If you didn’t see Anderson Cooper‘s take down of Rep. Louie Gohmert last night, you really missed out on what makes cable news (sometimes) watchable.
Cooper didn’t have to make Gohmert, the Texas Republican who is the same guy AS THIS TOOL, look like a fool. The congressman took care of that himself as he argued “terror babies” are a real phenomenon, whereby terrorists have pregnant women come to the U.S. on travel visas, give birth to what are now American citizens, and then have them leave and return to the country thirty years later to blow themselves up. Does Rep. Gohmert have any credible evidence this actually takes place?
Allow him to scream through his argument, while Cooper gives him the death ray stare.
Red
I saw it live and thought it was crazy/awesome/unbelievable. Anderson DID make Gohmert look like a fool because he kept his cool and repeatedly pointed out that Gohmert had absolutely no proof that “terror babies” are a real threat in spite of all his ranting and raving. How do guys like Gohmert even get elected?
rrr
That was some good TV.
I’m really glad I don’t live in Texas if this guy can become a judge and be elected to congress there. Can you imagine being tried before a judge who’s like THAT?
Taylor
“Help us fill the hole, Anderson.” lol
CCooper
After they have matured in a foreign land, the terror babies return to America, reclaim their Americanism and drive, in a stretch Hummer, to Texas. Their main purpose: to elect Gohmert. They believe in him because he believes in them. And that’s politics in Texas, y’all!
Jake
“Sir, you’re just yelling – you’re not having an actual conversation,”
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I am in love with Anderson Cooper. Please marry me, sir.
Gene
This loon from Texas demeans the intelligence of bird. What is a bunch of bushwa!
David
They call him “Congressman Gomer” in his East Texas district.
It’s a part of Texas I avoid because of its lingering hard-core KKK BS. From my experience with the natives out there, this speciman — a former judge — is pretty much the cream of the crop.
bluenosedive
Epic fail!
David
There’s lots more like Gomer, too. We had another famous Judge (Judge Jack Hampton) a few years back matter-of-factly tell a newspaper reporter that he gave a light punishment to a convicted double-murderer because his victims were gay and the murderer wasn’t. Of course, there was outrage. But voters here in Republican North Dallas turned out in droves to re-elect the boob.
whatever
@Red: “How do guys like Gohmert even get elected?”
Texas.
And he does sound brain-damaged. I know the Texas accent lends itself to sounding kinda slow, but I think there might be something wrong with him.
Wanda Pena
A favorite political saying is by our own Carl Parker, former Texas legislator – something to the effect that if we took all the idiots out of the Texas Legislature, it wouldn’t be a representative body. That must be how this guy Gohmert got elected. I can’t stop laughing.
unclemike
Wow, what an idiot. Gohmert, that is.
j
I swear if this happened in the UK they’d be drawing political cartoons of this guy for years and he’d loose his jobs. Any other britfags remember green shoots? She became an absolute laughing stock and her crazy only lasted all of thirty seconds. This man just wrote his own political epitaph and yet no one in texas seems to have blinked. Funny that.
Rasa
amazing…
Cooper handled that without “fighting fire with fire” and being disrespectful.
james_from_cambridge
@Red: Actually, the question should be how does a person like Gohmert get elected in Texas, seeing as how Texas has now become a majority-minority State? I guess the answer is Blacks and Latinos there don’t vote (though Obama came very close to winning the State actually); at some point very soon, probably starting in 2012 after Texas implements some form of the Arizona law, they will and Ghomert & his ilk will join the Republicans in the Northeast & the West, in exile. Whatever happens this election year, right-wing loons are running out of space fast in this country. They’re going nuts right now because their base knows they’re losing the country to minorities, both racial and sexual. So have faith folks; no matter what happens this election year, we’re watching the death throes of Gohmert and his ilk.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
The notion that we have to “wait 30 years” for United States born persons to begin planning and carrying out terrorist acts is nonsense, because we are already seeing numerous cases of persons born in the United States and those gaining citizenship planning and being involved in terrorist acts……….
News
U.S. Report Sees Increase In Number Of Americans Joining Terrorist Groups
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces charges of terrorism violations against 14 people for providing resources to the foreign organization Al-Shabab.
August 06, 2010
By Richard Solash
WASHINGTON — The year 2009 saw an increase in the number of U.S. citizens who acted as operatives for foreign terrorist organizations, according to the latest edition of the U.S. government’s annual “Country Reports on Terrorism.” The report documents global terrorist activities and attacks from the previous year.
“We’ve learned something else important in the last year,” said Daniel Benjamin, coordinator of the State Department’s Office for Counterterrorism, as he announced the findings in Washington. “The assumption that Americans have some special immunity to Al-Qaeda’s ideology was dispelled. While our overall domestic radicalization problem remains significantly less than in many Western nations, several high-profile cases demonstrate that we must remain vigilant.”
Among those high-profile cases was the suicide bomb attack on New York City’s subway system allegedly plotted at the hands of Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan-born permanent resident of the United States who was trained by Al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s Waziristan region.
Zazi was arraigned in a Brooklyn courtroom in July, where charges were also filed against Adnan El Shukrijumah, a Saudi-born U.S. citizen whom U.S. authorities believe is a leader of Al-Qaeda’s operations program. A U.S. citizen of Bosnian origin was also charged with involvement in the planned attack.
Other cases highlighted by the report include that of Virginia-born Nidal Malik Hasan, charged in connection with the deadly November shooting spree at a Texas military base, as well as that of David Headley, a U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to conspiring with terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba on the Mumbai attacks in late 2008.
‘Deadly Pipeline’
To coincide with the report’s release, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced charges against 14 people, including a number of U.S. citizens, for aiding Al-Shabab, a Somalia-based terrorist group that has been linked to Al-Qaeda.
“These indictments and arrests in Minnesota, Alabama, and California shed further light on a deadly pipeline that routed funding and fighters to Al-Shabab from across the United States,” Holder said.
Along with an increase in the number U.S.-born terrorist operatives, the report also points to a “rise in prominence” of U.S.-born proponents of extremism.
Adam Gadahn, who hails from California, has become a spokesman for Al-Qaeda and helps the group target its propaganda for Western audiences. Omar Hammami, who grew up in Alabama, has become a “chief propagandist” for Al-Shabab. The radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who, according to the State Department’s Benjamin, “catalyzed a pool of potential recruits that others failed to reach,” met with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a U.S.-bound plane on Christmas Day last year.
While the repugnaticans usually tend to sensationalize items, this matter is a very real issue which like it or not we need to face and figure out how to identify and prosocute these persons………
JakeF
The congressman doesn’t understand what a “gaping hole” is.
JakeF
You cannot fix stupid… ever.
RR
“Gohmert had absolutely no proof that “terror babies” are a real threat”
What proof did you expect?
9/11 wasn’t lesson enough?
j
@RR: I’m goin’ on anderson cooper soon, there’s a gaping hole in your nation’s security. The flying spagheti monster is going to launch gallactic meatballs at the united states! Mr. Gohmert needs to take THAT to the senate floor.
james_from_cambridge
@RR: Hey, idiot, the 9/11 terrorists just arrived on our shores with LEGAL visas before they overstayed their welcome (some of them) and launched their attacks. They weren’t born here. Don’t forget the real Amurricans that launched the attack on that Federal building in 1995; they were born and bred rednecks. Love it when we gays are as bigoted (and stupid) as the right-wing.
james_from_cambridge
@JakeF: He should, he has one in his head.
Cody
OMG! My parents voted for this idiot. WOW!
Jorge
He’s so patient.
rrr
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS:
While the repugnaticans usually tend to sensationalize items, this matter is a very real issue which like it or not we need to face and figure out how to identify and prosocute these persons………
The republicans through their tactics, practices, and “brown people fear mongering” at home and abroad continue to make it obvious they attacking islam rather than terrorists or extremists. Crap like the drummed up mania about a muslim cultural center planned by moderates blocks away from ground zero when there’s a mosque 4 blocks from the site already that predated the WTC, the nation wide protests against local mosque and muslim community center building plans, and hateful rhetoric of conservative pundits and politicians will of course alienate and upset muslims in America and around the world. The logical result is making muslims more likely to become radicalized and easier for extremist groups to recruit. Plus the crazy, angry republican rhetoric is contributing to white Christian acts of domestic terrorism against various targets.
The republicans continue to harm the country and make Americans less safe.
Latebrosus
Man, Republicans must really love horror movies because they’re f***king scared of EVERYTHING.
ewe
Gomer Pile is the one who “could do better”. This is the face of constituent representation. What a disgrace. Pathetic with capital P.
ewe
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: This whole thing is so rediculous. There are caucasian americans that are terrorists. They were born here. Timothy McVeigh, the michigan militia etc. This stereotyping at such a level of UNFOUNDED hysteria is insanity.
G
Look at the gaping hole!!
ewe
Why don’t genuine journalists treat Bill Oreichy and Glenn Beck like this guy? Evidence please?
Robb
The upshot of this whole kerfuffle is that the good congressman from Texas has virtually assured his re-election; having lived there, I can say without reservation, that Texas is a p-r-e-t-t-y scary place.