Tag: Michelle Bachmann

More Gingo Lingo – The Master of the Distinction Without a Difference & Last Night’s GOP Debate on the ‘Obamacare’ Individual Mandate

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

December 11, 2011

Well, how about that. Here’s a moment of truth from Michelle Bachmann. During last night’s GOP debate, she asserted:

Bachmann: But you have to take a look. You – when you take a look at Newt Gingrich, for 20 years, he’s been advocating for the individual mandate. That’s longer than President Obama.”

Newt was, of course, a bit miffed by that: “Well, Michele, you know, a lot of what you say just isn’t true, period. I have never– I have– I oppose cap and trade, I testified against it, the same day that Al Gore testified for it. I helped defeat it in the Senate through American solutions. It is simply untrue. I fought against Obamacare at every step of the way. I did it with– the Center for Health Transformation was actively opposed, we actively campaigned against it. . . You know, I think it’s important for you, and the– this is a fair game, and everybody gets to– to– to pick fights. It’s important that you be accurate when you say these things. Those are not true.”

Undaunted, Mrs. Bachmann continued: “Well, you’d have to go vack to 1993 when Newt first advocated fot the individual mandate in health care, and in May of this year, he was still advocating for the individual mandate in health care.

Then, after Mitt Romney and Rick Perry had their say, Gingo returned to Bachmann’s contentions:

“Yeah, I– I just wanna make one point that’s historical. In 1993, in fighting Hillary Care, virtually every conservative saw the mandate as a less-dangerous future than what Hillary was trying to do. The Heritage Foundation was a major advocate of it. After Hillary Care disappeared it became more and more obvious that mandates have all sorts of problems built into them. People gradually tried to find other techniques. I frankly was floundering, trying to find a way to make sure that people who could afford it were paying their hospital bills while still leaving an out so libertarians to not buy insurance. And that’s what we’re wrestling with. It’s now clear that

the mandate, I think, is clearly unconstitutional. But it started as a conservative effort to stop Hillary Care in the 1990s.”

The Persistence of (transcript) Memory. Mrs. B is correct in her underlying assertion: Gingo did support an individual mandate in 2003. Here the relevant portion of his May 11, 2011 interview on Meet the Press:

MR. GREGORY: All right, let me ask you about another hot-button issue in the Republican primary, of course, and that’s health care. Mitt Romney having to defend his proponent–that he was a proponent of universal health care in Massachusetts, and specifically around this idea of the individual mandate where you make Americans buy insurance if they don’t have it. Now, I know you’ve got big difference with what you call Obamacare. But back in 1993 on this program this is what you said about the individual mandate. Watch. (Videotape, October 3, 1993) REP. GINGRICH: I am for people, individuals–exactly like automobile insurance–individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance. And I am prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals, on a sliding scale, a government subsidy so we insure that everyone as individuals have health insurance. What you advocate there is precisely what President Obama did with his healthcare legislation, is it not?

REP. GINGRICH: No, it’s not precisely what he did. In, in the first place, Obama basically is trying to replace the entire insurance system, creating state exchanges, building a Washington-based model, creating a federal system. I believe all of us–and this is going to be a big debate–I believe all of us have a responsibility to help pay for health care. I think the idea that…”

MR. GREGORY: You agree with Mitt Romney on this point.

REP. GINGRICH: Well, I agree that all of us have a responsibility to pay–help pay for health care. And, and I think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. I’ve said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond…”

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

REP. GINGRICH: …or in some way you indicate you’re going to be held accountable.

MR. GREGORY: But that is the individual mandate, is it not?

REP. GINGRICH: It’s a variation on it.

MR. GREGORY: OK.

REP. GINGRICH: But it’s a system…

MR. GREGORY: And so you won’t use that issue against Mitt Romney.

REP. GINGRICH: No. But it’s a system which allows people to have a range of choices which are designed by the economy. But I think setting the precedent–you know, there are an amazing number of people who think that they ought to be given health care. And, and so a large number of the uninsured earn $75,000 or more a year, don’t buy any health insurance because they want to buy a second house or a better car or go on vacation. And then you and I and everybody else ends up picking up for them. I don’t think having a free rider system in health is any more appropriate than having a free rider system in any other part of our society.”

GingoLingo: The Distinction Without A Difference. A distinction without a difference is a “logical fallacy and rhetorical ploy that involves drawing a conclusion on the assumption that different terms identify significantly different concepts when they do not.” That’s both an excellent definition and a portrait of Newt Gingrich, who is among its exemplars.

Here’s another definition, especially applicable to Gingo: “This fallacy consists in attempting to defend an action or point of view as different from some other one with which it is allegedly confused, by means of a very careful distinction of language, when in reality the action or position defended is not different in substance from the one from which it is linguistically distinguished.” [Italics indicate Gingo’s strength].

There’s nothing new about the technique that characterizes Gingrich’s extreme form of mendacity. It’s called “a distinction without a difference.” It’s often seen among politicians, yet Gingo has exceeded the best of them, and with him, this technique is part of a mendacious personality; most other politicos knowingly use it as a ploy, they do not always believe in the truth of it. Gingo does.

Also, one often sees this among academics, people trained in the art of drawing distinctions in their very narrow areas of study. These distinctions have meaning to their peers who also work in similar narrow areas. These cases are distinctions with a difference and are not dishonest ploys as they are among politicians, especially Newt Gingrich. As what he claims to be, a trained academic, Gingo may have sharpened his skills during this kind of training where distinctions with a difference are the flour and butter used in cooking up a new concept among one’s peers. Doctoral committees reinforce this as well. But Gingo arrived in this life with a gene for mendacity. The honing of that skill in his dubious academic career only mildly improved the skill that existed in utero.

Attacking the Fallacy Because many people are unaware that their attempted distinctions are not true differences, the first step that you might take is to try to point out to them the futility of their efforts. If your verbal opponent takes issue with your assessment, which is likely, you might ask for an explanation of just how the alleged distinction differs in meaning. If you are unconvinced by this explanation, you may be inclined to settle for the absurd example method? Consider the following example: “I wasn’t copying; I was just looking at her paper to jog my memory.” Such an example should clearly illustrate how very different words can function in very similar ways.

I think that history’s judgment will tend towards Gingo as a savant, of sorts. If one can be a savant of mendacity, Gingo’s precisely that. He is, at best, slightly above average for Lake Wobegon. Yet, he’s not “responsible” – none of us are – for innate intelligence. As a savant of mendacity, though, he does make the absolute most of what he has and is of Olympian stature when compared with all the others. Nixon may now sleep soundly and, finally, peacefully.

Finally! A Michele Bachmann We Can Believe In!

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

November 17, 2011

I’m on record – before tonight’s Bachmann news – as a Bachmann denier. I simply did not believe she existed. No one so utterly congressloony could co-exist with gravity, the human nervous system, or the laws of thermodynamics. Well, I was wrong, tonight she has come down to earth, and, bless her heart, she had a few of her choicier words for Perfesser Newt Gingrich. . .
About 15 minutes ago CNN’s Political Ticker reported: Bachmann: Gingrich was paid to ‘influence’ Republicans for Freddie Mac by CNN Political Reporter Shannon Travis Webster City, Iowa (CNN) – As Newt Gingrich denies he was paid to lobby Republicans for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, fellow Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on Wednesday challenged Gingrich’s denial.

Bachmann threw in after a campaign event in Webster City, Iowa: “Whether former Speaker Gingrich made $300,000 or whether he made $2 million, the point is that he took money to also influence senior Republicans to be favorable toward Fannie and Freddie,” This, Mrs. B, is great stuff! Keep talking (a phrase I never thought I’d write within three paragraphs of the words “Mrs. B” or “Michele Bachmann”). “While he was taking that money, I was fighting against Fannie and Freddie,” Bachmann said.

Ma’am, despite your well-aimed jab at Gingo, to me, you’re still scarier than an octogenarian in leotards, but when it comes to blunting the efforts of the miserable Newt, well, with Gingo climbing the GOP polls, regardless of our political differences we must all come together, if only for this moment. Keep it up, Mrs. B!

Team Michele Bachmann Needs a Bullpen Upgrade

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

October 22, 2011

“If it’s been officially denied, then it’s probably true.” 
Pilger’s Law

Team Bachmann has lost its New Hampshire staff. This was confirmed with the following denial by team owner Michele Bachmann herself during an interview with Radio Iowa: “That is a shocking story to me, I don’t know where that came from. We have called staff in New Hampshire to find out where that came from and the staff have said that isn’t true, so I don’t know if this is just a bad story that’s being fed by a different candidate or campaign. I have no idea where this came from, but we’ve made calls and it’s certainly not true. This is what’s really wrong with politics, it’s highly irresponsible media to spread stories and print stories that aren’t verified and aren’t true and I think this is wrong.” Confirming the mass departure, new team manager, Keith Nahigian, said in a statement: “We have a great team in New Hampshire, and we have not been notified that anyone is leaving the campaign.”

Among the now confirmed team members departing were Nicole Yurek, Tom Lukacz, director of operations Matt LeDuc, and Jeff Chidester, a longtime friend and conservative talk-radio host, as first reported by ABC affiliate WMUR. Galling to owner Bachmann was news that Southern New Hampshire Field Director Caroline Gigler signed a one-year contract with archrival Team Perry of Texas. “Now we can get really ugly like ugly on a ape,” snickered Team Perry owner, Rick Perry.
 
In addition to a failure to pay staff salaries, and odd statements by Mrs. Bachmann, some departing staffers told the media that they were leaving because they were unconvinced that Team Bachmann was making a serious play to win their important series against their rivals in New Hampshire on an as yet unconfirmed date late this year or in January 2012. A good start soiled or foiled? Can the team be saved from furthering its losing streak?

And Now Warming Up for Team Bachmann Is . . . This is yet another defection among many defections from the troubled Team Bachmann since the start of the 2011-2012 season. After starting with a close and stunning win over Team Paul on its Iowa road trip, the team has suffered from batting slumps, poor pitching, and internal struggles, losing club manager Ed Rollins to possible stress-related illness in September. Closely thereafter, lost from the top echelons of the front office, were its top marketer, Ed Goeas, and its assistant manager David Polyansky. Goeas indicated he left because the team planned to focus primarily on winning the next Iowa series, rather than concentrating on the season as a whole. Also this month, top utility player Andy Parrish and team p.r. chief Doug Sachtleben have moved on, Sachtlebon to a minor league team in another sport.
 
It seems that Bachmann has an inability to control her team top brass and on-field crew. Like Team George Steinbrenner, she meddles too often. Like Team Obama she doesn’t meddle quite enough at times. This is especially true in her handling of the all important pitching squad. Often unorganized, pitchers seem to forget how and whether to throw a fastball on the outside corner or a change-up down low. Many have scored against the team on wild pitches and passed balls.
 
One can’t blame the catchers here. The blame goes higher up. With overconfidence following the initial Iowa victory Bachmann, in an effort to save money, severely cut her bullpen staff, including catchers, coaches, and middle inning relievers. She hoped to use the savings later in the year to acquire players in trade from Team Cain, Team Gingrich, and, in addition, to purchase Team Huntsman outright.

Perhaps it’s time to reconstitute her bullpen. Recall what Bob Lemon once said, “The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen.” Get back in the game Mrs. Bachmann. Beef up that bullpen. If the past is prologue, you’re gonna need it well stocked.

Michele Bachmann, God’s Press Agent. Eric Cantor, God’s FEMA Director

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

August 30, 2011

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians.
We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane.
He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ “

 Michele Bachmann, August 28, 2011, Sarasota, Florida,
relaying God’s growing displeasure with Congress

Ms. Bachmann is correct. Certainly, if I were God, I’d be displeased with the political class. God’s notoriety for biblical-sized temper tantrums is well-earned. Floods. Fire. Brimstone. Brimstone and fire. He’s especially fond of plagues – frogs, locusts, boils, lice, my next-door neighbor. Yes, the Creator is omnipotently equipped to rain down a variety of “hints” when it suits His purpose. The recent eastern seaboard earthquake and hurricane match the Supreme One’s M.O. Agreeing with Bachmann in this case is easy; I too see that God’s sole purpose was to get the attention of politicos of every stripe. Everyone else – whether floating on a rooftop in Vermont’s Winooski River, or trapped in Prattsville, New York with no way out – you may relax. The unpleasantness was not directed at you.

But what, exactly, have our political folks done to get God’s robe in a bunch? Lapses in ethics? Sleeping with anything that moves? Making criminal for others activities they engage in on a daily basis? Permitting David Vitter to remain in the Senate? No. No. No. And No. According to Ms. Bachmann, Yahweh’s press secretary, this wrathful acting out was fiscal in origin, not humanitarian. Last Sunday, the sage of Minnesota explained to her Sarasota Florida audience exactly what God was trying to convey to tone deaf national legislators, and a certain President: “Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. Because they know what has to be done. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink. Congressdwellers, primarily Democrats of course, reverted to their political default setting of touchy-feely whininess urging government funded disaster relief for citizens floating down various rivers. One prominent politician, however, the GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (VA-7), clearly understood a divinely inspired hint. Mr. Cantor, first among all his tightfisted GOP colleagues, apprehends God’s fiscal concerns. Cantor knows that at such an advanced age, God is getting increasingly testy, i.e. Old Testament testy, Old Testament remedy testy. Like many in God’s age group the day’s concerns revolve around making the rent, funding an affordable medi-gap Medicare supplement, stretching that monthly social security check, and finding the car keys at least three times per day. And taxes! Oy! A klog tzu meineh sonim! Or in colloquial English, “Oy! A curse on my enemies!” So, one can see, what God does not need is more federal spending that does not directly benefit. . . G.O.D. And God does not reside in an earthquake or hurricane disaster area. Think. Would an omniscient God smite Himself with His own earthquake and hurricane?

Mr. Cantor gets it. He gets hints. His own congressional district, after all, was the epicenter of the quake. Tanya Somanader at ThinkProgress reports: “While touring the earthquake damage in his district, Cantor surmised, ‘Obviously, the problem is that people in Virginia don’t have earthquake insurance.’ As the Insurance Information Institute notes, ‘earthquakes are not covered under standard U.S. homeowners or business insurance policies, although supplemental coverage is usually available.’ So, for Cantor, the problem here is that Virginians didn’t have the foresight to predict an exceedingly rare natural disaster and pay out of their own pocket in advance.”

Exactly, Ms. Somanader! Fiscally responsible constituents would have purchased earthquake insurance. And flood insurance. And to be safer yet from the pesky acts of a disgruntled Supreme Being, one ought to cowboy up on plague insurance and secure oneself from losses due to frogs, locusts, boils, reality television, Newt Gingrich, teenagers, and golf. I have these forms of insurance. In addition, I purchased glacier insurance and, because I suspect my next-door neighbor, I possess a zombie damage policy. This is what Mr. Cantor would correctly label “responsible.” If a next-door zombie devours my poodles, I will not require government assistance. Will you?

Pay As You Row. As he observed the damage to his Virginia district, Mr. Cantor continued to opine: “The next step will be for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) to decide whether to make an appeal for federal aid,” Cantor said. The House Majority Leader would support such an effort but would look to offset the cost elsewhere in the federal budget.“All of us know that the federal government is busy spending money it doesn’t have,” Cantor said in Culpeper, where the quake damaged some buildings along a busy shopping thoroughfare.

And why should he? Certainly, there are many “potential offsets.” Why can’t Medicaid freeloaders contribute to disaster relief? And since Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional, let’s carve out a few bucks from these Ponzis. Moreover, FEMA is a boondoggle. Let’s close it down! Let Goldman Sachs privatize disaster relief with catastrophe backed securities. With those money saving offsets perhaps we might loan Vermonters a few bucks to buy hurricane and flood insurance from Mr. Cantor’s insurance company contributors who, during his ten year congressional career, have contributed $1.1 million to his campaigns. They’d appreciate some ROI.

The lessons God graces us with during His latest calamity rage out are simple. I’ve put my mind to it and here’s my take:

  • God is good, but cranky.
  • “Acts of God” are generally unremitting in unpleasantness.
  • Disasters are the free market stomping on your private parts.
  • Insurance makes disasters profitable enterprises for nearly everyone.
  • Government is Satanic.
  • Newt Gingrich is an insufferable ass.

GOP Presidential Woeful No. 1 – Bachmann Mental Underdrive

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

August 21, 2011

Bachmann’s Mental Underdrive. Michele Bachmann, the Tea Partiers’ Tea Partier was initially criticized by the TP grassroots for attempting to co-opt the movement, which, of course, she was. She’s now among the TP leadership, if not yet “the” leader. Although her job as a leader of this gaggle of utterly self-centered Randian individualists is like trying to herd cats on amphetamines, they do seem to have warmed to her at the grassroots level. After all, following her win at the Ames Iowa straw poll, she, not their erstwhile pal, Sarah Palin, is a leading candidate for the GOP/TP presidential nomination.

Of course, rationally considered, her credentials would have to improve markedly to be paper thin. This is irrelevant to Tea Partiers. They simply want to embrace someone who reflects their own lives and beliefs. They speak evangelical. They speak a dialect of crazy seldom heard in such volume. They want someone who knows that facts are liberal, a socialist’s playground. Feelings, beliefs, and common sense trump that left wing claptrap. Michele Bachmann is the Tea Party trump card, literally spouting such outrageous attacks on facts and accuracy that opponents are often left speechless. Tea Party folks like to see pointy-heads speechless. Bachmann’s their kind. She hasn’t let them down and was rewarded by her win in the Ames straw poll last week.

So, here’s their leading light, a preview of a President Bachmann, for whom facts, rationality, and accuracy are gnats buzzing around her head, something to be swatted away.

  • Michele Bachmann, historian.  Bachmann continues to believe that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly to eliminate slavery,” and – remarkably – that John Quincy Adams was one of them, although he was not yet nine years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
  • Michele Bachmann, constitutional lawyer. She maintains the census is “unconstitutional,” despite the Constitutional text, Article I, sec. 2, clause 3, i.e., the census clause.
  • Michele Bachmann, ecologist. In 2009 she explained, “Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.” Climate changers seeking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are suggesting “an arbitrary reduction in something that is naturally occurring in Earth.” 
  • Michele Bachmann, M.D. She diagnosed Terry Schiavo as “healthy,” i.e., “from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.” 
  • Michele Bachmann, travel writer. Describing her 2007 trip to Iraq, she informed, “[T]here’s a commonality with the Mall of America, in that it’s on that proportion. There’s marble everywhere. The other thing I remarked about was there is water everywhere.”
  • Michele Bachmann, the compassionate.  She reached out to Melissa Etheridge after her diagnosis of cancer with a sweet commiseration, “This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.”
  • Michele Bachmann, the courageous. As a Minnesota state senator she apparently believed she was being kidnapped by lesbians, two women who, it turns out, were merely trying to speak to her about same sex marriage (which she vehemently opposed). She filed a police report. The Washington County attorney, however, declined to press charges, “It seems clear from the statements given by both women that they simply wanted to discuss certain issues further with Ms. Bachmann.”
  • Michele Bachmann, Elvis fan. Last Tuesday in South Carolina, she took the stage and encouraged the crowd to say happy birthday to Elvis Presley. It was the 34th anniversary of Elvis’s death.
  • Michele Bachmann, John Wayne fan. Kicking off her campaign in Iowa, she informed the crowd, “Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too!” In fact, Waterloo was home to John Wayne Gacy, the Killer Clown who murdered 33 men and boys in the 1970s.
  • Michele Bachmann, foreign policy maven. Last Thursday on Jay Sekulow’s conservative radio talk show she observed that Americans “fear the rise of the Soviet Union.” Who knew?
  • Michele Bachmann, world historian. Bachmann believes that the Italian Renaissance was responsible for the growth of tyranny that she believes threatens America today.
  • Michele Bachmann, epidemiologist. “I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.” July 2009.
  • Michele Bachmann, Junior FBI agent. “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?”  Oct. 2008. 
  • Michele Bachmann, social historian. She recently signed the following statement, thought up by Iowa conservatives: Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Watch closely, there’s more to come . . .

Bachmann & the Iowa Straw Poll – The Next Newsweek Cover They Do Not Want You to See

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

August 12, 2011

The infamous August 15th Newsweek cover with its, to put it mildly, unflattering picture of Michelle Bachmann, sent her supporters into an ornery overdrive.  Not unlike her failure to look at the camera during her reply to the State of the Union address, things photogenic garnered her embarrassing exposure just ahead of today’s Iowa straw poll.  Well, it could get worse, it seems. Newsweek has disclosed to me – and me alone, by the way – the cover decided upon for next week’s edition. This should put Bachmann supporters back into Bachmann overdrive:

Here’s an Idea! Put the GOP Presidential Candidates on a Samoan Island!

Michael MatheronLeave a comment

July 6, 2011

Please. . .  This whole GOP primary thing is light years beyond ludicrous, but not as comical as it could be. Since all news, good and bad, is first of all entertainment, you Republicans ought to go for more. America loves fun!!!  So, simply make a small rule change in the GOP presidential nomination process and run the primaries like Survivor. Simply transport all the presently noteworthy nominees to a Samoan island and let them have at it!  Imagine the ratings! Independent voters like reality shows, and that’s the group you guys need the most in 2012.  So, don’t just sit there, get moving!  Imagine Gingo Gingrich in the Survivor Menu challenge or on an 11-mile hike.  My money’s on Mitt Romney being voted off first (or simply garroted by Bachmann).  

See what I mean?  Get on with it Republicans. The Fall 2012 voting season is almost upon us.