[sjdflghd]

Michele Bachmann Links Swine Flu To Democrats, Gets History Wrong (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner | April 28, 2009 05:40 PM



Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, following Rush Limbaugh's cue, suggested on Tuesday that President Obama was to blame for the swine flu crisis. She went even farther than the talk show host, implying that swine flu epidemics are a Democratic phenomenon that dates back to President Carter.
"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."
Unfortunately, Bachmann's facts are a little off. As Glenn Thrush notes, Republican President Gerald Ford, not Carter, led the country during the last outbreak of the virus.

[Johnny]

What must the people in her CD be like?

[italertb]

^
Homophobic?


The Depth of Michele Bachmann's Fear of Gays
Elspeth Reeve

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has said being gay is "personal enslavement," "part of Satan," "sad," "dangerous," and is--in her estimation, a negative development--now "made to look good" on TV instead of the subject of mincing jokes. Her husband runs a counseling clinic that claims to be able to cure patients of their homosexuality. But now Bachmann says she's "not running to be anyone's judge." The Republican's thoughts gay people seem like a weird throwback, given that a majority of Americans now support gay marriage and Congress repealed the military's ban on gays last fall with overwhelming public support. But despite the conventional wisdom that the Tea Party doesn't care all that much about social issues, they're still very important in Republican politics. A Des Moines Register poll last month showed that 58 percent of Republican caucus voters would not support a candidate who was in favor of civil unions, Jennifer Jacobs reports.

Gawker's Seth Abramovitch collects some of Bachmann's comments as transcribed by anti-Bachmann site DumpBachmann.com in January, from a 2004 speech to the National Education Leadership Conference (you can listen to the audio here), that might be less weird to an Iowa Republican than your typical independent voter.

"...Any of you who have members of your family that are in the lifestyle--we have a member of our family that is. This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It's anything but gay."

"...Because if you're involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it's bondage. Personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement. And that's why this is so dangerous."

"...If you'll recall television maybe 15, 20 years ago, if you'd see something about gays it would be an outlandish kind of an outfit, it would be a kind of tittering, making fun. But that's different now. Now gays are made to look good." But while these comments are shocking to the what polls show are the average person, they fit right in in Iowa, which happens to host the first vote of the Republican primary. The state is a must-win for Bachmann, which helps explain why she was the first Republican candidate to sign a family values pledge put forward by the Iowa group The Family Leader called "The Marriage Vow"--a document that made the candidate promise to be faithful to her spouse, fight the establishment of Sharia law in America, oppose same-sex marriage, and agree that black kids had a better family life during slavery. After outrage about that little slavery bit exploded on the Internet, The Family Leader deleted the passage from its pledge. Bachmann's spokesman clarified, for the record, that "Congresswoman Bachmann believes that slavery was horrible." Rival candidate Rick Santorum later said he'd been "taken aback" by the adultery part. But he signed anyway.

Copyright © 2011 by The Atlantic Monthly Group

[86GlSqSK]

Michele before the makeover, speaking her mind back in 2004:



The good Dr. Bachman, battling the Barbarians ...



More with Marcus ...

[Markdogas]

Is it just me but this guy looks like Chaz Bono's secret gay (bottom) twin brother(?)

[budumol]

"all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"
That's why all good men (and women) should rise up and speak out
AGAINST Michele Bachman!

[HaroldMY]

This woman is dumber than a turnip and bat shit crazy. God help her if she is taking Medicare $'s to 'cure' homosexuality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...chmann-clinic/

By: CNN's Jim Acosta and Erika Dimmler

Lake Elmo, MN (CNN)-In her campaign for president, Michele Bachmann touts her background as a small business owner.
"A small business job creator," is how the Minnesota Congresswoman and Republican Presidential candidate described herself in her first campaign ad in Iowa.

That business is Bachmann and Associates. It's a Christian counseling service located outside Minneapolis. Bachmann started the center with her husband, Marcus who is the lead counselor at the clinic. The aspiring first couple and their children are pictured on the center's web site.
For at least five years, Bachmann and Associates has faced accusations it uses a controversial therapy that encourages gay and lesbian patients to change their sexual orientation.

Andrew Ramirez, a former patient at Bachmann and Associates, said in an interview with CNN he witnessed the practice first-hand. In 2004, Ramirez turned to the clinic at the urging of his mother who wanted him to talk about his homosexuality.

Just 17 at the time, Ramirez said he was immediately skeptical of what one of the clinic's counselors told him.

"It was therapy that would help me change from being homosexual to straight," Ramirez said. "If I did this and worked his therapy program, God would perform a miracle and I could no longer be gay," Ramirez added he was told.

Ramirez was assigned a therapy program consisting of prayer, reading Bible passages, and mentoring with an ex-lesbian minister. If none of that worked, Ramirez said the counselor had another suggestion.

"Not acting out on my same sex attractions and living a life of celibacy," Ramirez said.

After the second session, Ramirez told his mother, Beth Shellenbarger, he wanted to stop the therapy.

"And I could just hear his voice quiver and I just said, 'you know, Andy, if you're good with being gay then I am too,'" Shellenbarger said.
The American Psychological Association is sharply critical of efforts by counselors to change a patient's sexual orientation, what's known in the mental health community as "reparative therapy."

"There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation," one APA report said.
Marcus Bachmann has suggested parents of gay teenagers can turn to religion for help.

In an interview last year with the "Point of View" talk radio program, Bachmann was asked how parents should deal with a teenager who thinks he or she is gay.

"I think you clearly say 'what is the understanding of God's word on homosexuality,'" Bachmann said. "We have to understand barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined and just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn't mean we're supposed to go down that road," he continued.

In 2006, Bachmann denied his clinic engaged in reparative therapy to "City Pages," a Minneapolis newspaper. "That's a false statement," Bachmann said. "If someone is interested in talking to us about their homosexuality, we are open to talking about that. But if someone comes in a homosexual and they want to stay homosexual, I don't have a problem with that," he continued.

This week, a gay rights group called "Truth Wins Out" released to CNN a hidden camera video recorded by one of its activists who posed as a patient at Bachmann and Associates.

In the video reviewed by CNN, a counselor can be heard suggesting homosexuality can be treated at the center, to varying degrees of success.
"You can actually leave homosexuality completely and become heterosexual?" the undercover activist asked on the video. "Definitely," the counselor responded. "It's happened before. It really has," the counselor added.

But the counselor cautioned he is not an expert on the subject.

"I don't have a ton of experience with this. I mean, a little bit here and there," the counselor added.

Michele Bachmann has a long history of controversial views on homosexuality.

As a senator in the Minnesota legislature in 2004, Bachmann called for an amendment to the state constitution that would block gay marriages in other states from being recognized in Minnesota.

"If we allow this to happen, group marriage, polygamy, and much worse would not be far behind," Bachmann said in a video to her supporters.
In an appeal to socially conservative Iowa voters earlier this month, she signed a "Marriage Vow" pledge that also equated same sex couples with polygamists.

Both Bachmann and her husband declined to discuss the clinic's practices. A secretary at the clinic referred all questions to the Bachmann presidential campaign. A sign on the center's door says "no media."
A statement released by her presidential campaign said the Bachmanns were unable to comment on the clinic's practices out of respect for its patients.

"The Bachmann's are in no position ethically, legally, or morally to discuss specific courses of treatment concerning the clinic's patients," the statement said.

The issue has followed Bachmann onto the campaign trail. Asked about the clinic's practices at an event in Iowa Monday, Bachmann dodged the question.

"Well, I'm running for the presidency of the United States. And I'm here today to talk about job creation," Bachmann told WHO-TV. "We're very proud of the business that we've created," she added.

Filed under: 2012 • Gay rights • Michele Bachmann

[PWRichard]

Michelle is the joker, but Marcus is the wild-card in the deck. I'm telling you now, he'll have a big effect on her campaign, bigger than all of her stupid remarks.

In a poetic justice world, on the night of the RNC convention, Marcus walks in with one of his clinic patients and announces, "It seems this ex-gay therapy is temporary." Next day, bumper stickers appear: "Michelle Bachmann - Satan's Spouse"

[CaseyFronczekHomie]

As has been pointed out elsewhere ...

Two Peas in a Pod:

...

...

[jarsbars]

Listening to the radio program......


He's gay.


Just the way he uses third person plural (inclusive) pronouns talking about experimentation and the like.... I hate to say it, but many people do NOT experiment and are really not curious about homosexuality in that way unless they themselves are gay.

HE was "curious" and now he is on a Jihad to somehow absolve himself of his self perceived "sin".

What a tool.

[igs00r]

Michele Bachmann’s Problem With Gay People Could Soon Become a Problem for Her

• 7/13/11 at 10:20 AM
• 160Comments

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/07...blem_with.html
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Now, it's no secret that Michele and Marcus Bachmann don't like gay people. As a state senator, Michele introduced a state constitutional amendment barring marriage equality, and as a United States representative she's said she'd support a federal amendment doing the same. And in recent weeks a number of stories have revealed that her husband's Christian counseling clinic (which received state and federal support) preaches that gay people can be cured, which is not therapy that is backed by any credible medical association. And this morning Gawker points us back to an audiotape of Michele Bachmann from 2004, which was posted by the Dump Bachmann blog, when she was addressing an educational conference. She spoke exclusively about the threat of gay marriage.

Referring to the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that legalized marriage equality in that state, she said: "Something that was meant for evil was used for good," in that it helped garner George W. Bush's reelection. "If you're involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it's bondage. Personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement," she added. "And that's why this is so dangerous."

For good measure, she also threw in some broad lies. "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 a female," she said. "There has been profound hurt that has happened in almost all if not all of their lives." And the consequences of legalized marriage equality, she warns, will be dire. "The first thing that will occur, once the legalization occurs, is that if this curriculum is not being taught already, it will be mandated, it must be taught in the schools."

Bachmann went on to lament the normalization of gay people on television and to look wistfully back on the days when the media used to only make fun of them. She called GLSEN's anti-bullying training to teachers "trash" and "garbage" and lambasted Sex and the City for having a minor gay character. And then she threw in the best whopper of them all. "I almost think that the gay community has hired [anti-gay hatemonger Fred Phelps], or created this guy, to do what he does," she said. "He is their best friend."

Here's the thing: Bachmann seems to realize that pushing the anti-gay button too hard could backfire for her — she dodged questions about her husband's clinic earlier this week, and her campaign refused to elaborate on what services it provides. But her anger-filled stance on the gay lifestyle isn't political strategy, like Obama's quavering on marriage equality or Mitt Romney's calculated support of equal rights for gay couples but not equal wording. It's clear she genuinely believes these things, fervently. It's part of her aggressively evangelical political agenda. So there will be no nuance, no evolution, no compromise coming from her direction on gay rights issues. The best she can do is hope to dance with the bigots now and avoid the issue in the general election.

Because the fact of the matter is, most Americans support the right of gay people to marry. Yes, there is a segment of the population that wants a politician to spout anti-LGBT rhetoric, but it's the segment that GOP candidates pander to in the primary and then flee from, toward the center, in the general election. And even though the vast majority of marriage equality supporters aren't single-issue voters that would turn away from a candidate based on their stance on the issue, the statistic does indicate that most Americans find persecution of LGBT people distasteful. Words like evil and enslaved and garbage aren't words that most voters like hearing coming from a leader when it's talking about fellow Americans who aren't doing anybody any harm.

[vNZsk39B]

These cretin-brained school marms pop up every few years.

Like crab grass, they're have gnarly roots and are hard to get rid of ...

















.

[Necedofer]

The joke was on Anita. Her ex was a big screamer.

[TriamiCaw]

For good measure, she also threw in some broad lies. "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 a female," She knows.

She has done her part to abuse them to the best of her homegrown American Spirited ability.....

>wark<

[GAGNAPPEAPH]

She is up by 5 in Iowa

[suingincentix]

Iowa = Corn Headed Conservatives

Beyond the minor bump that a win in the Iowa straw polls might give Bachman, support from that part of the "Heartland" means little these days.

We're far past the era when Iowa foretold the future.

[sobre]

True, although there are a lot of corn headed conservatives out there.

I find it stunning that she could be up by 5 anywhere

[JonnLeejsp]

Playing the victim card ...

The Barbarian Defense: Marcus Bachmann, Allies Say Embarrassing Tape Is A Fake

[wallyfindme]

Hmm...
Bachmann denied reports that his Christian counseling clinic pushes so-called gay "reparative therapy" "Will I address it? Certainly we'll talk about it," Marcus Bachmann told paper. "Is it a remedy form that I typically would use? ... It is at the client's discretion."
We don't PUSH Crack, we just offer it to those that want it.

I do not know what is worse, people who do this, or ones that are so concerned about their (new) political careers that they cannot "man" up and stand behind what they are supposed to "believe in".

"Oh, we don't PUSH it on anyone..."

If you do, and you believe it is such a sin, do not weasel out on your own words. Either admit being wrong or stand behind them, don't be a Weiner.

[TodeImmabbedo]

Is the American public not the victim here?
I'm pretty sure i saw a video on msnbc a while back, of Michele calling homosexuals barbarians as well,
repeating much of what her husband is claiming NOT to have said, in a long convoluted air headed speech.
If she has been filmed spewing this crap (as if it were a fact)....
but this latest in a long line of