Michele Bachmann retreats to a pumpkin farm to continue her homophobia, but some students follow her and are met with police who make sure Ms. Bachmann is not attacked by a gay pumpkin . . . or something.

Up with People was a non-profit corporation, a counter to the counterculture, the voice of Nixon’s Silent Majority and it’s well-publicized busload of kids traveling the world and staying with host families delivered an experiment in a new life style, a freshly scrubbed version of hippies. Whether singing “Freedom Isn’t Free” at a barbed wire Berlin Wall checkpoint, showcasing their talents at Richard Nixon’s Inaugural, or performing in later years before groups of auto workers–who unknowingly would soon be laid off by the tour sponsor General Motors–Up with People was on message for the Establishment, spreading the word that being nice was nice, and the nicer you were to people, the more niceness would spread. And the world would live happily ever after.

And, finally, we showed that people can demand that their government help find the solution. Given modern, technologically advanced 21st century medicine, it is, in fact, the least we should expect from our government.

A government that is the solution, not the problem — like the one you promised and delivered for so many of my dead friends.

We should have paid closer attention to Tracey Baim, I suppose: she nicknames Barack Obama “The Great Equivocator,” having covered him since the beginning of his career. She was the managing editor of Outlines (the Chicago publication that since merged with Windy City Times) in 1996 when reporter Trudy Ring correctly reported on then-State Senate Candidate Barack Obama’s response to their candidate survey:

In 2008, I had the chance to host an FDL book salon with Jeff Sharlet when his book, The Family, was released. Drawing on his experiences living at one of the organization’s houses as well as his significant research into the history of this secretive religious group, Sharlet’s bestselling book exposed us all to this frightening circle of influence.

No, the Obama Administration is NOT 99 percent supportive of our issues, most of which happen to be the civil rights issues of the 21st century. Let’s review, shall we?

Why are we here on earth? What the meaning of existence? What is man’s purpose? What started the Universe? Where was God during the Holocaust? What is Truth? Should people have sex before marriage? What is the best way to find happiness? Where is the afterlife? Where are the voices in my head coming from? [...]

How can senior members of a church that emphasizes confession and penance be so insistent on blaming others for its sins? And how could senior members of a church so obsessed with controlling the consensual sex of others have been so cavalier about the non-consensual sex of their own?