Crazy Tennessee State Rep starts Rumor of Obama Assassination/Martial Law

[mondale84]

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/kelly-keisling-tennessee-obama-rumor_n_1725053.html?1343768099

WOW, just wow...

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I have nothing to say.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

This is so amazing I cannot find words to describe it.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

The truly sad thing, is that there are people who will believe it....

[Nhoj]

This reminds me of 2008 when there was the more or less the same  conspiracy theory flying around, except it was bush who was going to do it. Of course I dont recall any state reps repeating it...

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Why in the world does ANYONE still support the Republicans after they circulate this garbage?

[retromike22]

Why in the world does ANYONE still support the Republicans after they circulate this garbage?

Because the ones that support the Republicans are the ones that believe that kind of stuff. There is no concern for facts, because everything is a conspiracy and anything that is considered a credible source is suspect.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

This reminds me of 2008 when there was the more or less the same  conspiracy theory flying around, except it was bush who was going to do it. Of course I dont recall any state reps repeating it...

This conspiracy theory dates back even further. I remember hearing it as something Clinton would do to keep from being bounced out of office in 1996. It's lived on in email forwards since then.

[Maxwell]

Makes sense... after all, he is a muslim socialist born in Hawaii (not part of the United States fyi)

[Svensson]

Why in the world does ANYONE still support the Republicans after they circulate this garbage?

Because it's totally every Republican in the country circulating this. Sorry to break it to you, Bandit, but not everyone is as much a hack as you are.

That being said, this man quite bluntly deserves to be relegated to a position as a YouTube commenter, not a position of statewide power.

[pbrower2a]

Is there any control on falsehood by GOP leadership? Is any unfounded calumny against President Obama so extreme that people cannot reject it?

The Big Lie is in operation in American politics, and some see nothing wrong with it so long as it serves immediate ends.   

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Is there any control on falsehood by GOP leadership? Is any unfounded calumny against President Obama so extreme that people cannot reject it?

The Big Lie is in operation in American politics, and some see nothing wrong with it so long as it serves immediate ends.   

NVT is right, pbrower. "GOP leadership", such as it is, does not have complete control over every little Tennessee state representative.

[Stranger in a strange land]

One of my right-wing acquaintances had an article posted on his Facebook wall detailing how the government had staged the Aurora Massacre in order to drum up support for the UN Small Arms Treaty. The line of reasoning was pretty much: "Governments can't be trusted because governments kill people. The Nazis, Soviets, Chinese Communists, North Koreans, and Khmer Rouge all killed millions of people, and they were governments. the U.S. government is a government too, and is capable of killing people to get its way, because that's what governments do!!!111!!!"

[California8429]

Well, he'll be re-elected in TN for sure.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This would make for a real cool season of 24.

[Likely Voter]

These kind of conspiracy theories are commonplace in the world of kookie right wing email chains, which is probably where he got it. The difference here is that an actual elected official decided to sent it out.

Politifact keep track of some of these but they are the tip of the crazy iceberg
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/chain-email/statements/

[minionofmidas]

One of my right-wing acquaintances had an article posted on his Facebook wall detailing how the government had staged the Aurora Massacre in order to drum up support for the UN Small Arms Treaty. The line of reasoning was pretty much: "Governments can't be trusted because governments kill people. The Nazis, Soviets, Chinese Communists, North Koreans, and Khmer Rouge all killed millions of people, and they were governments. the U.S. government is a government too, and is capable of killing people to get its way, because that's what governments do!!!111!!!"

Lol.

[RI]

This doesn't even make sense as a hypothesis. How many assassination attempts have there been on US presidents, and how many of them ended in the president declaring martial law afterward? If you divide the former by the latter, you get an error on your calculator. Seems like a pretty lame pretense to me.

[Stranger in a strange land]

This doesn't even make sense as a hypothesis. How many assassination attempts have there been on US presidents, and how many of them ended in the president declaring martial law afterward? If you divide the former by the latter, you get an error on your calculator. Seems like a pretty lame pretense to me.

Yeah, this is kind of like how Lefties spread the rumor that Bush was going to use the War in Iraq as an excuse to cancel the 2004 election, and imprison or kill the Democrats who were running against him. All this despite the fact that elections were held during World War II and even during the Civil War.

[RogueBeaver]

Obama ain't Marcos.

[Chaddyr23]

Honestly the crazies in the 60s and 70s were on the left and now they on the right.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

He must listen to Alex Jones.