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Bachmann Amendment Against Non-Existent Plot To Replace Dollar Gaining Support
Here's your daily dose of everyone's favorite Republican House member, Michele Bachmann from Minnesota.
Bachmann has now picked up some new cosponsors in her efforts to amend the Constitution to forbid the use of a foreign/global money as the legal tender of the United States: Trent Franks (R-AZ), Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), and Kenny Marchant (R-TX). She now has a total of 34 cosponsors, in addition to herself as the primary sponsor.
Of course, there is no such threat to replace the dollar as America's currency. Even if a global currency of some kind were adopted -- and even that isn't in any way a sure thing -- it would be for international exchanges and reserves, not for domestic use.
Check out the full list of cosponsors, after the jump.
Todd Akin (R-MO)
Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Judy Biggert (R-IL)
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
Henry Brown (R-SC)
Dan Burton (R-IN)
Michael Conaway (R-TX)
John Culberson (R-TX)
Mary Fallin (R-OK)
John Fleming (R-LA)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Walter Jones (R-NC)
Steve King (R-IA)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
Tom McClintock (R-CA)
Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Joseph Pitts (R-PA)
Bill Posey (R-FL)
Tom Price (R-GA)
David Roe (R-TN)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Glenn Thompson (R-PA)
Zach Wamp (R-TN)
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Josh
Matt
Eric
Sheer stupidity. What are they thinking? Oh, they're NOT....
April 3, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
So when will she claim that the lack of Democratic co-sponsors is due to partisanship, rather than the lack of tin foil?
April 3, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Need to get the call chain going to Congress to let the reason shine through..Bachman is a idiot..
Call 1.800.828.0498.
April 4, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Madness attracts the following of weak closed minded people and lead them off the cliff!
April 3, 2009 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Hall of Shame (Stupidity).
April 3, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope no wimp-o Democrats sign on to this lunacy. We need to maintain the Republican brand as the party of willful ignorance.
April 3, 2009 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
So what happens next?
She's introduced something (legislation?) that seeks to amend the Constitution. What's the next step?
Anyone know the nitty gritty details about the path this sort of thing takes?
(I know at least that voters will eventually have to approve for the Constitution to be amended, but I don't know how you get from here to there).
April 3, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pelosi controls what gets to the floor in the house and . . . it will never get to the floor.
So, the kook can run around and try to rile up the populace to overthrow the government, like she has been doing for weeks. When will they arrest this traitor? The silence of the republican establishment after challenging the patriotism of people that only questioned them for 8 years is deafening. I don't recall a single dem advocating overthrowing the government. Do you?
April 3, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. Had a Democrat said anything similar to what Bachmann had said, we would have had non-stop coverage. Furthermore, Republicans in the House would have introduced a censure motion by this point.
I think every single member of the Republican House leadership needs to be asked about Bachmann's comments.
April 3, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reply to: "Had a Democrat said anything similar to what Bachmann had said, we would have had non-stop coverage. Furthermore, Republicans in the House would have introduced a censure motion by this point."
Correction: said Democrat will have been invited to enjoy a reserved cell at Gitmo.
April 4, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
referred to the Judiciary Committee which handles amendments. Should they vote it out (they won't), it has to pass House and Senate by 3/5 vote, then 38 states would have to ratify it.
So don't worry too much -- even if this idiocy were to get out of committee, which it won't, it would take huge effort to get passed.
April 3, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the education.
April 3, 2009 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Admendments must be passed by 2/3 majority in both houses and then ratified by 3/4 of the state legislatures.
U.S. Const., Article V.
That stuff about conventions" has never been used because it scares the hell out of most sane people. The concern is that you could get a convention elected in an off year by crazy people that rewrites the constitution and the rewrite gets passed by state conventions also elected by crazy people in that same off year election.
April 3, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the information.
I knew less than I thought I knew.
Which, considering how little I actually knew, is pretty impressive, really.
April 3, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I don't know. You knew more than most Republican Congress Critters from MN think they know. . .
:-)
April 3, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The big question is where are the Republican leaders on this? Does Eric Cantor condone it? As one of his constituents (unfortunately) I already inquired to his office but have not received a response. If Cantor condones it even tacitly that should be used against him. He has also been silent about Bachmann's "behind enemy lines" comment. That should be thrown into his face by the MSM. Of course they won't.
April 3, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's going to be up to constituents like you to keep him on his toes. I'm just grateful that so far the two dittoheads from UT (Chaffetz, UT-3 and Bishop, UT-1) haven't backed this. My rep, Matheson, DINO UT-2, has actually been acting like a real D since President Obama was elected (i.e., backing O's policies).
April 3, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cantor and Bonerboy don't know whether they approve of this. Rush hasn't told them yet.
April 3, 2009 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dems need to start ridiculing this and talking about the amount of time and money that would be wasted on trying to amend the consitution for something there is no need for.
April 3, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a bad time to be riling people up.
The financial news is likely to get a lot worse than it is now. People have plenty to be unhappy, frustrated and riled about already.
The Republicans are going to oppose every attempt to fix things, hope things get worse, and rile up their 'base' of AM-radio-addled old guys.
They remind one of Hindu fanatic politicians in India who can think of nothing better than to pull down a mosque or two to aggravate the situation.
April 3, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this is great! It gives them some busy work to keep them occupied and from messing with something serious or important. It also shows the general public just how stupid legislators can be when it comes to understanding the law. That's a Democratic two-fer.
April 3, 2009 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about if we save our currency by again having the GOVERNMENT coin money. The Federal Reserve is neither federal, nor has any reserves. How about adhering to the CURRENT CONSTITUTION.
What is it with Repub whack jobs that always want to amend the Constitution?
Oh, and if the world adopted the dollar as a GLOBAL CURRENCY, would this amendment prohibit the US from using the dollar? Just a thought.
April 3, 2009 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I knew the vitriol-spewing old bat who purportedly represents me (Virginia Foxx)would be on this list without even checking.
April 3, 2009 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love that sentence! I can't remember the last time I saw "vitriol" and "purportedly" in a sentence. She doesn't deserve you!
April 3, 2009 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we should absolutely let her run with this - no, really, hear me out for a second here. With the hurdles a constitutional amendment has to clear (2/3 majority in both houses of Congress, followed by ratification by 38 states), it will take a huge fundraising effort to see this through. All that Republican money going to this bogus amendment instead of going to elect Republican senators and representatives, governors and presidents. I don't have any figures, but I remember the ERA being a huge money pit for the left in the 70s - time for some turnabout!
April 3, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Meanwhile, disturbing news from New York ... many of us have been fearing some violent rightwingnuttery as a result of comments from people like Bachmann and Palin and the entire "patriotic" crowd. Now I'm waiting in fear to find out more about the identity/motives of the gunman who just killed 12 people at an immigration services center.
April 3, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brace yourself- this is only a start. The usual suspects (such as Bachmann) have been working overtime to whip their dimbulb followers into a frenzy, and I believe even worse than this is surely coming. Think Oklahoma City.
April 3, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've been having that same nightmare lately. The frenzy that the crazy people worked themselves into during the election hasn't abated. It's only gotten an order of magnitude worse. The comments on Politico these days look like the comments on Townhall.com and Hillaryis44.org in November and the comments on the latter sites look they're coming from fans of "the Turner Diaries."
April 3, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bachmann is reinforcing a pre-existing fear of "one-world" government. Which, not coincidentally, the likes of Bill O'Reilly (and others) are also touting.
For those of us who were monitoring the far right in the early 90s, and noticed the burgeoning of the militia movement that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing, this backlash comes as no surprise. It was fully expected. Only the particulars are a surprise.
So far, there hasn't been a violent trigger event, like Ruby Ridge or Waco, but that's not really necessary to stimulate a new militia movement.
Two weekends after Obama was elected, I visited a rural Western Washington gun show, and -- as expected -- there had been a run on both guns and ammunition, as fears of gun confiscation were running high.
Expect more of the same.
April 3, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, ya know, we all have our opinions, and our lady friend here, God bless her, has hers, but she's wrong! We shouldn't replace the dollar with some kinda weird foreign kinda dollar like she wants to do! That's just silly! The dollar is the dollar! Not some kinda weird foreign kinda dollar!
What is this lady? Is she a governor or something? See, this is why I always say women shouldn't be allowed to be the governor! Otherwise all those fifty billion cracks in the glass ceiling were just coming over there rearing our head into their airspace!
April 3, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL - I happened to notice that no other MN reps signed on board. Now that there's funny considering that my Rep's district (MN 3rd) borders Bachmann's (MN 6th) and is a heavy red district.
April 3, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are Bayh and Nelson on board yet?
April 3, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holy smokes! 34 GOPers?! How big is this clown car?
I think Chris Matthews had the right idea last year when he let her run her mouth on his show. He just kept reeling out the line, letting her take it, and then finally gave it a good hard jerk.
Let her run with this for a while, let her get comfortable with her looniness, and then put the spotlight on her and make her explain herself while throwing her own words back in her face.
Talk about a 'macaca moment.' Bachmann has macaca weeks.
April 3, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Macaca weeks! Haha!
They're past the clown car stage, at 34 co-sponsers plus Cap'n Crazy Eyes it's now a Ship of Fools. All aboard, next stop Fantasy Island!
April 4, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eric, thank you for providing the list. I was wondering who was on the list of people too stupid to be in Congress.
May I point out two pieces of good news:
No Democrats were stupid enough to sign on;
No other Minnesota congressmen were stupid enough to sign on, though their party still has Bachmann high on the list to challenge Amy Klobuchar in 2012.
April 3, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Klobuchar's not exactly light on her feet, but I think even she could handily repel a Bachmann onslaught.
April 3, 2009 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
These people aren't funny any more. It depresses me just to see their names and, in fact, the word republican or a captial R in parentheses sends me to the dismal swamp of despair.
April 3, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Olbermann's designation of Bachmann as R-Mars is more enlightened every day.
April 3, 2009 7:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stupid? They're Republicans. What do you expect?
April 3, 2009 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
DON'T LAUGH!! Black helicopters just landed here, rounded up our dollars and spat back at us socialist Eurocredits, worthless script with pictures of Michelle Obama and Karl Marx!
April 3, 2009 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is it with conservative Republicans and Constitutional amendments?
Disrespectful.
April 3, 2009 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seeing the two Repubs from my state who signed on: Darell Issa (a multi-term wacko) and Freshman wacko Tom McClintock, I have no doubt whatsoever that this must be a bogus bit of phoney-baloney from Bachman (whether she realizes it or not). This thing will be dead in the water, but allows Bachman to get her weekly face time on wingnut media outlets.
April 3, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess somebody had to take the place of Rick 'Man on Dog' Santorum to keep the R-batshit quotient high.
April 3, 2009 8:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
This woman may strike a lot of us as batshit insane but we laugh at her at our peril.....she is a very, very dangerous dame. She appeals to the uneducated, ignorant, and racist elements of society...because she speaks with such conviction and argues so forcefully (always grinning like the crazy one in an asylum) when she is on television. For some reason, she appears on Larry King Live an awful lot. I watch her just to see what pathologic thing she 'll come up with next.
I think she is absolutely bonkers but dangerously bonkers. As for Darryl Issa--he is just evil and vile.
April 3, 2009 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it's better for everyone if her wingnut supporters are gathering at her campaign rallies rather than congregating in a heavily armed compound out in the woods.
April 4, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
How come only republicans have signed on to this non-issue. And 19 from the South !! What a surprise !!!
April 4, 2009 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
And after this she is going to fight off the Romulan invaders.
April 4, 2009 10:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
At last a new wedge issue. I was getting tired of being warned about the evils of flag burning, same-sex marrying, gun confiscating, and the other fake Republican terrors du jour. At last an issue I can roll on the floor laughing about. But just whom is it going to wedge off of whom? The Republicans already have the narcissistically lunatic and criminally psychopathic communities all tied up. I am sad to suggest that this is merely a revival call to the core total whackjob, up the cream-bun with jam base of the delightful conservative movement. Don’t they make great appliances? I could use Rush Limbaugh as a wastepaper basket for decades without emptying him. Just toss in a few pills with the useless junk mail.
April 4, 2009 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
omg guyz
April 5, 2009 7:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am proud to say that there is not one name from New Jersey on this list.
April 5, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really think that in a satirical counter move, some Democrat should introduce an amendment to prohibit something equally NOT proposed.
Perhaps, an amendment to prohibit elephants getting voting rights.
April 5, 2009 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Golly, do you suppose their constituents realize that their elected representatives don't actually believe in the literal restoration of Israel and God's Kingdom on Earth, when the Biblical Shekel will replace all the world's currencies?
Isn't that un-Biblical or something?
Dang! She must be the Antichrist!
Which would make all those Republicans...
Begorrah! Saints preserve us!
April 5, 2009 10:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is Minnesota the new Florida?
April 6, 2009 4:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bachmann, Beck, the Man-a-tee.....they're all on the "w"rong side of the Revolution they're trying to stoke.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson
April 6, 2009 4:10 AM | Reply | Permalink