Michele Bachmann: “This Game Doesn’t Last Very Long and the Music Stops”

In an exclusive one-on-one interview, recorded earlier this week, I spoke with Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, for ‘Conservative Republican Forum’- on BlogTalkRadio.

The interview with the Congresswoman who sits on the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees, covered topics ranging from what qualities she would like to see in the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, to the efforts to defund, repeal and replace Obamacare, to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s handling of border security and immigration enforcement.

I began by asking her, “As a business owner, a mother and a constitutional-conservative what qualities would you like to see in the 2012 Republican Presidential nominee?” Bachmann- who has not announced whether or not she will run for President in 2012- answered, “What I think we need to have in the 2012 nominee is a strong, courageous, constitutional-conservative who will be willing to come in and make the decisions that will be very difficult ones that will have to be made, but they will be bold enough to do that and by example I would mean the full repeal of Obamacare.”

She went on to say, “…if we are able to replace President Obama in 2012, they [the nominee] will face down probably the largest spectrum of special interest groups that we have ever seen arrayed before and there will be screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth from everyone, from the media… as well as industry groups who seek to gain by having contracts with the federal government on implementation of Obamacare. So I think we will need a very strong individual, we will need a person who understands our times, who knows what to do and has the requisite political courage to make those important and very strong decisions.

Congresswoman Bachmann, who is the founder and chair of the House Tea Party Caucus, was asked about the House Republican leadership’s commitment to their promise to repeal, defund and replace Obamacare and what rank-and-file Republicans should make of the decision of the House Rules Committee to reject an amendment, by Iowa Congressman Steve King (R)-to the Continuing Budget Resolution-that would have fully defunded Obamacare.

Bachmann seemed sincerely unhappy with the answer she had to give. She began by saying, “I think what rank-and-file Republicans need to understand is that there is a commitment.” However she continued by explaining, “the insidious nature of what President Obama and Speaker Pelosi put into place in order to actually implement Obamacare.”

“We were under the thinking that we would have it within our authority in the House of Representatives to defund Obamacare. What we came to understand- You have to remember because Speaker Pelosi infamously said “we have to pass the bill to know what’s in it”- what we came to understand is that Speaker Pelosi put the funding for Obamacare into mandatory spending (which is two-thirds of the Federal Budget, including Social Security and Medicare), which means we are prohibited by law from touching that spending. They knew what they were doing, because they knew that they wanted socialized medicine to continue even if they lost the majority.”

The Congresswoman urged conservatives not to lose hope. She said instead, “what this does need to do is give us motivation to make sure that we win the Triple Crown in 2012. In other words we have to win the White House, win the Senate with 60 votes and the House of Representatives. This will be an uphill battle, but we can do it. The Tea Party demonstrated that we can have victories and we need to band together and explain to people that the only way that we will get rid of this government takeover of private industry and all of the sea of red ink that the liberals are producing is if we replace the White House, the Senate and the House.”

In light of the disappointing information about the prospects of defunding Obamacare, I asked Bachmann whether eliminating the funding for the new IRS agents that would be needed to enforce some of the provisions of Obamacare was still a possibility.

Her answer to that was query much more promising: “That is something that we’re looking at; as well we want to be able to do that. And I’m so happy that you brought that up, Steve. It’s important that your listeners know that the enforcement mechanism for Obamacare is now through the IRS. So the IRS now will take on a dual role. Their original charge was to collect revenues for the government. But now the IRS will effectively become the benefits manager for healthcare. So now think of how bizarre this will be, when we have problems with our healthcare, we’ll be contacting the IRS because they will be the benefits manager. So this is just one more huge hassle and huge bureaucracy that’s being created. Because remember with Obamacare we’re not getting more healthcare. We’re not getting more doctors or nurses or more healthcare. We’ve bought a bureaucracy. So we will be spending over a trillion dollars on this new welfare system in healthcare, but all we’ll be getting is a bureaucracy and of course the bureaucracy’s job will be to say NO. So what a deal, pay more, get less, that’s the future of socialized medicine. And no other nation has had any other experience with socialized medicine other than pay more get less. So we have a motivation and a reason to get rid of this program. And trust me, between Steve King and myself and others we are going to continue to look at this to figure out anything that we can do to stop implementation of Obamacare.”

Next I asked Congresswoman Bachmann if she “thinks that anyone in the Obama administration really has a grasp of just how harmful continually increasing our debt and massive deficits are to our economy.” Her answer was direct and typical of this straight-talking Tea Party favorite, “No. Other than the Debt Commission, that the President supported, there is a column that came out today by both former-Senator Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the two co-chairs of the President’s Debt Commission- one a Republican, one a Democrat- they both agreed that not enough money has been cut, either by the administration or by the Republicans. They’re recommending that more be cut and that we deal with the obvious cost driver in this budget, which is the mandatory spending under all of the healthcare/welfare programs.”

In terms of the federal government’s unsustainable borrowing to pay for Social Security, Bachmann said, “This game doesn’t last very long and the music stops. And so we have to reform Social Security, we have to reform Medicare. Quite simply it must be done and we can do it, that’s the good news. So people who are currently on Social Security and Medicare they would be able to continue their same benefits- it would be very difficult for them to change their current circumstances- the government can keep our promise with them, but for future retirees we will need to make adjustments and I think we can actually make positive adjustments that would mean even a better ending point for future Americans.”

Moving on to the issues of border security and immigration enforcement, I asked her, “What is your opinion of the job Secretary Napolitano is doing on border and immigration enforcement?” Once again Bachmann didn’t mince words, “I think it’s been a failure. If you look at the statistics, we do not have an airtight border. We do not have a border that is impenetrable and everyone realizes that there can be mistakes and lapses. But unfortunately we would prefer that that would be the exception rather than the rule. The rule today is that there is fairly lax border protection… the first duty of government is to secure the safety and security of the American people and a large part of that as we have seen in recent years has been with a failure to secure our borders and our ports.”

Following up on the performance of Secretary Napolitano, I inquired whether it was appropriate for Secretary Napolitano to travel to the Afghan/Pakistani border and to actually deploy our very limited border patrol agents to help them secure a border that probably can’t be secured. The Congresswoman said, “That doesn’t really bode well for a good story line here in the United States when we are dispatching Americans to secure other nation’s borders. I understand that there can be an American interest in doing so, because that may mean that we would be saving the lives of our American soldiers, and I certainly am in favor of that. But I think that both of those ends do not need to be mutually exclusive. Because again she is the director of homeland security, and as such, her position demands I think a greater attention to securing the American borders and unfortunately that has not been done.”

My final question for Congresswoman Bachmann was about her reaction to the congressional testimony of the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who infamously referred to the Muslim Brotherhood as a “secular organization” that has “eschewed violence”. She was limited in what she could say due to her position on the House Intelligence Committee, but I think what she did say was telling. “I think there is information available publicly, to anyone who would like to discern that information, as to what the Muslim Brotherhood writes about themselves and what their positions and views are. And I think that is readily available for people to read. Now because of the position I hold on the Intelligence Committee, our committee is tasked with dealing with the nation’s classified secrets and because of that I am not in a position to comment.”

You can listen to this interview in its entirety (as well as our interview with a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon & author of ‘Pentagon Prayer’: Dan Holdridge) here.

Steven Rosenblum is the host of ‘Conservative Republican Forum’- on BlogTalkRadio and a 2010 GOP nominee for Florida State House.

Wisconsin- Political Backbone vs. Spineless Hypocrisy

The current battle over public employee benefits in Wisconsin is a contrast between those with political backbone and those who are politically spineless.

Republican Governor Scott Walker, facing a budget shortfall of $3.6 billion, has come to the correct conclusion that rather than raising taxes he must ask public workers – whose wages are paid by the taxpayers of Wisconsin - to contribute half the cost of their fixed-benefit pensions and 12.6% of their health coverage. In other words, to do the exact same thing private sector employees (those who have pensions anyway) have been doing for years -- pay their fair share.

In response to these modest demands, President Obama, Organizing for America, the Democratic National Committee, the labor unions and the Democrat members of the Wisconsin State Legislature have accused Governor Walker of launching “an assault” on unions.

In a gutless political stunt, the Democrat members of the State Senate fled Wisconsin in order to avoid having to take a vote. Although infantile and dramatic, this off-putting action will ultimately have no impact.

Speaking to Fox News’ Greta Van Sustren by phone, Governor walker said of the AWOL state senators, “They’re hiding out in another state. You know, unlike the vast majority of state and local government employees, most of those employees – 300,000 – showed up for work today,”

President Obama, who'd supposedly moved to the center, waded instinctively into the fray, predictably taking the side of the unions, noting "And I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends." He conveniently forgot that Wisconsin’s teachers make about $50,000 a year (for 9 months work), which increases to about $70,000 when benefits are factored into the equation. Moreover, the President also named police and fireman as “victims” of this allegedly unjust legislation, even though they are specifically excluded from its provisions.

As an example to their students, many of the State’s teachers called in sick and headed to Madison to protest the Governor and legislature. With apparent disregard for President Obama’s recent call for civility in public and political discourse they carried signs that compared Governor Walker to Hitler and Mubarak, some saying things like “One dictator down, one to go”. Another sign featured an image of the Governor with a crosshair over his face and the words “Don’t retreat, reload”. Ironically another sign urged, “Stop the hypocrisy”.

As more and more Americans realize that unions are not representing the best interests of their members -- the people they’re supposed to serve – let alone the nation, public opinion turns further against them. Governor Walker obviously recognizing this fact said of the protestors, “I’ve said all along: The thousands of people who are storming the Capitol have a right to be heard. But I’m not going to let them overshadow the voices of the millions of taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin who deserve to be heard, as well.”

At a time when states are trying to close huge budget shortfalls and unemployment is over 9% nationally, and in double-digits in many states, union members and leadership must recognize that if they don’t agree to concessions, they will join the ranks of the unemployed.

The actions of Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature are necessary to save their state from financial ruin. Their move to curtail the collective bargaining powers of the big labor unions is a real threat to the dwindling power of unions and that’s why they and their Democrat allies are so scared. If the unions don’t get back to work and get with the program, the Governor should fire them all and hire non-union replacements to take their place.

As we’ve seen with Chris Christie in New Jersey and even Andrew Cuomo in New York, state governors across the USA realize that they have to show backbone and cut costs if they want to balance their budgets. The era of the spineless politician that caves in to unreasonable union demands and raises taxes is thankfully over.

Drill Domestically, End Ethanol Subsidies, Feed The World- A Formula For Stability Without Compromise

The recent collapse and destabilization of Western-backed governments in Middle Eastern nations like Lebanon, Tunisia and Egypt have created fears of a destabilization of the region, Islamic extremists seizing power (as they have in Lebanon) and the possible shutdown of the Suez Canal- leading to increased oil prices and supply shortages.

Politicians and pundits have been bloviating about the folly of American support for tyrants that, while friendly and/or helpful to us, deny their own people the freedoms that we take for granted. They have also questioned the implications of these dictators’ fall from power to us and of course Israel.

The question that no one is asking, even as the price of crude continues to rise, is why do we continue to leave ourselves vulnerable and compromise our principles- by supporting unsavory rulers and hostile nations-  by not exploiting our own natural resources?

Contrary to what President Obama and other liberals say, the United States possesses more oil, than all of the Middle Eastern nations combined. Instead of propping up despots and sending American jobs and money overseas, we could be drilling here at home and offshore.

So why don’t we open up drilling in the many areas within and offshore the United States that are currently closed to it? It’s certainly not because of environmental concerns. If it were the President wouldn’t have guaranteed $1 billion in loans to the Mexican state oil company PEMEX to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, while putting a moratorium on U.S. drilling in the Gulf. He also probably wouldn’t have made a similar arrangement with Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company so they could exploit an offshore field that they recently discovered.

Some say the reason we don’t “drill here, drill now” is because President Obama and his progressive allies want to redistribute the wealth to poorer nations. Others say it’s because we don’t care if Third World nations are ravaged and polluted as long as we get what we need from them.

The problem with both these arguments is that the people in oil producing nations are poor. Most of the money from the production of oil goes to the rulers and the oil companies, not the average person on the street. As for the environmental impact, there is little evidence that oil drilling has adversely affected these nations.

There is no doubt that if the United States were to announce tomorrow that it was going to open up areas that are currently off limits to oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska, the continental U.S., as well as off the Atlantic coast and shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico the price of a gallon of crude would drop precipitously and immediately.
If we were to end subsidies for ethanol and bio-diesel, the price of corn and soybeans  - artificially inflated by such subsidies- would fall, along with the prices of livestock feed and most foodstuffs.

This would be in the best interests of U.S. national security and would ease the financial strain on not only Americans, but also poor people around the world who are going hungry because of food costs and shortages. It would also end our “need” to support dictators in the name of stability, while turning their populations against us.

We could stop the stranglehold of OPEC and the tyrants that profit from it’s monopoly around the globe- some that are somewhat friendly to the U.S., some not- if our so-called leaders would end the lies, ignore the special interest groups and act in the interests of those they’re supposed to represent- We the People.

If we drill domestically, end ethanol, bio-diesel (and oil company) subsidies and use our crops to feed people- not cars- we can have long-term security without supporting tyrants or compromising our American principles.

Allen West Tackles 2012, SOTU And Olbermann

Congressman Allen West (R) FL-22

In an interview Saturday evening on ‘Conservative Republican Forum’, with hosts Steven Rosenblum and Daria DiGiovanni, Republican Congressman Allen West (FL-22) was asked if he was thinking at all of running for President or Vice-President in 2012. His response was, “Well of course not.” He went on to say, “It’s so important that we as conservatives avoid the cult of personality style of leadership. But we really do elevate people based upon merit and talent. And, you know, I have to prove myself as an American statesman, as a political leader, and not just someone that is able to, you know give some good speeches. I have to be able to get up there and create legislation and get legislation pushed through and make myself a game changer on the House floor.”

Congressman West went further saying “What I am concerned about as far as on the Republican side is that we don’t continue with the entitlement mentality when it comes to elevating people to the next levels of leadership. We’ve got to break this paradigm. We cannot continue to have the model of Bob Dole against Bill Clinton or John McCain against Barack Obama. We’ve got to do something totally different.”

When asked about the current uprising in Egypt in terms of its unfolding from a historical perspective, West proceeded to give an in depth analysis -- first recounting the 2009 uprising by the Iranian youth where students rose up against the autocratic regime while the Obama administration turned their backs on them. He then recounted the 1979 student uprising against the Shah of Iran, reminding the listeners how Jimmy Carter's failure to support the Shah's bid to stay in power- while granting him sanctuary in the U.S.- led to the American Embassy hostage crisis, and ultimately to the tenuous situation that exists with the Iranian regime today.

West’s concern -- that the chaotic situation we see in Egypt today could leave a vacuum that the Muslim Brotherhood, an illegal political group in Egypt, with ties to CAIR, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah – is well-founded. If they succeed in taking control of Egypt, it could have detrimental and even catastrophic affects for Israel, the U.S. and the entire world, especially if it led to the closing of the Suez Canal (which would be an economic and strategic disaster). It could also lead to further uprisings and destabilization in Yemen, Jordan and throughout the Middle East.

The Congressman reminded listeners that, “the radical Islamic movement is looking for chaotic situations they can take advantage of”, citing the example of the Soviet Union’s retreat from Afghanistan, causing that country to collapse into a civil war until the Taliban came to power, promising civility and order. Next thing you know, they instituted the 7th Century, radical Shariah Law and played host to Al-Qaeda.

When a listener in the chat room asked why Israel is so important, Congressman West clearly articulated the critical strategic and historical importance of our strongest Middle East ally and the only democracy in the region.

Asked about members of the opposing parties sitting together at the State of the Union Address, in what the media termed “Date Night”, (which he declined to participate in) the Congressman simply stated, “Americans don't care where we sit, they care where we stand”.

On the subject of the State of the Union speech itself, Congressman West said President Obama is, “a Commander-in-Chief, a president, that is trapped between two worlds, and he’s trying to occupy both of them. The first world is the reality of what happened on the 2nd of November last year with the mid-term elections. And there are many points in that state of the union speech where the President sounded just as conservative as I am. But then he also has to operate in the world where he must appease and placate his liberal-progressive base. And so there are many in times in that speech -- within paragraphs even -- where he contradicted himself.”

With respect to the Tea Party, Congressman West referred to it as a “constitutional-conservative, grassroots movement”, observing that the “American people have awakened -- and that threatens both political party establishments.” He encouraged the American people to “continue to put pressure on the elected officials that they send to Washington, DC, or to their states, to their counties and to their local municipalities, to make sure that what happened in Bell, California does not happen anywhere else”.

West of course was one of the first “tea party” candidates, propelled to victory largely with the support of grassroots groups like the Broward and Fort Lauderdale Tea Parties, the South Florida 912, Any Street and DC Works for Us.

Congressman West did reveal that he is not sleeping in his congressional office, but instead has found a little basement apartment. He says you need a place to get away and decompress. He also says he has suggested possibly creating a “congressional barracks”.

On a lighter note, West was asked about the firing of his “friend” Keith Olbermann from his show on MSNBC (when he was asked about this at his first town hall meeting West’s answer was to do a little dance). West’s facetious reply was “I will miss Keith Olbermann, because I think I made The Worst Person In The World 5 or 6 times and I had my eyes set on at least making it to number 10, definitely by the summer, so I guess Rachel Maddow or Laurence O’Donnell will step up and take his place.”

You can listen to the entire 40-minute interview with freshman Congressman Allen West on ‘Conservative Republican Forum’.


Steven Rosenblum is the host of 'Conservative Republican Forum' on BlogTalkRadio and a 2010 Republican nominee for Florida State House.

Obamacare Debate Reveals Democrat's "Civility"

More than 9 months after President Obama signed the Affordable Healthcare Act into law, the controversy and debate over the law better known as Obamacare is far from being over.

On Wednesday the U.S. House of Representatives voted 245-189 to pass H.R. 2, which would repeal Obamacare. It is widely assumed that the Senate will not pass the legislation- if Majority Leader Harry Reid allows it to come to a vote at all.

Democrats, who have used “creative accounting” and outright lies to try to convince the American people that the bill they forced down their throats will create jobs, lower costs, decrease the deficit and increase coverage, resorted to angry rhetoric and even more lies in their attempts to now convince voters that repealing the law will increase the deficit and kill Americans.

Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) opined, “… even the title of their legislation, H.R. 2, ‘job-killing’ — this is killing Americans if we take this away, if we repeal this bill.” Lee also tried to claim that repeal would violate the Fifth Amendment by depriving people “of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, a specious argument to be sure.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)- who is Jewish- had the unmitigated audacity to compare the Republican Majority in the House to the Nazis when he said, “They don’t like the truth so they summarily dismiss it. They say it’s a government takeover of healthcare. A big lie just like Goebbels. You say it enough and you repeat the lie, repeat the lie, repeat the lie until eventually people believe it. Like blood libel, that’s the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it, and you have the Holocaust. You tell a lie over and over again.”

Speaking of the individual mandate to purchase health insurance that is the backbone of Obamacare’s financing, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) tried to argue that the Preamble and 14^th Amendment of the Constitution give Congress the right to require Americans to purchase a product that they may not want. He began with, “Well, when you start off with the Preamble of the Constitution, you talk about the pursuit of happiness.” Then went on to say, “You go to the 14th Amendment–it’s equal protection under the law and we have not repealed the 14th Amendment. People have a right to have health care. It’s not a privilege but a right.”

Okay, so first of all the phrase “pursuit of happiness” is not in the Premable to the Constitution and second it cuts both ways. If you force someone to purchase healthcare insurance, or any product, that they do not want then you deprive them of happiness. As for the 14^th Amendment argument, health care insurance is not a right. No one is deprived of healthcare in the United States. Even an illegal immigrant or a convicted felon is given healthcare if they need it, regardless of ability to pay.

The lies about Obamacare are myriad, but they are coming from those that have proposed and passed it, not it’s opponents. Democrats claim that their healthcare “overhaul” will lower costs. What they don’t tell you is that they use 10 years worth of taxes to pay for 6 years worth of benefits. They also don’t count the cost of enacting the legislation in terms of the bureaucracy and I.R.S agents that will be necessary to enforce it.

Democrats claim that Obamacare will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with preexisting conditions. What they don’t tell you is that while you will be able to get insurance, the company will NOT cover your preexisting condition. What this means is if you have asthma, an insurance company will give you an insurance policy with a rider that excludes asthma.

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) seems not to have heard the voters’ message that government control and bureaucracy is not what they want. Speaking against repeal he ignored the vast bureaucracy that Obamacare creates when he said: “You want to talk about bureaucracy, ladies and gentlemen. That’s why this legislation is growing in popularity because small businesses see, senior citizens see, parents with children under 26 they see a chance to liberate themselves from the most arbitrary, the most capricious, the most bureaucratic system in our entire free economy. And that’s the insurance companies. Everybody has been run around the block by their insurance companies. It’s something they all share. It’s almost the problems they share with their cable company. Not quite. But it’s not as dramatic here because this is life and death. This is the security of your family. This is whether or not you can change jobs. This is whether or not your children will be protected. This is whether or not your parents will be able to afford their drug because that’s what this legislation enables and gives the freedom to American families to have.”

This diatribe is chock full of lies. The idea that the legislation is getting more popular is just the first. Just the opposite is true as the public learns more about what is in the law. Senior citizens are learning that in order to pay for this legislation that $500 billion has been cut from Medicare Advantage. The American people do not believe that treating adults up to the age of 26 as children is a good idea. Given the choice of dealing with the bureaucracy of an insurance company, which is regulated by state laws and free market forces or that of the federal government, which would you choose?

The passage of this repeal bill is far from the end of the fight over healthcare. This debate will continue right into the 2012 presidential campaign. It remains to be seen whether the Senate will take up this legislation. But what is certain is that Republicans will continue to work to repeal and defund elements of the legislation, while proposing market driven alternatives that will address the real issues, which are with health insurance, not healthcare.

In addition 27 states are now suing the federal government over the constitutionality of Obamacare. 26 states led by Florida are involved in one suit, based on the federal government’s claims that they can regulate health insurance via the Commerce Clause and that the Medicaid expansion violates the 10^th Amendment. Meanwhile Virginia is suing separately based on their contention that Obamacare violates a state law that says individuals cannot be forced to purchase health insurance. Eventually these lawsuits will wind their way to the Supreme Court where it is likely that the States will win by a 5-4 margin. 

After The Shooting Stopped The Attacks Began

On Saturday, January 8, 2011 a deranged, lone gunman shot 19 people- killing 6 including a 9-year old girl. Yet Jared Lee Loughner, the person who actually committed the crime, was among the last to be blamed by those on the left and what used to be known as the mainstream media.

Before the blood was even dry on the ground, and long before all the facts were known about the shooter or the circumstances behind the incident, liberal pundits, bloggers and alleged journalists were looking to blame prominent conservatives, like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Mark Levin for the attack.

The traitorous Jane Fonda, a.k.a. “Hanoi Jane”, who has the blood of many an American POW on her hands, posted on her Twitter page that “Progressive Arizona Rep Gabrielle Giffords is shot. In her ads, Sarah Palin had her targeted in a gun site. Inciting to violence.” Then she posted “Glen Beck guilty too. Shame. It must stop!” Of course Fonda was wrong on all counts, as Giffords is a Blue Dog Democrat, not a Progressive, and neither Governor Palin nor Glen Beck has ever suggested that anyone commit any act of violence against anyone.

The vicious, hate-monger and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said, “We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was.” Wrong Paul, by all accounts the gunman’s favorite books are ‘The Communist Manifesto’ and ‘Mein Kampf’. He seems to be just a very disturbed guy whose psychosis turned violent. But if he does have a political agenda it’s decidedly left wing or anarchist, not right wing.

The so-called “targeting” that the hypocrites on the left kept pointing to all last week is political targeting which both sides engage in all the time. There’s nothing wrong with saying that we’re targeting Congressman A in a primary, or for a general election defeat. It’s a metaphor and most clear thinking people know this. In fact progressive Markos Moulitsas, of the Daily Kos- who posted “Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin” on his Twitter page last week, himself put a bulls eye on Gabrielle Giffords in June of 2008, yet no one from either side of the aisle accused him of having any responsibility for what happened on Saturday, nor should they have.

Lost in all this finger pointing and attempts to lay blame on political opponents are the victims of this heinous crime.

9-year old Christina Green, who was born on September 11^th, 2001 and was laid to rest Thursday, had just been elected to her class council and was taken to Congresswoman Giffords’ “Congress on the Corner” by a neighbor so she could talk about politics with her representative.

Gabe Zimmerman, one of Giffords’ aides, was recently engaged and was well liked.

Dorwin Stoddard who shielded his wife from the shooter’s bullets.

Phyllis Schneck a 79-year old great-grandmother.

Dorothy Morris a 76-year old retiree.

Federal Judge John M. Roll who was a friend of Giffords’ and came to say hello after attending mass.

These people all died while simply, peacefully exercising their 1^st Amendment rights.

They and all the others that were shot and have survived, not mention the families of the victims, are deserving much better than what they got from most of the media last week.