As most of you have heard or read, U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and 3 other U.S. diplomats were killed yesterday in Benghazi, Libya. A mob of extreme Islamic jihadists had earlier attacked the U.S. Consulate  in Benghazi, overrunning it and setting ablaze. Ambassador  Stevens and 3 other diplomats died in the attack.  According to the Libya Herald, citing local witnesses, those who attacked the US mission included members of the hardline Islamist group Ansar Al-Sharia. It reported that Libya security forces tried to defend the embassy building but withdrew under heavy fire. Since the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya’s transitional government has struggled to rebuild an effective police force, control the weapons that have flooded the streets and restore public security. Local Islamist militant groups capitalizing on the security vacuum have claimed responsibility for some attacks, and some reports on Tuesday suggested that one such group, Ansar al-Sharia, had claimed responsibility for that day’s assault.

The assault followed a protest in neighboring Egypt where demonstrates scaled the walls of the US embassy, tore down the US flag, and burned it. What is fueling this anger among extreme Islamist zealots? An attack on their religion and Prophet Mohammed by Christian and Jewish zealots.  The mobs were set off by Egyptian media reports about a 14-minute trailer for the video, called “Innocence of Muslims,” that was posted on Youtube. The trailer uses cartoon like scenes to depict the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, the violence against U.S. diplomats in Libya is an “attack that should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world”.But someone sure knows how to get extreme Islamist riled up.

The trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Sam Bacile, whom The Wall Street Journal Web site identified as a 52-year old Israeli-American real estate developer in California. He told the Web site he had raised $5 million from 100 Jewish donors to make the film. “Islam is a cancer” Mr. Bacile was quoted as saying.

The video gained international attention when a Florida pastor began promoting it along with his own proclamation of Sept. 11 as “International Judge Muhammad Day.” In a statement on Tuesday, the pastor, Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., called the film “an American production, not designed to attack Muslims but to show the destructive ideology of Islam” and said it “further reveals in a satirical fashion the life of Muhammad”.

“Not designed to attack Muslims”??? It is against their religion to even depict Mohammed in an image. And I wonder how Pastor Jones would feel if someone depicted his beloved Jesus as a child of uncertain parentage, an idiot, a homosexual preying on children, and a bloodthirsty thug? You may remember Pastor Jones for his “Burn a Koran Day” crusade on September 11 2010:

He ultimately backed down after pressure, and after it was pointed out to him that Islamist mobs rioting in outrage would endanger the lives of American men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. With folks like Pastor Jones spreading the word of the Lord, Satan doesn’t need any help. I can understand one’s calling to spread the word of their religion, but the need to insult and tear down someone else’s religion totally escapes me. I’ve been an Agnostic Buddhist for a long time now. But when I was a child my parents had me go to Methodist church and Bible School and I sure don’t remember any of that hate and contempt for other religions from the teachings of Jesus. And I lived and worked in Morocco and Egypt for several years when I worked in hotel management, and I don’t remember any of that violence and killing in the teachings of Mohammed as explained to me by my Muslim friends. What happened in Egypt and Libya should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world. Well said, Secretary Clinton. And in the name of sanity, can we all just stop with attacking other people’s religious beliefs and just be content in our own religious beliefs, or lack thereof?

And once again Mitt Romney demonstrated how woefully unprepared and inadequate he is to assume the role of Commander in Chief. He used the tragedy to launch a personal attack on President Obama, suspending his self-imposed break from politics on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 by releasing the following statement late last night:

“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi, It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks”.

Um, jumping the gun there a bit, Mitt? President Obama and/or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hadn’t even released a statement yet, as they will still confirming the reports from Libya. What Romney is referring to is a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo which condemned the anti-Muslim film and the posting of the trailer online.  But that statement was released by the embassy before it was even attacked by the mob, and long before the attacks in Libya. Yet this morning Romney repeated the lie, saying the Cairo Embassy’s statement was “in my view a disgraceful statement on the part of our administration to apologize for American values”. American values???? No, Willard, vilifying someone eles’e religion is NOT an “American value”. Debasing deviling their Prophet as a  child molester of questionable parentage is NOT and “American value”.  Look at how downright smirking Romney is as he leaves his press conference:

And notice how grim the expressions are on the reporters’ faces? This is how you look Presidential in light of a tragedy:

President Obama said that his administration would work with the Libyan government to bring those who killed four Americans in Benghazi on Tuesday to justice, in a statement delivered at the White House Wednesday morning.

“Make no mistake, justice will be done”.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the violence against U.S. diplomats in Libya an “attack that should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world.”

We aren’t alone in feeling Mitt Romney has just made an ass of himself:

Mark Halperin, Time Magazine:

“Unless the Romney campaign has gamed this crisis out in some manner completely invisible to the Gang of 500, his doubling down on criticism of the President for the statement coming out of Cairo is likely to be seen as one of the most craven and ill-advised tactical moves in this entire campaign”.

Politico:

“Over the top: Yesterday we noted that Mitt Romney, down in the polls after the convention, was throwing the kitchen sink at President Obama. Little did we know the kitchen sink would include — on the anniversary of 9/11 — one of the most over-the-top and (it turns out) incorrect attacks of the general election campaign”.

Tweet from the National Journal:

“A ham-handed and inaccurate response from Romney. There is a reason why politix stops at water’s edge.”

Peggy Noonan on Fox News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pudj64El23s

“Trying to exploit things for political gain . . . Mitt Romney hasn’t been doing himself any favors the past few hours”.