proposal, but in the NRA's mind his failure to make any such proposal is proof he is going to take away our guns right after the November election. Right now he is just lying low waiting to pounce.
The NRA nuts think that once Obama is reelected he will somehow get rid of 3 or 4 SCOTUS justices, appoint new justices (and get them through the Senate) and have them overturn the recent decision on the 2nd amendment. These are the thoughts that go through the mind of Wayne LaPierre in his sickest moments (or when the NRA's bank account is falling).
Agree. The GOP in-fighting over their nomination is funny, but once they've picked their character, the laser will be pointed at Obama, and every lie, untruth, and made-up scare will be given credence and validity and thorough air time by the conservative MSM. Anything to push their candidate and their Save the Rich for God mantra just that much higher on the national fecal pile currently passing for political dialogue.
She's baaaack! I guess I had forgotten how ridiculous Bachman is since she bailed on the race, but this is all the reminder I need. I suppose it's a good thing that she keep her profile out front and absurd...maybe we can finally be rid of her for good!
She's pulling a Palin. She noticed that she wasn't getting any attention after bailing on the pres. race . . out she trots her tin foil hat conspiracy theories. I do remember the internment camps. It's too bad she wasn't put in one. Is the internment camp meme the same one as the FEMA concentration camps that Pres. Obama was going to send all of the RWNJ's to permanently? Or is that another RWNJ meme? Either way. I am disappointed that Pres. O didn't follow through on that conspiracy theory.
She'll go down in defeat this November along with her tea party friends, whom I like to call wacky, wonky wingnuts.
To find Bachmann's mind, here are the directions:
Start at the college she attended. Drive in any direction from there until you reach a belfry full of bats. Keep going past that. Eventually, you will reach the lunatic fringe. Increase your speed in order to get through this alive. Once you've made it through the fringe, go another 10,000 miles or so out into the Strait of Paranoia and Irrational Thought. Michelle will be waitng for you out a little beyond all that.
Sounds like a great video game.
Terrific. As a video game, what would you win? A piece of her mind?
For all that trouble, it would have to be more. How about a ballot for the Iowa Straw Poll?
People please, it's about distraction. It's about getting us concerned and obsessed about outlandish nonsense while the Republicans and the Tea Party wing nuts at the state level and in Congress go after voting rights and our civil liberties. Wake up!
It seems to me that this is more likely to happen in a situation where employers or the government can decide what IS NOT COVERED by healthcare policies, than what SHOULD BE! Santorum, for example, seems to think sex should only be for the purpose of procreation.
She seems to be implying that government is mandating birth control and therefore births may actually be reduced! What? We are just talking about the right to coverage through your healthcare insurance provider or employer. Perhaps Bachmann thinks it is far fetched that some people want to have conjugal rights without producing offspring. That whole "choice" thing is out of her realm. She cannot possibly imagine that some hormonal therapies are indicated for women with health risks not related to contraception. As a woman, this woman's ignorance frustrates me.
Know what you mean. Guess a married couple not wanting kids would have to forgo sex, except for those few days in which is safe to do so, assuming it's allowable since the motivation is not for procreation. I always wondered, does this mean that married couples who are unable to have children for whatever reason be banned from sex?
Well gary that then brings us to another complication because the only reason for marriage is for pro-creation. So if you're a couple unable to have children or a couple who has survived past child bearing age should you automatically be forced to divorce/have your marriages annulled by the state? Maybe we'll need to start installing televisions into people's houses just to make sure they aren't doing the nasty....
But it's the liberals who are the fascists *nods*. Sighhs
On a less sarcastic note- anyone else besides me think this whole contraception thing has brought about the craziest of the crazies?
Since everything eventually gets blamed on the POTUS, let's start a rumor that the GOP will stop and think about. We'll put an end to welfare by sterilizing women who have more than one child on welfare...
The right wing has been using fear mongering for years to win elections. People please quit voting for people who use fear or nutty ideas to intimidate. Heck please quit voting for people who have nutty ideas.
Republicans please remember this: Democrats are for women having the right to make their own choices about family planning and family size. If you want 1 kid OK, if you want 20 kids OK, it's not the government's business. Republicans are for women not being able to use birth control or make any of their own family planning choices. If you want 1 kid OK only if you're poor, if you want 20 kids OK only if you're a conservative Christian, and control your family size by only having sex after marriage and only when you want to get pregnant.
And she has how many kids? How many were born at home? She's a great one to be talking!
What a nut job. How did this women even make it to Congress. The right-wing sure knows how to pick the scum of the earth.
One of sons was enlisted in Americorps at a time she was ranting about this organization being engaged in indoctrinating America's children to support an anti-American, socialist agenda. That poor kid would have to be very embarrassed.
Ok, now I get it. You had me goin' there for awhile. Bachmann is a natural blond right? And SHE is how blond jokes got their start right? (sorry blondes, I couldnt' resist).
Not blonde.... her botox was injected too far and imobilized her brain cells.
There - fixed it for ya.
Wonder what Bachmann will do after she goes down in defeat along with many of her tea party friends in this year of a Democratic landslide? Here is a philosophical question. If a tree fell down in a forest and hit Bachmann on the head, would she feel anything?
She will end up on FOX News with her own show.
I don't think I'd be the first to sometimes wish that people had to get licenses to reproduce.
And I think we as a species are well on our way to overgrazing our environment, and Something Should Be Done.
But I have no idea on how to do it in a manner that anybody could agree upon. We're just programmed to reproduce as much as possible lest the larger animals get us, and that's a hard habit to break.
It isn't far-fetched to think that Ms. Bachman doesn't think.
To steal a quote from Garfield - Her I.Q. is so low you can't test it, you have to dig for it...