I vote for foolish irresponsible hack. These days, who can tell the difference?

What has Michigan done to deserve Hoesktra? I mean, Michiganders seem like nice, sensible people who work hard and play fair. And they get stuck with Hoesktra?

Life's just not fair.

Bachmann said, "And so we need to once again decide, do we want to be free, or do we want to be slaves?"

Steve Benen wrote: "Either Hoekstra knows this, and he's just riling up uninformed right-wing voters for partisan gain ..."

There's no "either" about it. That's exactly what he is doing. He knows that the corporate-funded so-called "right wing" media has created an audience of weak-minded, ignorant Ditto-Heads who will unquestioningly believe whatever they are told is "conservative", no matter how absurd or transparently false it is. So he knows that he can get away with saying whatever he wants, and the pathetic mental slaves of Rush Limbaugh will hear and obey.

The existence of this army of corporate-programmed zombie brownshirts, and the existence of the corporate-sponsored media engine of deceit and hatred that creates and sustains it, is a serious problem.

And calling the Republicans who deliberately, cynically and maliciously lie to exploit this easily manipulated audience "crazy" or "foolish" is a serious mistake.

They know exactly what they are doing. And they deserve to be called out as the vicious, lying thugs that they are, and not given some specious benefit of the doubt that they might be well-meaning idiots.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

-from a new bill sponsored by Hoekstra and Bachman

What has Michigan done to deserve Hoesktra?

Voted for him?

"I'm watching Neil Cavuto," said Hoekstra...

well, there's your first problem, pete.

"I was just talking to Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who's leaving Congress to run for governor of Michigan, about his proposed Parental Rights Amendment -- a constitutional change that would, among other things, prevent "any source of international law" to override parents' rights."

So Hoekstra was all in favor of returning Elian Gonzalez to his father instead of letting his distant relatives in Miami keep him? Or is it only American parents who cannot have their rights infringed upon, but it's perfectly fine for US citizens to illegally hold a child?

I don't know where to begin... It's one thing when the Repubs all crawl up to kiss Rush's ass (no pushing, plenty a room fer all ya') but it seems they are trying to out-Rush Rush. If a provocateur is setting the pace....

It is now painfully obvious to me that Benen doesn't read his threads. If he did he would know by now that this is being repeated over and over because it is a dog whistle for the religious right. It has nothing to do with anything other than that. Maybe at some point if he ever read his thread Benen would realize this and stop being so damned surprised everytime it happened. Or maybe just maybe he actually might do a post about how the "global currency" meme fits in with Left Behind crowd.

"Second, slaves to whom?"

</teary, Jesus-freak voice>

Just lie back, relax, and soak up the crazy.
Aahhhh...

I have enough trouble writing a rational and coherent 250 word blog post once a day. Maybe it helps when you are none of those.

Why isn't the media looking into these claims, and pointing out these people as the unhinged lunatics that they are? 30 co-sponsors of Bachmann's amendment? This deserves more attention than it's getting.

Michele Bachmann is a loon. I live in Minnesota (not in her district), and I'm quite frustrated that she's still in office, making her constituents look like idiots for re-electing her.

What's worse is, she would have lost in 2008 if not for the Minnesota Independence Party. Her Democratic opponent, El Tinklenberg, actually received the Indepedence Party endorsement, but still some other joker ran on the Independence Party line (Minnesota doesn't allow a candidate to appear on multiple ballot lines, even when he is cross-endorsed). In spite of the fact that said joker barely campaigned, he still got 10% of the vote from the idiots in Bachmann's district (and I'm sorry folks, but if you live in Minnesota's 6th and voted for anyone other than Tinklenberg, you're an idiot), which split the anti-Bachmann vote just enough to let her win again.

Idiots.

"First, why would any group of people "want to be slaves"? Second, slaves to whom?"

Reason

Don't wanna be slaves tuh reason!

Isn't it great though that according to a recording on Americablog, Eric Cantor knows a man who can help us with the economy.The party leader Rush of course!

What's wrong with these people?

First, sgwhiteinfla is right -- this is a dog whistle to the Left Behind crazies.

But more to the point, the reason they are all like this is that few in the Republican Party gets news from any source outside the wingnutosphere, and that especially includes their party leaders.

Think about it. From Fox News to Washington Times to NY Post to Rush to Savage to TownHall to WorldNutDaily to Drudge -- a wingnut needs never go anywhere else for news.

It's got to the point where they all believe their own bullshit. If Drudge says it then it's true, no need for fact checking.

Seriously, it would be an interestinng experiement to try to plant an outrageous, obviously false news story in the wingnutosphere to see if anyone catches it. Oh wait, that experiment was already done with the Hummer-is-more-environmental-than-Prius hoax -- and even today morons like George Will repeat that hoax as if it were truth.

SecularAnimist has it exactly right.

Picture an 'anti-Obama': very intelligent, highly charismatic, verbally proficient, etc, etc -- much more so than any of the goons who've surfaced thus far. Now picture how he/she could rally the armies of ignorance. Do you like the result? Can you say 'overthrow of the Weimar Republic'?

This IS a serious problem. And giving a pass to the people who encourage this stuff by saying that they're 'insane' is incredibly shortsighted, and ultimately dangerous. They ARE thugs.

Hey, if Obama's Malcolm X's son, then wouldn't that necessarily resolve the birth certificate issue? Hehe

Social conservatism is a learning disability.

Hey, if Obama's Malcolm X's son, then wouldn't that necessarily resolve the birth certificate issue?

No, because Malcolm X was born in Jamaica Plain, MA. Does that sound American to you? It sounds pretty damn bla--er, foreign --to us.

how long has the UN been in existence?

sixty-three years and counting.

why has it taken so long for this nefarious and powerful group to take over the united states?

maybe they're waiting for obama's stimulus funds so they can get their traffic rotary construction underway. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message742096/pg1

can somebody explain what's up with minnesota?

has the cold gone to people's heads there?

Bachmann said, "And so we need to once again decide, do we want to be free, or do we want to be slaves?"
..........

She's rehearsing for Passover. She's going to Eric Cantor's for the Seder and she's practicing the lingo.

She's rehearsing for Passover. She's going to Eric Cantor's for the Seder and she's practicing the lingo.
>>>>

And maybe we can send them on a field trip to Egypt.

Truly amazing how these people ever manage to get elected. They parade ignorance around as something to be proud of.

Of course he's "irresponsible and foolish". He jumped to a conclusion so totally unconnected to what was being said that reasonable people are baffled as to how his brain could even work that way. The bottom line to any of their statements is to smear democrats...it's all they've got. If dems and liberals came up with the perfect answers to all our problems...answers that would make us all prosperous and happy...people like Hoekstra, Bachmann, Boehner (the whole list of these idiot repubs) would spout that being prosperous and happy could be detrimental to society, that maybe we weren't meant to be so happy, to have all the answers ....if it meant they could regain power by saying so.

The demonstration of the republican party's "principle" of hypocrisy...what they are really about is when they came up with those signs that read "Country First" while selecting Palin to be a heartbeat away from being the president.

When these goober republicans say they want us armed and dangerous and call for civil unrest and 'easy sided' revolution they are too stupid to even see that it is them and the wealthy elites they support and stand for that we will be killing.
The bankers, the wall street millionaires etc...it is Backmann we will kill first..an Beck and Palin supporters...In a revolution the wealthy are normally killed by their body guards and supporters. Riding around on your ranch bragging how every man ought to be free to build his own empire but refusing to pay your fair share of taxes etc will get you targeted.

Bachmann reminds me of Leona Helmsley ("Only little people pay taxes"). Like Beck their egos are too big to ever acknowledge "why would anyone want to behead me?". A picture of the size of the crowd in front of the Arch in St. Louis when Obama spoke there during the campaign compared to having people bused in for a McCain/Palin rally should...should be telling these goobers the majority of Americans oppose THEM. Crazy and stupid...and we're supposed to work with these people...ha! Their entire policy is chanting USA USA USA as if that answers anything. The bad acting Chuck Norris ego of 'see how important I am' is fantasy politics that any serious politician just intuitively knows to avoid. If you held a mirror up to Beck and Bachmann so they could see themselves they would just be confused but never embarrassed as would any rational person. The minority that shrinks itself has no vision yet they continue to rant.

First, why would any group of people "want to be slaves"? Second, slaves to whom? Bachmann didn't say.

Slaves to the rhythm Steve.........god help us we will be slaves to the rhythm!

Well, I am finding the "free or slaves" question tough to answer.

This could be one of those "Up is Down" questions that seem to characterize conservative thought. Michelle Bachmann is someone who, when asked to add 2 + 3, will answer "1" and get all agitated and accuse you of being a socialist if you suggest 5 might be a better answer.

So, does choosing "free" mean, choosing to be like Michelle Bachmann, like "a crazy paranoid narcissist who makes up shit and thinks she is clever?" So, at the moment I'm leaning "slave." Especially if choosing "slave" means obtaining universal health care, job creation, policies that strengthen the middle class, a chance to combat global warming and develop sustainable energy. Sorry, Michelle.

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

hoekstra is just another victim of Dutch inbreeding here in the Mitten State.

he is as crazy as that aunt in the basement.

I say let them dog-whistle and base-play all they want. McCain/Palin went that route. The crazies are a minority. The rest of us know what's behind the curtain. Repubs are driving themselves off a cliff.

If other countries don't want to accept the US dollar as reserve currency, then they too are free to drop it. How would any American politician stop them?

Hey, they don't call him "Crazy Pete" for nothing...

They know what they're doing. This will all be swept into choreographed jingoistic hysteria in response to war-crimes indictments overseas or in the ICC. You think one move ahead, they think five or six.

I agree with many of you that these right wing hacks know exactly what they're doing. They are whipping up the wingnut base, particularly the Left Behind crowd, with crazy notions about Obama that have zero basis in fact. The sad thing is that Fox viewers actually believe this crapola, and they are getting whipped up into an irrational paranoid frenzy. I expect Beck and the other hacks at Fox to incite the masses, but it's beyond irresponsible for Republican members of Congress to participate in this dangerous game.

"The Birthers" is completely wrong: Malcolm X was born in Nebraska. And whatever The Birthers' opinion of Jamaica Plain might be, he/she seems unaware it is a neighborhood of Boston, easily researchable.