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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The truth about Obama

Woodward’s Book exposes the real Obama

One of the first scenes Woodward recounts is a meeting at the White House where Obama invited House Republicans over to talk about the stimulus. After then-Minority Whip Eric Cantor distributed a five-point Republican stimulus plan that differed from Obama's tax plan, Obama told Cantor, "I can go it alone. ... Look at the polls. The polls are pretty good for me right now. Elections have consequences. And Eric, I won. So on that, I think I trump you."

Later, after the Democrats drafted a stimulus bill that contained zero Republican ideas, Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel put Obama's position on bipartisanship a bit more succinctly, "We have the votes. F--k 'em."

Obama's tone changed, of course, after the "shellacking" the American people gave him during the 2010 elections. But even when he knew he needed Republican votes to govern, Obama could not help but stereotype and lecture the other party. He confidently told his staff he could roll newly minted House Speaker John Boehner because, "He's a golf-playing, cigarette-smoking, country-club Republican who makes deals. He is very familiar to me."

What Mitch McConnell actually said

National Journal on October 23, 2010:

McConnell: We need to be honest with the public. This election is about them, not us. And we need to treat this election as the first step in retaking the government. We need to say to everyone on Election Day, “Those of you who helped make this a good day, you need to go out and help us finish the job.”

NJ: What’s the job?

McConnell: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

NJ: Does that mean endless, or at least frequent, confrontation with the president?

McConnell: If President Obama does a Clintonian backflip, if he’s willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it’s not inappropriate for us to do business with him.

NJ: What are the big issues?

McConnell: It is possible the president’s advisers will tell him he has to do something to get right with the public on his levels of spending and [on] lowering the national debt. If he were to heed that advice, he would, I image, [sic] find more support among our conference than he would among some in the Senate in his own party. I don’t want the president to fail; I want him to change. So, we’ll see. The next move is going to be up to him.

Obama’s North African Policy

Is what’s happening in North Africa beyond President Obama’s power to control or a consequence of his actions?  Did Obama’s policy unleash the dogs of war? 

If you want to know what’s important look were people spend their time

On Tuesday the report broke that for the last year and a half Barack Obama has attended less than four out of every ten intelligence briefings during his presidency,  a percentage that has sunk lower in the past year. The president gets hard copies of the report and claims to read it judiciously every day, but most of the time he skips the opportunity to probe, ask, questions and consult.  In a July report we learned that he that hadn’t attended his daily economic briefing since April 2011.  Is it any wonder the economy and our foreign policy are in such bad shape?

Hillary cheers Book of Mormon condemns Innocence of Muslims

Once again we find inconsistent stands by left wing politicians.  I guess it okay to support a musical making fun of Mormons because Mormons aren’t threatening to kill you.

Obama’s clumsy mistakes

Obviously, when a U.S. president serially trashes the policies of his predecessor in the Middle East, promises that his own person will reinvent Arab-American relations, damns but then embraces and expands the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism policies, announces defense cuts and a pivot away from the Middle East while spiking the ball about the death of bin Laden, the cyberwar with Iran, and the Predator targeted assassinations, weaves mythologies about Islam’s greatness while embracing the Muslim Brotherhood  and seeking reset with the Iranian theocracy — all that invites a classical set-up for radical Islamists to readjust the political landscape of the Middle East at American expense, adding insult to our injury. Indeed, to reread the Cairo speech now is painful — the falsities, the naiveté, and the arrogance of it all.

It’s no wonder the leftist MSM is focusing on Romney.  This is another disaster for Obama who was about to pivot to foreign policy to claim superiority over Romney.  This puts a gaping hole in that strategy.

The Media’s reaction is the real problem

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said that, although Romney’s remarks were ill-timed, the media’s reaction was the real problem.

 “Look, what [Romney] was criticizing there was a statement that we were talking about in the first panel, which is the administration emphasis on this video and attacking it and reiterating that — the Cairo embassy not only said that, but it reiterated it later after these events unfolded,” Hume said. “So they doubled down on it. Eventually the White House walked it back and so on. But the next thing you know the White House is saying the same thing — that it is all about the video. So, my sense is that he (Romney) was on the mark. He might have timed it better or said it better.”

Another Electoral Model Points to Romney Victory

Yet another model points to a Romney victory.  The electorate is dying to fire Obama and they will.

Seniors in 8 states face biggest Medicare Cuts

Here’s an interesting look at what the $716 billion in Medicare cuts means by state.  You’ll notice a number of them are battleground states.

 

Meanwhile people are gaming the system

And not surprisingly, it appears that the SSDI program is often abused.  A new investigative report produced by Senator Coburn, ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, raises serious questions about whether millions of Americans should be receiving these benefits. Coburn’s investigation reviewed the cases of 300 people who had been awarded disability benefits and found that more than a quarter of them provided insufficient, contradictory, or incomplete evidence.

This is worth reading about.  SSDI is a treasure chest of benefits that are designed to help those truly in need but appear to be used by those who are in greed.  

The first thing to understand about political journalism is that the headline is more important than the story. Some significant percentage of readers won't actually read the entire article, but the headline will register in their minds.  For tabloid outlets like Politico, the headline is the entire point of even writing the article. No doubt, since the beginning of the election season, Mike Allen and Jim Van Dehei have day-dreamed about writing the "Romney is flailing" article. Feigned concern over "problems" in a GOP campaign are a staple among left-wing journalists. Today, they finally cobbled together enough bits to produce a 5-page exposition of the "troubled" Romney campaign. Its a yawner.  

Here are the main things we learn in Politico's post: There was disagreement about Romney's convention speech; the main advisor, Stuart Stevens is "eclectic"; Romney is loyal to his staff; and, GOPers not on the campaign payroll disagree with some aspects of the campaign. 

Taking advice from the story, I’ve used the Obama version of Politico as my headline.  

Maureen Dowd anti-semite?

It appears Maureen has stepped into it big time using language that harkens one back to Berlin in the 1930s. 

Dowd fairly observed that neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan are experts in the field of foreign policy, but asserted their strategy was orchestrated by a "neocon puppet master" who was leading the neocon effort to "slither back" into power.

In fact, there is a disturbing trend among some on the left to openly and freely engage in anti-Semitism disguised being pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel.  

Chicago Teachers’ strike week two

Rahm Emmanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, plans to sue the teachers to get them back in the classroom.  The strike in Chicago is a perfect example of what you get when government and unions are in cahoots together.  There is relative peace until even the government can’t afford the demands of the union. 

In the meantime, 40% of the Chicago School Teachers on strike don’t have to worry about their kids being at home during the strike as they send them to private schools

Black Pastors urge their congregations not to vote

"This is the first time in black church history that I'm aware of that black pastors have encouraged their parishioners not to vote." Bryant, who opposes gay marriage, said the president's position on marriage is "at the heart" of the problem.

Democrats; Call the Republicans “racists” because that works

A top official at a liberal super PAC with the goal of eradicating tea partiers from Congress is telling activists that it’s more effective to label Republicans as racists than criticize their policies.

According to an audio recording obtained by The Daily Caller, Matthew “Mudcat” Arnold, the national campaign manager of the liberal CREDO super PAC, told a gathering of supporters in Aurora, Colo., on Sept. 8 that they’ve realized “policy did not move voters.”

He used Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King as an example.

“When we said that Steve King … is pro-life and believes in cutting Social Security and voted for the Ryan budget, no one cared,” Arnold said. “When we said Steve King’s a racist, Steve King believes that immigrants ought to be put in electric fences, people moved.”

The moral of this story is, don’t believe anything the Democrats tell you.  They will say anything to defeat the Republicans. 

What ever happened to the Occupy Movement?

They are supposed to demonstrate today in NYC on the Occuversity of the movement.