Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics

A Bachmann Concerto

Step into my time machine. I’ll take you back to March of 2009 when Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said the following:

“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing, and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”

Now I’ll reset the time machine to October of 2008 when Bachmann told Chris Matthews in an interview that she’d like the media to investigate the “anti-American” activities of members of Congress. “I think people would love to see an exposé like that,” she claimed.

Come, let’s return to the present. This week, Ms. Bachmann announced that she plans to run for the chairmanship of the House Republican Conference—and that she wants to start a “Constitutional Conservative Caucus” to “stop any bill from passing” that she deems unconstitutional, such as “a stimulus or a government takeover of health care.”

Oh my aching head! I can only begin to imagine some of the bills this woman will consider to be unconstitutional. Anyone got some extra-strength Excedrin?

I’ll leave you with a poem I wrote about Bachmann back in March of 2009:

Michelle Bachman: Armed and Dangerous

By Elaine Magliaro

 

She’s wild-eyed and packin’ heat—

One congressgal who’s not so sweet.

She isn’t your typical Minnesotan.

She’s militant…warlike—and totin’

A derringer in her Gucci bag…

A Smith and Wesson—40 mag,

A semi-automatic Colt.

She thinks it’s time for an armed revolt.

She’s out inciting insurrection!

(How did this crank win re-election?????)

 

She says she’s ready for a revolution!

I say she’s ready for an institution—

An asylum for the politically inane

With padded cells. This gal’s insane!

She’s crazy. She’s possessed. She’s mad!

There’s one last thing I’ll like to add:

She needs a good psychiatrist—

Or, better still, an exorcist!

 

Source: Think Progress

 ‘I Want People…Armed And Dangerous On This Issue’ Of Cap And Trade’

Bachmann Calls For McCarthyite Investigation Into Anti-American Activities of Liberals

Eying GOP Leadership Role, Bachmann Plans to Start ‘Constitutional Conservative Caucus”

– Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

56 thoughts on “A Bachmann Concerto”

  1. Swarthmore mom,

    I read the story about Justice Alito at Think Progress a couple of days ago. Alito wasn’t attending a partisan political event, was he? He hasn’t ever helped to raise money for a political party, has he?

    From Think Progress (11/10/2010)
    Exclusive: Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito Dismisses His Profligate Right-Wing Fundraising As ‘Not Important’
    http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/10/sam-alito-republican-fundraiser/

    Excerpt:
    Apparently, Alito is a regular benefactor for highly political conservative fundraisers. Last year, he headlined the fundraising dinner for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) — the same corporate front that funded the rise of Republican dirty trickster James O’Keefe and anti-masturbation activist Christine O’Donnell. According to the sponsorship levels for the event, Alito helped ISI raise $70,000 or more.

    Documents exposed by ThinkProgress last month revealed that Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas have also attended secret political fundraisers. We published a memo detailing fundraising events, organized by oil billionaires David and Charles Koch, to fund Republican campaigns, judicial elections, and groups running ads in the 2010 midterm election. The fundraisers, attended by some of the nation’s wealthiest bankers, industrialists, and other executives, help fund much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo stated the Thomas and Alito were past participants of the Koch fundraisers. Ian Millhiser, ThinkProgress’ resident legal expert, noted:

    A Supreme Court justice lending a hand to a political fundraising event would be a clear violation of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, if it wasn’t for the fact that the nine justices have exempted themselves from much of the ethical rules governing all other federal judges. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court tells ThinkProgress that “[t]he Justices look to the Code of Conduct for guidance” in determining when they may participate in fundraising activities.

    That Code provides that in almost all circumstances, “a judge should not personally participate in fund-raising activities, solicit funds for any organization, or use or permit the use of the prestige of judicial office for that purpose. A judge should not personally participate in membership solicitation if the solicitation might reasonably be perceived as coercive or is essentially a fund-raising mechanism.”

    While justices like Alito, Thomas, and Scalia have actively participated in highly political pro-Republican fundraisers, their rulings are increasingly in favor of the corporate right. Last month, a new study found that the Supreme Court has lurched to the far, corporate right in recent years. It found that a “cohesive” conservative majority of Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Scalia and Kennedy favored the position of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest big business lobby, over 80% of the time

  4. DukeBlue:

    let the Nazis speak for themselves:

    Why Are We Socialists?

    We are socialists because we see in socialism, that is the union of all citizens, the only chance to maintain our racial inheritance and to regain our political freedom and renew our German state.

    Socialism is the doctrine of liberation for the working class. It promotes the rise of the fourth class and its incorporation in the political organism of our Fatherland, and is inextricably bound to breaking the present slavery and regaining German freedom. Socialism, therefore, is not merely a matter of the oppressed class, but a matter for everyone, for freeing the German people from slavery is the goal of contemporary policy. Socialism gains its true form only through a total fighting brotherhood with the forward-striving energies of a newly awakened nationalism. Without nationalism it is nothing, a phantom, a mere theory, a castle in the sky, a book. With it it is everything, the future, freedom, the fatherland!

    The sin of liberal thinking was to overlook socialism’s nation-building strengths, thereby allowing its energies to go in anti-national directions. The sin of Marxism was to degrade socialism into a question of wages and the stomach, putting it in conflict with the state and its national existence. An understanding of both these facts leads us to a new sense of socialism, which sees its nature as nationalistic, state-building, liberating and constructive.

    The bourgeois is about to leave the historical stage. In its place will come the class of productive workers, the working class, that has been up until today oppressed. It is beginning to fulfill its political mission. It is involved in a hard and bitter struggle for political power as it seeks to become part of the national organism. The battle began in the economic realm; it will finish in the political. It is not merely a matter of wages, not only a matter of the number of hours worked in a day — though we may never forget that these are an essential, perhaps even the most significant part of the socialist platform — but it is much more a matter of incorporating a powerful and responsible class in the state, perhaps even to make it the dominant force in the future politics of the fatherland. The bourgeoisie does not want to recognize the strength of the working class. Marxism has forced it into a straitjacket that will ruin it. While the working class gradually disintegrates in the Marxist front, bleeding itself dry, the bourgeoisie and Marxism have agreed on the general lines of capitalism, and see their task now to protect and defend it in various ways, often concealed.

    We are socialists because we see the social question as a matter of necessity and justice for the very existence of a state for our people, not a question of cheap pity or insulting sentimentality. The worker has a claim to a living standard that corresponds to what he produces. We have no intention of begging for that right. Incorporating him in the state organism is not only a critical matter for him, but for the whole nation. The question is larger than the eight-hour day. It is a matter of forming a new state consciousness that includes every productive citizen. Since the political powers of the day are neither willing nor able to create such a situation, socialism must be fought for. It is a fighting slogan both inwardly and outwardly. It is aimed domestically at the bourgeois parties and Marxism at the same time, because both are sworn enemies of the coming workers’ state. It is directed abroad at all powers that threaten our national existence and thereby the possibility of the coming socialist national state.

    Explanation: “The thinking worker comes to Hitler,” the caption says. A communist and a socialist are accusing each other of betraying the working class.

    Socialism is possible only in a state that is united domestically and free internationally. The bourgeoisie and Marxism are responsible for failing to reach both goals, domestic unity and international freedom. No matter how national and social these two forces present themselves, they are the sworn enemies of a socialist national state.

    We must therefore break both groups politically. The lines of German socialism are sharp, and our path is clear.

    We are against the political bourgeoisie, and for genuine nationalism!

    We are against Marxism, but for true socialism!

    We are for the first German national state of a socialist nature!

    We are for the National Socialist German Workers Party!

    http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/haken32.htm

  5. FFELO,

    To my knowledge, no “Children of Frankenstein” was ever made by Universal or great horror director James Whale or any other studio, but you got me curious. Listed on IMDB there is a short film from Finland made in 2010 called “Frankenstein’s Child” (“Frankensteinin lapsi”) that I have never seen. Not that it would do me any good since I speak exactly as much Finnish as a rock.

  11. I don’t know. Both them chicks have Pelosi eyes.

    Buddha, I did not see that old movie B of F. Did ol Frank and hisn bride ever mate and have a child of Frankinstein?

  12. A good one-two, Buddha. Thanks for that. I laughed out loud, as well

    (Blouise, Thanks — it’s such a wretched time… Good to know that it brought a smile. And I finally checked my other account and fired back a couple of notes.)

  14. Jill wrote:

    Is violence only a problem when it occurs intra-nationally or is it a problem when it occurs overseas as well? Because if the lives of others, foreign nationals, count, then the Democrats are implicated in violence that is so horrific, no thinking person would condone it.

    Where do you go from here? How can you stop violence both at home and abroad? That is the work of a peacemaker.

    ———————–

    A whole lot of truth…

  15. anon nurse

    Why does “Bride of Frankenstein” spring to mind…

    ======================================================

    That brought a smile to my face … thanks

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