Michele Bachmann for President! (for people who find Palin too cerebral)

By Pablo Fanque,
National Affairs Editor


Hold onto your mukluks Ex-Governor Palin -- your old Mama Grizzly buddy-roo and fellow Tea-Partier Michele Bachmann has set her sights on an Oval Office run in 2012.  Or will you two tea-partiers team up or tag-team until one of you runs out of gas?

I have been trying to find out if Bachmann's announcement has caused any schism between her and Palin, or between their factions within the Tea Party itself.   So far, nothing has turned up.

Bachmann, the three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, is well-known for her doctrinaire conservatism, and her bizarre views like: "homosexuality is a dysfunction," or that President BHO is "turning America into a nation of slaves."  Rep. Bachmann makes liberals perhaps even crazier than her pal, the Ex-Governor.

Which will it be?  Or will they go head-to-head?

Bachmann, the chairwoman of the House Tea Party Caucus, is traveling to Iowa this month "to seek advice from political forces there and party elders close to the caucus process before coming to a final decision" on whether or not to make a run for the big seat.

Conservatives like Shannon Bell of Right Pundits think Bachmann would, at the very least, make for a spirited contest:  "She's unbelievable when it comes to raising money. She has impeccable conservative credentials. Liberals hate her guts. The Tea Party adores her, and she's not afraid to take on the establishment."

The often hilarious Andy Borowitz tweeted when this first came out: "Michele Bachmann would be an awesome presidential candidate for people who find Sarah Palin too brainy."

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Riding high in the water. . .

From "There I fixed it." Yes, this boat was built to ride this way in the water. . .


see more There I Fixed It

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The Stranger puts the Tucson murders/assassination in a larger perspective

Our local (and great) weekly, The Stranger, will be running this cover by Dan Savage and Aaron Huffmanon in their issue appearing January 13th.   
 

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Scratchboard drawings by Jack Brummet on 1-11-11

Art by Jack Brummet

The original image is created using a stylus, scraping away the India Ink layer from a clay ground on an 11" x 14" piece of masonite. The reversed image (the white one) is created digitally, creating--sort of paradoxically--the white, or "negative" image of the scratchboard.  Click the images to zoom/enlarge. . .

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My favorite photographs of President Gerald R. Ford (with Cheney, George Harrison, Brezhnev, Garagiola, and other Presidents)

 By Jack Brummet
Presidential History Editor

I always liked Gerald Ford, despite the Nixon pardon, and the fact that he wasn't a great president in his 22 months there.  On the other hand, what he did have going for him was a warm disposition, and the fact that he was not Richard Nixon.  Here are some of my favorite photos of him, mostly from his Presidency. . .

...click images to enlarge...

also one of my favorite Clinton photos

Watching returns with pal Joe Garagiola the night he was defeated for election (not re-!)

Ford with Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney

with Billy Preston, George Harrison, and Ravi Shankar

With Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil

Secret Service running Pres. Ford from the attempted assassination in SF, 1975

With Vice President Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger

With a few other Presidents

With Leonid Brezhnev

Announcing his pardon of President Nixon

Playing football at the University of Michigan

in the Oval Office with his dog Liberty

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digital art: the five presidents meet

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Why I won't run for President

By Jack Brummet
Social Mores Editor

Because of my past
Because of my present
Because who knows what might come out
Because I will say almost anything for a laugh
Because who has the time to raise $200 million
Because I would work to repeal the 2nd amendment
Because I would also work to repeal the 22nd amendment
Because most planks of my platform begins "mass involuntary ________"
Because I would order mandatory music at least five hours a day
Because we could never build enough holding tanks, prisons, camps, and islands of exile. . .

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Middle finger of the day No. 16 - 10 unknown/anonymous fingers

By Mona Goldwater and Pablo Fanque

click images to enlarge

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A Dean Ericksen retrospective

By Mona Goldwater
Society Editor

Since I joined the staff, I have read through the entire All This Is That Archives and noticed dozens of images of Dean Ericksen.  Many are unattributed, but most appear to be the photography and Photoshop work of Pablo Fanque and Jack Brummet.  Here are some of my favorites:

click images to enlarge

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William Burroughs on the famous "flower in the rifle barrel" photograph

By Jack Brummet
Social Mores Editor

William Burroughs had plenty to say when he saw this famous photograph from a Vietnam protest rally:

"...giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high window. "

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