Financial Advice

Right-Wing con-artist Grover Norquist

Sometimes I mention something I got from "my financial advisor." If he sounds like a conflicted mess, it's because "he's" half a dozen different people from 4 different institutions. Yesterday, the sanest one, who left her career as the finance director for a big Wall Street firm in 1997 to start her own boutique firm (which is not attached to any banksters) sent me a note responding to a post we ran Thursday about the reaction in England to the Conservative Consensus/Austerity movement there. She had just been watching Ron Paul on TV when she read it. Paul, a darling of the paranoid and deranged militia types, was saying how he felt violence was an imminent threat here in America. My financial advisor wrote:

I do find it amazing how no one has rallied the populace regarding the fact that no one has gone to jail for anything to do with the prior collapse let alone this one. They get people who have no chance of ever having to worry about the estate tax to fight against it. That’s why we particularly need you to keep pushing for progressives.

 

The 24 hour media cycle is being exploited to scare the %^& out of people. People’s perceptions are that things are as bad now as they were in 2008. I’m not saying this is a barn burner, but things are more stable. Hopefully the crazy right won’t take over everything.

 

Investment wise, this is an interesting time as the macro issues are the bear cause. The corporations themselves are earning and flush with cash. Even if we do double dip (which I don’t think is going to happen), corporate earnings should hang on due to global pull. 

 

We’ve had twelve years of this!

Another one of my advisors-- who I've worked with for decades, is Lisa Detanna at Wedbush, a mid-sized firm based in L.A. that seems to keep a healthy distance from Wall Street groupthink. She's been all over TV lately and this was her on CNBC this week:







She and I have steered my investments in a much more conservative direction ever since Bush started playing fast and loose with the economy. Obama being elected president didn't make me any less cautious; his policies are basically an extension of Bush's in (too) many ways.



Lisa-- and most people I've spoken to in the financial services industry-- seem to think that when push comes to shove the Republicans will do the right thing and compromise. I think they don't watch the day to day escapades, don't understand the hold of the teabaggers over Boehner and don't know who or what Grover Norquist is. Lisa says the "S & P downgrade is forcing government to react and not be so political." Lisa and others in her industry know more about investments than about politics. I'm nervous that the Republican intransigence the S&P blamed for their downgrade will tank the economy. It's beyond the comprehension of most serious people that members of Congress could be nihilists who want to tank the economy and want to burn down the whole house so "we can start over again" (as in start in 1950 and stop the clock right there). People in that industry are just starting to come to grips with it. After Bachmann's insane rantings in the Iowa debate Thursday night S & P tried to make it clear enough for even someone as congenitally stupid and willfully ignorant as she is to understand. Greg Sargent:

A Standard & Poor’s director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default-- a position put forth by some Republicans.



Without specifically mentioning Republicans, S&P senior director Joydeep Mukherji said the stability and effectiveness of American political institutions were undermined by the fact that “people in the political arena were even talking about a potential default,” Mukherji said.



“That a country even has such voices, albeit a minority, is something notable,” he added. “This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.”



Let’s try to wrap our heads around this. Bachmann’s opposition to raising the debt ceiling is one of the most important planks in her presidential platform. She has touted it in two ads, presenting it as a sign of her courage. She repeated it again last night at the debate, asserting that opposing the hike is “the right thing to do,” and even cited Standard and Poors’s downgrade as proof of her superior grasp of our fiscal dilemma.



Less than 24 hours later, S & P confirmed that it was precisely this opposition to raising the debt ceiling, and the cavalier attitude towards default exhibited by the likes of Bachmann, that led to our downgrade.



The question of what led S & P to downgrade our credit rating is a matter of verifiable fact. And S & P has now confirmed that one of the central rationales of her candidacy is a key reason for their downgrade. What will she say when confronted with this fact? How will she explain it away? Will anyone even ask her to try to explain it?



In a rational universe, this would be devastating to her candidacy. Of course, the world of GOP primary politics is anything but a rational universe.

Mukherji, by the way, was referring to Paul Ryan (R-WI). So here are some notes for an outline Lisa sent me of what she's going to be sending to her clients Monday:

Although we have reduced our expectations of GDP growth globally and in the US we

are not anticipating at this point a double dip recession to the magnitude of 2008 – 2009.



Interest rates are at historic lows



Corporate profits are high

75% of corporations have reported positive or 10% better than expected numbers

Companies are lean and have deleveraged ahead of people and governments and continue to exceed expectations



Stocks are trading at historic low level PE’s not only from price decline but growing earnings as well



Balance sheets of banks are better now then they were in 2008

Capital ratios are better then they were at US banks in 2008 2009 Interest rates per the fed will remain low for two years



Oil prices lower



Commodity prices taken pull back but expected to climb as economy stabilizes and EU and US finalize and agree and have plan-- global demand strong



EU needs to address

Bail out of banks

Bail out of weaker EU countries



US

Pass budget that reduces deficient spending

And then to close the week-- as the stock market closed above 11,000 again-- one overall bit of advice from still another financial advisor:

What a week!



I had to wait until the market closed today (Friday) as it isn’t over until it’s over these days. In the first four days of this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved at least 400 points each day. That has never happened before. We had two big ups and two big downs. On a percentage basis, the index moved at least 3.9% in each of the four days, a phenomenon we saw just once in 2008 and once in 1987, and before that 1933. So no doubt our heads are spinning.



As I read in one commentary on recent events, the media doesn’t like it when planes land safely. So while this last week has been incredibly harrowing, I would like to provide a little perspective on where the markets stand. While this correction has been unusual in its swiftness as I mention above, we have been through gyrations before. Just last year as a matter of fact. Last May the S&P 500 dropped 8.2% followed by a 5.4% drop in June. That wiped out all the years gain. The market had Greece, the BP oil disaster, the flash crash and China slowing down to deal with then. The market is dealing with many of the same issues in this year’s downswing as well as the debt ceiling drama in Washington and the S&P credit downgrade and a current flood of rumors surrounding European banks.



But corporate profits and balance sheets were strong in 2010, the financial system was working and the economy was stabilized. So 2010 ended with the S&P up 12.8%. It was not smooth getting there however.



Though it probably doesn’t feel like it, the market is well ahead of where it was one year ago. Versus August 31, 2010 the S&P is up 12.4%. That is despite the 8.9% drop of this August. So most portfolios are still ahead of where they were one year ago.



There are an awful lot of variables at work in the market today. On a very practical note, this turmoil is occurring when many people in the US and even more in Europe are on vacation. The lack of a full complement of market players can exacerbate volatility and allow program computer trading to impact short term results.



Despite the headlines, there is truly a good bit of debate out there about the state of the US economy. Japan (the third largest economy in the world) was largely offline after the tsunami. This created huge supply chain disruptions in the US which led to layoffs and shutdowns. As things return to normal, there may be upside in the coming quarters. Also the consumer sentiment numbers get a lot of play. Personally, I can’t imagine consumers being confident after the display of ineptitude from our esteemed politicians. What doesn’t get reported often is that US consumers report one thing but often do another. Consumer spending as evidenced by retail sales continues to surprise on the upside.



Another paradox, despite the US downgrade, someone out there still thinks the US is the safest place to invest as evidenced by the flight to US Treasuries during the height of the panic. The 10 years note was paying 2.09%, an incredibly low rate absolutely and relative even to the other countries still triple A.

Who Would You Rather Discipline You-- Homophobic Closet Queen Marcus Bachmann or Rugby Player Nick Youngquest?

Nick & Marcus

Even people who don't realize that Marcus Bachmann is a longtime closet case who was caught several times frequenting (or doing "research" in) gay macho-man leather bars, might be offended by the effeminate First Lady wannabe's taxpayer-subsidized fake therapy that insinuates it can "cure" homosexuality. Michele has made a career out of making gay people in Minnesota afraid there's something wrong with them and she and her closeted husband charge them a bundle to pray the "problem" away in a fake clinic. Not long ago Marcus was hissing about gays people that “barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined." Being "disciplined" is the theme of the gay leather bars this sick and twisted man sneaks around whenever he can get away from Michele.

Even if discipline is your cup of tea... Marcus Bachmann I don't think so!

The new issue of Out features a cover story about several gay-friendly straight athletes who are doing their bit to fight the kind of hatred and bigotry the Bachmanns have built careers around. I can't help but think of Australian rugby star Nick Youngquest as the human antithesis of Marcus Bachmann.

When Nick Youngquest stripped down for the Naked Rugby League calendar in 2006, the Australian player planned to show off his muscles, charming smile, and blue eyes. But the picture published revealed much more. It captured Youngquest’s strategically placed hand slipping away.

It was the shot seen ’round the world-- and a controversial boon for the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia, the charity that benefited from its popularity. The Australian National Rugby League criticized Younquest for having gone “too far.”

Naturally, gay men disagreed. So did Youngquest, whose confidence is impenetrable. In 2008, Australia’s prominent gay magazine DNA called, and Youngquest stripped down again. This time he safely sported the smallest of swimsuits. In the years since, he’s made a habit of bearing skin in gay magazines around the world.

While taking off his clothes, Youngquest has taken on the cause of gay rights.

And I would bet anyone Nick has done a helluva lot more for the mental health and self-esteem of gay men and women than the self-loathing, hateful and perverted Marcus Bachmann. Yesterday a horde of gay "barbarians" descended on the Bachmann "clinic" (video below). The horde requested to speak directly with Bachmann and experience some “discipline” for themselves.

When Marcus was no where to be found, the barbarians glittered the empty waiting room and reception area while chanting, “You can’t pray away the gay-- baby, I was born this way!”

The action was organized by the same young man who threw glitter on Newt Gingrich, starting a national trend in political protest of anti-LGBT sentiments from political candidates and campaigns.

“Michele and Marcus Bachmann think gay people are barbarians?” asked LGBT activist Nick Espinosa. “I think its clear to everyone who the real barbarians are, based on the Bachmanns’ archaic views on LGBT equality.”

Despite Bachmann's shrill homophobia, the Pentagon today certified that military ready to proceed with repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.



UPDATE: President Obama Thinks Barbarians Might Work Out Fine In The Military

Here's a statement President Obama just gave today, which might upset the Bachmanns and their deranged, hateful supporters:

Today, we have taken the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality. In accordance with the legislation that I signed into law last December, I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days-- on September 20, 2011.

As Commander in Chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness. Today’s action follows extensive training of our military personnel and certification by Secretary Panetta and Admiral Mullen that our military is ready for repeal. As of September 20th, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country. Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian.

I want to commend our civilian and military leadership for moving forward in the careful and deliberate manner that this change requires, especially with our nation at war. I want to thank all our men and women in uniform, including those who are gay or lesbian, for their professionalism and patriotism during this transition. Every American can be proud that our extraordinary troops and their families, like earlier generations that have adapted to other changes, will only grow stronger and remain the best fighting force in the world and a reflection of the values of justice and equality that the define us as Americans.

[I still oppose him on cutting back on Social Security and Medicare-- IF the rumors are true that he's joining with Boehner and Cantor and the GOP to push that through.]

Republicans Have Good Reason To Worry That Gays Are Taking Over Their Party

And the worst kind of gays, frustrated, self-loathing, deranged and mentally unbalanced closet cases. And I'm not just talking about the spate of Republicans who have come out recently, like Ken Mehlman and Lindsay Graham, or even just potential First Lady Marcus Bachmann. As Rick Perry promises to make his intentions-- in terms of the Republican presidential race-- known within the next couple of weeks, the discussions of his use of male prostitutes and of his affairs with other closeted Texas Republicans is coming back to haunt him. But first a little wrap up on ole Marcus and how that could impact the campaign of dedicated homophobic fanatic Michele Bachmann.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the growing whispers about Michele Bachmann’s campaign—the uncorroborated speculation that the candidate’s profoundly antigay hubby, Marcus, is a closeted gay man—you will be. The chatter has already made its way from the blogs and Twitter (Cher tweeted that Marcus has tripped her exquisitely tuned gaydar) to the alternative press to The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld left each other in stitches this week taking shots at Marcus Bachmann’s effeminate manner and “center-square gay” voice. (Anyone out there old enough to remember Paul Lynde?) As Stewart joked, the guy is “an Izod shirt away from being the gay character on Modern Family.” Clips of the comedians’ faux “comedy repression” session promptly popped up on the websites of such stodgy outlets as the Washington Post and The Atlantic.

The wringing of hands about whether it’s fair for the respectable media to promote this sort of salacious chatter is as inevitable as the chatter itself. But this particular assault on Marcus is about more than critics lobbing generic bombs at a fiercely conservative presidential combatant. Michele Bachmann has long been one of the most aggressive anti-gay-marriage crusaders in politics, while Marcus runs a Christian-based therapy clinic accused of dabbling in “reparative therapy,” a controversial counseling technique premised on the notion that you can "pray away the gay." (One clip making the rounds from an undercover video shows a potential clinic patient being assured that, among other things, God had made men’s eyes to appreciate the form of a woman.)

The Minnesota congresswoman has lamented that involvement in “the gay and lesbian lifestyle” is a life of “personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement,” while her husband has charmingly likened bi-curious youth to “barbarians” who must be “educated” and “disciplined”-- parenting advice that manages at once to sound both draconian and pervy.
In short, we’re talking here about a couple that has planted its flag on the lush green fields of militant anti-gaydom and dared the deviants to take their best shot.

Which is precisely what is happening now-- and is likely to accelerate as the congresswoman’s profile and poll numbers rise.

Not sharing the Bachmanns’ squeamishness about homosexuality, I don’t give a pig’s lip which way Marcus rolls. I can’t even get worked up about the hypocrisy angle, always a favorite cudgel in politics. After all, if someone as religiously conservative as Marcus Bachmann were gay, of course he’d cling to the idea that a person can pray away his supposedly satanic urges. It’s human nature to flip out most about the things that affect us the most personally.

But while Marcus’s sexuality holds little interest for me, I am interested to see how the Bachmann camp will handle the still-below-the-radar-but-getting-tough-to-ignore buzz. It’s one thing to be attacked during a campaign for your political positions or personal quirks. Most big-league candidates make their peace with the possibility that their beliefs, character, and personal lives will be publicly shredded before they opt to enter the game (or not, as in the case of Mitch Daniels).

But in Bachmann Land, where politics is so personal, what will be the reaction to the suggestion that Marcus is the very thing he has long devoted himself to fighting against? Slamming the congresswoman as a Jesus freak or an antigovernment extremist only fills her with pride. But how will she and her camp deal with her husband being lampooned as a closet case? It’s like Ronald Reagan being tarred as a down-low commie-- or Grover Norquist being accused of harboring big-government impulses. Harsher still, as the FrumForum has noted, Bachmann’s fellow righties have thus far not been leaping to her defense on this most ticklish of issues. She and Marcus have been left to twist in the wind as outlets like Gawker compile the increasingly brutal commentary.

But here’s where Bachmann has the edge over many other pols: as a conservative Christian, the more she and hers are attacked-- especially on something she considers a core moral issue-- the more she will be convinced that she’s doing God’s work.

Among devout evangelicals, ferocious attacks-- including people bearing false witness against you-- are brandished as a badge of honor. It shows that you are willing to be despised and persecuted for your faithfulness, as were Jesus and his early followers. “They’ve heard the sermon over and over again, ‘You will be persecuted for righteousness' sake,'” observes Michael Cromartie, head of the Evangelical Studies Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “So the idea of being misrepresented or persecuted is not new.”

The degree to which Christians should anticipate or even pine for persecution has long been a common debate topic. (“You know if you are never persecuted for your beliefs then you are probably not bothering Satan too much,” asserts this poster at ChristianOvercomers.com, adding that “being delivered up to Satan and the rules of his beast system is your DESTINY as one of God’s elect.”) The tendency of some religious conservatives to see themselves as a political minority under siege has even been given its own cheeky moniker, Christian Persecution Complex.

In modern-day America, chances for actual religious martyrdom are few and far between. For the pious like Bachmann, political martyrdom can be the next best thing.
Bachmann has already pointed to religious bigotry as a source of her political opposition. “I was attacked repeatedly for my religious faith, and the media was a willing accomplice,” she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune of her 2006 House race. “I’m really disturbed by the media’s lack of tolerance and understanding for the belief of a committed Christian.”

The more personal the persecution of her husband gets, tied as it is to his antigay labors, the more likely it is to steel Michele’s spine and persuade her to stay the course. “Most social conservatives agree with her about the homosexual issue,” asserts Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, predicting: “Not only is it not going to faze her, it will build sympathy for her among her supporters and admiration that she doesn’t back down.”

In which case, it could be the congresswoman who winds up having the last laugh.

And don't think for one moment that Rick Perry and his handlers don't know that. Kay Bailey Hutchison learned how hard it was to use Rick Perry's status as a closet case against him among Texas religious nuts. Yesterday Aaron Blake asked in his Washington Post column just how Perry's candidacy could be a game changer for the GOP nomination race. Blake outlines how his coming nomination will impact each of the other candidates:

* Uniting the coalition: While Rep. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain may get some establishment support, and former governors Mitt Romney (Mass.), Tim Pawlenty (Minn.) and Jon Huntsman (Utah) may get some tea party support, no candidate can cross over as easily as Perry.

Just as we’re talking about how the tea party-and-business coalition of the GOP is breaking down, here comes a candidate who can unite them. Perry was talking about the tea party long before most other big-time elected Republicans were, and that gives him cache with the movement.

But he’s also gotten support from the business community and more traditional Republican bases. That makes him more of a double threat than any other candidate.

* Challenging Bachmann: Just when it’s looking like nobody is competing with Bachmann in Iowa, here comes Perry.

He can speak to social conservatives with the best of them, and his speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans last month is proof of that. While other non-candidates like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee urged activists to be pragmatic about their nominee, Perry urged them to be uncompromising on social issues.

Bachmann may still be the favorite in Iowa with Perry in the race, but her path isn’t as clear.

* Competing with everyone: Because Perry’s base is so diverse, he is capable of stealing votes from just about anybody.

While he competes with Bachmann in Iowa, he could also steal the role of Bachmann’s chief competition from Pawlenty. And if he does that, Pawlenty’s path to victory becomes much more difficult.

There is also some thought that Perry getting in the race may draw Romney out of his shell. For now, nobody is forcing Romney to take positions and start defining his candidacy in detail. If Perry gets in, it helps force the issue.

“Romney stays a slight favorite, but he can no longer play it safe and has got to get more aggressive,” said Democratic consultant Ed Peavy.

* Frontrunner?: Sometimes, we may be a little careless with the term “frontrunner.” So far, the likes of Pawlenty and Huntsman haven’t earned that mantle. And all you have to do is look back at Fred Thompson in 2008 to see the blueprint for what some think could be a Perry flame-out. (The main question with Perry, of course, is his desire to be president, which he had previously and repeatedly denied-- so much so that people believed him.)

But with Perry, it’s hard not to think about the label at this point. He’s fresh off a win over a popular GOP senator in his 2010 primary and a moneyed Democratic opponent in the general election, and he’s already cracking double digits in a national poll, despite having pretty low name ID.

How Queer Are The Bachmanns?

We touched on it yesterday... but now we're getting some straight answers. Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld looked at it Wednesday night-- and Murdoch's Evil (Criminal) Empire promptly blocked it from being rebroadcast online. Thank God Second City caught up with the Bachmanns in Waterloo (see video just below-- by all means).



But even queerer than Marcus-- or, to be more precise, just as queer as Marcus-- Bachmann and the rest of the far right fringe of the GOP are absolutely adamant that it is not ok to use tax dollars (federal funds) for Planned Parenthood and women's health services-- actually not for any health services-- but apparently it is perfectly fine to use our tax dollars for the Bachmann clinic's gimmicky and ineffective "gay cure therapy." Now that's queer. But, like she always says, she's proud of Marcus and proud of the scam business they've created.

Republican Presidential Race Focuses On The Issue Their Base Obsesses Over: Homosexuality-- Will It Destroy Romney Or Bachmann... Or Both?

Not many people are paying attention to Santorum (except on Google's search engine), even though the former Pennsylvania senator and far right fanatic claims to be running for president... of the United States. He fancies himself in a battle royale with Michele Bachmann for the hatred and bigotry portion-- which seems to be the biggest portion-- of the Republican Party base. Both are more or less ceding the selfishness and greed portion of the base to former vulture capitalist Mitt Romney. The GOP Establishment-- the political hacks with the connections to the Big Business special interests that keep the loathsome party afloat-- know Romney is their only shot at beating Obama. And now they're worried because Bachmann is starting to catch up to him in polls. Her brand of hysterical Know Nothing stoopid passes for charisma in GOP precincts, especially in the backward, fear-and-hate-driven parts of Iowa where she's beating the striped pants off Romney. And now Romney, who has failed to sign the anti-gay pledge that Santorum and Bachmann enthusiastically embraced, faces a nightmare scenario inside GOP politics of being branded as the pro-gay candidate. It's happened to him before. And conservatives are absolutely obsessed with homosexuality.
I got this story from BoingBoing a few years ago. It's just as relevant today.

Wikipedia is "The Free Encyclopedia." What's on the mind of Wikipedia its readers? Here are the top ten most viewed pages on Wikipedia:

     1.     Main Page [30,090,900]
     2.     Wiki [904,800]
     3.     Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [413,400]
     4.     Naruto [401,400]
     5.     Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock [396,000]
     6.     United States [330,000]
     7.     Wikipedia [329,400]
     8.     Deaths in 2007 [321,300]
     9.     Heroes (TV series) [307,500]
     10.     Transformers (film) [303,600]

Conservapedia is "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia." What's on the mind of its readers. Here are the top ten most viewed pages on Conservapedia:

     1.     Main Page [1,906,729]
     2.     Homosexuality [1,572,713]
     3.     Homosexuality and Hepatitis [517,086]
     4.     Homosexuality and Promiscuity [420,687]
     5.     Gay Bowel Syndrome [389,052]
     6.     Homosexuality and Parasites [388,123]
     7.     Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [365,888]
     8.     Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [331,553]
     9.     Homosexuality and Mental Health [291,179]
     10.   Homosexuality and Syphilis [265,322

The GOP Establishment's hope that Santorum could derail Bachmann-- the candidate Obama would most like to run against, the one who would assure him the biggest landslide-- is falling flat... everywhere. Next up: Palin. It looks like they've persuaded her to jump in and drain votes away from Bachmann and ruin her candidacy so Romney can limp through the brutal GOP primaries and caucuses and give the GOP a relatively mainstreamish nominee. (Palin may be an idiot but even she can read polls and knows she isn't going to be president. If she jumps in, it's to destroy Bachmann, who she detests and is jealous of.)

Meanwhile, Bachmann is playing the gay card in Iowa relentlessly. And now the national media has started picking up on it. The L.A. Times, ABC-TV News and CNN were all over the angle this week. Last night Anderson Cooper just devastated her:

In her campaign for president, Michele Bachmann touts her background as a small business owner.

"A small business job creator," is how the Minnesota Congresswoman and Republican Presidential candidate described herself in her first campaign ad in Iowa.

That business is Bachmann and Associates. It's a Christian counseling service located outside Minneapolis. Bachmann started the center with her husband, Marcus who is the lead counselor at the clinic. The aspiring First couple and their children are pictured on the center's web site.

For at least five years, Bachmann and Associates has faced accusations it uses a controversial therapy that encourages gay and lesbian patients to change their sexual orientation.

Andrew Ramirez, a former patient at Bachmann and Associates, said in an interview with CNN he witnessed the practice first-hand. In 2004, Ramirez turned to the clinic at the urging of his mother who wanted him to talk about his homosexuality.

Just 17 at the time, Ramirez said he was immediately skeptical of what one of the clinic's counselors told him.

"It was therapy that would help me change from being homosexual to straight," Ramirez said. "If I did this and worked his therapy program, God would perform a miracle and I could no longer be gay," Ramirez added he was told.

Ramirez was assigned a therapy program consisting of prayer, reading Bible passages, and mentoring with an ex-lesbian minister. If none of that worked, Ramirez said the counselor had another suggestion.

"Not acting out on my same sex attractions and living a life of celibacy," Ramirez said.

After the second session, Ramirez told his mother, Beth Shellenbarger, he wanted to stop the therapy.
"And I could just hear his voice quiver and I just said, 'you know, Andy, if you're good with being gay then I am too,'" Shellenbarger said.

The American Psychological Association is sharply critical of efforts by counselors to change a patient's sexual orientation, what's known in the mental health community as "reparative therapy."

"There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation," one APA report said.

Marcus Bachmann has suggested parents of gay teenagers can turn to religion for help.

In an interview last year with the "Point of View" talk radio program, Bachmann was asked how parents should deal with a teenager who thinks he or she is gay.

"I think you clearly say 'what is the understanding of God's word on homosexuality,'" Bachmann said.
"We have to understand barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined and just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn't mean we're supposed to go down that road," he continued.

In 2006, Bachmann denied his clinic engaged in reparative therapy to "City Pages," a Minneapolis newspaper. "That's a false statement," Bachmann said. "If someone is interested in talking to us about their homosexuality, we are open to talking about that. But if someone comes in a homosexual and they want to stay homosexual, I don't have a problem with that," he continued.

This week, a gay rights group called "Truth Wins Out" released to CNN a hidden camera video recorded by one of its activists who posed as a patient at Bachmann and Associates.

In the video reviewed by CNN, a counselor can be heard suggesting homosexuality can be treated at the center, to varying degrees of success.

"You can actually leave homosexuality completely and become heterosexual?" the undercover activist asked on the video. "Definitely," the counselor responded. "It's happened before. It really has," the counselor added.

But the counselor cautioned he is not an expert on the subject.

"I don't have a ton of experience with this. I mean, a little bit here and there," the counselor added.
Michele Bachmann has a long history of controversial views on homosexuality.

As a senator in the Minnesota legislature in 2004, Bachmann called for an amendment to the state constitution that would block gay marriages in other states from being recognized in Minnesota.

"If we allow this to happen, group marriage, polygamy, and much worse would not be far behind," Bachmann said in a video to her supporters.

In an appeal to socially conservative Iowa voters earlier this month, she signed a "Marriage Vow" pledge that also equated same sex couples with polygamists.

Both Bachmann and her husband declined to discuss the clinic's practices. A secretary at the clinic referred all questions to the Bachmann presidential campaign. A sign on the center's door says "no media."

A statement released by her presidential campaign said the Bachmanns were unable to comment on the clinic's practices out of respect for its patients.

"The Bachmann's are in no position ethically, legally, or morally to discuss specific courses of treatment concerning the clinic's patients," the statement said.

The issue has followed Bachmann onto the campaign trail. Asked about the clinic's practices at an event in Iowa Monday, Bachmann dodged the question.

"Well, I'm running for the presidency of the United States. And I'm here today to talk about job creation," Bachmann told WHO-TV. "We're very proud of the business that we've created," she added.

And the irony, one the media won't touch (other than Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night), is that Marcus Bachmann himself is a notorious closet case, a leather queen. I wonder if he and Palin's first dude will ever debate.



Or maybe the gay issue won't be all that important in Romney's campaign. He has one of the worst records of any politician in America... and it's starting to get out. Massachusetts voters hate him and they're very familiar with this series of ads from Kennedy. Watch them all 'cause it's important to remember, as disappointing as Obama is... there's even worse:

It’s “The Bachmanns"! A Brand -New Show in a Brand-New Genre: Horror-Comedy!

by Noah

Please God! Make it stop? Nah! On second thought, it’s damn entertaining! If you thought The Palin Show was riveting car-crash great TV in 2008, just wait till the 2012 season really gets goin’! This ain’t no Donna Reed Show, or Father Knows Best, and there’s certainly a hell of a lot more kids than The Brady Bunch!

I don’t know about separate bedrooms, although certain aspersions have been cast, but in the Bachmann mansion there are many closets! Previously, we heard about Michele Bachmann’s very real love of socialism as expressed in her happily accepting government welfare, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies, all the while publicly decrying such things as the definition of evil as bad, bad, nasty, bad socialism. That’s quite a skeleton in the closet. But wait, there’s more!

Rep. Bachmann’s hubby, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist and “Christian counselor” who specializes in so-called pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, and cure-“the gay”-with-the-Bible matters, and also gets a sizable chunk of that evil, bad, bad, nasty, bad government welfare for support of his clinic, has been heard from, in the form of a rabidly homophobic quote from a May 10, 2010, broadcast on a Christonut radio show called Point of View.

News of the quote has been circulating around for a bit, but it really burst forward on a bigger stage just recently.

Point of View claims that its place in the universe is to “proclaim Christian solutions for the problems of America” and “restore the greatness of Christian thought and values to every area of American Life.” If that sounds to you more than a little like a statement from the local Taliban, if you just substitute the word "Islamic" for "Christian," or someone pushing for us to adopt their own Sharia law, then read on and see how Marcus Bachmann refers to gay people:

We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. 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.

This is one tightly wound family! When that spring snaps, it’s gonna be a helluva show! Barbarians? No doubt Michele Bachmann’s followers, and Republicans in general, will just eat this stuff up. The word "discipline" alone, used in any context, has always raised their antenna and caused much excitement in the Repug community. Couple it with words like "sinful" and they practically go into a state of orgasmic rapture.

But it just gets better as Bachmann's mister works up a frenzied froth of blame and heaps it upon our public education system for an imaginary rampant increase in homosexual behavior.

And let’s face it: What is our culture, what is our public education system doing today? They are giving full, wide-open doors to children, not only giving encouragement to think it but to encourage action steps. That’s why when we understand what truly is the percentage of homosexuals in this country, it is small. But by these open doors, I can see and we are experiencing, that it is starting to increase.

Well, yes. Someone needs to face something, but that someone is not us -- unless we’re talking about facing the fact that there is yet another would-be Jerry Falwell that’s been lurking in the park bushes out there, ready to blame the next terror attack or hurricane or wildfire on what he sees as an overly permissive society. Someone sounds like he’s barely keeping the lid on the jar and the cheese on his cracker!

And here we thought the wifey was the crazy one in the family. Little did we know that she had an even crazier hubby locked up in the attic. Think about this: These two very disturbed people were allowed to adopt over 20 kids and bring them into their home asylum. Think about the children! Talk about indoctrination! Christian schools for everyone! Discipline the gays! Reprogramming! Home schooling legislation! Onward Christian soldiers, marching off to war in a town near you, very near!

It’s pretty damn bad when anyone views being gay as a "problem of America." It can be argued that it's also pretty damn bad when someone can hang out their shingle and proclaim themselves some kind of "Christian counselor," using the Bible to address such "problems," and do it while being supported with money from the dreaded big bad government. That's our taxpayer dollars, folks. It also might make a helluva nice separation of church and state case, but who's gonna go there? Certainly not our joke of a banana republic legal system.

Lest you think that Marcus Bachmann would be a silent First Husband if the woman who wears the pants actually got elected, fear not! No less a figure than former Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey refers to Marcus Bachmann as part of her "brain trust." (As Howie's post earlier this morning pointed out via Matt Taibbi, it was Marcus who ordained that Michele do graduate work in tax law, even though she hates taxes.) This may explain some of "the crazy." But I think we may be about to learn a lot more about why Michele Bachmann is so angry and fearful all the time, and it may not just be about that lesbian stepsister of hers.

We may be hearing more than we really want to or need to know, and soon. But hey, she married the guy and she wanted the spotlight. I guess she gave him an offer he dared not refuse.


Somewhere over the rainbow: On-screen comment about "Christian counselor" Marcus B: "He's 3 seconds away from bursting into a Judy Garland impression."

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Mitt Romney Is More Of An American Girl Than Michele Bachmann

I'm torn when it comes to exposing witless reactionary neanderthal Michele Bachmann's unsuitability as a major party presidential nominee. First of all, she's perfectly suited for the Republican Party nomination; she is what they have turned themselves into. Second... well, what would be the point? To make it easier for Romney to paint himself as the moderate alternative between the Communistic Obama and the fascist Bachmann, when in fact Romney is a pluperfect fascist candidate and Bachmann is just stark raving mad or, as Chris Wallace put it in what may or may not have been a moment of candor, "a flake."

All week I've been meaning to comment on Bachmann's intellectual property theft of the Tom Petty song, "American Girl." But, again, to what end? Let Romney do his own campaigning. Republicans always steal song usage from liberal musicians. Bush (Petty's "I Won't Back Down"), Palin ("Barracuda" by Heart), Reagan (Springsteen's "Born in the USA"), McCain (Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" and John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses"). And they get cease and desist orders and get sued but they just keep on stealing. It's what Republicans do. It's in their political DNA. By the way, Hillary Clinton asked Petty for permission to use "American Girl" in her campaign, and he agreed and she used it.

While trying to research the Petty-Bachmann brouhaha, I came across another Rolling Stone feature that I thought worth referencing. It's the real Michele Bachmann story-- and written by America's most perceptive political commentator, Matt Taibbi. And it's decidedly not the story Petty told in "American Girl," the song that started to break the unknown Florida boy's career wide open nationally.

Young Michele found Jesus at age 16, not long before she went away to Winona State University and met a doltish, like-minded believer named Marcus Bachmann. After finishing college, the two committed young Christians moved to Oklahoma, where Michele entered one of the most ridiculous learning institutions in the Western Hemisphere, a sort of highway rest area with legal accreditation called the O.W. Coburn School of Law; Michele was a member of its inaugural class in 1979.

Originally a division of Oral Roberts University, this august academy, dedicated to the teaching of "the law from a biblical worldview," has gone through no fewer than three names-- including the Christian Broadcasting Network School of Law. Those familiar with the darker chapters in George W. Bush's presidency might recognize the school's current name, the Regent University School of Law. Yes, this was the tiny educational outhouse that, despite being the 136th-ranked law school in the country, where 60 percent of graduates flunked the bar, produced a flood of entrants into the Bush Justice Department.

Regent was unabashed in its desire that its graduates enter government and become "change agents" who would help bring the law more in line with "eternal principles of justice," i.e., biblical morality. To that end, Bachmann was mentored by a crackpot Christian extremist professor named John Eidsmoe, a frequent contributor to John Birch Society publications who once opined that he could imagine Jesus carrying an M16 and who spent considerable space in one of his books musing about the feasibility of criminalizing blasphemy.

This background is significant considering Bachmann's leadership role in the Tea Party, a movement ostensibly founded on ideas of limited government. Bachmann says she believes in a limited state, but she was educated in an extremist Christian tradition that rejects the entire notion of a separate, secular legal authority and views earthly law as an instrument for interpreting biblical values. As a legislator, she not only worked to impose a ban on gay marriage, she also endorsed a report that proposed banning anyone who "espoused or supported Shariah law" from immigrating to the U.S. (Bachmann seems so unduly obsessed with Shariah law that, after listening to her frequent pronouncements on the subject, one begins to wonder if her crazed antipathy isn't born of professional jealousy.)

This discrepancy may account for why some Tea Party leaders don't buy Bachmann as a champion of small government. "Michele Bachmann is-- what's the old-school term?-- a poser," says Chris Littleton, an Ohio Tea Party leader troubled by her support of the Patriot Act and other big-government interventions. "Look at her record and see how 'Tea Party' she really is."

When Bachmann finished her studies in Oklahoma, Marcus instructed her to do her postgraduate work in tax law-- a command Michele took as divinely ordained. She would later profess to complete surprise at God's choice for her field of study. "Tax law? I hate taxes," she said. "Why should I go and do something like that?" Still, she sucked it up and did as she was told. "The Lord says: Be submissive, wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands."

Nope, not Petty's American Girl by any stretch of the imagination... except in Michele Bachmann's.

P.S.: NOAH'S BEEN THINKING ABOUT MICHELE TOO

Coming up at 10am PT: "It’s The Bachmanns! A Brand-New Show in a Brand-New Genre: Horror-Comedy!"

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DWT Caption Contest Report: When we last left Newtie and Michele . . .

by Noah

When last we left Newtie, he appeared to be looking at Michele “I’m bad. I’m Certified & Palin Says I’m Qualified” Bachmann in a Weineristic kinda way. To be more specific, we asked our readers for a suitable caption to go with Newtie’s leering during last Monday’s Debate of the Clowns in New Hampshire.

My personal favorite, roll the drums please, came from reader me.

“Hey, she’s really quite sane.”

Five small words. Much depth of meaning -- me managed to say something about both miscreant clowns in those five words. Irony is such a fine literary device. The picture and me’s caption would make a very nice billboard along the highway. Some drivers would get it. Republicans would say, “Yes, Newt is quite right, again,” while they drove along listening intently to every word of spew coming out of their car radios as the likes of Michael Savage broadcast from remote locations deep, very deep inside the hidden insane asylums across our great land.

Well done, me!

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Presenting DWT's own caption contest: What is Newtie thinking?

We want to know: What the heck could Newt be thinking?

by Noah

Lots of people have weighed in about the recent Republican Negativity Fest in New Hampshire. (Here was Howie's take, from China.) The general vibe about the whole thing is that Michele Bachmann gained the most and Tim Pawlenty sputtered and crashed while Mitt Romney won the night’s Biggest Pathological Liar prize. All the while, Ron Paul won a lot of voter polls, if only for the reasons that at least he’s honest and his believers are the most organized and the most passionate.

The rest of this Bizarro World Beauty Contest? Well, was anyone else there? The answer is yes, and, I would like to focus, not only on one Newt Gingrich, but on one particular moment in Monday night’s show that hasn’t been covered at all. It seems to have been missed! Besides, why go over the same old same old?

So, here it is. Look at the picture. It needs a thought balloon for Newtie, or a simple caption. Recently, Ken has been dealing with The New Yorker’s entertaining caption contests. Let’s have our own at Down With Tyranny! Please read Newtie’s crazy, batshit-wacko mind and send us your ideas as to what he might be thinking or fantasizing about. To get things started, I offer some of the things that I think he might be thinking:

1. “Soooo Michelle, whataya doin’ after the show?”

2. "Jeez, where were you when I met my first three wives?"

3. "Listen up, I’ll put my wife in the hospital for some surgery, and then when she’s coming out of the surgery, I’ll get her signature on some papers, and . . ."

4. "I know some great little places in Greece. I know ya wanna see me in a Speedo!" [Arg! -- Ed.]

5. "Ooh, Michelle, how I long to wrap my flab around you. You’ve never done it till you’ve done it with a newt!"

6. "Michele, baby, Anthony Weiner’s got nothin’ on me!"

So, go ahead. Make our day! Have at it. What’s on Newtie’s mind?

And if you have one for Michele, that's fine too.


NOTE FROM KEN: BY ALL MEANS, DO MICHELE

Oh yes, absolutely, do Michele, please! I have no idea where those words come from which, um, normally (for want of a better word) come out of her mouth, but here's your chance to play . . . well, not God, but something way kinkier: Michele's Brain.


NOTE TO QUEBECKERS . . . ER, QUÉBÉCOIS:
YOU CAN PLAY IN OUR CAPTION CONTEST

As you know, you are barred for life, or for eternity, whichever comes last, from entering The New Yorker's caption contest, even from voting for one of the finalists, and you know why. (Come, come, there's no point playing innocent -- er, jouer l'innocent -- with us. We know what you did.) You'll just need to supply two forms of ID, at least one with a photo, and promise to make sure it never happens again. (Really, you disgust -- um, vous dégoûtez -- us.)

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