Think Progress

Bachmann on immigration: ‘We’re losing our country.’»

Last week, while meeting with the Monticello Chamber of Commerce in Minnesota, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) got “particularly emotional” discussing immigration. “We’re losing our country,” declared Bachmann. “People are not assimilating themselves to America. They’re not speaking English, and you must speak it if you want to succeed here in this country,” she said. Bachmann also compared the situation on the border to the Israel/Palestine conflict, saying “the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.”

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117 Responses to “Bachmann on immigration: ‘We’re losing our country.’”


  1. oldtree Says:

    pro fence lobby just wrote a check.


  2. hussein toasterhead Says:

    Look at Israel and Palestine? So is Bachmann suggesting we build an apartheid wall that snakes a few dozen miles into Sonora and Chihuahua states? Redrawing the border is going to solve the problem?


  3. TheToonGuy Says:

    Oh dear, how will we ever be able to work 2-3 jobs to make Michelle proud?


  4. macadamia Says:

    with leaders like these
    we can clearly see a better future…
    soon we will be like Israel
    surrounded by enemies who hate us and launch rockets at us
    because we dont let them eat at Mcdonalds

    someone asked me who would cut the lawns and clean the toilets..
    have the immigrants cut and clean them…and then leave…

    excuse me but isint Bachmann a Jewish name?
    maybe we should let Israel add our flag on as we become part of the Jewish state


  5. SP Biloxi Says:

    Are there more morons like her representing MN?


  6. christopher wiwi Says:

    She is such a hater of anyone that is not white and from the right.She does not know how to keep her mouth shut.Being a member of congress she should remind herself that America was found upon the notion that IMMAGRINTS have made this country what it is today, our founding fathers wanted people from all over world to make this a nation of many nationalities.


  7. tombaker Says:

    Should we also put up a fence around the diamond district in NY? Maybe outlaw kosher deli’s because “those people” refuse to go only to the mall, the Applebee’s, and the Presbyterian Church?

    The answer can only be a resounding and urgent YES!!!!


  8. moondancer Says:

    Fences do work. A) Iron Curtain B) Dachau C) Auschwitz D) get the idea Bachmann?

    This fence on the southern border is an abomination. I lived in Arizona and frequently backpacked the border area Chiricahua Mountains. To put a twenty foot wall through that area is a crime against nature and God(if you believe in him). To all the fear-monger repugs and dems that boosted this atrocity- F**k You.


  9. rastaman Says:

    I THINK WE HAVE A NEW LEADING CANDIDATE FOR THE DOUGLAS FEITH AWARD.


  10. RUCerious Says:

    I see a VP Bachmann plan to arm each neighborhood with guard towers, trip wires, fougass and sixty caliber machine gun nests.


  11. raynman Says:

    Bachmann’s the one who almost raped Bush after the State of Union Address last year.

    Her views place her somewhere between Mussolini and Goofy, with the intellectual acumen of the later….


  12. Paul W Says:

    “the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.”

    Are you kidding me? Have fences ended the violence plaguing that region? The fences have only exacerbated the problem, that’s why the Palestians are shooting rockets over the fences.

    http://progressiveworldreview.com


  13. ralph the wonder llama Says:

    By all means, give Michelle Bachman more face-time in the media.

    She can only help the progressive cause whenever she speaks.


  14. bobcat_grad Says:

    Which part of Israel and Palestine is working? The constant threat of potential violence? Or the actual violence?


  15. rastaman Says:

    WE SHOULD ALL CONFORM TO BACHMANN’S STANDARDS……GROPE THE PRESIDENT AT THE 2007 SOTU ADDRESS.

    BACHMANN KNOWS ALL ABOUT “FENCES” SINCE THIS YEAR SHE WAS IN THE BALCONY AT THE 2008 SOTU….I GUESS SHE DIDN’T SPEAK LAURA’S LANGUAGE.


  16. paleolib Says:

    Hey Michelle, those voices you keep hearing are all in your head. Try to teach your imaginary friends English. That should keep you out of trouble for a little while.


  17. misshusseinmolly Says:

    I take it that xenophobe Bachmann is a native American? Her anti-immigration vitriol could never come from someone whose ancestry came from outside this country, could it?

    Oh — and about those fences keeping the Palestinians caged? That would explain why that area is one of the most peaceful in the world, right?

    /snark off


  18. Krazny Says:

    Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t the republicans want all those Christian Mexicans coming over the border, to offset all the Muslim arabs who are supposedly going to institute Sharia law in the US?

    Just saying…


  19. Keltoi Says:

    I think her point was that very few suicide bombers come from the Gaza strip compared to the West Bank because it is walled off. I think.


  20. hussein toasterhead Says:

    Krazny Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t the republicans want all those Christian Mexicans coming over the border, to offset all the Muslim arabs who are supposedly going to institute Sharia law in the US?

    Nah. Mexicans are Catholics. To the religious right, they’re the wrong type of Christians.


  21. hussein toasterhead Says:

    Keltoi Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    I think her point was that very few suicide bombers come from the Gaza strip compared to the West Bank because it is walled off. I think.
    ______

    Right. And it makes it much easier for IDF homicide bombers to kill Gazans with helicopter-launched missiles. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.


  22. tom Says:

    Bimbo Bachmann knows that her re-election is in deep doo-doo. She is casting about for a hot-button issue to galvanize her supporters. She appears on right-wing rant-radio here in Minneapolis quite frequently. Most recently, she has been complaining about sunsetting the incandescent light bulb and touting her “freedom of choice” light bulb legislation (that is really something coming from a “dim bulb” like her).

    My guess is that this whole fence thing is her next ploy at whipping up her base and she will just keep throwing sh!t at the wall looking for some of it to stick. As far as I am concerned, she would spend her time better job-hunting because she will need to find something else to do next year.


  23. GeeDubs Says:

    Yes, Michelle - the fences worked so well in Berlin, didn’t they? I think they’re working really well in Baghdad now, too!


  24. galmud Says:

    “the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.”

    Thats an insult to Palestinians who in fact day by day are loosing more and more of their country.


  25. PatrioticLiberalChristian Says:

    If walls are so great, then why did Reagan get all the acolades for “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”?

    We are losing our country, but not to immigrants. We are losing our country to the neocons who gut our Constitution, start preemptive war contrary to our long history, and borrow huge amounts of money from foreign countries to fund their idiotic policies.


  26. misshusseinmolly Says:

    Bachmann is making a claim that fences work, based on the walls Israel is building to keep Palestinians contained.

    There are a couple of differences here. The proposed fence on the southern border of the U.S. serves a very different purpose from the Palestinian walls, the Berlin Wall, walls around concentrations camps, Iron Curtain walls, etc. These walls are to keep people from getting out, and our wall would be to keep people from coming in. An attempt to breach the Berlin Wall, for example, would result in getting shot. Is Bachmann ready to advocate shooting to kill anyone attempting to breach the wall to enter the U.S.?

    Second — the reason the above fences and walls are effective is because they are heavily manned by armed personnel. Unless we position guards with a lot of firepower along the fence, it’s not going to keep anyone out — it may just slow them up slightly.


  27. GeeDubs Says:

    So in other words, they don’t work…


  28. PatrioticLiberalChristian Says:

    A fence post would appreciate a fence.


  29. GeeDubs Says:

    First you need a fence post digger…


  30. gummitch Says:

    Someone ought to remind her that the Great Wall didn’t work and it was, well, Great.


  31. RUCerious Says:

    A FENCE DOES WORK ~ to sell stolen property.


  32. GeeDubs Says:

    It boils down to another Republican wedge issue - who to exploit and how to demonize them. But I think the Republicans have gone to that well too many times and people are getting wise to their scams.


  33. tombaker Says:

    K - my point is that no one is rocket-strafing or suicide bombing the Twin Cities, and therefore Mrs. Bachmann’s hysterical call for fencing is a cynical and meaningless appeal to xenophobes, and a massive political red-herring.


  34. GeeDubs Says:

    But many they could get a fence to sell their shit now.


  35. GeeDubs Says:

    I meant maybe instead of many


  36. GeeDubs Says:

    Political red-herring? If enough people buy it? I’m trying to believe people aren’t stupid enought to continue to believe this junk, but if a politician can squeeze some sort of money out of it, there’ll be fences all over the borders, both north and south. Security issues, doncha know…Wah on Terrah, doncha know


  37. Alejandro Says:

    Wait. He says that the non-English speakers are thriving in this country, but if you don’t speech English you can’t thrive in this country?

    Assimilation is for the Borg and for communists, not for America.


  38. Uncle Ho Says:

    did this rethuglic ever contemplate the very real possibility that perhaps that we DESERVE to lose out country.

    I mean, after all, the US did trump up a bogus reason to go to war with Mexico and stole half their land.


  39. Uncle Ho Says:

    our country- sorry, too many distractions going on here.


  40. LividLib Says:

    would somebody please Fargo* this Byeetch?

    *head-first into a woodchipper


  41. VA Voter Says:

    So you want open boarders? No need to learn English. The government of the United States will take care of you regardless of what it cost.


  42. GeeDubs Says:

    Mortgage Meltdown! No, no…look over here at the sceery immigrants come to steal your land and your food and your kids and your pets. Contitution Shredding! No, no…look over here at what Britney is up to next!


  43. LANGX I Says:

    It takes two generations to fully assimilate.

    How dumb are these people.

    There first Italians who came to this country still speak Italian.


  44. Loonie Says:

    ‘We’re losing our country’… A startlingly prescient realization, but she seems to provide an unfortunate and unintentional demonstration of why it is so. Hint: it ain’t the immigrants.


  45. GeeDubs Says:

    Resistance is futile…


  46. GeeDubs Says:

    She’s as dumb as…a fence post!


  47. RUCerious Says:

    So you want open boarders?

    No, the folks who rent rooms don’t need to be open.
    But maybe you should invest in some remedial esl courses.


  48. pete Says:

    Just when I think I’ve heard the most stupid thing ever; Ms. Bachmann starts talking. Again and again and again.

    What’s really depressing is that a few people listen to her and don’t realize she’s a complete idiot. Case in point:

    I live a few blocks outside Ms. Bachmann’s district. A local store had compact fluorescent lights on sale for $1.00 a piece, so I stocked up. The cashier told me, gravely, that “these bulbs are dangerous and will be outlawed soon”.

    I replied, while pointing at the dozens of 6′ tubes over her head, “we have been living, safely, with those for decades. Plus, they are a lot brighter than that dim bulb Bachmann”.

    If looks could kill I would be a stain on the floor at register 15.


  49. tombaker Says:

    42 - because “not building a fence” is = to the things you throw out in that comment!? what a load of hokum.


  50. impeachcheneythenbush Says:

    Here is another causulty of the “fence.”

    “At the very bottom of this country, where the Rio Grande loops up and down as if determined to thwart territorial imperatives, there sits a natural wonderland called the Sabal Palm Audubon Center. Rare birds of impossible colors dart about the rustling jungle, while snakes slink, tortoises dawdle and the occasional ocelot grants a rare sighting.

    After decades of reclamation and preservation, and after millions of public and private dollars spent, this has become a vital place in one of the nation’s very poorest cities. Beyond the busloads of gawking schoolchildren, the center also attracts birders from around the world to spend money the color of their beloved olive sparrow in local restaurants and hotels.

    But if you yearn to hear the clattering call of the chachalaca at Sabal Palm, your travel plans perhaps should factor in the Fence. Yes, the Fence: that ever-encroaching cross between the Berlin Wall and Christo’s Gates (Artist: Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, with funding provided by the United States of America).

    The guardians of Sabal Palm fear, and with good reason, that in trying to keep out illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security will soon be erecting the border fence just north of the bird sanctuary, effectively trimming this natural treasure from the rest of the country and probably forcing its closure. In other words, they say, a very thoughtful gift of about 550 acres to Mexico.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/ 2008/ 04/ 07/ us/ 07land.html?scp=1&sq=fence&st=nyt


  51. jw307505 Says:

    Fences work. If you’re trying to turn us into animals.


  52. NoOneYouKnow Says:

    Michelle Bachmann’s not Jewish, Jew-haters. And for all of you who think Israel’s wrong for putting up a wall, I recommend you vacation in Gaza for a week. Hamas loves Americans almost as much as they love Israelis.


  53. VerbalKint Says:

    “Are there more morons like her representing MN?”

    No one else in the MN Congressional delegation is as stupid as Bachmann, but John Kline, a diehard war supporter, is plenty bad. Then there is the repulsive Norm Coleman, a craven opportunist if there ever was one.


  54. VerbalKint Says:

    NoOneYouKnow Says:

    Your handle is correct: I make a point of not knowing people like you.


  55. GeeDubs Says:

    Isn’t there something about give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free? OK…well now you have to go to the end of the line and wait there for years and pay lots of fines, but hey - nobody said freedom was free.


  56. GeeDubs Says:

    KnowOneYouKnow - Jew haters? WTF? If you really think a fence is going to permanently work for you in the Middle East, you haven’t been following along.


  57. RUCerious Says:

    Nobodyperiod ~ one name for you ~ Rachel Corrie.


  58. VA Voter Says:

    What is the progressive solution to immigration?


  59. tombaker Says:

    53 -what the hell is any of that post supposed to mean in the present context??

    (damned liberal anti-semites?? wtf??)


  60. RUCerious Says:

    I don’t consider myself a Jew-hater, more of a Fu*k U Israel, and the goatyourodeinon kind of guy.


  61. LividLib Says:

    i have a better idea - just fence-in the 6th district of minnesota.


  62. RUCerious Says:

    VA Voter, why are you such a lazy schmuck? Look up the issues page on Obama’s website. It’s just a couple of clicks away.
    And while you’re there, donate $25 to make this country a better place in Jan 09.


  63. GeeDubs Says:

    The progressive solution is to give these people a chance to become citizens. Yes, they broke the law. So what, we’ve had an administration doing worse for 8 years, so give them a break. And don’t make them ‘guest workers.’ You only create a second class of citizens with no rights. And that works really well in Dubai, or so I hear.


  64. RUCerious Says:

    OK, VA Voter, since you’re such a lazy ass, here’s the bullets from the Obama site.
    Create Secure Borders
    …preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.

    Improve Our Immigration System
    …we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.

    Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally
    …remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

    Bring People Out of the Shadows
    …a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

    Work with Mexico
    … we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.


  65. pete Says:

    What to do about illegal aliens in this country? Simple. Jail time for those who employ them. No illegal jobs=no illegal aliens.


  66. GeeDubs Says:

    Pete - that’ll throw a lot of peeps out of work. Is that what we want?


  67. tombaker Says:

    59 - how does “adhere to existing laws and not get all hysterical” sound?? the fact is there is no “emergency” or “crisis” in progress at this time.

    I know - not good enough for those so naive as to believe history can be rewritten overnight with a handful of glib euphemisms and a nifty powerpoint presentation. After all you’ve achieved in the Middle East, I should know better.


  68. sacopenapa Says:

    “the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.”

    It makes sense… Use the same tatics as the TERRORIST STATE OF ISRAEL USES IN PALESTINA. After all the US is also a TERRORIST STATE! They support terrorist as they did in Nicaragua in the 80’s. The US has terrorists living in Miami who are on the US’s government payroll. They are supporting the Colombia government who just recently commited an act of TERRORISM in Equadorian soil. So, to copy the tatics of another TERROSIT STATE MAKE SENSE!


  69. RUCerious Says:

    Pete - that’ll throw a lot of peeps out of work. Is that what we want?

    Only the CIO, CFO and CEO, plus maybe the entire board of directors go to prison, not so many out of work.


  70. impeachcheneythenbush Says:

    Judge for yourself these little tidbits about her sanity or lack of therefore.

    In a 2001 article, Bachmann wrote extensively of her belief that the current governments of the United States and Minnesota State had plans to end the American “free market economy” and impose a centralized, state-controlled economy in its place. She wrote that education laws passed by Congress in 2001, including “School To Work” and “Goals 2000″, created a new national school curriculum that embraced “a socialist, globalist worldview; loyalty to all government and not America.”[75] In 2003, Bachmann said that the “Tax Free Zones” economic initiatives of Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty were based on the Marxist principle of “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”[76] She also said that the administration was attempting to govern and run centrally-planned economies through an organization called the Minnesota Economic Leadership Team (MELT), an advisory board on economic and workforce policy chaired by Pawlenty.[76]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Michelle_Bachmann#cite_note-74


  71. pete Says:

    GeeDubs Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    The only “legal” people who will be out of work are the guilty one’s who utilize “illegals” as cheap labor. There’s no need to punish the companies, or their legitimate employees, if the guilty people are jailed.


  72. misshusseinmolly Says:

    Does Bachmann realize that fences also only work when they are totally enclosing? In order for a fence to be effective in keeping people out of this country, we would have to build one that completely encircled the lower 48 states. Otherwise, we’ll just be inundated with boat people.

    Think Floridians are willing to give up their beaches? How about Californians?


  73. Loonie Says:

    VA Voter Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    So you want open boarders?

    Is that a sequel to Cool Boarders”? ‘Cause that was a great game, and I’d be totally up for that!

    VA Voter Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    So you want open boarders? No need to learn English.

    You really do walk head first into these things, don’t you.

    I’ll wager most immigrants have a better command of English than most of the fat heads shrieking that immigrants doesn’t speak english as good as what they does, while liberals put food on their families so their childrens is learning.


  74. RUCerious Says:

    Loonie! Bravo! Our children is lernin!


  75. Wayne A. Schneider Says:

    It’s almost as if they want to build their own Maginot Line along our Southern border.


  76. Daryll Says:

    GeeDubs Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
    Mortgage Meltdown! No, no…look over here at the sceery immigrants come to steal your land and your food and your kids and your pets. Contitution Shredding! No, no…look over here at what Britney is up to next!

    You can’t be serious. This is part of the reason why there is a mortgage meltdown. Banks/Lenders Loaning Illegals the money to mortgage a home. What happens when they bail out? They can’t be identified because of lack of identification so banks/lenders end up paying for it. Also, they utilize are government services, but never compensate our government (paying taxes, social security, etc.). They are also breaking our healthcare system. They are a menace to this country. Send them back to their home country. Make them be accoutable for these illegals, not us.


  77. pete Says:

    You can’t make this stuff up.

    http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/

    A few more tidbits:

    Ms. Bachmann’s first public position was on the board of a charter school which, in spite of Federal funding, taught Bible classes. The school was reincorporated and the board dissolved.

    Ms. Bachmann’s husband is an alleged therapist with a degree from Regent University and offers services which include “deprogramming” gay people.

    Ms. Bachmann has constantly, and stridently, called for a “return of our government to the service of Christ”.

    Ms. Bachmann, and her ilk, are dangerously theocratic and deserve to be marginalized.


  78. boreas Says:

    macadamia Says: excuse me but isint Bachmann a Jewish name?
    maybe we should let Israel add our flag on as we become part of the Jewish state

    Hitler had similar fears and look how well that all turned out - for him as well as the rest of the world.

    Anyway, Michelle Bachmann is a pro-life, home-schooler, Christian “fundie” of the first order. Her husband, Marcus Bachmann, runs a “Christian counseling center” in Minnesota.

    Oh, and Bachmann is a German name, not necessarily associated with Jewish people - not that it ought to matter.


  79. pete Says:

    Well, well. Our “serial liar for Christ”, Daryll, has decided to grace us with his presence. So, Daryll, when you proclaimed that God assured you that Mike Huckabee would be our next president; was God lying to you, or, were you lying to us?

    There are no other options.


  80. vat694848 Says:

    I will never get back the 15 seconds it took to read this post. So, this clown ( Bachmann ) the face of conservatism, how she gets away with it, is breath-taken.


  81. Gregor Samsa Says:

    Daryll the troll shows he is about as disinformed as he xenophobic and all around idiotic.

    The mortgage meltdown had nothing to do with the legal status of the people taking out he loans, but to the fact that their interest rates “readjusted”: They went from being low, teaser rates, to being actual interest rates. Borrowers couldn’t pay the loans that the lenders had qualified them for in the first place.

    Also, illegal aliens pay both taxes and social security. They are not the “freeloaders” the right-wing noise machine would have us believe.


  82. pete Says:

    It’s a simple proposition Daryll. God lied to you, or, you lied to us. If you have courage in your convictions you will enlighten those of us who are curious.


  83. MapleStreet Says:

    What I don’t understand is why this is such an issue to Bachman. My impression of Minnesotta is about as homogeneous as they come.

    Of course, the Canadians do say “Eh” a lot. But with the current rate of currency exchange, the Canadians are rich.


  84. RUCerious Says:

    Poor misguided Daryll, which illegal immigrant would Jeebus flog? Or rent to?


  85. pete Says:

    Daryll. Your silence serves to heighten your irrelevance and marginalize your divine master.

    Sorry all you good TPers. I will now conclude my baiting of Daryll, for now.


  86. Zooey Says:

    Losing this country to what, exactly?

    Bachmann…what kind of name is that?

    If she means that we’re losing our country to babbling halfwits like her, then I agree.


  87. gummitch Says:

    TP let me down badly. Usually a Bachmann post is good for one of those CrazyLady photos, or a picture of her groping the Preznit.


  88. L. Hussein Annie Says:

    Oh, fer the luvva Jebus - batsh*t crazy strikes AGAIN!!!


  89. rcraiga Says:

    She’s the Rose Nyland of the House….


  90. pete Says:

    MapleStreet Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 5:44 pm

    What I don’t understand is why this is such an issue to Bachman. My impression of Minnesotta is about as homogeneous as they come.

    That’s actually a misconception. Rural Minnesota is strictly “white bread and hotdish” but the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area is quite diverse. I truly enjoy the variety in my neighborhood. One lady, a few doors down, sends her hubby around with a bucket of tamales every month or so. The local tobacconist is Lebanese and always ready to share a joke. The murals on the local Hmong temple are breathtaking. And the textiles worn by the Somali women are indescribably beautiful.

    Of course, morons like Bachmann see only the scary differences.


  91. dbadass Says:

    Please tell me Daryll is still in the house. What up D? I’ll let ya ride on that Huckabee stuff since I understood it to be bs from the get go. Still help me out. What’s that great big book of everything have to say on the topic of immigration?


  92. RUCerious Says:

    LeftyAnnie ~ whazza LUWA?


  93. buggedinmn Says:

    re: Are there more morons like her representing MN?

    yep


  94. FightingIrish Says:

    Assimilation is key to being a successful immigrant and is largely the reason why American immigrants have been so successful in the past. That obviously includes speaking English outside the house. You cannot expect to vote in your own special language, or have your public school lessons taught to you in your own special language, paid for by the tax payers. Its just dumb for an immigrant not to learn English and speak it regularly. Speak whatever languages you want at home.


  95. pbg Says:

    Daryll, do you really, actually think that an illegal alien could buy a home, let alone get a mortgage in this country?
    You’re still in college. That’s the only explanation. You’ve not only never bought a house, you have no idea what’s involved.
    Go through title search, mortgage insurance with a stolen Social Security number and nothing else?
    And you’re saying this has been happening by the hundreds of thousands?
    Low grade moron.


  96. L. Hussein Annie Says:

    RU - “luvva” is slangish for “love of”…;o)


  97. barfly Says:

    Daryll:
    This is part of the reason why there is a mortgage meltdown. Banks/Lenders Loaning Illegals the money to mortgage a home.

    Still crazy after all these years.


  98. pete Says:

    FightingIrish Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    Assimilation is key to being a successful immigrant and is largely the reason why American immigrants have been so successful in the past.

    Which is exactly what I see, every day, right here in Minnesota. Unfortunately, Ms. Bachmann doesn’t want immigrants to assimilate, she wants to prevent them from entering our country; legally or otherwise. She’s a xenophobic ideologue of the worst kind. Many of her own family members have publicly stated they can’t stand her. She is ruled by hate of anything she can’t understand which, since her tiny brain is stuffed full of pseudo-religious claptrap, is just about everything. She is a danger to our state, our country, and the human race.


  99. judyinnm Says:

    Is Israel/Palestine now a role model for the US/Mexico? Maybe Bachman needs to move half way around the world, and leave us alone!

    WHAT is with the republicans these days - they want the US to look like the Middle East: Theocracy, torture, fences, etc.


  100. Cats r Flyfishn Says:

    I think the Native Americans made that statement first - “We’re losing our country”.


  101. I. B. Leary Says:

    President Bush, “Tear down that wall.” One of the candidates needs to pick up on this.


  102. Bonnie Says:

    I’ll bet that’s exactly what American Indians were saying as the white man continued to take more amd more of their land.


  103. krazeeinjun Says:

    …“the argument that fences don’t work doesn’t hold water. Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work,” blathers Bachmann.

    If fences work, I propose we build a 20′ high fence around this idiot woman’s house to keep her from from getting anywhere near the levers of political power and ruining “our country?”

    The late, great Molly Ivins put the border fence idea into it’s proper perspective:

    I tell this story to make the one single point about the border and immigration we know to be true: The Fence will not work. No fence will work. The Great darn Wall of China will not work. Do not build a fence. It will not work. They will come anyway. Over, under or through.

    Some of you think a fence will work because Israel has one. Israel is a very small country. Anyone who says a fence can fix this problem is a demagogue and an ass.

    http://www.cnn.com/ 2006/ POLITICS/ 03/ 30/ ivins.immigration/ index.html

    I agree with Molly — Congresswoman Bachmann — you are an ass.

    Just saying . . .


  104. Fred Says:

    VA Voter Says:
    So you want open boarders? No need to learn English. The government of the United States will take care of you regardless of what it cost.

    Well, we’ve taken care of you for all these years but we’re thinkin it would be a better idea to keep the immigrants and round you guys up and send you to the middle east…..everybody’s happy.


  105. EdgeOnIt Says:

    The truth may be that the influx of hard-working Hispanics, and in particular, Mexicans, has ‘enspirited’ the entire American workforce, in recent years! Their overall diligence and high personal fortitude, purely represents centuries of honor and dignity, in the lives of the Hispanic peoples of Mexico-which includes the historic Hearth of the Innovative: Civilization’s ancient Aztecs!!


  106. Fred Says:

    EdgeOnIt Says

    not to mention “real family values”


  107. ctalk Says:

    “you must speak it if you want to succeed here in this country”

    I disagree, you can speak only Spanish and be quite successful in some parts of the country. Another BS bigoted remark from these freaks.


  108. Gregor Samsa Says:

    Funny how the reichwinger’s obsession with Spanish-speaking folk is restricted to the poor peasants coming from South of the border.

    Bachman & Co seem unconcerned by the fact that, in a lot of places in Florida, people can get away with not speaking English at all, and that’s been the case for years now.

    Then again, the Spanish-speaking population in Florida tend to be well-to-do and/or Republican-voting Cubans.


  109. Max-1 Says:

    .

    Bachmann sounds so 15th Century Native American… NO?

    .


  110. Neeko Says:

    Maybe idiotic, racist people like her are the problem. She is so over the top.

    She is one of those crazies that came out of the woodwork after Bush and 9/11 happened. Bushco went balls out with their insane ideas and we got to see how many ideologues there really are in this country.

    These people are the biggest threat to our way of life. I bet that the people from her district are hiding their faces in shame for voting her in.


  111. Evil Spaniard Says:

    impeachcheneythenbush Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    In 2003, Bachmann said that the “Tax Free Zones” economic initiatives of Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty were based on the Marxist principle of “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

    I keep failing to understand why this is so bad for Republicans.


  112. Evil Spaniard Says:

    FightingIrish Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
    Assimilation is key to being a successful immigrant and is largely the reason why American immigrants have been so successful in the past. That obviously includes speaking English outside the house. You cannot expect to vote in your own special language, or have your public school lessons taught to you in your own special language, paid for by the tax payers. Its just dumb for an immigrant not to learn English and speak it regularly. Speak whatever languages you want at home.

    1) Your ancestors came to the USA knowing English language, because was the language of their occuppiers.

    2) Your ancestors were as villified then as the latinos today. Simply watch “Gangs of New York” to see what happenned to Irish people.

    3) For many years, your ancestors formed Irish ghettos in the USA.

    4) Many of your Irish ancestors compatriots have helped the IRA in their armed terrorism with money and weapons from the USA.

    So please, spare me of your “they don’t assimilate as well as the Irish”.


  113. Evil Spaniard Says:

    It’s so fine living inside lily white fenced communities, with a lot of religious people…

    Abuse probed at polygamist compound

    http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ ap/ 20080408/ ap_on_re_us/ polygamist_retreat;_ylt=AimQq_AwaqZRqWAqzeBFNOBvzwcF


  114. Tawdry Says:

    #61 pete, I live in rural Minnesota and there’s nothing “hotdish and white bread” about me. You ought to get out of Mpls more often. And to those who think that Minnesotans send only idiots like Bachmann to Washington have obviously forgotten about Paul Wellstone. Bachmann is from an extremely religious and conservative district. And please remember that the biggest moron of all comes from Texas which doesn’t mean that all Texans are morons.


  115. mponti Says:

    Ms. Bachmann, your statements are ignorant and xenophobic.

    As a former instructor at DeVry University in Chicago, I taught composition to many first-generation Americans. All attended U.S. high school and were raised in families in which parents didn’t speak English or spoke it as a second language. These students were of Vietnamese, Polish, Mexican, Palestinian, Romananian, Iraqi, Kenyan and Korean descent. All embraced English as their meal ticket to successful business and technology careers. All were there because their parents pushed them to work hard to get a piece of the American dream.

    These sons and daughters of immigrants are doing what other generations of immigrants did. And with a name like Bachmann, I’m sure somewhere in your past, your ancestor took the same path. You need to get out there more, and you need to get over yourself.

    P.S. In my 3 years teaching college, I only had 2 students fail the test required to enter a degree program. Both grew up in English-speaking households. (Students had to write a 1,000-word composition in which they defended their position on issue. It was graded by a 3-member faculty panel on organization, coherence, clarity and grammar.)


  116. MapleStreet Says:

    91. Pete

    Agreed. Just that when I compare that to areas like El Paso or Los Angeles, the number of immigrants still seems low.


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