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Tag: dave agema
This Week In Crazy: Generalissimo Graham Prepares To Seize Congress

This Week In Crazy: Generalissimo Graham Prepares To Seize Congress

Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the wildest attacks, conspiracy theories, and other loony behavior from the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Lindsey Graham
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has long complained about President Obama trampling the Constitution, and over the weekend, we may have learned the reason why: Envy.

Speaking at a “Politics and Pies” forum in Concord, New Hampshire, Graham — who is preparing a longshot presidential bid — said that his first order of business in the White House would be deploying the military against Congress.

Seriously.

“And here’s the first thing I would do if I were president of the United States. I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this,” Graham said, according audio posted by libertarian pundit Ben Swann. “I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We’re not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We are not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.”

So is Senator Graham actually plotting a coup against Congress? Apparently not. In a statement to Bloomberg’s David Weigel, Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop clarified that the line was “not to be taken literally” (despite the senator’s literal use of the word “literally”).

In other words: Graham/Kyl 2016!

4. Menendez Truthers
When news broke that the Justice Department is preparing to file federal corruption charges against Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), it wasn’t hard to predict the Republican reaction. And the right wing did not disappoint.

As it turns out, Menendez’s legal troubles, like most things in life, are President Obama and Eric Holder’s fault.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) explains:

“The timing is curious,” Cruz said. Menendez is reportedly set to be charged with corruption for accepting gifts and vacations from a longtime donor after a years-long investigation.

“It raises a suggestion to other Democrats that if you dare part from the Obama White House, that criminal prosecutions will be used potentially as a political weapon as well,” Cruz said. “That’s a serious concern.”

The always paranoid Cruz is not alone; his always hysterical colleague Lindsey Graham also smells a rat:

“All I can say is, they were leaked,” Graham said. “He wasn’t actually charged officially. They leaked the fact that he may be charged, is gonna be charged. I hate it when that happens for anybody. I like Bob. Like everybody else, he’s innocent until proven guilty. He’s been a champion on the Iranian nuclear issue. It just doesn’t smell right.”

Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) also got in on the action:

“Bob Menendez has been an excellent partner for me on the Iran stuff, and I’m worried now by leaking stuff (from) Justice it’s politically motivated to silence Bob for his work on Iran, which he should be praised for,” said Kirk.

Of course, back in reality, the Justice Department investigation into Menendez began well before the Iran debate heated up — and while Menendez opposes President Obama’s attempts to reach a nuclear deal, he’s actually been rather accommodating of the White House. Plus, it’s hard to imagine the president flagrantly abusing his power to replace a senator who votes with the Democrats 96.9 percent of the time with Republican governor Chris Christie’s hand-picked appointment.

But if nothing else, the Republican Menendez truthers have guaranteed the senator a lifetime full of appearances on right-wing radio if things turn south.

3. Glenn Beck
American Prophet Glenn Beck took a quick break from predicting the Apocalypse on Wednesday, to issue an even scarier warning: The Muslim Brotherhood is making him quit the National Rifle Association!

Well, sort of. By “Muslim Brotherhood,” Beck actually means conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. You see, his guest on the show — Islamophobic extremist Frank Gaffney — believes that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American conservative movement, Norquist included.

So as long as Norquist serves on the NRA board, Beck has a problem.

“I am not an expert on Grover Norquist by any stretch of the imagination,” Beck began his presentation reasonably, “but I’ve heard enough that makes me concerned enough that — and I hope that the leadership of the NRA hears this and every member of the NRA hears this — that if this man is elected, or re-elected, and confirmed on the board of the NRA, I may drop my membership in the NRA. I am that concerned that he is a very bad influence and a very bad man that if this is who the NRA decides to put on their board of directors, I don’t think I can be associated with them.”

It takes a special brand of craziness to get banned from CPAC — and naturally, it has a home behind Glenn Beck’s microphone.

2. Bryan Fischer
Bad news, gay people: You’re going to go blind!

That’s the diagnosis from Dr. Bryan Fischer, who has gone from warning that “I don’t think you will ever find a more directly demonic energy than when you deal with the homosexual agenda” to trying to save gay people’s demonic vision.

As Fischer explained on Wednesday, just as undocumented immigrants brought measles and polio back from the brink of eradication (just go with it), so are gay people bringing back ocular syphilis.

Fischer is especially concerned about black men, who are at greater risk for contracting the disease.

“All we’ve heard over the last number of months is ‘black lives matter,’ ‘black lives matter,’ ‘black lives matter.’ I agree, black lives matter,” he explained. “If you’ve got a behavior, you’ve got a conduct, you’ve got a lifestyle that is resulting in potentially blinding health risks for black males and their​ risk is five times higher than white males, I would say if black lives matter, it is time we started doing something about that.”

Never doubt Bryan Fischer’s love for black males.

1. Dave Agema
There was no shortage of stupid responses to President Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but no one even approached this week’s “winner,” Republican National Committee member Dave Agema.

Agema, an unrepentant bigot and constant source of embarrassment for the RNC, took to Facebook on Monday to share his thoughts on the president’s big speech.

It did not go well.

Post by Dave Agema.

When one commenter on the post asked Agema how he knows that the president is just 6.25 percent black, the RNC member replied, “snopes and yahoo- google ‘what percentage of white, black and Arab is Obama.'”

Meanwhile, it’s still not safe for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to Google “Republican outreach.”
republican outreach search

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!

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Photo: Department of Defense via Flickr

This Week In Crazy: Behead The Cable News Infidels!

This Week In Crazy: Behead The Cable News Infidels!

Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the wildest attacks, conspiracy theories, and other loony behavior from the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Louie Gohmert

Two weeks into its existence, the 114th Congress is picking up right where its predecessor left off: with paranoid, unhinged Benghazi conspiracy theories.

As Brian Tashman explains at Right Wing Watch, certain segments of the right have long believed that former CIA director David Petraeus didn’t actually resign from his post in 2012 because of an extramarital affair. He was really trying to cover up the truth about the Benghazi attacks.

News that the Justice Department is considering criminal charges against Petraeus for leaking classified information to his then-paramour would seem to confirm that an affair took place. Or, if you’re Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), it confirms that the conspiracy goes straight to the top.

“This administration knows that General Petraeus has information that would virtually destroy any credibility that the administration might still have nationally and internationally, so what else would this administration do but leave over his head for a year and a half the threat, ‘We’re going to prosecute you so you’d better keep your mouth shut,’” Gohmert explained.

“If you wonder why General Petraeus has not come out in the last year and a half and said, ‘No, those weren’t our talking points, somebody that created them needs to be prosecuted, it was a fraud on the American people,’ he’s not going to say that,” he continued. “He’s got this administration hanging a prosecution over his head. What do you expect? I doubt he’ll ever be able to say it without worrying about something over his shoulder coming on after him.”

That’s right — David Petraeus will never be able to tell the horrible truth about Benghazi, which must be why he’s already given up and said that Hillary Clinton would make “a tremendous president” due to her “extraordinarily resolute, determined, and controlled” response to the attacks.

There’s only one question left: What dirt does Obama have on the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee to get them to join the conspiracy?

4. Dave Agema

Photo: @DaveAgema via Twitter

Photo: @DaveAgema via Twitter

The Republican National Committee has a problem. On one hand, it would very much like to improve the GOP’s terrible numbers among minority voters. On the other hand, it is composed of people like Dave Agema.

Agema is a well-known bigot who serves as a committee member from Michigan. Despite his long history of incredibly offensive rhetoric, the RNC can’t do anything to get rid of him (the committee’s bylaws provide no mechanism to remove members). So they generally keep their fingers crossed, and hope that he doesn’t embarrass them.

This strategy is not working.

In advance of this year’s RNC winter meeting, Agema took to Facebook to share an article from a white supremacist website. The money quote:

[B]lacks are different by almost any measure to all other people. They cannot reason as well. They cannot communicate as well. They cannot control their impulses as well. They are a threat to all who cross their paths, black and non-black alike.

According to Agema’s post, the article is “very enlightening for anyone who is concerned about crime in America.”

Unsurprisingly, the post sparked outrage. The RNC’s top officers even went so far as to officially sanction Agema. But the former state representative would like you to know that he’s not a racist. He got the article from a black friend!

Unfortunately, that friend was Allen West.

But again, the RNC can do nothing to stop Agema unless he chooses to resign (which he has thus far refused to do). So until then, all Reince Priebus can do is hug a copy of his Growth and Opportunity Project and hope for the best.

3. Randy Weber

Photo: CSUF Photos via Flickr

Photo: CSUF Photos via Flickr

Many Americans were upset over President Obama’s failure to attend the unity rally held in Paris in the wake of last week’s horrific terrorist attacks; even the White House admitted that it had erred. But that apology wasn’t good enough for Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX), who took to Twitter to express his outrage.

“Even Adolph [sic] Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons,” Weber tweeted.

Don’t let the poor spelling and absurdly flawed logic fool you; that is an elected member of Congress describing the president as worse than Hitler (perhaps fittingly, he succeeded fellow Godwin’s Law enthusiast Ron Paul in Texas’ 14th district).

Unsurprisingly, Weber’s tweet sparked outrage, causing the congressman to delete it and apologize less than 24 hours later. That actually represents progress for Weber, who declined to delete his last offensive message.

But while Weber’s judgment may be slowly improving, unfortunately his spelling is not.2. Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Speaking of Dr. Paul, his insane think tank weighed in on the Charlie Hebdo massacre on Wednesday. It went just about as well as you’d expect.

The institute published a piece by Paul Craig Roberts which claimed that the attack may well have been an inside job organized by the U.S. government:

The Charlie Hebdo affair has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation. The attack on the cartoonists’ office was a disciplined professional attack of the kind associated with highly trained special forces; yet the suspects who were later corralled and killed seemed bumbling and unprofessional. It is like two different sets of people.

Usually Muslim terrorists are prepared to die in the attack; yet the two professionals who hit Charlie Hebdo were determined to escape and succeeded, an amazing feat. Their identity was allegedly established by the claim that they conveniently left for the authorities their ID in the getaway car. Such a mistake is inconsistent with the professionalism of the attack and reminds me of the undamaged passport found miraculously among the ruins of the two WTC towers that served to establish the identity of the alleged 9/11 hijackers.

According to Roberts, there’s a simple explanation for why the U.S. would arrange the brutal murders of a dozen innocents: “Clearly, France was showing too much foreign policy independence. The attack on Charlie Hebdo serves to cow France and place France back under Washington’s thumb.”

Roberts then goes on to compare the devious plot to America’s most successful false flag operation (yes, he is a 9/11 truther), before concluding with an attack against Americans. We’re the crazy ones, not him:

Americans are a pitifully misinformed people. All of history is a history of false flag operations. Yet Americans dismiss such proven operations as “conspiracy theories,” which merely proves that government has successfully brainwashed insouciant Americans and deprived them of the ability to recognize the truth.

Americans are the foremost among the captive nations.

Who will liberate them?

Probably not Rand Paul, if his father’s institute keeps publishing crazy rants like this.1. Joe Walsh

This week’s “winner,” former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), has always had a hot temper. But even by his standards, Walsh’s response to the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo is pretty startling.

Many media outlets have declined to show the cover of the special “survivors’ edition” of the satirical magazine, which features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad holding a “Je Suis Charlie” sign. Walsh disagrees with their decision, to put it mildly.

Yes, the former congressman hopes that terrorists behead the “infidels” working in American cable news. When challenged on his rhetoric, Walsh refused to back down.

So terrorists have to murder those working at CNN and MSNBC… or the terrorists win. Got it.

With any luck, Walsh will one day return to CNN to defend himself.

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!

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4 Reasons The RNC Should Demand This Bigoted Member’s Resignation — But Won’t

agemaandwife

Party chairman Reince Priebus delayed the Republican National Committee meeting so committee members could participate in the March for Life — in case there was anyone in America who doesn’t know that the GOP is anti-abortion rights.

But when the meetings get going after the march on Wednesday afternoon, the chairman will have to deal with a more pressing controversy. After months of mild condemnations for the bigoted comments of national committeeman Dave Agema, actual Republicans are calling on the former member of Michigan’s House of Representatives to resign from his prestigious party post.

The party has no means of recalling a member so it’s up to Priebus to call for Agema’s resignation or pass some sort of resolution condemning his continuing outbursts. And no one in America expects him or the party to do that.

Here are four reasons that the RNC should take a stand against this member at this year’s winter meeting —  and one reason it won’t.

Photo: @DaveAgema via Twitter

In The Past, They’ve Encouraged Him

Agema-Putin

Last year, Agema shared a post from a known white supremacist that described gay people as ridden with “filthy” disease. After calls for his resignation, the RNC responded by unanimously passing his resolution reaffirming the party’s stand against same-sex marriage.

This year, after he said gay people only want health care because they’re dying young of AIDS, Republicans punished him by only giving him a partial standing ovation.

After the most recent uproar over his Facebook post endorsing Russia’s anti-gay laws, Agema remains defiant.

“While I was gone it seems the same people are feeding half-truths to the news within the GOP, stirring up divisiveness,” he wrote. “I stand on the same issues I always have — God, family and country.”

Image: Chad Selweski

Agema’s Comments Are Rebranding The Party — As Even More Intolerant

Agema rant II

Agema’s recent controversial posts did not just focus on his favorite target– the LGBT community. He also took on Muslims in a post that asked, “Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?” Strangely none of his Facebook friends posted a link to the new book by America’s first Muslim congressmember, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).

After this post, prominent Republicans began to call for Agema’s resignation. While Michigan doesn’t have a huge Muslim population, approximately 300,000 Arab-Americans live in the state. “Christian Arabs feel just as put-upon by Agema’s comments as Muslims do,” Corey Saylor, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Detroit Free Press.

In addition to alienating a key swing vote in a year when Republicans think they may have a chance of picking up a Senate seat in the state, Agema points out that the GOP’s policies on gays and lesbians are Agema’s policies on gays and lesbians.

“Michigan Republicans don’t endorse discrimination, they just endorse Michigan laws that allow you to be fired because you’re gay, and endorse an unconstitutional federal law banning marriage equality, and support upholding the Michigan constitutional amendment banning marriage equality,” Joshua Pugh wrote last year, and none of those positions have changed.

Instead the party is still fighting to defend a ban on same-sex couples adopting.

Image: Chad Selweski

They Need To Send A Message To Primary Candidates

toddakin

As the Republican primary in Oklahoma is already showing, Republican candidates get especially scary when they are trying to out-Republican each other.

If Republicans want to avoid the inane comments that cost them Senate seats in Indiana and Missouri last election, they should take a stand against Agema’s bigotry now.

“Agema isn’t simply voicing an opinion,” The Detroit Free Press’ Nancy Kaffer wrote. “He’s in a position to craft national policy — as in a resolution reiterating the Republican Party’s opposition to gay marriage, adopted last year by the Republican National Committee.”

Republican policies on same-sex marriage are sorely out of touch with the American public. So the least they could do is to try to distance themselves from the hatred that girds their position for many.

“Michigan party officials say they’re powerless to remove Agema,” Kaffer added. “But at the very least, it seems the RNC could amend its laws to enable effective removal of folks who have proved embarrassing. They just haven’t.”

Agema Could Start Costing The Party Money

800px-Betsy_Devos

Former Michigan Republican Party chair Betsy DeVos made several calls to Agema asking him to step down from the Republican National Committee. When he didn’t respond, she reached out to Reince Priebus with a less-than-subtle message: I may cut my donations.

DeVos’ family has its own history of intolerance but it also has a history of donating lots of money to right-wing causes. For them, Agema may dull the effect of their donations and diminish the return on their investments.

Republican governor Rick Snyder — who signed a state ban on a recognition of domestic partners — took a subtle swipe at Agema but has not called for his resignation. U.S. Senate candidate — and fellow RNC member — Terri Lynn Land hasn’t even gone as far as Synder.

But DeVos going public may have spurred a tipping point. Right-leaning newspaper The Detroit News published an editorial on Tueday insisting that the RNC should “dump” Agema.

“I don’t know what the formalities are, but I would like to be part of a formal ‘we want you to step down’ process versus just a resignation,” Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) said this week.

Photo: Keith A. Almli via Wikimedia Commons

They May Turn Agema Into A Folk Hero

Duck Dynasty

Here’s why the GOP isn’t likely to do anything to formally condemn Agema, and it isn’t just because they actually agree with him on policy.

So far the Agema controversy is just news in Michigan and on blogs that track the terrible things Republicans say.

But he is a hero to some Tea Partiers in Michigan and being forced out of the party’s hierarchy could end up only making him more popular with the base.

Instead of being a marginalized clown, Agema could grow out his beard and become a reality star. And the lower a profile Agema has, the better for the GOP.

AFP Photo/Dimitrios Kambouris

Prominent Republican Finally Calls On Anti-Gay RNC Official To Resign, Ignores Own Family’s Intolerance

Prominent Republican Finally Calls On Anti-Gay RNC Official To Resign, Ignores Own Family’s Intolerance

Republican National Committee member Dave Agema has never bothered to hide his anti-gay views. But he reserves his most despicable commentary for his Facebook friends.

Earlier this month, the former member of the Michigan House of Representatives posted an article on his page about the Russian anti-gay propaganda law with the comment: “Common sense in Russia.”

This pattern of abuse of gays and lesbians has prompted some chiding from leading Republicans. But Agema has never been asked to step down from his party post and last year he saw his resolution reaffirming the party’s stance against same-sex marriage unanimously approved by the RNC. The tolerance for Agema’s intolerance was too much for Jimmy LaSalvia, founder of the gay Republican group GOProud. The activist announced last week that he had left the party.

Now, a prominent Michigan Republican has finally spoken out against a “culture of intolerance.” Betsy DeVos has called on Agema to resign and for chairman Reince Priebus to remove him from the RNC if the committeeman refuses to do so.

“The expectation of leaders in a party is to stand up in situations like this,” DeVos, former chairperson of Michigan’s GOP, told The Detroit News. “Failing to do so will have consequences.”

The obvious implication is that donations will be withheld if Agema retains his position.

DeVos is a member of the royal family of Michigan conservative politics. Her husband — an heir to the Amway fortune — was a former GOP nominee for governor and a major financial backer of the anti-union law passed by a lame-duck state legislature in 2012. Her brother, Erik Prince, worked in George H.W. Bush’s White House and became the founder and former CEO of the private military firm Blackwater, which is now known as Academi.

Thus her threat has real significance — and it is also wrought with real hypocrisy.

DeVos’ mother Elsa Prince gave $450,000 to help pass California’s Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal in California in 2008. A group funded by her husband used anti-gay rhetoric to push his pet issue of school choice and the schools he backs use taxpayer-funded textbooks that push anti-gay propaganda. His parents have given more than $5 million to Focus on the Family, a leading purveyor of the myth that homosexuality is a sinful “lifestyle” that can be cured.

In 2004, the DeVos and Prince families collectively donated $125,000 to help ban marriage equality, Michigan Democrats communications director Joshua Pugh pointed out. Pugh added that DeVos seems to have no problem with Governor Rick Synder (R-MI) signing a ban on domestic-partner benefits, in an era where equal marriage is quickly becoming the norm in America.

DeVos was likely motivated by a desire to help probable U.S. Senate nominee Terri Lynn Land, a GOP committee member who has been reluctant to comment on Agema for fear of alienating her base. Republicans clearly don’t want to go into a general election in a state President Obama won by 9.5 percent having one of the nation’s foremost anti-gay voices chained to them.

It has taken years for RNC chairman Priebus to even speak out against Agema and thus far only one prominent Republican is demanding his resignation. Perhaps expecting Republicans to catch up with the rest of America is too much to ask.