Yesterday afternoon, the story I knew was that an Israeli Jew filmmaker had put out a trailer that offended Libyan Muslims so much that they’d stormed the US consulate in Benghazi and murdered US Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 consulate staff members. By this morning, the story was that the filmmaker might actually a California Coptic Christian with a colorful past, and by colorful, I mean criminal.
Mitt Romney wasted no time in making an ass of himself by claiming President Obama and the embassy staff in Cairo were apologizing for freedom of speech. Here’s how bad it was–noted centrist William Saletan called him out. You’ve got to step in it to lose Saletan. But Romney had competition for dumb remark of the day–Sarah Palin… I can stop right there, can’t I? No? Okay. She made a little dick joke. Seriously. There was a real possibility that she could have been president, and she said the current President isn’t packing. 1. Like that matters. 2. Like that qualifies as discourse. I swear, the first time I read the quote, I didn’t know who said it, and I thought it was Ann Coulter. That’s how bad it was.
Last night, Rachel Maddow reported the possibility that the attacks were in response to the killing of the former Al Qaeda #2 Abu Yahya al-Libi. Since then, Libyan officials have arrested four people suspected in the attack.
But even if the film didn’t provoke this attack, it has had an effect. There’s turmoil in Yemen and Iran now as a result. The Guardian is doing their usual stellar work covering the story there.
