conspiracy theories

Mitt Romney was looking for a reason to attack Barack Obama on the grounds of foreign policy. He knew that after the killing of Osama bin Laden and the ending of the war in Iraq that he needed a silver bullet, and he now got it.

It turns out that Mitt Romney was behind the anti-Islam movie that has sparked the uprising in the Middle East. He played his cards and did so with great prestige. The film sparked the outrage that Romney was looking for and the results couldn't be better. He even showed that during his press conference yesterday:

That was Mitt smirking yesterday after blaming Obama for the problems in the Middle East.

So how credible is this information?

Well it isn't. See I have decided to play the conspiracy theory game that the right loves engaging in. Take Republican leader, Rush Limbaugh, yesterday, when he said this:

What if Ayman al-Zawahiri gave up Osama bin Laden for the express purpose of making Obama look good? Giving Obama stature, political capital?”

The justification would be so that Obama can help further the cause of al Qaeda. Media Matters has the audio available to hear for yourself.

But I'm just a little blog. I don't get much traffic or have much influence, unlike Limbaugh. Limbaugh has a cult like following that would take this conspiracy and turn it into fact. Within days we can expect to see those pictures on Facebook making this claim as fact. The minions on the right will repeat it as gospel, believing it is fact. The problem is that it isn't, just like the story I posted above.

The two top contenders for the 2012 GOP Presidential nod are facing increased hostility in the GOP electorate a new poll from PPP finds. Here’s some of the interesting numbers:

• 20% find that Romney’s Mormon religion is a problem.
• 30% Believe that Newt’s three divorces are a disqualifier.
• 61% won’t vote for Romney because of Romney-care.

The poll was conducted amongst likely GOP voters and the last number is very problematic for Romney. Romney-care was something instituted on the state level. Think about the main complaint of the mandate in Obama care when it comes to Republicans – that the mandate should be handled on the state level. With close to 2/3rds of GOP voters opposing Romney for instituting a mandate on the state level, it shows that Republicans are against the mandate all together and saying the federal government “over reached” was nothing more than a strawman.

And speaking of Strawmen, the poll has some other interesting information tucked away in it:

One other note from our Republican primary poll- GOP voters think that the ACORN threat has gone down significantly. In November of 2009 we found 52% of Republicans thought ACORN had stolen the election for Barack Obama in 2008. Now only 25% think the organization will steal the election for him again next year, while 43% think it will not and 32% aren't sure yet.

Now 25% may seem like a high percentage to think that an organization no longer in existence will manage to steal a Presidential election but it's less than half the number who thought that two years ago.

Among Republicans who think ACORN will steal the election their top choice for the nomination is Palin at 20%, followed by Gingrich at 19%, and Huckabee and Romney at 16%.

Yesterday Twitter erupted with news that Jane Hamsher and David House had been “detained” at Quantico Marine Base when trying to visit Bradley Manning. Of course the Twitters and Internets quickly erupted with conspiracy theories of why they were being detained. According to Quantico, they were actually never detained, but they did have their car towed:

Quantico spokesman Col. Thomas V. Johnson says the car was towed after the pair could not provide proof of insurance and guards found the vehicle's license plates had expired. He says both weren't detained.

Anyone who has ever visited a military base before, as these two reportedly have, knows that things like vehicle registration and insurance are checked. Driving on expired plates and/or without insurance is illegal in all 50 states, including military bases. If Jane and Dave would have been pulled over by civilian police, then they would have been towed, detained and given a court date. It sounds like they got off easy on this one.

Time for some more intrigue out of our nation’s capital:

A man who fought to get the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built and served in two Bush administrations was murdered, Delaware police say.

John P. Wheeler III, 66, was found dead in a Delaware landfill, and his death has been ruled a homicide by Newark, Del., police. They are asking the public for leads in the case.

Wheeler’s body was found in Wilmington on Friday after a disposal truck containing his body made pickups in Newark.

Wheeler, who lived in New Castle, was chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund during the Ronald Reagan era. He also held many high-profile government positions after graduating from West Point in 1966.

I’m sure conspiracy theories are going to go awry on this one, especially with Wheeler’s latest work being to get ROTC back into ivy league colleges.

UPDATE:

Well that didn’t take long. Already appearing in the comments at Gateway Pundit:

But don’t worry. I’m sure Fox will gladly give him more time on the air:

Veteran journalist Juan Williams was fired from his job as senior news analyst for National Public Radio late Wednesday because of comments he made about Muslims and terrorism on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel.

NPR said in a statement that Williams's remarks--including that he gets "worried" and "nervous" when he sees people dressed in Muslim-style clothing on airplanes--"were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."

Williams, 56, made the remarks after the show's host, Bill O'Reilly, asked him whether he thought the United States was facing a "Muslim dilemma." "The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet," O'Reilly said.

Here’s the video of Williams making his comments on O’Reilly:

Again we show how the current right has changed over the past couple of years, embracing the crazy conspiracy theories that come out of their base and hope to turn that into political capital. This time it involves the Ground Zero mosque:

Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan -- a "radical" and criticized the Obama Administration for including him on a Middle East speaking tour. That tour, which includes stops in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is designed by the public diplomacy office to explain to Muslims abroad what it's like to be a Muslim in America.

But guess what? It turns out Rauf actually has a history of working with the U.S. government, and that relationship started under Bush:

If one were to hearken back to the halcyon days of the Bush Administration, one would remember that, when Bush adviser Karen Hughes was appointed Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, the Bush Administration saw improving America's standing among Muslims abroad as a part of its national security strategy. And, as such, Hughes set up listening tours, attended meetings and worked with interfaith groups that -- shocking, by today's Republican standards -- included actual Muslims.

One of those people was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

If you thought the internet was getting nastier then you were right. A report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance shows an increase of nastiness online of 20% in 2009:

The report, based on some 11,500 problematic Web sites, social networks , chat forums, twitter posts, other Internet postings, found that hate-filled language is increasingly filling social networks. In compiling it, researchers for the Wiesenthal center found such disturbing online content as video footage showing bomb-making instructions and hate games — including one about bombing Haitian earthquake victims.

The report found a 20% increase to 11,500 in hate-filled social networks, Web sites, forums, blogs, Twitter feeds, and so on (up from 10,000 last year). It notes that beyond its role in our social lives, the Internet often acts as the incubator and validator of dangerous conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and organ theft.

(h/t Alan Colmes)

They forgot to add birthers to that list of conspiracy theorists.

The great thing about the internet is that it is a global forum based upon free thought. The bad thing about the internet – it is a global forum based upon free thought. That’s one reason a lot of sites have zero tolerance policies against hate speech and violence. Of course it appears that the left wing blogs are far more vigilant on these commenters than the blogs on the right.

And it comes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Suspect in officers' shooting was into conspiracy theories

Talk about stating the obvious. The biggest conspiracy theory he was into was the entire “Obama is going to take away our guns” meme that people like Beck, Malkin, Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing loons have been pushing.

Here’s an interesting thought. For years the left has been chastised over the 9/11 conspiracy theorists. While a vast majority of us don’t believe them, I am now sitting here wondering how many cops these people have killed.