Hillary excuses Bloody Benghazi with lies, half-truths and bluster

Guest post
By Curt Dale

Hillary Clinton is trying to wash the blood of Benghazi off her hands with some of the essentially irrational lies, half-truths and lots of self-righteous bluster. Faced with the upcoming testimonies at the House investigation, her quickly released new book has a chapter that she must think will provide sufficient explanation to exonerate her of failure to do anything to save the four people killed in the Al Queda terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi.

One of her comments is pure smoke and mirrors. Clinton said that Obama “gave the order to do whatever was necessary to support our people in Libya.” Wait, Hillary! So, to whom did he give the order, Hillary? I ask that because nothing was done. Did he give it to you? We’re supposed to believe that, but we don’t even know where Obama was while the attack was in progress. If that order was given, did you, former Secretary of State Clinton, do anything to support the people in Libya. Of course not! Nothing! She continued, “It was imperative that all possible resources be mobilized immediately.…When Americans are under fire, that is not an order the Commander in Chief has to give twice.” Hold it, Hil! What was mobilized? Did one airplane, helicopter or drone launch from land or sea? You are trying to sell us the half-truth that military forces moved, that aircraft launched. No, none of that happened Hillary. Not “immediately,” as you imply, nor later. You were the Secretary of State, and you ignored the requests for protection for days or weeks, but you did nothing then: you did nothing when the attack began.”

Of course I can understand why you can’t make accurate comments on what did happen. I well remember your testimonies during the Whitewater testimonies. Your stand answers were a foggy, “I can’t remember!” or “I can’t recall!” So, either you can’t actually remember what happened the night of Benghazi, or you are willing to lie about it in order to dismiss it before your presidential campaign starts.

You added, “Our military does everything humanly possible to save American lives — and would do more if they could. That anyone has ever suggested otherwise is something I will never understand.” Well, isn’t that the sweetest thing to say about our military, you fraud! You said “does.” You didn’t address even that sentence with accuracy, did you? But of course you avoided “did.” If you’d have said, “Our military DID everything…,” humanly possible that would be a lie. You are so sneakily dishonest. The military was ready to move out to Libya, wanting to intervene, but you and the Commander in Chief let the attack continue without doing one blessed thing to help those people under attack and being murdered by the terrorists. Did you bother to mention, Hillary, that there were senior commanders who were ready and begging to go to the defense of the Embassy and that their willingness, insistence was rewarded by Obama? He fired them. Of course you skipped that little fact about how Obama, AND YOU, and Bill treat the military—with gross disdain.

Once you laid out these very carefully parsed words to excuse your disgustingly inept performance which I consider fully treasonous, you began to bluster and become incredibly self-righteous. Your words were, “Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country,” Whoa, Hillary? Who was it that, a couple of months ago during testimony on Capitol Hill, screamed in fury at Senator Ron Johnson, “What difference at this point does it make?” Well, the fact is, the difference is that those four fine Americans who worked for you are dead instead of alive. I’ll venture that is “minimization” of the worst kind. I know it is a horribly painful difference for the families and loved ones of those four murdered State Department people you forsook.

Finally, you took to your vaunted dual thrones of Former First Lady and Former Secretary of State, dismissing all efforts by Republicans to get to the truth with an accusation of political bias. You said, “Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.” This tells me that you are in the same mindset as Barack Hussein Obama when he said for the world to hear, “I’m the President. I can do what I want.” Your last final quote tells me that you believe you are above question, above criticism, above accountability, just like Obama. You believe you can do whatever you want, and you are not even the President. I will continue to pray that you will never be and work toward that end.

© Colonel Curtis D. Dale, PhD, USAF

Why we are late to work today

A woman is upset because she's going to be late, because the New York bus driver picked up a woman in a wheel chair. The man in the video explains, "This is New York. Everybody late. You want to be on time, go to Jamaica and walk to work. Ax your boss for a raise, then you can buy a car and be on time. Wake yo' ass up early and put the fuckin' dumplings down, and get on da bus."



Thanks to Maggie's Notebook for linking to this video.

Answerable, ultimately, to the Prince of This World

David Warren writes:

To my mind, it is nevertheless incumbent upon every Christian: to understand the nature of our political order; that it is answerable, ultimately, to the Prince of This World; that it stands in open defiance to the claims of Christ; and that we, as Christians, cannot honour it without dishonouring Our Lord. For the demands of pagan Caesar are no different today than they were in the first centuries: that we bow before his abstract image, worship and pay taxes to him; that we publicly subordinate our conscience to his ghastly will.

The lie in the black heart of democracy is that we can overcome Caesar by electing another Caesar.

Please read more here.

Reaching out in honesty and love

Roger L. Simon apologizes:

Forget the totalitarian communisms like North Korea and North Vietnam that we were trying to stop, what this was all about for so many of us in those days was beating our fathers, showing them up.

We didn’t realize that in the process we were creating a monster — the Boomers who came behind us and thought we were cool because we were the first to protest, the first to rock till we dropped, the first to smoke dope, the first to drop acid, the first to… well, never mind.

We weren’t the first to do anything, really. We we were just the first popularizers, the first to infiltrate the American mind in such a profound way that the wrong people became the heroes. After us, patriotism was out, ROTC was out, America the Beautiful was out.

Now we have a country of Barack Obama and veterans who are wait-listed for medical care and a foreign policy — not to mention a world — in shambles because this once great land leads from behind, if at all.

Sorry. I was just a kid. I didn’t know what I was doing.

And I wasn’t alone. There were a lot of us and it will take a lot of us to make this right. One way to start is that some of us can start to acknowledge what we did wrong. And we can reach out to others, not in rancor, but in honesty and love.

Read more here.

No enemy, no danger, no peril we can't run away from or try to buy off

Richard Fernandez has the transcript of the president's speech at West Point:

When I first spoke at West Point in 2009, we still had more than 100,000 troops in Iraq. They had just finished a costly campaign to establish it as a cornerstone for a stable Middle East, which I then proceeded to throw away. Because I had a new strategic idea, Afghanistan, in turn replaced by a newer idea, the Arab Spring and a yet newer — Syria and Iran. None of them have worked out, but that’s not my fault. It’s been a hard run of bad luck.

Four and a half years later, as you graduate, the Middle East is in seeming turmoil. Afghanistan will be in Taliban hands two weeks after we leave. Al-Qaida has metastized though Osama bin Laden is no more, though you’ll have to take my word for it.

In fact, by most measures America is weaker than it’s been in 70 years. But I say no! Don’t worry. We are immeasurably better off simply because you’re under me. There’s a secret plan, whose outlines will become clear in due time.

Be the first generation of West Pointers to be everywhere on the defensive, be the first Americans whose fundamental duty is groveling in public.

That is why I make sure you get the best medical care possible through the VA and ensure all Americans get the same quality through Obamacare.

Here’s my bottom line: America must always lead on the world stage. Lead from behind. So let me spend the rest of my time describing my vision for how the United States of America, and our military, should lead in the years to come, for you will be part of that leadership. The United States will use military force, unilaterally if necessary, provided we can, if I decide and without consulting Congress, provided the UN agrees.

To do the rough stuff, we will hire partners to fight alongside us. Like the Romans we are going to hire barbarian hordes since the lawyers told me that there’s a smaller political and legal downside to it. We’ll pay them off and we won’t have to fight. Every terror organization is a potential partner for peace. Inside every Islamic extremist is a nice guy just waiting for a payoff. Today, as part of this effort, I am calling on Congress to support a new counterterrorism partnerships fund of up to $5 billion, because I need a slush fund to keep doing whatever we weren’t doing that night in Benghazi.

Let’s show everyone that there’s no enemy, no danger, no peril we can’t run away from or try to buy off.

Drop the one, and pick up the other

Matt Walsh writes:

Christianity is a faith for all people, but it is not a faith for all notions and ideas. You cannot simultaneously profess the Faith while also defending the murder of the innocent. You are welcome into the church, but your belief in baby-murder is not. You cannot carry the cross and a Planned Parenthood banner at the same time.

You have to drop the one, and pick up the other.

I hope you do. I hope you start today. Now. This moment.

But until then, you cannot follow Christ while you still support the murder of His children.

You cannot be both.

You cannot be Christian and ‘pro-choice.’

Please read more here.

Unaware

Jay Carney resigned today.



Thanks to American Digest

Never stop hoping

Ann Voskamp writes today about joy and hope:

Time can’t dictate dreams or hijack hope or determine destination.

Time may have hands on the clock but it’s arms are too weak to rob anybody of hope, steal anybody’s prayers, destroy anybody’s joy.

And So what if time’s got hands on a clock — it’s God who has His Hands on the universe. Every little thing is going to be okay because God is working good through every little thing.

All that’s happening is just happening to make miracles. There are miracles always unfolding under the impossibles.

“Joys are always on their way to us,” writes Amy Carmichael. “They are always traveling to us through the darkness of the night. There is never a night when they are not coming.”

Because there is never a night where joys are not coming to us, there is never a road that can’t arrive at Hope. Circumstances can go ahead and run out of time — but the courageous refuse to run out of hope.

We can always hope because there is always joy traveling to us down the unexpected roads.

Please read more here.

The truth about ObamaCare

Glenn Reynolds:

ObamaCare is so great that they’ve exempted all their friends, and they won’t apply it to anyone else until the elections are safely over.

Read more here.

Never, ever give up

Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, shared with graduating seniors at the University of Texas some of the lessons he learned in six months of Seal training.

Start each day with a task completed.

Find someone to help you through life.

Respect everyone.

Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up—if you do these things, then next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today and—what started here will indeed have changed the world—for the better.

Read much more here.

The new scientific method

Thanks to American Digest.

The long and proud history of hashtagging in American politics

Michelle Obama's brave hashtag above has inspired Manhattan Infidel to research presidential hashtags in history. For example, Lyndon Johnson had

#Land War in Asia? What Could go Wrong?

Barack Obama's two most famous ones were

#Definitely Not From Kenya and #Redistribute It!

Read more here.

Solutions please: no more faux outrage

Allen West asks:

if the Obama administration, indeed government itself, is having a problem handling veterans healthcare, which is less than two percent of our American population, how do you think they’ll handle trying to manage the entire country’s healthcare?

He then outlines five things he would do if he were in charge. Read more here.

Searching for joy right where you are

Ann Voskamp's story:

So, The Introverted are the people who live in the constant tension between the desire to communicate… and the desire to hide.

And um, yeah — that would be this hick.

But the God story of searching for joy right where you are, and discovering how joy is always a function of gratitude and gratitude is always, simply, a function of perspective — and how the dare to count one thousand gifts literally and profoundly changed my life… well, when you’ve been revived from the dead, you keep mustering the courage up to communicate this story because maybe it will help just even one other person?

Please go here to read more.

American in his heart and soul

Yesterday in the checkout line at the big box store. Young man about 30 with his son. I noticed that the man had what sounded like a European accent, and that he was purchasing patriotic American items. I asked him where was his accent from.
"Austria," was his reply.
"And you are buying lots of patriotic American items?"
"Yes, I have an accent from Austria, but I am American through and through in my heart and soul."
"Awesome! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

A scandal, or just a problem in progress?

So is the V.A. scandal a scandal, or a "problem in progress?" Ace of Spades asks:

Is this, per the drooling Nancy Pelosi, a problem that just snuck up on us in the last couple of years as veterans have returned from Afghanistan and thus a scandal to be laid at the feet of George W. Bush, or is this, per the frothing Rachel Maddow, a problem that's been going on forever and therefore no scandal at all?

It can't be both, Progressives.

But the Progressives reply,

Oh yes it can be both, or neither, or one or the other, or the other or the one, as current political needs might dictate, and our position may change on this six times by Sunday.

Remember Vietnam? Those vets are the ones using the most V.A. medical services now. Read more here.

Scott Whitlock reports that in the one month since the

VA story broke on April 23 with the news that as many as 40 veterans seeking treatment at one Phoenix facility died while on secret waiting lists, CBS has provided the most coverage, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. NBC allowed 44 minutes and 53 seconds and ABC came in last with a scant 16 minutes and 44 seconds. None of the networks bothered covering the story until May 6, almost two weeks after it broke. (This is despite heavy investigative reporting by Fox News and CNN.)

Read more here.

CNN will not be "shamed" into covering the Benghazi hearings

CNN's President Jeff Zucker was interviewed by New York Times television reporter Bill Carter last night. Carter asked Zucker if he planned to cover the Select Committee on Benghazi hearings. I kid you not, this is what he said:

Zucker told Carter he didn't know yet.

"We're not going to be shamed into it by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something," he said. "If it's of real news value, we'll cover it."

Read more here.

Can the world be made safe?

Sarah Hoyt doesn't think so:

I couldn’t send my little ones armed to school. So I taught them what to do if they even suspected there was an intruder. Schools are gun free zones, of course, but that doesn’t stop people intent on killing other people from bringing them in. It’s a funny thing. If you’re going to do murder, you’re okay with violating rules. And what’s more, you know all victims and their teachers are disarmed.

So I taught the kids to use EVERYTHING – desks, books, chairs – as a weapon. And, before it came to that, if they even suspected there was a shooter, break a window, get out, run away in zigzags. If it wasn’t a shooter, mommy will explain and pay.

Paranoid? Better paranoid and alive…

The world can’t be made safe. There’s always a mad man. You need to be able to do what you can to defend yourself and others.

For this reason, we have fighting men, who volunteer to defend the nation. May G-d bless them and keep them and provide them leadership who won’t expend them in futile gestures and grand philosophical crusades.

And may those who gave their life protecting this nation rest in peace, and know that in a world that can’t be made safe, they did what they had to do.

And let’s not forget them, their sacrifice, nor how necessary it was.

When you...remember

Kelly Grayson has written one of the best pieces I have seen on Memorial Day. Please read it here.

Honor Memorial Day!

What is the proper greeting today? Is it "Happy Memorial Day?" Allen West says no, it is "Honor Memorial Day." Read more here.

Allen West: "Benghazi and the operations in Libya are shrouded in a fog of lies, deceit, manipulation, threats, intimidation, coercion, abandonment, and worst of all, potentially treason."

Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods

Do you believe in coincidences? Allen West doesn't. A close friend of one of the men who died on a rooftop in Benghazi, so other Americans could live, was seated next to West on a recent plane trip. Let West tell the story:

My seat mate drew schematics to orient me to the “time and spacing” and the direction of the attack. I learned about the repeated orders to the men at the CIA annex to stand down and do nothing — thank God two of them, Glenn Doherty and Ty Woods, lived up to their code of honor and ran to the sound of the guns, resulting in their loss of life — but the preservation of life for others, their fellow Americans.

I learned about the proximity of the staging area of the attack to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, and the attackers were indeed Ansar al-Sharia, a group affiliated with al-Qaida. I came to understand why Ambassador Chris Stevens was there in the first place and that he had in fact requested better security but was denied – the question is, by whom? And I learned that the Martyrs of 17 February Brigade were in charge of security and were the ones who opened the gates, then fled.

I learned there are those who are being threatened with their pensions being cut off if they come forth to speak.

And I learned, as I presumed, that there was a covert weapons scheme going on in Libya, Benghazi. We had been supplying radical Islamists with weapons against Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi, effectively supplying the enemy and destabilizing that country. And it seems that there was a CIA weapons buy-back program, the aim of which was to ship the retrieved weapons out of Libya through Turkey, and to the Islamist forces in Syria.

Benghazi and the operations in Libya are shrouded in a fog of lies, deceit, manipulation, threats, intimidation, coercion, abandonment, and worst of all, potentially treason.

Read more here.

"The I.R.S. has become a tool for suppressing free speech"

Andrew McCarthy writes that because Obama will not appoint a special prosecutor relatively independent from the Justice Department, Congress will need to appoint another select committee, this time to investigate the I.R.S. for targeting conservative groups.

For a year, the administration and IRS headquarters in Gomorrah by the Potomac have attempted to run an implausible con-job: The harassment of organizations opposed to Obama’s policies by an executive-branch agency had nothing to do with the Obama administration — it was just a rogue operation by an IRS office in Cincinnati which, though regrettably overzealous, was apolitical, non-ideological, and without “even a smidgen of corruption.”

The story had about as much credibility as the administration’s “blame the video” script that Susan Rice dutifully performed on the post-Benghazi Sunday shows, or the Justice Department’s 2011 assurance to Congress that its agents would never knowingly allow the transfer of a couple of thousand guns to criminal gangs in Mexico. The “Cincinnati did it” yarn has been unraveling since it was first spun by IRS honcho Lois Lerner and, soon afterwards, by President Obama himself. The lie has now been exploded by e-mails clawed from the IRS by Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act suit.

These include one from a top IRS lawyer in Washington succinctly explaining in July 2010 that “EOT [i.e., the revenue agency’s “Exempt Organization Technical unit” in Washington] is working Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy.” “Tea party applications” were requests by conservative groups to be granted tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. By selectively setting aside their applications, delaying the conferral of tax-exempt status to which the law entitled them, and putting them through inquisitions that violated their constitutional rights to political speech and association, IRS headquarters prevented them from raising funds and organizing as an effective opposition.

After a damning Treasury inspector-general report last year, even the IRS concedes that its singling out of conservative groups and obnoxiously intrusive demands for information were “inappropriate.” In truth, they were blatantly unconstitutional. As is always the case in Washington scandals, the question of whether crimes were committed arises — and now, the companion question of whether lawmakers who encouraged executive lawlessness are guilty of crimes.

The IRS has become a vehicle of repression — one that Democrats have further empowered through Obamacare. Its budget should be slashed, and we should figure out better ways to raise revenue. In addition, government officials have engaged in conduct that, at a minimum, grossly disregarded the constitutional rights our government exists to safeguard. Whether such serious misbehavior is attributable to incompetence or corruption, the officials who engaged in it should be defrocked. Most of us couldn’t care less whether they are sent to jail or successfully sued, but we should all insist that they no longer wield power.

The most ominous development in the IRS scandal is the confederation of executive and congressional authority in opposition to our fundamental rights. The accumulation of all government powers in the same hands, Madison warned, “may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” In a free society, powers must be separated.

The IRS scandal presents a textbook case of tyrannical execution. It is fraught with peril. We are dealing not merely with a single president, who presumes to rule by decree; nor just with his congressional partisans, who presume to pull the executive bureaucracy’s coercive levers. Enormous power is cumulating in an ideological movement that is hostile to free expression, one that views its political opposition not as fellow citizens with a different point of view but as enemies to be silenced and destroyed.

Frightening times.

Please read more here.

Andrew McCarthy to Rand Paul: "knock off the filibuster circus and stop making it harder to fight jihadists who are trying to kill our fellow Americans."

Andrew McCarthy reminds Rand Paul that

we are operating under a congressional authorization for the use of military force overwhelmingly enacted days after the 9/11 attacks and reaffirmed several times since. In the AUMF, lawmakers clearly left to the president’s judgment the determination of who fits the category of enemy against whom force is authorized.

If Senator Paul truly believes American citizens are unduly threatened, the constitutional path is clear: He should propose legislation repealing the AUMF. Without the AUMF, the laws of war would not be operative — at least in the absence of an attack or threatened attack on the United States. We would be back to a pre-9/11 state in which terrorism was strictly a law-enforcement matter. Senator Paul would then have his wish: It would be unlawful to target American citizens with lethal force. But . . . we would also no longer be permitted to conduct the military operations against jihadists that have prevented a reprise of 9/11.

If the senator, despite the utter dearth of substantiating evidence, really thinks the president is so likely to kill Americans capriciously that it is worth forfeiting our capacity to strike al-Qaeda militarily, he should say so. If he’s not willing to be accountable for this choice, however, he should knock off the filibuster circus and stop making it harder to fight jihadists who are trying to kill our fellow Americans.

Like his father before him, Senator Paul has a libertarian following, some of whom have convinced themselves that counterterrorism measures are more of a threat to our country than terrorism itself. In some ways, this is understandable. A dozen years ago, the average young adult’s formative experience was 9/11; today, it is the daily shredding of the Fourth Amendment at airports and public buildings, where political correctness has institutionalized unreasonable searches. But the fact that there has been excess in counterterrorism does not mean all counterterrorism is excessive. The use of lethal force authorized by Congress against our enemies on foreign soil is vital to our security, even if a few of those enemies hold American citizenship.

Please read more here.

Selective enforcement of campaign laws

Mollie Hemingway notes that there is some selective enforcement of the law when it comes to campaign financing. D'Souza ($20,000) goes to prison, while Corzine ($1,000,000,000) goes to the beach. Read more here.

Al Qaeda terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo are treated far better than our own veterans

J.D. Gordon writes:

Al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo are treated better than our vets.

Despite the fact that Al Qaeda terrorists carried out the Sept. 11 terror attacks, killing 3,000 people in America, the admitted co-conspirators and their roughly 150 fellow jihadists at Gitmo have approximately 100 doctors, nurses and health care personnel assigned to them.

Doctors and medical personnel are at their beck and call. Got a cold, a fever, a toothache, a tumor, chest or back pain, mental health issues, PTSD? No problem, come right on in. Military doctors are waiting to see you.

The VA and Gitmo eligible patient-to-health care provider ratios speak volumes.

While the Gitmo ratio is 1.5 to 1, for America’s 9 million veterans receiving VA health care and 267,930 VA employees, the ratio is 35 to 1.

In late 2008, when Obama was president-elect, he and his staff were warned not to trust the wait times reported by VA health care facilities. But instead of fixing the problem, their focus was closing Guantanamo and improving the comfort of detainees. Even though they already lived under some of the best prison conditions ever seen.

Read more here.

We the people (are our own worst enemy)

Abused as babies, now inseparable

Read the story of BLT, an inseparable trio of a bear, lion, and tiger here.
Thanks to Ann Voskamp for linking to the story.

Confidence: the antidote to doubt

Albert einstein was dyslexic. Ray Charles was blind. Beethoven was deaf. F.D.R. couldn't walk. Stop believing in those who cast doubt upon you. Start believing in yourself! It is possible!


Thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting this video.

Reunion

wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |
Thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting a link to this story.

Government healthcare: incompetent, disgraceful, and quite possibly criminal.

Roger L. Simon writes:

With veterans dying while waiting lists are falsified, it’s hard to see government healthcare as anything but incompetent, disgraceful and quite possibly criminal.

But it’s not just healthcare, although it’s certainly prominent, important and symbolic. The Obama administration has been the best advertisement for libertarianism across the board in recent memory. Government can’t handle anything, not even the one thing it should handle, the common defense. (It better get it together on that one with Russia and China making a new alliance that might be stronger and more powerful than ever.)

Read more here.

Well done, good and faithful servant

Jennifer Dukes Lee runs a foot race with her daughter, then reflects:

Life’s not about earning anyone’s love, but believing that you already are God’s beloved.

We could get so busy moving our feet, that we might forget to stop and wash feet. We could get so busy building empires, that we forget how to yield as servants.

Friend, there really is a finish line.

There really is a great crowd of witnesses, waiting. You can’t see them, but they are already cheering for you.

There really is a Father, waiting to welcome you. And He decided to love you before you took your first step. He decided to love you even before He made the world.

Believe that you are loved. Already.

In this life, you may never get the applause you hoped for. Someone else may end up with the medal you worked hard for. The crowds might remember your name, and then again? They might not.

But you will finish. And when that finish comes into view, you will run like mad, and the wind will whip through your hair, and you’ll forget how bad it hurt sometimes.

Because you can’t wait to cross over and hear the words you were created to hear at the finish, the approval you were running for all along: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Please read more here.

Should he resign?

Kevin Williamson thinks that the honorable thing for President Obama to do about the scandals at the Veterans Affairs hospitals is to resign.

Other heads of government have resigned for less. President Obama presented himself to the public as an authority in the field of health-care management and as an executive who not only would insist upon but also would in fact achieve the highest standards in transparent, honest, competent government. He has failed, comprehensively. An honest man acknowledges his failures.

Perhaps it is the case that he did not know how bad things were in the VA system. Set aside the question of whether he should have known, for instance by finding the time to take the occasional meeting with General Shinseki, a task the president had not undertaken in more than two years. Sitting behind the Resolute desk means taking responsibility for the totality of the executive branch of the U.S. government, which includes a great many things that are outside of one’s immediate knowledge or control.

President Obama clings to his sad little throne even more desperately than does General Shinseki. Faced with evidence of the incompetence of his administration, the president pronounced himself outraged, vowed that he would not tolerate it, would not stand for it — he in fact did everything except take responsibility for the actions of his government. The dishonesty and malpractice he vowed never to tolerate were, after all, the actions of his own administration, and the fact that they (may have) happened at some degree of separation from his own sacred person is hardly a defense. We made the head of the VA a cabinet-level position in order that the secretary might report directly to the president. The president, however, must be paying attention. President Obama was not.

It may not be fair, exactly, but one aspect of big-time leadership is that one must bear responsibility even for that which is not necessarily one’s fault. The responsibilities of the presidency did not descend upon an unsuspecting Barack Obama while he was going about his own inexplicable business in Chicago; he sought the office, twice, offering promises about what kind of a man he is, and what kind of leader — and he has failed to deliver.

Read more here.

The most famous thing she did in that job was nothing — on the night of the Benghazi attack.

Jonah Goldberg on Hillary Clinton:

The most famous thing she did in that job was nothing — on the night of the Benghazi attack. She also traveled a lot, which is nice.

You can understand why Clinton might want to pretend that the Obama years never happened. I certainly get why she wants to run on her husband’s record rather than her own. But I can’t see how this adds up to a compelling message outside the Hillary-Industrial Complex, which may be stuck with a lot of bumper stickers.

Read more here.

WHOA UP, PEOPLE!

For the past 48 hours, I've been hearing "VA REFORM" incessantly. I'm hearing it from Republicans, Democrats, and talking heads. It's the buzz word!

WHOA UP, PEOPLE! Just remember who is in the White House and who is in the Senate. There is nothing in the world that Obama and Harry Reid would rather do than TAKE THINGS AWAY FROM VETERANS. Is this the time we want to so see the VA system, such as it is, opened up for "REFORM"? I'm thinking that's the way we'll let the fox in the henhouse. If the door is opened, Republican's only control the House, and even a GOP Senate is not all that reliable under Boehner's leadership. He's just as liable to see big bucks he can filch out of the VA program and go for the cuts as the Dems in the Senate. After all, "reform" can be cuts just as easily as improvements. So, just because Obama, Shinseki and the big dogs in VA are in trouble isn't a reason for us to get all giddy and think, "Ah Ha! We have them by the ying yang and can get what we want. Nope. Remember that these people do not respond to shame and system failure as you and I might. What we see as failure of the VA system, for Obama and Shinseki, may very well meet the exact goal they have in mind. If the VA System is bad enough, might not the goal be to do away with it entirely and pull it into the BOOB-AM-CARE CIRCLE, SUBJECTING VETERANS TO THE SAME PROGRAM AS ALL THE OTHER PEASANTS?

You saw the lack of passion in Boob-ama's remarks of 2 days ago about the VA. HE DIDN'T EVEN REALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM. He now has it being investigated to see if there is a problem. That investigation, to him, means seeing what the political fallout is for him if he does something as opposed to nothing. He's said he's "Madder'n Hell!" about this VA scandal. Well, so what's new. Wasn't that the same response in a half dozen other screw-ups he's presided over. What does it mean that he's "Madder'n Hell"? Is he mad because another of his failures got exposed? Or, is it because some veteran's actually died as a result of his Administration letting them go unattended.
Colonel Curtis D. Dale, PhD, USAF (Ret)

He doesn't want to be with them in the foxhole

Mark Steyn has departed from National Review, saying that "they have imbibed too much of the shriveling of cultural space that has gone on in the last couple of years."

Listen to more here.
The transcript is here.

Heads need to roll, says a Democrat

A Democrat from Georgia is not impressed with the President's response to the V.A. scandals.

Respect for the constitution? Not so much.

Jim Geraghty shows how the Obama Administration has shown no respect for the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution. The only effective fight-back has come from 2nd Amendment supporters. Read more here.

Politics trumped ethics

Victor Davis Hanson writes,

The mystery is not whether some administration officials were incompetent or unethical or both, but whether there are any left who are not.

Hanson ticks off some of the scandals created by unethical or incompetent Obama Administration officials. Read the whole thing here.
He notes,

In all of these cases, politics trumped ethics. Because Obama professed that he was on the side of the proverbial people, administrators assumed that they had a blank check to do or say what they wished without much media audit.

Do we have a God-given right to fail?

Bill Whittle thinks so.

>If you can't survive failure on a baseball diamond at age ten, then you're not likely to give it a try with a business plan at age thirty, are you? Failure, hardship, and setbacks are our companions on the road of life, whether we like it or not. Get out there and fall down!

Get to know a conservative today, and have some fun!

Bookworm Room writes today about how progressives stifle humor and free speech with their political correctness obsessions. Read the whole thing here.

"I want the subpoena complied with. I want it complied with in a timely fashion."

You think this man is going to let any of the Benghazi players off the hook? Watch him in action in this You Tube compilation, and you will see why I am so excited and hopeful that finally we will get justice for our four heroes who died on September 11. This man may save our country.

Ask these questions, Benghazi committee

Adm. James "Ace" Lyons (Ret.) has some unanswered questions for the Select Committee on Benghazi to ask. Read more here.

Even the shadows can't help but speak of His light

Ann Voskamp reminds us that

there’s a bridge in the middle of it all — a way through. Grace is a bridge that has no weight limits.

Grace will bear the weight of the burdens — the weight you carry, the wounds you bear, the world you feel on your shoulders.

All the shadows we all live with everywhere just prove there is Light.

Even the shadows here can’t help but speak of His Light.

Please read more here.

Hillary Clinton, the sanctions against Iran advocate?

Dick Morris, who must be Hillary Clinton's number one nemesis, writes today about Hillary's false claim about advocating for sanctions against Iran.

In her full-throated defense of her tenure as America’s top diplomat, delivered to the American Jewish Committee last week, Clinton touted her efforts to impose, strengthen and enforce sanctions against Iran in an effort to stop its nuclear weapons program. But the record shows she fought tooth and nail against each new round of sanctions and had her minions in the State Department do all they could to kill them.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) who, along with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), led the battle for sanctions, says that she was on the other side. “Secretary Clinton’s comments are a blatant revision of history,” he told The Daily Beast. “The fact is the Obama Administration has opposed sanctions every step of the way as was thoroughly documented at the time.”

The record is clear, documented in The Daily Beast.

In 2009, the administration opposed the passage of gasoline sanctions against Iran, which eventually passed unanimously.

In 2011, Clinton sent her undersecretary, Wendy Sherman, to state her “strong opposition” to sanctioning the Central Bank of Iran.

Sherman said it would antagonize U.S. allies. She even had her top deputy at the State Department, Bill Burns, meet with top senators to oppose the amendment. It eventually passed unanimously.

Menendez angrily accused the administration of negotiating in bad faith, saying “at your request, we engaged in an effort to come to a bipartisan agreement ... and now you come here and vitiate that agreement.”

In 2012, Clinton opposed barring Iranian financial institutions from doing business with SWIFT, the global financial clearinghouse.

The administration, reportedly, was afraid that “the SWIFT-related sanctions would cause too much disruption to the system.”

Also in 2012, the administration battled for a six-month delay in additional sanctions. Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said that “the decision not to crack down immediately on gold exports ... ultimately allowed the Iranians to blow a massive hole in the international financial sanctions.” Iran was able to sell oil to Turkey in return for gold to shore up its dwindling hard currency reserves.

Clinton’s one apparent contribution to the enforcement of sanctions was her help in lining up votes in the United Nations Security Council, but even this claim may backfire. Recent leaks from Edward Snowden indicate that former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice requested the National Security Agency help in spying on swing votes in the council: Nigeria, Bosnia, Gabon and Uganda. Did the secretary of State use NSA surveillance to get the votes?

Clinton’s role in surveillance has been largely unexplored. It deserves more scrutiny.

Read more here.

"Tired of your dirty tricks...We all know that the best way to defeat a bully is to stand up to them, and that is Exactly what we are going to do!"

Dr. Monica Wehby, an Oregon brain surgeon and mom, wins the Oregon Republican primary election for U.S. Senate last night. This is what she had to say about the upcoming race:

Questions that remain unanswered about Benghazi

Victor Davis Hanson on Benghazi:

Were there political reasons why requests for additional security were ignored, suggesting that American lives were not as critical as President Obama’s reelection? At what time on the night of the attack did the president go to bed, and who made decisions not to order military assistance? What was the CIA doing in Benghazi, and what effect did its activities have on our security status? Were reports that the hit was retaliation for a U.S. drone attack accurate? What exactly did top-ranking officials of the CIA initially testify about the attacks, and were their original statements contradicted by later assertions? Who in the administration massaged intelligence synopses and sent out memos to head off accusations of failed leadership? Did the administration pressure (as if pressure were needed) media outlets to downplay the story? Why did our U.N. ambassador assert falsehoods, and why was she selected to be such a spokesman? Who ordered Mr. Nakoula jailed and kept him behind bars? Why were the real perpetrators never seriously pursued as promised? Did the personal problems of CIA director David Petraeus, the administration’s initial reaction to them, his various testimonies, and his sudden post-election resignation have any interconnections? Have all those who participated in the defense of the Benghazi facilities been fully heard from? And have those who were in the chain of command responsible for holding back succor on the night of the attack? What information was redacted in documents requested by Congress or under the Freedom of Information Act, and by whom?

Until these questions are answered, we are left with the strong possibility that the lethal attacks might have been deterred with adequate security, or even neutralized in mediis rebus: that high administration officials subsequently and deliberately misled the public, the U.N., our allies, and the relatives of the dead; that the president of the United States did not consider the attacks a crisis, or at least a crisis that could offer political opportunities, and subsequently and knowingly lied about the causes of the attack; that the U.S. government deliberately jailed a U.S. legal resident for reasons other than those alleged; that a U.S. election was influenced by administration deception; that the U.S. government was engaged in covert actions that might have been connected to the violence or were themselves ill conceived; that top intelligence officials did not tell the truth; and that almost immediately top administration handlers chose to construct a fantasy in lieu of reporting the facts about the death of four Americans.

Please read more here.

No Place Like Utopia

Cliff Kincaid writes about a new film entitled There's No Place like Utopia which will be debuting in Denver this summer. Here is the poster.



Read more here.

Blowing it.

Today Ann Voskamp writes about blowing it. But she realizes,

No one ever blows it so badly that the Spirit can't still blow in.

Please read more here.

And there is this:

Vietnamese workers riot in Ho Chi Minh City. Businesses flying American flags are not targeted.

Those fancy new sneakers you want, you know, the orange and pink ones with the glow-in-the-dark fluorescent green laces, might take a while to get here from Vietnam. Vietnamese workers are rioting, burning down Taiwanese and South Korean factories. Ironically, those factories flying American flags are not targeted. Even more ironically, it is China the workers are mad at, because China is asserting itself militarily in the seas around Vietnam. Read more here.

Unlocking oceans of shale oil

Mark Perry writes:

The chart above shows the combined daily oil output in America’s three most productive oil fields — the Bakken in North Dakota, the Eagle Ford Shale in south-central Texas and the Permian Basin in west Texas — from January 2007 to June 2014, based on estimates released this week by the EIA. From combined output of 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2007, total crude oil production in those three oil fields will top 4 million barrels in June, based on drilling rigs data and EIA estimates of changes in production from existing wells.

Thanks to the revolutionary drilling technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, America’s petropreneurs have unlocked oceans of shale oil in Texas and North Dakota, which is reflected in the four-fold increase in the combined oil output of the Bakken, Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin oil fields between 2007 and 2014. That three million barrel per day increase in oil from just three US oil fields has to be one of the most remarkable energy success stories in American history. It’s a newfound shale bonanza that has brought unprecedented energy-based prosperity to America, in the form of millions of shovel-ready jobs throughout the economy, a huge boost in state tax revenues, millions of dollars in royalty payments to landowners and farmers, lower energy prices, and greater energy independence. “Saudi America’s” Amazing Shale Revolution, captured graphically above, has brought us from an era of “energy scarcity” and increasing reliance on foreign sources of oil, to a new era of energy abundance and increasing energy self-sufficiency.

Read more here.

How to destroy a military

Regarding Benghazi, Angelo Codevilla writes:

On that fateful night, senior U.S. military officials were duty-bound to obey orders from the President through the Secretary of Defense. By standing down, they obeyed that duty. But by failing to protest publicly, even to resign, they betrayed another duty. All knew in their bones, from the first day they entered military life, that rescuing those they are bound to protect is the duty and honor that holds all militaries together, and that nothing so destroys a military force as superior officers who, out of self-interest, leave subordinates to their fate.

Read more here.

Who will be the candidates in 2016? Will it be a hurricane, or someone who has "earned" their time in the sun?

Hillary has a story, says Scott Ott. Tammy Bruce agrees, and adds that you can never underestimate the stupidity of liberals and of the Democratic Party. She believes the mythomania will draw Hillary into the race once again. Scott and John Phillips add that status quo elitists like Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton or Chris Christie will be supported by the Wall Street financiers, who do not want Ted Cruz, Rand Paul or Elizabeth Warren. Please watch much more below.

Reality notes

Victor Davis Hanson is correct when he writes that

Too much of the wrong food, not existential hunger, is the epidemic of the poor.

He is also correct when he observes that,

the liberal view is a make-believe land of elites who are exempt from the wages of their ideology, as others deemed less sophisticated and liberal bear their consequences.

Read his latest piece here, in which he shares a very personal trip to the emergency room, and, well, this:

A farmer 10 miles away, who was a father of four children, was shot and killed this week after investigating intruders on his farm. (The gang-banger suspects are now in custody.) He interrupted a stolen car being stripped, and “they” killed him for being so rude as to drive on his own land. I note that fact because a few weeks ago the dogs barked at 3 a.m. For once I decided to ignore them. And the next morning I found a stripped auto in my vineyard. I had gone back to sleep on the theory that in America today walking out to investigate would have been a politically incorrect sin.

Are boys defective girls?

Christina Hoff Sommers offers four reforms that would make a very good start to reverse the current trends in our schools.
1. Turn boys into readers.
2. Inspire the male imagination.
3. Zero out zero tolerance!
4. Bring back recess!

She is absolutely right on!

Obama's deal with Iran: why is it still secret?

Michael Ledeen writes:

Obama just wants a deal with Iran, he doesn’t want to challenge the regime in Tehran.

The administration wouldn’t want anyone to look too carefully into the hostage question,

So why is the agreement with Iran still secret?

Read more here.

Andrew McCarthy on terrorism

Andrew McCarthy nearly fell out of his chair watching a replay of a discussion between George Will and Charles Krauthammer, in which Will didn't see Boko Haram as a terrorist group. McCarthy defines terrorism:

Terrorism is the use and threatened use of mass violence in violation of the laws of war in order to coerce a government or society into policy changes or the acceptance of some ideological agenda.

A terrorist organization is distinguished from a militia by its failure to comply with the laws and customs of war—particularly, its intentional targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. Al Qaeda has military objectives, too; so does every terrorist organization. The fact that a terrorist organization has “military objectives” is beside the point if it pursues those objectives through mass-murder attacks in conjunction (with) other operations distinguished by their extreme cruelty—like brutally murdering scores of school boys and turning young girls into sex slaves, as Boko Haram does.

Boko Haram’s official name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, meaning “People (or The Group) Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teaching and Jihad.” The short handle Boko Haram reflects a part of this overarching Islamic supremacist mission: “Western education is forbidden.” (Note the wishful thinking of progressives repeatedly peddled over the past few days: Boko Haram, we’re told, is not an Islamist group; they are just a backward-thinking political group opposed to education. In fact, what they oppose is Western education; they are all for Islamic education because they are an avowedly Islamist group.)

This jihadist ideology does not recognize national borders, so it is foolish to portray it as content to wage local wars for political control of this country or that. It sees the world as Dar al-Harb (the realm of war) versus Dar al-Islam, in which the latter must conquer the former. In fact, as I noted here at Ordered Liberty a few days ago—citing Tom Joscelyn’s Long War Journal partner, Bill Roggio—Boko Haram’s leader, Abubaker Shekau, explicitly threatened the United States (in sympathy with al Qaeda) in 2010: “Do not think jihad is over. Rather, jihad has just begun. America, die with your fury.” Like al Qaeda, Boko Haram sees itself as at war with the West and non-Muslims generally, not just with the Nigerian government.

I will be presumptuous again regarding what George Will may be thinking because I have expressed a similar frustration for many years. I’ve always objected to the term “War on Terror.” My problem with it is not just that “terrorism” is a tactic rather than an identifiable group of people, and therefore that the term “War on Terror” conveys a reluctance to name the enemy we are fighting against. It is also that the imprecision of the term “War on Terror” easily lends itself to mission creep: You start out fighting jihadists who mass-murdered Americans and the next thing you know you’re in a (now) thirteen-year-old futile experiment to bring Western democracy to sharia societies—a mission that very few Americans would have supported using our troops for but one that slipstreamed behind the effort to fight “terror.” After a while, under the same spell of political correctness that produced the term “War on Terror” in the first place, the government is institutionalizing procedures that undermine liberty under the guise of combatting “terror”—e.g., intrusive, non-particularized, unreasonable searches of everyone who wants to get on a plane or enter a building, 99.999 percent of whom clearly pose no threat to anyone.

If what George Will is saying is that we should be clear in what we mean by “terrorism” so that we have an accurate understanding of who the real enemy is, he is right. But you do not advance your understanding, or your security, by failing to call real terrorists terrorists. Boko Haram jihadists are real terrorists and their organization should have been designated as a terrorist organization several many years ago.

Read more here.

The grain on the plains will stay mainly off the trains

Michael Sandoval shows how the lack of a Keystone Pipeline is causing food prices to rise.

Specifically, not enough oil is being transported by pipeline which means it’s being shipped by rail. The increased demand on rail shipping is bumping food and food supplies off the tracks. It’s not a stretch to say the failure to build the Keystone Pipeline is boosting your bottom line at the checkout counter.

Meanwhile the grain on the plains will stay mainly off the trains unless additional rail capacity can be freed up in the near term, and the long-term policy looks to alternative methods of energy transportation that does not pit food and fuel against one another.

Read more here.

Michelle Malkin goes to the pot shop

Michelle Malkin writes here about her trip to the pot shop.

Put it to rest?

Condi Rice wants to put Benghazi to rest. (!)

Culture of no accountability

Jake Tapper asks the White House Chief of Staff,
"What can be done to stop this culture of no accountability in the V.A. system?"

Answer: "The President called the head of the V.A. and asked if changes need to be made."

Tapper: "That guy was the head of the V.A. in 2011 when similar lack of accountability was prevalent." "Maybe this guy isn't the best steward of these veterans." "This letter from Chairman Miller was sent a year ago, and you guys ignored it." "Why does the V.A. cordon itself off from the press?"

Two boys stand up to bullies

Thanks to Ann Voskamp

When parents encourage their child

Thanks to Ann Voskamp

Gaslighting

Are you doubting your perceptions? Don't! Of course he said what you heard him say. Bill Whittle explains.



Thanks to Gerard Vanderleun for posting Bill's video.

Whom do young children look up to nowadays?

Yes, we rode the range together: Hoppy, Gene, Roy, and me. One of the highlights of my childhood was seeing Roy, Dale, and Trigger on stage at the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa.



Many thanks to Gerard Vanderleun for posting about Roy, Gene, and Hoppy.

How the media makes a man like Harry Reid possible

Jonah Goldberg on Harry Reid:

He gets away not only with lies but with slander. The political press generally agrees with his ends, and so they can muster only so much outrage about his means. Republicans get in trouble for far milder examples of dishonesty (real or alleged) because the press is horrified by Republican ends and they consider it their job to nitpick any statements that might persuade people Republicans are right. Democrats are held to a lower standard because the press is confident their heart is in the right place. Truth-squadding takes passion, and the mainstream media's passion only goes in one direction.

Reid is often compared to Joe Biden, another politician who benefits from very low expectations. But the comparison has problems. No one doubts the sincerity of Joe's craziness. No one thinks he's the political equivalent of Norm Crosby, deliberately malapropping his way through life. There's no upside for Joe Biden in telling a guy in a wheelchair to stand up and take a bow. Biden's not crazy like a fox, he's crazy like the dude who sits next to you on the bus with a snorkel in his mouth and every single page in The Catcher in the Rye "highlighted" with a black sharpie. Reid is different. Everyone understands that he is deliberately lying. The man reads his lies from prepared texts. You can't read from a script and then claim you misspoke.

But this is where the Reid-Biden comparison holds up: It's never a surprise. Biden could tell Charlie Rose that we need to dismantle our nuclear program because vests have no sleeves and everyone would say "Oh, that Joe!" (Great title for a Biden-themed sitcom, by the way). Reid could go out on the Senate floor and say that Charles Koch eats the adrenal glands of orphans to stay young, and the folks at Morning Joe would roll their eyes, criticize him a little, and then quickly segue into a discussion of Reid's strategy. "Reid is trying to change the subject . . ." "Reid is providing cover for the White House . . ." Etc. There's no actual outrage or disgust. "Why make a big deal, it's only Harry Reid?" is implicitly the response from much of the press corps when you point out the man is a disgrace. Never mind that Reid is the second most powerful Democrat in the country and the leader of an institution that is supposed to conduct itself with some dignity, at least according to the brochure.

Saturday Night Live Donald Sterling press conference

What Bill Clinton says; what the facts are.

This email was forwarded to me by Col. Curt Dale, and I thank him.

AN ANALYSIS WORTH READING by Dick Morris, former political advisor to
> President Bill Clinton
>
> If you happen to see the Bill Clinton 5-minute TV ad for Hillary in
> which he introduces the commercial by saying he wants to share some
> things we may not know about Hillary's background, beware. As I was
> there for most of their presidency and know them better than just
> about anyone, I offer a few corrections.
>
> Bill says: "In law school, Hillary worked on legal services for the poor."
> The facts are: Hillary's main extra-curricular activity in law school
> was helping the Black Panthers, on trial in Connecticut for torturing
> and killing a federal agent. She went to court every day as part of a
> law student monitoring committee trying to spot civil rights
> violations and develop grounds for appeal.
>
> Bill says: "Hillary spent a year after graduation working on a
> children's rights project for poor kids."
> The facts are: Hillary interned with Bob Truehaft, the head of the
> California Communist Party. She met Bob when he represented the
> Panthers and traveled all the way to San Francisco to take an
> internship with him.
>
> Bill says: "Hillary could have written her own job ticket, but she
> turned down all the lucrative job offers."
> The facts are: She flunked the DC bar exam; yes, flunked. It is a
> matter of record, and only passed the Arkansas bar. She had no job
> offers in Arkansas - none - and only got hired by the University of
> Arkansas Law School at Fayetteville because Bill was already teaching
> there. She did not join the prestigious Rose Law Firm until Bill
> became Arkansas Attorney General and was made a partner only after he
> was elected Arkansas Governor.
>
> Bill says: "President Carter appointed Hillary to the Legal Services
> Board of Directors and she became its chairman."
> The facts are: The appointment was in exchange for Bill's support for
> Carter in his 1980 primary against Ted Kennedy. Hillary then became
> chairman in a coup in which she won a majority away from Carter's
> choice to be chairman.
>
> Bill says: "She served on the board of the Arkansas Children's Hospital."
> The facts are: Yes, she did. But her main board activity, not
> mentioned by Bill, was to sit on the Walmart board of directors for a
> substantial fee. She was silent about their labor and health care
> practices.
>
> Bill says: "Hillary didn't succeed at getting health care for all
> Americans in 1994, but she kept working at it and helped to create the
> Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that provides five million
> children with health insurance."
> The facts are: Hillary had nothing to do with creating CHIP. It was
> included in the budget deal between Clinton and Republican Majority
> Leader Senator Trent Lott. I know; I helped negotiate the deal. The
> money came half from the budget deal and half from the Attorney
> Generals' tobacco settlement. Hillary had nothing to do with either
> source of funds.
>
> Bill says: "Hillary was the face of America all over the world."
> The facts are: Her visits were part of a program to get her out of
> town so that Bill would not appear weak by feeding stories that
> Hillary was running the White House. Her visits abroad were entirely
> touristic and symbolic and there was no substantive diplomacy on any
> of them.
>
> Bill says: "Hillary was an excellent Senator who kept fighting for
> children's and women's issues."
> The facts are: Other than totally meaningless legislation like
> changing the names on courthouses and post offices, she has passed
> only four substantive pieces of legislation. One set up a national
> park in Puerto Rico. A second provided respite care for family
> members helping their relatives through Alzheimer's or other
> conditions. And two were routine bills to aid 911 victims and
> responders which were sponsored by the entire NY delegation. Presently
> she is trying to have the US memorialize the Woodstock fiasco of 40
> years ago.
>
> Here is what bothers me more than anything else about Hillary Clinton.
> She has done everything possible to weaken the President and our
> country (that's you and me!) when it comes to the war on terror.
> 1. She wants to close GITMO and move the combatants to the USA where
> they would have access to our legal system.
> 2. She wants to eliminate the monitoring of suspected Al Qaeda phone
> calls to/from the USA .
> 3. She wants to grant constitutional rights to enemy combatants
> captured on the battlefield.
> 4. She wants to eliminate the monitoring of money transfers between
> suspected Al Qaeda cells and supporters in the USA.
> 5. She wants to eliminate the type of interrogation tactics used by
> the military & CIA where coercion might be used when questioning known
> terrorists even though such tactics might save American lives.
>
> One cannot think of a single bill Hillary has introduced or a single
> comment she has made that would tend to strengthen our country in the
> War on Terror. But, one can think of a lot of comments she has made
> that weaken our country and make it a more dangerous situation for all
> of us. Bottom line: She goes hand in hand with the ACLU on far too
> many issues where common sense is abandoned.
>
> Share this with every female democrat you know .... ask them to prove
> Dick Morris wrong. Think about it - he's (Dick Morris) said all of
> this openly, thus if he were not truthful he'd be liable for
> defamation of character! And you better believe Hilary would sue him.
> Is America ready for a woman president? I believe we are, just NOT
> this one.


John Allen

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Non-celiac gluten intolerance does not exist

The scientist whose research was the basis for the "gluten sensitivity" fad, which now is a $15 billion dollar industry, now says he cannot replicate his original research.
Ross Pomeroy has the story here.
Thanks to neo-neocon

On being free again

Neo-neocon reposts this video of a ten-year-old girl in Britain singing about the white cliffs of Dover and the world being free again. I loved watching the response of the older woman who must have been Chloe's grandma.

"Benghazi is definitely her greatest accomplishment"

Michelle Fields finds some very well informed students at George Washington University. These are our leaders of tomorrow. Watch the whole thing.

Caught in the idolatry of smugness

Ann Voskamp writes:

This is what Jesus always does: He unsettles the comfortable critics, the smug judgers, the pious and proud — and He comforts the unsettled sinners, the unwanted strugglers, the undone stragglers.

The Grace that grows the Tree to cover sins —-
is the Grace that grows a soul toward obedience.

Please read more here.

A penchant for spying

Dick Morris says Hillary Clinton has a penchant for spying:

Clinton called for spying on other diplomats as soon as she took office as secretary of State. Documents unearthed by WikiLeaks show that she signed an order telling U.S. diplomats to spy on Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the U.N., and other top U.N. officials. She asked her people to get biometric information, such as DNA, fingerprints and iris scans, as well as passwords and personal encryption used in private and commercial networks for official communications. She also asked for Internet and intranet usernames, email addresses, website URLs useful for identification, credit card numbers, frequent flier account numbers and work schedules.

Read the whole thing here.

Tax us for using the internet?

Dick Morris says that Democrats are going to try to tax us $75 for using the internet. either that, or force Republicans to agree to all state and local governments to tax out-of-state internet purchases. Ask your state and local candidates where they stand on this issue.

Two Tea Party victories tonight

Tonight coming home from work I was flipping through talk radio stations, and, as I came into my driveway and garage, I heard Mara Liason from NPR say that the Tea Party candidates were not doing so well this primary season.

I came into the house and turned on my computer and checked Instapundit, who linked to these two stories of tonight's election results:

WAIT, I THOUGHT THE TEA PARTY WAS DEAD: Tea Party-Backed Ben Sasse Wins Nebraska Primary For US Senate.

Related: Tea Party’s Alex Mooney Wins West Virginia GOP House Primary.

Will these votes make any difference in how NPR slants its news stories? None whatsoever.

Warren Buffett big supporter of abortion groups

Dan Gainor reports that liberal billionaire Warren Buffett gave $1.2 billion dollars to abortion groups from 2001 to 2012. Read the story here.

Putting the interests of criminal immigrants before the safety of the American people

Stephen Dinan reports that 36,000 illegal immigrants were released from prisons last year by the Obama administration.

Among the 36,000 immigrants whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released from custody last year there were 116 with convictions for homicide, 43 for negligent manslaughter, 14 for voluntary manslaughter and one with a conviction classified by ICE as “homicide-willful kill-public official-gun.”

The immigrants were in deportation proceedings, meaning ICE was trying to remove them from the country and could have held them in detention but released them anyway, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which published the numbers Monday. The Washington Times also obtained the data.

“This would be considered the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by the president and perpetrated by our own immigration officials,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “The administration’s actions are outrageous. They willfully and knowingly put the interests of criminal immigrants before the safety and security of the American people.”

The 36,007 criminal aliens counted in the data had more than 87,000 convictions among them: 15,635 for drunken driving, 9,187 for what ICE labeled “dangerous drugs,” 2,691 for assault, 1,724 for weapons offenses and 303 for “flight escape” — a category that would seem to make them bad candidates for release.

Please read more here.

Subpoena the White House diarist!

People want to know what Barack Obama was doing on September 11, 2012, when terrorists were killing Americans in Benghazi. Mark Thiessen writes that there is something called the White House diarist.

Just outside the Oval Office is a room called the Outer Oval, where the president’s secretary and personal aide sit and through which all visitors coming to see the president pass. Staff members in the Outer Oval keep track of the president’s location at all times. They carefully record the names of all individuals who walk into the Oval Office — when they entered, how long they stayed, what the topic of discussion was. They keep a record of all calls made and received by the president, including the topic, participants and duration. They even record the president’s bathroom breaks (they write “evacuating” into the log).

This and other data on the presidents’ whereabouts are collected by a career National Archives employee whose title is White House diarist. This individual preserves them as a minute-by-minute historical record of the presidency for future use by presidential scholars.

What this means is that there exists a minute-by-minute record of where the president was and what he was doing for all eight hours of the Benghazi attack.

So how is it that the White House has failed to give a full account of the president’s whereabouts during that eight-hour period? The White House knows precisely where he was and what he was doing, yet it is refusing to share that information with Congress and the American people. This is unacceptable.

The new congressional select committee on Benghazi should subpoena the “President’s Daily Diary” and call the White House diarist to testify before the committee. There is precedent for doing so. In 1998, the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair questioned White House diarist Ellen McCathran. Moreover, the “President’s Daily Diary” is not a classified document. It eventually becomes a publicly available record. There is no reason to withhold it from Congress.

Read more here.

The sound of tyranny

George Will brings to our attention a very scary situation in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s sordid episode began, appropriately, with a sound of tyranny — fists pounding on the doors of private citizens in pre-dawn raids. While sheriff’s deputies used floodlights to illuminate the citizens’ homes, armed raiders seized documents, computers, cellphones and other devices.

Please read the rest here.

White trees

Last week one of my treats was to look out my windows and see white blossoms covering the apple trees. This evening the trees are still white, even though the blooms finished. Why? A wet snow fell all day today.

Abortion

Matt Walsh writes about abortion, and includes lots of pictures. Read it here.

Easy for him to say.

Thanks to Sondrakistan

Abusing power, acting lawlessly

Senator Ted Cruz has released a document spelling out 76 ways Obama has acted lawlessly. Here they are.

A "terrorist hands off" list?

Judicial Watch wonders if there is a "terrorist hands off" list. Judical Watch writes: The Obama administration appears to have a terrorist “hands off” list that permits individuals with extremist ties to enter the country, according to internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents obtained by a United States Senator.
Read more here.

You shall not steal. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

Rob Miller has some suggestions for Pope Francis. I hope the Pope heeds them. Read more here.

The height of irony - or hypocrisy - that Hillary Clinton would be leading the charge against Boko Hara

You know by now that the terroist group Boko Haram has kidnapped 200 school girls. But did you know that they were kidnapped because they were Christians? Rick Moran writes,

Yes, there is much to be outraged about over this terrible incident. But lost in all the chest thumping and “We are the World” pontificating is the bare fact that the reason those girls were taken is because they are Christian. Boko Haram has been waging war on Christians in northeast Nigeria for the better part of a decade. They have massacred worshipers in their churches, including 27 murdered on Christmas Day 2012, slaughtered clergy, and targeted religious leaders. Thousands of Christians have been murdered — but somehow, Michelle Obama and all of those good people crying out for the kidnapped schoolgirls can’t find it within themselves to work up much outrage over the persecution of Christians.

These and other abductees were at schools in the Christian enclave of Chibok in Borno State. The region is the scene of systematic Islamist persecution and intimidation. Chibok, itself, was regarded as safe, until Islamists arrived to burn down the market, destroy houses, steal, kill, and abduct at will. Full, credible, detailed accounts are available through the Christian on-line networks.

Yet commentators still seem content to exercise self-censorship. The religious identity of the girls has not been mentioned in the mainstream US or British media.

The words ‘poverty’, ‘corruption’, and ‘incompetence’ figure largely, and with some justice, in explanations of what is dysfunctional in Nigeria. But the word “Christian’ is notable by its absence in explaining what happened in Chibok.

It’s the height of irony — or hypocrisy — that Hillary Clinton would be leading the charge against Boko Haram now after her State Department failed to even designate them a terrorist group until John Kerry became secretary in 2013.

Christians are being oppressed and murdered all over the world from North Korea, through Indonesia, to the Middle East. It’s the best kept secret in the west, rarely being covered in the press except for religious media. Meanwhile, Western governments condemn Islamophobia while turning a blind eye to the murder of Christian innocents.

Perhaps it’s time to save some of that outrage for those of the Christian faith who find themselves the targets of terrorists, fanatical Muslims, and governments.

Read more here.

Fighters

Teddy Bridgewater was drafted into the NFL this week by the Minnesota Vikings. Here is his story, and the story of his fighting mother.



Thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting this video.

Looking back to what brought me here: the real MVP

Kevin Durant gives a speech upon being named the MVP of the NBA. "We wasn't supposed to be here. You made us believe. Kept us off the street. Put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You are the real MVP!



Thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting this video.

The world's toughest job

Thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting this video. i

Mighty, because you mother

thanks to Ann Voskamp for posting this video.

Even Mr. Rogers can change his mind

I found it here.

High notes

(Photo by Jamie Cotten, Special to The Denver Post)

Lawyers continue to make big money on the marijuana industry in Colorado. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, closely conferring with its lawyers, had planned three "bring your own pot" events this summer, calling them "Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series." Now, however, lawyers for the city of Denver have asked the Symphony to drop the events.
Read more here.

You are not allowed to talk about that, Bob

Former Congressman Bob Beauprez wants to be Colorado's next governor. Yesterday he spoke out against Democrat Governor Hickenlooper's policy of releasing criminals directly out of solitary confinement back into society.

“You’ll all remember the name Evan Ebel,” Beauprez continued. “If you don’t remember Evan Ebel, you certainly remember Tom Clements. Tom Clements was our director of Corrections in Colorado. Evan Ebel was paroled directly from — they call it ‘administrative segregation’ — directly from solitary confinement onto our streets, and within a matter of hours, he killed a pizza driver, guy working a second job to try to keep his family whole. Killed him for his uniform, his pizza delivery uniform. Then about 48 hours later, he knocked on Tom Clements’ door and killed him.”

Shaking his head, Beauprez said: “If Evan Ebel were the only one state Corrections released from solitary right onto our streets, that’d be bad enough. But he wasn’t. In the course of a year, over a hundred parolees from State Corrections were released directly from solitary confinement onto our streets — your neighborhood, maybe right across the street. Think about it. Solitary confinement. How do you get in solitary confinement? You don’t play well with others, right? Directly from solitary onto our streets.

Ernest Luning writes:

In an ironic twist, Clements, who headed the state’s prison system for two years before his murder, had made it his mission to reduce the number of prisoners released on parole directly from solitary confinement and boasted shortly before his death that Corrections had cut the share roughly in half. His successor, Rick Raemisch, spent more than 20 hours in solitary confinement and wrote about its damaging effects in a New York Times Op-Ed article earlier this year. According to DOC statistics, the number of prisoners held in solitary confinement in the state has declined from a high of about 1,500 to fewer than 600 earlier this year.

Hickenlooper's spokesman said Beauprez shouldn't be allowed to talk about such things:

“Tom Clements’ death was a tragedy and should not be used for political gain,” Hickenlooper campaign spokesperson Eddie Stern told The Colorado Statesman.

Read more here.

Pope calls for governments to redistribute wealth

Nicole Winfield reports that

Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth and benefits to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the "economy of exclusion" that is taking hold today.

Francis made the appeal during a speech to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who met in Rome this week.

Latin America's first pope has frequently lashed out at the injustices of capitalism and the global economic system. On Friday, Francis called for the United Nations to promote a "worldwide ethical mobilization" of solidarity with the poor.

He said a more equal form of economic progress can be had through "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society."

Francis urged the U.N. to promote development goals that attack the root causes of poverty and hunger, protect the environment and ensure dignified labor for all.

Read more here.

Is your name on the list? Neither is mine!

Thank you, Michelle Bachmann!

Appoint Andrew McCarthy!

Andrew McCarthy is the person who should be the lead attorney on the Benghazi panel. He writes:

You couldn’t help but feel for Robert Lovell. The retired brigadier general is haunted by the failure of AFRICOM, the U.S. military’s Africa Command, to respond when Americans were under siege in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. His congressional testimony this week was somber - no faux “What difference, at this point, does it make?” indignation, no “Dude, this was two years ago” juvenilia for him.

It was the solemn duty of the president to come forward with not requests but commands for action. Why was AFRICOM hanging on the State Department’s preferences? Why were our troops hamstrung by what Lovell described as “deference to the Libyan people?” On the night of September 11, 2012, AFRICOM was not beholden to Mrs. Clinton or Tripoli. They answered to Barack Obama.

Of course, no one can answer to a commander-in-chief who abdicates his command, a commander-in-chief who is AWOL.

A commander-in-chief does not get to vote “present.” Over 19 months have elapsed since terrorists savagely attacked the United States in Benghazi. Yet we are still waiting, ever waiting, for an account of where the president was, what he was doing, and what if any directives he gave during the hours and hours during which Americans were being tormented and killed.

If the president’s name were Bush or Reagan, we would long ago have had a minute-by-minute accounting of his every move. And if the incident involved some faraway American warrior’s slaying of a jihadist emir, we would long ago have had a Situation Room photo depicting Obama as maestro . . . with an accompanying soundtrack of classified leaks portraying his courage while others were under fire.

Benghazi, however, is a catastrophe wrought by Obama’s pro-Islamist policies, one that puts the lie to his oft-repeated claim to have “decimated” al-Qaeda. So with Benghazi we get the stonewall, a barricade his praetorian media have been only too happy to fortify.

We know that less than a day after Ty Woods and Glen Doherty were martyred protecting Americans out of a sense of duty, the commander-in-chief in whom that duty is actually reposed was at a Las Vegas fundraiser, insouciantly repeating his campaign line: “A day after 9/11, we are reminded that a new tower rises above the New York skyline, but al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat and bin Laden is dead.”

Only hours before in Cairo, al-Qaeda operatives empowered by the president’s pro-Islamist policies had rioted outside our embassy, replacing the Stars and Stripes with their jihadist black flag and chanting, “Obama, Obama, there are still a million Osamas!” Even fewer hours before, in Benghazi, the United States was dealt a humiliating defeat by the very jihadists Obama was still risibly claiming to have quelled. Yet for those hours, we to this day have no accounting of Barack Obama’s whereabouts and activities.

When AFRICOM abstains from battle, or Lois Lerner obstructs an investigation, or Eric Holder misleads Congress, or Michael Morell doctors talking points, or Susan Rice serially lies on national television, Barack Obama is responsible. It is his bidding that they do, and by failing to fire or discipline them he implicitly endorses their malfeasance.

Benghazi is not about what Hillary Clinton or Leon Panetta or Susan Rice or Ben Rhodes or Jay Carney or Robert Lovell did or didn’t do. The only question is: What was President Barack Obama doing, and not doing, during the critical hours when his sworn duty required decisive action? Mr. Obama owes Americans a detailed answer. Now.

Read more here.