Congresswoman Reacts to the ISIS War Drive: 'I'm Glad People Have This 9/11 Mentality Again'

Refreshingly honest, I guess.

As Congress debates—or, mostly, fails to debate—the escalating war with ISIS, Jennifer Bendery rounds up an illuminating pair of quotes:

"It's fear-mongering. It's what happened after 9/11. 'Oh my god, they've got these planes crashing. Now they're going to take over America.' That's nonsense," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)…

But the majority of his colleagues don't share his concern. And since the debate is happening in the midst of election season, few lawmakers are willing to risk sounding weak on terrorism.

"I'm glad people have this 9/11 mentality again," [Florida Rep. Ileana] Ros-Lehtinen said.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"There's been no pushback against the Islamic State and they have made breathtaking advances. We haven't seen anything like this since Hitler and the blitzkrieg in World War II," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

You know who else's husband was purportedly gay?

[invisible furry hand]

Neil Patrick Harris?

[RBS]

said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

I lol'ed

[Almanian!]

"BAD Intelligence! That was VERY BAD!"

[Jensen]

You Americans have killed a lot of sand, the sand was very evil.

[Jerryskids]

Al Franken's?

[Almanian!]

My gay friend's husband?

[fish]

Yes him.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ariana Huffington? Actually, he came out publicly after his failed Senate campaign.

[WTF]

Don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

[fish]

Well Ariana could drive any man to it shreeky!

PS:NEEEEDZMOARCHRISTFAG?????...

[Jerryskids]

"I'm glad people have this 9/11 mentality again," [Florida Rep. Ileana] Ros-Lehtinen said.

"I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman Obamaman!"

[Andrew S.]

I'd say that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is an embarrassment to South Florida, but really, we have so many. And as terrible as she is, she's not Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

[kinnath]

Well fuck you. I have been rejoicing over Harkin's imminent retirement, and then you go post a quote from him being all reasonable and shit. That really ruins my day.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"We just keep jumping from one mistake to another.

Harkin speaking here of course about our national elections.

[Drake]

What did Buckley say about choosing people randomly from a phonebook? It may be time to put that idea into practice.

[Raven Nation]

Well, if her Wikipedia page is up to date, the pic above is fairly old. Interestingly, she broke with most of her party in supporting same-sex marriage.

[Brandon]

According to her Wikipedia page, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen looks like Danny DeVito in a wig.

[Hawk Spitui]

According to this photo, she looks like Micky Dolenz from the Monkees.

[SugarFree]

"Republicans are spending a lot of effort trying to scare Americans about ISIS. Probably just a coincidence that there's an election soon."

-Wil Wheaton

Oh, Wesley. I hope The Traveler cored you like an apple.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Partisan blinders are a side effect of that game Ashley Judd got him hooked on.

[Idle Hands]

Is that why Ashley Judd is so batshit insane? She is the perfect litmus test for the crazy hot scale.

[Idle Hands]

or was, nobody should fact check that statement and I immediately retract it.

[Brandon]

Her most recent pictures look like she's allergic to bees, but she just keeps getting stung by bees.

[Idle Hands]

yeah she is now Fat.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Divorced in 2013. From her Wikipedia page:

In 2011, she joined the Leadership Council of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).[29]

Other organizations Judd has been involved with include Women for Women International and Equality Now...

She's turning into a lesbian, frankly.

[Brandon]

Ahhhh. No, her most recent pictures look like she chose poorly in the Grail chamber. The chubby pictures were actually better.

[Hugh Akston]

Not to mention what the Outrageous Okona did to him.

[Gleep Glop]

Wil Wheaton also complained on his blog about the economics of producing one of his internet shows. He sounded like any other small business person taking about costs, etc. and tried to reason with his "you should do it for free!" fans.

Ironic that he calls himself a populist and is otherwise incapable of self-awareness.

[MJGreen]

Yes, it's the Republicans trying so hard to scare us.

[CatoTheElder]

Reason #13,247 why libertarians should not be Republican.

Actually, I lost count a long time ago, and just made up that number. But the order of magnitude is about right.

[Lord Humungus]

Thank god the millenials will come and save us.

*dodges rotten eggs*

[Azathoth!!]

Don't worry, Libertarians aren't Republican, they only use failed Republican candidates.

The good news is, a lot of Republicans are libertarian, and Republicans actually manage to get them into office--unlike Libertarians.

[Almanian!]

You need to correct the Alt Text: "Derp Thoughts"

[QuadGunner]

"I'm glad people have this 9/11 mentality again," [Florida Rep. Ileana] Ros-Lehtinen said.

Great... maybe this will result in another "Patriot Act Mentality" as well.

Just fucking great.

[Jerryskids]

After thinking about it a bit, I realize that she's halfway right in suggesting that we should abandon the pre-9/11 thinking and embrace the post-9/11 mindset - if you start from the prenise that pre-9/11 most people were blissfully unaware of how poorly they are protected by an absolutely incompetent government and post-9/11 more people became aware of how shockingly hard government actually has to work to be that ungodly awful.

Of course if more people did actually have the proper 9/11 mentality, there would be more Tom Harkin supporters and this lady would be buried alive in bagsful of flaming dog excrement.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Reading comprehension is not your thing.

[Brandon]

heh. You said "prenise."

[The Late P Brooks]

September tenth should be the national day of mourning, in remembrance of freedoms lost or stolen.

[The Late P Brooks]

"It's fear-mongering. It's what happened after 9/11. 'Oh my god, they've got these planes crashing. Now they're going to take over America.' That's nonsense," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)...

This "quote" makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me, and I'm not going to go to HuffPo. So... WTF?

[Idle Hands]

+2

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Congresswoman is fear-mongering. Then Harkin mimicked the Security statists like her with "'Oh my god, they've got these planes crashing. Now they're going to take over America.'"

Not difficult, Brooks.

[Jerryskids]

Pithier Tom Harkin - "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Ever seen the movie The Brothers Grimm with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon? They're witch-hunters who go around creating fake witches to scare the townfolk with and then offer to save the townfolk from these scary witches - for a nominal fee, of course. Same thing here.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You idiot. Harkin is the one calling out the 9/11 alarmists like the GOP Congresswoman.

Learn to read, man.

[Brandon]

That's exactly what Jerryskids said. Ask your handlers read to you more slowly.

[Citizen Nothing]

Learn to read, man.

Derptastic!

[Cyto]

I'm not going to go to HuffPo. So... WTF?

You really should. I highly recommend it for the morning after reactions to the President's speech on ISIS/ISIL. I was wondering how they would come down, and from my reading it looks like "team" is winning big over "ideology". And although ideology is actually represented, it is usually tempered with a heavy dose of "this is all really the Republicans/Bush/Reagan's fault."

But the majority consensus was that Obama's speech was one of the greatest and most important speeches in history. Anyone disagreeing with this obvious statement of fact must be deluded. But it is understandable that they are deluded because the media is just out to take Obama down and they just don't get how amazing and important he is.

I didn't really see much in the way of "wait, isn't this a clear violation of the constitutional separation of powers and the War Powers Act?" What mention I did see ran more to the "we'll see if the liar republicans can remove their heads from their rear ends and support the president" than "Isn't the President required to do more than hope that the congress will 'support' him and actually send up a resolution of war for congressional adoption as a Declaration of War?"

There was also very little discussion of "No boots on the ground" being in conflict with 1500 actual soldiers (or 3,000 boots) being "on the ground" in Iraq after the newly announced deployments.

[Brandon]

(or 3,000 boots)

I think we learned from the last Iraq invasion that boots to soldiers is not a constant ratio. This should be knowledge that causes us to give a little more thought before sending soldiers back there but, sadly, since none of the soldiers actually matter to Barack Obama, John McCain or any of the other warhawks, it won't be.

[nuffcedmcgreevey]

I'm sure she is legitimately glad. After a few recent misfires ("Assad is Hitler!!!!1"), those in government and the elite class who are invested in keeping the American people living in fear are once again have a seemingly credible enemy to scare us senseless with and use as an excuse to do whatever they want.

The hysteria and paranoia of the post-9/11 years is indeed starting to rear its head again, and there hasn't even been an attack on the U.S. Amazing what a couple of beheadings can do.

[nuffcedmcgreevey]

*winces at typos*

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Well why don't you go get your head cut off and then tell us how you like it. Sheesh!

[Almanian!]

Reading comprehension is not your thing.

I hear someone shrieking into a mirror

[ChrisO]

I'm no Truther--our government is not nearly clever enough to pull off something like 9/11 undetected. However, it was certainly a useful occurrence for the bastards.

Obama's not really promising to do much of anything about ISIS--lob a few more drones around and continue selling weapons to the not-quite-as-bad guys. My guess is that he and his handlers quite accurately read the American people as not nearly having "that 9/11 mentality" anymore. Nobody pays attention to the money, and they won't notice anything as long as their young military neighbor down the street isn't getting orders to be shipped back to Shitholistan.

[The Late P Brooks]

But the majority consensus was that Obama's speech was one of the greatest and most important speeches in history.

It's much too early to start drinking. I'll just hit myself with this hammer for a while.

[GILMORE]

The 9/11 Mentality?

its Good Enough For Me!

[jmomls]

I remember the idiotic Tom Harkin, during his ludicrously short-lived run for the Presidency in, what, '88? '92?, bleating on about how he was "just like Harry Truman", and thinking "boy, I bet the Japanese are quaking in their sandals".