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Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas (R) recently told a conservative radio show that President Barack Obama's administration may be engaged in a "conspiracy" to purchase all available ammunition as a form of gun control.

Last week, Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s National Security Subcommittee caved to conspiracies theories in the conservative media and held a hearing about whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was buying a billion rounds of ammunition to use against the American people.

In an interview with NewsMax host Steve Malzberg on Monday, Lucas explained that he had joined with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to introduce a bill that would limit the amount of ammunition the federal government can buy.

"What do you think that they think they need this for?" Malzberg wondered.

"You know, it's hard to see into the mind of an Obama-appointed official," Lucas opined. "But this is the administration that's super gun control, that really, really, really doesn't trust people with firearms and obviously they don't trust people with ammunition."

"Is this a conspiracy to buy up all the bullets so they're not available to us? I don't know," he added. "But I suspect, Steve, it's a combination of these big purchases by the non-Defense Department government agencies like Homeland Security and a near-panic buying among my constituents, who are afraid that in some gun control bill there were be a limitation on on their ability to buy ammunition. Or the president will do something by executive order."

Although conspiracies theories about government ammunition purchases have been thoroughly debunked, Republican lawmakers have continued to let conservative sites like Alex Jones' Infowars, Glenn Beck's The Blaze and The Drudge Report drive their agenda.

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(Ed. Note: The video above is NSFW)

A reporter from Alex Jones' Infowars.com website found himself being being verbally destroyed by a resident on the streets of Boston over claims that the recent bombings had been the result of a so-called "false flag" operation carried out by the U.S. government.

In the YouTube video posted on Friday, a man can be heard tearing into Infowars.com reporter Dan Bidondi over "right wing conspiracy theories."

The day of the bombing, Jones had tweeted that "this thing stinks to high heaven #falseflag," adding that "the FBI has been behind virtually every domestic terror plot in the US."

"Your boy said this was a false flag, the bomb that blew up people was a false flag," the angry man in the video notes. "The FBI is behind the bombing, that's what you're here to cover. And that's why I'm the asshole? Because the FBI blew up those people at the Boston Marathon? That's right. That's because you're a dope. And what you say is dangerous and people like you shouldn't be able to drive a car, much less espouse your opinions in public."

"But we have a First Amendment, got to protect it. But you're an asshole. And so is Alex Jones... And that's the nicest thing I can say about you, you son of a bitch."

"Anything else you got to say?" Bidondi asked.

"Yeah, I just said it, motherfucker," the man shot back. "I am the smart guy because I'm not standing here saying the FBI blew up the people at the Boston Marathon, you fucking shitheel."

"We got the photos to prove it," Bidondi insisted.

"You got shit, you got jack shit, you got your dick in your hand," the Boston resident replied. "You fucking asshat."

(h/t: Addicting Info)

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Fox did not renew Glenn Beck's contract, but that hasn't stopped the network from continuing to bring him on the air as an occasional guest. Apparently they still like using him to rile up the wingnuts, even if they don't want him on every night.

This Thursday, Bill-O did just that: Fox's O'Reilly Gives Glenn Beck Airtime To Peddle His Boston Bombing Conspiracy Theory .

Media Matters has more on the whole ugly mess here: Glenn Beck Is Undeterred By Reality On Saudi Nationals And The Boston Bombings.

Beck told O'Reilly that he's got "multiple sources" in the Obama administration who were providing him with documents, and now there's some grand cover up going on. Yeah, when pigs fly Glenn.

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It seems we just can't escape the wingnuts. From this afternoon's presser in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, the first question out of the box was from an InfoWars "reporter" who asked "Is this another false flag attack staged attack to take our civil liberties?"

Gov. Patrick's response: "No. Next question."

Honestly, what the hell did they think he was going to say in response?

Leave it to Glenn Beck to turn Rep. Michele Bachmann's ethics investigation for improper use of her PAC donations into a conspiracy theory that the U.S. government has secretly been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Beck: Bachmann Ethics Investigation Is a Muslim Brotherhood Plot:

As Beck sees it, Bachmann has been a target of the Brotherhood for a long time because she has been "uber clear" about the threat posed by the organization and so, in retaliation, the State Department has been relocating hundreds of Muslim Somali refugees into her congressional district. And for daring to ask why this was happening, says Beck, "now she's under investigation":

[Editor's note: Somalis have been settling in the U.S. since the 1920s. The Twin Cities is home to the largest Somali community in America, and it's been that way long before Michelle Bachmann started her wacko conspiracy theories. Nice try, Beckster.]

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A Fox News military analyst who has previously justified the U.S. invasion in Iraq by asserting that Russia conspired to hide Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now says that there is a "very high probability" that those WMDs are in Syria.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Friday spoke to retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney about recent rumors of a chemical attack near Aleppo, Syria.

"What are the chances of the return address on these chemicals being from Iraq?" Kilmeade wondered.

"Well, I think there is a high probability of that," McInerney declared. "That's conjecture, but we do know prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was a lot of vehicles crossing the border into Syria. And there was a great deal of conjecture. A Iraqi major general swore by it. He said he delivered it."

"And so I think that it would be a very high probability if we could get into those bunkers that they would have Iraqi signatures on them."

In 2006, McInerney told Newsmax that there was "clear evidence" that Iraq had WMDs before the war and that the Bush administration "ignored Russia's involvement" in helping to hide the weapons.

"[T]he administration needed the Russians, the Chinese and the French, and was not interested in information that would make them look bad," he said.

A U.S. official on Thursday said that evidence suggested that chemical weapons (CW) had not been used in the latest attacks in Syria.

"Our growing sense is that weaponized CW was not used," the official remarked, according to Reuters.

A European security official noted that the use of weapons of mass destruction in Syria would have left a death toll much higher than 26.

(h/t: Media Matters)

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As expected, as soon as the Obama administration released their list of executive orders to help curb gun violence, the right wing went into full blown hissy fit mode. It seems Michelle Malkin took a page straight out of Limbaugh and Drudge's book on Fox this Thursday afternoon during this interview with Megyn Kelly.

Drudge And Limbaugh Misrepresent What Obama And The Affordable Care Act Say About Doctors And Guns:

As soon as President Obama's new recommendations for gun violence prevention became public, right-wing media immediately claimed the president was issuing an executive action requiring doctors to ask patients about their guns. This is false. The president's released proposals only clarify that nothing in the Affordable Care Act changes longstanding law: doctors are still free (but not required) to discuss with their patients any health hazards, including a lack of gun safety at home or elsewhere.

Among the White House proposals for gun violence reduction, the president announced that the administration will "[c]larify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes." Nowhere in his proposal did he instead require doctors to ask about guns. The Drudge Report, however, immediately splashed across its website this graphic:

Rush Limbaugh picked up on this flatly inaccurate claim that the president required doctors to ask their patients about "gun ownership." Rather than explain the president's executive action only indicated future orders, regulations, or guidance will clarify that no law - including the ACA - prohibits them from discussing gun safety with their patients, Limbaugh reported it as a new directive that "deputizes gun-snitch doctors": [...]

Limbaugh concedes that the executive action doesn't literally say that doctors are required to ask about gun safety, but rather, in his interpretation, "the executive action today is almost essentially requiring it." The president's proposal was likely a direct response to these types of wildly erroneous interpretations of the health care reform law and executive orders that were already floating around the right-wing blogosphere, before Limbaugh added his analysis.

Go read the rest for more on how the right is lying about the language in the law. Malkin did the exact same thing during the interview above with Megyn Kelly and in a post at her blog the previous day. (Warning, link goes to Malkin's site.)

The anti-gun doctors’ lobby has a friend in Obama:

Anyone with kids knows that the invasive, anti-gun doctors’ lobby has been around a long time.

Flashback October 2007: Is your pediatrician using your kid to spy on you?

Flashback July 2008: More nosy doctors who don’t like guns

The liberal leadership of the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have long been filled with notorious gun-grabbers — and they’ve promoted years of junk science to pursue their Nanny State agenda.

Now comes President Obama, who has deputized doctors to “help” snoop on law-abiding, gun-owning patients even further. Moreover, the White House has now lent federal support to doctors’ groups trying to fight state efforts to protect gun owners’ privacy: [...]

Political malpractice plus medical malpractice in the name of saving the children is a recipe for authoritarianism. The Hippocratic Oath has been turned on its head.

Malkin seems to have a little trouble understanding the difference between "does not prohibit" and mandates. Who knew we had all of those evil liberal doctors out there who are more worried about taking away everyone's guns than doing their job and providing health care to their patients. Be afraid... be very afraid!

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Jon Stewart was still on fire his second night back from vacation, despite having some trouble with his voice due to a cold and he laid into the right for their staunch opposition to any new regulations or form of gun control, even though we're constantly hearing them say that "everything should be on the table" to deal with the problem.

No one was spared from NRA head Wayne LaPierre, to Fox News, to GOP politicians to you name it. After playing some footage of Fox "news" and wingnut Glenn Beck and their fearmongering on the topic, Stewart pulled out an assault rifle on the set in reaction:

STEWART: I'm not sure what happened. I'm sorry. I blacked out in the middle of that and woke up with an AK in my... I don't know... or whatever this is. I'm sure I'll get letters about what this really is, which is plastic is what it really is.

It was nice to see him get in a not so thinly veiled swipe at the wingnuts who went crazy after David Gregory held up something that appeared to be a magazine on the set of Meet the Press. There is a mile long list of why I'd like to see Gregory off of the air, but that stupidity isn't one of them.

Stewart got a shot in on LaPierre for his solution to the problem with our mental health system failing us not doing anything to actually improve taking care of those with mental health problems, but a national database of the "lunatics" out there instead. After asking what someone might have to do to be added to that list, Stewart recommended that LaPierre be put on it for this:

LAPIERRE: Americans, don't want to be added to that pile of dead people that have been left defenseless by the U.N. policies.

STEWART: LaPierre with two r's is a run.

Next up was HuckaJesus saying we don't have a gun problem, but a sin problem instead, to which Stewart responded that he didn't realize that his masturbating had risen to the level of a national crisis. He wrapped up the first segment with Fox's Eric Bolling saying it's not the right time to talk about gun control and that he'd have to wait until the next segment to continue his conversation about it.

In part two, Stewart did a great job talking about all of the other things we are willing to regulate in the United States other than guns, and the list of reasons we're given by the politicians and the talking heads for not regulating them, along with all of the legislation that's been passed to make sure that the gun manufacturers are never held liable for their products, unlike every other industry out there which manufacturers products which might harm or kill people.

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Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) says that the Republicans who hyped a conspiracy theory that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faked her concussion to avoid testifying about September attacks in Benghazi were the "same people who said that the moon landing was staged in a Hollywood set."

MSNBC host Richard Lui on Monday asked Israel if he had heard anything new about Clinton's health after it was reported that she was hospitalized because a blood clot was discovered during an exam to follow up on her recent concussion.

"I've not heard anything new about her health," Israel replied, adding that Clinton was "as tough as nails... she is strong, she is resilient."

Lui pointed out that Republicans like Rep. Allen West (FL) and former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton -- as well as numerous Fox News personalities -- had repeatedly mocked Clinton by suggesting that her illness was a manufactured "diplomatic illness" or "Benghazi allergy" to avoid testifying before lawmakers.

"That's what's wrong with Washington, the people who invent conspiracies behind every cloud," Israel explained. "These are the same people who said that the moon landing was staged in a Hollywood set."

"Let this woman rest, let her get well and give her some space," he suggested. "Stop creating a conspiracy behind every cloud."

(h/t: Mediaite)

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As we already discussed here and as Jon Stewart rightfully mocked this week, Republicans have gone off of the rails with their opposition to this United Nations treaty that they just shamefully voted down in the Senate, because the homeschooling crowd is scared to death that the U.N. is going to somehow impose agreements from international treaties onto the citizens of the United States.

This Friday evening, CNN's Anderson Cooper decided to actually do his job and pushed back at wingnut Mike Lee, who was one of the leading voices in the Senate who made sure the treaty wasn't approved.

As Hullabaloo's David Atkins rightfully observed on that topic:

We shouldn't have to hit rock bottom for CNN to start actually doing its job. But at least we've found a level of insanity that will actually prompt some legitimate journalism.

As Raw Story noted, Cooper pretty well destroyed most of Lee's arguments about why he opposes the treaty. I'll be surprised if he's back on there any time soon. Cooper was polite, but he managed to show Lee for the dishonest embarrassment that he is along with the rest of them that voted with him during the interview.

Full transcript and video of Cooper's interview with Lee below the fold.

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