Doof Quote Of The Day

NH State Rep. Stella Tremblay (R)

TREMBLAY: And the more I looked at this, in my heart, something told me there’s something wrong here. You just have to look at that backpack and you can see. If there’s an explosion, the backpack is blown to smithereens. There’s nothing left. What was it doing just laying there? Then, my first gut reaction seeing the horror of that person that had their legs blown off… you know, with the bone sticking out? And he was not in shock. I looked and I thought there’s something… I don’t know what’s wrong, but it seems surreal to me. I talked to my sister, who’s not into politics at all, and she said, “Yea, I saw the same thing.” He was not in shock. He was not in pain. If I had had those type of injuries, I’d be screaming in agony.

Via ThinkProgress:

Citing Alex Jones and his conspiracy theory site Infowars, Tremblay notes that while she once believed 9/11 was a real attack by terrorists, 9/11 “truthers” have opened her eyes. This attack too, she argues, was a “Black Ops” attack staged — apparently unconvincingly — by the federal government.

Wonderful.  I wish everyone could see the harm that Infowars and crazies like Alex Jones cause.  They have no evidence for their crazy theories, only questions and they press on with the conspiracy theory no matter what.  You can never prove them wrong in their eyes because they'll just ask more questions or dismiss actual evidence.  Now, these crazy theories are being floated by Republican politicians.  Like this one where Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) floated a theory about the U.S. shipping guns to Turkey.  Secretary Clinton's response is priceless.

This is not the only example, not by a long shot. Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (OH) and Jason Chaffetz (UT) held a joint hearing "to examine the procurement of ammunition by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General." They, and others, believe the U.S. government is buying up ammunition to either keep regular Americans from being able to buy it, or they are preparing for war against their own people.  This is the silliness that goes on on the Right these days.

The conspiracy theorists are not serious people but unfortunately we have to take them seriously because they influence those that vote in Congress.  

Rand Paul’s Fantasy

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today and it was not without a few fireworks. 

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said several things that demonstrate his inability to perform his duty as a Senator with dignity.  He told Secretary Clinton that he would have fired her had he been President.  He also called Benghazi the worst tragedy since 9/11. 

Ok, two things.

First, the idea of a Rand Paul presidency is laughable at best.

Secondly, the worst tragedy since 9/11?  Are you kidding?  He didn’t say terrorist attack.  He said tragedy.  We are coming off the worst school shooting in a while.  Twenty elementary school kids are dead because of the shooting at Sandy Hook.  I’d say that is a much bigger tragedy than Benghazi. 

If he did mean terrorist attack, that’s not even accurate either.

September17, 2008 – Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. embassy in Yemen killing 17 people, including one American.  They used rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and two car bombs.

July9, 2008 – Armed men attacked the U.S. consulate in Istanbul killing three Turkish police.  After a five-minute gun battle, the attackers were killed.

June14, 2002 – A car packed with explosives detonated near the guard post of the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 10 and injuring 51.

All of these attacks happened under President George W. Bush who was supposedly really good at fighting terrorism.  I didn’t hear controversy over these.  I didn’t hear any senators telling Condoleezza Rice that she would have been fired if they were president.  These are not the only attacks during the previous administration but they were pretty bad. 

Senator Paul, Senator McCain, and the rest of the Republicans are acting like this is a huge deal and it simply is not.  I feel that they want there to be controversy simply for them to point at the Obama administration.  I understand that four American’s died and that is unfortunate.  It’s never good when that happens but this happened in a tough area of the world.  The United States is not well liked everywhere and this, unfortunately, is the cost of doing business in that part of the world.