Sunday, August 14, 2011

Woman Bites Dog, Brit Humor Looks at U.S. Politics

I've always liked British humor, although it can be far more scathing than what we are used to here in the U.S.; it has a delicious sharpness to the wit.

This struck me as insightful lampooning of American hypocrisy and folly on the topic of sex and sexuality, particularly given the homophobia on which Michele Bachmann made her political bones in MN, and nationwide, and from which she is now trying to backpedal - without alienating the right wing homophobes that have always been the foundation of her base.

I believe Michele Bachmann, who prides herself on 'being the tip of the spear in opposing the terrifying (to the religious right) so-called gay agenda', and who co-owns a 'pray the gay away' clinic, finds her own hypocrisy punctured like a balloon here on the sharp spear of British humor looking at American politics. 

Yes, it's rude.  It's very rude, particularly if you are offended by anything that suggests oral sex.

It's also funny.  Very funny, all the funnier for, if you'll pardon the pun, pricking her priggish hateful politics, and hypocrisy, since her husband Marcus is suspected of himself being gay, but still in the closet.  Too bad the photographer didn't catch a picture of Marcus taking that first bite....

I wonder if the right wing media will be giving Michele Bachmann as much grief over her use of mustard as they did when Obama was on the campaign trail and used mustard, but not ketchup on a hamburger.  Obama was accused of somehow being 'elitist' for preferring mustard.  Funny, how prejudicially the right looks at preferences of all kinds.

Bachmann went on to win the Iowa straw poll, which involves an astonishingly tiny number of votes, and which is indicative politically of absolutely nothing, in proportion to the hype accorded it.  Kinda like Bachmann herself, all hype, no substance.

From the UK media, the Telegraph:


Michele Bachmann tries out a local delicacy at the Iowa State Fair - a foot-long corn dog. Photo: Toby Harnden

On the eve of the Ames Straw Poll, the Republican candidates made a last push for votes at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines – a huge spectacle in which cattle, pigs and horses are on display as well as politicians and Iowans queue to for fairground rides and some of the most unhealthy food on the planet (I was going to try the Fried Twinkies but the queue was,alas, too long).
Sarah Palin, who is not on the Straw Poll ballot, made a high-profile appearance, as is her wont every time it seems she’s slipping out of the limelight, and was duly mobbed by the press. “There is still plenty of room for a common sense conservative,” she said, deliberately fuelling yet another round of speculation that she might after all enter the 2012 fray.
A characteristically avid and vocal band of Ron Paul supporters surged around their hero and his son Senator Rand Paul as they held forth beside an adjustable mattress booth. Paul, an uncompromisingly anti-war libertarian, is a highly improbable Republican nominee but Palin, amongst others, reckon he could finish top in the Straw Poll, which was won in 2008 by Mitt Romney, who is not competing this time around.
Tim Pawlenty, who has put more money and organisational planning into Iowa than any other candidate, attacked Bachmann and Romney at the Ames debate on Thursday night but today, his cowboy-booted foot resting on a hay bale, he sought to single out President Barack Obama. “Tell Barack Obama he has had his chance and it isn’t working,” he told the crowd.
Michele Bachmann, Iowa born and the favourite to win the Straw Poll, arrived half an hour late for her slot and then spoke for just over two minutes, saying that Iowans were “going to send the signal” to the rest of America just as they had in 2008.  “This is where Barack Obama got his start. This is where he’s going to come to his end, in Iowa.”
She beat a hasty retreat after being aggressively heckled by a young man who shouted that she believed homosexuals were “second-class citizens” and that she should not try to “pray away the gay”.
Driving away on a golf cart with her husband Marcus beside her, Mrs Bachmann stopped to buy a foot-long corn dog – a chicken and beef sausage in deep-fried batter. After applying mustard and allowing Mr Bachmann to take the first bite, she chomped into it with gusto.

16 comments:

  1. Like the rest of the GOP's ladyhawks, Michele seems to have an undeveloped gag reflex.

    What? I'm just being observant!

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  2. Yeah, I bet both of the Bachmanns have had many, many corn dogs in their mouths over the years. Mmm-hmmm.

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  3. Although I do find Ms. Bachmann's political, social and religious views extremely distasteful, if not outright dangerous, I'm not really into personal attacks. You probably should have gone with your gut. I guess rude is as good a word as any. Poor taste comes to mind. Did not find any humor. Just jumping on the bandwagon without any real purpose.

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  4. Flying Junior:

    You're fucking kidding? right?

    Michele Bachman is an abomination unto the political process. She's a serial liar for JESUS and makes a mockery of the process of governance.

    I thought about photoshopping that pic, but instead sent it to a number of people who will get a lowbrow filthy chuckle out of it.

    Fuck Missy Bachman and everything she stands for. About the only thing I would find more entertaining than her being made fun of is her being eulogized.

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  5. Democommie, corn dogs are perhaps an acquired taste?

    Flying junior, while this is not a photogenic picture of Michele Bachmann, when it comes to what you call a 'personal attack'...honi soit qui mal y pense!

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  6. dog gone:

    Corndogs are a staple in the mid-west. I grew up in Omaha and ate my share of them while growing up.

    I missed the part about Marcus getting the first bite.

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  7. Tasteless. Truly tasteless.

    Those bland state fair corndogs are simply devoid of any flavor- like they are made of cardboard.

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  8. I just can't attack or hate anybody just for who they are. I am more inclined to think the guy who snapped the photo is the real dick.

    I could say that her mockery of Christianity is an abomination, bad theology or perhaps blasphemy. I could bitch about her rhetoric or her voting record. She probably is more hideous than I give her credit for. I am still thinking of her mostly as a joke.

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  9. I have to say I pretty much agree with Flying Junior on this one, but the only thing that REALLY offends me is when the margin of the photo extends outside the column. I'm a bit O/C about that.

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  10. Flying Junior:

    People thought Hitler was a joke. They thought Mussolini was a joke. They thought St. Ronnie the Miscommunicator and Codpiece Georgie were jokes. Can you see where I'm going with this.

    Michele Bachman is a vile piece of shit. The guy who took the picture may not have even realized what he was doing at the moment. If anyone's a "dick" for doing this it would be whoever put it on the internet--and those uncharitable persons like me who disseminated the link as widely as possible. On this issue, being a dick is fine with me.

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  11. Democommie almost comes close to invoking Godwin's law with his last post.

    IMO - Instead of the media bashing or making fun of Bachmann (mirrored here), focus on policy issues. Ideas are what matter, not deep sixing a corn dog.

    If anything the more she is ridiculed, the more popular she will become. Americans like 2 things. Rooting for the underdog and not being told it can't be done.

    Hammer her on policy and let the polls reflect substance (or lack there of). Anything else is just juvenile.

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  12. 1. It's only juvenile if you link the photo to oral sex;
    2. given Bachmann's pronouncements judging other people's sex lives, including 'sodomy'/oral sex, she more than opened the door for the juvenile humor; she deserves it.

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  13. Anonymous:

    Michele Bachman IS a vile piece of shit. Sorry, if that offends your sensibilities. Making fun of her may make her more of a heroine to her base but the more of a laughingstock she becomes the better.

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  14. Anonymous, Bachmann is an evil joke already; no need for Hitler comparisons.

    I am dismayed at how pretty much all of the current crop of candidates for the GOP nomination are pandering not only to the most extreme side of the right, but are soliciting the support of the fringies, which explains a lot about the outcome of the silly Iowa pseudo-event last weekend.

    Every one of them holds positions which are largely repudiated by a majority of Americans, as represented by consistent polling disagreement and disapproval, with Republicans coming in for a greater share, and tea partiers an even greater share than Republicans generally.

    Take a look at this, for an example.
    http://penigma.blogspot.com/2011/08/2012-elections-hate-and-extremism-of.html

    Not one of these candidates can plausibly survive the ads that will run with their own words and their own carefully courted supporters words in expecting support for a presidential election. Because they are crazy; and Bachmann is one of the most backward, ugly thinking, and flat up regular liars, of the bunch.
    Perry is a close second, one that plays to the gun toting, belligerant, dumb/anti-intellectual crowd. He isn't even doing a good job in Texas, which has terrible metrics, other than when he takes credit for jobs he did nothing to create - that is a success in SPITE of his time as governor.

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  15. About the current crop of Republican candidates, I have a theory. The "owners" of the country, as George Carlin called them, have already decided Obama will will and so the Republicans are trying to lose.

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