Sarah Palin deigns to mingle with her sycophants in desperate attempt to retain their support. Update!

This fawning write up of Palin's appearance at a meet-up of castaways from the Sea O'Pea comes to us from the pro-Palin blog US for Palin:

Gov. Palin shook my hand shortly after entering. She signed my O4P NY tee shirt, as I said to her, “Take New York. Take the heart of it. Take it all….all 29 electoral votes. Do it for my wife. Do it for my mother. Do it for all the little girls of this country.” My meeting with her concluded with a hug from Gov. Palin, followed by a handshake with Todd. 

The former Alaska Governor did not address supporters at the Conservatives4Palin-sponsored event, however, Peter Singleton, Iowa State Coordinator, Organize4Palin did. The Palins sat and listened to his address, followed by final bonding with supporters.

Now the Palin-bots are going to come over here again and claim that I doctored that picture to make her look so incredibly bad, but of course I didn't as you can prove to yourself by clicking the link provided at the top.

Of course it does not matter what she ACTUALLY looks like, because this is what these people see when they look at her.  

However something is very odd about this appearance.

"The former Alaska Governor did not address supporters ."

Why would Palin show up to this meeting of supporters and NOT take the opportunity to address them?

These are her most ardent followers, and the source of the money that flows into SarahPAC, why would she not take the time to thank them and get them all fired up about the possibility of a future announcement that she is jumping into the race?

I literally could not answer that question. Until I saw this video.


Did you see it too?

There is something very, very wrong with Palin.  She looks quite ill, and extremely frail.

I believe that she is having a nervous breakdown, and she simply could not take the chance of losing it in front of these people.

If you look at Todd in the video you can see the that he has a very worried look on his face, and seems drained from the strain of dealing with whatever she is going through right now.

The supporters in that room were too blinded by the appearance in the sweaty flesh of their demi-god, but I believe what we are witnessing are the last days of Sarah Palin as a political force.

It could be the books coming out, the pressure about babygate, or even the statements coming from "Anonymous," but SOMETHING has almost literally sucked the life right out of her.

Update:  I noticed that a number of you did not believe that Palin looks as ill as I described earlier in the post. I in fact do.

My opinion, and this is just my opinion, is that she is having a rather severe psychotic break. I also believe that it is affecting her health in rather troubling manner.  That kind of skinny does NOT come out of a diet pill box or Red Bull can, THAT is the result of a serious eating disorder.

Some have mentioned possible drug use, and yes that could also be a factor.  In fact if I saw that woman on the streets I am pretty sure I would automatically assume she was a meth addict or a speed freak.

Also watch her affect in the video.  She seems incapable of any emotion, not even responding to the loud cheers right behind her and right next to her.

What is even more bizarre is that she cannot even FAKE emotion, which of course she is usually quite adept at doing in front of crowds.

So though we can all have different reads on what we are seeing I assume we all agree that there is something seriously amiss here.

Palin is scheduled to give her speech later on today.  I am interested in whether or not she can pull it together by then, or if she will be forced to cancel.

Are you as pissed off as I am about the fact that Marcus and Michele Bachmann charge YOUR government to provide Reparative therapy for gay men? Well now you can do something about it.

"Here's Shelly!"

From Credo Action:

It's bad enough that Bachmann and Associates, after denying for years they practiced ex-gay therapy, clearly encourages patients to pray the gay away. Our taxpayer dollars shouldn't be funding it. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees Medicaid, and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), which distributes the funds within the state, should immediately pull public funds from Bachmann's clinic. 

Going to the Bachmann family for counseling is like attending a peace rally hosted by Dick Cheney. 

Their views are extreme, hateful and crazy. Michele Bachmann has called homosexuality "a part of Satan," and "a real issue of sexual dysfunction" while her husband Marcus has called gays "barbarians." 

And even as Michele Bachmann's family was collecting over $160,000 in Medicaid and other public funds, she was leading Tea Party calls for drastic cuts to the social safety net - especially to Medicaid which she has said swell the "welfare rolls" - and even voted to shut down the government rather than continue funding Planned Parenthood and the Health Care Reform Act.3Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay clinic.

If you click the link provided at the top it will immediately take you to the Credo Action website where you can add your name to a petition demanding the following:

"Public money shouldn't fund a discriminatory, hateful religious agenda and medically-unsound ex-gay therapy. In light of recent investigations, please take action to immediately stop funding Bachmann and Associates."

I did it yesterday and, I have to say, it kind of gave me a good feeling.

CNN reporter Don Lemon manhandled by Marcus Bachmann. NO it's not what you think.

Courtesy of CNN:

After talking for about three minutes, Bachmann waded into the crowd filled with adoring supporters.

Moments later, as she tried to exit the area back to a waiting drive cart, Bachmann found herself in the middle of a mob of people: among them many supporters and members of the press including this reporter and CNN anchor Don Lemon. 

As both CNN staffers tried to question Bachmann, Lemon said he was pushed by two members of Bachmann’s staff. Lemon also said that Marcus Bachmann, the congresswoman’s husband, pushed him. 

“She came out, after speaking for just a couple minutes,” Lemon said. “There were other reporters and cameras there. And I asked her very respectful questions: ‘How do you think you did in the debate last night?’ and ‘How do you think you’re going to end up in the Ames Straw Poll?’ And her two campaign aides started elbowing me.”Lemon continued: “I told them, asked them not to elbow me. And then her husband Marcus started doing the same thing. And then he elbowed me into the cart. And I said, ‘You just pushed me into the cart.’ And he goes, ‘No, you did it yourself.’ 

“It was just, I don’t know, why they would choose to do that. We weren’t asking any ‘gotcha’ questions,” Lemon added.

Gee I wonder what got the Bachmann campaign so "wee'd wee'd up?"

Perhaps a reporter from Des Moines Register can clear this up:

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was 30 minutes late to speak at her scheduled soapbox event and spoke for three of the 20 allotted minutes. 

She said she was going to shake hands, but left the makeshift stage quickly when 17-year-old Gabe Aderhold of Edina, Minn., loudly questioned her husband, Marcus, about counseling techniques at his clinic to “pray the gay away.” 

Uh oh, it looks like the unscientific, and potentially damaging, "therapy" sessions that the Bachmann's use in their "pray away the gay" clinics might be a sore spot for the campaign to deal with. Well gee if I were a reporter in Iowa I know exactly which question I would keep bringing up.  

Michele Bachmann does NOT want to talk about the anti-gay "reparative" therapy sessions conducted at her husband's clinic.

I LOVE the look on her face when she realizes that this Iowa  television reporter has her cornered.

"But I want to talk about job creation, NOT my husband's Voodoo mental health practices!"

Yes she is so proud to be a job creator that defrauds Medicaid by charging it for therapies that are not considered viable by the mental health community. So not only do they pay their employees with money that comes from the government, but it is money that may have to be paid back to Medicaid if they are found to be charging for therapeutic services that the program does not cover.

Oh, PLEASE let Medicaid demand their money back!

(Think Progress has more on this topic.)

Investigative reporter visits Bachmann and Associates, to determine if their "therapeutic" interventions to rid clients of their "gayness" were legal. Wanna guess what he found?

Here are the highlights that John Becker reported back after attending several sessions to expunge his "gayness.".

• I was advised to find a heterosexual “accountability buddy” as I struggled to increase my attraction to women and decrease my attraction to men. I was to confide in, pray with, and be held accountable to this person.
• Bachmann & Associates sells a book written by Twin Cities minister and self-proclaimed “ex-lesbian” Janet Boynes. This book chronicles her supposed journey “out of the lesbian lifestyle.” Next to the stack of books was a prominently-displayed, typewritten note that read, “Janet is a friend. I recommend this book as she speaks to the heart of the matter and gives practical insights of truth to set people free. – Marcus Bachmann, PhD.”
• I pretended to have just told my brother that I was seeking counseling to help me deal with homosexuality. My brother’s (fictitious) response was that I should just come out, because a person can be happy and gay and still go to heaven. My therapist said that my brother “didn’t choose his words wisely.”
• I mentioned Marcus Bachmann’s by then well-publicized remarks calling gays “barbarians” who “need to be educated.” “Am I a barbarian?” I said through tears. Rather than contradict his boss’ words, Wiertzema opted to doubt the authenticity of the recording I had heard: “It sounds like… something that someone just did. It doesn’t sound accurate.”
• Several sessions after asking for information about “ex-gay”-friendly churches, programs, and support groups, Wiertzema passed along a colleague’s referral to Outpost Ministries, a Robbinsdale, MN-based “founding member ministry” of the discredited “ex-gay” group Exodus International.
• I mentioned the marriage equality ruling in New York and the possibility that some of my close gay friends might now get married. When I asked him for advice on whether or not I should attend any future same-sex weddings, he acknowledged that it was a tough and highly personal decision, but if he were in my situation he wouldn’t go – at least not without a heterosexual accountability buddy in tow. When I expressed concern for the well-being of my gay, soon-to-be-married friends’ eternal souls and asked if they could go to heaven, Wiertzema reassured me that indeed they could, “if they repent before the Lord and are right with God, later on.” When I sought clarification as to whether or not he meant they would need to turn away from homosexuality first, he responded in the affirmative.

Based on my experiences at Bachmann & Associates, there can no longer be any doubt that Marcus Bachmann’s state- and federally-funded clinic endorses and practices reparative therapy aimed at changing a gay person’s sexual orientation, despite the fact that such “therapy” is widely discredited by the scientific and medical communities. It’s time for Michele and Marcus Bachmann to stop denying, dodging, and stonewalling. They owe it to all Americans to provide a full and honest explanation for their embrace of these dangerous and fraudulent practices.

Becker is right,  Bachmann and Associates have received  over $137,000 in Medicaid payments to their clinic since 2005.  If they are receiving this money while providing widely discredited therapy, they are in fact defrauding the government. Which they must be since homosexuality is NOT defined as a mental illness. And isn't THIS guy married to the batshit crazy GOP Presidential candidate who is constantly  badmouthing government spending?

And it is not like the fact that these homosexual to heterosexual therapy sessions not working is anything NEW.  Hell the Daily Show was openly mocking them ten years ago.

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That is exactly how this "therapy" should be treated, as a joke. However, sadly, it is a joke which can do real, permanent harm to those who have been subjected to it.