Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

I think most people are aware that I'm hugely liberal, though I don't go around talking about it a lot. But dude...Michele Bachmann just drives me insane.

From News Cut on MPR:

The shooting in Tucson earlier this month was blamed on political rhetoric long before there were sufficient facts to support the conclusion, a young man's death in central Minnesota last weekend was blamed on gay bullying before it was ruled the death was a suicide, and today MPR's Tom Scheck documents what most people probably already know -- if Michele Bachmann gets her facts right, she got lucky.

"We have checked her 13 times, and (found) seven of her claims to be false and six have been found to be ridiculously false," PolitiFact editor Bill Adair told Scheck.

So?

The indictment is as much reflection on us as anyone else. "Respect for facts just doesn't mean a whole lot any more,"Norm Ornstein said. "You don't get punished. You don't get shamed if you say things that are patently false. Let's face it: for many, repeating them over and over again -- even after you've been told and it's been made clear that what you say is false -- just doesn't have any impact at all."

Why not? Is that an indictment of people who speak with only a casual relationship with facts, or people who are willing to believe them? In the case of Bachmann, as I've written before, the more her district knows about her, the more popular she becomes. But everyone with an agenda has contributed to the lack of respect for facts.

If Ornstein is correct that respect for facts doesn't matter anymore, the real question is: Why not?

*******

The bit about being false and ridiculously false is also mentioned in another article on MPR.

And otherwise-perfectly-reasonable people BELIEVE this woman! I KNOW SOME OF THEM!! Just-. God, please help this country.

And please help Michele Bachmann to find employment that ISN'T public office.

I VOTED!!

Just thought I'd get that out of my system.

I got to the church (my polling place) at 6:50 this morning, ten minutes before the polls opened. The line at that time was about 200 people long - the room with the rows of chairs was full, the line was out the door, down the hallway, and had begun to go circular in the entryway when I arrived. I joined the line right at the end, which was in the middle of the circle. Yowsers. But it moved quickly enough, and I was only 15 minutes late for work. But on Election Days, that's allowed. XD.

When we got here at my work, this is what we saw:



While funny as hell, and sadly true, where do I find that kind of time for myself?! A lot of work went into that!

My grandfather sent me this email today - it's one of many that I receive every day, and while they never blatantly say "Republicans should Rule," they piss me off. This one sent me over the edge:

( Click to make your blood boil. )

So I sent an email back to him:

( My pissed-off response. )

It's funny - my grandfather and I get along just fine, and I love him insanely. But the filth he keeps spreading just drove me over the edge this time. Wonder how long till he forwards my response to my dad? XD.

EDIT: He emailed me back - and how completely typical a response: Obviously someone can't take a joke.

*LOL* I adore the fact that he didn't counter ANY of my points.

And then I had another email from him that said this: ( Quote for the day )

And I had to laugh out loud, because it was mostly true...and that was exactly what I did. *hehe*