How the Benghazi “Conspiracy” Turned Into an Epic Republican Failure

Manny Schewitz. Heh.

Does anyone else see this strategy coming from President Obama and this administration? Surely by now they’ve figured out from their own experiences (and from the Clinton era) that the only thing House Republicans want to do with a Democrat in office is to launch investigation after investigation, hoping to find something impeachable. Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, Obama’s birth certificate, Benghazi and now the IRS, these are all things they’ve tried desperately to remove a president for, and miserably failed.

If President Obama is half as smart as I think he is, then I’m pretty sure he’s come to realize that through gerrymandering and right wing ideologues controlling primaries, he’s dealing with possibly the greatest collection of nincompoops in the history of American politics. They’re ruthless, but they’re also so eager to destroy him, they’ve become the Wile E. Coyote of Congressional investigations. He also knows that other than pushing for another tax cut for the rich or attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act yet again, they’re not going to do anything else before Boehner and the rest head off for happy hour or another vacation.

Yeah, keeping Orange Boner from Happy Hour is cruel and unusual punishment. Suffer, bitch.

So when you’re faced with a Congress that has nothing but utter hatred and contempt for you and a Senate that is hamstrung by procedural filibusters, what would you do if you were President? I don’t know about you, but what Obama seems to have been doing with every overblown controversy the GOP has dug up — that’s what I would do. Whether it was his birth certificate or Benghazi, or anything else, he’s let them go on and on, patiently letting the facts come out and watching Republicans lose all credibility. It’s like the poker equivalent of flopping a royal flush and playing your hand to perfection to take the maximum number of chips possible.

For example, knowing that Darrell Issa and the rest of the House GOP were working with flawed documents and then allowing them to go this far without correcting it in the beginning, that’s an epic troll on Obama’s part. He’s learned that everything he proposes, they will oppose, and vice versa. So long as the GOP is in charge, he’s going to get very little done other than watch them make fools of themselves in front of the American public. It’s really a no-lose situation. They aren’t going to work with him under any normal circumstances and the more he leads them on, the more they prove to voters how absolutely petty and partisan they are.
...

[...] Kudos to President Obama for seeing the forest for the trees and letting the GOP’s ridiculous conspiracies be their downfall.

To my description of Obama as my Stealth Ninja Jedi Prez, add Ju-jitsu Master. :-)

The Batty Battalion

Will Durst

You do realize that Washington DC is not the real world, don’t you? It’s a state of mind. An altered state of mind. Where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Slammed when you stand and rammed when you run. Berated if you lie and lambasted for the truth. Where even the slightest of breeze can carry the pollen of disaster. And the pack on top knows the best way to avoid getting a face full of disaster pollen is to spread the dried residue of other exquisite catastrophes first. Ream or be reamed.

And as far as DC stories go, a lack of misfortunes is no good reason not to speak of them. So now the Washington punditry has banded together to float the notion that President Obama’s second term agenda has stalled. That he’s such a lame duck the presidential limousine should be sporting a blue placard hanging from the rear view mirror. Best thing to do is to burrow deep and lie low. Give up and crawl into the overhead compartment of Air Force One and eat marzipan in the dark.
...

It takes a special kind of degenerative myopia to craft these precocious accusations. First off, you need to be blind as an Oedipal bat to ignore the exhaustingly recalcitrant House Majority, including leader John Boehner, who would rather be seen washing skid mark undies in a Congressional hallway water fountain, than work with the President.

To fail to witness the GOP defy the will of 90% of America while appeasing their NRA overlords, your sunglasses must be cut from slabs of granite. Wearing your hoodie on backwards to not be aware that both sides of the aisle are concerned with one thing and one thing only: re- election. Suffer from tertiary retinal jam not to notice you’re jumping on a bandwagon so flimsy a lighting moth would crash through the floorboards.
...

And since we’ve agreed his Presidency is over, why stop there? Since the number one GOP strategy since January of 93 has been to deny any Democratic President even the tiniest of victories, this might be an unimpeachable time to preemptively besmirch Hillary Clinton’s upcoming first term as an unmitigated calamity and complete and utter failure. Unless you’re into self- fulfilling prophecies.

Heh.

Your tremor du jour

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford on rhe scanda/outrage/bullshit du jour.

Such a dicey and delusional species are we. Such masters of self-deception, of bizarre equivocation, cherry picking our tragedies and our collective neurosis as we are told by the warped media, nasty politicos, hate-radio pundits and marketers of all kinds just which thugs and demons we should fear most, and which merely exist somewhere in blighted, faraway neighborhood you need not care about.

What’s your tremor du jour, citizen? Hooligans with guns? A twitchy NRA with even more guns? Chechen morons with unregistered cookware? The IRS?
...

Do you know who’s laughing hardest about the current IRS microscandal? Exxon. Apple. Microsoft. Monsanto. Genentech. All those giants of industry that escape billions in taxes by way of various loopholes, exemptions, armies of expensive tax attorneys. Carry on, rich people – go get richer. It’s OK, no one’s looking.

The worst part of this little IRS scandal? Nope, not that Obama is having another Worst Week Ever. It’s that the Tea Party is suddenly back in the national spotlight, all righteous and spittle-flecked, full of its usual inbred nonsense, when it was all but dead a week ago. Worse still: If the GOP has its way, we’ll be hearing the Tea Party’s nasally shriek through the 2016 elections. Thanks, IRS.

Yeah, thanks a great steaming pile.

...we can always find the gems among the grime, the rainbow amidst the ugly political thunderstorm.

Look, there’s another one right now, beaming bright over Minnesota, which just became the 12th state in the union to approve gay marriage. Can you believe it? Is it not a thing?
...

Minnesota is, of course, also home to the Tea Party’s twitchiest nutball, its most flagrantly insane hood ornament, one Rep. Michele Bachmann, a goofy homophobe of epic proportions who once dragged a squadron of conservative “prayer warriors” into senate chambers to ask God to help smite the evil gays.

And lo, it would appear God has finally responded to Michele Bachmann, and the nation’s right-wing homophobes in general. Can you see it? Why, it looks like a very large, very bright, very unmistakable… middle finger.

That's my default position when it comes to wingnuts. It's spring-loaded to the pissed-off position.

Much more. Go read.

Headline of the Day

RNC Hispanic Outreach Director Becomes A Democrat

Heh. The vato gets it. Also debunks the right-wing racist "Spics are stoopid" claim.

"Social Welfare" My Ass

Wall Street On Parade

It’s High Time the IRS Investigates the Funding of the Tea Party

Amen to that!

For years now, journalists have been doing the heavy lifting in investigations of Charles and David Koch using their billionaire status to fund faux grassroots groups to push their far right agenda on the country — an agenda that effectively boils down to deregulation of corporations to the detriment of the working class, the environment and wealth equality in America. It’s about time the IRS investigated.
...

In April 2010, Koch Industries issued a statement denying involvement in the creation of the Tea Party movement: “…no funding has been provided by Koch companies, the Koch foundations, Charles Koch or David Koch specifically to support the Tea Parties.” Technically, they might be correct; the Kochs funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) which then created the Tea Party groups.

The money shot:

The debate right now should not be the ethics of the IRS investigating Tea Party groups – the debate should be why the U.S. Department of Justice has not brought any criminal prosecutions.

No shit. Go read this.

World War II’s Strangest Battle

I hadn't heard of this. Book review at The Daily Beast. Verrrrrrry interesting...

The most extraordinary things about this truly incredible tale of World War II are that it hasn’t been told before in English, and that it hasn’t already been made into a blockbuster Hollywood movie. Here are the basic facts: on 5 May 1945—five days after Hitler’s suicide—three Sherman tanks from the 23rd Tank Battalion of the U.S. 12th Armored Division under the command of Capt. John C. ‘Jack’ Lee Jr., liberated an Austrian castle called Schloss Itter in the Tyrol, a special prison that housed various French VIPs, including the ex-prime ministers Paul Reynaud and Eduard Daladier and former commanders-in-chief Generals Maxime Weygand and Paul Gamelin, amongst several others. Yet when the units of the veteran 17th Waffen-SS Panzer Grenadier Division arrived to recapture the castle and execute the prisoners, Lee’s beleaguered and outnumbered men were joined by anti-Nazi German soldiers of the Wehrmacht, as well as some of the extremely feisty wives and girlfriends of the (needless-to-say hitherto bickering) French VIPs, and together they fought off some of the best crack troops of the Third Reich. Steven Spielberg, how did you miss this story?

Much, much more! Go read!

Headline of the Day

Afghan marathon: US troops 'passing the baton to mercenaries' ahead of 2014 withdrawal

Bottom line:

In any case, experts agree, the US paid contractors will stay in Afghanistan for many years to come.

Well of course they will. Yeesh.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

OBAMA PLAYS GOLF WITH THREE GOP SENATORS
Grover Norquist issues fatwas.

Heh.

Disney Ends Bid to Trademark “Dia de los Muertos”
Still trying for Bastille Day, Oktoberfest.

Why not the 4th of July and Marine Corps Birthday too? Corporate greed unchained. Yeesh.

Ground-Controlled Plane Flies Pilotless Nearly 500 Miles
Landmark flight cut short when passengers find out.

Now that's funny! Over time, the passengers will get used to it. I just hope the guy with the Xbox controller isn't controlling flights from a saloon!

Study: College Degree Doesn't Always Pay Off
But Ph.D.s in Art History have found good jobs on front lines of fast food industry.

Want Belgian fries with that?

Shorter: Money, Honey

Why the Government and Drug Cartels Don’t Want Legalization

Ask an Afghan about the future of Afghanistan?!

Geez, what a novel concept! Excellent article by Greg Palast.

"Now that the sonovabitch is dead, why is the US still angry with us?"

"Us", in this conversation, are the Taliban. The SOB in question is Osama bin Laden.

The Taliban’s frustration was relayed to me by Yahya Maroofi, Counsellor to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai – Karzai's Kissinger, if Kissinger had a soul.

The Silk Road nation of Kazakhstan is an excellent place to encounter the dervishes of the Great Game for control of the camel-and-pipeline routes of the Central Asian steppes. Here we can witness the diplomatic-military idiocies of new empires pathetically attempting to ignore the dried skeletons of the imperial forces that went before them.

Maroofi was spending the day in Kazakhstan’s capital on his way to little-noticed peace negotiations – little noticed because neither Uncle Sam nor Great-Uncle Britain were invited. Attendance is limited to those frontline states that will be left holding the grenade when the US and UK pull out the pin with the removal of their troops in 2014. The lineup includes Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan (birthplace of the Boston Bombers) and the big new swinging dick on the block, Turkey, as well as Iran, the nation most feared and despised by the Taliban. The unannounced guests, of course, are the Taliban themselves....

However, it is the hope of most Afghans, and the goal of the Karzai government, not to kill Taliban, but to bring them into the government.

Or, as Maroofi explains, to recognise publicly that “the Taliban are already in the government, in the Parliament, in control of governorships” – but not openly. The talks among the frontline nations are to bring the Taliban back to its roots as a political organisation, not an armed insurgency.
...

Chinese state companies are today lining up in Kabul with shovels and signing bonuses. Maroofi likes Chinese companies – they're more likely to provide jobs than baksheesh. Unlike Western companies.

Baksheesh. Bribes. Corruption. It was this topic that set Maroofi on a long rip. Yes, Afghans have been showered with billions in bribes, backhanders and corrupt deals, but who's paying those bribes? Who's doing the corrupting?

“Karzai told Lockheed [Lockheed Martin, the defence technology company], ‘You give hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to my family and to my minister’s families because you expect to buy influence. You’re not getting influence, and you’re not getting your money back, either.'”
...

Right now, the Taliban are ready – if reluctantly – for the peace deal, in order to get a piece of the resource action. And they're astonished that, with that sonovabitch Osama dead, the US still holds a grudge.

Why? Face it: if Karzai can end the war, then the winner of the Great Game is… China. After all, the US has almost all the ore it needs under the States or within easy grabbing distance from Canada and Latin America. And unlike China, desperate for those gas pipelines from Kyrgyzstan and oil lines from the Caspian, the US has fracked natural gas and oil coming out its arse. Indeed, unleashing Afghanistan’s resource riches will only crash the price of commodity reserves held by US companies.

Afghanistan’s peace is China’s economic life-line and America’s commodity price recession.

The last ¶ is the money shot:

General Joe is not worried. “You can accuse me of being an optimist and I’ll plead guilty,” that Afghanistan is set for war without end. For US corporations, that means a profit centre without end, because even after US troops go, the military-industrial gravy train – boarded by contractors, special ops mercenaries, “development” agencies and their fixers – will continue to roll.

General Joe might not know a Tajik from a camel fart, but he knows who he works for. Much, much more. Worth a read.

Dark as the dungeon he'll be put in

Another corrupt corporate bully, thug, and asshole I'd like to see in jail.

Daily Beast

Donald Blankenship was the most powerful coal mogul in America, but he could soon be indicted, thanks to 14 years of work by two Pittsburgh lawyers. By Laurence Leamer, the author of the new book The Price of Justice.

Although the investigation began by exploring what role Massey supervisors and executives had in the 2010 explosion at their Upper Big Branch mine, the feds have gone on to look into a wide range of devastating accusations against Blankenship. This is a daring inquiry into the dark heart of power at Massey and in West Virginia. If only a portion of what they are exploring is true and Goodwin has the guts to stick to it, in the next couple of months Blankenship may be indicted with a series of charges that will shake up the Mountain State as few things have in years. If Goodwin decides not to indict and cuts a deal to help his anticipated run for governor next year with the backing of Big Coal, as the most fervid cynics suggest, he will have to defend his conduct from Bluefield to Wheeling. But everything so far suggests that the investigation has led inevitably and inexorably to Blankenship, and that Goodwin and his associates will not be walking away without an indictment.
...

Blankenship may very well be indicted in the next few weeks and if the evidence is strong and well presented, he will be convicted and sent to prison. That will send a signal to the entire Appalachian region that no longer can corporate and political mandarins run roughshod over the rights of the people.

There's no such thing as "clean coal". On any level. This might help on one.

Just for fun:

Thanks to henrygreen0203.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

I'm sure all us Olde Fartes can relate...

Heartbreak, as only she can do, the Matraca Berg classic...from the album out now, Old Yellow Moon with Rodney Crowell,

Back When We Were Beautiful

Thanks to Jojo heartspaypay.

Heh

I see I'm not the only one who has busted this. :-)

A tip o' the Brain to Being Liberal.

Rep. Issa (Bully, Loser - CA)

Article at Salon on Darrell Issa, former car thief and presently, and shamefully, congressman from my state in charge of the Benghazi keep-Hillary-from-becoming-President failed witch hunt. We have several despicable Repug congressman from California. He's the worst one.

This ¶ sums the article up pretty well:

Observing him, it quickly became clear that, like all bullies, Issa is not prepared to fight. He counts on his opponents to back down. His M.O. is to make outrageous, unsubstantiated claims, follow them with a lot of bluster, and then quietly fold at the first sign of being challenged. And here’s his “tell”: The more bombastic he is, the more he hungrily seeks out the cameras, the more he promises “explosive revelations,” the less he actually has. Bullies don’t win fights; they win defaults. Push back just the tiniest bit, and it’s all over.

Just another Repug I'd like to punch.

The truth about the Benghazi hearings

CNN

Republican spotlight shifts from Obama to Clinton
...

Soon after the hearing by the GOP-led House Oversight Committee looking into the events surrounding the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, a recently formed pro-Republican opposition research group blasted out an e-mail with the headline "Benghazi Hearing Raises Serious Questions About Clinton."

America Rising PAC then followed up Thursday with a Web video which it says outlines "the serious questions raised about Hillary Clinton's leadership yesterday in a House Oversight Committee hearing."

The Republican National Committee and American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-backed pro-GOP super PAC, also issued e-mails critical of Clinton, America's top diplomat at the time of the attack last September 11. The group put out a web video Friday morning that asks if Clinton "was part of a coverup." And Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible 2016 GOP White House contender, criticized Clinton in an interview on Thursday on Fox News Channel.

But, gee, why would they be doing that?

Obama can't run for a third term and Clinton, who's weighing a White House run, would be the instant front-runner for the Democratic nomination if she launches a bid for president.

Ohhhhhh, I get it...

From The Christian Left from whence came the CNN link:

A move suggested to them by Dick Cheney. It's always been a politically motivated "investigation," but this is their way of saying, "we don't care about the truth, only about winning."

Note to the Repug losers of the next two Presidential elections: the next one's 3 1/2 years away and you're already too late. Suck it, bitchez.

Benghazi

Here's a twofer that covers it. First, The Rude Pundit:

The reason the Rude Pundit can't count the number of fucks he doesn't give about Benghazi is because there is not a goddamned thing that anyone has said that could have prevented the attack from happening (other than the hindsight observation that security in Benghazi should have been beefed up. Yep, and having flying monkeys drop grenades would have been cool, too). And the only possible scandal is that, after the fact, some people said some shit that might not be true. That's it. That's all there is. So, please understand, House GOP members and noted panty-wearer Lindsey Graham, we don't care about Benghazi, no matter how much you want us to. You can bring out every self-aggrandizing State Department employee you want, but, sorry, you have not been able to fluff the flaccid prick of this into a proud, erect Libyagate.
...

So that's the deal: Obama's Benghazi "lies" for Bush's Iraq lies. And then let the chips fall where they may with guilt and prosecution. Then we can swap again. Say Fast and Furious for approval of torture. You might think it's mutually assured destruction, but, dear, dumb GOP, like when you overplayed the Bill Clinton blow job perjury charge, you seem to think that possible lies to cover-up fuck-ups are the same as lies that lead directly to thousands of people dying. You seem to think that low-level incompetence is the same as giving the orders to commit war crimes.

But, no, really, continue with the Hillary Clinton bashing, which is all this actually is. It's just so retro-charming at this point. Make sure that no Republicans even thinks about voting for her in 2016. That's a valuable way to spend your time. And if this one doesn't stick, well, the Rude Pundit's pretty sure you'll just move on to a new fake scandal rather than actually governing.

And the must-see by Jon Stewart who nails it better than the non-comedic media once again:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Notable quote from this next one:

"IF?! IF?! If dingleberries were diamonds I could open a Kay's Jewellers in my pants!"

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Note to the Repugs: Stick to trying to undo Obamacare. It's not going to happen just like drumming up "Benghazigate" isn't working and you don't have to waste as much time and money. Hillary's going to be a two term Prez so suck it in silence, bitchez.

Update:

Andrew Sullivan:

Which is the only reason we haven’t covered this much. Because what is worth covering has largely been covered; because some in government have already lost their jobs for the incompetence; because we have had nine separate Congressional investigations, while attacks on embassies and consulates in the past have been far less likely to be controversial. In other words: this is now a function entirely of factionalism. It’s a test of how far one cable news channel can go in creating something big out of something tragic, regrettable, well worth looking into, but in the end scarcely scandalous.

Update the twoth:

Addicting Info:

This Benghazi thing is making the right insane. Literally. You know the saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That’s where the GOP is right now. They are so invested in this fantasy that they have lost any ability to see reality. And Fox News feeds the fire, complaining that no other news outlets are covering this. Could it be because it’s utter and complete bullshit? Of course not, not to these modern-day inquisitors. They hate our president that much. It’s sickening.

Yep.

Nine amazing truths you already suspected

If it's Wednesday it's Morford going off on the gun nuts and others.

The NRA is the new Christian right

Remember that shrill, fundamentalist, God-fearing, adorably insane Christian coalition that somehow elected Bush to two miserable terms, then self-imolated in a cavalcade of confusion and homophobia? Behold, it hath re-emerged! It is now tinier, angrier, far more paranoid, licks AR-15 semi-automatics like popsicles and gathers itself into sweltering Texas convention centers packed like canned lard with panicky, overweight white guys who cheer Glenn Beck’s sweaty tears and give standing ovations to Sarah Palin. Welcome back, right-wing fearclumps! My how you’ve shrunk. And God, you look awful.

The NRA is also a twitchy clown car of paranoia and failure

This much we know: Any event where Sarah Palin still gets a standing ovation, where not a single respected celebrity, politician, spiritual leader or intellectual pundit would ever dare show his face, where they want to arm children and compare Michael Bloomberg to a Nazi, these are surefire signs you’re among the most lost and desperate in America.

Yes, the NRA still has a ridiculously powerful lobby in Washington D.C. So does the high fructose corn syrup lobby. Did you see the photos from the big convention in Houston? Glenn Beck holding up a rifle? Wayne LaPierre’s mouth contorting in manic anguish? This is the army of the insane and the paranoid, the least compassionate the country has to offer. Sorry, Newtown kids; they hate you most of all.

George W. Bush is a sad, awkward loser
...

George W. Bush is, in short, a shameful footnote, sad and strange and sort of awful. The Republican party – for whom, if they’re honest, George W. Bush remains their truest and most accurate representative – should be proud.

There's more, including how Google Glasses are guaranteed to NOT get you laid. Heh. Enjoy.

Godless liberal commie fuck Rivera gets mic cut off by just-plain-fuck Ailes.

Raw Story

A new report says that Fox News President Roger Ailes ordered the Fox News control room to cut host Geraldo Rivera’s mic just two days before November’s election because he was defending President Barack Obama against the network’s “misinformation” about terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

Well, whaddya expect? There's a party line that must not be crossed, even by the famously liberal godless commie fuck Rivera (choke). They oughta change their name to FOXRepugProp. Yeesh.

And, oh yeah, how did trying to change the election work out for ya, Ailes? Heh. Asshole.

Let's Nullify Kansas

The Rude One on "nullification" laws.

Look at how bwave and stwong the wittle state of Kansas has been. Standing there on its two feet like big gwown-up boy. It's adorable. You're adorable, Kansas. C'mere so we can pinch your pudgy cheeks, woogums. Your tough ol' governor, Sam Brownback, signed a bill into law that says, "[A]ny act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas." You made it a felony for federal government official to enforce a federal firearms law. Aww. That's just...so cute that the rest of us just can't stand it, like a baby sloth on Buzzfeed. Just look at you, acting like you're not part of the United States and pretending that if the United States abandoned you, you wouldn't fall quickly into a pretty dark nightmare of debt, wrecked schools, worse roads, and no jobs. And we just don't want that to happen to you, cutie-wootie.

Yeah, see, Kansas is one of the many, many red states that gets more federal tax money than the state sends to Washington. At $1.10 received for every $1 paid, it's nowhere near the worst freeloader, but it'd be a pretty big hit if Uncle Sam said, "Ooh, don't like our laws? Then kiss our cash's ass as it walks out of your state."
...

Your despicable asses survive on the backs of the very states you despise for being liberal: New York gets only 72 cents in federal spending for every federal tax buck. New Jersey? 49 cents. Taxachusetts? 83 cents. You're living on our dime, Kansas, South Carolina, Alabama, Missouri, Alaska, North Carolina, Montana, and Alaska, all states attempting to nullify federal laws. Fuck, if we just got a buck for a buck up here, our infrastructure could be strengthened and more people would have jobs. California gets 87 cents for each dollar. That state would love to get South Carolina's level of federal spending. You got that, motherfuckers? You are fucked without us, without block grants and military bases and highway construction contracts and so very much more that our tax dollars at least partially pay for in your state. We could nullify you. So howzabout abiding by the laws of the nation we're all a part of?

Yeah, sometimes the adults need to stop coddling the kids and tell them to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down.

Amen. And if they don't STFU and sit down, slap 'em 'til they do.

Headline of the Day

Reuters: U.N. Investigators Say Syrian Rebels, Not Syrian Regime, Used Chemical Weapons

Verrrrrry interesting...