LOWERING THE BAR

The two most goofball women in American political history, conservative Republican Representative Michele Bachmann and former (half-term) conservative Republican Alaskan governor Sarah Palin shared the stage today in downtown Minneapolis, MN at a rally for Bachmann's reelection bid to the U.S. House. I wasn't (wouldn't be caught dead) there, but from all accounts, it was a typical outing full of hyperbole, inuendo, and outright falsehood for the both of them.

You know, these two could be clones: they both lie; they both exaggerate; they both have immature and overly-animated personas; they are both shallow and border on naive; they both shoot from the hip and speak before they think; and both have excitable and near-hysterical modes of speaking that drive this thinking and measured man, who values truth and accuracy above all else, completely up the wall. Neither knows enough about history, geography, economics, or government to pass the second grade. Both crave attention and adore the spotlight. Both love glamour and money - LOTS of it, and neither has any time for any government effort to aid the poor, or struggling working Americans (who are all around them, (but not in THEIR district or immediate locale).

11,000 tickets were given out for the event which was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center. There were obviously a good number of non-natives in attendance: this is far from teabagger country, and, while there are a farly large number of Republicans residing here, most are quite a bit more moderate and sensible than the ultra-conservative, far-right Palin and Bachmann, or teabagger type.

Republican snake-in-the-grass Governor Tim Pawlenty pulled himself away from his constantly-outside-the-state activity of laying the groundwork for a 2012 presidential bid to come back just long enough to kick-off the proceedings. "We now live in a country where Wall Street gets a bail out, the poor get a handout, and everybody else gets their wallet out," were his warm words of don't-care-about-anybody-but-yourself Republican wisdom. To hell with the poor and the unemployed---just only think of YOUR wallet.

Yep. Now THAT'S original. Of course, he didn't say anything about free-market conservative Republicans creating this Great Recession we're in, or that he, his party, and both Palin and Bachmann all oppose tighter government regulation of Wall Street. No, he had to single out those nasty, expensive poor people. Pretty presidential, huh?

Bachmann began her flatulence with alarmist nonsense in the form of a sharp criticism of President Obama's new scaled-back nuclear arms policy. Said she: "so if in fact there is a nation who is compliant with all the rules ahead of time...if they fire against the United States, a biological weapon, a chemical weapon, or maybe a cyber attack, then we aren't going to be firing back with nuclear weapons. Doesn't that make us all feel safe?"

Of course, this silly little alarmist didn't stop to think that we a have a far wider array of non-nuclear, high tech weaponry than any potential enemy. And to suggest using nukes on a nation that launches a non-lethal cyber attack on us? I feel sorry for the poor fool who ever hacks into Bachmann's computer, or accidentally drives over her lawn---I'm sure she'd advocate an immediate guillotining of him. What an utter idiot!

She talked about repealing the health care reform bill, speaking of the "infamous monstrosity of a vote to nationalize effectively health care in the United States of America."

Yuh, right, Michele baby. There was no "nationalization" whatsoever. The last time I checked, the government had NOT completely taken over health care, was NOT putting all doctors, nurses, technicians, and medical support staff on regulated salaries on the public payroll, and Bachmann's precious private sector of insurance company pirates were still profiting handsomely and holding the overwhelming majority of our population at knifepoint, pricewise. WHAT planet are you on, Bachmann?

Palin was every bit as bad. She chortlked, "What's wrong with being the party of no when you consider what Obama, Pelosi and Reid are trying to do to our country? So be it!" She added, "Not when it violates our Constitution!"

I would argue that Palin herself knows very little about our Constitution. She has certainly evidenced very little knowledge of the constitutional roles our branches of government play. Not only that, but with her insanely inaccurate "death panels" remarks about the health care reform bill, it makes me wonder if this silly, self-centered little prima donna knows much about anything, anywhere.


At a time when this country sorely needs great, visionary leadership and statespersons to guide us into an uncertain and possibly forboding future, public figures like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin should be RAISING the bar of public discourse and political action, not continually lowering it and crawling beneath it. And that self-serving Tim Pawlenty ought to just go crawl off by himself somewhere else. ANYWHERE but the White House!