Senator Clarifies Remark Telling Troops To ‘Go Fuck Themselves’, Says Quote Taken Out Of Context
BY PAUL ON AUGUST 21, 2012 · 10 COMMENTS
Phoenix, AZ - A state senator is in hot water after making controversial remarks last week in an interview with Arizona Foothills Magazine. The full interview, which is to be released Friday, includes contentious quotes on military service-members, the constitution, and defense spending.
Senator Linda Lopez (D-29, AZ), a member of the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, was apparently quoted during the interview as saying “the troops should just go fuck themselves.” Lopez continues to claim that her remarks have been “taken out of context” and that she is in fact a huge supporter of the U.S. military.
It’s not the first time Lopez is being questioned for something she said. In the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, she told an interviewer that the shooter was “probably a veteran of Afghanistan.“ The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, had no military experience.
Her most recent remarks come after a vote in the Committee to improve education benefits and mental health services for veterans of all service branches. Lopez opposed the bill and was the only no vote, telling reporters that she opposed it on constitutional grounds. When pressed further, she admitted however, that “she hates the fucking constitution.”
Minutes after making the remark, she told reporters that she misspoke and didn’t mean to use profanity.
“I only voted no on the bill because I support the troops, but don’t support the war,” Lopez said. “Besides, if these numbskulls would quit enlisting, we wouldn’t need to support the stupid fucks. That last part’s off the record, by the way.”
Lopez has maintained that the full context of her interview quote was about supporting the troops and giving them fleshlights as a way “to go fuck themselves in the warzone and at home.”
Although The Foothills refuses to release Lopez’s full remarks until the interview hits news stands later this week, TDB did obtain partial transcripts.
“Frankly, the troops should just go fuck themselves. Let’s be honest here,” Lopez remarks in the interview. “I’m really tired of these people complaining all the time.”
Lopez is not the only politician who has made a gaffe during interviews or public events.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) once told a crowd that “he served in Vietnam” although he never deployed as a Marine reservist during the 1970s, and Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) recently came under fire after talking about “legitimate rape” and the female body’s amazing ability to defy biology.
After TDB confronted Lopez with additional context from the interview transcripts, the Senator backtracked and attempted to explain further:
“In my defense, I was responding to the troops’ demands for a constitutional amendment limiting elected offices to either veterans, uniformed police and fire personnel, or civilians who held conscientious objector status throughout their entire period of eligibility for selective service, with all others forced to wear velcro shoes and overalls,” she explained. “Fuck them.”
She has since apologized for her remarks, saying that she “just went full-on retard with what she said.”
Never go full-retard
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
When pressed further, she admitted however, that “she hates the fucking constitution.”
Minutes after making the remark, she told reporters that she misspoke and didn’t mean to use profanity.
Didn't mean to use profanity, but still hates the Constitution? Yeah, that makes it all better. Welp...looks like that "legit rape" republican found his democratic counterpart.
Dufflebag got your tongue? I recognized it as Duffleblog the moment I reached the end of the post. I was thinking, "Eh, whatever, but then I scrolled up and read the link again, and cackled when I noticed that people ACTUALLY fell for this.
I've actually considered wraping TDB links in "New York Times" or a similarly legit news organization...but ultimately decided against it as I'm sure it's against the rules.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
I enjoy reading Duffelblog, even though I only got 50% of the jokes.
KhorneFlakes wrote:Man, don't people read links anymore?
Part of that might be that they doesn't have the name recognition of the Onion.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist
"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
DW thought it was a real story, and I would have gotten away with it if TimC hadn't told him otherwise.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
Obviously fake, but since we allowed Onion to be posted here for some fun more than once, let it be.
Lì ci sono chiese, macerie, moschee e questure, lì frontiere, prezzi inaccessibile e freddure
Lì paludi, minacce, cecchini coi fucili, documenti, file notturne e clandestini
Qui incontri, lotte, passi sincronizzati, colori, capannelli non autorizzati,
Uccelli migratori, reti, informazioni, piazze di Tutti i like pazze di passioni...
...La tranquillità è importante ma la libertà è tutto!
I like it. It's good for the judgment, and keeps things from getting monotonous.
EDIT: It rewards understanding the thing you're scandalized by. You can tell a Duffelblog post pretty quickly when it parodies things you already know. Sometimes because of human nature (like the Onion), sometimes because of physical details.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
------------
A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------ My LPs
I got no beef with joke articles, but I do think it's in extremely bad taste to conjure up potentially offensive quotes out of thin air and then claim an actually existing person said them. Because Linda Lopez is the Democratic senator representing the 29th District in the Arizona Senate. Presumably she never said what the article attributes to her, but you can bet your ass there'll be people who will believe that she did. I realize it's probably too much to expect some decent journalistic ethics from a satirical website, but still.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
------------
A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------ My LPs
I should probably unfollow the Duffel Blog just so I can test myself, but then again I would know already when Lonestar posts it.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
I guessed it from the start it was fake but I was wondering if it was a joke or a propaganda piece.
I may be an idiot, but I'm a tolerated idiot
"I think you completely missed the point of sigs. They're supposed to be completely homegrown in the fertile hydroponics lab of your mind, dried in your closet, rolled, and smoked...
Oh wait, that's marijuana..."Einhander Sn0m4n
Siege wrote:I got no beef with joke articles, but I do think it's in extremely bad taste to conjure up potentially offensive quotes out of thin air and then claim an actually existing person said them. Because Linda Lopez is the Democratic senator representing the 29th District in the Arizona Senate. Presumably she never said what the article attributes to her, but you can bet your ass there'll be people who will believe that she did. I realize it's probably too much to expect some decent journalistic ethics from a satirical website, but still.
The Onion does it plenty, and nobody seems terribly offended by it. Seems to be just part of the whole satirical news thing.
"How can I wait unknowing?
This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
