Associated Press
How can one tell for sure that there's an election coming up? Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is busy trying to generate new fears about Muslims. Alex Seitz-Wald took a look at the right-wing lawmaker's new conspiracy theory, which is every bit as ridiculous as the previous ones.
The Minnesota Republican, joined by Republican Reps. Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland, sent letters to the inspectors general of five government agencies responsible for national security to demand they investigate infiltration by the Muslim Brotherhood into the highest reaches of the federal government. In particular, Bachmann singled out Huma Abedin, the wife of former congressman Anthony Weiner and a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In case Abedin hasn't already been through enough already, Bachmann is now questioning her loyalty to the U.S. by asserting that Abedin has three family members who are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood (Abedin is Muslim). She's been targeted before by anti-Muslim activists, and Bachmann notes that Abedin's position "affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy-making." Bachmann also claims the state has "taken actions recently that have been enormously favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood and its interests."
The new witch hunt appears to have begun in earnest a few weeks ago, when Bachmann told a fringe religious right activist that "there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood" and that security agents are no longer allowed to learn about terrorist attacks.
But intensity of the nonsense has only grown since. Bachmann suspects pro-Muslim forces have not only secretly gained influence in the State Department, but have also secretly gained influence at the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Justice. She also wants the Office of Director of National Intelligence to do an internal investigation to determine "the extent to which Muslim-Brotherhood tied individuals and entities were involved" in DNI activities Bachmann doesn't like.
Perhaps now would be a good time to note that, just last year, Bachmann was named to the House Intelligence Committee and won the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa.
Incidentally, Bachmann doesn't have credible evidence to bolster her strange theories, but that's apparently beside the point -- McCarthyism isn't about proof; it's about irrational fear and sowing seeds of distrust.
In 2010, the far-right used this effectively with the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque." It's reassuring that, at least for now, those who aren't laughing at Bachmann are ignoring her.
Leave a Comment:
Romney will never release any form of financial info. Romney doesn’t want the people to know how much they been getting screwed over. All this info would just really show how really corrupt and manipulating these rich people have been in changing our laws to favor only a select few people, which is themselves. These extreme rich people are so sleazy that they are using anything to just try to cover-up all that they have done. Having people come on the news and pass a load of baloney that contains way too many lies and very little actual facts or truth. Let’s finally get down to the truth for once about these sleaze balls. Romney doesn’t want to talk about any of this, because it would show how sleazy he really is. Romney a nice guy, my butt. What other lies is that joker going to try to think up. Start holding these people accountable for once, instead of patronizing these crooks. It doesn’t take much to figure out how they really inflated prices to what they term as get rich quick at someone else’s major expense. And if all fails set up some little guys to take the fall or accuse them of being killers so they can have a distraction to what is really going on. Enough is enough it is high time for the truth and not these spouting lies from these corrupt extreme rich people.
Michele Bachmann needs to get out of government, especially when she pulls this crap. People in general just look to have better lives, not to be used as escape goats and lies. Michele Bachmann you are a lying crook.
She needs to be LOCKED UP...she is a menace to society.
Do you think the Mascot of the Radical Republican Party -- Jesus -- was a Xenophobe, a homophobe, racist or hater ?
People like Michelle Bachman --who appears to be married to a closet queen herself -- need to make up their mind if they are lovers like Christ, or haters like religious fanatics.
One hopes that her district has had enough of her and votes for any one but Bachmann in November!
I'm going to do my best to be rid of her this election, no matter how many times I have to vote! HAH!
OMG voter fraud I knew it! Quick, disenfranchise all young & minority votes in Minnesota! (@ Pauly Heins)
That woman is nuttier than a squirrel's nest!
Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you! Be afraid Michele. Be very afraid ;-)
She is probably so egotistical that she does not feel fear. Saying that she does not feel fear is not a compliment. After all, courage is not the absence of fear, but going on in spite of fear.
As for th Ames Straw Poll, that's a farce anyway; it's a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party where one must pay like $30 to cast a "vote." The campaigns actively spend money themselves on those tickets and then hand them out for "voters" to use. Bachmann's campaign spent the most money on ballots to hand out, and she didn't even get as many votes as the number of ballots they bought and handed out!
But how in the world did Bat-sh!t Bachmann get on the House Intelligence Committee? That simply defies all logic.
I have it from a solid source (Michelle's blog) that the Tooth Fairy has been stealing teeth all across America, and implanting them in Muslim Brotherhood babies!
And, when they grow up, they will enter American politics, with Perfect Teeth. (Smile for us, Michelle. . .)
I think the commies should breathe a sigh of relief now the right wing wackos are going after the so called Muslim Brotherhood. Too bad we dont have a Edward R. Murrow in the media today. Pretty soon they will want to have senate sub committees asking people you now or have you ever been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
I was thinking the same thing, Cassandra. I actually went to hunt down McCarthy's "I have in my hand a list of 205" (accusations about card-carrying Communists at work in the State Department).
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456/
If anyone forgets, McCarthy never proved his accusations, but he ran a campaign of terror and intimidation against anyone who questioned the veracity of his unsubstantiated claims. He was one of a very small group of Senators ever censured for his actions, but not before he made a shambles of due process.
Please. Don't. Go. There.
This alleviates my paranoya that the filthy rich christians, aka Cheney and Co., are tired of buying themselves houses and decorating bathrooms and now feel annoyted to start a apocalyptic religious war. I will be much more fearful when Mitt starts this war-mongering..
Not just a Religious War . . . a Race War as well. All the gun-toting, racist, homophobic, woman hating, religious fanatic, fat, white, KKKers, have been spoiling for a race war for some time now. I mean, their ammo has been on the shelf collecting dust. They are just itching to use it.
Excellent work, Michele! I see that you've done your best to show how much you don't value the truth at all and are only interested in using fear to get your way. How terrorist-esque of you.
Bachmann is the "gift that keeps on giving".....
What is wrong with the people in her voting district? Don't they realize that she is just plain crazy?
Just as the rumors start that Huma's husband might run for office again. I'll bet that's what this is about.
Michele is right to have a phobia. She just has the wrong one. Better choices would be Baptistphobia or Mormonphobia or Catholicphobia. Those are all greater threats to our country than Islam.
There truly is no end to this woman's craziness. First the senate and congress are overflowing with anti-Americans and now more top ranking government officials are card caring, bomb making, radical religious fanatics!Translation:Muslims. These days I am more afraid of the Christian right if Michelle Bachmann is their spokesperson. It is really scary that she actually is still in public office. Does she really speak for the majority of the Christian right? Can so many people be so delusional? Please, to anyone in her voting district: vote this crazy, lying, dangerous woman out of office.
Bachmann is not at all religious -- a truly religious person is tolerant of others. Bachmann is a fascist -- pure and simple. She wants to impose her pseudo-religious views on all of us, i.e., expel or legally discriminate against immigrants, Islamic people, gay people, poor people, and all the while, she wants to further enrich big oil companies, insurance companies, etc. Some of the toxic waste that spills out of her ill-informed mouth is vaguely reminiscent of 1930's Germany. The fact that this lunatic is attractive and smiles a lot (like some cheesy beauty queen) as she peddles her hate and intolerance does not make her acceptable. Shame on the people of Minnesota for voting for and enabling this far right wing witch, especially where she hasn't done a darn thing for her District in all of her years in Congress.
It's unpleasant, but the historical relationship between christendom and fascism has been one of overall agreement in thought, word, and deed. WIth regard to this point, your logical fallacy is known as No True Scotsman: you don't like Ms. Bachmann's neo fascistic leanings, so you reject her as "not really a Christian". That doesn't work, in part because nobody has yet been able to define a "true Christian". The closest we have come are the various creeds, with people who don't believe all the elements of a given creed branded as heretical, by those who do. Of course, the fact that there exist more than one such creed, reveals that the problem of declaring a politician isn't really a Christian, persists. Ms. Bachmann's supporters certainly wouldn't agree with you, they are convinced she is a good Christian. So, without a proper yardstick, how are the rest of us to know?
Gary...,
I never cease to be amazed at the ridiculous way that liberal and conservative Christians run around waving their hands and declaring that the others are "not Christians! Not Christians!" Each group is trying to promote the lame fallacy that "Christian" (i.e., their particular variety) necessarily equals "good person".
A true student of History would very much fear Christians. Christians have killed more, raped more and hurt more people than any other group in History. I know it is a waste of time to point out that a main precept of Christianity is tolerance and acceptance. Christ who is generally accepted as the leader of these fanatics is quoted as having said that many will come from the East to displace many among His followers. Let it begin with replacing such as Allen West, Michelle Bachman, Joe Walsh and such and let it begin this very day.
Michele is a rather refreshingly honest portrayal of the radical right's feelings towards people who are different from themselves. The phobic actions on her part are only a splinter of the total picture of bat@!$%# craziness that the radical right is really capable. Please, get the reaction from the departments involved and use them as a follow up to this story....for all our sakes...and make a point to let the voters in her district aware of this story and the follow up.
So what do we call puppies when they are born of conspiracies?
Since the Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Rooney (R-FL) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga) are going full McCarthy on Islamophobia (Muslim Brotherhood), after fawning over puppies, we need to find names somehow. Beyond cute, puppies are known to become attached to and revisit same sub area of their mother's body for milk, preferring to feed off a comforting source of nutrition. More directly to be weaned off of mother's milk, is the rule for puppies. But good a conspiracy must have a mongered beast hiding somewhere and it must grow more and more "iffy", so much more "iffy" that the word "iffy" needs to become a noun used to describe conspiracies. Quite often puppies have uncertain parentage making for more mischief, combined with the need to give puppies away; they happen and are adorable, possibly inspiring the notion of the Trojan horse.
Working backwards and forensically dissecting Islamophobia, we find phobia to stimulate the darkness of the primal animal state, were a reaction is the necessary trigger, toward some irrational act. Phobias can be self-made or man-made when a conspiracy needs fear, the poison of fear has a one known antidote, not truth as it is unknowable, and so the antidote to fear is the determination not to believe it. Disbelief works to cure deception.
Islam is the foreign sounding word, taking place of communism, world domination, except the interpretations of scripture, including do anything to win, without a central hierarchy. Fear not any such system of belief is inherently self-contradictory and if it existed for any length of time it will soon undo it-self.
But my conspiracy to make much of puppies still doesn't appease the Gods of conspiracy, we have to go on using the alternate definition of conspiracy - A conspiracy is an economy of thought, where it is desirable to explain as many things as possible with as few unsupported assumptions as possible.
Puppies need milk, to grow and mature and be given away quickly, but suppose that the puppies were never weaned and mother had to grow extra capacity, suppose that the world economy was run by energy, suppose that energy was found in Islamic countries, suppose that a military was needed to guard against hostile takeover, suppose that because the consequences of these dependencies enough time 65 years, had passed to allow a new conspiracy to be developed in retaliation against dominance. The conspiracy had a litter of puppies, these puppies need names, but no matter, name one for "follow the money", its investment tail leads to world of finance, investment, stock exchanges, equity stock ownership and CEO's nearly invisible - business. Another would be "give a way", exporting production worldwide to lower cost and by the way increase dependencies. Another would be "lower taxes", just to weaken the defense of a country undermine its infrastructure, and diminish the middle class consumer.
The energy suppliers would have long been cross bred with finance varieties, bankers, buyout leverages, and water friendly breeds of venture capitalists, future speckled marketers. The oil breeds all showing various poses, loyalties and lap compatible characteristics. Military and protect breeds crossed and recrossed. So it emerges that the once hostile trained oil sniffing breeds are to found in sumptuous homes in tropical paradise islands.
It's not your WWII's conflict, nor you advanced remote drone strike forces, most of what the public sees, that is just for show, simple low brow reaction of an entirely preoccupied population who's labor produced more than the wealthy can consume, but none the less need to be kept amused with, poverty, despair, drought, illnesses and age old concerns of old age, and wasted ideological battles better played using video computer games in your parents basement. Just think of the higher show breeds, where sovereign states have merged finances, and aggression via military remains conventional amusement, against imposturous nuclear exchange. The division of class is by order by magnitude five on the monetary scale.
We live in a dog palace of the rich and famous, were we only need a fraction of the population supported by oil wealth, the rest can be looked after by being alternately, amused, abused, disused by all the trinketed, gismo, and mindless distractions offered.
So there you have the results ahead of time, our conspirators, raise puppies swathed in layers of luxury, consuming idleness, and are too far above us that we cannot be noticed. Humans have so managed livestock that humans have become human livestock, or are we all puppies needing adoption.
Oil - is one word conspiracy.
Bachmann must of taken LSD some time many years ago, and is still on a bad trip.
Yes, and Bachmann herself is a bad trip.
Couldn't figure out why MB would stoop so low, as she names former Rep Weiner's wife. But I found this and it shed some pathetic light on her motivation.
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-03-17/entertainment/30006308_1_michele-bachmann-sean-hannity-air-traffic-controller
Methinks she's dangerous and evil.
its time to play the christian card according to the bible (revelation chapter 22 verse 18 and 19) rommney is a man cursed by god being a missionary for the mormon church.actively pushing the book of mormon as the word of god.this is a test by god to see if his so called flock hates enough to side with satan.
This woman is a really evil person. I hope she gets voted out of office, she is not good for America. Biased period and threatening to us all
it's time to play the christian card(revelation chapter 22 verse 18 and19) true christians can not vote for him he was a missionary for the mormon church actively pushing the book of mormonas the word of god .this is a test by god to see if his so called flock ,actually hates enough to side with a man who according to the bible is cursed by god.
I implore Minnesotans to vote Bachmann out of office at your earliest convenience!
Even those who trust Faux News should be asking themselves "why is our congressperson interested in dual citizenship?"
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/09/bachmann-becomes-citizen-switzerland/
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/18241926/michele-bachmann-a-citizen-of-switzerland
Do they give secret bank account discounts or free health care for Swiss citizens? They do have universal health care in Switzerland, so...
This lady cries "Wolf" waaay too much. Remember when she said the Iranians were working with Mexican gangs to raid the US border? Or that the US should close the non-existant US embassy in Iran? Her bizarre paranoid conspiracy theories abound. Watch, next week she'll claim she never was targeting Muslims and that this was all a liberal lie to embarass her, like her last whopper.
I lke the label placed on Ms Bachman of the being the village idiot in this global village