Two "news" stories today caught my eye: Joe Klein in Time says that Benghazi is a "scam not a scandal", and Charles Blow says all that is happening is the result of Republican "scandal lust" rather than anything "scandalous". Now I know that Klein and Blow are hyper partisan supporters of president Obama, and anything Democrat for that matter. I know that neither has shown himself in the past to be a slave to the truth. Nevertheless, it still boggles the mind to think that these people with national audiences are pushing lies like this.
Is Benghazi a scam? Is it just an attempt by the GOP to pin something on Obama? Hardly! Just yesterday, the White House was finally forced by public outcry to release the email surrounding the "editing" of the talking points used after the attack. You know, these were the talking points given to Susan Rice for her use on the Sunday shows. These were the basis for all statements released to the media about what had happened in Benghazi. They were phony. They blamed the attacks on a youtube video and a spontaneous protest and ignored any involvement by terrorists in the whole matter. The reality was that this was neither spontaneous or connected to the video. It was a terror attack by al Qaeda. For weeks, Obama fought the truth. After the truth finally came out, the White House has tried two more cover ups. First, America has been told over and over that the CIA wrote the talking points. We were told that the State Department had little input in that process. We were told that the only change from the White House was to change the word "consulate" to "diplomatic mission". These turned out to be lies. The email released yesterday show that the White House had substantial input to the talking points and made substantial revisions to them. The State Department, not the CIA, was the driving force behind most of the changes. And, most critical of all, the expressed reason for the changes was political; the "leadership" of the State Department did not want to give anyone in Congress ammunition to use against the administration. So the changes to the talking points which made them into intentional lies told the American people were the results of an attempt for political cover after the attack.
The second additional coverup came out of the mouth of Obama himself two days ago. Obama actually had the nerve to claim that he had called Benghazi a terror attack from day one. The talking points were no big deal, according to Obama, since he had told America the truth. But that claim was a lie. Obama used the word "terrorism" in his statement on the morning after the attack, but only to say that America would not be moved by terrorism. He never said that this was an attack by terrorists. To the contrary, Obama told the ladies on The View about a week later that we were still investigating to see what caused Benghazi; it was too soon to know if terrorists were involved. So we have Obama trying to lie to coverup an earlier lie told to America. In short, this is no scam; it is the revelation, pure and simple, that the president of the United States is a liar, and an incompetent liar at that.
Well, is Blow right? Is this just Republican's stirring up scandals for political purposes? Blow does not even limit himself to Benghazi. He includes the IRS and the AP as well. Think about it: Blow blames Republicans when we find out that the IRS has intentionally harrassed conservative groups and their supporters since 2010. Blow blames Republicans when we find out that people like the reverend Billy Graham and his ministry were attacked by the IRS after supporting Christian values in his statements. Blow blames Republicans when we learn that the co chair of Obama's re-election committee illegally used confidential IRS data to attack Mitt Romney during the last election. Blow blames Republicans because the IRS led an onslaught against Jewish groups that said that they supported Israel. In other words, the best case is that Blow is delusional. More likely, Blow is just another liar supporting the scoundrels and liars among the Obamacrats. Blow, it seems, will say anything so long as it helps the Obamacrats.
Look, these are not just minor events. Four Americans died in Benghazi. Their deaths were due to the incompetence and mistakes of the Obama administration. There should have been more security in general. There should have been heightened security on 9-11 of all days. There should have been a ready response team on call that day. There should have been an effort made to rescue those under attack rather than orders to "stand down" at a point when we still did not know the fate of those in Benghazi. Up to that point, this was poor management and negligence, but it was hardly a presidential scandal. But it did not stop there. Obama himself paid essentially no attention to the attack. After hearing about it within a few minutes of the first attack, Obama had no further conversations about what was happening. Our Benghazi consulate was under attack and people were being killed, but Obama did not bother to even pick up the phone to inquire what was happening. He could not have cared less. And after the attack, Obama went with the lies. Obama knew that this was a terror attack within a day, but he let his administration put out the word that it was due to the video. He lied to America because it suited his political purposes. He lied to the families of those killed in Benghazi, and he did so just to help his re-election. It is not minor.
And the IRS? Obama said he just heard about it with the initial news reports. If this is true, then Obama should be impeached for incompetence. There is no way, however, that the claim is true. His campaign chair used the IRS data to attack Romney! Congressmen and senators were complaining about the IRS conduct. Obama knew about the claims; that is certain. And we also know that nothing was done to stop the IRS conduct. This is truly a scandal. It means that the president did not think enough of the rights of his opponents to protect them from a wrongful attack by the government which he leads. It means that Obama is willing to use the full force of the federal government ILLEGALLY to beat down his political opponents. Some may call this Chicago style politics. America, however, should call it what it really is: criminal activity. Now Obama himself did not commit the crimes (at least as far as we know now). Obama only condoned what was happening. He did nothing to end the illegal practices. He did nothing to help those whose rights were violated. He did nothing at all which did not help his re-election.
Is Benghazi a scam? Is it just an attempt by the GOP to pin something on Obama? Hardly! Just yesterday, the White House was finally forced by public outcry to release the email surrounding the "editing" of the talking points used after the attack. You know, these were the talking points given to Susan Rice for her use on the Sunday shows. These were the basis for all statements released to the media about what had happened in Benghazi. They were phony. They blamed the attacks on a youtube video and a spontaneous protest and ignored any involvement by terrorists in the whole matter. The reality was that this was neither spontaneous or connected to the video. It was a terror attack by al Qaeda. For weeks, Obama fought the truth. After the truth finally came out, the White House has tried two more cover ups. First, America has been told over and over that the CIA wrote the talking points. We were told that the State Department had little input in that process. We were told that the only change from the White House was to change the word "consulate" to "diplomatic mission". These turned out to be lies. The email released yesterday show that the White House had substantial input to the talking points and made substantial revisions to them. The State Department, not the CIA, was the driving force behind most of the changes. And, most critical of all, the expressed reason for the changes was political; the "leadership" of the State Department did not want to give anyone in Congress ammunition to use against the administration. So the changes to the talking points which made them into intentional lies told the American people were the results of an attempt for political cover after the attack.
The second additional coverup came out of the mouth of Obama himself two days ago. Obama actually had the nerve to claim that he had called Benghazi a terror attack from day one. The talking points were no big deal, according to Obama, since he had told America the truth. But that claim was a lie. Obama used the word "terrorism" in his statement on the morning after the attack, but only to say that America would not be moved by terrorism. He never said that this was an attack by terrorists. To the contrary, Obama told the ladies on The View about a week later that we were still investigating to see what caused Benghazi; it was too soon to know if terrorists were involved. So we have Obama trying to lie to coverup an earlier lie told to America. In short, this is no scam; it is the revelation, pure and simple, that the president of the United States is a liar, and an incompetent liar at that.
Well, is Blow right? Is this just Republican's stirring up scandals for political purposes? Blow does not even limit himself to Benghazi. He includes the IRS and the AP as well. Think about it: Blow blames Republicans when we find out that the IRS has intentionally harrassed conservative groups and their supporters since 2010. Blow blames Republicans when we find out that people like the reverend Billy Graham and his ministry were attacked by the IRS after supporting Christian values in his statements. Blow blames Republicans when we learn that the co chair of Obama's re-election committee illegally used confidential IRS data to attack Mitt Romney during the last election. Blow blames Republicans because the IRS led an onslaught against Jewish groups that said that they supported Israel. In other words, the best case is that Blow is delusional. More likely, Blow is just another liar supporting the scoundrels and liars among the Obamacrats. Blow, it seems, will say anything so long as it helps the Obamacrats.
Look, these are not just minor events. Four Americans died in Benghazi. Their deaths were due to the incompetence and mistakes of the Obama administration. There should have been more security in general. There should have been heightened security on 9-11 of all days. There should have been a ready response team on call that day. There should have been an effort made to rescue those under attack rather than orders to "stand down" at a point when we still did not know the fate of those in Benghazi. Up to that point, this was poor management and negligence, but it was hardly a presidential scandal. But it did not stop there. Obama himself paid essentially no attention to the attack. After hearing about it within a few minutes of the first attack, Obama had no further conversations about what was happening. Our Benghazi consulate was under attack and people were being killed, but Obama did not bother to even pick up the phone to inquire what was happening. He could not have cared less. And after the attack, Obama went with the lies. Obama knew that this was a terror attack within a day, but he let his administration put out the word that it was due to the video. He lied to America because it suited his political purposes. He lied to the families of those killed in Benghazi, and he did so just to help his re-election. It is not minor.
And the IRS? Obama said he just heard about it with the initial news reports. If this is true, then Obama should be impeached for incompetence. There is no way, however, that the claim is true. His campaign chair used the IRS data to attack Romney! Congressmen and senators were complaining about the IRS conduct. Obama knew about the claims; that is certain. And we also know that nothing was done to stop the IRS conduct. This is truly a scandal. It means that the president did not think enough of the rights of his opponents to protect them from a wrongful attack by the government which he leads. It means that Obama is willing to use the full force of the federal government ILLEGALLY to beat down his political opponents. Some may call this Chicago style politics. America, however, should call it what it really is: criminal activity. Now Obama himself did not commit the crimes (at least as far as we know now). Obama only condoned what was happening. He did nothing to end the illegal practices. He did nothing to help those whose rights were violated. He did nothing at all which did not help his re-election.
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