Thread: Hank Johnson: Marines on Guam will cause island to tip over

Rep. Hank Johnson Too many marines on Guam will cause island to tip over

Thursday, April 1, 2010



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgV ... r_embedded

Congressman Hank Johnson, Representing the 4th District of Georgia

these are the dumb asses you have elected to run this country

These are the DUMB asses that voted free health care

how damn dumbed down are you America to vote into office goof balls like this

the sad thing is, HE said it with a straight face.

what a moron

I guess it takes a lot of stupid to become a member of the DSA.. Waters is stupid, Waxman is a little rat faced want to be tyrant. You really need to go to this link ,because then you will see the real side of statements made from these unqualified people...Time to clean house!
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/gov_philo ... embers.htm

I don't blame these politicians for being IDIOT's ....

I blame the MORONS that voted for the VILLAGE IDIOTS to be a politician

You are sooooooooo screwed America ... I hope the WORLD see's this video and realizes how STUPID Americans really are

Rep. Johnson gaffe: Guam might capsize

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- Is the island of Guam in danger of tipping over and capsizing?

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson recently worried that it might be, according to a videotaped congressional hearing that is getting plenty of play online and over the airwaves.

Johnson's comments came during a House Armed Services Committee meeting as he questioned Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, about the impact of U.S. troops on the little island.

"My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," Johnson said, straight-faced and seemingly serious.

The admiral seemed to take the question seriously, too. "We don't anticipate that," he said, proceeding to describe the population on Guam.

The derision online quickly gained momentum Thursday.

A note from a reader to a blog at National Review Online said, "My son is stationed on Guam. I just sent him the video and told him to run to the other side of the island. He said one of his shipmates showed up to work with a life vest on!"

On YouTube, about 75,000 visitors had viewed the video exchange through Thursday afternoon.

"Please Georgia, you gave us Cynthia McKinney, now Hank Johnson?" one commenter wrote.

Johnson issued a written statement Thursday as the mockery mounted.

"I wasn't suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over," he said. . Johnson said he was "using a metaphor" to describe how adding more military personnel to the tiny island "could be a tipping point which could adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and could overburden its stressed infrastructure."

"Metaphors work because there's a thin line between what is literal and what is not," said University of Maryland professor James Klumpp, who specializes in political speech and communication. "When politicians get on the wrong side of that line, that's when they get into trouble."

Of course Johnson is hardly the only Peach State politician whose convoluted commentary has caused confusion.

A few of the more memorable miscues:

In 1996, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Atlanta, a Republican, made an unusual up-in-the-air link between beach volleyball and freedom. "A mere 40 years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning. No bureaucrat would have invented it, and that's what freedom is all about," Gingrich said at the Republican National Convention.

In 1976, Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter answered a question about public housing by saying people should be able to maintain the "ethnic purity" of their neighborhoods. Some saw Carter's remarks as a suggestion of segregation. He later explained he was referring to how people of particular nationalities sometimes like to live in concentrated areas.

More recently, in September 2008, Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn

Westmoreland of Coweta County referred to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and wife Michelle as "uppity" -- a pejorative historically used by white Southerners to describe well-to-do African-Americans. Georgia-born Westmoreland later said he never heard the term used in a racially derogatory sense.

Klumpp, the speech and communications professor, pointed out that the verbal gaffes that can beguile any politician can also affect anybody else.

"If you're a user of language, at some point you're going to feel like an idiot," he said.

http://www.ajc.com/news/rep-johnson-gaf ... 26715.html

Welcome painter! And thanks for the link!

Here's what the page has:

How Many Members Of The U.S. Congress
Are Self-Declared Socialists?

Updated for the 111th Congress

The following FAQ will help clarify a few facts:

Q: What is the Socialist International?

A: It is the worldwide organization of socialist, social democratic and labor parties. It currently brings together 131 political parties and organizations from all continents. Its origins go back to the early international organizations of the labor movement of the last century.* It has existed in its present form since 1951, when it was re-established at the Frankfurt Congress. They are now headquartered in London, England.

* In 1864, representatives of English and French industrial workers founded the International Workingmen's Association in London. Karl Marx, who was living in London at the time, became the First International's dominant figure. Marx's doctrines were revived in the 20th century by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilich Lenin, who developed and applied them – and we all know that what was started as a labor movement ended up as the biggest totalitarian/communist state, i.e., the USSR.

Q: What is the Democratic Socialists of America [DSA]?

A: It is the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. Their website is http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html

Q: What are seven principles behind what the DSA's calls it's "Progressive Challenge?"

Dignified Work
Environmental Justice
Economic Redistribution
Democratic Participation
Community Empowerment
Global Non-Violence
Social Justice.

Never mind their soothing-sounding leftist doublespeak like 'Environmental Justice' (whatever that is supposed to mean) or the soft & fuzzy 'Global Non-Violence' (a euphemism for unilateral disarmament) — the DSA's self-declared principle of 'Economic Redistribution' clearly shows where these folks are coming from and exactly where they plan to take America.

Q: How many members of the U.S. Congress are also members of the DSA?

A: Seventy!

Q: How many of the DSA members sit on the Judiciary Committee?

A: Eleven: John Conyers [Chairman of the Judiciary Committee], Tammy Baldwin, Jerrold Nadler, Luis Gutierrez, Melvin Watt, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Linda Sanchez [there are 23 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee of which eleven, almost half, are now members of the DSA].

Q: Who are these members of Congress?

A: See the listing below

Co-Chairs
Hon. Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07)
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-06)

Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-1
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-02)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)

Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)

House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-01)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-02)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo (GU-AL)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-01)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-03)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-0
Hon. André Carson (IN-07)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacyâ€

April 1, 2010 4:05 PM PDT

Congressman's island-capsizing query goes viral

by Declan McCullagh
comments 50

Only a few years ago, a member of Congress serving up an inane comment in a congressional hearing would have merited a brief gossip column mention, or more likely gone unnoticed.

Unfortunately for Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, his bizarre question about the island of Guam possibly tipping over--he used the word "capsize"--if additional troops were stationed there became a YouTube sensation on Thursday.

It's no April Fools' Day joke: the 55-year-old congressman and member of the House Democratic leadership told a naval officer who was testifying on March 25 that: "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize."

For emphasis, Johnson leaned to his left and added hand motions suggesting a large vessel tipping into the sea

3-25-2010_Hank_Johnson_Guam_Tip_Over



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgV ... r_embedded

Admiral Robert Willard, the head of U.S. Pacific Command who was testifying, paused briefly and offered a deadpan response: "We don't anticipate that. The Guam population, I think, currently about 175,000 and, again, with 8,000 Marines and their families, it's an addition of about 25,000 more into the population." Williard did add, helpfully, a moment later that Guam is part of the United States.

It took a few days for the video to surface, but once it did on Thursday, it did with a vengeance. National Review quipped: "Presumably, when you're the head guy of a major fleet for a big-time navy, you've got plenty of other ways of filling your time other than reassuring congressmen on whether miscellaneous land masses are likely to tip over and sink." Conservative bloggers Michelle Malkin and at RedState.com chimed in, as did The Hill newspaper and the Los Angeles Times.

Johnson's office published a statement on Thursday saying its boss' statement was "an obviously metaphorical reference." (Johnson succeeded Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney, known for her September 11 conspiracy theories and a scuffle with a Capitol police officer.)

Because Johnson is the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, which oversees antitrust law, he's been involved in technology regulation over the last few years--usually taking a pro-regulatory view.

During a February 25 hearing, he worried that the Comcast-NBC combination could end up restricting "access to NBC programming on the Internet." Last September, Johnson said he was "troubled" by the Google Books settlement and that judges were usurping Congress' authority.

In 2007, Johnson said this about Internet access taxes: "If we could liken the Internet to a mall, a place where you can go in and purchase goods and services, and also liken it to a library, a place where you can go and pull a book, pull a resource, and obtain some information, why would we tax a person upon entering a mall or why would we tax a person upon entering the library?"

In a hearing earlier this year, Johnson offered this observation, referring to the CEO-turned-Republican-politician: "It's hard to follow a mind like Darrell Issa's. And then, I must admit, during my prior career, I was an attorney. And so I feel like I've been set up here to seem like attorneys throughout the country look either good or bad."

Perhaps Johnson could ask Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens, another attorney-politician involved in tech policy who may not have grasped certain concepts fully, which possibility is more likely.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20001611-38.html

WOw, just wow! This is an educated person?!?!

Originally Posted by miguelina

WOw, just wow! This is an educated person?!?!

Obviously not. Titles and diplomas only mean one showed up for class. They don't mean one learned anything.