Thank God we're not in AFRICA...
Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), talking to the Scranton Times-Tribune this week, criticized the Obama administration’s actions in Libya.
“Where does it stop?” he said. “Do we go into Africa next? I don’t want to sound callous or cold, but this could go on indefinitely around the world.”
Marino is still a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the House subcommittee on African foreign policy.
Libya, meanwhile, is still in Africa.
Ethics Alarms 
Depends on what the definition of “in” is.
Like the map!
Tom Marino obviously went to a public elementary school in Pennsylvania. I know this dates me, but does anyone remember the 4th grade exercise of finding countries and cities on the big pull-down map of the world (Mercator projection)? Sure, country names have changed (and continue to do so at an alarming rate), but ILiya has been in the exact same latitude and longitude for…well, forever.
And he’s a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the House Subcommittee on African foreign policy? What, if any, qualifications (other than the desire and political pull) are required to serve on such committees? Maybe the House Appropriations committee is full of the same types… “Uh, what’s the difference between a billion and a trillion? When will it ever stop?”
I don’t know anything about the man, but in the absence of evidence to the contrary, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe just a slip of the tongue, like “…56 states…”?
Of course, WE never have tongue slips or typos, due wi?
Yeah, I gotta go with Curmudgeon on this one.
That could easily have been a slip of the tongue, “Oops, Algeria, y’know the next one over from Egypt and Libya” or poor wording of his thoughts (“Do we go into All of Africa, with no limits?”).
–Dwayne
Yes, I pondered on that. I am also dubious about whether the same gaffe would attract so much attention if it were not a Tea-Partyish Republican, (who are all drooling morons, don’t you know) but, say, Jesse Jackson, Jr.
What tipped it for me was 1) the follow-up sentence. If you hear something dum come out of your mouth, usually that’s when you say—“Huh? I don’t mean AFRICA!”—if you go on with the same thread and elaborte, there’s a rebuttable presumption that you don’t know it’s a mistake. 2) He’s on an African policy committee. If it’s a slip of the tongue, I still hold him to a higher standard because he makes the committee, himself, the Congress and the US look like boobs. If the mistake was about Asia, OK, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. The guy is supposed to have expertise in African issues. He wasn’t on a speaking tour,so exhausted he didn’t know what city he was in; this wasn’t like John McCain saying South Korea when he meant North Korea—I mix up the Carolinas when I’m talking too fast too. It’s not as bad, but I put it in the same class as Michele Bachman saying that the Revolutionary War started in New Hampshire, or the all-time best, Al Gore blithely spouting complete nonsense about the Earth’s core. And finally…
3) I have literally talked to dozens of people in the past week who were under the impression that Libya was in the Middle East.
April Fools! Good one. You almost had me there, but the April 1 date gives it away. Well Done.
But as you know, I’m on record writing that April Fool’s jokes on professional or informational websites are unethical. Got a lot of crap for it, too.
In this case, I was aware it was probably wishful thinking. Oh well, back to being depressed about the state of education…
April Fool’s or not, let’s just call this one an allegory for all the morons that are running our country.