Tag Archives: Michele Bachman

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What was the context of Michele Bachmann’s “armed and dangerous” comment?

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Rep. Michele Bachmann
Rep. Michele Bachmann

Recently, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a column blaming conservatives for creating a “climate of hate”.

Excerpt:

The point is that there’s room in a democracy for people who ridicule and denounce those who disagree with them; there isn’t any place for eliminationist rhetoric, for suggestions that those on the other side of a debate must be removed from that debate by whatever means necessary.

And it’s the saturation of our political discourse — and especially our airwaves — with eliminationist rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence.

Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.

So what he is saying is that Michele Bachmann wants conservatives to arm themselves and eliminate their opponents violently. This was in the New York Times.

So, let’s take a look at what Michele Bachmann actually said.

Transcript:

Really now in Washington, I’m a foreign correspondent behind enemy lines. And I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.

But you can get all the latest information on this event. This is a must-go-to event with [the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s] Chris Horner. People will learn. It will be fascinating.

We met with Chris Horner last week, 20 members of Congress. It takes a lot to wow members of Congress after a while. This wows them.

And I am going to have materials for people when they leave. 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 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 changing freedom forever in the United States. And that’s why I want everyone to come out and hear [Chris Horner]. So go to Bachmann.house.gov and you can get all [of] the information.

See, in context, it’s quite clear that by armed, she means armed with material from Chris Horner on energy taxes (e.g. – the cap and trade bill) and by dangerous she means winning arguments using “all the information”.

If you do a search for “armed and dangerous” and “michele bachmann”, you will find that everybody and their mother on the left is taking the quote out of context in order to smear Michele Bachmann. And I hope that will be a lesson to you about dealing with the claims of people on the left. They hear these things on talk radio or MSNBC and they take them uncritically.

John Hinderaker at Powerline explains the problem with taking Michele Bachmann’s “armed and dangerous” quote out of context. (H/T Hyscience)

Excerpt:

Here is a rule of thumb: any time a liberal quotes a fragment of a sentence, or, as in this case, a three-word phrase, a red flag should go up. When liberals quote sentence fragments, they are usually misleading when they aren’t out-and-out fabricated.

My guess is that Krugman has no idea when Michele referred to being “armed and dangerous,” or why, or what the rest of the sentence was. Krugman’s biggest problem isn’t that he is stupid. His biggest problem is that he is lazy. He is incapable of doing even the most rudimentary research, which is why his columns rarely contain many facts, and when they do, his “facts” are often wrong.

As it happens, I–unlike Krugman–know all about Michele’s “armed and dangerous” quote, because she said it in an interview with Brian Ward and me, on our radio show. It was on March 21, 2009. The subject was the Obama administration’s cap and trade proposal. Michele organized a couple of informational meetings in her district with an expert on global warming and cap and trade, and she came on our show to promote those meetings. She wanted her constituents to be armed with information on cap and trade so that they would understand how unnecessary, and how damaging to our economy, the Obama administration’s proposal was. That would make them dangerous to the administration’s left-wing plans.

The interview illustrates quite well the difference between Michele Bachmann and Paul Krugman. Krugman is a vicious hater. He rarely argues any issue on the merits, but prefers to smear those who disagree with him. Bachmann is infinitely better informed than Krugman. All she wants to do is debate her opponents on the facts. Unlike Krugman, she doesn’t hate anyone; her irrepressible good humor is considered a marvel by everyone who knows her.

You can listen to the whole interview at that post on Powerline. I do occasionally listen to the Northern Alliance Radio show.

Is Paul Krugman civil with his opponents?

Of course not!

He writes:

A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy.

This is the first sentence in one of his New York Times columns. I put the link for context, so you can check it out yourself. If I were a leftist journalist, I would have left out the “in effigy” and then spread all over the Internet and on MSNBC. MSNBC edits the news to suit their narrative all the time – it’s not really a news channel at all, it’s just propaganda for the far-left fringe.

Is Paul Krugman seen as reliable?

Not by a bunch of non-conservatives:

Always read the New York Times with a skeptical eye.

You need to watch Fox News and listen to Hugh Hewitt

I really recommend that if any of you who are watching MSNBC and listening to NPR stop that and try an experiment. Switch to watching Special Report on Fox News at 6 PM Eastern every day for an hour. Bret Baier is fair, and you will see him do an amazing thing. The entire second half of the show is a panel discussion with people on the left present, and they get equal time. And if you can watch Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on Sundays, you get another panel discussion with TWO leftists, usually Juan Williams and Mara Liasson – who work for NPR!!!! (Yes, I know NPR fired Juan) Neither Juan nor Mara are insane – in fact they are quite sensible leftists. Sometimes Bret will have other leftists on, but even they are not too crazy. Do you know why? Because they can’t be crazy when there are conservatives on the panel who get to hold them to account. And the conservatives can’t be crazy, either. That’s how you get the truth – each side corrects the other, and they all get along well – laughing and joking. That’s what Fox News is famous for – fair and balanced. Balanced means you get BOTH sides. Fair means both sides get equal time to talk. It’s a debate every night.

I do not recommend watching the O’Reilly Factor or even Sean Hannity, and especially not Shepherd Smith, who is a radical left wing extremist.

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AT LAST: Michele Bachmann open to presidential run in 2012

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Rep. Michele Bachmann

Joy! Fox News has the story. (H/T Dad and Mary)

Excerpt:

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is the keynote speaker at a GOP event in the early presidential caucus state of Iowa later this month, and a spokesman said Wednesday that the Tea Party favorite has “not ruled out” a bid for president.

“Nothing’s off the table for her,” said Andy Parrish, Bachmann’s chief of staff. “She’s looking forward to traveling to Iowa for the fundraiser, and you know, she’s looking forward over the next year to traveling and sharing the story of why we can’t re-elect Barack Obama as president.”

[…]Bachmann, who has drawn a national following with frequent guest appearances on cable and network news shows, broke fundraising records with an $11 million haul en route to winning her third term in Minnesota’s 6th District. She also founded the congressional Tea Party caucus.

Bachmann, 54, is a native of Waterloo, Iowa, but as a child moved with her family to Minnesota. On Jan. 21, she will deliver the keynote speech at the Iowans for Tax Relief PAC Taxpayers Watchdog Reception in Des Moines — an event co-hosted by U.S. Rep. Steve King and other prominent Iowa Republicans.

Parrish wouldn’t say whether Bachmann would talk presidential politics with state GOP leaders. He said she made several trips to Iowa in 2010, and while he wouldn’t reveal specific travel plans in the coming months, he said she could end up in other early caucus or primary states.

Bachmann has also been mentioned in recent weeks as a possible U.S. Senate candidate against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2012.

Here’s why we like her so much – she’s a fusion of social and fiscal conservatism.

Excerpt:

Last month, Bachmann said the session of Congress that starts today — with its new pro-life Republican majority — should de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Bachmann says she will press for the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a bill sponsored by fellow conservative luminary Mike Pence, an Indiana congressman, to de-fund Planned Parenthood when it convenes in January.

“Well, I think one thing that we can do, quite simply, is to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood,” Bachmann said when asked by CNS News about what Congress can do to protect unborn children.

“It wouldn’t mean that Planned Parenthood would go out of existence, because they do have their own independent funding, but what it would mean is that the taxpayer would no longer be funding that,” she said.

Bachmann also talked with CNS News about the latter point — ObamaCare and abortion funding — as a reason Republicans should pursue de-funding ObamaCare as well.

“For the first time in American history under Obamacare–socialized medicine–under President Obama, we have federal funding of abortion,” she said. “President Obama denies that, but we know that it’s already happened in the state of Pennsylvania. And so, therefore, it’s imperative that we in the House completely defund Obamacare so that we no longer force Americans to violate their moral conscience and pay for other people’s abortions.”

Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, is referring to the $160 million the federal government gave the state under ObamaCare to set up a high-risk insurance pool, but the terms of the pool allowed for the money to pay for elective abortions. That was also the case in New Mexico and Maryland until the National Right to Life Committee blew the whistle and both the Obama administration and officials in the three states backed down.

Bachmann also told CNS News that Congress should de-fund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that has worked hand-in-hand with the China population control officials who have used forced abortions and other human rights abuses to enforce its one-child policy. It has also promoted abortions in nations with pro-life laws.

“I think it is incumbent upon us as the members of Congress to let people know–not for the purpose of scaring them–but to let people know the stark fiscal realities that we’re facing right now as a nation,” she said. “And can’t we at minimum start with defunding things like Planned Parenthood and paying for other’s people abortions that are highly controversial and are violating our principles of the Declaration of Independence, our inalienable right to life. That we can at least agree on, that we should defund that.”

She is also conservative on foreign policy.

YAY! She’s my absolute favorite! Because she’s the best!

BACHMANN/DEMINT IN 2012!

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News

MUST-READ: CNS News interviews Michele Bachmann

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This is an actual photo of Michele in Congress

Here’s an interview about her latest doings from CNS News.

Excerpt:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), founder and chair of the House Tea Party Caucus, told CNSNews.com this week that when the  Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January they should kill Obamacare by zeroing-out funding for it, and by the same means remove from office the non-Senate-confirmed “czars” President Barack Obama has named to his administration.

“That’s the beauty of conservatives winning in this election, because the House has the power of the purse and we can zero that out in our budget,” she said.

“Zero out any funding for the current czars, for instance, that the president has,” Bachmann told CNSNews.com in an appearance on “Online With Terry Jeffrey. “Zero out the implementation of Obamacare. Zero out funding for the 16,500 IRS agents who will be the enforcers of Obamacare. All of that needs to be zeroed out.”

When asked whether she was advocating that the Republican majority in the House kill Obamacare by simply using the power of the purse to never approve funding for it, Bachmann said: “Yes.”

[…]“That’s what we’re supposed to do here in Congress, is make our case based upon a principled argument,” the Minnesota conservative told CNSNews.com. ”And we need to make that argument, because to go down the road of funding Obamacare will lead us to socialized medicine.”

Here’s an interesting part of the transcript:

Jeffrey: Congressman, let me turn to some social and cultural issues.

Earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave a talk where she said that her favorite word was the “Word made flesh,” namely Jesus Christ, and that she believed that she had a duty to pursue policies that were in keeping with the values of Jesus Christ. A reporter from CNSNews.com went to one of her press conferences and asked her when did she believe that the Word was made flesh? Was it at the Annunciation, at the conception of Jesus Christ? Or was it at the Nativity, at the birth of Jesus Christ? And when did Jesus get the right life? Was it at conception? Was it at birth? When did Jesus get the right to life? So I want to ask you that same question that we put to Nancy Pelosi. When was the Word made Flesh? At the conception? And when did Jesus get a right to life?

Bachmann: I think the answer would be John 1:1. The Word was God and the Word was with God from the foundation of the Earth. So, prior to our even being here on the Earth, the Father and the Son were together because all things were created by Jesus Christ and with the Father and held together. And I believe in a triune God: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That’s when Jesus was created. It’s hard for us to understand, beyond our limits of time, what eternity really means. I don’t know that the mind of man can truly conceive and understand eternity, but we know from the Word of God–I believe the Word of God–that Christ was preeminent. That He was preeminent and before all things and created all things. So, therefore, He always was one with the Father.

Jeffrey: And He became flesh, became a human being–

Bachmann: And dwelt with man.

Jeffrey: And dwelt among us.

Bachmann: And dwelt among us.

Jeffrey: And did Jesus have a right to life from the moment of conception?

Bachmann: Yes.

Jeffrey: Do all human beings have a right to life?

Bachmann: Yes, they do.

Jeffrey: Should there be legal protection for every human being from the moment of conception?

Bachmann: Yes, there should be.

You can see the full video of the interview and read the full transcript at the CNS News link.

I remember listening to a MacLaurin lecture one day given by Ravi Zacharias in Minnesota. And as I started it up, you will never believe who was introducing him. It was Michele Bachmann. And she was explaining to the audience how she had asked her husband, for her anniversary present, to go and hear Ravi Zacharias speak. She did not ask for stuff. She asked for apologetics. If only this woman could be President, I would be the happiest person in the world.

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