NH State Rep. Stella Tremblay (R)

Several days after suggesting the Boston Bombing was perpetrated by the U.S. government, New Hampshire State Rep. Stella Tremblay (R-NH) doubled down on the claim Tuesday. In an interview on the radio show of anti-government conspiracy theorist Pete Santilli, Tremblay opined that since photos of a victim who lost his legs did not appear to show him “in shock” or “screaming in agony,” the attack must have been staged.

Citing Alex Jones and his conspiracy theory site Infowars, Tremblay notes that while she once believed 9/11 was a real attack by terrorists, 9/11 “truthers” have opened her eyes. This attack too, she argues, was a “Black Ops” attack staged — apparently unconvincingly — by the federal government:

TREMBLY: And the more I looked at this, in my heart, something told me there’s something wrong here. You just have to look at that backpack and you can see. If there’s an explosion, the backpack is blown to smithereens. There’s nothing left. What was it doing just laying there? Then, my first gut reaction seeing the horror of that person that had their legs blown off… you know, with the bone sticking out? And he was not in shock. I looked and I thought there’s something… I don’t know what’s wrong, but it seems surreal to me. I talked to my sister, who’s not into politics at all, and she said, “Yea, I saw the same thing.” He was not in shock. He was not in pain. If I had had those type of injuries, I’d be screaming in agony.

Listen to the interview (HT: Miscellany Blue):

A two-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Tremblay has sponsored unsuccessful legislation to require state candidates to disclose whether they support their party’s official platform and all personal affiliations and to make New Hampshire recognize a never ratified constitutional amendment that would have stripped citizenship from any American who accepts, claims, receives, or retains any title of nobility or honor or any present, pension, office or emolument, without Congressional permission, “from any Emperor, King, Prince or foreign power.”

According to the Huffington Post, Tremblay also previously sent an email to House colleagues with a doctored video purporting to show President Obama admitting he was not born in the United States (she herself was born in Italy) and once falsely told a legislative committee that President Woodrow Wilson (who died in 1924) had been a supporter of Adolf Hitler.

Two Republican members of Congress introduced legislation on Friday that would limit the amount of ammunition the government is able to purchase at a given time. The bill is a response to far-right conspiracy theories that the government is “stockpiling” ammunition, either to wage a war against the American people or to dry up the ammunition market so average citizens can’t buy bullets.

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will put forth the Ammunition Management for More Obtainability Act (or, AMMO) Act in both the House and Senate. The bill would require executive branch agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain ammunition levels below the average monthly amounts that the agencies had before Obama took office.

According to a joint press release from Lucas and Inhofe, “The legislation would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a report on the purchasing of ammunition by federal agencies, except the Department of Defense, and its affect on the supply of ammunition available to the public”:

“President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans’ access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said Inhofe. “One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition. As the public learned in a House committee hearing this week, the Department of Homeland Security has two years worth of ammo on hand and allots nearly 1,000 more rounds of ammunition for DHS officers than is used on average by our Army officers. The AMMO Act of 2013 will enforce transparency and accountability of federal agencies’ ammunition supply while also protecting law-abiding citizens access to these resources.”

For members of Congress whose interests have generally aligned with those of gun and ammunition manufacturers, this legislation isn’t smart economics; limiting the ability of the government to buy ammunition will remove a key consumer, drying up demand and causing manufacturers to take a sales hit. Similarly, Lucas and Inhofe’s claim that the government “limit[s] what’s available in the market” if it buys up more ammunition reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of basic economics. If demand for ammunition increases, ammunition producers will increase production in order to meet this demand.

Last week, another Republican representative, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) brought up the “stockpiling” conspiracy in a hearing with DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano, who said it was “inherently unbelievable that those statements would be made.”

The theory comes from fringe websites like Alex Jones’s Infowars, but have been given a platform by Drudge, a site that commonly peddles unfounded conspiracy theories. Even some far-right sites have taken it upon themselves to debunk the claim that DHS is “stockpiling” weapons. Brietbart.com described the theories as “based more on panic than fact.”

Infowars.com founder and conspiracy guru Alex Jones is enjoying a boatload of publicity after his unhinged appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday evening. Jones compared President Obama to several dictators during the interview and called for a revolt. His moment in the news cycle appears to be winding down, though he now claims he is being followed by “crackhead cops”. But Jones has one prominent devotee who has faithfully promoted his screeds: Matt Drudge.

On Wednesday, the immensely popular Drudge Report helpfully echoed Jones’ comparison of Obama to Hitler and Stalin a couple days after the conspiracy theorist went on his televised rant about guns:

Morgan invited Jones on the show to discuss Jones’ petition to deport the British host for his gun control advocacy, but the interview quickly devolved into a bizarre, explosive diatribe about tyranny. Jones ranted:

Hitler took the guns! Stalin took the guns! Mao took the guns! Fidel Castro took the guns! Hugo Chavez took the guns! And I’m here to tell you that 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms!

While Alex Jones is generally dismissed as a conspiracy theorist who cannot be taken seriously, the Drudge Report is a favorite website of political pundits and conservative politicians. However, Drudge regularly posts links to Jones’ fringe theories, from the soundly debunked claim that Obama was not born in the US, to the less well known theory that the president once secretly worked for the CIA in Pakistan. A ThinkProgress study in July found 184 links to Alex Jones’ websites in just one year. Because of Drudge’s clout with the mainstream media, Jones has been able to take advantage of a much broader audience than he ever could manage on his own.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is no stranger to extreme positions or conspiratorial thinking. But Paul sunk to a new low last night, using his Senate Twitter account to promote a false report from one of the world’s most noxious conspiracy websites.

Paul appeared amused by an article on infowars.com suggesting the National Weather Service is stockpiling ammunition:

Mad a/b the weather or bad forecasts? I wouldn’t complain, Nat’l Weather Svc just ordered 46k hollow-point bullets bit.ly/NAd071

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) August 14, 2012

This story is false (a point that Business Insider, who also linked to the story, should correct). In reality, the ammunition was ordered by the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, but a clerical error in the paperwork indicated otherwise. Worse, the article that Paul linked to was published on the homepage of what the Anti-Defamation League calls “The Conspiracy King.”

Alex Jones, the popular radio host who runs InfoWars, routinely traffics in outlandish and pernicious conspiracy theories. Jones is an unapologetic 9/11 Truther who believes that something called the Bilderberg Group (which purportedly controls President Obama) is plotting to take over the United States while Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning to put Americans in concentration camps. Indeed, InfoWars’ story about the fictitious NWS ammo order is part of its broader focus on the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to wage war on the American population.

That a United States Senator would lend even a smidgen of credence to this conspiratorial nonsense is disgraceful. But perhaps we shouldn’t be a surprise: InfoWars’ biggest mainstream booster is Matt Drudge, one of the most influential news sources on the American right. Naturally, InfoWars’ story on the NWS ammunition order was Drudge’s top link yesterday.