Free Republic

I remember when Christians used to actually believe in Christianity. Those were the days. (Some still do, but their numbers are shrinking.) Back then, you could still visit an average (Protestant) church and hear a pastor actually teach real doctrine and share authentic insights. You could hear his thoughts on how to live an upright Christian life, or on why bad things might happen to good people, or how Christian marriages might be improved. And you could hear it all supported by actual Bible passages. After the sermon, you could hear the congregation sing hymns affirming the importance of obedience,...

Suppose that there was strong circumstantial evidence that former Congresswoman Michelle Bachman had married her brother in order to fraudulently get him into the United States from Denmark. That she later filed a mysterious divorce petition claiming (under penalty of perjury) that she had no idea of his whereabouts. Even though he is on Twitter and Facebook under his own name. And suppose she used campaign money to pay her lawyers for what many believe was for a divorce as well as for unauthorized travel. Now suppose that she reportedly filed two years of joint tax returns with a man...

Remember the case of the Census worker who was found hanging from a tree with the word ‘fed' scrawled across his chest? You remember - he died at the hands of right-wing commentators and anti-government tea partiers. He was killed because of an overwhelming case of right-wing paranoia. He was murdered by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, and Fox News. Keep this quiet though... While the death of Bill Sparkman was a media sensation for pushing anti-conservative sentiments just a couple of months ago, it is receiving little to no coverage currently. Why? Because, as investigators have recently speculated,...

In the summer of 2012, Michele Bachmann and four other House members sent a letter to the Inspector-Generals of key government agencies asking them to open an investigation into possible Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. government.The letter to the Department of State specifically raised concerns over Huma Abedin, then-Deputy Chief of Staff and top personal aide to the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. The letter stated that Abedin “has three family members—her late father, her mother, and her brother—connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations,” and noted that the Department of State had “taken actions recently that have...

The outrage about an American hunter, Melissa Bachman, who bragged on Twitter about bagging a splendid male lion, was terrifying to watch. Terrifying, but also deeply troubling on many levels. Emotive outrage and smug judgmentalism are no substitute for rational thought and pragmatic policy. Every year, game hunters travel to South Africa, pockets stuffed with dollars. Most of them are men, who quietly come and go, leaving behind them R6.2 billion in industry revenue, according to Environmental Affairs minister Edna Molewa. But when one hunter, an American television host named Melissa Bachman, dared to boast about her wonderful African hunting...

What happens when we put too much faith in "rising stars" in the GOP...

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The extraordinary events that took place in the House of Representatives yesterday are perhaps the most vivid illustration yet of this dynamic, and it independently reveals several other important trends. The House voted on an amendment sponsored by Justin Amash, the young Michigan lawyer elected in 2010 as a Tea Party candidate, and co-sponsored by John Conyers, the 24-term senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The amendment was simple. It would de-fund one single NSA program: the agency's bulk collection of the telephone records of all Americans that we first revealed in this space, back on June 6. It...

It is one thing to raise millions from grassroots activists or appear on record numbers of TV talk shows or give rhetorically charged speeches before adoring crowds – it is quite another to do the hard work of governing. Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin were political lightweights who were full of sound and fury and accomplished very little. Both quit their posts like spoiled children, after meteoric rises that had precious little to do with actually getting anything done. Both were bad examples of what public service should be all about and both exhibited a certain pathology steeped more...

The Internal Revenue Service under the Obama administration – described by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as the “most feared government agency” – admitted Friday it targeted conservative and tea-party groups during last year’s election because of their politics. Bachmann, a former tax attorney, told WND in an interview the IRS admission means the credibility of the 2012 election is in doubt. Americans, she said, should be wondering whether Obamacare, which is to be enforced by the IRS, will target conservative voices opposed to President Obama with delays or denials of medical care. But why would an administration ever confess to...

Would we have had a mid-western son of a milk truck driver (Pawlenty) as our nominee has she not surged up until Ames Straw poll? I am trying to trace down to the seed that germinated into re-electing Obama. That is the closest I have come. During this cycle, a more modestly wealthy mid-western governor of a Blue state may just have been the ticket. Thoughts?

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has apparently been invited as a major speaker at the Values Voter Summit, Sept. 14-16 in Washington, D.C. So says the summit's website.If he accepts the invitation, he would share the stage with such right-wing luminaries as Michele Bachman (R-Minn.), who thinks Islamic radicals are lurking everywhere; Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, who signed the anti-immigrant "papers, please" law in her state; and none other than Republican vice-presidential pick Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, author of a budget that would end Medicare as we know it and cut funds for the needy to make...

John McCain has now denounced Michelle Bachmann for requesting that the State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice Departments, investigate potential “policies and activities that appear to be the result of influence operations conducted by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.” ... Bachmann had sent a 16-page letter to Keith Ellison, the only Muslim congressman, outlining her concerns: “The concerns about the foreign influence of immediate family members is such a concern to the U.S. Government that it includes these factors as potentially disqualifying conditions for obtaining a security clearance, which undoubtedly Ms. Abedin has had to obtain to...

In an interview on GBTV, Michele Bachmann criticized Newt Gingrich’s support for the Medicare Part D prescription drug entitlement program, calling him a “frugal socialist.” “It doesn’t help to have a frugal socialist,” Bachmann said. “That’s really what we’re talking about is managing socialism and trying to be a frugal socialist.” Host Glenn Beck invited her to repeat the accusation, asking her pointblank whether she was calling Newt Gingrich a socialist. “I’m saying a frugal socialist, yes! Because you’re looking at proposals and programs that are in effect redistribution of wealth and socialism-based, and are we going to have real...

Admitting that the playing of the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” as GOP presidential candidate Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachman made her entrance on the “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” TV show, was a “miscalculation,” NBC executives announced that the band’s drummer would be “grounded for a week.” “While it may seem unfair to place all the blame on one person, the offense isn’t serious enough to warrant sanctions further up the line,” said NBC Senior Vice-President Doug Vaughan. “If Ms. Bachman had been a more important person sterner measures might’ve been considered.” The precise nature of the so-called “grounding” remains unclear....

Minnesota Repubican Rep. Michele Bachmann may find herself in hot water for information she provided during Tuesday evening’s national security-focused Republican primary debate. Discussing the security threat posed to the United States by Pakistan, Bachmann said, “We have to recognize that 15 of the sites, nuclear sites are available or are potentially penetrable by jihadists. Six attempts have already been made on nuclear sites.” “This is more than an existential threat,” she said. ”We have to take this very seriously.” According to Yochi Dreazen of the National Journal, Bachmann, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, may have leaked classified...

Over the last couple of months, the Bachmann campaign has been all but left for dead, failing to muster more than 2 to 4 percent in most credible polls since her "flash in the pan" Iowa straw poll victory. Going largely unnoticed, and after Bachmann's SC campaign staff had already attended a "farewell and thank you" dinner that many recognized as a "we did our best" appreciation gesture for her SC staff, Bachmann suddenly receives an enormous cash infusion into her campaign, allowing her to hire an extremely expensive, high brow political consultant, Wesley Donehue. Even more interesting - Wesley...

(CNN) – A tea party group has a surprising and harsh urging for long-time tea party favorite Michele Bachmann: quit the presidential race. "It's time for Michele Bachmann to go," reads the first line of a statement from American Majority President Ned Ryun. His group operates in seven states, trains thousands of tea party supporters and is "liked" by over 371,000 people on Facebook. "Bachmann, the leader of the so-called tea party caucus in the House and the most vocal about her affiliation with the Tea Party than any other Presidential candidate, has consistently presented herself as a champion of...

Fear and Pandering in Las Vegas

Politics: You'd think a Republican debate on the economy would be a perfect time to blast Obama policies as an unmitigated disaster. Yet Obama escaped largely unscathed. Whom do these folks think they're running against? If aliens landed Tuesday night and managed to find the GOP debate on Bloomberg TV, they might think the GOP candidates were running against Ben Bernanke, someone named Dodd-Frank, Obama-Care and China. Newt Gingrich focused his ire, for example, on Bernanke, saying he's "the first person to fire." Michele Bachmann went on about Dodd-Frank, calling it "the jobs and housing destruction act." Rick Santorum said...