Submitted to a Candid World

Boy, am I going to miss Michele Bachmann when she is gone. (She will be gone, eventually. If there is any cosmic justice, Minnesota’s 6th District will boot this woman in 2010; she squeaked by with 46% of the vote in 2008.)

From Salon’s War Room yesterday, we learn Bachmann is now concerned with the imminent creation of re-education camps that will turn American youth into automatons of political correctness, blah, blah, blah as part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. War Room links to FactCheck.org, which speaks truth to power on this issue (links theirs, bold mine):

Some … conservative Web sites say it requires the government to draw up plans for a “mandatory service requirement for all able young people.”Others say the bill forbids participants from attending church.

These claims are false. Neither the House-passed bill nor the Senate-passed version says these things.

….

House Republicans who approved of the bill said in the House committee report: “[W]e applaud the inclusion of reforms that Committee Republicans have long championed to ensure that recipients of taxpayer funds are held accountable for results. We are pleased to join with the Majority in supporting bipartisan efforts to strengthen the national service laws and improve service delivery throughout the country.”

War Room also links to the Minnesota Independent article discussing Bachmann’s latest and greatest paranoid fantasy, including audio files of Bachmann discussing the re-education camps on Sue Jeffers’ radio show. (Sue Jeffers is a libertarian.) If you’ve got five minutes, listen to the highlights. Eighteen minutes will buy you the whole segment. (I only lasted through about three minutes of the highlights.)

Poking around the Minnesota Independent site, though, I found an interesting tidbit. While Michele Bachmann is railing against stimulus bills and global currencies and socialism and the cult-like indoctrination of our children (an ironic worry, coming from a fundamentalist Christian), her district saw the largest number of foreclosures in the state in 2008. Apparently, too, her district led the nation in foreclosures in 2007.

Does this concern Bachmann? Hell, no! She’s got bigger fish to fry (bold mine):

Bachmann’s record in Congress is not one of a representative whose district faces such a crisis. Bachmann hasn’t authored or sponsored any legislation to assist homeowners facing foreclosure, but she has co-sponsored 14 bills to restrict abortions and five to promote Christianity in government.

Bachmann voted against five key foreclosure relief bills, including the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, which would set standards for mortgages and reduce predatory lending, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Act, which would provide funds for buying and rehabilitating foreclosed properties in affected neighborhoods. She also opposed the Expanding American Homeownership Act, which allows more people to qualify for FHA-backed mortgages, and the Expand and Preserve Home Ownership Through Counseling Act, which aims to improve financial literacy. Bachmann additionally voted against the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, a law signed by President Bush that contained many provisions to assist struggling homeowners and also the only one of the bills to become law.

Bachmann doesn’t believe it is appropriate to help “irresponsible” homeowners, but she might want to think about her constituents who are not in foreclosure but who are watching their equity disappear in a depressed housing market or who are already upside down when it comes to what is likely their largest investment.

Meanwhile, back in reality, the Democrat representing Minnesota’s 5th District, Keith Ellison, has made moves to help not only his district but communities nationwide suffering inordinate forclosure rates.

He authored a bill that gives renters 90 days notice when a housing unit goes into foreclosure and allow them to finish their lease.

“I think it’s in the best interest of the banks to keep people in these [housing] units,” Ellison told the Independent. “These empty buildings create nuisances for crime, they get vandalized. While they sit empty, people come in and steal copper piping and it creates a risk for fire.”

….

In the last session, Ellison authored the Fairness for Homeowners Act, which would add new regulations to mortgage lenders such as verifying a borrower’s ability to pay and eliminating pre-payment penalties.

….

Ellison is also a co-sponsor of 12 other bills aimed at providing relief to individuals and communities impacted by the foreclosure crisis. His voting record in Congress on housing is virtually the opposite of Bachmann’s.

Might I suggest that if you have a little extra money in 2010, you make a donation to the political campaign of whoever is running against Bachmann. Even if the candidate is a capuchin monkey. Any animal, person, place, or thing running against Bachmann deserves the support of the not-insane.