Michele Bachmann's "Fact Optional" Rebuttal to the State of the Union
Where to begin?
It’s kind of like a hybrid of Sarah Palin’s “book” America by Heart, and a bad hangover. She was kind enough to dumb it down for the masses, though, to make it sound all “real” and everything. And it’s impressive how much tripe she was able to stuff in this delusion sandwich.
Watch the speech if you dare. It’s only six minutes. Pearl divers can hold their breath for that long, so you should be able to get through.
For a brilliant dissection and fact check, we turn as always to the fine folks at Media Matters.
BACHMANN: Unfortunately, the President’s strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money.[…] Not only did that plan fail to deliver, but within three months the national jobless rate spiked to 9.4 percent. And sadly, it hasn’t been lower for 20 straight months. While the government grew, we lost more than 2 million jobs. Let me show you a chart. Here are unemployment rates over the past ten years. In October 2001, our national unemployment rate was at 5.3 percent. In 2008 it was at 6.6 percent. But, just eight months after President Obama promised lower unemployment, that rate spiked to a staggering 10.1 percent.
And now from Media Matters:
Unemployment Didn’t “Spike” — It Grew Steadily Under Bush-Era Policies…
The Economy Shed Almost 8 Million Jobs Under Republican Policies Before The Recovery Act Could Affect The Economy. According to economist Robert J. Shapiro:
From December 2007 to July 2009 – the last year of the Bush second term and the first six months of the Obama presidency, before his policies could affect the economy – private sector employment crashed from 115,574,000 jobs to 107,778,000 jobs. Employment continued to fall, however, for the next six months, reaching a low of 107,107,000 jobs in December of 2009. So, out of 8,467,000 private sector jobs lost in this dismal cycle, 7,796,000 of those jobs or 92 percent were lost on the Republicans’ watch or under the sway of their policies. Some 671,000 additional jobs were lost as the stimulus and other moves by the administration kicked in, but 630,000 jobs then came back in the following six months. The tally, to date: Mr. Obama can be held accountable for the net loss of 41,000 jobs (671,000 – 630,000), while the Republicans should be held responsible for the net losses of 7,796,000 jobs. [Sonecon.com, 8/10/10, emphasis added]
Based on Shapiro’s research, the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein created the following chart showing net job losses before and after the Recovery Act was enacted:
The article is a must-read in its entirety. Click HERE. They back it up with …. are you ready?… facts. And you can even check them yourself.
A graph is worth a thousand words. Especially a big blue bar graph.
I keep HOPING that the msm will eventually turn its focus to the intelligent women of Congress and quit putting the spot light on the ditzy and delusional! I know it makes for great drama, but ferkristsake! give it a rest. We are in serious times of trouble and don’t need any more drama.
The intelligent women of Congress are mostly Democrats. The Smart Republican women turn off their brains in order to be shills for big business.
Megan McCain calls Bachmann “poor man’s Sarah Palin”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/meghan-mccain-michele-bachmann_n_814708.html
To quote from John Scalzi “Bachmann could say something perfectly reasonable and her crazy unblinking stare would give the impression she wishes to gut puppies. She’s not the person I would have chosen as a messenger, basically.”
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/01/25/super-instant-state-of-the-union-reaction-post-go/
I have yet to see her say anything reasonable!
The stock market is recovering, with the recovery spreading to small-, mid-, and large-cap companies in most sectors. Employment will continue to improve as we enter the summer construction season. It will become increasingly difficult for Boehner and Bachmann to sell crisis with the sound of hammers growing louder. If President Obama directly targets pockets of midwest rust, some of which are in Boehner’s district, then the Republicans have no hope for 2012. Soon, it will be House Republicans struggling to look bipartisan and positive and cooperative with Democrats.
MUDPUPPIES, WRITE TO THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF EVERY NEWSPAPER OR
NEWS MAGAZINE THAT CONTINUES TO PRINT COMMENTS BY MRS. TODD PALIN.
THIS WOMAN HAS LOTS OF BLOOD ON HER HANDS. I WOULD THINK SHE WOULD
KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT! WHERE IS HER SENSE OF RESPECT TO THE FAMILIES
THAT ARE MOURNING THEIR DEAD AND WOUNDED.
SARAH WHO? SARAH WHO? WHO IS SARAH? WHO IS SARAH? SARAH WHO?
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH FROM THIS IGNORANT WOMAN! HER 15-MINUTES OF FAME
IS OVER! BOYCOTT THE SARAH PALIN BRAND! SHUT HER UP!!
The great state of Minnesota took 4 billion of that failed stimulus money
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2009/02/17/6738/minnesotas_stimulus_coordinator_on_federal_money_how_much_well_get_and_how_well_spend_it
Since michelle doesn’t like it they should give it back.
I wonder…if I put text in ‘code’ to make it Italicised will it show up as normal? beth.
Nah… Technically speaking, AKM’d hafta’ put the ‘end italics’ codey-thing at the end of her piece.
But ‘bold’ apparently still works…!
Someone over on HP made the observation that both her camera and make-up men must truly be disgusted by her — they let her appear before the nation with trowel face and raccoon eyes and let her focus steadily off to camera-left … The poster speculated the men probably had more than good reason to let her do so: they are probably part of what Bachman sees as America’s ‘problem’ – gay. beth.
Bachman did not mention defense spending as driving America deeper in debt. Neither the right nor the left ever mention the unjust and unnecessary wars we are engaging in, in Iraq and Afghanistan, as being a possible drain on our economy. On the other hand, is the war machine actually keeping us afloat, and nothing more? What do we do with those employed in the armed services once these wars are “done”? Do we perhaps put them to work on these great American infrastructure projects such as fast rail that Obama spoke of last night? Lots of nice words and ideas from all sides but no real and actual plans to bring these dreams to fruition.
catsin – you beat me to it, I was going to point out the same post by Halcro. However, I have to place some caveats on the plug we give him. While he certainly seems to be a moderate and thoughtful republican and therefore worthy of a stand up debate over issues, one thing troubles me. He does not speak out and decry the tactics of propaganda and demagogery that the rest of his party employs. Palin is not the only republican guilty of the fascist tactics of lies, threats and intimidation.
Sunflower @15.1
Perhaps—-but she must have skipped history!!!!
OT. Just read and highly recommend Andrew Halco’s blog on “Who is responsible for Sarah Palin?” He hits the nail clearly on the head. How she engages people (as she did in AK) as some kind of populist hero who chants dream/magic language slogans that basically defy logic and reason. I would love to see this article on HUFFPO.. Can folks recommend to get it out there?
Bachmann is similar. I have relatives in Minnesota in her district and asked how they could vote for her. There reason is that there is no one better. I kind of doubt that. She is also a populist favorite. No brains, just mouth.
Whomever is charged with regulating her meds clearly substituted the wrong color yesterday before she took to the lectern… AND, whomever is in charge of making sure her antenna is pointed toward the mother ship at all times was either asleep OR was having their own party.
Did anyone hear the famous phrase ‘Klaatu barada nikto’ last night from Turner-Overdrive ??? I guess it was only off camera but I’m sure that the mother ship instructed her on everything she was to say, but those instructions were clearly ignored for the sake of an additional measure of completely, incoherent mumbling…
Does she get her instructions DIRECTLY from the Alaskan Swag-Hag or from her handlers???
Off topic: Immoral Minority has comments about a Palin rant with Greta/Fox on Obama’s speech.
Anyone know about this?
I am still laughing over “Hang a wreath on her nose her brain has passed away…” comment.
Truly a classic ! I will never see a photo of Michele Bachman and not think of that…Sarah, either, for that matter. They both are an embarrassment.
I know, I can’t help but envision a little wreath of mourning flowers draped across MB’s upper lip. It sort of goes with her bulging but vacant eyes. I think her body can’t quite belief what her brain is doing (or is wondering where the heck it went). Thanks again Mike for the line!
There was an infamous and often-described encounter between Sarah Palin and Andrew Halcro during their primary contest. Halcro, the ultimate policy and fact guy, had just finished a talk in which he had demonstrated his points with hard facts, the antithesis of Palin-speak. However, in a private talk after, Palin observed to Halcro that facts really don’t matter. And so enormous crowds of seemingly adults will listen to a Palin or Bachmann word-salad and somehow hear in that solutions to infinitely complex diplomatic, economic and social problems that have defied solution for a hundred years. It doesn’t matter that Bachmann just made stuff up. I’d bet that not one in a hundred Tea Baggers will even remember anything Bachmann actually said. They are listening to some tape inside their own heads, one that tells them that if just didn’t have some smart-ass Harvard-educated black guy in the White House, we’d suddenly all become contented, small-town white folks with jobs down at the local hardware store – if we’d just end social security, there wouldn’t be any poor elderly people living on catfood in unheated city apartments – if we’d just repeal healthcare, there’d suddenly be wise, old Marcus Welby general practitioners on every street corner – I mean, why does everything have to be so complicated? So facts don’t matter. More accurately, facts are the very problem.
Pretty good analysis, Simple Mind! The tape-inside-their-own-heads metaphor is great.
That’s why Fox News has the audience it does; it plays to the emotions (fear, doubt, mistrust, prejudice, et cetera). If that damn judge hadn’t ruled that they could get away with telling lies, they’d be forced to introduce some facts now and again.
Emotional patriots are the most dangerous kind. They can be easily manipulated because their brains never engage.
BTW – I urge everyone to visit WC’ blog, Wickersham’s Conscience at
http://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/.
He is an infrequent poster here so many are familiar with him. His post today is “Force-fed Patriotism” and will, I believe, move every reader. He blends personal experience with solid analysis and commentary. If you like AKM, you will like WC. Promise.
Superbly stated simple mind. A few things worth noting though, Halcro is a republican and though perhaps more moderate than many others in some respects not a role model I would credit.
The essential problem confronting us here is that a substantial portion of the electorate and even more unfortunately a very active portion, is so deeply in denial that the world is more complex than they wish it to be that they embrace the blantant falsehoods and outright lies that are the stock and trade of palin and her ilk. Yet we, the majority are complicit in the crimes being perpetrated upon us. If we don’t participate in elections then the radical right wing demagoges will be given power to make things even worse than they presently are.
General politicians have taken a page from the form of rhetoric that creationists invented a couple of decades ago, snow them with a blizzard of lies. Up to a point, it works. That is our danger.
Michele Bachmann did not say how we got here from eight years of poor leadership, two wars without end, diminsihed Civil liberties. Its like she crawl out from under a rock just to complain about our current President. We all know that Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works started the Tea Party, grasroots, please. She like Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle and Linda McMahon, they are just not right but funny. I especially like the clip of Bachmann saying that the founding fathers abolished slavery, wow, what a liar, not the first or last time that will happen. Does anyone with self-respect real believe her?
Well, we must assume that there are millions of people who have such a dearth of education and/or such low self esteem, that they figure somehow that someone who was once Governor and picked for VP candidate (Palin) and that someone who is currently a US Representative (Bachmann) must, by definition, be really smart, and can be trusted to have reliable information.
The rest of us, I guess, are either tons smarter, or incredibly less gullible, or else maybe we just think facts matter, and that even those who were smart enough to get elected (which isn’t saying much) can very often tell us the wrong facts, either through genuine cluelessness or through terrifying “purposefulness”.
Don’t you read those special history text books the right wing is rewriting?
You know, the ones that claim that the Bush years were filled with rainbows and unicorns and cherry lollipops. There was no unemployment, no sickness, the economy was booming and every day was sunny. Everyone had a wonderful job, Katrina was the name of the waitress at your favorite diner and there were no criminals, no terrorist attacks, and the whole big, wide world loved us. The folks in Afghanistan and Iraq were really just having picnics in the desert and wore camo to make it more of a challenge when they played hide and seek.
Didn’t you read that part yet???
LOL leenie17 don’t give them any more Ideas.
And Guantanamo Bay was for square dancing!
Isn’t Guantnamo Bay the name of a Beach Boys song? Or is that Jan and Dean?
And the Texas Board of Education just approved its use in their public schools.
I believe that those text book wwere published by that outfit in Texas. That is why our kids have educations that can’t compete with the rest of worlds kids. Maybe that is why some of those idiots get elected. People are becoming of age having read those texts full of distorted facts.
,,,,I think Michele Bachmann went to the same college as Sarah Palin???? Maybe one of those “on-line” thingys!
Remember, MB has a J.D. (Juris Doctor) and has been a tax attorney. Therefore, theoretically, at least, she is better educated than a mere Bachelor’s degree that Sarah supposedly earned at her final college stop in Idaho.
No they didn’t go to the same college. Bachmann went to a small university in the mid-west, then got her JD from Oral Roberts (imagine my eyes rolling to the back of my head), AND she has an LLM from the College of William and Mary. Really? I don’t believe she really paid attention in class so I wonder how she got any degree.
The McGinnis and Dunn books are on pre-order on amazon.com. Gryphen just announced it on his website. Unfortunately, Geoffrey’s book doesn’t come out until April and Joe’s until September!
Still pre-orders can be important indicators of success. Let’s help make these authors outsell Sarah!
Bonus, there is a quote endorsing Dunn’s book by our very own Jeanne Devon!
“Geoffrey Dunn’s exposé reads like a novel. It is a triumph of investigative journalism.” Do-dah!!
Looks like the 320-page book is going to be worth waiting for indeed.
I’ve got Dunn’s and McGinniss’ books both on preorder. Can’t wait!!
Jeanne, when is YOUR book coming out?
Yes! We would buy, buy, buy whatever you put forth. A political commentary or a photography compilation. It doesn’t matter; everything you do is done well. Well, everything we know about, i.e.
The President could support a balanced budget amendment?
That’s hilarious. George W. Bush was in office for eight years of runaway spending, and the Rethugs did not call for a balanced budget amendment. Neither did Bush. Now with a Democrat in office they decide it’s important. Funny how it isn’t important with a Republican in office, but it is with a Democrat in office.
I thought it was the opening skit for SNL with Kristen Wiig playing bachmann. did you notice how she couldn’t keep her eyes off the cameraman holding the squeaky toy off to the right?
You’re wrong, AKM. I can’t hold my breath that long. I could barely stand to read the nonsense. And I don’t care how the repubs try to spin it – it was fun watching them try to explain why there were two separate responses last night – it’s just odd and inappropriate for there to be two responses to the SOTU. If a third party needs to have response time then it should be an independent or some other party. What that signaled last night, no matter what they tried to say, is that the republican party is split and really functions as two parties rather than one. If they were really unified then they should have had Ryan and Bachmann give a joint response. Ew, no, on second thought, it was painful enough to just watch him. I couldn’t stand to watch her.
The question comes to mind is – is she REALLY that clueless? And if only 1% of the population watches Fox news, how is it that they have such a loud platform? Oh, that’s right, Koch and Murdoch.
The Teaparty types are such tools and fools – but the problem is that they are going to bring the rest of the country down with their willful ignorance and adherence to their corporate controllers.
So glad you are on this–what I can’t understand is why CNN would give her a platform on which to spread this wealth of misinformation.
Strictly for the entertainment value, I imagine. Either that, or the execs needed a new drinking game where one drinks whenever she gets it wrong. If so, I expect there are many hangovers after her speeches.
To get ratings….they have been pretty low on the totem pole for quite awhile!
Hang a wreath on her nose, her brain has passed away entirely.She must have slit her wrists all the way to China last year in a show of solidarity with other “morons”. Fortunately she has the world’s best health insurance and there is a place for the criminally insane about 20 miles from where I live. Maybe I can invite her to speak to others that think and act like she does and then we can lock her and Cong. Steve Ding-a-ling- King away for good.
My gosh, mike, I love that line, “Hang a wreath on her nose, her brain has passed away entirely.” If it’s yours, would you mind if I used it? I haven’t stopped chuckling since I read it a few moments ago. Had to settle down enough to write this reply, but it was tough.
In the spirit of full disclosure,I stole that line from a paperback western and probably should have given attribution to the author. On the other hand,Rethuglicans seem to think they are above mortal man’s laws so maybe I won’t do the attribution. I’m really torn about this. The western is an adult type read. I’ll sleep on this and if I’m still torn about it tomorrow,well, tomorrow is another day.You can use it as far as I’m concerned. If not disclosing spousal income is not a crime for a judge,I won’t worry about the death penalty for my omission. Thanks for asking.
Doesn’t Michelle’s husband run some sort of mental health clinic? If so, obviously, he hasn’t given his wife a checkup lately or is guilty of gross negligence by letting her run around without supervision.
Marcus Bachmann’s clinic is for turning gay people straight and for taking Federal grants. It didn’t work too well for him, though, because he still flits around like a butterfly.
She’s a tax lawyer….they’re both grifters, to me…
Wow, talk about taking your work home with you.
LOL!
In a world ruled by logic, truth, and personal responsibility, Michelle Bachmann should be in jail for her lying, treasonous rants. Sadly, we don’t seem to live in that world.
Same could be said for Sarah – she should have been in jail a long time ago.
I’m buying Mrs. Bachmann a couple of those sandwiches that Dennis Kucinich ate in the Capitol cafeteria.
Remember, if you’re a Republican, and especially the TeaBagger subspecies, facts don’t matter.
http://www.politicususa.com/en/koch-constitution
Constitutional history notwithstanding, there is a problem when Supreme Court justices attend a Koch Industries secret meeting and then teach Republican and Tea Party legislators how to pass laws that benefit corporations. The problem is amplified when one of the justice’s wife is funded by a conservative think tank and starts a Tea Party lobbying group to overturn existing legislation when it comes before the Supreme Court. It is no secret that conservatives’ prime directive is to “corporatize” the government and suppress women, minorities, and the middle class. At the Koch Industries secret meeting, one of the seminars dealt with enriching the wealthy and pacifying the poor with buzz-words and catch-phrases. There was no mention of a middle class at the conservative-minded Koch event; just the wealthy and the poor. …
Michele Bachmann’s role in the corporate takeover should not be diminished or trivialized even though she is being used and abused by the Koch Brothers; her stupidity is no excuse and she owns a share of the blame. Bachmann may as well invite the Koch Brothers to teach Republicans and Tea Party members how to vote according to the Koch-Scalia-Thomas interpretation of the Constitution.
As for Justice Thomas and his wife, check this out:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-thomas-disclosure-20110122,0,2413407.story
Must be nice to skip reporting over half a million dollars of income from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank on his official financial disclosure forms over the past five years. Plus, she is active in the Tea Party. He has even attended events.
Scalia skipped the SOTU because he’d spent the afternoon lecturing Bachmann’s seminar on the Constitution. He and Thomas don’t see a conflict of interest or ethics problems (The S.Ct. apparently has no ethics code for the Justices as most courts do. How convenient.)
“At the Koch Industries secret meeting, one of the seminars dealt with enriching the wealthy and pacifying the poor with buzz-words and catch-phrases. There was no mention of a middle class at the conservative-minded Koch event; just the wealthy and the poor. … ”
________________________________________________________________
There was no mention of a middle class because with Republicans and Tea Baggers in charge, the middle class is going extinct!
begs the question , who votes for these people ?
Evangelicals….
Republicans
Wow . . . is no one responsible for keeping this woman on her meds?
her meds need to be adjusted, and taken regularly. Obviously she’s been skipping them!
Makes me again wonder why we have the likes of Bachman and Palin even in our daily lives. They are both a pain in the butt!
This is not even a close second to this http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/01/michele_bachmann_flubs_history_of_slavery_and_the_founding_fathers.php
Last night it looked a bit Ross Perot. I think I liked Perot much better.
I thought Chris Matthews was going to have a stroke over that stupid remard Bachmann made about the founding fathers ending slavery. He just couldn’t let it go – and I completely agree with him. How did that woman get through school without knowing the difference between the American Revolution and the Civil War? And doesn’t she have a college degree? Wow, what a waste of money and time that was – she learned nothing.
Her comments are absolute proof she’s an alien, and wasn’t born or raised in the U.S.
Bachmann almost makes you pine for Mama Grifter’s “Common sense conservative solutions based on those time tested truths”!
Apparently she not only has a college degree, but a Law degree and practiced… wait for it…
Tax Law!!
That is kind of funny.
She claims to have gotten a law degree in tax law from a university that teaches that class only to non American citizens.
I forgot where I saw this yesterday but the school has been contacted and Bachman never took that degree program.
If you start looking for it just remember the LLD, doctorate in law, is equivalent of the Masters degree and the LLM is the equivalent of the Phd.
Yes, but she also has a JD that she got first. However, it was from Oral Roberts so . . . take that degree with a grain of salt.
Personally, whatever degrees she has, the colleges/universities should take them back.
she graduated from oral roberts u.
enough said.
Guess what? She homeschooled her kids too, also.
It’s worse…..Isn’t she a lawyer?????
And Orly Taitz is a dentist and Rand Paul is an eye doctor.
When Matthews yelled, “What?” during one of Sal Russo’s sputtering nonanswers, I thought I was going to lose my mind from laughing so hard. Followed by “Are you hypnotized?” Balloonhead…no better label for that wacky congresswoman.
Re: Michelle Bachman
To paraphrase Shakespeare, I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed woman.
/WC
Or as I say you can’t present and intelligent argument to a fool
Or how about, not stomping the head of an unarmed woman into a curb because of our political differences?
hahahahah love it. Shakespeare had a way with words, did he not?