Bachmann really is the personification of everything that's wrong with the modern American right wing - stupidity, corruption, fanaticism and viciousness, all wrapped up in self-righteousness.

That appalling belief that your side are the Good Guys and that the other side is total evil, so anything you do, no matter how underhanded, dishonorable or cruel, is justified, because well... you're the Good Guys, and they're the Bad Guys.

The irony of the whole thing is Mrs. "Persecuted Christian" Bachman is basically condemning someone based soley on their religion and the religion of their parents. Personally I think having a Swiss citizen is more dangerous and I think an investigation should be made to see if she is promotiong an anti-American/pro-Swiss agenda in congress.

fusillade762: dickfreckle: it does make him particularly awesome. It makes him not insane.

This.

Being sane is particularly awesome in the present GOP.

I have a question and I'm dead serious: does anyone else think Michele Bachmann may be mentally ill? Not in the casual, name-calling sense. I mean that she literally suffers from some sort of mental illness.

The claims and conspiracies she's been putting out are almost schizophrenic.

The bar is so low and bigotry is so ingrained in the republican party that this is what constitutes a class act...

"Obama's an Arab."

"No, he's not. He's a decent family man, a citizen."

Because, you know, an Arab can't be these things.

jso2897: Every thing i see convinces me that we are about to re-live the Sixties. The "At last, have you no decency?" moment that will send the radical right's house of cards tumbling is coming. Soon.

The trouble with "Have you no decency" this time around is that the answer is a resounding "no." Having decency costs them support and votes.

Republicans have, over and over again, shown themselves earning the wrong lessons from history. When McCarthy had his downfall, the takeaway was that having decency was the problem, not that polemic witch hunts and blind jingoism were a mistake. Richard Nixon's resignation didn't tell them not to cover up illegal acts, it taught them "Don't get caught." Whenever they resurrect a failed policy, they prove that the lesson learned wasn't "The policy is a failure" but "We didn't do enough of this last time so let's do more this time and then it'll work." It's believing that the debate itself, rather than the position, is flawed. They'll try it again, only this time they'll close their ears to criticism and hope they get away with it this time.

Lenny_da_Hog: quatchi: /Cognitive dissonance.
//They haz it.

No, they don't.

Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of unease when you try to accept conflicting information. These people don't feel any unease, nor do they recognize that they're holding contradictory information in their skulls. They are simple I/O devices with no processor in between.

Dayum, I always thought it referred to the holding of internally conflicting views itself not that it was a feeling of discomfort from doing so that caused an adaptation.

So yeah, you are correct they have internally inconsistent and illogical beliefs but no discomfort and thus nothing really changes with them. For these people cognitive dissonance would be a step up. There's a scary thought.

Bachmann should be widely shamed for this disgusting, racist slander.

I'll give credit to John McCain for doing the right thing. He didn't have to make his case as strongly as he did. Every decent human being would disagree with Bachmann's actions here, but not everyone would do so as publicly.

Specious, one of my favorite words. Kudos to McCain for not only not taking the Bachmann race-baiting BS but throwing her a good verbal backhand.

jso2897: Every thing i see convinces me that we are about to re-live the Sixties. The "At last, have you no decency?" moment that will send the radical right's house of cards tumbling is coming. Soon.

I dunno. Their base has a pretty large and solid Reality Denial Bubble going.

I've seen a couple friends slide into that bubble in the last couple years; I've never seen anyone come out. In my darker moments I think it's sure to swallow practically everybody eventually - like there's an "event horizon" of epistemic closure. Once you get to the point where facts literally don't matter, how's it possible to recover?

What have other Farkers' experiences been? Anyone see someone escape the bubble and rejoin the reality-based community? (I'd define that as becoming willing to consider evidence contradictory to the worldview, rather than dismissing any source that presents such evidence solely because it presents such evidence).

karnal: Fixed that for you.....and both sides are bad. Too sad you can't see that.

the guy who uses the word Dims is an independent?

LOL

You are an idiot.

Did you get banned from FreeRepublic for liking Romney or something?

karnal: Headso

karnal: Headso

The bar is so low and bigotry is so ingrained in the republican party that this is what constitutes a class act...



Yes! Only Republicans are the Party of the Sleazy.
[www.youdecidepolitics.com image 320x240]

yes, yes, we know your shtick, the ashamed republican independent who claims bof sides r bad...

Fixed that for you.....and both sides are bad. Too sad you can't see that.

The side that has completely created an alternate reality including museums and encyclopedias is worse, so sad you can't see that.

karnal: Headso

The bar is so low and bigotry is so ingrained in the republican party that this is what constitutes a class act...



Yes! Only Republicans are the Party of the Sleazy.
[www.youdecidepolitics.com image 320x240]

yes, yes, we know your shtick, the ashamed republican who claims bof sides r bad...

trotsky: I hope this makes national. This retard needs to be called out. That's what the sane people need to do, call out these short bus riding retards when they make dumb statements like this.

Got a lot of play on msnbc last night and this morning.

And I have to give him credit for doing this in an official capacity rather than just a comment to a journalist or at a press conference.

AND let's not forget this idiot was once the FRONTRUNNER FOR THE GOP NOM.

karnal: doyner

John, denouncing one instance of derp out of millions after YOU unleashed the Derp Kracken on us is too little, too late.



You use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.

One Republican shows a bit of class, Fark Con derps it up.

All balances out.

foo monkey: Bachman must be a closet Muslim, just like how people who hate gays are closet gays.

She doesn't know enough about Muslims to be a closet Muslim.

Lenny_da_Hog: quatchi: /Cognitive dissonance.
//They haz it.

No, they don't.

Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of unease when you try to accept conflicting information. These people don't feel any unease, nor do they recognize that they're holding contradictory information in their skulls. They are simple I/O devices with no processor in between.

Well that's not necessarily true either. The anxiety of cognitive dissonance isn't a safeguard against accepting mutually contradictory views, it's simply anxiety. Some people deal with it healthily, for example, by weighing which of the two mutually contradictory view points is logically or emotionally best. With other people, it can make them even worse. For example, it's possible to placate that anxiety by getting even crazier. In the case of this:

1. Huma Abedin is a secret lesbian
2. Huma Abedin is a secret Muslim Brotherhood... sister
3. Muslims reject homosexuality
4. 1 & 2 contradict

They can placate the dissonance at step 4 merely by creating an internal consistency, for example:

5. But Islam allows taqiyyah, which is a denial of faith and precepts to accomplish goals.

Never mind that this is not taqiyyah, which is a denial of faith and precepts if one's life is threatend and is a concept of Shi'a Islam originally designed to protect against Sunnis, the sect to which the Muslim Brotherhood belongs. It's not the facts we're concerned with here, it's the internal logic; these people already see Islam as a monolith thing anyway, so it doesn't matter. Anyway, this placates the anxiety because ingratiating herself to her enemies by sexually seducing a Jew and a lesbian to destroy the United States is, in their mind, perfectly valid. I mean, it's completely farking insane, but it is at least consistent and non-contradictory.

This is why, when you inform people that they hold mutually contradictory viewpoints, or viewpoints/actions, they can (and will) respond with rage -- anger is a manifestation of cognitive dissonance's anxiety, and one of the defences against that anxiety is to get angry, and then externalize that anger and rage, thus: Person say I do doublethink --> GRR! [cognitive dissonance] --> Externalize rage, Hulk out --> Raging at a person means they made me angry, and since I am good (from my point of view) and they angered goodness, they MUST be bad --> Bad person is only saying bad things to hurt me --> Their criticism is invalid --> Anxiety placated.

Again, it's crazy, but whatever. What do you expect from people who are capable of holding two mutually contradictory thoughts in the first place?

It's sad that the only time a Republican will be a decent human being is when they've got absolutely nothing to lose in doing so.

If Bachmann is causing the US grief over her stupid and insane bullshiat, she needs to be censured in the House.

dickfreckle: dericwater: dickfreckle: "...that the congresswoman failed to provide "one instance of an action, decision or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government".

At what point has the GOP given a damn about citing "one instance of an action, decision, or public position" when they go after their enemies? How many times did you let your VP candidate spread vitriolic, paranoid bullsh*t under your banner? Where were you then? You should have never entered presidential politics, man. You knew you were gonna have to sell your soul and nothing you say now is going to make up for it.

Exhuming McCarthy, indeed.

I believe McCain is seeking absolution for the massive mistake of unleashing Palin to the country and the world. Palin, of course, was the work of a committee, but a committee that McCain was involved in. He sees his destiny at the moment is jacked. Now, he's working to redeem himself.

I've long suspected that Palin was via committee, and not McCain himself. That's why I'm sad he even got involved in the race in the first place. As long as he was running on the GOP ticket, deals with devil had to made.

Granted, deals with the devil are made all of the time, by everyone on the ballot. But the personal humiliation of selling yourself to rally a particularly virulent, chanting segment of your party seems more a GOP problem, these days. All Obama had to do was be likable and he inspired tons of folks; McCain had to unleash the Kraken just to get people to pay attention. And they did, but only in a positive way for a very brief, euphoric few weeks or so.

I'm also beginning to wonder about his infamous "I'm calling off the campaign to deal with the economic crisis" bullsh*t. I've followed the man for well over a decade now and I'm sorry, he just doesn't strike me as that farking retarded. Again, he shouldn't have entered the race if he ...

Honestly as a young fairly liberal individual I was happy to see McCain as the Republican presidential candidate, as he seemed like a reasonable and sincere human being. To me it seemed like his campaign and his actions during the campaign were entirely scripted by some other individuals. He never seemed like he was in charge of what was going on around him, especially after Palin was chosen. He shrank away and let Palin take the spotlight because he was too reasonable to be responsible for that travesty.

Not news, one sleeper agent defending another.

Why is it only possible to regularly respect Obama while he is a candidate and to respect McCain when he -isn't-? :/

Bucky Katt: dickfreckle: Class act? It's farked up that we now confuse "doing what normal people do" with "class act." It's like getting an award because you remembered not to leave your kids locked in a hot car.

While I'm pleased with what McCain said and agree that he's largely a decent guy, it does make him particularly awesome. It makes him not insane.

I just wonder how low Bachmann can go. Maybe we can pay Switzerland to take her?

If only we were so lucky, but it's not happening. Have you seen the lengths they've gone to to ensure that she stays out?

Lionel Mandrake: Therion: [assets.nydailynews.com image 485x404]

Someone get that woman a ham sandwich, stat!

I don't think ham's on the menu in that household.

No, but sausage is...