Benghazi

 US denied requests for more security in Benghazi 

“In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.”

This could be a very telling story for the Obama Administration in what appears to be a dereliction of duty. 

John Stewart looks at Benghazi

And he takes apart the Administration’s story.  And he asks how much it sucks to be the President’s press secretary.

Darrell Issa investigates Benghazi

Ever since the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, the Obama administration has been stalling, obfuscating and outright lying in order to avoid taking responsibility for the deaths of four Americans, including our ambassador. To a considerable degree, they have gotten away with that strategy. But Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has stepped into the breach. Issa’s committee has been approached by whistle-blowers within the State Department, and the stories they tell about the department’s malfeasance are shocking.

Krauthammer on Benghazi

The mystery here is why would you go out and have our ambassador to the U.N. on five channels create a fairytale about all of this being an outgrowth of demonstration over a video? The answer is you want to cover up — the answer is you want to cover up the security lapses, intelligence lapses, ignoring of the threat. And the fact that one way to put it, if you want to use the phrase of Joe Biden, “Bin Laden dead, al-Qaeda alive.”

Obama supporters trust Romney (Bain Capital) with their money

Some of Bain’s investors include among others, the Ohio Teachers Retirement Fund, Columbia and Harvard Universities, and the Oprah Winfrey and Ford Foundations.  If Romney was such a capitalistic destroyer why would these “good” organizations entrust their money to him? 

How bad is it under Obama?  Really Bad

Economically Obama’s time in office has been a complete disaster.  He says he needs four more years to finish the job.  And finish may be exactly what he is talking about.

How bad is the deficit under Obama?  Really Bad

The fiscal 2012 increase of $1,275,901,078,828.74 exceeded the fiscal 2011 increase $1,228,717,297,665.36 by $47,183,781,163.38

Excuse me, math is not one of my strong subjects but shouldn't the budget deficit be, like, you know, going down every year instead of going up?

Obama’s Dog Siren

Mr. Bring-us-together, never really intended on doing that which is clear from his tone in this speech. 

The most transparent Administration ever is hiding things

At the EPA is appears high level executives have private email accounts they use to shield themselves from FOIA requests. 

Is it time to end Affirmative Action?

We refer to this problem as "mismatch,"a word that largely explains why, even though blacks are more likely to enter college than are whites with similar backgrounds, they will usually get much lower grades, rank toward the bottom of the class, and far more often drop out. Because of mismatch, racial preference policies often stigmatize minorities, reinforce pernicious stereotypes, and undermine the self-confidence of beneficiaries, rather than creating the diverse racial utopias so often advertised in college campus brochures.

Affirmative action in elite schools does more harm than good to the beneficiaries.  It may be similar to taking a novice skier up the mountain figuring they can go down the green slopes rather than teaching them the basics on the bunny hill.  

What the election comes down to

Obama’s campaign still harps on what a mess he inherited.  Bill Clinton told us all that no president, not even he could do better than Obama has done.  Nonsense.  

While it’s true Obama didn’t cause the crisis, he hasn’t fixed it either.  It would be like a fire department that gets to the fires but always seem to have the building burn to the ground justify this by saying, they didn’t start the fire.  We know that.  But they didn’t save the home either which is their job. 

How to tell the truth while you are lying

The report cites a Senate Republican who “admits” that the obstruction “constitutes a ‘new standard’ for President Obama’s nominees.”

The Republican, Mike Lee of Utah, actually made his statement about Obama’s nominees in response to Obama’s recess appointments. Lee said:

Prior to President Obama’s unconstitutional “recess” appointments, I gave his judicial nominees great deference. Both in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor, I have voted in favor of the vast majority of the president’s nominees, including many with whom I fundamentally disagree. But I can do so no more. There is and must be a new standard for the president’s judicial nominations. A standard under which a problematic and controversial nominee such as Mr. Hurwitz cannot receive my support.

This is part of an article titled “Grasping for Accomplishments.”  It is worth it to read it.

 

Biden is right about the Middle Class

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn upon occasion.  Here are three charts that show how badly the middle class has been hurt in the age of Obama. 

Should you believe Obama’s campaign promises?

To answer this you need only look at his record from 2008.  And the answer is only believe him if you are a fool.

Obama plans to cut Medicare, but campaigns saying he won’t

WOODWARD: Yeah, and, I mean, it's not just his campaign team. It's the president himself. He says, “We're going to reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul the right way by reducing the cost of health care - everyone would agree with that - not by shifting it onto seniors.” Well, in his own documents, he says, “We have to do this.” When I talked to him, he realized and said very openly that it's irresponsible to not address this.

SCARBOROUGH: Let's play a clip that you were alluding to. Go ahead and roll it.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, JULY 21, 2011: All the Democrats felt that for Democrats to join with Republicans in anything that could be painted as a Medicare cut when there was a huge difference between Democratic and Republican positions on Medicare generally was bad politics. It's an untenable position to say we're not going to do anything on Medicare and Medicaid when that's one of the biggest drivers of our budget deficit.

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Jobs picture no help for Obama

Best Quotes from DNC

"All women should have the right to birth control." Aspen, Colorado delegate Blanca O'Leary

“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties. “It will be a choice between two different paths for America. “--Barack Obama

BLS:  August 96000 jobs created

Unemployment rate down to 8.1% as 368,000 leave the workforce.  The 96,000 jobs created is below the estimates of between 125,000 and 200,000 and below last months 163,000.  Here is the three month moving average.

January 2012               207000

February 2012             230000

March 2012                 204000

April 2012                   146000

May 2012                      99000

June 2012                      67000

July 2012                       85000

August                           88000

These aren’t winning numbers if you are looking to be reelected.

Obama Administration:  Pay no attention to….

The answer is by warning Americans “not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  Perhaps the bad news is an anomaly, Council of Economic Advisers chairman Alan Krueger warned Friday.

Of course, Krueger said the same thing last month.  And the month before.  And the month before.  Noticing the depressing repetitiveness of the White House’s analysis, the Romney campaign last month dug through old reports and put together a list of 30 examples, going back to November, 2009, in which the administration warned Americans not to “read too much into” discouraging jobs numbers.  Now, there are 31. (That’s out of 43 months Mr. Obama has been President). 

Now tell us what you really think, Clint.

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

Obama:  It could have been worse

John Stewart skewers Obama.  “It’s better than cancer” perhaps can be the new Obama Campaign slogan.

Krauthammer Pans Obama’s Speech

“I was stunned. This is a man who gave one of the great speeches of our time in 2004. And he gave one of the emptiest speeches I’ve ever heard on a national stage… There was nothing in it… At least Romney had a 5 point plan… He pulls numbers out of a hat… He doesn’t say how he’s going to get from A to B. It’s a vision. I have a vision of America where there’s no disease and everybody owns a private airplane. But, unless I tell you how we get there I’ve said nothing.”  In short, Obama gave us an Edsel when he needed a T-bird.

Reelect Obama?  Why?

“The times have changed -- and so have I,” Obama said. “I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the president. . . . I’m far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, ‘I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.’ ”

His speech at the Convention has pretty well sealed it.  His “times have changed and so have I” reminds me of Jimmy Carter in the final weeks of the election of 1980 telling everyone he had learned so much.  If Obama has changed, how has he changed?  Romney wins big in November.

Kerry finds everyone is worse off

Kerry asks if bin Laden is better off than he was four years ago leaving himself open to the response, “No, he’s like everyone else.  Under Obama everyone is much worse off including UBL.”

Peggy Noonan looks at the DNC Convention

There was the relentless emphasis on Government as Community, as the thing that gives us spirit and makes us whole. But government isn't what you love if you're American, America is what you love. Government is what you have, need and hire. It’s most essential duties—especially when it is bankrupt—involves defending rights and safety, not imposing views and values. We already have values. Democrats and Republicans don't see all this the same way, and that's fine—that's what national politics is, the working out of this dispute in one direction or another every few years. But the Democrats convened in Charlotte seemed more extreme on the point, more accepting of the idea of government as the center of national life, than ever, at least to me.

Perhaps they took God out of the platform because they don’t want competition for the government. 

The Specifics in Obama’s Speech

He offered more specific goals than did Mr. Romney, many of which he had previously set: doubling U.S. exports, training 2 million workers at community colleges, recruiting 100,000 math and science teachers. Those, and a few new goals — creating 1 million manufacturing jobs over four years, cutting oil imports in half by 2020, cutting in half the growth in college tuition — are laudable. But Mr. Obama did not explain how he would achieve them or prepare the country for the difficult choices they would demand.

Obama keeps asking if we want the failed policies of the past when we can have his failed policies of the present (although he doesn’t phrase it that way). 

Obama lies about how is mother died

Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama all told a story during the Democratic National Convention about battles the president’s mother waged with health care companies as she fought a terminal illness in 1995. But the version of events presented Thursday night differs dramatically from others, including those of at least two biographers and Obama’s own previous account.

Never let a good story be compromised by the truth.

Obama voters: it is understandable to be disappointed

Many of Obama’s 2008 voters are greatly disappointed with the results of his election.  Romney needs to make it okay for them to vote against Obama.  Says campaign pollster Neil Newhouse: “These voters are my mother-in-law. She’s a soft Republican and voted with pride for Barack Obama in terms of what it meant for the country. And now, every time she talks to me, she’s more than disappointed. She’s frustrated. She’s upset. She thought she was voting for a transformational leader and feels like we got just another politician.”

The Thrill is gone

While Obama and Mitt Romney remain locked in public polls, several Democratic officials are worried that three groups that pushed Obama over the finish line in 2008--younger voters, seniors and "Walmart" white women--are as frustrated as other groups about the economy and Obama's failure to change Washington and might stay home.

In other words, they say, the polls lie. Yes, when called by pollsters, the nation is split, but the GOP appears more eager and willing to follow through and vote than the Democrats.

During an event hosted by National Journal/Atlantic her this week, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake cited an "enthusiasm gap" with younger voters and unmarried women and seniors. Former Clinton aide Maria Echaveste said that "too many [Obama supporters] are not engaged." And micro-targeting expert Laura Quinn said younger voters especially are "not motivated as they need be."

We may be able to identify this lack of enthusiasm by group, but this is not unusual.  If you look at history you will see a bad economy translate into a failed run for reelection.  

Bill Clinton without a clue

Maybe the most galling thing Clinton said was, “Though I often disagree with Republicans, I never learned to hate them the way the far Right that now controls their party seems to hate President Obama and the Democrats.”

I saw the hatred — the almost animal hatred — that was directed at George W. Bush for eight years. (What a good and decent man he is.) I saw the hatred — the raw, snarling, truly animal hatred — that was directed at a woman named Sarah Palin. It had almost a physical effect on me, this hatred.

I’ll never forget a friend of mine, with whom I’d never discussed politics — “I hate her,” she said. And she had a look in her eye I had never seen before. My friend is a loving person. But she had a look of wild hatred in her eye. I had never heard my friend say she hated anything: al-Qaeda, Pol Pot, cancer — nothing. 

And let me add the TEA Party, Rush Limbaugh, the Koch Brothers, Tony Snow, and we did have that one delegate who said she wanted to kill Romney. 

Nancy Pelosi denies putting Obama on mute

In his new book, The Price of Politics, Bob Woodward writes that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sometimes hit the mute button when President Barack Obama would start giving “uplifting speeches” during conference calls. Pelosi denied the claim, saying that, during those calls, she always cleared the room, listened and took notes.

Took notes?  This sounds as if Debbie Wasserman Schultz wrote this statement for the former Speaker of the House.  But if she’d be willing to share those notes….