From the Chicago Tribune:
For some members of a Conservative Jewish synagogue in Lakeview [Illinois], this year’s overlap of election season with the season of forgiveness presented a challenge.
During a worship service Tuesday on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, Rabbi Michael Siegel of Anshe Emet Synagogue offered what he called a customary greeting to a public official in the audience — U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R.-Minn. The greeting follows a synagogue policy to acknowledge the office rather than the individual or his or her politics, he said.
But the formality enraged more than a few congregants, prompting some to walk out and one to start a campaign of his own in support of Bachmann’s opponent in the race for her congressional seat, Jim Graves.
(Click on image for larger version)
“The holiness of the room and the holiness of the evening was greatly diminished for me, if not completely destroyed,” said Gary Sircus, who stormed out of the synagogue where he has observed the High Holidays for 25 years. “Our congregation values and embodies tolerance, compassion, respect for individual rights, intelligence, science — all of the things that I think Michele Bachmann stands against.”
Later that night, he composed an email to Graves’ campaign and sent it to others, urging them to donate. His words have since gone viral.
…snip…
Siegel said instead of a sermon that night, the service featured a fictional father and son dialogue about Israel, including a piece celebrating Israel’s openness to the gay and lesbian community.
Bachmann, an evangelical Christian and former presidential candidate, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel but an opponent of gay rights.
…snip…
The Graves campaign saw a 400 percent uptick in donations from the Chicago area last week, according to Adam Graves, the candidate’s son and campaign manager.
No word on why Bachmann was in Chicago or why she chose to attend the Jewish service. Calls and emails to her campaign and congressional office were not returned.
Maybe they wanted to keep the phonelines open just in case Marcus gets a call that he got that role on Glee that he auditioned for.
I intended to do a completely different poster on a completely different subject, but I found the original advertisement, and I fell in love with it. I immediately thought of Batshit Bachmann and Marcus. When I found the story about Batshit Bachmann using the holiest day of the Jewish calendar for her own political purposes, I simply had to make the poster.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
The good news is that she is a leader and legend in her own mind. On the down side, she is still in office, thus still has a microphone. There’s no question in my mind that she attended to make a political statement – and yes – something that should not happen on the holiest day.
sorry for the delay in answering, everyone, but it’s pouring here, and my internets connection was down for most of the day.
john, this is the first time that batshit bachmann’s seat is up for grabs. she’s a victim of redistricting, so she’s not assured a rethug majority. a lot of the people who voted for her before are pissed off that she tried to pass herself off as an iowan during the primary debacle. the polls show the race is very close. hopefully, all the college kids will come out and vote for graves.
That is one funny scary poster!
thanks sds! i saw the ad while looking for something totally different, and i just loved it. besides, i haven’t done a batshit bachmann poster in ages, and i needed to get another one out of my system. 😉
Good one Nonnie. I hadn’t heard about Bachmann in a while so I just assumed she had been abducted by aliens. Wishful thinking…
thanks, cynical one. i heard that the aliens abducted her, but after just minutes, they decided they didn’t want her either. 😉
That’s what I figured too.
LOL. the batsh*t on the windshield is a nice touch! 😉
i agree! the humor is in the details — the batsh*ts on the car, the corndog, the empress’ rethug ring, the flying bats, the teapot earrings, the teapot patriotic pin, the batsh*t pin, the christian cross ala hat. hilarious!
Ditto.
nonnie has a wicked eye for detail. also, the lady can accessorize!
loonie!! 😀
you know how i love the little touches. thanks so much for taking the time to find them. just one correction–that’s a teabag dangling from batshit bachmann’s finger. i had a feeling it might be too hard to discern. i still don’t have my files from the old computer, so i don’t have any of my accessories. i had to make them all over again.
i was having too much fun with the poster. the poop was a last-minute addition.
What a beautiful and funny poster.Batshit Bachmann is a proper name for her.I’m afraid that she will use any opportunity to promote herself.
thanks robert! 😀 i think she’s a vile woman. there are many people who almost never go to temple (me included), but they’ll show up for the high holy days (me not included, i never go). if i had shown up for yom kippur and saw batshit bachmann there, trying to score some points with jews, i would have gone ballistic.
Well, DANG! No wonder I had two odd but simultaneous feelings – an intense pang of homesickness, and a desire to clean my old Lee-Enfield rifle – as well as polishing the bayonet.
That explains so much, and yet so little….
(p.s. I see my buddy bestowed you the Mil-Post Award. Congrats! Who says all lobbyists are evil? 😉 )
not only did fasab bestow the award upon me, but he was nice enough to take time out to guide me in posting it here(i am completely technically challenged). what a good guy! thanks so much for the nom, john. you always have my back! 😀
Awesome pic, nonnie!
thanks terry! mmmmwwwaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! ♥
Great poster nonnie (as are all your posters). Veddy, veddy in-terrrr-est-ing. So the rabbi issued a generic “welcome to our US representative” (assuming he did not call her out by name “following a synagogue policy to acknowledge the office rather than the individual or his or her politics”) and congregants walked out en masse. That’s it (or not)? I wanted to know more but couldn’t find any juicy details in the Chicago Trib. This is exactly the kind of brouhaha one could expect in our conservative temple here in Las Vegas (animosity amongst congregants/rabbinical personnel can be shockingly strident). I can only assume she was there to 1) show solidarity with Israel and 2) schmooze (garner votes). Is she Ahmadinejad, Sandusky or O.J.? No. I would not have walked out (remember, I’m hetero to the max but I would still ‘do’ her…jk!!). Nah, they gave her waaay too much power. Had it been one of the three (four?) aforementioned scumbags I would most definitely have ‘gone off’ and/or stomped out dramatically, but for Bachmann, a simple avoidance of shaking hands and steering clear during Oneg would have successfully conveyed my displeasure and disagreement with her politics. Miss Manners would not approve.
thanks elizabeth!
i understand your point, and i can see the logic in it. however, if i had been in that synagogue and had seen her there on yom kippur of all days, i would have been supremely pissed, too. no, she’s not a serial killer or a child molester, but she’s still a despicable person, and the only reason she showed up was to promote herself. look at me! i loves me some jews! what if the jews (who are going to hell, by the way, in batshit bachmann’s belief system) are gay? does she still love them? apparently not, because she doesn’t want to afford them the same rights as everyone else. what if the jews are democrats? then they are most likely communist sympathizers or just plain old traitors.
i think the congregants acted appropriately for the occasion. they didn’t scream. they weren’t disrespectful. they simply walked out.
I once had a non-Jewish friend ask me if I was “getting Yom Kippered” as if I was en route to a smokehouse. 🙂
*Kippured
😆
i went out with a guy named daryl a couple of times, and he told me this story–he was dating a jewish girl. she was the first jewish person he had ever known. she invited him to her parents’ house for a party. he was nervous about meeting them for the first time, and he wanted to make a good impression. there were lots of people at the party, and there was a buffet with lots of food. the girl’s father, being a good host, came over and asked daryl if he’d like a bagel and lox. daryl paused and then answered, ‘i’m not really hungry, i’ll just have one lock.’ 😆 he had never heard of bagels or lox before, and he was so embarrassed.
Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am lol-ing my tokhes off!!! 🙂 I’m getting on Twitter to tweet this!!!
i laughed so hard when he told me.
Woo hoo, you’re back! And there’s new Michele Bachmann material to be mocked…how appropriate. Nice to see you here!
hey bratty one! 😀 so nice to see you! ♥
i’ve only been posting sporadically. making a poster every day was just too much, so i wait for something to move me. of course, batshit bachmann always inspires me!
Well yes, when is she not inspiring….
I am trying to understand what she was doing there. Yam Kippur is a High Holy Day and it start on the evening before untill the evening of the day. Tuesday evening untill Wednesday Evening. Why would she appear at a conservative synagogue in Illinois is beyond me. Wrong religion, wrong town, Lakeview, and wrong state, Illinois. Was she invited there by a member of the congregation? Seats are usually hard to get for this observance. So many unanswered questions. Especially in view of her and her husband’s views of Jews. Was her husband there with her?
hello rgkahn,
welcome to the raisin! 😀
i don’t understand what she was doing there either, and the article said that nobody in her office answered that question. from what i’ve read, it was known that the service was going to be a celebration of israel’s openness to gays and lesbians. she’s not jewish, and she’s a homophobe, so there’s no good reason for her to have been there. as you said, she was also in the wrong state, so that just adds to the mystery. you are correct as well as seats usually being at a premium during the high holy days, so did someone in the congregation invite her? if so, why? is there a power struggle in the temple, and someone wanted to start some trouble? if so, it backfired big time.
Thanx for the reply. It is interesting that she would be in any event out of her district let alone out of her state. What did she think she accomplish by this visit? I haven’t been to Temple in many decades, but remember how hard and expensive it was when I went. What was her plan or agenda when she went there? Did the inviter have an agenda also? So many questions, so few answers. I remember going the evening service the night before and then spending most of the next day there. So many years ago.
whatever the reason (i read that she was invited), it sure took a lot of choot-spa!
My thoughts exactly. Why is this bitch hogging up a seat one of the faithful should be using? Was it an invite so she could rub shoulders?
After reading this post and seeing her accessories, she needs to have a huge Star of David necklace or brooch in red white and blue. You’re welcome. 😀 Love the corndog, BTW.
as a jew, i would throw up yesterday’s lunch and dinner to see a star of david on this hypocritical moronic bigot,little spinny.
Although, the corndog should really be in his mouth.
well, you know me, sedated one. i always go for subtlety. 😉
I think I may have seen the light of the Yahrzeit candle. Had it been Rep Paul Broun R-GA (“All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell!”) I most certainly would have stood up and STOMPED the hell out.
“All that stuff I was taught about decorum…”
there are quite a few of them who would compel me to walk out. i don’t think i’d go quietly, though.
hey kids! so sorry i haven’t been around much lately. my dad broke his hip, and for a while he was not doing well at all. hopefully, he’s turned the corner and is on the way to recovery.
Mine’s not broken, but I can absolutely commiserate with your dad. Wish him well for me, and good luck to you, too. Take care!