The befuddled Beck wing of today's GOP

[ProSense]

The befuddled Beck wing of today's GOP

By Steve Benen

When a far-right group last week tried to blame the Boston Marathon bombing on abortion and gays, it was fairly easy to chuckle and marvel at the inanity. When a Republican state lawmaker tries to blame the Boston Marathon bombing on the United States government, it's a lot less funny.

State Rep. Stella Tremblay (R-Auburn) posted on conservative talk show host Glenn Beck's Facebook page Friday that the attack and the subsequent search for suspects was playing out how Beck had suggested. She said the bombings were a plot by the federal government, and included a link to a video from another conservative talk show host Alex Jones, in which Jones also claims the federal government planned the bombing. Tremblay's message to Beck was posted Friday morning, before suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested.

Though she didn't clarify, Tremblay said the events had unfolded in Boston "just as" Beck "said would happen."

As the Huffington Post report added, Tremblay is also a birther who recently argued that former President Woodrow Wilson agreed with Adolf Hitler, despite the fact that Wilson died before Hitler rose to power. One of Tremblay's aides believes the U.S. government is under the control of Queen Elizabeth II.

Pressed for an explanation by a local news outlet, the New Hampshire Republican said she had suspicions of some kind of plot involving Secretary of State John Kerry, Saudi nationals, and "black ops" soldiers.

Say hello to the Glenn Beck wing of the Republican Party...before you dismiss this as the strange rants of a crazed and largely unknown state lawmaker, let's not overlook the fact that last week, Beck used his Internet show to push a bogus claim about a Boston suspect, but his arguments quickly drew attention from the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, the chairman of the House subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency, the chairman of the House subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, and the chairwoman of the House subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security -- all of whom are Republicans, and all of whom took Beck's nonsense seriously.

- more -

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/04/24/17895545-the-befuddled-beck-wing-of-todays-gop

[denverbill]

1. New Hampshirites are usually pretty sensible people.

How could they elect a crackpot like this?

[Raven]

4. Tremblay represents a small % of people up here

who are seriously off the rails. They are Free Staters, Birthers and conspiracy junkies. They tend to vote and come out in droves for nuts like Tremblay. Fortunately, most people up here have them on ignore.

[ProSense]

8. That's weird. n/t

[Common Sense Party]

2. I've never watched or listened to Alex Jones, but I had the impression he's not conservative,

he's just bat-guano insane. He has kooky conspiracies that are both far, far right and extreme left, doesn't he?

It's morons like Beck and Limbaugh that are driving droves of semi-sane Republicans out of that party to become Independents.

[CJCRANE]

9. I thought he was a RW Libertarian

and born again Christian (although the Christian part isn't really mentioned except when he talks about abortion then it's more obvious).

That's the impression I got from the few times I've seen his comments/videos etc.

[Common Sense Party]

10. You'd know better than I then...I've never watched any of his videos. I just looked him up

on wikipedia, and it says he ran as a Republican for state office in Texas. But he's always kooky anti-government. He believes the government was behind Oklahoma City, 9/11, etc...

Mainstream sources have described Jones as a conservative,[25][26][27][28] a right-wing conspiracy theorist,[29][30][31][32] and a libertarian.[33] Jones see himself as a libertarian and rejects being described as a right-winger.[34] He has also called himself a paleoconservative[35] and an "aggressive constitutionalist".[36][37] The Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Files assert that he has "exploit[ed] racial animosities" to "appeal to the fears of the antigovernment Patriot movement".[38]

Jones has been the center of many controversies, such as the one surrounding his actions and statements about gun control after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting,[5] and has accused the US government of being involved in the Oklahoma City bombing[6] and September 11 attacks.[7] Jones was in a "media crossfire" in 2011, which included criticism by Rush Limbaugh, when the news spread that Jared Laughner had been "a fan" of the 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change, of which Jones had been an executive producer.[39] In January 2013, Jones was invited to speak on Piers Morgan's show after promoting an online petition to deport Morgan due to his support of gun control laws.[40] The interview turned into "a one-person shoutfest, as Jones riffed about guns, oppressive government, the flag, his ancestors' role in Texan independence, and what flag Morgan would have on his tights if they wrestled".[40] The event drew widespread coverage,[40] and according to The Huffington Post, Morgan and others such as Glenn Beck "agreed that Jones was a terrible spokesman for gun rights".[41] Jones' appearance on the show was a top trending Twitter topic the following morning.[42]

[tanyev]

3. If we're under the control of Queen Elizabeth, where's my corgi?

[KharmaTrain]

5. The Scary Part...

...are the people who voted for her. They're the ones who enable these wing nuts and give them "credibility". Used to be these people could be elected dog catcher, now they dominate legislatures all across the country...

[treestar]

6. Oh that's right!

Obama's father was born when Kenya was still under British dominion and that means he and Obama are loyal first to the Queen, so obviously, once Obama was President, we were returned to a state of thralldom to the British Monarchy!

[monmouth3]

7. I don't know if this is true but I did hear the Queen said "No way" when asked if the US could come

back under British rule...LOL..