The Contrarian

How heinous is Rep. Michelle Bachmann? Let us count the ways.

For one, the most noxious member of the House of Representatives has organized what she’s calling “High Noon for Health Care,” which aims to assemble a large group of “Real Americans” on my city to try to prevent expanding health care options for. . . “Real Americans.” These folks are so classy as to hold up giant signs comparing health care reform to Dachau concentration camp. And this disgusting propaganda isn’t homemade — it’s being distributed by Bachmann’s astroturf backers, Americans for Prosperity.

On a conference call this Tuesday, Bachman told Americans to swarm Congress, locate their elected officials and “look at the whites of their eyes and tell them, ‘don’t you dare take away my health care.’” Only in Bachmann’s twisted mind can efforts to bring affordable care to more Americans be turned into its diametric opposite. Hey Michelle, what would Jesus do? In her view, he’d probably privatize air.

Is any of this bullshit having an impact? Apparently, not so much. Mother Jones:

A quick survey of some of the 13 targeted senators’ offices suggests that the “attack” has barely registered on the Hill. Kimberly Hunter, a spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) says that at a little after 3:30 on Tuesday, her office hadn’t seen any uptick in calls or visits. If the tea partiers do call, she adds, “We’re happy to listen to their opinions.” Likewise, a spokesman for Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), another target on the patriots’ list, says the office has fielded a few calls from people saying they are coming to Thursday’s press conference—but overall the volume has been “nothing unusual.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the official tea party website indicated that only 25 patriots were on hand for “Operation House Call.” That’s a pretty paltry showing for an organization that claims to represent millions of disaffected Americans.

Hey, at least astroturfers FreedomWorks have a website, dontkillgrandma.com, where teabaggers can spew their senseless vitriol back at a front organization that’s provided them with so many cheerful talking points.

Surely, there were a lot of folks who wanted to attend today’s rally but were unable to because they’ve voted against their economic self-interest so many times that they couldn’t afford to make the trip. Help is on the way! Americans for Prosperity has kindly bussed folks from New Jersey, North Carolina and other hotbeds of patriotism. But who is AFP, exactly? Why, they’re an unbiased extension of Koch Industries — one of the planet’s largest privately-held oil and gas conglomerates. And guess what? They also hold interests in pharma!

But back to Bachman. As indicated by the the title of this post, the lunatic representative is calling today’s rally “the Super Bowl of Freedom.” According to Bachmann, “nothing is more influential than an eyeball-to-eyeball meeting between a freedom-loving constituent and a member of Congress. Nothing scares a member of Congress more than freedom-loving Americans.” Does this woman understand that she’s IN Congress?

“I think that will absolutely scare these members of Congress so much that Pelosi will not get the votes and it will kill the bill,” Bachman said. “I think it could be dead for 10 years. Why won’t we? Why won’t we go for broke?”

Hey lady, Americans are already “broke.” In fact, 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs.

Now do the right thing and call your Congressperson and tell them that you WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS HORSESHIT ANY LONGER.