Strib columnist invites Bachmann to leave Minnesota

“Here’s your ticket, Bachmann. You’re going to Palm Springs. Of course, we are lying through our teeth. You are going to Mississippi, where you will thrive in a no-tax, no-services, no-education state.”

Other countries where Bachmann might enjoy the state-enforced religion and religious education systems: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen. Basically anyplace where women are explicitly treated as cattle. Also, we hear the taxes are low in Somalia — a libertarian paradise!

Bachmann’s payroll goes up by 16% in two years…

…while she calls for freezing the “unconscionable” salaries of federal workers. This article goes into detail about the false comparisons Republicans make between the public and private sectors. It doesn’t go into detail about why Bachmann’s personnel costs went up, but we have some ideas, given the rapid turnover in her office. When the boss is a nightmare, the money had better be good.

Bachmann votes NO on health care for 9/11 first responders

We’d assume this means she’ll be too embarrassed to bring up Sept. 11 ever again, except Bachmann is impervious to embarrassment.

It’s official: Bachmann supports hate!

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the folks who helped bring you the civil rights movement, keeps a list of what it calls hate groups. These are people like the Klu Klux Klan, who usually admit that they are hate groups. However, the SPLC has recently added antigay groups that don’t like to admit that they are hate-based. As the Minnesota Independent said:

the SPLC’s report, released last month does not target groups that oppose gay marriage or uphold Christian values; rather it lists groups that make “claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities” and “repeated, groundless name-calling.”

Nonetheless, Michele Bachmann and a few of her fellow antigay politicians ahve decided to hitch their wagon to that ugly, ugly star. They have written a letter to the SPLC complaining that including such groups on its list is against free speech, freedom of religion and “Judeo-Christian values,” which is code for “evangelical Christian values, but we like to lump in Jews to pretend that we are in the mainstream.” What they said:

“We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with Family Research Council, American Family Association, Concerned Women of America, National Organization for Marriage, Liberty Counsel and other pro-family organizations that are working to protect and promote natural marriage and family. We support the vigorous but responsible exercise of the First Amendment rights of free speech and religious liberty that are the birthright of all Americans.”

“Tea Party Patriots” criticize Boehner for passing over Bachmann for Ways & Means

What we like about this is that it’s further evidence that Bachmann’s tea party drones are planning on tearing apart the GOP. Between that and their ongoing suicide with Latino voters, we like where this is going!

Mo’ money, mo’ speculation

We haven’t written much here about Bachmann’s fund-raising prowess, since there’s nothing wrong with it by itself. However, The Hill raises a horrifying spectacle: Bachmann vs. Klobuchar in 2012. This is speculation based on the fact that Bachmann has a huge campaign chest — in fact, Dump Bachmann has recently noted that Bachmann has her hand out for more money even now, just after an election and during the season when we typically give to GOOD causes. Her spokesholes have declined to rule out a run for Senate or anything else.

However, as Dump Bachmann has also noted, Bachmann polls very poorly against Klobuchar. Could Bachmann have forgotten that she only narrowly won her last election, or indeed, that the majority of Minnesotans are not reality-challenged evangelicals? If so, we look forward to watching her spend millions to lose.

Bachmann misunderstands extension of unemployment benefits

The Huffington Post has a surprisingly balanced look at this. The widely derided tax deal would extend benefits up TO 99 weeks. Bachmann told MinnPost that she opposes it because it would extend the benefits BY 99 weeks, giving recipients a total of three years. We are forced to assume that she hasn’t bothered sitting down and reading the thing well enough to understand it, since she was going to vote against it either way.

As Comedy Central pointed out, this means Bachmann is literally against the IDEA of helping out working-class people in a bind. While simultaneously borrowing to cut taxes on the rich. While simultaneously pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ. While simultaneously pretending she gives a damn about deficits.

Bachmann embraces self-parody with letter about use of word “God”

No kidding, Bachmann and something called the Congressional Prayer Caucus have written a letter to the president addressing the most important issue of our time: whether he uses the word “God” enough in speeches.

The complaint came in the context of an address given by Obama on November 10th at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, in which he remarked that the American “motto is E pluribus unum — out of many, one.”

The Congressional Prayer Caucus finds a factual inaccuracy with this statement, and believes that it could be a sign of a more telling problem.

“E pluribus unum is not our national motto. In 1956, Congress passed and President Eisenhower approved the law establishing ‘In God We Trust’ as the official national motto of the United States,” the letter reads. “[Y]ou mentioned being unified under one flag. The Pledge of Allegiance to our flag says that we are ‘one nation under God.'”

In neglecting to use the word “God,” they say Obama is “casting aside an integral part of American society.”

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans have refused to actually pass legislation that might benefit the nation, until rich people get bigger tax cuts. Your tax dollars at work.

Bachmann still trying to redefine “earmark”

We don’t understand how she thinks this will be politically helpful to her, but our favorite religio-fascist cutie pie is on record saying she thinks transportation projects should be exempt from an earmark ban.

Conservatives like Roe, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Iowa Rep. Steve King are among those trying to figure out a longer-term, sustainable way to get money back to projects in their districts.

“This isn’t trying to be too cute by half of what is an earmark and what isn’t,” Bachmann told POLITICO on Wednesday. “But we have to address the issue of how are we going to fund transportation projects across the country?”

She tried to backpedal with the National Review, but the people there are able to use Google and have turned up past remarks to the Strib in which she said essentially the same thing.

Someone from Taxpayers for Common Sense, in the National Review, went so far as to call the Stillwater bridge wasteful, contradicting Bachmann.

Bachmann: GOP might not vote for tax deal either

No kidding. An anonymous GOP aide is quoted as saying that Repulicans have concerns about borrowing to extend unemployment.

Ahem. BORROWING IS ALSO WHAT IS PAYING FOR THE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH THAT YOU SUPPORT, ASSHOLES. In fact, the amount needed to extend unemployment is comparatively much smaller than the amount needed to pay for the obscene handout the Republicans are trying to give their best donors.

In any case, we suppose we’re for anything that exposes the far right wing as a bunch of obstructionists, especially when it also undermines Bachmann’s personal capital in her own party.