I saw this clip earlier today. Thanks for bringing it here. I find it interesting that she throws around the phrase "anti-American" but doesn't define what that means. I mean, we've just suffered through quite possibly the most anti-American 8 years of our entire national history, and she's worried about Obama?

What does she mean when she says "anti-American"? Do you know? I don't know, and it seems Chris Matthews doesn't know and neither did Buchanan when Matthews asked him about it afterward; Buchanan said he did not know of any senators who were "anti-American".

It is scary that still so many Americans buy into this level of ignorance and stupidity.

rated

I don’t know, maybe I need to take a very (annoying yet) objective look at the question and say pro-American is like pro-anything. If I’m pro-American then I want America to succeed. But do I want America to succeed when it is involved in endeavors I don’t agree with? Does Michele Bachmann?

Let’s agree that pro-American is a big picture ethic. We wish that our country wins the struggles it should win and learns from those it doesn’t.

Carl,

Yes, that is the other side of the very question I asked; the entire concept seems devoid of any substance, and appeals to ignorance alone: the kind of "patriotism" described by Mark Twain, who defined it this way:

PATRIOT: The person who can holler loudest without knowing what he's hollerin' about.

I live in her district. She's a total nutjob who, for inexplicable reasons, seems to be getting a lot of national media. PLEASE DONATE to her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, if you can. Go to his website or ActBlue.

I saw the original airing and couldn't believe how she was talking. However, Matthews needed to ask her to SPECIFICALLY describe how this anti-Americanism would manifest itself. Bachmann wouldn't/couldn't be specific. She could only rant about people and Democrats being anti-American. News people need to ask for details and specificity. They need to challenge this attitude.

The woman is a neurotic maniac. Oh! my goodness! You can't have it both ways Miss Bachman. Is he a Muslim or a Christian? Imagine a grown adult representing this country trying to sell this garbage to us.

I wonder what her opinion is of little Miss Sarah? She doesn't think Sarah Palin's husband's connection to the AIP party is anti American. I wish Miss Bachman would request the same of Sarah's connection w/the AIP party in Alaska, that's alive and well be investigated too. Which by the way, no one in the media has done a good job getting that out there to the public.

I mean for God's sake who are we kidding here? Sarah sleeps w/a man who participated in this anti American rubbish, her own husband, and no one is curious about this?

Perhaps that was the whole intent w/the Palin's to get control of the Governor's house to start moving into the direction by convincing the people of that state, that we don't need the US Govt's help cause we're doing a pretty good job all on our very own. Therefore...

we should secede from the 50 state union. It's exactly what Texas wanted to do as well. Gee! There's a coincidence. Isn't Bush from Texas?

Let's see now.... they just robbed us of our bank acct. Sounds like enough money to start your own country. I know, I know! It all sounds crazy. But, so does this $700 billion plus thing sound crazy.

How did this happen? And, nobody saw it coming. Somebody had to know in the White House that there was a movement going on in Alaska, similar to the movement that went on in Texas. And, that's how we ended up w/Sarah Palin as a VP candidate.

Maybe someone out there will eventually connect the dots. Can you imagine that ticket winning and Sarah moves all those people from that AIP party as part of her team to Washington.

These people have completely lost it. Please Nov 4th, hurry up! I wish it was yesterday already. This woman should lose her seat in the house. I sure hope that guy she's running against has a winning platform. She's more than dangerous.

She's a quack. Thank you for raising awareness of this nut in our midst.

Here I am again ,but this Michelle Bachman has really upset me on the level of our freedoms. If this isn't McCarthyism I don't know what is!
Is this the kind of America that the Republican party is going after in their leadership? Will we have to prove to them that you love America if you're not a card carrying Republican? Is this the "Country First" that John McCain wants? I feel sure that is the one Sarah Palin is for and don't forget Michelle Bachman. Michelle Bachman gets that runaway bride look in her eyes when she talks about going on a witch hunt for people who don't walk the Republican walk. I have news for her, I have already voted for Obama and everyone I know has voted for Obama and I'll go one better, we are all former Republicans! Keep talking you crazies because the Republicans are driving us away as fast as can be! I'm looking forward to a landslide for the OBAMA/BIDEN ticket!!!

I was relieved to hear Colin Powell denounce Bachmann’s ravings today.

It seems to me that the labels Communist or Patriot or American or anti-Semite or anti-American, or what constitutes blasphemy, etc. all can have different meaning/nuance depending on who’s throwing the label around (and how much wisdom they possess). Personally, when it comes to what is to be American, I feel that Naomi Wolf has expressed it so well, particularly in the introduction to her new book “Give Me Liberty” which I read on her blog at Huffington Post. I don’t know if it’s ok to provide links here, but you can find it by googling “naomi wolf battle plan” and go to the 16 September post.

She says “…liberty is not a set of laws or a system of government; it is not a nation or a species of patriotism. Liberty is a state of mind before it is anything else. You can have a nation of wealth and power, but without this state of mind -- this psychological "America" -- you are living in a deadening consciousness; with this state of mind, you can be in a darkened cell waiting for your torturer to arrive and yet inhabit a chainless space as wide as the sky. "America," too, is a state of mind. "Being an American" is a set of attitudes and actions, not a nationality or a posture of reflexive loyalty. This tribe of true "Americans" consists of people who have crossed a personal Rubicon of a specific kind and can no longer be satisfied with anything less than absolute liberty.”

It is sad and deeply perturbing that these vile people 1) exist and 2) are powerful. It is important to know what is going on in the rest of our society, moral and immoral. We live in an imperfect world and need to be aware of all views. As the saying goes, "Stay close to your friends and closer to your enemies."

Bachmann continues the vicious, inciteful attacks against Obama initiated by Sarah Palin and John McCain. The idea that Obama is close with Ayers, and Rezko is contrived guilt by association, and completely untrue. Bachmann's statements that Obama is anti-American reek of Mcarthyism, and inciteful hate speech at least. Bachmann is anti-American for bringing lies to a critical election at a critical time in America's history. Please give money to the campaign of her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg to send her a strong message that Americans are not stupid!!!

The whole thing is scary, but what is particularly disturbing to me is the attack against "college campuses" and the "anti-Americans" who work there. Our country is truly in trouble when we attack education and free thinking. For me, being an American is the ability to speak my mind and have my own beliefs. The basis of a college education should be to learn how to think for ourselves and understand what is going on around us, not blindly following the leader. Our country was founded on these beliefs. We are no better than the anti-American fascists when we do not allow people to think for themselves.

Yes, I said it. Bachmann is a fascist. I don't care if she labels me "anti-American" because I am a liberal and want to think for myself. She can have her America if that's the way it ends up. Being American gives each and every one of us the ability to participate, and even criticize, our government. That's not anti-American, that's pro-American.

I'm starting to feel like I'm in a science fiction movie.

This is despicable; it is a sinister assault on the political consciousness of voting Americans. There are no radical "leftists" in mainstream American politics, there is no association between Obama and any of Ayers insane activities, and there are no members of the United States Senate who are anti-American or seek to destroy democracy. Every single member of the Republican party who has helped to spread this rumor, who is pushing this agenda is unfit to serve in public office, due to their evident and utter lack of respect for the voting public.

We need to be strong enough as a people to resist this campaign of brainwashing and intimidation.

She looks and sounds like Kathryn Harris, the state attorney general who helped give Florida to Bush in 2000. Harris was exposed for the crazy she was in a sunsequent congressional election, as this woman is about to be.

I fear we may be in for a lot of this. When things are not good, and they certainly are not now, many people fall back on finding the "bogeyman" everywhere. The really sad thing is that we need serious, open dialogue to solve our problems, but how can anyone open up and speak freely if they will be accused of being anti-American for doing so? There are things that are broken in this country right now, but you sure can't fix them, if you don't even acknowledge them.

Another reason why it would be more of a media issue of McCain knew Ayers...because when these heinous acts happened Obama was playing stickball after school and McCain was ordering surf and turf in restaurants.

Bachman is spot on and EVERYONE should be very concerned about the Obama mystery. What is this man about? How can he have the connections he has curried and NOT be considered more than a bit questionable? I, for one, wonder how Americans can vote for a man who doesn't believe in the greatness of the US, and its inherent values, seems to a well fare nation over the value of hard work and fails to value or even live the 1/2 of him that is white. Weird and dangerous. It is even stranger that Matthews and his crew don't see it. (By the way Chris couldn't get Bachman to link left with anti- american because that is not the link.)

>>Here I am again ,but this Michelle Bachman has really upset me on the level of our freedoms. If this isn't McCarthyism I don't know what is!
Is this the kind of America that the Republican party is going after in their leadership?

"I, for one, wonder how Americans can vote for a man (Obama) who doesn't believe in the greatness of the US, and its inherent values, seems to a well fare nation over the value of hard work and fails to value or even live the 1/2 of him that is white. "

Hey Mila...I agree 100%. That last part about him not living up to the 1/2 of him that is white...priceless...oh...hold on...you're not being satirical...hmmm...okay never mind. Forget what I said...and you keep that astute mind of yours firing on all cylinders.

..to continue..

Janice,

I hope you’re still lurking. My addendum to your question is, “is this the kind of person the Republican party endorses to hold a position of power and influence within its ranks?”

After Gen. Powell’s statements of today on how he is dismayed with the tack the party has taken of late, and your obvious agreement with those comments, maybe there is hope that a segment of the Republican part (larger, not smaller I hope) is putting their grey matter to good use. If Bachmann’s position(s) aren’t enough to get Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, and Independents together to move progressively forward, I don’t know what else is. I think that’s the America most of us want, not Bachmann’s version. She’s vermin.

OMG, both Mila and Michelle are bats! The "half of him that is white"??? Live up to??? Welfare is not well fare, as in faring well, although I am sure the words became melded for a reason...OMG, the stupidity of the American public these days. ST, how do you stand it? I don't know if it is true, but rumors were floating around the Charlie Crist went to Disney World rather than attend a McCain fundraiser. Not sure what that says about Crist (DW?) except I am glad if he thumbed his nose at them!

This Bachman woman has the talking points down, and seems unflappable. YUCK!!! Poor Minnesotans -- sure hope she loses and that Mila moves to somewhere much more American with her. Maybe some Americanized place like - um, Alaska?

OK - Enough. It's time to drag out Jim Hensley and Kemper Marley. Kemper was REAL bomber - implicated in the bombing death of a newspaper reporter. It's time for John McCain to come clean on his relationships with these thugs and felons.

Tom...you are the man...I forgot all about that. That came up when McCain first tried to unseat Bush. Hmm...it's all coming back to me. But honestly...I think it would be beneath Obama to bring this up. Let McCain ramble...and let someone else drag this up later on...after Obama is in the White House.

Define Anti-American, oh, that's easy.... Michele Bachmann! Given her ignorant comment I'd be mighty proud to be called Anti-American by this idjit!!

1. "unrepentent terrorist." When Ayers told a reporter that his group "didn't do enough," he was referring to their general ineffectiveness in stopping the war in Viet Nam, not to a specific desire to have bombed more people or buildings. Bachmann says he "wishes he could have bombed more people" and "he was happy to be bombing Americans," which are entirely untrue, given that the group's mission did not include killing any people. A couple of their own members were killed accidentally, and that was to their great regret. The kind of exaggerations Bachmann makes here need to be called out each and every time they are made, as in Matthews saying, "Wait a minute, what do you mean he was HAPPY to be bombing Americans--when did he say that? And is it even accurate to say he 'bombed Americans' given that the two deaths that occurred were accidental?'"

2. She repeats the silly, "If John McCain had been..." (associated with a radical like Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright), it would have been all over the media. mantra with impugnity. This is utterly false. He IS associated radicals, both religious and political, and it is NOT all over the media. She simply asserts this point to reiterate their talking point that the media is liberal, and, again, she should be called on it. This is a mindless talking point that people just believe because it's said enough times.

3. Ayers is into "liberal, radical, leftist agenda education." And what, pray tell, is this? I just want to ask every effing RW talking head what they even mean by this. I GUARANTEE YOU that Bachmann could not name one single solitary position of Ayers's when it comes to the content of his educational theories, but she feels completely free to simply call his entire life's work "radical" and malign it like it's something dirty. The man's education theory is the best thing about him. I want Chris Matthews to say to the very next person who mimics that line: "So what does he espouse for American education?" and watch them flail.

4. I can't remember the last time I mocked someone for no reason other than their name--junior high, maybe?--so forgive my sophomoric inappropriateness: Elwyn Tinklenberg??!! Is this person an elf? And we thought Barack Hussein Obama would have a little trouble! (ahem, back to my earnest, goody-goody self.)

Mcarthyism isn't quite the right word to describe this woman. I'll bet the Germans have a word for it.

On days like this I think about Wiemar Germany. I think about the ordinary Germans of that time going about their jobs, raising their kids, and trying to make sense of the 1930s. They didn't see the disaster coming until it was too late. In some cases they welcomed it with open arms.

I hope that is not our fate.

Take a good look at Michelle Bachman. Remember her face and the sound of her voice. Keep in mind her, and Sarah Palin, and Ann Coulter, and jeeze, if Mila would give us a picture, we could put her in our minds' eye, too, because, halfway through Barack Obama's two term in office these people and their kind will have vanished, or be well on thier way to extinction from public life in this country.

Their whole xenophobic, paranoid, racist, selfish mode of being in the world has been shown to be morally and fiscally bankrupt. Their game is over and they will be crushed by the coming tide of unity and interconnectedness and sustainability that our country and our species will adopt to transform life on planet earth in the next stage of our development.

In the meantime, it would be great to ship 'em all off to Alaska, or maybe they can go with Newt, wherever it is he's threatening to go after Obama wins in November.

Frankly, I thought Matthews did a stinking job in this interview. Because of the several-seconds delay in the audio feed to Bachmann, he kept talking over her responses, or interrupting her, or she him, and his questions were, as usual, verbose and repetitive, and he annoys the shit out of me. For her part, she sits there with that frozen smile, as if she's discussing fine dining, and spews this moronic swill about "anti-Americanism", right out of the Nixon/Roy Cohn/Joe McCarthy playbook. Why the hell does this cynical surrogate get a platform to speak this lowlife political sophistry, no matter how incendiary? Matthews may defend it by claiming it "exposes" these views to the light of day, but frankly, it just gives them more air play, 100 repetitions, the very thing such virulent propaganda thrives on. This is where, in my view, free speech is countered by the egregious abuse of "yelling fire in a crowded theater", to which Bachmann's empty, unfounded bullshit accusations are equivalent. Given her status as a congresswoman, her claims ought to be grounds for formal discipline by her colleagues, at the very least for unethical and possibly slanderous allegations wholly without foundation. I'd like to see her publicly humiliated and repudiated as the right-wing extremist snake she is.

One more thing....a review of Wikipedia on Bachmann is enough to make you want to take a shower. Her radical fundamentalism notwithstanding, someone with her warped, irrational worldview should be firmly planted in private life and not representing anyone but herself and her family, anywhere. She's a walking, talking argument for strict separation of church and state. The regressives who voted her into office in 2006 ought to be ashamed of themselves. She's a dangerous demagogue and McCarthy wannabee, and I hope her hubris with Chris Matthews comes back to bite her in her self-righteous, holier-than-thou ass. She and her husband, who went to school at Pat Robertson's "university", are two of those "agents of intolerance" that McCain once disdained before he drank the Koolaid to get elected president. I hope to see her in the loser's column on 11/4.

>>On days like this I think about Wiemar Germany. I think about the ordinary Germans of that time going about their jobs, raising their kids, and trying to make sense of the 1930s. They didn't see the disaster coming until it was too late. In some cases they welcomed it with open arms.

Steve,

Do you remember the TV presentation Holocaust? The day after its first-part airing, I was visiting with one of our suppliers. I remarked at the time that what happened in Germany was very likely to happen here if we were not vigilant. By here, I mean Quebec in the late 70s, not long after a separatist, xenophobic government was put in place. One of the 3 supplier’s reps, an Anglo, told me I was crazy. Another, a Franco, echoed the sentiment. The third, A German (with whom I had worked at the company’s H/O in Germany and who had been posted here a couple of years later) said, “No, he’s correct. Do you people realize that our German history school books are missing 7 years? “

About a year later, I was in Dusseldorf when the German version of Holocaust aired. The studio discussion afterwards was quite revealing. The audience was made up of politicians, academics, and students mostly of university age. Many of the students questioned the validity of the program. How was it possible to have happened? Why, if it actually DID take place, is there no record of it in our history courses? The academics apologetically talked those questions down. It’s very possible that in the ensuing 30 odd years, the history books have been updated.

Another of my German colleagues once told me that as a child, he was in the Hitler Youth. “Membership” was compulsory. He recounted that he’d go home after meetings to tell his folks about what was going on. One time, he went a bit too far by spewing the party line. His father beat the hell out of him with the following warning, “Hear what they say at those meetings. But DON’T listen. And keep your mouth SHUT.”


Fast forward to the USA 2008. The right-wing agenda has ruled for the past 8 years, wreaking all of the economic and social havoc that we witness today. The neo-con bedding of government and big business is reminiscent of how the Nazis conducted their affairs in the lead up to WWII. Another plank in the platform was finding the scapegoats. In Germany, it was Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, and the list goes on. The scapegoats that Michele Bachmann uses are those who she deems to be “un-American”, a very broad stroke that can encompass just about anyone considered undesirable.. It’s a very fitting foundation for a re-birth of the ideology that gripped Germany back in the 30s.

So yes, keep thinking. Be vigilant. Spread the word and maybe, just maybe, we will avoid a similar fate.

Thank you all for the great discussion! (Well, thank you everyone, accept the couple of posts that had their facts plain wrong or expressed some poorly-veiled racism.)

Michele Bachmann is quite a nut. I'm afraid she does represent the next generation of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. When McCain selected Palin, I was immediately reminded of Minnesota's Republican Congresswoman.

While in the Minnesota State Senate, Bachmann's #1 issue was same sex marriage bans followed closely by abortion restrictions and school reform (meaning: support for home schooling). She did things like hide behind the bushes and spy on GLBT rally, tell young schoolchildren visiting her office that they were debating whether or not to kill babies (abortion), leave a constituent meeting after being asked about gay and lesbian civil rights and trying to file assault charges against an elderly nun and teenage girl who asked her about education funding in the bathroom after the meeting. (She apparently thought they were lesbians bent on doing her harm.) Her main issue when running for Congress was "tax reform" because she was a "tax attorney." Nevermind her law degree was from an uncredited school in Ohio (where she never lived) and she never passed the bar or practiced law. Newly in Congress, she physically grabbed George W Bush after his State of the Union in order to get a kiss. She also made up some "intelligence" about Iran having secret meetings to divide up Iraq and taking part of it.

A former colleague of mine described Bachmann as follows: "She believes in the secret government black helicopters and that they're coming after her."

To get all the dirt on her, check out the great blog Dump Michele Bachmann. It has chronicled her craziness since 2004.

I saw this interview because I always watch the Chris' Show. This woman made me physically ill. She and all those like her have had a field day for eight years now; deciding who are and who aren't American. For eight long years anyone who doesn't agree with them is considered un American. If you noticed that Bush was stupid and incompetent, if you knew that votes were stolen, if you knew that Bush wasn't a man of God, if you believed in separation of church and state,you were unAmerican. If you were against the war you didn't support the troops and you were un-American. If they later found out that the war was a mistake you should still support the troops or you were un-American. They refused to accept that you did support the troops, that's why you wanted them home and out of harms way you were still un American. Now is you don't support McCain, no matter what stupid decisions he has made or makes; if he failed to give you a plan of action or cohesion in his debates or speeches, and you feel that Obama is the candidate for you because he does all of the above but served on a board with someone who is so un-American that American court system never saw reason to lock him away, Obama is un American. Anything that's anti keeping a party who has screwed up the country in power is un-American. I cannot yet understand why Sen. Obama's serving on a board with Ayers makes him just as guilty or guiltier than Ayres who is a free man. This dumb woman even sees the board for education reform was unAmerican. All this hoopla about serving on a board with someone is just stupid. I'm certain if the Obama's campaign could pull out loads of folk that McCain served on boards with that would be questionable. But they are too busy putting together a team with a plan to deal with the mess that has been made of our economy and our country, instead of wait to see Putin from Alaska. Even if I want to mind my own business and let a woman, her family and her doctor decide things best for their private life, I'm un-American and pro-abortion. Although I have not met a single soul who is "pro-abortion". Yet, these are the same people who can't wait to offer up the death sentence and yell about welfare. I am sick to death of them. I listen to Pat Buchanan agree to a great extent with this stupid woman and his silly talk about not even shaking hands with Rev. Wright because Wright is so un-American; yet Buchanan's always studying and writing books about Hitler, a vile and evil man that he seems to idolize. I even read Buchanan's scathing article on how grateful Black Americans should be to have been brought to America in chains as slaves. He's been taken care of by government most of his ignorant life. He and a lot of these bozos like McCain who have lived off the tax payers and then want to deny heath care and other decent things of life to others. I think they are the un-American and I want them all out of government let them use the personal wealth that most of them have acquired while living off the taxpayers. Let them make their own ignorant and selfish way in life on their own money. The country is in crisis and all the dirt and debt that the bush administration has brought will be left for us to pay off and clean up while they all ride off into the sunset with pockets filled with money earned on the backs of everyday Americans to continue to live a life of ease. And I am Un-American because I don't want the same kind of people to replace them? People like McCain and a hockey mom with her sentences to nowhere. Please! Because I am American I want the best and the brightest on the job to give our country back to us citizens and gain back the prestige and honor of America at home and around the world.

I've been breaking my fingers one by one not to write about the obvious candidate for this anti-American probe. This woman has me so angry. I've been thinking about her all day. I hate someone saying I am UN AMERICAN. I'm one of the most patriotic people I know. So I have to say it and hope it is posted and I'm not forbidden from posting again.
I've got to say this deluted mind called Michele Bachmann is an example of what an extremist would say in Public [out loud, very loud]. If that kind of cleaning the Home front exorcise were to happen I say she should have McCain completely checked out first. No one wants to say anything about him. BECAUSE it was under torture that he did UNAMERICAN STATEMENTs. Now the logical mind would say it wasn't his fault. The Michele Bachmann mind says BURN HIM. My mind says he is All American. Michele Bachmann would say [if he were Democrate] TRAITOR!
This awful stuff is started by that kind of imagination. Michele Bachmann can not be defended by even Buchanan.
I'll stop here. I think I've said to much already.

Maybe she is "crazy". Maybe she isn't ...intellectually rigorous (it's cruel to call someone dumb). Maybe she DOESN'T know any better. Then the question becomes who set her up to be their stooge in congress and put her into the spotlight to publicly humiliate herself when it suited their whims?
I actually feel bad for her, wish her well, and hope she finds a future endeavor more suited to her talents, ...whatever they may be.

Thanks for posting this, Skeptic Turtle, and thanks to JM17 and others for good comments. I saw this on TV when it aired, and it shook me to the core. This is the logical next step to the paranoid fearmongering that has been a part of this campaign. My son is reading "The Crucible" in school, so my family and I visited Salem, Mass. The parallels to that witch hunt are striking. There is no way to defend oneself against accusations of "un-Americanism." If you admit it, you're guilty, if you deny it, you're guilty. This is so dangerous, with all the challenges before us. The really un-American act is to create fear and suspicion among our fellow Americans.

I can define "anti-American congressperson" -- any congressperson who voted for the Billionaire Banksters' Bail Out. Oopppss, that includes both McCain and Obama... and most likely Bachmann too!

Maybe this is the year the knee-jerk Republicans and Democrats will finally say, "I've had enough and I'm not going to take it anymore!" and vote Third Party. any third party!

That's the one vote that would shake up American politics and is the only vote that's not wasted.

See: http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/09/political-breakthrough-third-party.html

I love how she threw it back at the "press". Apparently, everybody has an obligation to make sense but this dummy.

I heard on MSNBC tonight (which kept showing this clip again and again) that her opponent now has over one million dollars in campaign donations to try to fight her. This is good. Great post.

And she is such a complete liar. I was watching Chris Mathews when she made her "anti-American" comments. She also been on record just a month ago when she said that the current economic crisis was the fault of African American's. This woman is mentally unstable to begin with. What cracks me up is her now trying to play the "victim" to get herself out of trouble. Her career is washed up and done.
GOOD BYE Michele Bachmann.