From THE IOWA INDEPENDENT:
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson issued a formal campaign statement regarding a 2012 social pledge unveiled by Bob Vander Plaats, labeling it as “offensive to the principles of liberty and freedom on which this country was founded.”
From Johnson’s statement:
Government should not be involved in the bedrooms of consenting adults. I have always been a strong advocate of liberty and freedom from unnecessary government intervention into our lives. The freedoms that our forefathers fought for in this country are sacred and must be preserved. The Republican Party cannot be sidetracked into discussing these morally judgmental issues — such a discussion is simply wrongheaded.
This “pledge” is nothing short of a promise to discriminate against everyone who makes a personal choice that doesn’t fit into a particular definition of “virtue.”
While the Family Leader pledge covers just about every other so-called virtue they can think of, the one that is conspicuously missing is tolerance. In one concise document, they manage to condemn gays, single parents, single individuals, divorcees, Muslims, gays in the military, unmarried couples, women who choose to have abortions and everyone else who doesn’t fit in a Norman Rockwell painting.
…snip…
If candidates who sign this pledge somehow think they are scoring some points with some core constituency of the Republican Party, they are doing so at the peril of writing off the vast majority of Americans who want no part of this “pledge” and its offensive language.
Vander Plaats, who heads the religious conservative organization The Family Leader announced the social pledge Thursday during a press conference at the Iowa Capitol. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann was the first to sign and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum was the second.
On Saturday, two days after the original pledge was released, The Family Leader quietly made changes to the wording of the document, posting an updated PDF that removed one of the most controversial statements from preamble portion.
The now missing section stated:
Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.
It remains unclear if Santorum and Bachmann, as signers of the original document, will be held to this now absent belief statement.
(Videos at THE IOWA INDEPENDENT link)
From Politicususa:
A Former Fundamentalist Decodes Michele Bachmann’s Marriage Vow Pledge
Michelle Bachmann has endorsed “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMiLY” – a misogynistic political policy document by THE FAMiLY LEADER, a federally-funded public advocacy organization associated with Focus On The Family.
Federally funded, kids. There’s not enough money to pay teachers, but we can afford to pay for this bullshit?
In signing The Marriage Vow, Bachmann has pledged to promote the “Recognition that robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security.”
In other words: More American babies equals political and economic domination for the U.S.
But what if “robust childbearing” impinges on an individual woman’s “economic, strategic and actuarial health and security”?
…snip…
Bachmann and THE FAMiLY LEADER offer one simple reply: Woman, Get Over Yourself!
A quick visit to THE FAMiLY LEADER’s website reveals the self-abnegation ideal which is expected of American women according to their “FAMiLY values” paradigm. Notice that in THE FAMiLY LEADER logo, in The Marriage Vow document, and throughout their website, the “I” in FAMiLY is never capitalized?
…snip…
Simply stated, women who are unwilling to subordinate and sacrifice themselves to populate America’s economic and political war machine are selfish with a capital “I” – s.e.l.f.I.s.h.
Female self-abnegation is a core principle of the growing “Quiverfull” contingent of the Evangelical community’s “Biblical Family Values” movement which calls upon submissive wives to stay at home to conceive and birth large quantities of ”foot soldiers for Jesus” to advance the Kingdom of God on earth.
The term “Quiverfull” comes from a reference in Psalm 127 which likens children to “arrows” in the hands of a mighty man, “blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them.”
The “Biblical Family” worldview thinks of children as ammunition for God’s Holy War.
The “Biblical Family” worldview calls upon women to prolifically produce “arrows” to fill the “quivers” for their Dominionist husbands.
…snip…
Notice: There is No “You” in Quivering.
The misspelling is deliberate – a visual cue which suggests the same principle which THE FAMiLY LEADER intends to convey by using a lower-case “I” in FAMiLY throughout their website.
The idea that women must deny themselves and sacrifice themselves to the point of actually losing their lives is not an aberrant Christian teaching – it is merely Jesus’ central message taken to dangerous extremes – which is what makes The Marriage Vow seem innocuous, and even “Christian” to uninitiated followers of the “Family Values” movement.
…snip…
It’s ironic that The Marriage Vow makes a show of rejecting “Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.”
Apparently Michele Bachmann doesn’t make the connection between the biblical injunction to women to obey their husbands and Paul’s implied endorsement of slavery when he instructed slaves to obey their masters. If the purveyors of “Biblical Family Values” succeed in implementing their theocratic agenda in the American political realm, Michele will be required to forget about herself – shut up, go home, serve her husband and raise more babies.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
😆 Sodumbia 😆 But to pine for the good ol’ days for black people when families could stick together and be owned!!!! Forfucksake!
And I love these little gems at the bottom.
and botox batshit bachmann knows evahthin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!
I think she miscarried her brain along the way. She did look a bit botoxy in that ad.
you can’t miscarry something you never had. must have been a false pregnancy.
So wrong on so many levels!
Submissive women popping out babies coupled with a new version of ebonics & special spelling of words???
Clearly this is a cult.
This Biblical family values thing….
reminds me of this slogan I love—
Hate is not a family value.
it makes me wonder if discovery communications, which is the company that owns tlc, the military channel, all the discovery channels, etc., has some connection to this cult. they air that stupid duggars show, and the duggars are quiverfull fanatics. why do they constantly push this bullshit that having more kids makes you a better person?
Oh my … you are letting her use her puppies for comfort. But that still wouldn’t be enough to get my vote. What a batch of crazies!
botox batshit bachmann is married to a closeted gay guy, and nobody wants to do the nasty with man-on-dog santorum, so it’s obviously a pity puppy comforting for both of them.
Now come on, guys. This stuff ain’t new. Why, there was a very successful government that encouraged these same motherhood principles, so much so that they minted military medals for mothers who lost a certain number of children in the war, and even had the government encouraging productivity. And that government was a warm, wholesome, family-values-oriented group. Now, what was their name? Socialist National Workers of Germany party, something like that? I think they were called Nitsies…. or Nutsies….. 😉
i hate to say it, but that’s the first thing that popped into my mind. having babies as a patriotic duty. scares the shit out of me.
What can I say? Great minds think alike. And occasionally, I get lucky and think like those great minds, as well!
But wouldn’t an increase in kids hurt the economy? No more time for mani/pedis, mom’s at home so she can cook thus killing off MickeyD’s, saving more (or spending more) on school shoots down the cable/satellite TV and DVD market…. About the only American industries thriving would be alcohol and anti-depressants!
who is supposed to support all those kids in this economy? where will they all go to school when there are not enough teachers and not enough room in classrooms? the rethugs don’t think very far into the future.
“having babies as a patriotic duty”
I’ve seen that before. “Lie back and think of England,” anybody?
isn’t that how the whole news of the world scandal start? oh, wait. that was lie back while we fuck over england
Hey John, I got to meet one back in the 70s while auditioning a new lead singer for the band. Guy was from Dallas and wore one of those nazi motherhood medal on a neckchain. He said old momsie was popping them out in the era of Bad Adolf when she lived in the fatherland. She married a GI and came stateside and had him. Always remember that dude because of remarks made when we were talking about dope during a break. His absolute favorite rush was to tie off, jab a spike full of meth in his arm, have a buddy pop an amyl nitrate under his nose and let off the tie! He didn’t make the band.
Something tells me he also didn’t make 35…..
holy shit! these people are fuckin’ creepy.
they’re creepy, and we’re subsidizing them! to the tune of 3 million bucks!
i blame bush.
it was the faith-based initiative that gave these places so much money and made it possible for them to work against the government.
not just the government. these folks are in a war against reason.
they want a theocracy, not because they’re really into religion (at least, not the leaders), but because they love power, and they see religion as the means to the end.
Is it me or Bachmann numbers are going up and up and up…?
there are a lot of fundies in iowa.
What goes up must come down.
Bachmann is spewing her *let the US default on the lonas* throey & the teabagging village idiots are all shouting Yea!!!
Unless it actually happened and their Soc security checkes stopped coming & unemployment increased exponentially– ie all those government workers out of jobs.
Tea baggers are like lemmings…. they run full speed off the cliff till they realize they just ran off the cliff.
Bachmann yaps the yap… but discerning folks realize she is full of crap.
She never introduced any meaningful or even worthless legislation while in congress.
She is a seat filler. Meanwhile her state is going down in flames, financially.
No wonder she is hanging out in Iowa. Bad & negative photo op to be holding a presser in front of the State building, locked down with a Closed due to lack of funds” sign hung on the door handle.
she’s peaking too soon. i think the rethugs might be glad that she’s there as a diversion so the rest of them can work on getting an actual candidate behind the scenes. hopefully, that will backfire, and botox batshit bachmann will spew her bullshit, become the new face of the party, and the other rethugs will have to figure out a way how to distance themselves from her without overtly saying that she’s a bimbo.
I can’t figure out why they’re against Sharia since it seems to jibe with what they believe. Other than it’s for the wrong God. It’s time to get rid of these fundie douchebags no matter what their flavor and actually start electing folks who believe in governance.
i’ve always been in awe of their hyprocrisy over sharia law. you’re 100% correct, jeb, it’s the wrong g-d.
Focus on the Family? Once I saw that link..it was all I needed to know. It’s probably federally funded because BushCo loved those kinda groups and found any excuse to give them our tax dollars.
I also think Batshit Bachmann and her pal Rickie didn’t read the friggin thing, they just gladly signed it..which is true to form for those fuckwits. Who the hell wants an idiot like that running the country? (rhetorical question 😉 )
it’s a lose-lose situation. if they say they didn’t read it before they signed, they look irresponsible. of they say they did read it, they look racist. botox batshit bachmann is trying to say she had a line-item veto, and she didn’t really sign the part with the slavery reference.
I believe self-abnegation is still illegal in Texas, Oklahoma, and parts of Arkansas. And doesn’t BB look a little leathery these days? Trouble with this brand of thumpers is the claim to follow The Savior and tend to live in the Leviticus-Dueteronomy world which, incidentally, would reject them and use them for spear cushions. Now if all you wimmens out ther would just stop vamping the menfolk….naw, ain’t gonna happen. But you have to expect this from the twice-a-year nookie crowd (bad luck if your bday is 12/25) And so now we become the fleshpots of Eygpt. Just think how crushed they would be if they realized the major sex practice in this country is Onanism!
Considering that they claim to be all about self-reliance, they probably already know from a deeply shame and guilt ridden level. Rosie you’re alright… Jackson Browne anyone?
i wonder how many rethugs are in the support group, onan anon.
I’d like to hear what Palin’s take is on this piece of stupidity. She’d claim some legitimacy if she denounced this publicly.
she’d support it, and then she’d blame the lamestream media for picking on her for supporting it. then she’d add that, if you think the slaves had it bad, they’re aren’t anywhere near the victim that she is.
by the way, is it just me, or does botox batshit bachmann pronounce united states oddly? when she says she’s running to be president of the united states, it sounds like she’s saying president of the unineted states or something like that. it drives me crazy every time she says it. or maybe i need to get my ears checked.
I’m relieved that both the media and the blogosphere are giving this ample attention. Bachmann and Santorum have revealed a great deal in their support for this document.
(@#%&! My first comment didn’t take. Attempt #2)
I’m pleased that both the media and the blogosphere are giving this story ample attention. Bachmann and Santorum have revealed a great deal in their support of this document.
sorry about your first comment, ahab. the spam filter was hungry, and i didn’t see it until now. i approved it, but not until you had to bother to comment again. i have no idea why your first comment would have been flagged as spam.
anyway, i agree that it’s good that the media is covering this story. i guess it’s a good thing that casey anthony got a quick verdict so that the media could move on. i wonder how much time faux news is spending on it. oops! i forgot, they have the scandalous light bulb story to cover.
Don’t worry, CNN is still covering the Casey trial. Shhh – don’t say it’s over, or Nancy Grace will have another fit! Last night they were discussing the police activities in the case. (Don’t ask, I tuned out as fast as I could find the remote.)