Associated Press (AP)-- the right wing syndicator counterpart to Fox Faux news, reports..., not, it's more like echos or trumpets the psychotic ramblings of Republican Georgia congressman Paul Broun, who warns of an Obama dictatorship.
AP quotes nutjob Broun,
"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force... I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."
Broun is referring to a speech Obama gave in July, when he discussed creating a civilian “force to take some of the burden off the military.”
Now, from my perspective, I read this as a very good thing, since Bush has violated a long held, good law—Posse Comitatus—that you don’t use the army for civilian work within the nation, because the army could become a tool of a rogue leader. So it seemed that Obama was correcting a highly egregious situation created by Bush.
But Associated Press, doing it’s job as propaganda arm for the right, and in this case, potentially flaming the craziness of the most extreme rightwing mental cases, to dangerous levels, it quotes fellow crazy right winger Broun,
"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."
Finally, AP gets around to making it clear that Obama was talking about a civil service corps, and about expanding the Peace Corps, “to renew our diplomacy.”
Then, AP reports on Broun’s concern that;
Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.
Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally.
"We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential."
Not surprisingly, the AP didn’t get a response from the Obama campaign. But to me, this is more of the same kind of talk that Sarah Palin engaged in that produced calls from the crowd “kill him.”
It is not responsible, balanced journalism. It is dangerous, calculated use of the media to build fear, anger and to cultivate the mental state that leads to violence.
AP has the right, with the First Amendment, to report like this, and the crazy congressman has the right to confabulate his fantasies about Obama. But between the AP and the congressman, this crazy Folie à deux is dangerous. And it shows just how far-right AP has jumped off the deep end.
