Daily Archives: January 19, 2013

January 19, 2013 · 7:46 PM

The disturbing rise of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories

This insanity has gone too far…

The Week

Claims that the massacre was a hoax have gone viral

In the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., President Obama has moved to strengthen America’s gun laws, and public opinion has swung significantly in support of stricter gun control. Gun-rights advocates have responded passionately, but opposition has also begun to take on uglier forms — most notably in conspiracy theories that contend the shooting was a hoax perpetrated by the government, the media, or some wildly improbable combination of the two.

What kind of conspiracy theories are out there?  One contends that something is amiss because the adults in Newtown — particularly Robbie Parker, who lost his 6-year-old daughter Emilie in the shooting — haven’t grieved hard enough. According to this theory, many of the shattered adults you’ve seen on camera are actors. Another claims that Emilie is still alive, appearing in a photograph with President Obama (the person in the photo is Emilie’s sister). Yet another claims that there were other gunmen besides Adam Lanza. For a comprehensive list, as well as a thorough debunking (not that you’d need one), check out this article from Salon.

The thread that connects the various theories is gun control. “The underlying theme in all the theories is that the media, the government, and the Obama administration specifically either manipulated or orchestrated the shooting to move political opinion on gun control,” says Laura Edwins at The Christian Science Monitor. Analysts say the theories may be a way to deflect blame from guns to imaginary culprits.

Of course, conspiracy theories abound on the internet. But the Sandy Hook variety are gaining traction, approaching Obama-was-born-in-Kenya ubiquity. One YouTube video, “The Sandy Hook Shooting—Fully Exposed,” has been viewed more than 10 million times. Gene Rosen, a Newtown resident who sheltered six children during the shooting, has reportedly received creepy phone calls and emails from those who believe he is an actor. And it’s all over social media, according to Ben Smith and CJ Lotz at BuzzFeed:

“It’s by far the hottest topic of the moment,” said David Mikkelson, the co-founder of the popular fact-checking website Snopes.com, which offers a detailed and extensive debunking of the theory’s various planks.

The term “Sandy Hook conspiracy” was also a “hot search” on Google this week. [BuzzFeed]

It may be unwise to attribute these theories to a bunch of cranks. As the National Rifle Association showed this week, with an anti-gun control ad harping on Obama’s daughters, a conspiratorial strain runs through the gun lobby’s public relations approach. As David Weigel at Slate explains:

The idea that the government is one short step away from a gun ban is actually integral to the lobby’s pitch…At the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference, [NRA head Wayne] LaPierre warned that the first-term Obama administration’s “lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term”…

[T]he fact that Obama responded to Sandy Hook at all validates LaPierre’s fears, and he’s said so. Why would anyone be surprised when that paranoia grows into a full-on conspiracy theory? [Slate]

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· 9:34 AM

Gun FAILS: Second Amendment Rights Gone Wrong In Honor Of ‘Gun Appreciation Day’ (VIDEO)

I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity and insanity here…

Published on Jan 18, 2013

On January 19, our nation will have a new holiday to celebrate. Normally, we’d have the Hallmark corporation to thank for this, but this time there is a very different force behind the movement: the American gun lobby. That’s right, it’s time for the first annual “Gun Appreciation Day,” and instead of buying chocolates and flowers to mark the occasion, this holiday encourages you to buy — you guessed it — more guns!

In honor of this auspicious occasion, we’ve put together this collection of idiotic dangerous great moments in second amendment rights.

Obviously, for every responsible, law-abiding gun owner out there, there’s one of these folks. It almost makes you wish there was some sort of enforceable law in place that kept guns out of the hands of irresponsible people.

Fortunately, none of these individuals were seriously injured… but, clearly, not for a lack of trying.

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· 1:26 AM

“My God, What Have We Done?”: White House Staffers React to Insane Online Petitions

Death Star Petition

My favorites were the petition for a Death Star and a petition to stop petitions…

Mother Jones

It’s not all laughs for the White House staffers who deal with petitions demanding Obama build a Death Star or create a Joe Biden reality TV show, but they don’t mind.

As White House officials were busy pondering new gun violence prevention measures, preparing for the coming debt ceiling showdown with Republicans, and meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the Obama administration on January 11 also issued an official decision: the US government would not construct the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, commonly known as the Death Star from Star Wars Episode IV.

This was no joke. Well, almost no joke. “The Administration does not support blowing up planets,” the official White House statement read. “Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?” The response also address the dubious claim that such a large-scale federal undertaking would be a tremendous boon for the American economy. (The Galactic Empire has since issued a press release mocking the Obama administration for its decision.)

This official declaration was compelled by the White House’s own rules. Under its We the People initiative, anybody with internet access can petition the White House on any matter, and if a petition gains 25,000 signatures, the president—or his people—have to respond. Well, that’s how it worked until Tuesday. After being hit by all sorts of, shall we say, nonserious petitions like the Death Star one that reached the 25,000-signature benchmark, the White House has raised the bar. From now on, a petition will require 100,000 signatures in order to win White House attention. (When WTP debuted, the threshold was a measly 5,000.) But that fix may still not block the frivolous—the Death Star request drew over 34,000 signatures, and other ludicrous posts have managed to surpass the 100,000 mark—and some White House officials connected to the We the People project say (on background, of course), What were we thinking?

Continue reading here…

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· 1:05 AM

Washington Gears Up for a Smaller, More Subdued Obama Inaugural

Reblogged from Swampland:

Love may be lovelier the second time around, but second inaugurations rarely outdo the first. Washington, D.C., is preparing for a much smaller to-do than President Obama’s 2009 unprecedented blowout. Almost 2 million people crowded into the capital in 2009. On Friday, D.C. authorities downgraded expectations from between 600,000 and 800,000 to between 500,000 and 700,000.

As the weekend celebrations revved up, downtown hotel rooms were still available for roughly $200.

Read more… 439 more words

A smaller ceremony is great. We saw the pomp and circumstance of Obama's first inaugural. His second should indeed be smaller...

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· 12:57 AM

NRA lied: No armed guards at Obama girls’ school

AmericaBlog

There’s a reason they’re called gun “NUTS.”  The NRA just lies.  These guys should consider teaming up with the religious right, considering the audacity of lies they tell.

You might recall that we reported earlier this week that the NRA had launched an ad/Web site targeting President Obama’s children.  The ad claimed – falsely, we now know – that the school the Obama girls attend, Sidwell friends, has “11 armed guards.”

NRA ad site targeting obama girls

In fact, the school has no armed guards of any kind.

Now, you’d think that when the NRA saw that the source for lie was “Breitbart,” a far right blog known for its sensationalism rather than it’s love of veracity, they’d have double checked.  Well, if they did, they double checked with Fox News, because it’s a lie.

From the Washington Post’s fact checker:

But what about the claim that Sidwell Friends has 11 armed guards, which some Web sites have depicted with images of armed police with binoculars?

This is based on the fact that the online directory for Sidwell Friends lists 11 people as working in the Security Department. Five are listed as “special police officer,” while two are listed as “on call special police officer,” which presumably means they do not work full-time. The directory also lists two weekend shift supervisors, one security officer and the chief of security….

But we spoke to parents who said they had never seen a guard on campus with a weapon. And Ellis Turner, associate head of Sidwell Friends, told us emphatically: “Sidwell Friends security officers do not carry guns.” (Note: this includes those listed as special police officers.)

And just to clarify, the NRA wasn’t talking about Secret Service protection – they were talking about actual armed security forces – more from the Washington Post:

While some news organizations reported that the ad was referencing the Secret Service protection provided to the Obama family — as required by federal law — the longer ad makes it clear that the NRA is specifically referring to the security force at Sidwell Friends.

The Post’s conclusion?

pinocchio_4

A slashing attack like this has an especially high threshold to get its facts straight. The ad gives the impression that a phalanx of armed police are guarding students, such as the Obama and Gregory children, at Sidwell Friends.

But that is completely false. Far from being elitist, the relatively small force of unarmed security guards at Sidwell is not unusual for a school of its size.

Moreover, the ad also suggests that Obama rejects out of hand boosting security at schools, when in fact his proposals include provisions that would provide funding for more school security.

If the NRA is also trying to count Secret Service protection for Obama’s children as part of that force of armed guards, that’s even more ridiculous. As we noted, such protection is mandated under federal law — and only exists for the president’s children.

Four Pinocchios

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· 12:30 AM

Hypocrisy Perfected – NRA Gets Death Threats, Blames Obama

, leads a moment of silence for victims of the December 14 Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, before a news conference in Washington December 21, 2012.      REUTERS/Joshua Roberts    (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW EDUCATION)

David Keene, president of the National Rifle Association (NRA)

Guys, you can’t make this stuff up.  The RWNJs have totally lost their collective mind!

Addicting Info

NRA President David Keene would like you to feel bad for him. After years of ensuring unnecessary gun proliferation at the behest of the gun industry, Keene has found himself on the losing end of the gun debate and he’s feeling put upon. Specifically, Keene is receiving death threats for his role in making sure mass murderers have as easy a time as possible getting the guns they need to wipe out a classroom of kids.

I can’t imagine why people are upset with him.

But Keene knows who to blame! Just like guns are never responsible for the astronomical amount of gun violence in America, so, too, is Keene’s efforts to get more guns out on the street completely unrelated to his unpopularity!

It’s really all Obama’s fault:

What this reflects are two things. One is the uncivil way in which idealogues on the left in this country go after their enemies. The second thing it shows is the reflection of the left and the President of the United States’ attempt to demonize and blame those who disagree with them for everything that he doesn’t like. (SOURCE)

Curiously, Keene didn’t seem particularly put out over the past 4 years as fellow NRA death merchant, Wayne LaPierre accused President Obama of getting ready to “destroy the Second Amendment:”

If you want a glimpse of a genuine nightmare for America, just look at what’s headed our way.

But unlike a nightmare, this isn’t some fantasy. It’s a very real, very dangerous conspiracy of public deception intended to destroy your Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It’s targeted directly at you.

And it’ll succeed unless you recognize it, understand it, and take action now to stop it.

…

Over the past three years, the Obama administration and its anti-gun allies have been engaged in a silent but sophisticated long-term conspiracy to:

1. Neutralize gun owners and NRA voters as a political force in national elections, and thereby:

2. Win re-election to a second term in the White House, where they then will be immune to the will of voters and free to continue consolidating and misusing their ever-increasing power to:

3. Prosecute a full-scale, sustained, all-out campaign to excise the Second Amendment from our Bill of Rights through legislation, litigation, regulation, executive orders, judicial fiat, international treaties—in short, all the levers of power of all three branches of government.

Neutralize, conspiracy, destroy, nightmare, targeted: All words deliberately chosen to stoke the fear of gun fetishists. Fear that will turn to anger. Anger that will be directed at Obama.

Former President Bill Clinton said it best:

“It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did!”

Here’s some articles on the NRA’s website that showcase how unhinged their rhetoric is:

Here’s What Could Happen If You Don’t Defeat Obama! – The election before the knock on our door.

Send President Obama His Walking Papers!:

The only way Freedom can survive today is if gun owners across America go “All In” on Election Day.

I know you’ve given in the past, and I thank you for your support. I know you understand the danger. But too many gun owners in America don’t.

The Power Is In Your Hands:

There is no greater freedom than the ability to own a firearm to protect yourself, your family, your community and your country. That freedom is the heart and soul of our nation. And that soul is at stake in this election.

You know it, I know it and gun owners everywhere feel it in their hearts. We’re on edge about the future of our firearms and our freedom. It’s a fear that’s sending gun owners and would-be gun owners out to gun shops in droves. Sales of firearms and Right-to-Carry permit applications are skyrocketing because the stakes of this election are clear: If Barack Obama wins, the Second Amendment will fall.

Got that? Guns mean freedom and Obama wants to take them away. In other words, Obama wants to enslave you!

I wonder if Keene thinks it’s OK to “demonize…those who disagree” that every man, woman and child should have as many guns as possible? Probably not. In the NRA’s world everyone that owns a gun is a potential victim of tyranny and the best way to protect yourself is with MOAR GUNZ! Preferably from one of the NRA approved gun manufacturers.

Remember, the NRA’s goal is distract us as much as possible so we get bogged down in the details and lose focus on the fight to reduce gun violence. Read this article, grasp the level of hypocrisy of Keene and the NRA and then go back to ignoring them. They’re nothing but smoke and mirrors.

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