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Michele Bachmann: Let’s repeal clean air and clean water for our children

Last night at the GOP debate in New Hampshire, Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said of the Environmental Protection Agency:

What we need to do is pass the mother of all repeal bills, but it’s the repeal bill that will get a job killing regulations. And I would begin with the EPA, because there is no other agency like the EPA. It should really be renamed the job-killing organization of America.

It may not be a big surprise that a tea party extremist like Bachmann wants to undo the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, exposing our children to countless toxic pollutants.

What is a little more surprising is that the video shows the other presidential contenders start nodding in agreement with this radical attack on public health:

This right-wing pressure is déjà vu all over again:

In 1970 conservatives argued that enforcement of the Clean Air Act would “cause entire industries to collapse.” In 1975, they argued that “EPA’s power grab could easily spread to other activities: population control, complete regulation of all business.” In 1980, conservatives said the Clean Air Act would cause “a quiet death for business across the country.”

This extremism has, sadly, become the mainstream position for the GOP (see Pawlenty Stands Against Clean Air: “I Will Require Sunsetting of all Federal Regulations”).

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In the 1970s, it was after all Richard Nixon who created the EPA. And in 1990 it was Pres. George H. W. Bush who led the way towards a bipartisan strengthening of the Clean Air Act, which passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress.

It is great that many progressive politicians have been speaking out against this radicalism (see Sen. Tom Carper on EPA’s Proposed Air Quality Standards: “The Time to Act on Protecting Our Children’s Health is Overdue”). But it’s time for the president of the United States to use his much larger bully pulpit to push back against this effort to rollback crucial public health protections.

— Joseph Romm

Below are the earlier comments from the Facebook commenting system:

b040875

GOP environmental policy: “Kill people, not jobs.”

June 14 at 2:41pmJose Mattei

If there are less people there will be more jobs.

June 14 at 11:50pm

Patricia Mascone Lewis

I think you’re on to something. The more people we kill, the fewer jobs we need!

June 14 at 11:51pm

jubalcain@hotmail.com

And if our grandchildren die from lack of clean air and water they won’t have to worry about the debt! Problem solved.

June 15 at 12:37am

jubalcain@hotmail.com

The goal is to create enough CO2 that it will kill all the Chinese and Japanese who hold our mortgage.

June 15 at 12:41am

Ketan Hein

Correction: “The more people we kill, the fewer high-paying jobs we need”. That’s the GOP Mantra.

June 15 at 6:45am

Connie Magnuson Hall

If our children die of lead poisoning as is going on in CHINA…the GOP….geniuses!

June 15 at 11:57am

Dan Surmitis

You’ve heard it from me a thousand times, “A Democrat may steal your dollar, but a Republican will kill you for it…”

June 15 at 9:33pm

Mike Bay

Sounds about right. Kill everyone out there who does and doesn’t have a job and then there won’t be a need for any social programs. Only problem who will do the landscaping on her property and be her servants??

June 16 at 1:51pm

John Fortier

But there won’t be anybody to buy the stuff we make.

June 19 at 10:05pm

Lou Grinzo

This is why I keep saying I want a Palin/Bachmann ticket in 2012. It would be such a relentless onslaught of flaming toxic train wreck, visible-from-low-orbit crazy that it (might? would?) be enough to jolt even the hibernating American voters. We need as many voters as possible to sit up and (finally!) say, “You know, we’re really screwing up this whole Democracy thing. Maybe we need to pay a little more attention to issues and facts, and stop letting the political consultants play us like a cheap violin.”

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Yeah, yeah, I know — this is incredibly naive. Consider it the adult, policy wonk version of a little kid believing in Santa Claus.

June 14 at 3:13pmGene Monroe

Oh, low blow! We’re better than that!

June 14 at 10:08pm

Christine Thompson- Stormant

Gross Ian. I feel you Lou. I kind of feel the same way. But then again, somehow she made it to congress; a feat that I NEVER in a million years thought she could do. I didn’t think there were that many dumbasses that would vote for her. It kind of scares me that there could be enough of those dumbasses to put her in the WH. I will HAVE to leave the country. But you’re right; it is going to take something disastrous to wake up the right-wing constituents in this country. I was hoping that they were going to let the government shut down over the debt ceiling. A lot of people would’ve suffered, temporarily, but after a bunch of these republicans didn’t get their SS checks and VA checks, there would’ve been a sudden, huge change in parties.

June 15 at 3:00am

blogbob forsooth

She’s got a following in her White, Christian, Wealthy district.

June 15 at 10:02am

Dan Surmitis

And possibly dangerous. All you have to do is look at the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio’s choices for Governor, and you’ll see how things can go horribly wrong for people who vote against their better interests…

June 15 at 9:35pm

Greg Sparks

I thought my fellow Kentuckians were smart enough to not send Rand Paul to congress. I was wrong. I’m not a liberal, I’m a moderate and pragmatic. I do not understand the thought processes of these people.

June 16 at 6:16pm

Minelle Paloff

I thought they closed the Fulton Fish market…..????

June 18 at 6:37pm

tom.grizzle

It is a hopeless feeling that comes over me when I read about people like Bachman. Why are some many stupid people Republicans?

June 14 at 3:25pm

blogbob forsooth

Because it’s easy to find wealthy donors willing to give you oodles of cash as long as you sing from their “look at me I’m stupid” hymnal.

June 15 at 9:59am

Donald A. Burgess

Just consider that the 400 largest earners get most of their income from capital gains (the current taxation on their total income is about 16% and I believe they ALL have incomes over a $1BILLION, so their total combined incomes is close to $1 TRILLION. That is why killing capital gains taxes can be “paid for” at pennies on the dollar even with million-dollar “contributions.” Just think of how that move will increase the deficit!

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At least the “contributions” are spent domestically, whereas the bulk of their investment spending is probably abroad where growth is better. That is undoubtedly a major factor in tax cuts for the rich generating so little job growth here.

June 15 at 8:19pm

Bill Bucolo

“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” -John Stuart Mill

June 16 at 2:15am

Randall Breneman

Mill was a 19th century European. Modern conservative Americans would have been labeled by Mill as “liberals.”

June 19 at 5:25pm

Alun Palmer

John Stuart Mill is one of my idols

June 21 at 12:54am

Benjamin Ridler

Not stupid… utterly ruthless

July 21 at 8:25pm

huggins.jeff

CNN and John King.

To me, one of the biggest problems with last night’s debate — and something that is actually actionable — is that the media (in this case, CNN and John King and the local media who co-produced the debate) did not even pose a question about climate change! How can the “American Public” understand the stances of the candidates if the media don’t even pose the question?

I (really, really) think that this is a pointed topic that CP should take up in a dedicated post. CNN dropped a ball — and a BIG ONE — and these sorts of things shouldn’t just happen by mistake. “We forgot!” Right. C’mon.

Let’s ASK John King specifically: What happened? Let’s ASK CNN: What happened?

I’ve also left a comment on this at Curtis Brainard’s ‘The Observatory’.

Enough of this media irresponsibility! Let’s face the issue, name names, “have it out”, and get it addressed.

Cheers,

Jeff

June 14 at 3:06pm

blogbob forsooth

You can bet your bottom oil dollar that none of the Seven Dwarfs would have shown up if there were going to be questions about Global Warming. The Repugnican Rules say that one must Deny Deny Deny in order to be a True Follower of Repug Dogma.

June 15 at 9:57am

Jim Prall

The claims they are making about economic impact of regulations are open to empirical testing. The tightening of Clean Air Act rules under GHWBush were followed by theone of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history. Some job killer, eh?

June 14 at 3:35pmJohn T. May

Great…they want to take away my right to health care, and then make my asthma worse..Stay Classy GOP…

June 14 at 9:49pm

blogbob forsooth

You have a right to work ’til you die to pay your medical bills, or to just die quickly…

June 15 at 10:05am

Rodolfo Vicente Gonzales

Boehner’s a cripple! He actually said Bachmann did a good job! The only thing she did good was her make up! Unfortunately we could still see her on stage.Here it is again! A 16 year old high school girl from Cherry hill N.J., her name is amy myers — who challenged Rep., teanut michelle bachmann to a public debate on the constitution. bachmann’s stupidity led this little girl to the challenge. This challenge was in a open letter to the teanut party, unfortunately bachmann and her zoo fans haven’t taken amy myers challenge kindly and are threatening this little girl with violence. The teanut supporters called her home and called her a hole. Amy’s father, Wayne said he’s upset and concerned with his daughter’s safety and that the teanut people are sick crazy and michelle bachmann is scary. Why isn’t this story all over the news?Nope! She did not shine! After announcing she was running, she said the same thing the others did and did not add anything new to the mix. Except that she a woman!

Looks like the president won!All seven spewed the same rhetoric, out of the same hynmnal!There was no debate! There was no exchange of ideas! Nothing new was offered!There was no debate! There was no exchange of ideas! Nothing new was offered! All we got out of this meeting was a chorus of the same GOP/TEA party line! These candidates are all going to sound the same rhetorical sound bites. There will be no debating at all and therefore they will all look the same and fall further down the pike behind President Obama. The word is “Debate”! Look at it from this point: The president won!

June 14 at 11:33pmAmanda Mayoral

What she doesn’t realize is that old-economy jobs should be replaced with improved ones, there are gains in moving ahead. We should ‘kill’ these jobs, and replace them with higher paying ones that offer society-wide benefits, like cheap and low polluting energy.

June 17 at 10:15am

denis.loof

Repealing decades old legislation is not the way to fix what is wrong with this country, contrary to what some politicians would have you believe. There are other ways to allow the people of the United States to have a say in the political process, outside of simply voting in a representative that says they’ll serve their constituents interests while doing the exact opposite.

Groups such as GovTogether are looking at ways to implement forms of direct democracy in the United States so the people can have a say again. Their idea is in the early stages, but it certainly something to think about. If you want to learn a bit more about the organization, visit www.govtogether.com and take a few minutes to hear them out.

June 14 at 4:10pmDonald A. Burgess

While I applaude the effort, I did not see at lot of safeguards against current lobbyists joining such groups and taking them over. What provisions for voter education will be implemented? The American voter has long been willing to subscribe to “simple solutions” and the proliferation of such ideas on the Internet makes that even easier.

I will admit that talking with store owners in New Mexico a couple weeks ago was revealing (?) in that they seemed to recognize that that the climate was under stress. That might have just been in hopes of making a sale, but it was more empathetic than a woman in San Antonio, TX a couple years ago who just dismissed the possibility of climate change; may she enjoy the drought there.

But there are two big issues that the general American voter is ill-equipped to debate or evaluate: climate change and macroeconomics. It will take the near equivalent of going back to school (and dropping at least some of the current over-the-top fixation on celebrity without content — which has a lot to do with Bachmann) to learn how to figure out what is important and how to evaluate the possible responses to the issue.

June 15 at 8:50pm

Kenneth Morgan

That’s; right, Michele. The EPA kills jobs. Boy, this must have happened just since 2001. What changed?Did they get new strange powers or people who actually did their job without being bought off by the.polluters? If so, I missed it. Without the EPA, jobs are no longer needed since we will all be dying of.cancer.

June 15 at 8:45am

blogbob forsooth

Sure, Shelly. We’ll start by allowing a leather tannery to dump arsenic in the groundwater near your home. Next we’ll build a coal-fired power plant that dumps mercury-tinged ash all over your homestead.

June 15 at 9:55amWayne Boese

Repugs but especially Tea Party dolts like Bachman have never let the facts interfere with their talking points. There is ZERO evidence that EPA regulations have caused a single job loss. When money is spent to implement a regulation, it in fact creates jobs; the money doesn’t disappear down a black hole like it does with tax cuts for the rich.

June 19 at 3:07amJstn Green

Atlas Sucked: Sociopathy is a mental disorder, not an ideology.

June 19 at 3:39am

Doug Claycomb

Michelle Bachmann’s remedy: repeal clean air and clean water — for the sake of our children.

June 18 at 7:56pmChazz Button

This would be funny if I felt confident that most Americans realized how f’d up this train of thinking is. I am not laughing!

June 19 at 12:31am

John Champlin

Well, it worked with the Glass–Steagall Act, so why not give it a shot? Oh, wait a second. Never mind.

June 19 at 11:40am

Kevin Michael Evanishyn

Does she think the children will appreciate the Cuyhoga River on fire? And air pollution does help create very lovely sunsets.

June 19 at 12:31pm

mtmariner101

It is not surprising! For quite some time now Republicans have been waging war on the EPA. They would like to defund the entire organization. They want an end to clean air and water and they definitely do not want new regulations to limit CO2 emissions. This is not a surprise. I have been watching it unfold for months. Months! They do not try to hide it. They have been saying it for a long time now: regulations kill jobs and the EPA kills jobs. Even Romney does not want government to tackle global warming. Do any of the new Republican members of the House want a climate change bill or EPA to do its job? No! Hell No!

So even if the new poll posted on Treehugger is correct and “The vast majority of Americans now believe addressing global warming should be a top priority for Congress and the Obama administration…”, including a sizable majority of those who identify as Republicans and Independents, it does not matter. The elections are over. The smug opponents of a healthy environment for Americas have already taken their place in congress. You get what you vote for!

http://www.treehugger.com/​files/2011/06/71-americans​-climate-change-priority.p​hp

June 14 at 3:06pmJoel Claus

Part of the problem, however, is the media’s complicity in all of this. WHY don’t the questioners/reporters ask them things like: “If you get rid of the EPA, who will guarantee that our children have clean water and air? Who will make sure we aren’t putting more cancer causing pesticides on our vegetables?” etc. etc. etc.

The media seems to just nod it’s head, collectively, and take what these nutbags propose as being valid ideas.

June 15 at 11:54am

Bonita Millard

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY COUNTRY?

June 18 at 6:34pmAnne Hammons

How about repealing HER current clean air and water?

June 18 at 8:30pm

Bonita Millard

God, it’s so disgusting what these people are trying to do!!!

June 18 at 9:43pm

Jeffry Gow

michele bachman is calling everything “the mother of all” something. sure she isnt related to a middle eastern terrorist. better check her birth certificate. i really think she is the mother of all f******

June 19 at 2:05am

Bonita Millard

Jeffry, Jeffry, bad boy! LOL 🙂

June 19 at 2:50pm

Bill Bucolo

Deeper and deeper she digs the hole. It’s getting big enough for them all to fall in.

June 16 at 1:43amDianne Carry

yea rick satori (not sure of spelling) promoted natural gas jobs in PA — aka fracking — with a freaking smile on his face. does it matter? not if the votes are fixed or the american people are too self centered to care about the planet — each other.

June 16 at 1:47am

Miguel Young Hernandez

did you watch that GOP debate? During the candidates parlay of answers, I realized how dangerous libertarianism really is. Repealing open gays in the military, privatizing everything, ending the EPA, weak foreign policy amongst almost all of them (sorry but America does have a leading role), anti-Islam, and cutting more taxes as if that was going to fix the deficit. They were more about agreeing with each other on this libertarian fad than any real pragmatism.

June 16 at 4:30am

Miguel Young Hernandez

to correct myself, being anti-gay and anti-muslim isn’t even libertarian. It’s Neo con baggage

June 16 at 4:31am

Robert B. Singleton

Apparently, you have to flunk science to appreciate mainstream GOP “thought.”

June 15 at 5:11pmAndrew Springer

WHAT A WASTE!

June 17 at 8:36amDave Conna

It is wonderful to see such intelligent random comments posted on line for a change — has someone ‘stuffed’ the comments box? But, seriously…

I think that what is happening is that the fundamental problems with an economic system that continually tries and needs to expand to survive MUST be addressed — OR else it is going to CONTINUE to make life a lot harder for all of us. Yes, this is the sacred cow that we rarely discuss but we need to understand EXPONENTIAL growth (which is what we expect of our economy) and how it is fundamentally impossible to maintain in a finite world.

Yes, this system has worked quite well for a century or more (for me and a lot of other people) but we are at a point where we have to redesign our economic system and that is not going to be easy — people cling to old ideas that worked in the past more fervently when they are afraid — and demagogues like Bachman and teanuts are right there to stoke up the fears (note: I am sure they are sincere — they are just as afraid as the people they lead — and perhaps that is why the damage they do is so hard to penetrate).

For more information, check out The Crash Course by Chris Martenson at www.chrismartenson.com. Chris addresses environmental and resource issues and how they relate to our monetary policy in a clear, concise manner — the best I have seen so far.

June 17 at 10:48amMilli Hayman

The idea that environmental protection kills jobs is a lie, and Bachman knows it (no wait, maybe she doesn’t… she doesn’t seem to know much that’s factual.) Since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, the U.S. gross domestic product has doubled, while air pollution has been cut by more than half: http://www.epa.gov/airtren​ds/images/comparison70.jpg​.

June 15 at 3:09pmMichael Lee Young

Bachmann is as nutty as Palin. Its a pity that lazy low information voters actually listen to this type of crap mindlessly!

June 19 at 9:04pmDennis Ellis

I.Q. test before vote can be cast?

June 19 at 10:08pm

Sime

What the….

“I have chickens out the back who have a positive IQ”.

This is highly dangerous and completely ridiculous, these people are really, really lacking and they are in positions of extreme power, what is America doing for goodness sake.

June 15 at 10:03amLindsay Schutz

What’s really scary is that the moderate teabarfers in my family have been spewing the same crap for months now- “if it wasn’t for the dang epa, we’d have plenty of jobs by now- why can’t we do what india or china did so we can get those jobs back?” (dad)….

June 15 at 1:03pmDan Surmitis

How anybody who lives in a Great Lakes state could advocate the end of the EPA is beyond me. It just proves that they’re mentally retarded to propose such a thing in the first place…

June 15 at 1:05pm

William J. Green

Your father is correct. The EPA has squelched thousands of jobs. The fires in Arizona and California and the tornadoes throughout the midwest have done far more damage than America’s free-market businesses have. Put America back to work — eliminate the EPA and save billions of dollars.

June 15 at 1:22pm

John Teneyck

let’s just do what mexico does and send ourselves there, then drink the water…..

June 15 at 1:36pm

Aaron Joseph Johnson

1. wild fires and tornadoes are natural and are needed to maintain a balanced ecosystem. 2. Google Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River 1969 and then tell me that the EPA is something we don’t need.

June 15 at 9:31pm

Linda Rhoades

The deficit is the big bad evil that we can’t leave to our grandchildren, but we can leave them without clean water and breathable air. Well, without air and water, there won’t be anyone around to give a f**k about the deficit, so it all works out.

June 15 at 12:12pmMike Evans

Yeah the EPA is killing jobs….Hmmm….That Richard Nixon sure was a treehugging socialist hippie who was alarmed the Cuyahoga River caught fire…..

June 15 at 12:14pmWalter Thompson III

The logic of this woman is truly baffling. She is a little smarter than Palin, but in many arenas of thought and policy, that is not saying a whole lot! Wow!

June 15 at 7:37pmWalter Thompson III

Perhaps Bachmann’s logic here is less people from crappy air and water will then afford enough jobs for everyone that survives.

June 15 at 7:42pm

Sean Daughtry

Ms. Bachman…What can I say? She is a real, nutty piece of work and, unfortunately, there are a lot more like her in Congress (and out). Someday, people will look back on these times as a period of aggregate insanity.

June 15 at 11:26pm

Eileen Imperial Zoladz

All of the seven Republicans nodded their heads on this one. I am concerned about our country and our children and grandchildren if this happens.

June 15 at 2:40pm

Joseph Giorgi

When Sarah & Michelle take the reins of government Eileen we will have returned to our basic principles with leaders who have backbone. Personally I could not bring myself to watch the sideshow.

June 16 at 4:05am

Eileen Imperial Zoladz

The Gas&Oil party has NOT created ONE JOBS bill in the HOUSE…..not ONE!!

June 29 at 11:58pm

Eileen Imperial Zoladz

Speaking of clean water….Watch the documentary on HBO called GASLANDS

June 30 at 9:39am

Bob Bechler

Putting this woman in a position to protect us would be like asking Col Sanders to watch over our chickens!

June 15 at 9:24pmRick Johnson

People need to realize that there is a very real threat to their very existence if this wing of the republican party comes into power.

June 15 at 10:23amBeth Filar Williams

come on really? really? sigh the GOP showing their ignorance and even crazier, there are actually Americans who believe them!

June 14 at 2:38pmMandy Henk · Access Services Librarian at DePuaw University

Some do, but most, even Republicans, don’t. “More than 75 percent of the respondents oppose congressional efforts to limit the EPA’s authority to enforce the Clean Air Act.” http://www.reuters.com/art​icle/2011/02/07/idUS140003​086120110207

June 14 at 4:45pm

Rachel Mark

If I hadn’t seen the video, I wouldn’t have believed it.

June 15 at 9:07pm

Chris E. Chase

Yeah she’s a shill for the corporations and the powerful lobbyists that run things in Washington. She sits firmly in their pockets.

June 15 at 10:38pm

tom.grizzle

Witness this article,”Has the GOP lost its mind?”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/da​ilybeast/20110614/ts_daily​beast/14700_newhampshirere​publican2012presidentialde​baterepublicanextremismond​isplay;_ylt=AuPgPVzlU4FzYh​mYJj2W5ljjOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMT​VpbXZiaDAyBGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5​YmVhc3QvMjAxMTA2MTQvMTQ3MD​BfbmV3aGFtcHNoaXJlcmVwdWJs​aWNhbjIwMTJwcmVzaWRlbnRpYW​xkZWJhdGVyZXB1YmxpY2FuZXh0​cmVtaXNtb25kaXNwbGF5BGNjb2​RlA3RvcGdtcHRvcDIwMHBvb2wE​Y3BvcwMxMARwb3MDMTAEc2VjA3​luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNo​YXN0aGVnb3Bsb3M-

Wow! That is one ugly URL…I hope it works!

June 14 at 3:35pmKen Reibelhttp://tinyurl.com/LostIts​Mind8

June 15 at 10:41am

maya778899

well, if she becomes the nominee (not an unlikely proposition actually, she presented herself very well the other night at the debate) I hope she hammers this anti-environment stuff hard, she’ll lose swing/indie/suburban voters in droves…. :~)

June 15 at 11:19amTim McCafferty

It’s not as though our children and grandchildren will need clean water to drink, and clean air to breath, the important thing is that the Koch Brothers get to make a profit at the expense of clean air and water. Let’s not loose focus on what’s important!

June 15 at 10:58amWesley Rolley

While this makes the Democrats look good, it is only in comparison.

This is the reason I changed registration from Republican to Green. I wish that RepAmerica’s Jim DiPeso would do the same. We though that Richard Pombo was extreme and we voted him out, but now I doubt that he could meet their litmus test.

June 14 at 3:01pmChristine Thompson- Stormant

This woman makes me NUTS! What is wrong with the people of Minnesota? How did she get to Congress? Holy cow. I’m kinda glad that she’s running for prez though. It ought to be entertaining anyway. 🙂

June 15 at 2:52amDan Brasier

Bachmann should be named the head of the Perverted Capitalists Club.

June 15 at 11:18amKarl Schmidt

She the head of the GOP, Greedy Old Paranoid-psychtsofrenic.

June 15 at 1:19pm

Bart Ginsburg

typical republican mindset.

June 15 at 11:00amBart Ginsburg

yah, lets turn back the clock and destroy years of progress that we faught so hard to achieve…I guess Michele never had to deal with pollution, dirty water, chemical run off, ddt and the rest. so for big business profits lets digress and bring our pollution back up so future generations can die off early from it. you dont want them to have to pay our bill, but you dont mind if they have to wear gas masks to do it.

June 16 at 1:07pm

George Phillipoff

I found a new right wing wacko to hate.

June 14 at 8:16pm

blogbob forsooth

Harold, why don’t you move to that libertarian mecca, Mogadishu?

June 15 at 10:06am

Joseph Ramone

George is Donald Duck. Harold is Daffy.

June 15 at 12:06pm

Ryan Ebersole

…the f**k?

June 14 at 4:44pmBetsy Rogers

Oh man, I was watching that last night and I was having a hard time telling if they were standing behind pulpits or podiums. Just awful.

June 14 at 5:16pm

Sime

A 17 year old student Zack Kopplin deals with Michele Bachmann’s stance on evolution and the result, Bachmann is demolished.

http://www.repealcreationi​sm.com/

http://peregrine5700.wordp​ress.com/2011/06/01/michel​e-bachmanns-stance-on-evol​ution-demolished-by-high-s​chool-student/

June 16 at 11:12amMark Kendrick

Well, let’s do the math. 2011–1970 = Hey, the US economy didn’t melt to the ground until deregulation led to the most massive removal of wealth this nation has ever seen during the Housing Bubble bust.

I thank a whole host of Republicans, and especially Alan Greenspan, who presided over the previous bust as well, and did nothing to counter it.

If Ms. Bachmann had her way, she would be as STUPID as what Mitt Romney was about letting our auto industry die. I really believe a classroom full of third-graders is smarter than any of those GOP hopefuls up on that stage.

June 16 at 7:55pmLarry Chamblin

I live in a county that is in the top 10 percentile in toxic air pollution. The asthma rate and the child poverty rate are well above the national average. I recently wrote our congressman, Jeff Miller, about his opposition to the EPA. In reply, he complained about Obama overreaching in trying to achieve by regulation what he could not achieve by legislation. The Congress and the people oppose regulating greenhouse gases, he said. Such regulation would be job-killing, and on and on. Miller will win by a landslide here in NW Florida.

June 16 at 11:32amRon Stack

Thank God for Richard Nixon (can’t believe I said that)…Bachmann is a special kind of crazy. Like Sarah Palin but more dangerous as she has a functioning brain.

June 16 at 9:13pmJohn Teneyck

if bachmann would look out a window, she would see he disgraceful conditions of both the anacostia and potomac rivers, EPA has underperformed but what’s the alternative?

June 15 at 9:33pm

ChristianLibrul@hotmail.com

The sicker we are, the richer their friends in the AMA get.

We should repeal bu$h’s “Clear Skies Initiative” which increased pollution. Except it makes us sicker, so…

June 15 at 6:18amFrank A Edmands

GOP eco-cide. Bury the poor with air-born mercury and particulates. Michele, who’s going to mow your lawn or carry your bags?

June 15 at 8:35pmKendall Hestilow

Time to get the smog machines fired up at her house and start dumping arsenic in her local water supply. Since its good for jobs and all.

June 15 at 2:41pmCesar Perez

So business is important than clean air and water. Progressives worked too hard for clean air and water.

June 15 at 10:05amMarion Miranda-Keane

The women is delusional!

June 15 at 10:16amDonald A. Burgess

Actually she is just calculating: by repeating these false factoids people who do not think beyond the words come to believe them. She has come to be a “celebrity” and there is nothing more admirable to so many. But then, how many male politicians got women’s votes for being “handsome”? So now a woman is getting men’s votes for looking good. Too bad they don’t cancel out.

June 16 at 12:14am

Marion Miranda-Keane

I like ‘’handsome, good looking, beautiful ‘’ but most of all I like ‘’ brains ! the teabaggers made Michele Bachmann, not her looks. The righties have a monopoly on abject ingnorance and stupidty. The debate in NH the other night make me think of the seven dwarfs, good movie ,but no substance.The president is ‘’smart’’ and happens to be good looking..

June 16 at 1:52pm

Shirley Bass

how do you even make such stupidity legitimate?

June 29 at 8:13pm

tresimple

most republicans are stupid people, but not all stupid people are republicans……and reading through the comments on this page, it’s apparent there’s plenty of stupidity to go around.

this article is textbook media bastardization….cleaning​ up the EPA does not equate to eliminating clean air/water legislation. the EPA has an annual budget over $10B, with a staff of less than 20K…which means we’re spending well over half a million per EPA employee, and they’re simply a regulator (not a producer of anything).

using this author’s same logic, one would argue that Sen. Carl Levin’s recent proposal to drastically cut military spending means the Honorable Senator wants our children all dead at the hand of state’s enemy (which, of course, he doesn’t).

stupidity obviously has many faces.

June 21 at 8:54amElaine Mabes Sargent

I would think that we as a people would have caught on to this “job-killing” argument. U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, U.S. Sen. Mark Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida continue to use this terminology when talking about clean air and clean water regulation. When it comes to our health, these representatives do not represent the people. They represent corporations. Sadly, this is the story across America. Who among us takes Michelle Bachmann seriously? The fact that this “job-killing” argument continues to fly is sobering and truly sad.

June 17 at 10:59amDavid Metzger

I have more respect for these folks than I do Michele Bachman.Cyclists Demand Respect… in the Nude.Hundreds of naked bike riders take to the streets of Mexico City, demanding respect from motorists.http://www.newslook.com/vi​deos/322773-cyclists-deman​d-respect-in-the-nude?auto​play=true

June 17 at 4:20pmTom Landry

Killing middle class working people seems good for the republican Bottom line, there looking to have children working in the muck! Way to go Me_sell Bitchmann!

June 19 at 12:35pm

purplek_1

From now on, every time the GOP says “jobs”, we should replace it with “corporate profits”.

Only then will their will their real agenda match their words.

June 19 at 9:45amRichard Brenne

Like her rock predecessors the Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bachmann is “Takin’ Care of Business.” Speaking of the Bachmann-Turner Overdrive, in this case may the latter happen to the former.

June 15 at 3:13pmRichard Brenne

I hate to keep replying to myself, but I just wanted to say, Joe, that you are welcome to this bad pun or any of my steaming stockpile of others if you can crowbar them into a headline (if anyone can. . .).

I don’t know that much about Bachmann — is she like a less intellectually giant Sarah Palin? Does she hunt moose from helicopters, or vice-versa?

Why can Germany elect a woman physicist and after also super-bright Hilary the best we can do are two Stepford wives? Speaking of a great female physicist-politician, what would Joe look like in a wig?

People mention a Palin-Bachmann ticket (or now vice-versa?) and also that W. Bush was elected because he was a guy many voters felt they’d like to share a beer with — your moral, intellectual and spiritual beer-goggle joke here.

June 15 at 5:19pm

Jan Shaub

I only watched bits and pieces of this so I would not have to stab my eyes out, but what was with the hand movements…..

June 15 at 5:28pmNoreen Coffey Smith

She’s a freak!!

June 15 at 10:05pm

Steven Martin

Reminds me of the Dirk Hamilton song “Billboard on the Moon”…

June 15 at 5:48pmSheila Brown-Blei

she is such an idiot..classy,yes.. but idiot none the less.

June 15 at 7:29pm

Christian J. Martinez

I wonder if Ralph Nader will run again.

June 15 at 2:29pmLori Singley

lol.

June 15 at 10:53pm

Judith Pugh

Unbreathable air, undrinkable water! Let’s privatize cleaning these. The Masters are already privatizing water all over the globe. Need drinking water, if you can’t pay, you die, so simple. But, I’ve not yet heard about technology in the private sector that can clean the globe’s atmosphere. Perhaps our corporate overlords don’t understand that this is the only planet we have to live on. They are in the process of killing the oceans, melting the ice caps, causing droughts and other extreme weather through climate change denial. As jubalcain noted below, if everyone in future generations dies from our Overlords greed centered policies, we won’t have to pay back the national debt; there will be no one to pay and no one to collect.

June 15 at 5:08pmMark Weills

This is just silliness. Note to the GOP, if you want to win the presidency, don’t campaign on a platform that puts the public health at risk. Folks need Clean Water. They need Clean Air. Yeah, you can campaign on your anti-Global Warming stuff, but let’s understand that repealing the Clean Water Act is a direct attack on public health. You are handing a cudgel to your Democratic opponents. Even Romney is not going to campaign on this idiocy.

June 15 at 3:53pmMarshall Shawn Vandiver

so far everything i’ve heard come out of this woman’s mouth has caused me a great deal of anger and frustration. i think she’s literally proud of being evil.

June 15 at 4:04pm

Tyler Austin

If she goes campaigning in a native reserve I hope she packs body armour. All I’m saying is that they live like third world refugees, including not having clean water and watching thier children die of preventable diseses. I think you lads are a bit over due for the AIM to start setting up roadblocks tell you the truth :/

June 15 at 1:51pmEarl Dixon

Man what agreat idea, what is next repeal Vegetable gardens, how about repeal stop signs and delivery pizza, she-clown.

June 15 at 11:26amKeary Burger

“The business of America is business”. Clean air and water are over-rated and expensive. Don’t you know nothin’.

June 15 at 4:58pmJenny Burger

a little smog, asthma, cancer, toxic water, & deformed children are good for the economy-good for the bottom dollar!!!!!!!!!!!

June 15 at 5:46pm

Sarah Ashley McBride

Good point Jose! They would LOVE to see us all die if it meant they could drill oil, and get paid to pass “CHRISTIAN” agendas!

June 15 at 3:23pmSarah Ashley McBride

I ask again… GOD, Please, please save us from your followers?

June 15 at 3:52pmForrest Lewis

does this bachbitch have a clue or does she read from a text.

June 15 at 12:16pmSandra Lara

Kill the poor and down and out is what she really meant.

June 15 at 4:01pm