Via Harpers by way of Sully by way of the comments, this gem:
“Let’s just say that, that, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, is brought to the United States to be tried in a federal court in the United States, under a federal judge, and we know what some of those judges do, and on a technicality, such as, let’s just say he wasn’t read his Miranda rights. … He is released into the streets of America. Walks over and steps up into a US embassy and applies for asylum for fear that he can’t go back home cause he spilled the beans on al Qaeda. What happens then if another judge grants him asylum in the United States and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is on a path to citizenship.” Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa)
I know there is some tough competition, but this has to be the dumbest thing said by anyone in the last twenty years. Is there anyone on the planet who honestly thinks that KSM is going to be released because he was not read his Miranda rights? And since when did King decide KSM deserves Miranda rights?
Aside from that, is there anyone on the planet who thinks that KSM will not be found guilty in any jurisdiction in the country? Anyone?
And even then, King’s primary concern is that KSM, once freed by an activist judge and allowed to roam the streets, is primarily a danger because he will…. apply for citizenship?
Here is an idea. Put King in Gitmo and allow KSM to represent the people of Iowa. They will be better off.
*** Update ***
The Daily Show already dealt with this:
It really says a great deal about the current Republican party that virtually anything they say can be used as the foundation of a comedy skit. Not to mention, the Colbert Report, a pretty successful show, was designed SOLELY as a vehicle for mocking these nitwits.
Ugh
I cannot believe that guy represents (part of) the state I grew up in. He is a complete and total blithering moron. Jeebers.
chrome agnomen
king cannot be allowed to fail in his reelection efforts. this is the voice we want representing the right. also we must remember the paucity of comedy material available with the changeover in d.c. this will help to fill that vacuum.
Wheaton Pat
Let’s release him in Manhatten during a "Blue Flu" day. The sanitation workers can pick up his remains the next day.
R-Jud
The Daily Show FTW!
SGEW
Um . . .
Tough competition indeed!
syl
Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity think he’d be found not guilty in San Francisco. I mean, they haven’t said it out loud yet. But they will.
Librarian
The real problem here is, because of the last 30 years of right-wing destruction of civil discourse, we have come to the point where totally insane statements like this, which used to be confined to venues like talk radio, can now be voiced by mainstream politicians and seem normal. Talk radio discourse is now regularly heard on the floors of Congress, thanks to the Limbaughization and Coulterization of the GOP. They’re proud of it.
Dan
Why would we build an embassy in our own country?
amorphous
I guess it depends how much evidence gets thrown out because he was, y’know, tortured. He’d still get convicted no matter what, of course. He can’t actually get a fair trial, so FSM only knows how the wingnuts think this pretendfear will work (hint: people are dumb, that’s how).
He will hate himself because of his freedom.
Laura W
@R-Jud: You beat me. Just watched that last night…fabulous. Nearly posted it previous thread. Laziness prevailed.
Conservatively Liberal
Sorry John, but a sack of hammers can still be useful. For example, they can be used to beat dumb fuckers (Rep. King) like they are a baby seal.
Open the picture dictionary and look up fuckwit. Rep. King will be staring back at you.
Edit: I just looked up douchenozzle and Rep. King was there, smiling back at me. Guy gets around.
SGEW
[hmmm. . . comment lost in internets ether? try try again]
Um . . .
Tough competition indeed!
sparky
here’s something equally dumb:
Amendment One to the Florida Constitution was voted down last fall. The point of it was to remove unconstitutional nativist language from the document. At least one GOPer argued that the language barring foreigners from owning property should stay because otherwise the Taliban might buy up foreclosed subdivisions and start training camps in FL. Seriously.
How about a fourth branch of popular government, with no real power, like the House of Lords in the UK? We could call it the Assemblage of Stupid, and then Sarah P can be elected as its head. Also.
John H. Farr
John, yer on a righteous roll today. In honor of the occasion, I’m posting this under my own name.
As for King, I know Iowa very well. My wife is from Iowa, and I’ve spent almost three decades visiting every year. Most Iowans would laugh this guy off the streets. I don’t know — guessing here — but I’ll bet he comes from one of the corners of the state where hogs outnumber people. Either that, or a certain neighborhood in Dubuque.
Pigs would vote for this guy, if they could. Once they get a little slop, they don’t care about anything else.
4tehlulz
PROTIP: Countries don’t keep embassies in their own country.
afalker
What an ass-hat. My fellow state’s people should be ashamed of electing this tosser.
DaveB
The logical extension is that in a year or two the Constitution is changed to allow naturalized citizens to become president of the US so that Arnold can run. In the meantime, KSM becomes a citizen, changes his name to Karl Matthews and runs as a conservative republican for the State House in Alabama. He makes a name for himself and does an Obama-like meteoric rise and in 2020 we end up with our worst nightmare – a sleeper cell in the White House. And we have only ourselves to blame because Steve King tried to warn us!
TheFountainHead
PotD nomination.
Lupin
I for one welcome our naturalized overlords.
former capitalist
Actually King represents the west/northwest, wingnut, side of Iowa. The east side is represented by two very progressive guys, Braley and Loebsack.
J.
Great clip.
So, do you think Rep. Steve King and Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be related, or that they were both abducted by aliens at some point?
El Cid
More Republicans being publicly proud of what irrational, chicken-shit cowards they are and how they pee their pants every time someone mentions 9/11.
Al Qa’ida couldn’t have asked for better dupes than the American right wing, particularly given that Bush Jr. gave bin Laden everything he ever wanted, including 8 months of giving the middle finger to anyone who suggested that, you know, maybe we ought to do something about all these warnings of imminent terrorist attack.
Can’t we just all chip in to design some suburb in the wilds of Oklahoma or Montana or Wyoming where all the pants-pissing Republicans can live in their Muslim-fearing version of Christmasland, and then they can all be free to scream all day long on the street corner how some super-villain terrorist is soon to burst his jail cell and teleport into white Republicans’ homes and burn them up with his magic jihad-vision eyes?
former capitalist
Oh, and maybe "dumb as a bucket of wet hair" is more descriptive.
MattF
It’s.. it’s… the slippery slope… the road to ruin… the path to perdition… But the mist rises and dissolves and, instead, we see… the boulevard of bullshit… the avenue of ass-hat… the way of wingnut…
Josh Hueco
I was born in and grew up in what is now King’s district. With the exception of Sioux City and Council Bluffs, it’s 99.99999% rural/small town and white, full of the kind of people that Iowa native Meredith Wilson lampooned in The Music Man. Meaning they’re well-intentioned and generally intelligent, but a tad parochial and cut off from the rest of the world culturally. That said, I never thought they’d elect some xenophobic buffoon like Steve King.
NB – I’ve noticed there are a lot of Iowans, ex-Iowans, and people with Iowa connections who are regulars at this particular watering hole. No wonder it’s such a great place. :)
linda
uh, i don’t believe there are actually any u.s. embassy outposts in this country.
.
gosh, you’d think a CONGRESSMAN would know that….
El Cid
@MattF: Awesome. The "avenue of ass-hat." The "way of wingnut".
J Royce
John H. Farr: "Pigs would vote for this guy, if they could."
Pigs do. Also.
El Cid
Oh yeah? Then how exactly do real Amurkans maintain communications with foreign places like San Francisco and Berkeley and Portland and Madison? You think they can just walk in and out or something like you can do in real Amurka?
Birdzilla
Any judge who grants assylum to a know terrorists should be hung from a tree along with the terrorist after first being drummed out of the court system
Iowa Housewife
Steve King is an asshole.
Why does he hate America so much?
theturtlemoves
@Josh Hueco: I used to live just over the border and went into Sioux City for lunch most days while working at a certain cow-spotted computer maker. I guess those folks electing a lunatic like King doesn’t surprise me, but it does disappoint me somewhat.
Dulcie
@Birdzilla: You are not the real Birdzilla. No caps, and not enough crazy. Try again.
Comrade Dread
The problem, among many, that Republicans have is that their mindset when it comes to the judicial system is set by 1980’s television shows and movies where the namby-pamby liberal judges are just itching to let the guilty off on technicalities against the poor oppressed police.
Notwithstanding the massive incarceration rate, the mandatory minimum sentences, the years of court decisions that pretty much eviscerate the fourth amendment and stack the deck in favor of the Prosecution, police overkill that doesn’t merit any sort of official reprimand unless it’s caught on camera phones, and I could go on, but no, it doesn’t matter.
Despite all of the evidence to the contrary and despite the fact that our "liberal" courts somehow manage incarcerate more people per capita than any nation on earth, our brave conservative pundits manage to believe that some judge straight out of an 80’s cop show will let one of the worst terrorists go because of a technicality.
Fucktards.
linda
@El Cid:
‘real’ amurikins don’t have no need to communicate with those dirty fucking hippie outposts…. that’s why they live in iowa…
(and just to note — i’m a native iowan who long ago relocated to one of those dfh outposts..)
new day rising
Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa):
His tin foil hat should be taken away and he should immediately be taken to a deprogramming center.
John PM
I thought that KSM pleaded guilty to all charges against him just prior to the Inauguration. Wouldn’t that make it hard for a judge to release him? Of course, I guess that KSM could withdraw his confession and argue that it was coerced because he was tortured. Assuming that a judge was forced to throw out all of the charges against KSM because he was tortured and the government had no other relevant and admissible evidence to try him, I would imagine that we would put KSM on the first plane to Saudi Arabia, which could deal with him however they choose. I do not see how a judge would be able to release him in the United States since KSM was not arrested here and is not a citizen or on some type of visa. Even if said judge could do that, would KSM want to be released anywhere in the United States? It seems to me that KSM anywhere in the US would be about as safe as a civil rights worker in the South in the 1960s.
Of course, I am trying to think about this logically, so I am probably not qualified to opine on this and other weighty issues of the day.
P.S. – King is a moron. I liked this blurb from his biography:
Apparently, however, he never removes the Constitution from his coat pocket in order to see what it actually says.
Rainy
This guy, King, talks so much shit, that if I was Obama I’d go up to him if I ever saw him and ask him if he had anything else to say. This is the guy that said Al-Qaeda would dance in the streets in the streets if Obama got elected. He also said it was ‘bizzare’ hearing Obama’s middle name during the inauguration. I hope the people in his district aren’t idiots and re-elect him again in 2010.
passerby
Gah-dam. That Daily Show segment is as brilliant as I’ve ever seen. Thank you Jon Stewart.
[Weather update: raining ice in E. TN]
cleek
Steve King should stick to writing fiction.
OT: Jessica Alba teaches O’Reilly a little bit of history.
magisterludi
Is there any chance this seeming congenital stupidity amongst self-described republicans has something to do with inbreeding? I mean, their numbers are diminishing and the gene pool is, too, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a fair amount of hemophiliacs in the mix,
The WaPo deleted my query in the comments section about this yesterday.
Too harsh?
Zifnab
@Comrade Dread: Keep pushing that Overtone Window. When GOoPers scream their heads off over something as silly as this, it becomes all the more difficult to gain traction on drug laws and interrogation procedures that don’t enjoy the vast majority of national support.
Red Staters just can’t let go of the idea that any minute Hamas is going to break down the front door and start launching katusha rockets into the kitchen in some farm home in west Nantucket.
WyldPirate
The thing is, John, is that evidence obtained by violation of international law against KSM, should be, and probably will be thrown out of court if it was obtained by means of torture.
The question is whether or not there is enough untainted evidence to convict him. I think he is probably guilty as hell and hope they have legally obtained evidence to convict him. Otherwise, he should walk because of the Bushies fuck-ups.
We either stand for our principles and laws as a nation or we don’t. It’s quite clear that we haven’t and that has what has corrupted the rule of law.
Of course, it’s been that way in the US for a long time…if you’ve got the money or the power–or both—there’s a different application of the legal system than for those that have neither money or power.
bedlam UK
How comes none of these guys have been told to like ‘get some fucking spine’.
Oh they so dangerous. Oh we dont want them in our state. they scaryyyyyyy.
What a bunch of wankers.
As a Brit, I always turned to Hollywood for my USA information, safe ( and jealous )with picturing USA full of Swat teams, American Footballers, Chuck Norris’ type Ninja blokes, and hot women – oh and cool nerds who manage to shag hot girls.
Now I’ve started to read about your politics its really sad to find the reality that its more like dumb ass women, ugly arse guys with way dodgy hair, and zero balls or spines.
Even Obama, the man with the plan, seems to be running up to the GOP and asking permission. Fuck that man, quote some more of that I WON shit and get it done.
These ugly arsed Repugs should be hiding in the closet, waiting for mummy to come home.
Get some spines.
The Grand Panjandrum
The police beat the fuck out of the wrong King.
@passerby: We’ve got 6 inches of snow since it started snowing this morning at 7. It’s actually coming down harder now and we will end up with about 15-20 inches of new powder by tomorrow morning! Good times for snowshoeing fools like me.
Josh Hueco
@Zifnab:
They don’t give a shit about Nantucket. They’re more worried about the skerry terrists blowing up some building in their hometown of Emporia, Kansas or Cushing, Oklahoma or Fort Dodge, Iowa or [insert name of middling flyover country town here].
gypsy howell
Building our very own billion dollar US embassy right here in the USofA would be a great economic stimulus program. Think of all the diplomats we ship overseas, instead of keeping those jobs right here!
Comrade Dread
"Keep pushing that Overtone Window. When GOoPers scream their heads off over something as silly as this, it becomes all the more difficult to gain traction on drug laws and interrogation procedures that don’t enjoy the vast majority of national support.
Red Staters just can’t let go of the idea that any minute Hamas is going to break down the front door and start launching katusha rockets into the kitchen in some farm home in west Nantucket."
Or the idea that some pothead or Negro will rape and murder their family and not do any jail time because a judge is just itching to let the guilty go free. Cue their deranged Death Wish fantasies.
What just pisses me off the most is the blatant lies and distortion of reality that goes unchallenged by the press for the utter bullshit it is and then gets spoonfed to the public by the official mouthpieces and it becomes conventional wisdom that the American justice system is somehow impotent and poor prosecutors are at the mercy of librul judges, when the exact opposite is true.
It is far easier to put an innocent person away for life than it is to get off on a technicality, unless you happen to be lucky like the Lecross kids and have enough resources to challenge the system.
Laura W
@The Grand Panjandrum: O/T re. Snowshoeing. I really regret never doing that over my 10 loooong-ass winters in CO. Every winter, I’d vow to do it. I can’t be trusted to keep my word to myself, clearly.
O/T part two: Would you do me a massive favor and give me the code or the super-secret magical incantation for linking back to a comment in a previous thread? My pleas went ignored last time I asked. Haters.
Iowa Housewife
@Josh Hueco: There is a small town in Iowa, Elkhorn, that has a windmill. They get homeland security money to protect it from those scary terrorists. Sitting in their caves planning to blow up that dern windmill.
Ash Can
@bedlam UK:
Don’t worry; this is not what’s happening. He’s certainly a centrist and sincerely wants to be inclusive (it’s a big part of what got him this far this fast, after all), but there’s no reason to believe that he’s afraid to assert his authority. He wanted to succeed against the Chicago/Illinois Democratic establishment. He did. He wanted to beat the Clinton Democratic establishment. He did. Now he’s working on the DC Republicans. No way in the world are those flailing yahoos any tougher and/or smarter than the folks he’s already manhandled. If he thinks he has to spread a little honey out for them first, I trust his judgment on that. He’s shown that he can make this tactic work to his advantage; he knows how to play the game to win. But rest assured, there isn’t a whole lot of clear-cut capitulation on his resume.
ChrisB
Whenever I hear something this stupid, I can’t believe they mean what they’re saying (except perhaps for Palin). King can’t think this would really happen, can he?
(Feel free to provide your SA to my SQ below.)
You can say they’re just trying to fire up their base but actually trying to make someone believe something like this when you know it’s ridiculous is really despicable. But that’s the way they roll.
Ash Can
And I thought Iowa had one of the best state education systems in the country. Is this guy actually native to the state he purports to represent? If so, he must have been home-schooled. By a fence post.
Tsulagi
Yeah, this is someone you really should listen to. Stupid fucker doesn’t even have a clue about his own country.
At one of the wingnut hydroponic incubators of stupid, RedState, saw a post and thread on this. Congressman King would have fit right in. And he would have been one of the smart ones.
Also, I like how R-Country Firsters in Congress and some governors are crying NIMBY as a way to stop Gitmo from closing. Piss on them.
Seems to be a fairly easy solution. I would be fine with KSM and his buds being tried in military tribunals within the country. Fair, impartial ones following UCMJ rules. Not ones where the rules are set by those on high designed to support their political talking points or cover their asses. If convicted, imprison them in Leavenworth, a maximum security facility for military court martialed for offenses related to national security. Somehow, to allay one of the RSSF fears and concerns, I don’t think KSM would be able to turn that prison into a madrassa.
Done that way, Obama wouldn’t need anyone’s authorization or approval. Then let Congressman King and the silly putty warriors continue on their journey of stupid screaming and crying about activist military judges and Leavenworth being some country club.
Josh Hueco
@Tsulagi:
I believe that Gitmo detainees should be relocated only to those states that voted for Dubya in ’00 and ’04 and McCain in ’08. Make ’em back up their "We’ll Never Forget!" bluster.
MNPundit
Okay this was really old news. I can’t believe you missed this.
Pathetic.
That One - Cain
@John PM:
Read it? It’s cuz you never know when the bathrooms might run out of toilet paper.
cain
jim
King is just adhering to the Republican Credo: once a dipshit, always a dipshit.
*
GOP 2003: attacking a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 whatsoever & fragging 3-year-old "terrorists" based on naked lies is way kewl, no matter how many new America-haters it creates – & if you don’t agree, that means you hate America & want the terrorists to win! USA! USA!
*
GOP 2009: oh noez, it looks like actual terrorists that we already have in custody might wind up on American soil, as good as free to kill & sow terror, in our loosey-goosey Supermax facilities! WAAAAH! MOMMY! I POOPED MY PANTS AGAIN!
*
What the fuck ever happened to "These Colors Don’t Run"? Time to ditch the elephant – their new mascot should be a LOLCAT because they’re such a gang of utter pussies.
LongHairedWeirdo
One point about Miranda rights… a lack of the Miranda reading will typically cause the judge to discard statements made after an arrest, but prior to the giving of the Miranda warning. That’s why, on cop shows, they always give the Miranda warning upon arresting a suspect.
Anyway: if you don’t get the Miranda warnings, and you confess, the judge is likely to throw out your confession. That’s it. It’s not a "Get Out Of Jail, Free" card.
(Mind you, the big issue with KSM is the judge disallowing statements obtained from torture. Boy, wouldn’t *that* suck? And it’d be *Obama’s* fault for declaring these people were human beings with rights. Bush just tortured to keep us safe, after all!)
OniHanzo
Read: morally-arbitrary "originalist" pigfucker.
"But…but…they could be out on the streets on a technicality!"
I often wonder if these assholes came out of collective memory comas the day before 9/11 happened. We’ve sent an architect of terrorism to jail before, legally and through the court system, without waterboarding him or shoving bamboo shoots under his fingernails.
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman a.k.a. The Blind Sheik.
OMG! how’d that happen?!