It’s like watching your grandmother trying to connect with you by using the phrase “gettin’ jiggy with it”. On one hand, they’re making an effort, but on the other hand, it would probably be better if they just didn’t even try.

On behalf of Minnesotans, you’re welcome.

I mean, obviously we elected Michele Bachmann to provide humor to the rest of the country. It couldn’t be because the 6th district is full of idiots. Right?

*sob*

Jeff, I’ve been telling people that about Illinois and our luxuriously coiffed ex-gov. No one believes me, either.

I’m glad I only saw the last Michelle “anti-American” Bachmann’s sentence in writing so far. The resulting cringing of watching the video would probably be unbearable.

The election of this woman to public office is an ever-deepening mistery…

Is a “mistery” like “mystery,” only with misery and and extra mist?

Jesus. This sounds like something out of Blazing Saddles.

Jeff, you don’t have to weep because of the whole Bachmann thing. My home state, Da Gret Stet uh Louisiana, has introduced in a span of 25 years, David Duke, “Diaper Dave” Vitter, “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, Bobby Jindal, and Bob Livingston. Duke, Livingston, Vitter, and Jindal are all from the same congressional district

Michele Bachmann sounds out of touch about black folks. She must secretly be a white liberal.

And of course, there is my state, Jeff.

The Shrub, Cornyn, Sessions.  Yay, Texas! 

But, hey, at least we aren’t Colorado or Oklahoma, right?  We may have ass-chappingly stupid representatives, but we’re better than THOSE guys. 

*sobs with Jeff*

Duke, Livingston, Vitter, and Jindal are all from the same congressional district

So what is in the water there? It must be the primary source for wingnut Kool-Aid. Here in NC, at least we bounced the Empty Wig Dole and Jesse Helms is long-gone. Now we have to work on Richard Burr, and GOP retro-tool Virginia Foxx.

“I must say, though, the idea that Jesus was Black, well that really is offensive and should you be right would threaten some very valuable art work that has been hanging on the walls of my family’s dwellings for generations.  You know the one, the very obviously White Jesus, sitting at the supper table, arms out stretched, beckoning all the white people.”

...I bet the black velvet is getting all wet from the tears Jesus is crying because his (obvious to any true believer) Western European heritage is being questioned this way…

Jeff, I’ve been telling people that about Illinois and our luxuriously coiffed ex-gov. No one believes me, either.

Sorry, no.  I voted for Blago b/c I believe in providing healthcare for all the children in Illinois and I am a firm believer in early education, and he promised free preschool for 3 and 4 year olds.

He delivered, too.

The problem was he promised to do so by increasing a tax on businesses.  I was fine with that, too, as were most Illinoisans who voted for him.  It was State Senate President Mike Madigan who fucked that up.  By refusing the pass the tax, he thought he could force Blago to give up his programs or put the tax burden on the people instead of the corporations. 

Blago forced the programs through anyway.  Hello $9 billion deficit.

We’re in some serious shit here, especially since the state is 9-12 months behind on its Medicare payments.

But given the choice between Blago’s healthcare and education plans (including raising business taxes slightly) and Judy Baar Topinka’s throwing sick kids on the street to balance the budget, I’d still pick the crazy one.

It would have been nice if he’d been able to work with the state legislature like a real governor, but the state’s problems are not all his fault.

———-

Now Mike’s daughter Lisa is a winner.  She’s come up with the brilliant legal opinion that just because the governor has appointed a replacement to Obama’s senate seat does not mean that the People of the great State of Illinois have lost their right to elect a Senator.  We might just throw a special election whether or not Burris resigns.

I’m voting for Lisa when she runs for governor in a couple years.  She’s smart.  Plus, I think she can get along with her daddies friends and collegues a bit better than poor Rod, who was a machine unto himself and himself alone.

So what is in the water there?

A potent mix of raw sewage, petrochemicals, agricultural runoff, and industrial waste. Combine that with some of the worst education statistics in the country and historical levels of racism and you have a deep, deep, font of prime wingnut. This is the state that gave Duke nearly 40% of the gubernatorial vote (incl. 55% of the white vote).

Caren,
I agree about healthcare for kids and the constant fighting with the lege. All Kids has been a good thing for my family, and for lots of others’, too. I was just enjoying some early morning snark about Blago’s baffling one-man sideshow of the past few months.

Definitely enjoying the idea of Lisa Madigan as gov, though.

Gozer, you forgot to mention that Louisiana also gave the nation one of the best political slogans ever: “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”

When I lived in Minnesota it was a pretty cool state. The Democratic Farm Labor Party (nice populist ring to that). Minnesota Public Radio. All that great theatre in the Twin Cities. Even Jesse Ventura, in a froot loop kind of way. But Bachman? She’s not just a wingnut. She’s a vicious wingnut. What are Minnesotans thinking?

Duke, Livingston, Vitter, and Jindal are all from the same congressional district

And it’s not even a rural district!

I mean, I can kinda understand when batshit insane people represent far-flung nowheresvilles.  People there tend to be less exposed to the wider world, so maybe they don’t see anything much wrong with these folks.  Also, there are just less people there to choose from, and folks tend to be poorer so there are fewer people up to the task of running for national office.

But the district you’re referring to is, like, JEFFERSON FRACKING PARISH.  It’s like if all the wackiest politicians were coming out of Suffolk County, NY, or Orange County, CA.

If it makes anyone feel better, I’m pretty sure we’ve all got some stupid on our hands. PA for instance has given the world Santorum (man on dog), Gerlach (general dumbass), Ridge (duct tape), Specter (magic bullet) and the Caseys (Dems! ‘you hate us cuz we’re pro life’), both pere and, um, ubu?
Sure, outside of lil Ricky’s grandstanding, they’re not as flashy as Ms. Bachman or Kenneth the govner, but they definitely aren’t any smarter.

...I bet the black velvet is getting all wet from the tears Jesus is crying because his (obvious to any true believer) Western European heritage is being questioned this way…

Y’all joke, but I once got seriously spanked on a web forum which shall remain nameless for mentioning that, having been supposedly born in Bethlehem, Jesus’s racial phenotypes probably most closely resembled those of semitic peoples living in the Middle East.  As if such a thing even mattered.

Oh, and the folks doing the spanking were the Jesus Was Black!!!1!!!11! crowd (who I actually didn’t mean to start an argument with, at all).

To my fellow Minnesotans:  Whenever I am in despair over the idiocy of those amongst us who have elected (and re-elected) Ms. Bachman, I think of Senator Paul Wellstone and remember that we Minnesotans are capable of voting for truly progressive people. 

Wouldn’t Paul just love President Obama?

It really is so pathetic when conservatives try to be cool.

Gozer, you forgot to mention that Louisiana also gave the nation one of the best political slogans ever: “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”

Man oh man. The early 90s were something in LA. “He’s a crook…but he steals for everybody!” “The Wizard vs. The Lizard”

Good times. Unless, uh, if you depended on the state for anything important, like education, public safety, etc.

But the district you’re referring to is, like, JEFFERSON FRACKING PARISH.  It’s like if all the wackiest politicians were coming out of Suffolk County, NY, or Orange County, CA.

It’s worse than that. “Da Fois” also contains some of Orleans parrish (those areas adjacent to Jeff. Parrish) which tend to be the most retrograde and conservative. The former councilwoman of that area (District A) is Peggy Wilson who remarked during the 2006 mayoral election that she had a plan to prevent “Gangbangers” and ” Welfare Queens” from returning to the city.

Charming lady.

There are a litany of colorful racists from the GNO…Leander Perez (a blood relation…ugh), Victor Schiro, Wilson, Duke, Hale Boggs, and so on and so forth.

<But the district you’re referring to is, like, JEFFERSON FRACKING PARISH.  It’s like if all the wackiest politicians were coming out of Suffolk County, NY, or Orange County, CA. >

Al D’amato? The John Birch Society? You mean folks like that? Bachman is from suburban Twin Cities, btw.

I think that suburbs, (especially if they’re reasonably comfortable financially) are the perfect breeding ground for batsh*t crazy. You have the people who left the city because they couldn’t hack the crowding or the diversity, and you have the people who left the rural areas for economic reasons but couldn’t stand the idea of living cheek-by-jowl with “those people”, whoever they might be. Suburbs are a fine place to go if the reality-based world is getting you down.

(Yeah, I know that’s glib. But it may not be a bad first cut.)

Al D’amato? The John Birch Society? You mean folks like that?

It’s not so much about people who are outrageously bizarrely conservative, but politicians who are just absolutely fracking batshit insane.  The ones who aren’t just racist or fascist, but former grand dragons of the Klan and people who are caught in a pretty nutty kink pretty much red handed despite their hardline “poking my nose in your bedroom” stance, and yet still saw fit to not only stay in office, but RUN FOR REELECTION!  A special kind of crazy. 

Conservative politicians and movements come out of suburbia all the time.  But it takes a special congressional district to come up with a series of fuckwits as accomplished as the ones who’ve come out of Louisiana’s 1st in recent years.

Oh, and doing a little digging in Wikipedia per this discussion, I discovered something interesting.  Louisiana’s 1st district bundles together the White Flighters with a nice chunk of batshit crazy rural folk who live near the border with Mississippi (Britney Spears country, if that helps at all). 

The suburban areas south of Lake Ponchartrain used to be part of my home district, the slightly less crazy 3rd district.Methinks gerrymandering is partially to blame…

Thank God this was said by a good, Althouse-approved* conservative, otherwise we might be led to think that she was a racist moron for thinking that all African-Americans talk like that…

* - I’m just assuming here.  They seem like peas in a pod, Bachman and Althouse…

Methinks gerrymandering is partially to blame…

For sure.

Before the 70s the Black population in New Orleans was left to the tender mercies of Felix Hebert and Leander Perez. Without redistricting there would probably be no black and/or liberal reps from the GNO area.

I should add that my statement applies to the federal and state level. There were some local leaders that were OK, but THE ENTIRE congressional delegation of Louisiana were signatories to the notorious Southern Manifesto.

It seems now that the southern wingnuttiness has infected the Upper Midwest and Mountain states. Y’all shoulda just let the South go and taken in us liberals.

We democratic liberal types are racist because we aren’t celebrating Michael Steele’s blackness like the republicans are.

No siree, we are judging him by what he has to say instead.  That’s not fair.

I must add: when somebody shows up at a Republican event in blackface, out of solidarity for their BLACK leader, we liberals will further be attacked for “our” racism because criticisms of pickininny acts mean that we think wanting to be or being black is a bad thing.

No siree, we are judging him by what he has to say instead. That’s not fair.

And conservatives age judging President Obama by the same standard.

RUGGED!! You’re back!  I’ve missed you!  Uh . . . that *is* you, isn’t it . . . ?

Bismarck, that must be why all of the watermelon mailings ... right?

Bismarck, that must be why all of the watermelon mailings ... right?

There are morons on both sides of the political spectrum.  And even good people do and say nasty things on occasion.  Please don’t hold me responsible for the actions of Lucky Luciano (I’m Sicilian) and I won’t hold President Obama responsible of the actions of Willie Horton.

“Please don’t hold me responsible for the actions of Lucky Luciano (I’m Sicilian) and I won’t hold President Obama responsible of the actions of Willie Horton.”

...that’s mighty white of you…

Bachmann represents the white-flight working-class (in my meaner moments I say “white trash”) northern suburbs of MN, extending up to the heavily Catholic and very conservative city of St. Cloud. Her district has most of the most conservative parts of the state. Also, the Democrats keep nominating weak-ass candidates, and this time around a weird 3rd party candidate somehow drew 8% of the vote, probably because he had a common name (Bob Anderson).

A strong conservative Democratic candidate (sadly, s/he would probably need to be anti-choice to win MN6) could easily win.

“That is, of course, demonstrably untrue.”

...well, in Bismarck’s world, The racist rantings of Rush Limbaugh and Republican Party leaders scattered accross the country has exactly equal weight as some idiot on the left who thinks time has four dimensions and also happens to be a racist.

How he sees it that way, I don’t know.  But it’s pretty obvious that there are many in God’s Own Party who agree with Bismarck…

As a black man, I feel absolute shame that this man is the best and the brightest House Negro that has ever been put up by the GOP.

Oh, gawd! WTF is wrong with him!?!?!?

Definitely enjoying the idea of Lisa Madigan as gov, though.
Matty on 02/27 at 09:16 AM

You may want to reconsider, Matty.  Yesterday’s Chicago Trib says that IL AG is challenging the minute of silence and prayer rule as well as enforcement of the parental notification laws for out of staters.  I used to like Lisa Madigan.  Now she is either prostituting herself to the right or she’s just an idiot.