Michele Bachmann Equals Sincere Ignorance Plus Conscientious Stupidity

Michele Bachmann’s mantra is that an appreciation of the founding and history of America provides is all that is necessary to solve our modern day problems.

There may be a kernel of truth in this, but since she is apparently ignorant of American history (and the present, for that matter), she is in no position to arrive at any workable solutions. However, nitpicking her scholarliness on historical particulars is not only beside the point, it might very well enhance her popularity.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity,” and Bachmann exemplifies this as no other Presidential candidate today. She is an ideologue who simply has no use for facts, sincere in her ignorance and conscientious in her stupidity. Worse still, her supporters don’t care whether she gets the words right as long as she is humming their tune.
Bachmann is certainly not alone among her Republican brethren in her disdain of facts and accuracy, but it is her breezy disregard for such that makes her unique. Mitt Romney anguishes publicly over whether his criticism of Obamacare is intellectually honest in view of his own state-run system in Massachusetts. Sarah Palin was shamed into trying to paper over her Paul Revere gaffe by attempting to tweak history to comport with her original misstatement. Bachmann, however, is utterly immune to shame. When confronted with reality, she simply brushes it aside, saying “people make mistakes,” and forges ahead. What is more significant, her supporters consider this praiseworthy.
Those of us in the reality-based community may have a good laugh at Bachmann’s graceless fumbling, but her relentless stream of boneheaded boners can easily be written off (and they will be by her supporters) as innocent errors by someone with a sketchy-but-sufficient command of American history. It’s arguable that someone who claims to derive her solutions from her knowledge of our history ought to at least do some cramming before writing a speech, but does it really matter? Does it really matter in what state or city “the shot heard ‘round the world” was fired when one is preparing to tackle America’s energy policy? Probably not.
During a recent CNN interview, Bachmann stretched the truth like a piece of taffy in selling her supporters on the efficacy of her Presidential bid. Entertainingly unabashed puffery, yes, but again, it can and will be explained away as awkward politicking by a citizen “outsider” reluctantly playing the media game required by the Swiftian tightrope act of our modern day election theatre. For a nation embroiled in two and a half wars, does it really matter precisely when Michele Bachmann entered the race for President? Probably not.The sobering truth is that such comical misstatements, which prompted NPR reporter Frank James to call Bachmann “a one-person, full-employment act for fact-checking reporters,” are in truth, only the tip of the iceberg. They are emblematic of her willful, sincere ignorance, and the Tea Partiers who support her emulate her in this. What’s more, they accept contradictory notions simultaneously without a whit of cognitive dissonance. Bachmann’s scholarly command of the history of America’s founding is one of her greatest strengths, but too much historical scholarliness is the weakness of effete intellectuals and lefty ideologues. Bachmann’s hardheaded truth telling is a breath of fresh air, but stretching the truth here and there is a necessary evil.
It’s entertaining and moderately newsworthy when Bachmann verbally slips on a banana peel, particularly when it’s her own banana peel, but public gloating merely burnishes her anti-establishment street cred in the eyes of low-information voters.
Meanwhile, Bachmann is pushing the truthiness envelope in her sparkling new presidential campaign website. Although it is primarily a collection of ham-handed criticisms of President Obama, she also offers her positions on a variety of important issues (and some not-so-important issues as well). These calculated statements are no less muddleheaded than her offhand public utterances, but they cannot be dismissed quite so easily. In short, she puts into black and white the same twisted, counterproductive prescriptions for America’s ills she’s been hawking verbally for years. She promises to:

• Create jobs by lifting business restrictions and “placing our trust in investors”
• Default on our debt, cut spending, and hamstring government
• Repeal the Affordable Health Care Act and make each citizen a health care profit center
• Make America more secure through some unspecified measures
• Lower energy prices by endangering the environment

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter whether Michele Bachmann can distinguish the Constitution from the Declaration of Independence—or from the New Testament, for that matter. And as George W. Bush proved, a penchant for misstatements can morph into a charming eccentricity in the minds of charitably predisposed voters. What matters far more than her minimal intellectual firepower is her catastrophic policies, her ill-considered written statements, and her reflexively anti-government prejudices.

US must step up Cuba oil spill readiness - experts

US must step up Cuba oil spill readiness - experts
Fri Jul 1, 2011 9:47am EDT
* Florida lawmakers trying to stop Cuba drilling
* Obama facing prickly political situation
* Experts say U.S. must coordinate with Cuba
By Jeff FranksHAVANA, July 1 (Reuters) - With Cuba preparing to explore for oil 60
miles (96 km) from Florida, the complicated politics of U.S.-Cuba
relations are impeding U.S. efforts to get ready in case of a BP-style
accident, analysts and oil experts said.
The Obama administration must do more to ensure that U.S. companies can
quickly mobilize safety and containment equipment should a well blow
out, which could do catastrophic damage to the Florida coast, the
experts said in recent interviews.
The blowout of a BP (BP.L) well off Louisiana last year killed 11
people, took 85 days to control and spilled 5 million barrels of oil
that killed wildlife and blackened beaches along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Cuba's first well, expected to be drilled this fall, will be in 5,600
feet (1,706 metres) of water, deeper than the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico.
But not much has been done as Florida lawmakers, and powerful
Cuban-American leaders in particular, cling to their decades-old dream
of toppling Cuba's Communist government, said Washington attorney Robert
Muse, a specialist in Cuban issues.
They have proposed bills aimed at killing Cuban oil development by
discouraging oil companies from working there, and are resisting the
notion that the U.S. needs to work with the island to assure adequate
emergency response, he said.
"They want to keep the place in a state of economic misery and hope it
will ignite once the Castro brothers are gone," he said. "It's that old
dream of strangling the Cuban economy."
The issue is a prickly one for U.S. President Barack Obama, with Florida
looming crucial in his 2012 reelection campaign and many of the state's
lawmakers opposed to concessions to the Cuban government led by
President Raul Castro.
U.S. Senator and Cuban exile Bob Menendez of New Jersey sides with the
Floridians on Cuba issues and, unlike most of them, is a Democrat.
Obama has stayed largely on the sidelines of the Cuba drilling issue,
taking little public action and making few comments about it.
His administration's biggest step so far was to send U.S. Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar to Spain this month to meet with officials of the
oil company, Repsol YPF (REP.MC), that is set to drill the first
offshore well.
U.S. SAFETY STANDARDS
Salazar said the company told him it would meet all U.S. safety
requirements and allow the U.S. to inspect the Chinese-built drilling
rig it will use.
Also, at least two U.S. oil safety companies are currently licensed by
the U.S. government to go to Cuba should there be an accident requiring
their help. Experts say many more are needed, and the U.S. State
Department has said it will approve more.
The long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba prevents American
companies from working there without U.S. permission.
But the administration has not taken what many experts consider the most
critical step -- meeting directly with the Cubans to develop joint
safety regulations and protocol.
The U.S. commission that investigated the BP blowout recommended
coordination with Cuba to assure both the safety of its offshore
development and an adequate accident response.
Cuba has said it would welcome U.S. involvement in its oil industry.
"Their environment is our environment, too, so we should do everything
we can to find ways to collaborate," said Cuba expert Phil Peters at the
Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Virginia.
"The drilling is going to occur and if the U.S. simply looks the other
way, then Repsol will not have the best possible resources available,"
he said.
The U.S. already has a joint oil spill response with Mexico and could
bring Cuba into that agreement, said Jorge Pinon, an expert on Cuban oil
at Florida International University.
"They (the Obama administration) are terrified of talking to the
Cubans," he said. "Somebody is telling them 'don't get together with the
Cubans.'"
Legislation proposed by Florida lawmakers would ban foreign oil
companies working in Cuba from exploring for oil in the United States
and prevent executives of companies investing more than $1 million in
Cuban oil operations from getting U.S. visas. It would also require any
companies drilling off Cuba to show their operations meet U.S. safety
standards.
While Florida lawmakers want to protect their state from oil spills, the
Cuba oil issue is also an emotional one for Cuban Americans who long for
political change in their homeland.
Cuba believes it may have 20 billion barrels of oil offshore, which
would be a big boost to its lagging economy and, in the eyes of its
opponents, a despotic regime.
"The Cuban regime is desperately attempting to prolong its overdue
existence and tyrannical influence be setting up this oil rig," U.S.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, who chairs the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, recently told the Florida Keys Keynoter.
(Editing by Tom Brown)

Musharraf plans return to Pakistan, politics

Washington: Pakistan's former president Perez Musharraf has said that he planned to return from exile and re-enter politics, and did not rule out a new bid for the presidency.
Musharraf, who has mostly lived in London since losing power following 2008 elections, visited Washington this week and met quietly with prominent Pakistanis at an elite hotel.
In an interview with CNN, Musharraf said he intended to return to politics, although he did not set a time frame.
"I certainly am planning to go back to Pakistan and also join politics. The question already of whether I am running for president or prime minister will be seen later," he said.
Officials in Pakistan earlier said Musharraf had applied to register a new party with electoral authorities, setting the stage for a political comeback. (Agencies)