"This is economic Marxism," Bachmann said of their economic stimulus plan. "[Obama] is moving the United States away from free-market capitalism and instead he's imprinting socialism deep into our centralized economic planning."
Like most of Bachmann's ranting in the media and on the Hill, these allegations make zero sense. But reality hasn't stopped her from assembling a political career out of comments that fan the flames of fear among the most militantly conservative.
When Socialism Isn't Bad Enough
Bachmann is by no means America's sole demagogue. That she's been given a national stage to insult our collective intelligence, though, is cause for notice.
What We Don't Know
Marie Cocco, WaPo Writers Group
A copious report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee, released last month, provides a chilling compendium of what we know, and what we don’t.
We do not officially know whether the "enhanced interrogation tactics" used by the Bush administration were in fact criminal violations of federal statutes prohibiting torture and war crimes. We do not know what laws may have been broken through the use of "extraordinary rendition." This was the practice of sweeping people up and transferring them to secret CIA "black sites" or to countries -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan, for example -- where torture is believed to be practiced.
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