On the heels of Governor Palin's assertion that some parts of the country are more "pro-American" than others, came Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann's recommendation that the Congress establish a committee to investigate anti-Americanism in our nation's government. To their credit, both Representative Bachmann and Governor Palin have apologized for their questionable remarks.

But it seems Rep. Bachmann has a few more skeletons secreted away in her xenophobic armoire. The Huffington Post writes about another episode of intolerance from late 2005. In the wake of the youth riots in the Paris suburbs, Rep. Bachmann claimed the unrest in the French capitol came about as a result of laziness and propaganda disseminated by al Jazeera. She commented, "It's suburbanites, the kids, that are watching cable TV, Did you know that? In a lot of these high rises where a lot of the suburban youth are doing writing or doing they have cable TV in their apartments." Yes, the rioters probably had cable television. Yes, they lived in what one might call the Paris suburbs.

But Rep. Bachmann makes two fallacious assumptions. First, she assumes that having cable television implies a person lives in some kind of palatial penthouse apartment. In the United States, only a tiny minority of people receive their television over-the-air. I would venture a guess that more than half of US citizens below the poverty line have cable television. Second, she assumes suburbs in the United States are comparable to suburbs in France. When someone says "American suburban teen," I think of a college-bound child who drives a Volkswagen Jetta, shops at J. Crew and goes to movies with friends on the weekend. When someone says "French suburban teen," I think of a struggling child of immigrant workers who could succeed with just a touch more equality and a touch more opportunity. Big difference.

Worse still, she goes on to assert, "Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal." It is as if she wants to commit US troops to some kind of Victorian era imperialist quest to impose our moral beliefs upon other cultures. It frightens me to think these are the people running our government.