Sunday, December 02, 2012

Throwing a Curve Ball


 
Jeepers, Creepers, plenty of righties are sure blowing a gasket over the Susan Rice Benghazi "scandal."

Question: Where were Senators Graham and McCain when George Tenet was telling Bush to go to war over the steaming pile of tripe manufactured by "Curve Ball?" Where was the inquiry and the panel and the investigation then?

Susan Rice reads talking points on Benghazi: Red-faced spittle-flecked outrage!

More than four thousand US Troops and 100,000 civilians dead and countless others injured or maimed in Iraq over bogus WMD claims from an unverified source: Um ... oops.

Babies, I hate to break this to you, but Susan Rice ain't no Scooter Libby.

This should come as no surprise from the utterly traitorous GOP, which has turned its collective nose upward at the man they wanted to put into the most powerful position in the world less than one month ago.

I think David Corn got it about right on the Nov. 29th edition of To The Point:

Mitt Romney will not be invited to appear on panels on the future of Republican Party, or even to go on talk shows to talk about the fiscal cliff. He has no force of persuasion within the Republican Party. Outside of the Republican Party, he has no troops. He has no standing. But he did get a free lunch courtesy of the U.S. Government today.

Yup.

And while we're at it, who exactly is the leader of the GOP these days? McCain? Limbaugh? Priebus? Boehner? McConnell?

Is it Paul Ryan? Can anybody help me out here?

*  *  *

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen and Amen.

Randy Johnson

Erin O'Brien said...

Why,it's Sunday morn' and the Lord is with us!

Bill said...

Re: Rice/Benghazi. Not to worry. The press isn't interested (nothing to see here, folks) which leaves just a few Repubs and the families of the 4 abandoned dead people, who want to know what happened. The film maker is safe in jail and Al Queda is "on the run".

Re: Who's leading the GOP? Who cares? Happy days are here again. All is well in America. "Our Lord and Savior" is at the rudder.

Patricia said...

I think it's Grover Norquist. Hope I helped!

Yabu said...

First, before the election I said that we should fire everyone D.C. All of 'em, both sides. I still believe that.

You got what you wanted. Higher taxes, higher health care costs, lower quality of health care, more government...etc. Small businesses are pretty much done. This is a HUGE mess. I'll willing to bet you that if everyone who voted, just the people who voted, had to take a basic civics test, Obama would've lost.

How many more billions of dollars can be wasted on green? We're not there yet. No socialist country has ever prospered.

Obama didn't bail out the auto industry, he just printed more money.

It is mathematically impossible for us to pay off our debt. We're in too deep. As we continue to crash, I expect you'll experience some buyers remorse.

By the way, the housing market is done, never to return to what it once was, but I guess that started many administrations ago. When you knowingly lend people money you know they can't pay back, you're as greedy as greedy can be.

The America I grew up in will cease to exist sooner rather than later.

My advice would be to learn to speak Chinese. You want socialism or communism, you're going to get it. China will defeat us without firing a shot.

Bill said...

Yabu: Prepare to get slammed here. Should be entertaining.

Anonymous said...

"It is mathematically impossible for us to pay off our debt."-Yabu

Please illustrate this mathematical impossibility numerically.

Thank You.

RJ

Anonymous said...

"4 abandoned dead people"-Bill

Claim not supported by the evidence.

Retort.

RJ

Erin O'Brien said...

Yabu: Please post a link to where I said I wanted higher taxes and health care cost. oops! I never did say that.

Have your taxes gone up? Mine haven't. As for the rest of your predictions, we'll see, but you also thought Romney was going to win the WH after a long drawn out legal battle.

Erin O'Brien said...

Yabu's election prediction.

Erin O'Brien said...

Sorry for multiple comments folks. Ramping up with new iPad and not so fluent with keypad yet.

As for learning Chinese, remember the late 80's? when Japan was taking over the USA?

Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so ... NEVER HAPPENED

Anonymous said...

One last thing...

Rock N' Roll is The Devil.

RJ

Erin O'Brien said...

One glimpse of Elvis the Pelvis and virgins promptly remove their pants.

Bill said...

4 people are dead.
No denial from WH about abandonment.

Otherwise, it's just an opinion.

Bill said...

Oh. I do remember the President saying that he told someone to do everything they could to help the Benghazi 4, as he was leaving for a fund raiser in Las Vegas. That's something. I guess he figured, since Al Queda is on the run, "how bad can it be". And, it is true that the "video" producer was arrested.

Anonymous said...

@Bill-(And anyone else that cares to join in)
Since you'll never admit to knowing anything other than what you get from Faux, Red State, Freeper, etc. lets move on to one of the hostesses primary assertions, that Benghazi is a tempest in a teapot used solely for political purposes.
What is the threshold for outrage when government employees or military personnel die in the line of duty? As an example, would you support putting former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on trial for War Crimes?

Randy Johnson

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

Erin,

For your iPad, go to www.zagg.com. They have some neat cases that include a bluetooth keyboard. What you see here I typed on a Zagg Folio case.

Al
TRAG

Anonymous said...

"No socialist country has ever prospered."-Yabu

Boy are the Scandi's gonna be sorry to hear this.

RJ

Bill said...

My assertion is just as valid as anyone else's . WH doesn't know what happened and is investigating? They were sure willing to spill the beans on the UBL kill, right away.

Ms Amanda said...

Leader of the GOP? Rupert Murdoch

Anonymous said...

@ Erin-"Turning Japanese" is Brit slang for wanking.

MR

Anonymous said...

Hey! Yabu-dabba-doo is back!

Just to address one of your witling comments: The housing market, far from being 'done forever', has been up for each of the last six months.

That's all the time I'll invest in your insipid opinions, except for this: It must be a really liberating feeling just spewing out facts which aren't facts at all, and which in fact are simple fabrications. Bravo for fabrication! I guess it might not be your fault, and you simply are not equipped to function in a fact-based environment, but you could simply stay the fuck away from the internet.

MR

Joe said...

If we are going to insist on facts, perhaps we should note that the Clinton administration also insisted Iraq had WMDs.

Scooter Libby -- never ratted anyone -- see facts. he went to jail for lying to investigators. Unlike the leaks from the current administration that actually outed a REAL undercover agent in Yemen. But the press covered that right up, made the President look bad before the election.

Yes, I know cap letters are shouting, but I am too ignorant to code bold in comments.

Is Rice qualified? Who knows, as much as any other politician, I guess. But the assertions the opposition is based on race and sex are beyond stupid. Is the opposition political? Sure. That is the way it works. Both parties practice it. Unwad your knickers. It is not that big of a deal.

Anonymous said...

Opinion: In future threads the first person to use "Wanking" in context wins.

RJ

Erin O'Brien said...

MR: re: Turning Japanese. I know. Pretty sure the whole song is about taking care of (ahem) business, but I couldn't resist the reference.

Joe: No links, eh? I'm not going to research your points, but I'm pretty sure Clinton didn't DECLARE WAR on a goddamn hunch and an unverified source.

As for Libby, from my NYT link:

The jury rejected Mr. Libby’s claims of memory lapses as it convicted him of four felony counts: obstruction of justice, giving false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and committing perjury twice before the grand jury. The 11-member jury acquitted Mr. Libby on an additional count of making false statements to the F.B.I.

I have no idea what you're talking about in Yemen, but if the rightie attack dogs thought there was actually blood in the water, we'd be hearing about it. Rice did absolutely nothing and look what they're doing to her.

Hell, poor ol' Petraeus was a rightie who didn't even break a law and they took him down too.

Michael Lawless said...

Wait a minute...there's a black man in the white house? Well, no wonder he has a helluva package.

Anonymous said...

@ Erin-If General Petraeus's adultery began before his retirement from the Army, he did commit a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The CIA also has regulations about adulterous behavior, but I am not sure if it rises to the level of a crime.



MR

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

MR,

Technically, Petraeus is still subject to the UCMJ as he is in a retired status and receiving retired pay. However, it would be highly unlikely that they'd charge him under the UCMJ, particularly since the adultery took place after he retired.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/punitivearticles/a/ucmjsubject.htm

As for Petraeus not breaking the law, technically, depending on where he was married and what laws accrue in that state to that end, it may be a crime or not. As far as the UCMJ goes, it most definitely is.

But the real issue is not the affair - it's integritty and judgment. Officers in our military are held to a much higher standard in matters of personal conduct. It speaks to the integrity, character, and judgment (or lack thereof) of the officer in question - in fact, in the
Army, integrity is one of the values an officer is evaluated on in an Officer Evaluation Report (OER). Anything less than a stellar mark in this area is not a good thing.

By having this affair, Petraeus showed an egregious lack of judgment, integrity, and character. For someone who's risen to the highest level of our military, this is unforgivable. For someone who headed the CIA it is equally unforgivable as it puts the person in question in a position to be blackmailed for information. I've had folks from the Defense Investigative Service interview me as part of the security clearance process for friends and people I knew in the Army, and the questions asked were, "is his/her integrity beyond reproach?" or "does he/she have a drinking problem?" or "is he/she honest and trustworthy, and is there a reason to believe he/she is not so?" The minute that integrity/character/judgment is questioned, that person is no longer in a position to hold an office with significant responsibilities and authority.

Finally, there is the leadership angle. All of our military officers, NCOs and warrant officers are taught from the time they enter the military until the time they leave/retire that they must lead by example, from the front. This is done to inspire confidence in the men/women under their command/supervision and direction. If our servicemen and women see a leader who does not lead, has no morals, does the wrong thing when no one is looking, well, there's no way he'll/she'll have the referant authority to command successfully and accomplish the mission. Petraeus also knew this.

One of the mottoes that Cadets at the United States Military Academy live by is "I will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do." Petraeus knew this all too well throughout his very distinguished career of service to our country. He knew he could no longer remain the director of the CIA for all these reasons and more, and leader effectively. That's the reason he resigned, not becuase he broke a law or committed a crime.

Al
TRAG

Bill said...

Al: Too bad the Commander In Chief isn't held to the same standards. Isn't it?

Erin O'Brien said...

The righties are funny when it comes to sex. They all but ejaculated over the Clinton scandal, but couldn't care less that McCain and Gingrich fooled around--and left their wives.

They loved that Weiner went down and just sort of cast their eyes down over Craig and Sanford, mumbling something about a "difficult time for him and his family ...."

Now with Patraeaus, they don't know what to do. They like him because he's a rightie back from the Bush days, but now he works for Obama, so they have to hate him. Poor righties. So confused!

In the meantime, the gov is hoarding your email. Think you're clean? Wait until the state figures out how to send a bot through all your missives and sees how many of them are receipts for online purchases you made sales-tax (ahem) free.

As for sex, people need to mind their own goddamn business.

Anonymous said...

@Al...(Off topic)
Just in time for the holidays-

"Parnassus Books and Belmont University are proud to present An Evening with Rachael Ray at 6:00pm on Wednesday, December 12th in the Massey Performing Arts Center at Belmont University."

See ya there :)

RJ

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

@ RJ - you're going to hell for that bit.

@ Erin: I'm a registered Republican, and I am concerned about the ethical/moral behavior of all our elected representatives, Republican or Democrat. You and I have discussed this vis a vis Gingrich. And McCain, in writing, has admitted his moral and ethical lapses. In the end, no one is perfect - whether one can forgive such lapses is a matter of individual choice and judgment. Speaking only for myself, I have a very difficult time with anyone, politician or not that cheats on their spouse. It's just plain wrong (you got married, in front of your friends and family, took a vow or agreed to whatever in a civil ceremony - you don't get a choice to opt out when it suits you IMHO). It speaks to character - a trait I value highly in all of our elected officials regardless of party affilation.

The reason the Clinton/Lewinsky thing bothered me was not so much that he was getting a blowjob (hey, good on you, Bill!), but that he was getting it in a place you and I subsidize via our taxes. Want to cheat on your wife? I think it's wrong, but I'm also not your judge when it comes to such things. I am your judge when you, as our elected President abuses his position to take advantage of a willing supplicant (in this case, Lewinsky) in a place that I and every other American is paying for. Want a blow job from an intern? Do it somewhere else. And hope Hilary doesn't find out.

As for Petraeus, I'm not confused. He fucked up. Big time. As I noted in my post above, he knew he did too, which is why, in the end he resigned. I respect his service even while I cannot respect his recent actions. As for how the Republican party will treat him, time will tell.

Al
TRAG