Political Ruminations

VIDEOS: The Best Speeches From the DNC Convention - Tuesday Night, September 4

First Lady Michelle Obama brought down the house with her magnificent tribute to America and her husband:

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, “This is the election of a lifetime”:

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro:

 

Former governor of Ohio Ted Strickland:

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Mn), in a softball interview with Meghan McCain, makes another of her ridiculous statements that are completely unsubstantiated by the facts:

“ The one thing that has shocked me, Meghan, is that when you look at the polling data, the No. 1 area of approval for Obama is his handling of national security intelligence. Well, he’s not from my point of view. He’s the most dangerous president we have ever had on national security.”

Good grief, she is such a nutjob, I do not understand why anyone would ever even be willing to ask her opinion on anything important.

Adding... Bachmann also claimed that President Obama has "revealed the [national security] methodologies we use", and of "beating on his chest", and most insane of all, she said that "he’s been purging the FBI files of anything that could be considered anti-Islamic".

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

“The Republican Party is extremely pro-woman.”

- During an interview on CNN, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) dismissed the concerns of Democratic lawmakers regarding the all male ‘conversation’ House Republicans had over contraception.

Pathetic.

Idiot Quote of the Day II

“It’s over 800 billion dollars that we have expended [in Iraq]. I believe that Iraq should pay us back for the money that we spent, and I believe that Iraq should pay the families that lost a loved one several million dollars per life, I think at minimum.”

- Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann yesterday on ‘Meet the Press’. Watch:

As Think Progress notes, Bachmann believes that Iraq should “pay America for the privilege of having their nation invaded and occupied for most of the last decade”.

Idiot Quote of the Day

Not just the “Idiot Quote of the Day”, no, Rep. Michele Bachmann, GOP presidential wannabe in 2012, is going for the “Anti-American Quote of the Year” when she tries to make a case that the U.S. ought to be more like China:

“The ‘Great Society’ has not worked and it’s put us into the modern welfare state. If you look at China, they don’t have food stamps. If you look at China, they’re in a very different situation. They save for their own retirement security…they don’t have the modern welfare state and China’s growing. And so what I would do is look at the programs that LBJ gave us with the Great Society and they’d be gone.”

So, Michele Bachmann would like to do away with the social safety net. So we can be more like communist China.

Via Bob Cesca

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

“Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves. Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”

- The ever charitable, GOP presidential contender, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), channeling Marie Antoinette, suggesting that the U.S. stop funding safety net programs, cause, you know, the poor, disabled and/or unemployed are lazy and don’t deserve to live.

Watch it:

Via Think Progress

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

A trip back in history  to June 25 2009 when presidential hopeful, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN),  made the following inflammatory statements about the census, in an effort to fear monger:

“If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.” 

*Note: the original source video was removed from You Tube since I first added this quote to my collection. The linked video does not depict the exact quote published here, but a variation of it.

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) during last weeks GOP debate, apparently pushing no taxation:

“I think you earned every dollar, you should get to keep every dollar that you earn. That's your money, that's not the government's money. That's the whole point.”

The government, the big bad government, built and maintains the roads by which you get to work, to church, to school. That same government educated you, produced vaccinations for you, tested your water to keep you safe, regulated landfills...........well, you get the point.

Still, the anti-taxers seem to feel that they shouldn’t pay for the resources they clearly use. A pity we can’t permanently export Grover Norquist.

Idiot Quote of the Day - Michele Bachmann

Presidential hopeful, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), claims that her election as president would mean lower prices at the pump:

“The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. Look at what it is today. Under President Bachmann, you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. That will happen.”

Is she right? Not in the sense of her implication that Obama is at fault.

Think Progress addressed this issue in June when Exxon claimed it had found abundant oil supplies in the Gulf. That “abundant supply” would provide only enough oil for 9 days worth of global oil consumption. 

Setting aside that big ‘if’, while 700 million barrels is enough to ruin the Gulf if we get another blowout, it represents only 9 days of global oil consumption — and roughly one month’s worth of U.S. consumption.

The discovery doesn’t prove we have ‘abundant’ oil reserves, as Hastings claims.  It proves the exact opposite, that ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ can’t solve our problems.  Steve Greenlee, president of Exxon Mobil’s exploration business, unintentionally admitted that when he said, “This is one of the largest discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico in the last decade.”

There just isn’t enough oil in the Gulf to make a dent in our addiction.  A 2009 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Impact of Limitations on Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Federal Outer Continental Shelf” analyzed the difference between full offshore drilling and restriction to offshore drilling.

The EIA found that there is no impact on U.S. gasoline prices whatsoever in 2020.  Gasoline prices would be a mere three cents a gallon lower in 2030. So much for Drill, Baby, Drill.

The fact is that that oil prices have been soaring in spite of the fact that U.S. domestic oil production has also been soaring, “to its highest level in almost a decade,” as EIA’s own data shows:

And, you should know that Barack Obama is not the only president to have seen gas prices double during his administration, and as you’ll see laid out in the linked article, gas prices are affected by the economy, as well as by supply and demand in general.

In January 2005 when Bush was inaugurated for a second time, gas cost $1.83 per gallon. That bargain didn't last long.

Gas prices shot up rapidly as the U.S. economy heated up and oil topped $100 per barrel. Gas soared to a national average of $4.11 in July 2008. That's a rise of about 125 percent.

Then the bubble burst.

Currently, gas prices are high (oil is again over $100 per barrel) because demand is high due to an economy that's heating up.

The takeaway is that  an economy slowing or crashing means demand is lower so our gas costs less. An economy heating up correlates to higher prices at the pump as demand becomes greater.

Is that so difficult to understand?

Watch Rep. Bachmann spew:

Quote of the Day

According to slavering hypocrite and current candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, Michele Bachmann, Pres. Obama would be a “dictator” if he invoked the 14th amendment and raised the debt ceiling via executive order:

“It's Congress that does the spending. The president is prohibited to do that. If he had the power to do that he would effectively be a dictator.”

I wonder if that would also make Harry Truman a dictator?

The Hill:

Addressing the House Democratic Caucus on Wednesday morning, Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) the third-ranking House Democrat, told members that Obama should veto any short-term debt-limit increase that lands on his desk and use the 14th Amendment to hike the debt ceiling unilaterally.

“With the same pen that he vetoes that short-term debt-ceiling extension, he should sign an executive order invoking the 14th Amendment” to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, Clyburn told reporters in the Capitol after the caucus meeting.

The Democratic members reacted with applause, according to caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.), who also supports the 14th Amendment option.

Clyburn said the move would “bring calm … and needed stability to our financial markets,” and he compared today’s debt-ceiling debate to the heated 1940s fight over whether to integrate the U.S. Armed Forces. Congress refused to take that step, Clyburn noted, leaving President Harry Truman to take it himself.

“And that executive order still holds today,” Clyburn said.

About That Debt Ceiling….

“Debt Limit: Myth v. Fact” (pdf): A Treasury Dept. Fact Sheet:

“If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, the government would default on its legal obligations – an event unprecedented in American history. This would cause investors here and around the world to doubt, for the first time, whether the United States will meet its commitments. That would precipitate a self-inflicted financial crisis potentially more severe than the one from which we are now recovering.”

President Obama, June 29, Press Conference (from the transcript):

“By August 2nd, we run out of tools to make sure that all our bills are paid.  So that is a hard deadline.  And I want everybody to understand that this is a jobs issue.  This is not an abstraction.  If the United States government, for the first time, cannot pay its bills, if it defaults, then the consequences for the U.S. economy will be significant and unpredictable.”

Defacto Tea Party leader, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) June 26, on State of the Union (CNN):

“If we never raise the debt ceiling again, we're going to pay our bills, we're going to pay Social Security. …We won't default. We'll be going back to budget levels of about eight years ago.”

Founder and Leader of the Tea Party Caucus in the 112th Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), June 26, on Face the Nation (CBS):

“It isn't true that the government would default on its debt because, very simply, the treasury secretary can pay the interest on the debt first and then, from there, we have to just prioritize our spending…. It is scare tactics because, Bob, the interest on the debt isn't any more than 10 percent of what we're taking in. In fact, it's less than that. And so the treasury secretary can very simply pay the interest on the debt first, then we're not in default.”

Republicans are running a con on the American people.

Contact your senators and representatives and tell them that they must raise the debt ceiling with out further delay. Everything else can come after that.

Contact your senators

Contact your representatives

Image courtesy of CBS News.

Adding.....Ezra Klein on challenging the constitutionality of the debt ceiling.

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

GOP presidential hopeful, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) at her finest….making a fool of herself:

“I think clearly what this demonstrates is that the president of the United States is afraid of my candidacy. He fears me.”

Bachmann was responding to a statement from Obama campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt, who issued a statement in response to Bachmann’s campaign launch in Iowa on Monday. LaBolt said that Bachmann’s policies "would erode the path to prosperity for middle class families", and went on to paint her as someone who would work for the wealthy and corporate interests.

Morning Quote: Michelle Bachmann

GOP presidential hopeful, Michelle Bachmann, took a cheap shot at President Obama speaking in a banquet hall in Iowa on Sunday:

“I don’t have a teleprompter.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed that up here. President Bachmann may be retiring that thing, by the way, when I get to the White House. We may not have a teleprompter in chief.”

She used notes, by the way. As if there's a meaningful difference between using a teleprompter and using notes.

Adding.........I am feeling a little obsessive about Bachmann. Yes, I know she's batshit crazy. Unfortunately, she is not with out brains.  She is leaps and bounds beyond Palin, even as she is just as extreme, if not more so. Drives my blood pressure way up to deal with a vision of this extremist crackpot as the president.

Quote of the Day

Michele Bachmann to Fox News in Waterloo, Iowa today:

“Well, 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.”

In an interview with the Conservative site, Newsmaxx, Bachmann made a similar pronouncement, saying “We're seeing the nation move into decline. I'm not willing to do that. I'm not satisfied. I grew up with John Wayne’s America. I was proud that you grew up in John Wayne’s America: Proud to be an American, thrilled to be a patriot."

In both instances, Bachmann meant, of course, the John Wayne, the movie star. Only one tiny little problem. John Wayne the movie star was born in Winterset, Iowa—no connection to Waterloo.

There was, however, a “John Wayne [Gacy]” who lived in Waterloo, Iowa where he evolved in to a serial killer. Gacy was executed in 1994, after his conviction for 33 murders.

Either Michele Bachmann is no more up on American folk history than she is on the Constitution, or she really does see herself as embodying the spirit of a sociopathic serial killer.

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

2012 GOP presidential hopeful, Michele Bachmann just loves her some foster children, and even more, she loves to brag about it:

“We've raised 23 foster children.”

Ad infinitum.

Let’s just be clear here. In no way has Rep. Insanity-Jane Bachmann “raised” 23 foster children. Michelle Goldberg:

Bachmann often says she has "raised" 23 foster children. That may be a bit of a stretch. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Bachmann's license, which she had for 7 1/2 years, allowed her to care for up to three children at a time. According to Kris Harvieux, a former senior social worker in the foster care system in Bachmann's county, some placements were almost certainly short term. "Some of them you have for a week. Some of them you have for three years, some you have for six months," says Harvieux, who also served as a foster parent herself. "She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that's not true."

Now that Michele Bachmann is campaigning for a spot on the national ticket, we may be witness to whistle-blowing by her neighbors, old friends, enemies, and former foster children as they leap out of the proverbial woodwork with the dirt. And rightfully so. Bachmann is at least as crazy as Palin, and twice as smart --a dangerous combination.

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann Flashback

Flashback to 2008, Rep. Michelle Bachmann [R-MN] goes full McCarthy on Hardball with Chris Matthews:

I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?'

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann

More Bachmann craziness in a flashback to 2004 -- then state Sen. Michele Bachmann [R-MN] talking about same-sex marriage on the radio show¹ "Prophetic Views Behind The News”, 2004:

This is probably the biggest issue that will impact our state and our nation in the last, at least, thirty years. I am not understating that.

On that same day and show, Bachmann goes on to comment about her [then] upcoming rally against same-sex marriage [the rally was held at the Minnesota state capitol in March 2004]:

It will be an awesome day. We are going to be beseeching the Lord.

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^{1Prophetic Views Behind The News”, hosted by Jan Markell, KKMS 980-AM, March 20, 2004. source}

Morning Quote - Michele Bachmann Flashback

From 2005, an oldie but goodie, Michele Bachman in an effort to deride minimum wage, explains why teenagers should pay their employers for the privilege of working:

Many teenagers that come in should be paying the employer because of broken dishes or whatever occurs during that period of time. But you know what? After six months, that teenager is going to be a fabulous employee and is going to go on a trajectory where he's going to be making so much money, we'll be borrowing money from him.

Morning Quote - Republicans Playing Chicken With the Debt Ceiling

Jake Tapper, and Austan Goolsbee, the Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, discussed the Republican threat to block an increase in the national debt ceiling on  “This Week”. Mr. Goolsbee had this to say:

It pains me that we would even be talking about this. This is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not something to toy with. [,,,]

The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008. As I say, that's not a game. I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling.

If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity ... There would be no reason for us to default, other than that would be some kind of game.

We shouldn't even be discussing that. People will get the wrong idea. The United States is not in danger of default ... We do not have problems such as that. This would be lumping us in with a series of countries through history that I don't think we would want to be lumped in with.

Watch [the discussion of the debt ceiling begins at around 4:35]:

On Sunday morning, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation", Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Rep.-elect Mike Kelly (R-Minn.), again voiced their opposiition to raising the debt ceiling. Politico:

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep.-elect Mike Kelly said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that they don't believe Congress should enact legislation that would allow it to meet its debt obligations.

Bachmann, appearing on the show from Minneapolis, said "at this point I am not in favor of raising the debt ceiling" and Kelly called it "absolutely irresponsible."

Morning Quote: Michele Bachmann on the Financial Reform Bill

Flashback to last May, when the financial reform bill was wending its way through Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who can always be counted on for hyperbole and assorted fabrications,  likened the financial reform bill to the policies of the fascist government in Italy during Mussolini's reign:

Let's remember really what this is. This has a lot in common with Italy in the 1930s and the way Italy dealt with economics. It still continues private ownership of business but government is in control.

So government control of the private business, while it's private ownership, that's still at the end of the day the federal government virtually having a say over private business. We lose freedoms; we lose economic competitiveness.

And don’t forget, Italy is in tough shape financially, and that’s not what we want for the United States.

VIDEO: Michele Bachmann Claims That No Foreign Money is Being Used to Fund Candidates

Joining Karl Rove in his protests, the batshit crazy Bachmann [R-MN], was on Fox Business yesterday where she was all in a fury, railing at Democrats and the White House for asking the Chamber to disclose its donors. Bachmann said that the Chamber only funds candidates out of its political action pac, and that there are no foreign donors.

Bachman:

This is about as low as it goes. It’s more than just disingenious, it’s a flat-out, patent lie. The Chamber of Commerce, who has been accused of taking foreign contributions to spend on elections, is absolutely not doing that. They have a separate political action fund and they use that only from American donors.

 

Unfortunately for Bachmann, her claim is easily proven false.

The Chamber does indeed have a political action fund. However, its PAC has so far raised $161,000 and spent only $104,000. Yet, the Chamber itself has spent more than $12 million so far this election season (and plans to spend $75 million), largely helping Republican candidates.

See, the PAC is required to disclose donors and funds; thanks to the Citizen’s United ruling, corporations are not required to disclose, nor limited as to dollar amounts of contributions.

Prior to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, the Chamber would have had to run its political ads out of its PAC, contributions to which are disclosed. But the Court’s decision allows large corporations — such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns without publicizing their donors. [......]

America for Sale.

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RELATED POSTS: Update: Tracking the Aftermath of the Citizen’s United Ruling

Foreign Money Funding Republican Campaign Ads Against Democrats Via the US Chamber of Commerce

For all posts on the fallout from/aftermath of, the Citizen's United ruling, click here.

Crazy lady Michele Bachmann gets her Tea Party caucus, and Mike Pence is the first member

Bachmann received approval for her caucus group today, after filing the paperwork to establish the group last week. She said that the goals of the coalition  would be to promote “fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government." But let me translate this from Conservatard language in to real English. The goals of the caucus would thus be to undermine teh black President, promote tax cuts for the rich, and vote “NO” on everything brought to the floor by Democrats.

Today, during a press availability, Republican Conference Chairman, Mike Pence, announced his intention to join Bachmann's caucus. Yet MORE proof that the Tea Party is part and parcel of the Republican Party. Via Talking Points Memo:

"You betcha," Pence said when asked if he'd join.

"I come out of a background -- I was chairman of the Republican Study Committee, I was chairman of...the House Conservative Caucus," he added. “My hope is that this Tea Party caucus...will be an avenue for bringing “ome of the energy and the enthusiasm and the focus that I've seen, from the National March on Washington where I spoke on 9/12, to traveling around Indiana and all around the country, deeper into the well of Congress.”

Pence has been solicitous of the Tea Party movement in the past -- the 9/12 Tea Party in DC was promoted heavily by conservative groups like FreedomWorks and right wing radio and TV host Glenn Beck. But his enthusiasm for joining the new caucus is a reminder that GOP leaders continue to flirt with the far right flank of their base.