Facts, Fiction and Intellect

In her New York Times' column, Maureen Dowd comments on the intellectual acumen of some Republican Tea Party members and candidates for President. Dowd finds a correlation with what is happening in Republican politics today with the message from the movie, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” THE MESSAGE

Jimmy Stewart is the young attorney who comes West to Shinbone and ends up as a U.S. senator after gaining fame for killing the sadistic outlaw Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin. John Wayne is the rancher, a fast-draw Cyrano who hides behind a building and actually shoots Marvin because he knows Stewart is hopeless in a duel. He does it even though they’re in love with the same waitress, who chooses the lawyer because he teaches her to read.

A lifetime later, on the verge of becoming a vice presidential candidate, Stewart confesses the truth to a Shinbone newspaperman, who refuses to print it. “When the legend becomes fact,” the editor says, “print the legend.”

RICK PERRY

Perry conceded that he “struggled” with college, and told the 13,000 young people in Lynchburg that in high school, he had graduated “in the top 10 of my graduating class — of 13.”

Our education system is going to hell. Average SAT scores are falling, and America is slipping down the list of nations for college completion. And Rick Perry stands up with a smirk to talk to students about how you can get C’s, D’s and F’s and still run for president.

Perry told the students, “God uses broken people to reach a broken world.” What does that even mean?

MICHELE BACHMANN

Another “Don’t Know Much About History” Tea Party heroine, Michele Bachmann, seems rather proud of not knowing anything, simply repeating nutty, inflammatory medical claims that somebody in the crowd tells her.

SARAH PALIN

Sarah Palin, who got outraged at a “gotcha” question about what newspapers and magazines she read, is the mother of stupid conservatism.

THE STUPID PARTY

The Republicans are now the “How great is it to be stupid?” party. In perpetrating the idea that there’s no intellectual requirement for the office of the presidency, the right wing of the party offers a Farrelly Brothers “Dumb and Dumber” primary in which evolution is avant-garde.

THE LINEUP

So we’re choosing between the over intellectualized professor and blockheads boasting about their vacuity?

The Psycho 'Flake'

The 'f'' word was used by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace in his interview the other day with Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) He asked her if she was a 'flake.' Of course his question was alluding to the numerous examples of Bachmann's misquotes, misstatements, outright lies and as some would say, "psycho talk." Let's look at the underlying circumstances of this issue in Michelle Bachmann Said What!?

Now in just her third term in Congress, Bachmann, the leader of the House tea party caucus, has earned a reputation as one of the lower chamber's leading bomb-throwers, lobbing overheated rhetoric at Democrats and needling establishment Republicans. Her Minnesota colleague, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison once accused her of "psycho talk"; in an interview with Politico, a Pawlenty aide was just as blunt: "She's a real pain in the ass." Former state senator Dean Johnson, who was the Republican minority leader during Bachmann's stint in St. Paul, has said, "I don't think I ever served with anybody who I mistrusted more, from either side of the aisle."

Ouch. Bachmann also has a tendency to stretch the truth, or simply sidestep it altogether. Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact, recently told Minnesota Public Radio that he has never researched a Bachmann quote and found it to be true (the only major politician for which that's the case).

Below is a guide to the Minnesota firebrand's most outrageous, outlandish, and out-there remarks.

2001: In a letter she co-wrote for the Minnesota-based Maple River Education Coalition, Bachmann warns that President Bush's education policies are leading the nation down the path to communism: "Government is implementing policies that will lead to poverty, not prosperity, by adopting the failed ideas of a state-planned and managed economy similar to that of the former Soviet Union."

2003: Bachmann, then a state senator, explains why she doesn't agree with the theory of evolution: "Where do we say that a cell became a blade of grass, which became a starfish, which became a cat, which became a donkey, which became a human being? There’s a real lack of evidence from change from actual species to a different type of species. That's where it's difficult to prove." Don't even get her started on how a bill becomes a law.

2003: Bachmann sends out a Christmas Card advertising the availability of her youngest son, Lucas: "Chick magnate [sic] needs wife to put him through med school, clean house, pay bills and run his life. Must be willing to gamble against onslaught of socialized medicine diminishing return on investment."

2004: With the country locked in a heated debate over gay marriage, Bachmann finds parallels in the Old Testament: "We're in a state of crisis where our nation is literally ripping apart at the seams right now, and lawlessness is occurring from one ocean to the other. And we're seeing the fulfillment of the Book of Judges here in our own time, where every man doing that which is right in his own eyes—in other words, anarchy."

2004: Songwriter Melissa Etheridge has breast cancer. That's bad news. But there's good news too, Bachmann tells the conservative education group EdWatch: maybe the cancer will give her time to reflect on her sinful lifestyle: "Unfortunately she is now suffering from breast cancer, so keep her in your prayers. This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian." In the same speech, she alleges that "almost all, if not all, individuals who have gone into the lifestyle have been abused at one time in their life, either by a male or by a female."

2005: Bachmann explains her opposition to the state's minimum wage as a form of job creation: "Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

2006: Campaigning for a seat in the House, Bachmann delivers a five-minute prayer for You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, an anti-gay heavy metal ministry that promotes the gospel to public school students: "I thank you for how you are going to advance them from 260 schools a year, Lord, to 2,600 schools a year. Lord, we ask by faith that you would expand this ministry beyond anything the originators of this ministry could begin to think or imagine."

2007: In an interview with the St. Cloud Times, Bachmann drops a bombshell: Iran is planning on turning all of Northwest Iraq into a secret terrorist training camp: "Iran is the troublemaker trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And you know why? It's because they've already decided, that they're going to territory, they're- they're going to partition Iraq and half of Iraq, the western northern portion of Iraq is going to be called, the United, uh, the, the uh, -oh, I'm sorry, I can't remember the actual name of it now, but it's going to be called, um, uh, the, the, uh, uh the Iraq State of Islam, something like that."

2008: Just two weeks before election day, Bachmann calls for an investigation into the anti-American ambitions of Barack Obama and congressional Democrats: "What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America."

2008: Redundant Redundancies, vol. I: "The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It's all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax."

2009: Explaining her opposition to a bill that expands the scope of AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps' domestic equivalent, Bachmann warned Minnesota's KTLK that it could be the gateway to a mandatory brainwashing program: "I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums."

2009: Picking up on Sarah Palin's debunked warning abut "death panels" in the Affordable Care Act, Bachmann declares: "If you are a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy, watch out."

2009: Bachmann goes on Glenn Beck's Fox program to discuss the specter of "One World currency" and delivers what historians may later dub her "I am not a kook!" speech. "Glenn, I have experienced that throughout my political career being labeled a kook. It just happened again in a big story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But all we have to do is point to the treasury secretary on tape, on camera. This is not Michele Bachmann being a kook. This is our treasury secretary on tape and on camera." A visibly confused Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had told Bachmann he was not aware of any plan to replace the dollar.

2009: As the nation (aided, perhaps, by Vice President Joe Biden) freaks out over Swine Flu, Bachmann implies—while stressing that she isn't—that this whole thing might have been Obama's doing: "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."

2009: Bachmann warns the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. health care reform) would include a loophole permitting grade-schoolers to go on abortion field trips: "Does that mean that someone's 13-year old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back, and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and dad are never the wiser. They don't know any different."

2009: Bachmann frets that Democrats' cap-and-trade legislation, which proposed using the powers of the free market to create carbon exchanges, posed an existential threat to all Americans: "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."

2009: With health care reform coming ever closer to becoming a reality, Bachmann sounds the Horn of Gondor: "What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass."

2009: In an interview on Fox News, Bachmann warns that the Obama administration could potentially use Census data to round up Americans and put them in camps: "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 internment camps. I'm not saying that 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 them to round them up in violation of their constitutional rights."

2009: Bachmann argues that abnormally large emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide can't be regulated because if we did, birds would lose their natural habitat—air: "Life on planet Earth can't even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that’s on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that—that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental lifecycle of Earth."

2010: After former President Bill Clinton tells reporters Bachmann's "armed and dangerous" remarks could send the wrong message to fringe groups, Bachmann accuses Clinton of celebrating the Oklahoma City Bombings—by speaking at an event honoring those who died in the attack. "He gave a speech, and he called me out in his speech, and he was talking about the anniversary—now, only Democrats would do this. The anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing by Tim McVeigh. I mean, we don’t celebrate these things. This is not what we celebrate."

2010: Bachmann warns that critics of the Affordable Care Act will be denied coverage, based on their political beliefs. As evidence, she cites a conversation with a Japanese man who told her that in Japan, health care reform opponents are afraid to speak up: "'Well why is that,' I asked. [He said], 'Because they know that would get on a list and they wouldn’t get health care. They wouldn't get in. They wouldn't get seen. And so people are afraid. They're afraid to speak back to government. They're afraid to say anything.' Is that what we want for our future? That takes us to gangster government at that point!"

2010: After House Democrats propose using a relatively standard parliamentary procedures to pass the Affordable Care Act, Bachmann calls for an investigation: "Well, yeah, and the other thing is treason media. Where is the mainstream media in all of this not telling this story? This is a compelling story. That the Speaker of the House would even consider having us pass a bill that no one votes on. That should laugh her out of the House and there should be people that are calling for impeachment off of something like this."

2010: Ever vigilant of bureaucratic waste, Bachmann alleges that President Obama's trip to India will be more expensive than the entire war in Afghanistan: "The president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day. He's taking 2,000 people with him. He will be renting out over 870 rooms in India. And these are five-star hotel rooms at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. This is the kind of over-the-top spending." An exasperated White House spokesman later said the charges, which stemmed from an anonymous official in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, had "no basis in reality."

2010: Remember that whole bit about Obama being "anti-American" back in 2008? Yeah, forget that. Bachmann tells Bill O'Reilly: "Candidate Obama was a very reasonable fellow."

2010: Redundant Redundancies, vol. II: "That's what the Bill of Rights is all about—to secure our individual liberties from an overweening huge bureaucratic large big government."

2011: In a speech to New Hampshire tea partiers, Bachmann crafts an alternative history of the American Revolution: "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty. You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord."

2011: As the House GOP prepares to vote on a continuing resolution to fund the government, Bachmann urges her colleagues to hold the line: "This is our mice or men moment. We need to show whether we are mice or men." The bill passes; we're mice, apparently.

2011: Bachmann suggests an unlikely fix to the nation's long-term deficit: "I think if we give Glenn Beck the numbers, he can solve this."

2011: On Twitter, Bachmann says the President's proposal to make government-subsidized lunches more nutritional violates the will of the Founders: "Where in the #Constitution does it say the fed. government should regulate potatoes in school lunches? It doesn't." Which is true. Technically.

2011: In an address to the group Iowans for Tax Relief, Bachmann praises the Founding Fathers for their commitment to…diversity: "It didn't matter the color of their skin, it didn't matter their language, it didn't matter their economic status, it didn't matter whether they descended from known royalty or whether they were of a higher class or a lower class, it made no difference. Once you got here [to the United States] you were all the same. Isn't that remarkable?"

In the same interview, she praises the Founders for working so hard to abolish slavery: "We know there was slavery that was still tolerated when the nation began. We know that was an evil and it was scourge and a blot and a stain upon our history. But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States."

2011: Seizing on an administration directive to promote energy-efficient light bulbs, Bachmann accuses the administration of banning light bulbs altogether: "I think Thomas Edison did a pretty patriotic thing for this country by inventing the light bulb and I think darn well you New Hampshirites, if you want to want to buy Thomas Edison's wonderful invention you should be able to!"

2011: Michele Obama promotes breast-feeding as a means of reducing child obesity. Bachmann senses more sinister motives: "This is very consistent with where the hard left is coming from. For them, government is the answer to every problem. I've given birth to five babies and I breast fed every single one of these babies. To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies? You wanna talk about the nanny state, I think you just got a new definition."

There's more. Just the other day Bachmann claimed that the actor John Wayne was from her hometown, Waterloo, IA. She told Fox News that she has "the spirit" of John Wayne. Of course, truth be told, John Wayne the actor is not from her hometown. She was confused once again. It was John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer, who has roots in Waterloo.

Michelle Bachmann has not changed her message of lies and misrepresentations over the years. In a 2006 Republican debate, she embraced her theory that, "not all cultures are equal" by espousing lies regarding the youth revolt over employment in France. The truth of the youth protests in France in 2006, involved a controversial bill that would have encouraged the hiring of people under 26 by allowing employers to dismiss them without cause within two years. WATCH:

In evaluating Michelle Bachmann, should we be aware of her view of government and life? Should she be asked tough questions and be held to a higher standard now that she is running for the highest office, the President of the United States? Should Michelle Bachmann be held accountable for what she says and thinks? Should we know if she is a kook, a flake, a psycho?

Palin Pushes, Puffs and Plans

Is Sarah Palin planning on joining the GOP presidential race? This speculation is consuming the media elites.

SarahPAC, the former Alaska governor's political action committee, recently announced that Ms. Palin would tour "historical sites that were key to the formation, survival and growth of the United States of America." The former vice presidential nominee will launch a tour of the East Coast on Sunday.

Her choice of where her tour will be launched has resulted in controversy. It was announced that Palin had accepted an invitation to participate in the annual Rolling Thunder memorial ride. Palin’s decision to participate in the motorcycle rally, which raises awareness of prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action, came as a surprise to some Rolling Thunder officials.

One day after Sarah Palin announced her bus tour, a group sponsoring a Memorial Day weekend event she plans to attend said they never invited her.

"She wasn't invited. We heard yesterday she came out with a press release she was coming to Rolling Thunder," Ted Shpak, national legislative director of Rolling Thunder, told "Andrea Mitchell Reports." Shpak is one of three members of Rolling Thunder's current leadership who says he had no idea Palin was coming until it was posted on her website.

On Thursday, the former governor of Alaska and potential GOP presidential candidate announced her bus tour on her political action committee's website, Sarahpac.com. The tour is to begin in Washington, D.C., where Palin plans to participate in the Sunday motorcycle rally sponsored by Rolling Thunder Inc., a group that raises awareness of prisoners of war and those missing in action.

"She's not invited to speak. We're not endorsing her ... (but) we can't stop her from coming to ride, if she wants to ride," Shpak continued.

Anyone can join in on the Rolling Thunder ride. Palin can also ride in the parade. But for her to use this event as a political tool has been shot down by the members of Rolling Thunder.

So will she or won’t she run? Her staff has deflecting questions about a possible run, saying she’s going on the bus tour “because she wants to see how this nation was built and get fired up about that.

The GOP Today: No Credibility, Mucho Money & A Vast Propoganda Network

The GOP is ignoring the political analysis of David Frum. Frum is the editor of FrumForum.com which is "dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican party and the conservative movement."

The MinistryOfTruth | Via Daily Kos thinks that:

David Frum sees the writing on the wall.

I used to worry that Sarah Palin would be the Barry Goldwater of 2012. My bad. Paul Ryan is the Barry Goldwater of 2012.

~snip~

. . . The big issues of 2012 will be jobs and incomes in a nation still unrecovered from the catastrophe of 2008-2009. What does the GOP have to say to hard-pressed voters? Thus far the answer is: we offer Medicare cuts, Medicaid cuts, and tighter money aimed at raising the external value of the dollar.

No candidate, not even if he or she is born in a log cabin, would be able to sell that message to America’s working class. [Bold text added]

Reagan's 11th Commandment is a hard sell

Now, we all know that Reagan's 11th Commandment was "No Republican shall ever attack another Republican", so it makes sense to see the GOP and RW media trying to double down on the disastrously unpopular Paul Ryan plan. They are just going to pretend that this isn't happening. But in reality world, outside of their controlled media environment, people aren't buying the GOP's bullshit on this. Rush can say whatever he wants, Fox can reframe it and Paul Ryan can call his plan "premium care" or "voucher system" or whatever the hell he likes, the voters aren't buying it, and why should they? As Frum admits himself, the real problems are jobs and declining and stagnant wages and incomes, and so far the GOP plan is to cut everything, including our noses off to spite our faces. I think Frum is 100% right. No candidate, not even if they host a reality show or have adonis dna, would be able to sell that message to America's working class.

I think David Frum is one of the very few voices on the right who is smart enough not to believe everything Rush Limbaugh says. Frum can see the tide shifting against the GOP with one of their core constituencies, older voters. Between seniors turning against the GOP, an energized Dem base that is fired up to protect Medicare and recall several already massively unpopular GOP Governor's, and a GOP Presidential field of uninspiring crumudgeons and gaffe prone half wits, what I see is a perfect storm of an electoral ass kicking heading the GOP's way. The best part? The perfect storm of bad things heading the GOP's way is entirely of their own making.

Giving the rich bigger tax breaks while cutting middle-class entitlements

In dissecting the "NY-26 debacle" as Frum puts it, he quotes Henry Olsen of AEI, who Frum calls "as smart a political numbers guy as can be found on the political right." Olsen says of the Ryan Plan to end Medicare so we can give the rich bigger tax breaks . . .

. . . blue-collar voters react differently to issues than the GOP base does. They are more supportive of safety-net programs at the same time as they are strongly opposed to large government programs in general. These voters crave stability and are uncertain of their ability to compete in a globalized economy that values higher education more each year. They are also susceptible to the age-old Democratic argument that the secret Republican agenda is to eviscerate middle-class entitlements to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

Myth? When your budget call for huge tax cuts for the rich and deep budget cuts to everything that the middle class depends on it isn't a myth. It's pretty damn obvious that the "the secret Republican agenda is to eviscerate middle-class entitlements to fund tax cuts for the wealthy" is hardly a myth, and it isn't even a secret anymore. The ONLY thing you need to know about the Ryan Plan is that it will eviscerate middle-class entitlements to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

A policy askew

My favorite part of this story? Frum will be totally ignored for breaking Reagan's 11th Commandment and daring to challenge another Conservative. Just as Newt was torched for calling the Ryan plan "right wing social engineering that goes a step too far.", I think Frum will get torched by Rush and the Foxaganda Network and the GOP will continue their self imposed death march towards the fountain of true conservatism. They can't help themselves. They can't appeal to moderates without looking like they are compromising to the fire breathing knuckledraggers in teabaggerstan, and the more they pander to the cruel and heartless far right and the rich special interests who rule their world the harder it will be to win votes outside of the farthest right wing of the political spectrum. Of course, I love the schadenfreude of all of this, because I think the GOP should have zero credibility on jobs after the Bush years, they should have zero credibility on balancing budgets, managing the economy or keeping our country safe as well. The GOP has no credibility, just lots of money and an outstanding propaganda network. If they played moderate and then governed to the far right they can get power and run amok, as they did in 2010 in states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, but that will not last too long before the middle class figures out that the only thing the GOP of today care about is the not so secret Republican agenda to eviscerate middle-class entitlements in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Good luck running on that message, boys. You see, it's not just GOP Presidential Candidates who suck and are uninspiring, it's their whole message, their every policy screws the little guy and pats the billionaires on their backs. And now the American public is waking up to that fact again.

As David Neiwert at CrooksAndLiars points out . . .

And even after this disaster, their tune will not change one iota. Because they cannot budge from the ideological corner into which they've painted themselves. Ryan's Path to the Poorhouse is not just an economic and social disaster in the making for Americans, it's one that ordinary, common-sense voters can see coming a mile away. Democrats don't have to "demagogue" to make a clear case that it would be disastrous.

So count me in with others who are watching this unfold and cheering on the GOP to double down on being stupid. When David Frum shouts out DO. NOT. SEEK. THE TREASURE. in the movie theater, I am rooting for the GOP to go for it and see how far this "Trade you your Medicare for Tax Cuts for the Rich" plan can take them. If my hopes are correct, Obama will blow these guys out at every level of government in such a way that will make Barry Goldwater's disaster look less threatening than a current GOP presidential nominee.

The GOP agenda is exceptionally generous to rich, powerful and corporate interests but totally devoid of comprehending issues relevant to the middle class and poor. A definite issue for the GOP candidates in the 2012 election.

DO NOT seek the treasure!

Candidates NOT to Elect in 2010

Here are 12 of the absolutely least deserving candidates for high office.

Since 2005, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has compiled a list of the dirtiest, most corrupt critters to scurry across the halls of Congress. The annual report shines some light on the double-dealing and back-scratching of some shady characters, and its release generally gets good play among political reporters.

But 2010 is the year of the upstart, insurgent candidacies — with dozens of “outsiders” on the scene dedicated to “cleaning up Washington,” “taking our country back,” etc. It’s the year of the Tea Parties, and no incumbent is safe. So it’s entirely appropriate that CREW should release a new list this year, one that looks not at the worst sitting members of Congress but at the dirtiest candidates — the people most likely to rank among the most corrupt in Congress if they go on to win their elections.

• Roy Blunt (R) U.S. Senate, MO
• Charlie Crist (I) U.S. Senate, FL
• Jeff Denham (R) U.S. House, CA
• Alvin Greene (D) U.S. Senate, SC
• Timothy Griffin (R) U.S. House, AR
• Ed Martin (R) U.S. House, MO
• Kendrick Meek (D) U.S. Senate, FL
• Christine O'Donnell (R) U.S. Senate, DE
• Dino Rossi (R) U.S. Senate, WA
• Marco Rubio (R) U.S. Senate, FL
• James Traficant (I) U.S. House, OH
• Allen West (R) U.S. House, FL

CREW recognizes that with 2,300 people running for federal office this year, our list is by no means complete. In fact, we may not even have found the worst! Now we need your help: which truly terrible candidates did we miss?

Submit your nominees to CREW and we’ll see if they rank among 2010’s most crooked candidates.

Corrupt politicians can be found in all political parties. But the above list of 12, breaks down in favor of the Republicans in terms of dirtiest politicians - 8 Republicans, 2 Democrats & 2 Independents.

Here's a politician who will fit into the category of extreme and unusual candidates.

Rich Iott, the Tea Party-supported GOP nominee for Congress in Ohio's 9th District, is part of a group that likes to don German Waffen SS uniforms and participate Nazi re-enactments.

Think before you VOTE!!!

Fantasy, Falsehoods and Delusions

It has been quite a year in politics especially with the emergence of the Tea Party. The Tea Party now has several candidates on the ballots of many states in key political positions. To find out what some of the Tea Party's movers and shakers are saying, here are the "Top 10 Craziest Tea Party Quotes of All Time."

Remember that old show, “Children say the darndest things?” In this political climate, largely fueled by the tea party movement and a host of “not-ready-for-prime-time” hopefuls for elected office, that show could easily be revamped.

1.) "It is not enough to be abstinent with other people, you also have to be abstinent alone. The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery, so you can't masturbate without lust," Christine O'Donnell, Republican candidate for Senate

O'Donnell is the tea party-backed candidate seeking to replace Vice President Joe Biden in Delaware. She made the above statements on one of many appearances on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. She also stated on that show that she had dabbled in witchcraft before turning to Christianity. Since then, O'Donnell has basically gone radio silent refusing all media appearances other than Fox News.

2.) "Gay marriage 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,” Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

Bachmann said that back in 2004 while on the stump to deny gay marriage in her homestate of Minnesota. Back then, she was a State Senator. Bachmann was elected by the good people of Minnesota to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006. Since then, she has continued on her narrow-minded tirade, claiming that "Democrats in Congress" needed to be investigated for being un-American and that all Congress should do -- once the Republicans reclaim the majority -- is send out subpoena after subpoena and investigate the Obama administration.

3.) "He has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.” Rep.Trent Franks on Obama

Franks is an Arizona Congressman and said that last week during a conservative "values" forum. He also shortly later demanded that President Obama provide his birth certificate. When he was grilled by the media for making such an outlandish statement, his spokespeople claimed Franks was referring to "unborn" humanity and was speaking about Obama's stance on abortion. Yeah, right.

4.) "The exact phrase 'separation of Church and State' came out of Adolph Hitler's mouth, that's where it comes from. So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of Church and State, ask them why they’re Nazis.” Glen Urquhart

He's another tea party-backed candidate up in Delaware. He falsely claims "separation of church and state" was not in President Thomas Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. He said that last April. This guy also compared abortion to slavery. He's a real gem.

5.) "I have been in the situation of counseling young girls... who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade,” tea party-backed candidate Sharron Angle on abortion and why it should be illegal even in the case of rape or incest.

This woman also believes we should get rid of the Veteran's Administration and said essentially that big government equates Godlessness, because Americans then look to the government to provide from them as opposed to God. Sad thing is, she's tied with Sen. Harry Reid down in Nevada.

6.) “These are beautiful properties with basketball courts, bathroom facilities, toilet facilities. Many young people would love to get the hell out of the cities,” Carl Paladino, New York State te party-backed candidate for Governor. He was describing his idea to transform prisons into dorms for welfare recipients.

Paladino has a knack for making headlines for being, well unhinged. He threatened the life of a reporter while on camera. He also sent out a bunch of racist and pornographic emails to hundreds of political and media contacts. He's running against New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

7.) "You'd have to strike any laws against beastiality, if you’re oriented toward corpses, toward children, there are kinds of perversions,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert on why there should not be hate crime legislation.

This Texas Republican said that back in May. He's also the same guy who claims that immigrant infants pose a risk to national security as they will one day create terrorist cells.

8.) "The greatest threat to America is not necessarily a recession or even another terrorist attack. The greatest threat to America is a liberal media bias,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican.

He said that back in June to Fox News. But if the media is so liberal, then what is Fox News? What is NewsCorp?

9.) "I hope that's not where we're going, but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out." -- Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle.

That is the second entry by Angle, because she's just that crazy. She said that back in June. She also told Fox News the media should only report the news political candidates want them to report.

10.) “We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools, and now we're having weekly shootings practically. We had the 60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS." — Christine O'Donnell, during a 1998 appearance on Bill Maher's 'Politically Incorrect.

That is a second entry for O'Donnell because she too is just that crazy. And here's a third because in fact she's crazier.

"Well, I don't think that the Obama administration knows what's Jesus, what belongs to Jesus and what belongs to them. That's my big gripe. Apparently, he doesn't know. But then, that's because he's not a Christian. He's Muslim," O'Donnell said last November.

"It's a proven fact he's Muslim. He wasn't born in this country. He was born in Kenya. There are people who know it, people who know where the birth certificate is. It's locked up and our government can't get a hold of it. He's a illegitimate president, in my estimation."

Nice, huh? How much do you have to really despise this country to elect this class of idiots into office?

It is time to stop laughing and to really evaluate the true impact of voting into political office people whose positions are based on fantasy, falsehoods and delusions.

It's the Money, Stupid!

Where is Sarah Palin's PAC money going?

Ex-Governor Sarah Palin's political action committee made a lot of money in 2009 and 2010. According to FOXNews.com, SarahPAC raised about $2.1 million in 2009. Politics Daily sheds some light on the economics of the PAC.

Since its inception, the PAC has raised more than $2.5 million and spent more than $1.6 million. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, SarahPAC spent $402,460 in the first quarter of 2010.

Palin recently used a visual representation of a hit list to 'target' candidates in the 2012 elections. On her Facebook page , she used a bull's-eye on a map to indicate which candidates should be "fired." She claims she meant defeated.

So did Palin financially support Republican candidates in 2009?

The papers filed over the weekend show SarahPAC spent $47,777 on copies of "Going Rogue" during the last 6 months of the year. Meanwhile, she handed out just $43K in donations to candidates seeking federal office.

Where did Palin spend her PAC money in 2010? Did SarahPAC donate money to Republicans in the races she targeted?

Although her SarahPAC took in $400,000 in the first quarter and had more than $900,000 in the bank, it gave only $7,500 to candidates between January and the end of March, plus an additional $2,000 to two other PACs. None went to Republicans in the races she targeted.

Instead, she gave to $2,500 to Wisconsin House candidate Sean Duffy, $2,000 to Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, and $1,000 each to Florida House candidate Allen West, Illinois House candidate Adam Kinzinger and Idaho House candidate Vaughan Ward. SarahPAC also donated $1,000 each to Iraq Veterans for Congress and Combat Veterans for Congress, both political action committees.

So what did she spend her money on this year?

Consultants: Almost $243,000 went to consultants, including almost $45,000 to PAC treasurer Timothy Crawford (some of it for expenses), plus $21,500 for legal services. NorthStar Strategies took in $50,000, and Orion Strategies $30,000. Consulting services included media strategy, fundraising, candidate research and grassroots coalitions.

Travel: More than $42,000 went to travel, including more than $7,300 to de-ice private planes. Destinations for Team Palin included New Orleans, Cincinnati, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis.

Fundraising and postage: The PAC spent more than $31,780 on postage and more than $25,000 on Internet fundraising.

Even photographer Shaelah Craighead (Laura Bush's White House photographer) took in more money than Sarah PAC gave to candidates, earning $11,596 for photography.

What happened to the $100K she was to donate from her appearance at the Tea Party Convention?

What's more, there is no evidence that Palin has kept her promise to donate money she earned from a Tea Party convention in Feb. Amid controversies surrounding the National Tea Party Convention, held in Nashville, Palin said she would donate her $100K speaking fee to campaigns, candidates and issues.

Palin did not contribute any money to her PAC, according to FEC filings.

SarahPAC's treasurer Tim Crawford said, "We are excited as we feel that we've just begun to tap the governor's support. More than 14,000 everyday men and women contributed more than $2 million to SarahPAC last year with little effort on our part. The money came in through the Internet and a handful of fundraisers and we are grateful for everyone's support."

As the money trail shows, SarahPAC should be very grateful to the "everyday men and women!" How else would they be able to pay their 'consultants'?