Gay 'barbarians' descend on Marcus and Michele Bachmann's clinic, demand discipline [Video]

A horde of glitter-wielding gay "barbarians" on Thursday paid a visit to a clinic owned by GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus.

The colorfully dressed group had scheduled an appointment at Bachmann & Associates and were demanding to be disciplined.

The barbarians appeared to be taking Marcus up on his belief that gays and lesbians are in need of "discipline"to remedy their "sinful nature," a philosophy he espoused over a year ago on a Christian radio show.

"We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined," Marcus said on the "Point of View" radio talk show on May 12, 2010. "Just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we are supposed to go down that road. That’s what is called the sinful nature. We have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings from moving into the action steps."

Bachmann & Associates recently denied using a technique of "praying away the gay" with gay people in order to make them straight, but undercover video appeared to show that the clinic believes that prayer can alter people's sexual orientation.

Once the horde was notified that Marcus, a strategist for his wife's presidential campaign, was not at the clinic, their leader told the group, "All right, folks, Marcus isn't coming out so we're gonna have to act like barbarians."

Defense of Marriage Act hearing turns comical thanks to Sen. Al Franken

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) needed a better defense witness than Tom Minnery could provide Wednesday after Sen. Al Franken exposed him for misrepresenting a study.

Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" cast member and now a Democratic senator from Minnesota, used some of his comedic skills and razor-sharp timing to take down the Focus on the Family representative.

He also used the curious technique of actually reading the study his witness cited.

Hilarity ensued when Franken discovered that Minnery had misrepresented a Department of Health and Human Services definition of a "nuclear family" to better fit FOTF's conservative worldview.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held Wednesday, Franken highlighted the Christian group's statement that kids "living with their biological and/or adopted mothers and fathers" were better off in a variety of ways than those children "living in any other family form".

"I checked the study out," said Franken, the author of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them."

"It actually doesn't say what you said it says," he continued.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter joins the GOP race on July 4th weekend -- patriotic, yes, media-savvy, maybe not

Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination today.

Who knew?

It may have been carried on local media, but CSPAN was running coverage of the progressive Netroots Nation conference, which took place in mid-June; CSPAN2 was in the middle of a tribute to historian Manning Marable; Fox News Channel had "Huckabee"; CNN had "Nepal's Stolen Children," with Demi Moore; and MSNBC had its prison documentary series "Lockup."

However, you can now scroll down for a video of McCotter's understated announcement.

Perhaps announcing a presidential candidacy at a music festival in a park in Whitmore Lake, Mich., on a holiday weekend was not the best timing to garner national media coverage for the 45-year-old father of three..

The event was neither live-streamed on McCotter's Facebook page nor his official campaign website, and fans were casting about unsuccessfully Saturday evening on Twitter for.... 

Michele Bachmann confuses John Wayne Gacy with The Duke

Michele Bachmann had planned for Monday to be a very special day.

The conservative Minnesotan representative expected to triumphantly return to her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, to formally announce her candidacy for president.

Fate had blessed her with a strong showing in the most recent local poll, and her confidence was so mighty that she didn't even find it necessary to accept the apology of a veteran newsman who apologized for asking her if she felt she was a flake in the wake of so many gaffes and incorrect statements leading up to her bid for the GOP nomination for president.

And then it happened. A microphone was placed in front of her, and a statement that should have been ingrained in her head came out all wrong. She said that like the famous rugged cowboy star, John Wayne, she too was from Waterloo which was why she was picking the small town to announce her candidacy.

"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," Bachmann told a Fox News reporter.

Sarah Palin in Iowa for premiere of 'The Undefeated,' a new chapter in the politics of documentaries

 
 

Sarah Palin heads to Iowa on Tuesday, but whether or not electoral politics are involved is in the eye of the beholder.

Palin has to face jury duty in July in Alaska, but, according to the Christian Science Monitor, the former Alaska governor and her husband, Todd Palin, are first going to Pella, Iowa, for the June 28 premiere of "The Undefeated."

Filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon's documentary portrait of Palin and her political record goes into limited distribution by ARC Entertainment in AMC Theatres the week of July 15 (locally, it will be in the City of Orange, in Orange County).

Interestingly -- likely coincidentally -- President Obama will also be in Iowa on Tuesday, promoting manufacturing jobs in Bettendorf. No word whether the two have a date to split corn dogs, but we doubt it.

Approached by Palin's camp to produce short films for SarahPAC, Bannon decided instead....

Mitt Romney's Obama's 'Misery Index' example doesn't seem so miserable

Mitt Romney in April said, "We're going to have to hang the Obama Misery Index around his neck".

Thursday on Romney's YouTube channel, the former governor and GOP presidential hopeful, posted a video about a young man who claims that times are so tough that he has to eat bologna sandwiches.

The two-minute video called "Obama's Misery Index: Ryan's Story" features Ryan King, a recent college grad who in one moment complains that it's hard to get a job when you have no experience (“Is it my fault that I can’t get a job?”), but in the next moment says that he only has $3 in his wallet... until his next paycheck comes.

“To a certain point, you just start losing faith in yourself,” King says.

And at a certain point the viewer loses faith in the story.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post reports that King was described in the local paper in 2009 as the vice treasurer for the Midland County Young Republicans, and his Facebook page has photos of him at the 2011 state GOP convention.

Indeed in the Facebook album called "Republican State Convention 2011 - Grand Rapids" King seems to be having a grand old time. 

However King's public Facebook wall reveals a different side to the the bologna misery. It's one that involves eating a bacon, sausage, egg and cheese burrito with beer, buying an excellent new speed-metal cd from the band In Flames, and getting wasted deford style.

Meghan McCain fires back at Bristol Palin with a shot of love

Meghan McCain, the sassy daughter of Sen. John McCain, responded to excerpts of Bristol Palin's forthcoming memoir.

Bristol, the dancing daughter of former Gov. Sarah Palin, leveled barbs against the McCains in "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far," painting Meghan as a diva and critical.

Meghan was "constantly checking us out, comparing my family to hers and complaining", Bristol, 20, wrote in the autobiography set to hit stores Friday.

Meghan's mom, Cindy McCain, was also criticized in the book. After Cindy told a pregnant Bristol that she wished to be "one of the first people to hold your baby," hoped to be invited to "your wedding when it comes together" and the desire that she and Sen. McCain could be "godparents of your child," Palin was less than flattered.

"I had just met her, and I wondered why she wanted any type of guardianship over my child," Bristol wrote.

Bristol also complained that when the families first met after it was announced that Sarah Palin would be McCain's running mate, Meghan "ignored us during the entire visit."

Meghan, the author of "Dirty Sexy Politics," replied Thursday via Twitter and YouTube in a unique you-catch-more-bees-with-honey approach by sharing a link to a video from 2008 showing herself with Bristol's youngest sister Piper and gushing over her father's pick.

"I am so proud that this is my father's choice for his vice president," Meghan is heard narrating over clips of Palin and the Republican senator. "I didn't think I could be more proud of my father and this campaign and then I wake up today and feel like my heart is going to explode with pride for her and him and this choice and the direction that this campaign is going."

RELATED:

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Levi Johnston dubbed 'the gnat' by Bristol Palin in her memoir

Levi Johnston to release a tell-all book about Sarah Palin's family

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Meghan McCain arrives at the 2011 Time 100 Gala ceremony in New York on April 26. Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters.

Obama impersonator says he was pulled off GOP stage because of time, but official says he was inappropriate

A Barack Obama impersonator who was awkwardly asked to cut his act short Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference says he didn't get the hook because he was making fun of conservatives, but because he had exceeded his time.

Reggie Brown, who does a passable job of looking and sounding like the president, was about 17 minutes into his 20-minute act when his mic was cut and music began playing. Then a smiling man grabbed him by his arm and told him his time was up. The man was RLC President and CEO Charlie Davis.

CSPAN viewers who had been watching Brown's act - a mixture of barbs at the expense of  both Democrats and Republicans - cried foul on Twitter and on the blogosphere when it appeared the impersonator got the hook after taking shots at GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann. But Brown told CNN on Monday that it was a time issue, not something more partisan.

"What happened is that I went over my minutes. They told me I had 20, but they aired a video before me and then my intro took up more time," Brown said, referring to the appearance of several men pretending to be the Secret Service that preceded his entrance.

"When our liaison [Davis] — the guy who introduced me – came up to me onstage, he said, 'Hey, I am sorry—your time is up,' and so I finished and went backstage," Brown explained. "I was told it was because of my time, not my act, not because of anything I said."

Davis told CNN and others that the hook had to do with content, not time, saying the mixed-raced Brown had delivered some off-color racial jokes that went too far.

"Had I been in the room I would have pulled him sooner. We have zero tolerance for racially insensitive jokes. As soon as I realized what was going on I rushed backstage and had him pulled," Davis told the cable network and other news organizations in a statement.

What were the jokes?

Michele Bachmann gets glittered; activist says Obama deserves the same [Video]

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was showered with glitter as she left the stage Saturday at the AFP RightOnline Conference in Minneapolis.

The assailant, Rachel Lang, said that because her mission was to bring awareness to politicians who do not support same-sex marriage, President Obama was also on her sparkly to-do list.

"If he were here I'd glitter him too," she told a reporter who reminded her that Obama does not support people of the same sex getting hitched. "I think it would be harder to get that close to the president," said Lang, whose mother is a lesbian.

"My response to Michele Bachmann's hateful and anti-gay rhetoric was lighthearted, but these issues are very serious," Lang wrote in a statement. "Bachmann's support of groups like 'You Can Run But You Cannot Hide' show exactly how extremist she is -- she in no way represents the values of Minnesota and certainly does not represent the values of America."

Although Bachmann is the third Republican to get the glitter treatment (other GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty were glittered previously), Lang explains that the cause is not a partisan one. "Any politician who doesn't want gays to be able get married should be glittered," she said.

Tim Pawlenty attacked by activists with glittery confetti in San Francisco

Tim Pawlenty was minding his own business running for president, signing books at an American Health Insurance conference Thursday when two women representing Reproductive Rights and CODEPINK sprinkled pink, glittery confetti on the former Minnesota governor.

Complaining that the Republican doesn't have "the courage to stand up for gay rights and women's reproductive rights," the two women opened manila folders filled with confetti and doused the man who in 2010 vetoed a Minnesota bill that would have allowed gay couples the right to the remains of their deceased partner.

"Marriage –- defined as between a man and woman –- should remain elevated in our society at a special level, as it traditionally has been," Pawlenty explained in regard to the "Final Wishes" bill that would have also given domestic partners rights to sue in wrongful death cases.

"I oppose efforts to treat domestic relationships as the equivalent of traditional marriage. Accordingly, I am opposed to this bill," the conservative said.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Pawlenty is gaining awareness among American voters, but as Neil King Jr. wrote today, "the more voters get to know him, the more blah they are."