Benghazi?! Why don't Republicans think about THIS instead?

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Wednesday May 07, 2014 · 10:56 AM PDT

2014/05/07 · 10:56

Reading some message-board comments here in Texas about the ongoing Republican obsession with Benghazi, I was moved to do some research for a reply. Obviously, simple statistics cannot completely capture such issues.

But maybe Republicans should have it pointed out that the deaths in Benghazi amount to:

13.33%, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, of fatally violent hate crimes committed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender victims in 2011 (4 out of 30);

4.17%, according to journalist Bob Cesca, of those killed in attacks on consulates and embassies during George W. Bush's administration (4 out of 96);

3.81%, according to the "Officer Down Memorial Page", of law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2013 (4 out of 105);

1.66%, according to Wikipedia, of American deaths in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing under President Reagan (4 out of 241);

0.18%, according to the Associated Press, of U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 (4 out of 2,179);

0.13%, according to CNN, of immediate casualties from the 9/11 attacks (4 out of 2,977);

0.09%, according to OSHA, of American workers killed on the job in 2012 (4 out of 4,628);

0.01%, according to the CDC, of U.S. firearm deaths in 2010 (4 out of 31,672);

0.009%, according to a recent Harvard Medical School study, of estimated annual U.S. deaths associated with the lack of health insurance (4 out of 45,000);

0.007%, according to MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, of U.S. early deaths attributable to pollution solely from power generation (4 out of 52,000);

0.0008%, according to the CDC, of estimated annual U.S. deaths due to smoking tobacco (4 out of 480,000);

0.0007%, according to the CDC, of estimated U.S. pregnancies annually ending in miscarriages (4 out of 600,000).

Of course, I haven't heard the Republican Party accused of an abundance of perspective lately….

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