Michele, Michelle

Since Michele Bachmann thinks the founding fathers abolished slavery and that all members of Congress should pass a patriotism litmus test, nobody should be surprised that she's now mistaking a new tax deduction for breast pumps for the government actually buying the apparati.  You'd think that every lactating lefty in America is soaking the government for a gold-plated, jewel-encrusted Tiffany breast pump. Next thing you know, women will be wanting the Nanny State to endow them with nursing bras by the bushel from Nordstroms.  Might as well just call it the Wet Nurse State, eh Michele?

 Of course, the corporate media are all whipped up into a frenzy because Michele with one L took the opportunity to diss Michelle Obama's lobbying for the tax deduction as part of her anti-obesity campaign. It's been proven that breastfeeding is healthy for both mom and baby - the antibodies flow, mothers lose pregnancy weight faster, infants develop fewer of those fat cells that never go away - etc., etc., etc.  If it weren't for Chris Matthews giving La Bachmann almost constant negative attention as Loony Woman of the Century, I doubt we'd even know who she is.  She'd be just one more anonymous congressperson from Minnesota by way of the Coen Brothers' "Fargo."


And of course, Sarah Palin's joke about Michelle O. pushing for breast feeding because of the high price of milk was made-for-primetime infotainment.  It was second only to the massacres in Bahrain and the union demonstrations in Wisconsin in news coverage last night.  MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell devoted several minutes to manufactured outrage over BreastpumpGate.  Nothing like making a mountain out of an AA, male reporter guys!  I can't stand Sarah either, but she was making a snarky joke, and you took the bait!  Attention, attention, attention.


Of course, the real story should be why American business is so unfriendly to all mothers, breast-feeding or bottle-feeding. We are one of the few civilized nations on earth that doesn't provide extended, paid maternity leave.  In France, new mothers even get someone to come in to do laundry. And maybe if companies had on-site child care, mothers wouldn't even need breast pumps.  If asked, I am sure most of them would prefer to nurse their infants the old-fashioned way.