I’ve been saying for years that as bad as some of the folks in the U.S. Congress are, if you really want to find the crazy you have to look at the state legislatures. That’s where you get people like Sally Kern, Gerald Allen, Warren Chisum and Chris Buttars. And Kelly Keisling, a Tennessee state rep who sent out a loopy conspiracy theory to his constituents:
A Republican member of the Tennessee state legislature emailed constituents Tuesday morning with a rumor circulating in conservative circles that President Barack Obama is planning to stage a fake assassination attempt in an effort to stop the 2012 election from happening.
Rep. Kelly Keisling (R-Byrdstown) sent an email from his state email account to constituents containing a rumor that Obama and the Department of Homeland Security are planning a series of events that could lead to the imposition of “martial law” and delay the election. Among the events hypothesized in the email is a staged assassination attempt on the president that would lead to civil unrest in urban areas and martial law…
Keisling’s assistant, Frankie Anderson, confirmed that the email was sent “at Keisling’s request” from a state account under the name of Holt Whitt, who is identified in the email as Keisling’s assistant. Anderson said he is filling in for Whitt…
Janet Moore, one of the recipients of Keisling’s email, said she called the lawmaker Tuesday morning to express her disagreement with his decision to send the email. Moore, who lives in an adjoining legislative district in rural Tennessee, told HuffPost that Keisling told her that the rumor was “pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?”
When she asked Keisling why he sent the email, if he found it ridiculous, she said that Keisling told her, “I wouldn’t put anything past anybody.”
This bit of bullshit is becoming rather popular among the wingnuts. The Florida branch of the badly misnamed Constitution Party is pushing it as well, reprinting something from some “journalist” named Joe Angione:
A good journalist is usually taught not to print rumors or at least never to present them as the truth.
What I’m going to report here is only a rumor that presently can’t be confirmed. But it is of such magnitude that it must be made known if only to prepare America for a possible terrible eventuality. And while it has not been confirmed, neither can it authoritatively and convincingly be denied, certainly not in a United States where our Constitutional rights are under constant attack.
This rumor involves an agent of the Department of Homeland Security who allegedly informed a reporter at the Canada Free Press of a “false flag” or faked event to be initiated by Obama administration operatives in the hope of preventing the November presidential elections.
Canada Free Press (CFP) is an independent, conservative, electronic daily newspaper, updated several times a day. It boasts more than 100 writers and columnists who file stories regularly to the newspaper from all corners of the globe.
According to the newspaper’s coverage of this DHS “whistleblower,” the event would be a staged assassination attempt on the life of President Obama that would be blamed on “white supremacists” and subsequently used to enrage black and Hispanic communities driving them to rioting all across the nation.
The faked assassination, says the CFP report, would be carried out through the assistance of DHS agents, and “other colluders” taking their orders from the White House. The objective would be to stir up enough racial unrest to justify the imposition of martial law in major urban cities, including erecting DHS checkpoints, restricting travel, and delaying (possibly indefinitely) the November 2012 elections.
I won a couple bets with liberals who thought George W. Bush was going to cancel the 2008 election and declare martial law to stay in power; I’d love to make a bet with Angione, or anyone else, on this one.
46 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Zeno
August 6, 2012 at 12:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I never thought George W. Bush would cancel elections, but I would not have put it past Dick Cheney.
slc1
August 6, 2012 at 12:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There is nothing new here. Back in 1972, the left was circulating rumors that Nixon would cancel the election that year.
matty1
August 6, 2012 at 12:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Questions.
Does the POTUS actually have authority to cancel an election?
Does anyone, if so who?
Given the US managed to hold a presidential election in the middle of a civil war how could any lesser crisis trigger such a cancellation?
jakc
August 6, 2012 at 12:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I first heard the “cancel the elections, declare martial law and seize power” rumors about Richard Nixon. The ironic thing is that the Florida Constitution Party is the spiritual descendants of the last people who really tried something like this
Trebuchet
August 6, 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s a win-win for them. They get to stir up racial fears and then, when nothing happens, they can claim they prevented it.
Larry
August 6, 2012 at 12:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Back in the day, I remember rumors of these sorts being immediately dismissed with a snide remark or a “you’re full of shit” expletive. Those who persisted in claiming the rumor was fact were called crazy. Now, we call them GOP legislators.
eric
August 6, 2012 at 12:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The operational branches of DHS run regular training exercises, complete with fake attack scenarios. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the USSS ran an assassination-scenario exercise. After all, that’s what they train to prevent. Probably some idiot caught a whiff of a few details and filled in the rest wrongly.
Modusoperandi
August 6, 2012 at 12:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
matty1 “Given the US managed to hold a presidential election in the middle of a civil war how could any lesser crisis trigger such a cancellation?”
Because Obama.
jakc
August 6, 2012 at 12:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
SLC1
It was really more crazy people; if they fell on the left then, most are on the right now. It isn’t so much their political beliefs as a lack of grasp on reality.
imrryr
August 6, 2012 at 12:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah, the Constitution Party. For when the GOP isn’t crazy enough.
wscott
August 6, 2012 at 1:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ditto. Tho to be fair, I don’t remamber any actual democratic legislators pushing that nonsense in 2008.
jnorris
August 6, 2012 at 1:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Exactly Trebuchet, now that the Tennessee hillbillies and the Florida crackers know the secret plan, Pres Obama will call it off.
I am sure we all feel much safer now.
Randomfactor
August 6, 2012 at 1:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“I wouldn’t put anything past anybody.”
Example: The representative himself.
lofgren
August 6, 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I feel so much better now that my plot to kill Obama has been preemptively blamed on liberals. It really takes the pressure off knowing that even if I fail, right thinking white christians are already prepared to blame the whole thing on Obama. Even if I don’t manage to kill the president I know I’ll be helping the Movement.
- A White Supremacist
raven
August 6, 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Even the Space Reptiles think this is pretty silly.
Michael Heath
August 6, 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
State legislatures should serve to weed-out the crazy. Instead it’s increasingly becoming a farm system to develop wingnuts in preparation for the U.S. Congress.
busterggi
August 6, 2012 at 1:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
When crazy becomes a requirement where else is there to go but crazier?
Drew
August 6, 2012 at 1:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
We’re all ignoring another possibility.
Picture this:
1. There is actually a plan floating around out there among, not republican law makers, but among some ultra wealthy supporters of the conservative agenda, to kill the president.
2. Word has gotten to some people in the party that this is going on.
3. They’ve decided to put out word that this “attempt” is being plotted by the president himself. That way, if the gunman misses, they get to say, “See? We told you he was going to do this. Don’t have any sympathy for him.”
It’s at least as plausible as Mr. Keisling’s contention, no?
Member X
August 6, 2012 at 1:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Two questions:
1.) What are these people smoking/injecting/drinking/whatever?
2.) Where can I get some?
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
August 6, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I GM’d a couple of games of GURPS Illuminati with some high-caliber roleplayers. After a while, not even I as GM (with planned notes) could keep all the plots, false plots, dead plots, counter-plots, re-plots, un-plots, de-plots, ur-plots, and imaginary plots straight.
After a while it becomes easy to point to a random event and use it as the lynchpin of a world-spanning megaconspiracy. I think at once point the PCs’ plans involved killing themselves, framing themselves for their own murders, and profiting from it.
So I have seen formerly sane people devolve into frothing lunatics baying “CONSPIRACY” at every event, no matter how small or insignificant.
regexp
August 6, 2012 at 1:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The same rumors were being spread when Bush was President by left wing fringe groups. Nothing new.
cottonnero
August 6, 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
When “You can’t prove it won’t happen” is your standard of evidence, the options are endless.
Modusoperandi
August 6, 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
regexp “The same rumors were being spread when Bush was President by left wing fringe groups. Nothing new.”
Yes, new. Naomi Klein(*1), who was about the most popular and least fringy purveyor of such nonesense, was not a member of any state legislature.
*1. Heck, I’m “left wing fringe”(*2) and my review of Shock Doctrine goes like this: “Interesting, but loses it near the end”
*2. As a foreigner I automatically qualify for the US definition of “left wing fringe”. They sent me a card and everything. True story.
Modusoperandi
August 6, 2012 at 1:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Nonesense”! I punned! Hah!
slc1
August 6, 2012 at 2:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As crazy as this moron is, he doesn’t rise to the same level of lunacy as the late former Congressman James Utt from, where else, Orange Co., California. Utt once sent out a newsletter claiming that there were a quarter million Chinese Communist troops in Baja California preparing to invade California.
Chiroptera
August 6, 2012 at 2:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Huh. I would have thought that they would have accused Obama of planning to stage a fake attack on a radio station by Poland or something.
I blame our failing educational system.
John Hinkle
August 6, 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Umm, don’t Democrats usually carry major urban cities?
Susannah
August 6, 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Or maybe they’re planning an attempt, and the rumour is insurance in case it doesn’t succeed.
(Since we’re passing round insane conspiracy theories, may as well add another to the pile.)
Susannah
August 6, 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oops! Should have refreshed the comments before I posted.
Chiroptera
August 6, 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Another thing: I’m no expert on mass psychology, but I would have thought that an attempted assassination would be a big boost for the incumbent. The only way cancelling the election would make sense is if Romney had a pretty large lead on Obama…something the polls I checked don’t show.
(Unless they’re talking about the possible Republican sweep of House and Senate?)
timgueguen
August 6, 2012 at 3:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If anyone is interested the Canada Free Press homepage is at the following http://canadafreepress.com/ Note the line on the banner: …Because without America there is no Free World.” Also note how little of what is on their front page has anything to do with Canada.
Doug Little
August 6, 2012 at 3:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The difference is this is a state rep. This guy should be reprimanded and laughed at by his party, well in a sane world he should.
randytoad
August 6, 2012 at 3:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If having half of the nation involved in armed rebellion was not seen as sufficient reason to cancel a presidential election in 1864, then I doubt an assassination attempt would work in 2012.
Modusoperandi
August 6, 2012 at 4:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
timgueguen “Also note how little of what is on their front page has anything to do with Canada.”
To be fair, it is Canada. What would they talk about? Snow?
Abby Normal
August 6, 2012 at 4:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The laws governing our current martial law framework were initially passed in 1933 and have been expanded over the years. Most recently the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 expanded the President’s power to declare and maintain martial law by removing Congress’s authority to override him. That act is what sparked the rumors about Bush in the first place. Obviously it wasn’t part of some nefarious plan to install Bush as El Presidente for Life. But the point I’m making is that the Civil War is probably not relevant to a modern discussion about martial law.
iangould
August 6, 2012 at 5:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
AS it becomes increasingly likely that Obama will win re-election (Nate Silver gives him a 70% chance), the wing nuts are naturally drawn to a fantasy in which that doesn’t happen and in which all their most lurid suspicions about Obama and the Democrats are validated.
Plus they get that race war they’ve been pining for.
ShowMetheData
August 6, 2012 at 6:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Canada Free Press – from the RationalWiki
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Canada_Free_Press
loren
August 6, 2012 at 8:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A fake assassination attempt as a popularity booster?
I seem to recall that technique being used before…by Lex Luthor, when he ran for President in the Superman comics a decade ago.
And it was used again, a decade before that, in the movie Bob Roberts.
Seems like somebody’s been pulling their political rumors from the discount bin.
Artor
August 6, 2012 at 9:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I was one of the people seriously concerned that Bush & Cheney were planning to stage a false flag assassination of Obama at the inauguration, declare martial law, and seize power indefinitely. I’m glad I was full of shit, but it seemed reasonable at the time. Keisling’s theory doesn’t sound reasonable at any time.
dan4
August 6, 2012 at 9:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@21: Piggybacking on Doug Little’s @32 post, were any members of those left-wing fringe groups pushing the stupid anti-Bush rumors you mentioned elected officials?
iangould
August 6, 2012 at 11:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“… major urban cities… ”
As opposed to all those rural cities.
Modusoperandi
August 6, 2012 at 11:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
iangould, ain’t you never bin to Rural City? That’s where I first ran afoul of Marshall Law. True story.
And also, “major urban cities” sounds like a Dogwhistle (“major urban cities”).
lorn
August 7, 2012 at 2:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I saw claims fly on radical right forums during the Clinton re-election campaign. He was rumored to be planning to declare martial law if it looked like he might not win. Like most fish stories the claim was embellished over time to include versions with a faked assassination, or false-flag nuclear attack, and house-to-house searches for guns. Some posters were so convinced this was going to happen that they used one of the anonymous servers so they couldn’t be tracked and included in the roundup and incarceration of Christians, Republicans, and states rights activists. The UN figured in a lot of these stories.
Obama’s race brings on a whole new dimension of creative doom-mongering and conspiracy. I haven’t read it yet so let me get out ahead and be the first to claim that after martial law is declared and the guns are confiscated Obama will declare all white people slaves and confiscate their property. The slaves and property will be sold at auction to collect money for annual payments to Muslim nations as penalty for not being a Muslim.
Pieter B, FCD
August 7, 2012 at 4:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
busterggi @17
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
—Hunter S Thompson
kermit.
August 7, 2012 at 10:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
lorn:let me get out ahead and be the first to claim that after martial law is declared and the guns are confiscated Obama will declare all white people slaves and confiscate their property. The slaves and property will be sold at auction to collect money for annual payments to Muslim nations as penalty for not being a Muslim.
C’mon, lorn, that’s crazy. Everyone knows that Obama’s and his people are already Muslim.
Pierce R. Butler
August 7, 2012 at 1:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nixon, as it turned out, had more imaginative ways of getting the results he wanted in 1972.
And, during the Shrub years (gag!), lots of Repubs were talking up a campaign to repeal the 22nd Amendment so that The President Through Whom God Spoke could continue in office, lo, even unto the present day. That initiative was found floating face down in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Katrina blew through in ’05, as was any possibility of the Pentagon going banana-Republican with a Fujimorian auto-coup.