LGBTQ news and entertainment
|
| Madonna “Bachmann-eyezed” |
Much has been said about the “intensity” of Michele Bachmann’s gaze. A fun website has gone to the trouble of “Bachmanneye-zing” world famous folk to see what they would look like with the congresswoman’s “Eye-tensity”.
Check out other pics at http://bachmanneyezed.tumblr.com/
During an appearance on ‘Meet The Press,’ host David Gregory playeda recording of Michele Bachmann saying to an audience at the 2004 EdWatch National Education Conference that being gay “is a very sad life” and “a part of Satan.” She went on to say in the speech that being gay was “personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.”
Bachmann ducked the direct question over and over again of whether those statements represent a possible “President Bachmann.”
Her answer to the question more than once was “I’m running for the Presidency of the United States.” Over and over she says she doesn’t ‘judge’ people.
Even after being asked if American gays and lesbians might hear judgement in her statements, she reiterated she doesn’t judge people.
Let me try an experiment – I know as much about Michele Bachmann and her marriage as she knows about mine and she feels free to comment on my gay marriage, so I guess I have a right to try this: how about I swap her name for “gays” in her statement? It would go like this:
“Michele Bachmann lives a very sad life. It’s part of Satan. If you’re involved with Michele Bachmann, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement. And that’s why she is so dangerous. We need to have profound compassion for people dealing with the very real issue of Michele Bachmann.”
There. Does that sound like judgement?
Rep. Michele Bachmann steadfastly refused Thursday to answer questions about her family’s business and finances.
The Minnesota Republican faced queries about Marcus Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinic that attempts to convert gay patients as well as her own beliefs on sexuality during a luncheon at the National Press Club.
Bachmann, who is campaigning hard ahead of next month’s debate and straw poll in Iowa, has steadfastly refused to discuss the family’s business that has faced criticism from gay rights groups.
She also faced questions about her opposition to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Washington Post reported this week that its analysis of her loan documents suggests her family used those federally subsidized programs in 2008.
“Unlike all of you, who I’m sure paid cash for your homes, there are people out there like myself who actually have to go to a bank to get a mortgage. This is a problem: it’s almost impossible to buy a home in this country today without the federal government being involved,” she said.
“We need to get the federal government out of these programs.”
Bachmann downplayed the catastrophic consequences predicted if lawmakers allow the United States to default on its debts.
Bachmann has vowed to vote against any increase in the debt ceiling and called the deal being negotiated on Capitol Hill as one based on “illusory” and “counterfeit” savings.
The nation faces a Tuesday deadline to increase Washington’s borrowing power to pay its bills. Congressional leaders were working to find a compromise that cuts future spending as a trade-off to avoid a government default that could send world markets crashing and could downgrade the United States’ credit rating.
Bachmann said that would not happen; she offered no specifics to back up that claim.
(source material AP)
I’m sorry – I used to be blond before cancer – did she answer the question?
Bachmann, 50, describes her style as “classic with a snap.”
“I dress fairly simply,” she said. “I like clean lines. But I like an outfit to have a little kick.”
Shopping help comes from another quarter, as well. Before Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit (in 2006), Bachmann’s husband, Marcus, hit the stores — “he’s got a good sense of style” — and came home with “a sleek, simple hourglass dress with a yoke collar in winter white.” He even bought a matching coat and shoes. “I just slipped it on.”
The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.
“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”
Bachmann’s medical condition wouldn’t merit public attention, but for the fact she is running for president. Some close to Bachmann fear she won’t be equal to the stress of the campaign, much less the presidency itself.
“When she gets ‘em, frankly, she can’t function at all. It’s not like a little thing with a couple Advils. It’s bad,” the adviser says. “The migraines are so bad and so intense, she carries and takes all sorts of pills. Prevention pills. Pills during the migraine. Pills after the migraine, to keep them under control. She has to take these pills wherever she goes.”
To staff, Bachmann has implausibly blamed the headaches on uncomfortable high-heel shoes, but those who have worked closely with her cite stress, a busy schedule and anything going badly for Bachmann as causes.
GOP presidential contender Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and her husband Marcus preemptively left their church of more than ten years just weeks before she announced her candidacy to avoid association with its extremist views. Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, has faced criticism this week for its anti-Catholic views, including preaching that the Pope is the Antichrist.
Bachmann has long been a favorite of religious conservatives for her outspoken views on her faith, but her decision to sever ties with her church for the sake of her presidential campaign is surprising many:
According to CNN, the church that Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus had attended for more than a decade granted the couple’s request to be released from their membership last month, a week after Bachmann told a national audience that she would run for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Bachmanns had approached their pastor and verbally made the request “a few weeks before the church council granted the request,” said Joel Hochmuth, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the governing body for the church.
The highly convenient timing of the move clearly indicates this was a shrewd political calculation on Bachmann’s part. It remains to be seen how religious “values voters” will feel about the candidate choosing political opportunism over her church.
CNN notes that Salem Lutheran Church still maintains some ties with the Bachmann family. “It lists a Christian counseling center operated by Bachmann’s husband on its website under special member services for confidential counseling.”
Bachmann must still account for her ongoing connection with other radical preachers and churches, especially Bradlee Dean of the notoriously anti-gay You Can Run But You Can’t Hide ministry. Dean has been described as “Bachmann’s Jeremiah Wright,” and has repeatedly called for gays and lesbians to be put in prison and has said executing gays is “moral.”
(via ThinkProgress)