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Permalink Reply by Greg on July 21, 2012 at 3:46pm

My respect for Leno just went up several notches.
Who are these people who vote for Bachmann anyway???

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 21, 2012 at 3:59pm

Multiple problems with that:

• God either doesn't exist, doesn't give a shit, or is doing his best "spoiled-kid-with-a-magnifying-glass-at-an-anthill" routine.
• Too many people can't be bothered to actually LEARN what someone is about before they cast a vote, putting that person into a position of authority, and then they don't know or care what that person does with the authority.
• People who DO know better, particularly in the media, treat these fools with kid gloves for fear of pissing someone off.

What is needed is for someone who has the authority and the gravitas behind him or her to take on Bachmann and her ilk and say, "This person is batshit crazy."  Say it with a straight face, say it without blinking, say it repeatedly and with confidence, and be sufficiently empowered to say it without fear of consequence.

The problem is that there is no one I'm particularly aware of who fits all of those criteria.  Forty years ago, it could have been Cronkite; twenty years back perhaps Rather or Brokaw.  These days ... hell, I don't know.  I think Will McAvoy of HBO's "The Newsroom" is emulating such a person, but Jeff Daniels is an actor, and McAvoy is Aaron Sorkin's distillation of what he'd like such a newsman to be, even as Josiah Bartlet was his idea of a US president.

The fact is that we need someone with some serious stones to speak truth to power and have the fact behind them sufficient to hold feet to fires.

Does someone know who this person is?  I'd love to meet 'em....

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on July 21, 2012 at 4:06pm

I think the problem is, we are such a dumbed down nation we will never elect to national office a person who would stand up and say Michele Bachmann is batshit crazy.  (Unfortunate words given Aurora, CO. developments.)

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 21, 2012 at 4:07pm

Well, McCain in so many words told here she was crazy.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 21, 2012 at 4:21pm

I don't think one dose gets it done, Susan, which is why I included repetition in my prescription.  Her pants have to figuratively come down in public, and that lesson has to be reinforced to the point where someone with an IQ of 80 would get the point.

But we run into a problem there.  Intelligence isn't the valued commodity in the US of the 21st century that it was 50 years ago.  The US has indeed been dumbed-down and badly so, and I'm not even convinced that it cares that this has happened ... which is one fucking scary thought.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on July 22, 2012 at 2:15pm

I came to pretty much the same conclusion when, in the late 60s and early 70s, I worked as editor of a regional general interest monthly magazine and was constantly reminded by the publisher that I would have no job apart from ad revenue paying my checks.  It got so bad I almost resigned when it was suggested that if we wrote a favorable review of this or that movie or rock album, the studio or label would take out a big ad.  I got the boss to agree that our reviewers would say what they felt and that the ad department would not make us run a review on the same page as the write-up (which would make it look more like the review was bought). 

A friend and film critic at the Long Island-based Suffolk Sun was not so lucky.  He thought it had been understood that he would enjoy editorial freedom, but when he wrote a scathing pan of The Sound of Music, he was given the boot.  The movie is both a colossal bore and a complete distortion of the real history of the famous family it followed from Europe to Vermont.  It seems that the studio contacted the publisher and lambasted him, jerking the ads they'd placed.  Devianz is certainly correct in saying that because the media are controlled by the whims of the advertisers, there is much dishonesty in the content.

Then are the societal pressures.  I used to write caustic letters to the editor of the local daily complaining of this or that about the Catholic Church, e.g. and mainly their long history of violence against those who disagreed with them, from the Arian bishops at Nicea to the Inquisition.  They never published them.  Bear in mind that my city is about 60% Catholic.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on July 21, 2012 at 7:13pm

Why does the mainstream-media, when talking about religion, ALWAYS talk about it as if it is FACT???  Won't ANYONE say that maybe none of it is true.  Doesn't ANYONE have guts?  Everyone kisses ass and panders.  I think the U.S. is going batshit-crazy.  Bachmann is just WAY more batshit-crazy than the average lunatic.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on July 21, 2012 at 11:22pm

Just so long as they don't go Batman crazy.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 22, 2012 at 6:45am

Hmph.  First it was "freaking out."  Later, it was "going postal."

Now it's "going Batman?"  [sigh] Bloody lovely.

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 21, 2012 at 11:31pm

She does look crazy there!

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Woolford on July 22, 2012 at 12:07pm

If Bachman and Palin, or Rick Perry and Santorum are the best conservative christians can come up with for candidates, the GOP is doomed.  There are a boatload of batshit crazy christians in office.

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Permalink Reply by John Aultman on July 22, 2012 at 12:10pm

This is what Ed Rollins Bachmann's former Campaign Manager said about her attack on Huma Abedin.  While I appreciate John McCain calling Bachmann out on her remarks Rollins eviscerates her.    A link is at the bottom of the page.  

I have been a practitioner of tough politics for many decades. There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me. I have to say that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s outrageous and false charges against a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin reaches that threshold.

Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest.

Having worked for Congressman Bachman’s campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level…

I can assure Mrs. Bachmann, that Ms. Abedin has been thru every top clearance available and would never have been given her position with any questions of her loyalty to this country.

As a member of Congress, with a seat on the House Intelligence Committee, Mrs. Bachmann you know better. Shame on you, Michele! You should stand on the floor of the House and apologize to Huma Abedin and to Secretary Clinton and to the millions of hard working,loyal, Muslim Americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. As a devoted Christian, you need to ask forgiveness for this grievous lack of judgment and reckless behavior.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/07/20/rollins-hammers-b...

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