I have very little I wish to say today, so sick to my stomach am I from hearing yesterday’s testimony on Benghazi, wherein career civil servants were very obviously, and oftentimes visibly, working to restrain their anger, outrage, and outright disbelief at what their own government had done (and hadn’t done) to secure the lives of Americans.
In short, the subtext of yesterday’s testimony was precisely this: it does matter. And those Democrats who have spent the last 24 hours trying to dismiss or diminish or deflect the testimony as a non-story — a tack that the mainstream press has aided them with, failing for the most part to even mention the hearings, much less provide any in-depth coverage of the revelations, save for the occasional story informing us that there were no revelations — are no better than any third-world goosestepping apparatchik whose job it is to provide cover for a Dear Leader.
They sicken me in a way I cannot even put into words — and that’s saying something, given my occasionally-documented facility with the language. These people are monsters of a sort, but even that appellation can do their rank cynicism and their easy disregard for conscience no real justice.
And the media, without doubt co-conspirators in what is a major scandal — and an even more major cover-up — are so committed to progressive activism, and to their own self-styled righteousness and compassion (which, relying on a surreal tautology and the anti-foundationalism at the heart of their ideology, they presume to claim is a function of their progressivism: they are good, so therefore what they do is good; and what they do is good because it’s being done by good people), that they have found a way to convince themselves that their biases, be it by omission or by massaging of the facts to report that there’s nothing new to report, are somehow noble and are in the service of a Greater Good.
All of which is horse shit. They are toadies. Useful idiots. Attendants to the Court of Power, adrift in its orbit, pulled on by its gravity, tiny dull moons that control the rhetorical tides without giving a second thought to the erosion of public trust they leave in their wake. They are a blight on this representative republic, and it’s time to reject them thoroughly.
Having said all that, I’ll now offer this: Jay Carney, like Bill Richardson before him in a different context, is precisely right: this entire investigation is in fact political. And that’s because we have in the Democrats a party that is committed to power and deconstructing cultural standards. What they are not in any way committed to is any set of truths save for those they manufacture and can drive by way of perception and repetition and a compliant governmental mouthpiece masquerading as a free press: they have rejected the very notion of any reality outside of the reality the create and nurture; they have surrendered the desire for obtaining a measure of objectivity (which they know cannot be reached in its purest form) for the linguistic turn, the ability to use the failures of metaphysical objectivity to promote an epistemology that is based almost entirely on consensus and a will to power.
Once this commitment is made, the rest becomes about winning that battle by controlling the means to garnering consensus and power: the press, the culture, the academy, the very kernel assumptions of the language. Which is why I’ve long called this — our first New Left presidency — the postmodern presidency, a faculty lounge cabal whereby all the theoretical work produced by left-wing sociologists and linguists and economists, driven by a desire to upset the paradigm of individual autonomy and a shackled, dispersed government and to undercut the Enlightenment, has been marshaled into a governing strategy whose aim it is to demonize individualism and to destroy capitalism. Fundamental transformation, with the leftist academics and activists living out their dream of ruling a Utopia of their engineering.
So yes, it is political. And the personal being the political in the leftist mind, it is impossible to escape being political. Making their accusations that the Republicans are politicizing Benghazi by way of looking for objective truths a truism in their minds, there being nothing outside of the political, the perceptional, the manufactured and finessed and controlled.
Embrace this accusation: to left wing Democrats, the very notion that we can find truths by combing through facts is “political”; or to put it another way, truth is nothing more to them than a political posture. They have made that claim and now they should be forced to have it hung around their neck permanently.
Beyond that, ignore them and their attempts to distract by engaging you in a challenge to defend the importance of the testimony given yesterday. They are liars and ideologues. The death of those four Americans is part of a long war; part of a game; a sacrificed piece on the political chess board. That so many Democrats took to the airwaves to suggest nothing was learned — or even more despicable, tried to use the deaths as a bludgeon against cutting government spending — reveals just who and what they are, to the point where perhaps even Rick Moran or Ed Morrissey will finally see it and acknowledge it.
Instead, here’s what I ask of all of you:
1) Apply unrelenting pressure on John Boehner to impanel a special commission with subpoena power. Obama and Clinton and Rice and Panetta and all those who engaged in denying security to the consulate, and then gave the stand down order to US forces, must be compelled to testify under oath. Call Boehner’s office. Email. Hound him relentlessly. Do not let this go.
2) Insist that we the people, for whom the government exists, be given the truth. Refuse to accept the press and the Democrats’ counsel that we learn from these mistakes (broadly and generally, without ever really knowing or even caring what the actual mistakes were) and that we move on. Reject that line of defense out of hand. Spit on it. And spit on those who offer it up.
3) Reject this notion that incompetence was to blame. The “oopsie!” strategy. Those who testified yesterday made it clear that the State Department knew the consulate was under terrorist attack, and that the attack was by Islamic fundamentalists. It is inconceivable on every level that the White House — and the CiC — wouldn’t have known this. And yet they altered CIA talking points to remove this knowledge and then lied directly to the American people — including over the caskets of the dead — about what had happened.
And a man still sits in jail for “parole violations” after having been identified and used as a scapegoat by the US government.
Where was the President? What did he do? What orders did he give?
And after the fact, how complicit were both the White House and the State Department in securing the cover up? We learned from testimony yesterday that Mr Hicks was ordered not to meet with a Congressional delegation investigating the attack. This is unconscionable and unacceptable, and we mustn’t stomach it and mustn’t accept it.
Insist on answers. Demand your voices be heard.
This is our government. We own it. And it is at war with us. We need to insist those controlling the levers of power be held to account. And that should be our single focus.
The establishment GOP leadership, for whatever their reasons, doesn’t seem to want to venture into these waters. Likely for fear that the press will excoriate them for “politicizing” a “tragedy.” Plus, racism.
Too bad. Boehner and Cantor can’t be let off the hook. They answer to us. And it’s time they either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
As I noted at the outset of this post, I am mortified beyond words by what my government has done here. I am embarrassed. I am ashamed that I haven’t done more to pressure these bastards into telling the truth, just as I’m ashamed that I haven’t been more effective in spreading the word far and wide that we are being ruled at this very moment by a syndicate of sorts, a ruling class and its messaging apparatus that has the power and the will to silence and punish witnesses who would dare to challenge it, who will first and foremost consider political calculations when deciding upon the fate of embattled Americans under siege in a hostile environment, and who will with no remorse or second thoughts scapegoat, lie, and even spend tax money apologizing to our enemies for the lie that they themselves have concocted.
I feel sick. Literally.
We don’t have a two-party system of representative government any longer. We are lost as a nation and a people. We are being ruled by both whim and by perception, which have been granted the veneer of authority by the skeletal remains of a constitutional foundation and reinforced by the willing mendacity of an ostensibly neutral media.
The center cannot hold. Is all I have to say today.
Snagged at Jeffrey Lord’s piece:
By design.
Whaddya gonna do? Side with the evil, bigoted fascists, or with us noble, enlightened
communistsprogressives?Well, why would anyone want to side with you guys when you literally don’t stand for anything, having spent the last couple of generations systematically deconstructing everything anybody anywhere (but especially here in the U.S.) ever stood for?
And it’s time they either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
It’s profoundly tempting to formulate a new phrase thus: “lead, follow, or die”. Still, having given the phrase a voice, I think we’re not quite there yet, but that the warning such a time can come is well warranted.
Coburn Hints At New Benghazi Intel
i like how meghan’s coward daddy is pushing a la carte cable but you know how it is with him in the details is where you will find deviltry ensconced
but still it might could be a rare positive contribution from dribblebritches
Mother of Benghazi victim: Hillary and Susan Rice told me “nose to nose” that the Mohammed video was to blame
happyfeet,
Shut the fuck up. Adults are talking.
Everyone else, please ignore the typing telephone pole. His goal, as always, is SQUIRREL! Please don’t let him.
Once this commitment is made, the rest becomes about winning that battle by controlling the means to garnering consensus and power: the press, the culture, the academy, the very kernel assumptions of the language.
Add to that list, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. It’s a royal flush.
Somebody coin a term for that point in a ruinous decline where your only sane reaction can be speechlessness. I hit it about six months ago and can only really snark now.
In related news: Welcome alien criminals. Hillary regarded. Rice awarded. Shut up, they explained.
I could go on but they’re just celebrating a win in a game I won’t attend.
What’s the difference between a libertarian and an anarcho-capitalist? About those six months.
Treasonous, Lying, Commiecrats and Cowardly, or bought off, RINOs.
:-(
I have been filled with a terrible anger since September 11, 2012. It is an anger at the soulless, posturing peacocks who deliberately sacrificed four Americans to preserve the narrative so they could retain political power. Let us call it what it is: murder. The rage continues to consume me when I think, talk, or write about it. I am struggling merely to compose this comment without losing control and going and breaking something. And the Democrats call these attempts to out these inhuman vermin as “politics as usual.” I don’t know, but I do think that things are going to fall apart at some point, and when it happens, incidents such as this are going to be front and center as the casus belli.
we are being ruled at this very moment by a syndicate of sorts, a ruling class and its messaging apparatus that has the power and the will to silence and punish witnesses who would dare to challenge it, who will first and foremost consider political calculations when deciding upon the fate of embattled Americans under siege in a hostile environment
It’s The Chicago Way writ large. These thugs merely enlarged their turf.
Part of the problem is that Chicago never had to deal with foreign relations and national security, which is why the O-ministration doesn’t take it very seriously. As is typical for Narcissists, if it doesn’t affect them directly, it resides in a blissful blind spot.
why would anyone want to side with you guys when you literally don’t stand for anything
They don’t need to stand for anything: they’ve got the pose down. A pose that is so hip, your soul could never aspire to anything greater.
posturing peacocks who deliberately sacrificed four Americans to preserve the narrative so they could retain political power
It may be just that prosaic—trying to keep it quiet so close to election time—but the fact that Obama yawned and went to bed instead going to the Situation Room for, at minimum, a couple of Consternation Close-Ups, reveals to me something more vile may have been afoot.
King David ordered his generals to send Uriah (husband of Bathsheba) into the thick of battle, then withdraw from him so that he’d be outnumbered and eventually killed. No one would suspect that David ordered his death, because the enemy slew Uriah, after all, and those are the fortunes of war. (Unfortunately for David, the prophet Samuel got wind of the plot from The Man Upstairs and confronted him with his sin.)
To me, this has always had the stink of set-up around it. There was no good reason to send the ambassador to Benghazi on that day. There was no good reason to deny the repeated requests (begging, pleading) for additional security. There was no good reason to order the stand-down.
If it were mere incompetence, you’d have seen a little more interest from POTUS during the event. You’d have seen him confer with his dudes before giving the Stand Down order (to avoid another Blackhawk Down). You’d have seen signs that the attack took someone by surprise, because they were forced to Do Something.
Instead, it looks more like a scripted scenario was set in motion, and POTUS had no reason to monitor the events, because even if it didn’t work, there was nothing for him to do. He couldn’t be seen handling any levers or turning any knobs. It was just one of those things that nobody has control over, you know?
The Benghazi patsy
OT, but prolly needed for today’s optimism quotient: “iPencil“, from Kevin Williamson’s new book: The End Is Near and It’s Going to Be Awesome.
I’m reminded of what David did to Uriah to cover up what he did to Bathsheba.
Only now, there doesn’t appear to be anybody filling the Nathan role. And even if there was, the response would be a blank stare.
Unfortunately for David, the prophet Samuel got wind of the plot from The Man Upstairs and confronted him with his sin.
Nathan
Good illustration, though.
I understand your point of it looking planned and intentional, but why not have a better cover for his inaction? Is he just that arrogant? Can he be that confident that his underlings, and the sycophant press will cover his tracks?
Dang it, Di, you beat me to it.
Hey, the Jody Arias verdict was yesterday!
–Seems to be the mindset of my admittedly-anecdotal sampling of what the news is focusing on.
To the extent there is any coverage, the media continues to offer its usual in-kind electoral support for the Dems, and nothing but. Corrupt to the very core.
I did get one left wing FB friend to admit that there should be more investigation of why Stevens was there, and what the meeting with the Turkish diplomat was about. But other than that, he sees it as a GOP Plot To Get Hillary! Which, if by “Get Hillary,” you mean “assign Teflon Cankles Some Responsibility,” I agree.
Frankly, the rest of the low-info American public couldn’t care less.
For the last reason alone, I have no optimism about the future. Too many of us have become political mushrooms, quite content to be fed bullshit and kept in the dark.
[…] He does have a way with words. […]
Is he just that arrogant? Can he be that confident that his underlings, and the sycophant press will cover his tracks?
YES. A thousand times, yes.
He believes his own press down to the very core of his being. He’s a clinical Narcissist, incapable of regarding his Glorious Self with any degree of objectivity or realism. He is and always has been utterly insulated from Consequence and Nemesis. Even if he were impeached and imprisoned over this (or something else), he would learn Exactly Nothing. He would genuinely regard it as a Purely Political Ploy, even if the evidence were so blatant and incontrovertible that Chris Matthews would condemn him.
As for his underlings and the press (BIRM), they are religious fanatics every bit as blinkered and determined as the Islamists. I keep hearing people fantasize about things becoming so clear that even The Media will wake up, but that assumes that they’re merely ignorant.
They are not. They know exactly what the truth is, but they long ago learned to reject the very notion of Facts and TRVTH. The acquisition of power is the only thing they value, and when you value power, you must necessarily reject truth.
When you engage in prevarication long enough—regardless of your motives—you lose the ability to distinguish between truth and error. Worse, you lose the ability to care. The human soul cannot live in the shadows forever without the conscience being seared and deadened.
These people embrace evil because they like it, not because they don’t know any better.
Also, I stand corrected wrt Nathan vs. Samuel. At least I got “Uriah” right.
Be fair, what if Obama did something, it failed spectacularly, got more Americans killed, and the failure led to to a Romney presidency?
Look at the big picture people. Do you want binders full of pregnant woman, gay boys forced to get haircuts, and dogs treated like dogs?
They died for the children™
right Dale, and they were also lucky for what happened in Ohio this week.
I’ve got that, but I’ve also got despair knowing that no one on their right mind can now represent our interests in dangerous places. The damage done here is enormous and irreparable, and these scumbags could not care less.
Was Joe McCarthy right, just 60 odd years too early? The Obamunists and their minions took their long march through the institutions.
Curmudgeon, Tailgunner Joe was right even back then.
The thing about running a gang is that yours is never the only one — and even if yours is the biggest and baddest, it never is for long.
Expanding your turf is often a good way to make that “not for long” part a whole lot shorter.
Aye, he was. Too bad he couldn’t quit the bottle.
Meghan’s coward daddy is, apparently, always on hf’s mind.
Where’s your compassion, people?
Meghan’s coward daddy is, apparently, always on hf’s mind.
Where’s your compassion, people?
It could be worse. His bloated bimbo daughter could be stuck on your mind.
His bloated bimbo daughter could be stuck on your mind.
Not when she’s stuck to the vinyl upholstery.
Meanwhile:
grumpy grumpy firestones my comment directly addressed a promisingly efficacious strategy of thwarting at least one aspect of the fascists’ stranglehold on “the means to garnering consensus and power”
a la carte cable could indeed be a gamechanger, properly implemented
Well, it is quite obvious that low-info voters and progressive elites such as “death is a part of life” Elijah Cummings care very little for the life of Americans, much less civil servants. That only leaves us clingers to insist on accountability.
The Fast and Furious “investigation” lead to a minor DOJ shyster being asked to take a teaching job.
I agree this is a nauseating shame.
do you wizzles need a link? Mr. Instapundit had just put it up when I commented earlier and it seemed on point to this discussion
here is a link just for to ensure we are all on the same page
That only leaves us clingers to insist on accountability.
Make a start by firing Angel Hernandez.
His bloated bimbo daughter could be stuck on your mind.
Not when she’s stuck to the vinyl upholstery.
After riding the Sybian?
Yuck. Basta! with that Sybian talk.
Now that’s a tea time mental image I hadn’t planned on.
Well written Jeff and thank you. Your point about the democrats is spot on. I just sent an email to the Speaker. I don’t have a lot of faith that the mainline GOP leadership has much interest in pursuing this… it is falling to the younger ones it seems.
I’m angry about the testimony yesterday and have a deep feeling this will all get minimized and swept under the rug. Shameful. I pray for those wounded and lost, and their loved ones. I hope that somehow this time will be different and the democrats will be held to account for being the soulless politicians that they clearly are.
“and even if yours is the biggest and baddest”
Ne’er a horse that can’t be rode;
nor a rider can’t be th’rode.
A friend from Plano, (plain ol’ , Plano he called it), used this adage alot.
Was Joe McCarthy right, just 60 odd years too early?
If anything Joe was late. If there were communists in the State department, they didn’t all get there during the then 5 year old Truman administration. FDR followed the same formulas of tax increases, unilateral diktats, brinksmanship with the SCOTUS, shady associates (likely communist), and spiraling dependency that we now see in Obama. FDR was also a serial adulterer like Bubba.
Whenever I feel like there is no hope, I think about Wilson and FDR, and the damage they did, and what they tried to do. If America will just wake up, it still isn’t too late.
Yuck. Basta! with that Sybian talk.
Sorry. I must apologize. But after discovering about such a device, it just struck me how many “womyn” of the Left (and pseudo-Right) it would help out. I need to start a charity to send them to such people. I’m all about helping out and the giving.
If there were communists in the State department, they didn’t all get there during the then 5 year old Truman administration. FDR followed the same formulas of tax increases, unilateral diktats, brinksmanship with the SCOTUS, shady associates (likely communist), and spiraling dependency that we now see in Obama.
From outright Stalin worshippers like Joseph Davis, to useful idiots like Henry Wallace, FDR loved him some leftists.
[…] On Benghazi, our media, and going forward (protean wisdom) […]
What chills me is that the growing conviction that our noble betters are quite willing to see any number of people die as long as its for “the greater good”.
And willing, sometimes eager, to make that happen.
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way – or die. Any of those is just fine with us.”
Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham — both of whom worked with Schumer to draft the bill — voted with the 10 Democrats.
Beck thinks that Flake has been fully co-opted of late, because his interviews with him (and Flake’s actions) have been increasingly incoherent compared to his former Staunch self. So he wrote Matt Kibbe, who said he fears that Flake has been Keeping Bad Company, i.e., with same-sex senators (h/t Levin) Graham and McCain.
Beck also vehemently opposes the ala carte thing, even though he would profit mightily thereby, telling McCain that he has exactly no business telling business what to do.
Meh. Meghan McCain’s primary problem isn’t her appearance. It is her inability to recognize that she lacks the wisdom to realize that she isn’t smart or well-informed enough to publicly comment on most of the issues she jumps into. She also has her father’s tin ear for gauging conservative reaction to her comments to a fawning press.
Speaking of her father, like him you can tell you can’t trust her by the flattering portrayal of most of her pictures on Google image search. She’s all made up and dressed up in most of them, and with no “crazy eyes” that the left likes to use so much on actual conservative women.
We’ll have none of that feminist approved remnant of the old patriarchal double standard around here mister.
That [insert pikachuspeak here] knew what she was doing up on that roof.
-Henry A. Wallace
Stripped of context as it was, it looked just as fucking random as anything else you plop down here.
If you want to talk something other than cupcakes, you’re going to need some context. Also helpful would be coherence, logic and some semblance of spelling and punctuation with which to make your point. None of which you seem to want to bother with.
Hence, the offhand, uncaring dismissiveness. How could you blame us? We were born this way.
Meghan McCain’s primary problem isn’t her appearance. It is her inability to recognize that she lacks the wisdom to realize that she isn’t smart or well-informed enough to publicly comment on most of the issues she jumps into.
A-yep. She thinks she has something relevant to say by virtue of being within a certain age cohort, but the bottom line is she doesn’t know that much. And she makes that sad fact more painfully obvious with every tweet and media appearance.
That would be a first.
“[She] takes responsibility”
That [insert pikachuspeak here] knew what she was doing up on that roof.
Sheesh, Ernst. A gal should be able to take a bath on her roof (in direct line of sight of King David) on a nice day. You guys are such patriarchs.
happyfeet says May 9, 2013 at 1:17 pm
a la carte cable could indeed be a gamechanger, properly implemented
Oh joy. Here comes the Consumer Protection and Affordable Cable Act, Republican style…
oh dear
Boxer Blows Up on Senate GOP for Boycotting EPA Hearing
Nothing like being called “fringe” by a California Democrat…
link
Well, now that Ace has written it, chop chop everyone!
Well, now that Ace has written it, chop chop everyone!
That quote about not worrying too much about who gets the credit comes to mind. From Reagan? Truman? Lincoln? Some even longer dead guy?
We know you are the master of exposing political language.
ace is the place for the helpful movie man
breaking news
State Dept Warns Americans Not to Travel to Benghazi
To borrow a phrase from Theon Greyjoy’s torturer, “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.”
– Don’t know if this is real or not, but here it is.
– I was watching Gosner(R)(sp?) one of the Benghazi committee members on Cspan, answering call-ins with questions about yesterdays Benghazi hearing.
– A guy calls in, clearly announces his name, says he’s a Navy seal and here’s why the cover up. The two seals that were killed were sent into Benghazi as part of a CIA team at the Annex. They were there to try to find 30,000 shoulder launch ground to air missile weapons. They had them pin pointed but the attacks started at the same time.
– Obama couldn’t allow the public to find out he was doing the same thing in Syria that he did in Mexico with F&F with an election to win.
– The reason for the stand down. They were afraid if they sent in gun-ships or fighter jets they’d be blown out of the sky.
– If true you can see why Bumblefuck had to circle the wagons.
– The reason for the BS video. Served two purposes. One it gave them an excuse not to do anything (fear of harming civilians), and b) they knew once a video was made public the Islamists would run with another opportunity to hate on the West, hopefully start protesting right away, and they could use that as cover after the fact. The Libyan pres. fucked up their plans by announcing right away it was a terror attack, but they went ahead anyway. Too much too lose.
– Don’t know, but it certainly all makes sense if the guys telling the truth.
[…] On Benghazi, our media, and going forward | protein wisdom […]
Feds Pull 3D-Printed Gun Design from Web
Leigh: Actually, Bathsheba was bathing in the evening. In addition, David shouldn’t have been in Jerusalem anyway; according to 2 Samuel, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.”
You can’t stop the signal.
When firemen respond to a fire sometimes they realize that they’re too late and the best thing they can do is let it burn, the better to rebuild on a site swept clean. I think we may be at that point….
what’s the frequency
kenneth?
– One possible scenario:
– The African command was weapons running through Libya to the Syrian rebels. The Arab spring gave the WH gestopo good cover. Weapons were being shipped all the place while Egypt/Libya/Tripoli were in civil war. All under Waffle ears/Clinton.
– Sometime during that time frame one or more weapons shipments were hijacked, or in some way, ended in the hands of the wrong people. The CIA/Lord twinkle toes found out and set up a CIA operation base at the Annex in Libyan to try to find and recover them. The CIA was already there, probably coordinating the weapons shipments in the first place. They possible had them located but before they could act the Militants found out the CIA was on to them. Either the Militants had inside help or possibly a CIA operative was caught and tortured into spilling the beans.
– The Militants were probably not locals, so they may have not been sure where the CIA operation was based. So they attacked the Consulate and the Americans lead them to the CIA position. The Attackers wanted to put the recovery operation out of business. Stevens was just a stalking horse in reverse. It wasn’t about the Consulate.
– Obama/Clinton knew they were screwed from the get go. Anything they did would bring it all out, and a downed aircraft by stolen illegal weapons would have a total disaster and forced the press to investigate. So they were trapped in their own lies and just decided to go with some diversion. Someone, banking on the kneejerk reaction of the Islamists, suggested using the obscure video to inflame protests. Recall how loudly and often multiple O’Bummer mouthpieces kept hammering on and on about the “outrageous anti-Muslim video”. Even at the time it seemed they intentionally wanted to maximally piss off the Muslims.
– In some ways not all that far from what we guessed months ago it
would seem.
yes but was baracky reading “my pet goat”
I’m guessing the 30k shoulder launched surface to air missles they’re looking for are Soviet Block stuff they don’t want falling into the hands of terrorists.
Of course, Iran-Contra comes to mind, and maybe they were hoping to repurpose the stuff.
But even it that weren’t the case, and the CIA is walking
gunsMANPADS into Syria, the former makes a better cover story than disaffected yutes got outta control.So we’re back to incompetence caused by indifference.
i think proggtarded sums it up. laughably stupid also.
There have been a few shoot-downs of Syrian aircraft over the last 8-9 mos. or so, but not so very many. Then we have to wonder if there were gobs of shoulder-fired missiles going in, why so few successes?
Africa Command was authorized: 15 December 2006, announced: 6 February 2007, established: 1 October 2007, activated: 1 October 2008, so why 4 years after it was activated does it still have very few assigned forces and must rely of the DOD to provide forces for its missions? It seems like some shell to provide cover for something else.
It’s not laughably stupid if you’re proggtarded.
They think they did the right thing, because they did it, which makes it right.
If you weren’t a bitter-clinging, wing-nut, tea-bagger, you’d agree.
And why wasn’t Israel worried when they flew strikes if we were supposed to be in Benghazi? Besides in Libya we would supposedly, if shot down, have our pilots coming down either in friendly territory or at sea where our navy could do the rescue.
And why wasn’t Israel worried when they flew strikes if we were supposed to be in Benghazi?
In what sense do you mean Geoff? Strikes over Syria, I take it? And worried about ground fire against their aircraft? But we’ve had some indication the Israelis never entered Syria at all, but fired from over the Leb.
And too, some of the stuff I’ve seen was admitted to have been captured by the rebels from Syrian regulars, after over-running Syrian bases.
It would just seem that if 30,000 manpads were floating around the ME, even if headed to Syria, quite a few would end up in say “Leb” there to be used against the planes of the “little satan.”
I don’t think that we didn’t send aircraft there because of fear of being shot down by manpads. I think we didn’t send them because there was no one lower than the President who was able to authorize it. And he wasn’t doing so.
Whether it was incompetence or evil or both I don’t know but this might be a case where his dithering leadership style got overrun by events. In the academe and the legislature, even in campaigns things move at a slower pace than they do, can do, in military operations.
When seconds count, consensus decision making gets people killed just as surely as waiting for the 911 response while the killer is shooting and running through the halls of the school.
Information wants to be free. You can download it here.
TRESPASSERS W, thanks. I knew she was on the roof and David was spy-glassing her. I couldn’t remember if they knew each other previously and it’s been a long time since I read the story.
Have you “Oh God” by Joseph Heller? It’s a scream. It tells the story of King David, as an old man looking back on his life.
Ah, gotcha Geoff, thanks.
This is actually knee slapping hilarious: State Department Demands Takedown Of 3D-Printable Gun Files For Possible Export Control Violations
I’ve read it. Loved it. Heller was hysterical.
laughably stupid also.
Who knew that impotence laden with arrogance could be so damned funny? I’m liking this Wilson kid more every time he pops up.
the totus and the choom gang are the dumbest mfers to walk the planet
Heller was hysterical.
I honestly laughed out loud at that book. I’m glad you liked it, too.
Apparently the Heller book is, “God Knows.” All I got from “Oh, God” was those George Burns movies (which I liked, by the way).
I loved it. But Oh God was the John Denver George Burns movie. Heller’s book was something like God Knows.
Or what cranky-d said. Oops!
I shall savor this rare moment.
I just remember the thought bubble on the cover, “Go figure”.
Gad, Ace, you’re finally figuring out the left is an actual, not imaginary, enemy?
Ace is bleating about boycotts when it’s obvious the MSM prefers death to saying anything about their light bringer. I can understand someone being a sycophant if there’s a check involved. The sycophantic media, however, does it for free. Even sluts have better standards than the media.
@Dicentra, did you catch Beck the other day when he came right out and admitted he didn’t think things were going to end well? That he thinks he is lying to his wife when he keeps telling her things will turn out all right?
You have to think of them as submissives, not sycophants. The degradation completes them.
In his world there is one real person, himself. Then there are the sycophants and submissive sycophants who last only as long as they prove untroublesomely useful. Finally there all all the rest of the things out there, trees, rivers, planes, cars, little people, the props for the great play that is his life.
Benghazi? Props are not allowed to cause trouble and so there will be none to be seen. Just ask any Democrat-sycophant Congressman, “Nothing there, let’s just move on.”
@Dicentra, did you catch Beck the other day when he came right out and admitted he didn’t think things were going to end well? That he thinks he is lying to his wife when he keeps telling her things will turn out all right?
Didn’t hear that part exactly, but when he says “not going to end well,” it depends on the time frame.
He’s pretty sure (as are many of us) that we’re going to slam into the mountain sooner or later. Not sure what speed we’ll be going, not sure of the altitude, but there will be no turning around and finding a field to land in nor will we set it down roughly in the trees.
He thinks that, as Reagan predicted, the generation who loses our freedom will not see it again in our lifetimes, so we have to think of our kids and grandkids as “clay pots,” like the ones the Essenes hid the Dead Sea Scrolls in. Teach the hell out of them so that they’ll be able to rebuild someday.
But as for us? It’s going to get unimaginably bad before it gets better, and us folks may never see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We deserve it, though (“we” in the broadest sense) because we didn’t stop the bastages’ incrementalism before it metastasized.
When seconds count, consensus decision making gets people killed just as surely as waiting for the 911 response while the killer is shooting and running through the halls of the school.
Again, if they were overtaken by events, you’d expect to have seen some scrambling and huddling and desperate action taken, but instead there was this long build-up of “we’re going to put an outpost there but SHUT UP ALREADY about needing more security.”
Then when it went down, O! just went off to bed, as if he were expecting it, and Hildebeeste and her staff took the “we’re being attacked” phone calls but didn’t act on the information beyond doing a search on YouTube to find a likely video to blame it on.
They were expecting something like this, but I can’t say whether they planned it or merely seized the inevitable opportunity to… what? Get rid of Stevens?
It doesn’t look like arrogance and incompetence. He’d at least have been in the Situation Room, Looking Busy.
Exclusive: The RNC Benghazi Attack Ad that Never Ran
Because Romney.
That was lack of interest.
[…] here to read the brilliant rest. The incompetence and sheer malevolence of the gang that currently […]
Scattered showers of journalism spotted at ABC: Exclusive: Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference
Best assessment of the intelligence community, my ass.
Remember the other best intelligence assessment that this administration couldn’t wait to tell us about, the one where the Tsarnaev brothers were self-radicalized and acted completely alone with no connection to global jihad? Yeah.
Suspect in Boston Bombing Talked Jihad in Russia
@geoff and ernst:
Normal person to White House: Damnit, I know that warm liquid is not rain!
MSM to White House: Thank you for the Golden Nectar of the God!!
You’re mistakenly assuming that this administration would act like normal people instead of like the political people they are.
Way off topic:
Chris Christie: ‘I’m a damn good Republican’
Which helps explain why I am not.
Hell, he’s two good Republicans.
proggtardia news
Benghazi: Progressives Rewrite History in Real Time
m steyn
link
I’m not trying to put a good spin on Obama’s actions because we don’t really have good sourcing for just what any of the principals at the WH did that afternoon and evening, yet.
Normal person to White House: Damnit, I know that warm liquid is not rain!
MSM to White House: Thank you for the Golden Nectar of the God!!
A raunchy old song comes to mind. I wonder if it can be remixed with a Barack Obama impersonator doing the vocal.
NBC’s Lisa Myers said this morning on TV that Democrats have been calling her to attempt to undermine the testimony of Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks:
Romney scrapped Benghazi ad in final weeks of campaign
Excellent post, Jeff. It’s a sad and shameful commentary that more folks care more about Jodi Arias than they do about what happened and why in Benghazi.
Worth repeating:
This line is worth pushing. There’s very little that will penetrate the deliberate barriers, self-delusion, and cognitive dissonance of our low-info friends, but self-preservation and blatant betrayal are some powerful levers we can put to work.
I’m done talking about Clinton and Obama in terms of incompetence, or policy ideals incompatible with the Constitution and our long-cherished liberties. It’s time to cast them as objectively Evil. They sacrificed one of their own people — hung him out to dry, refused to help him, allowed him to be murdered and degraded. And then they lied about it. Stood over his flag-draped coffin, in front of God and country, and lied about why he was killed. And why? For some greater good? For some higher purpose? No. They caused all this to occur for no purpose other than the furtherance of their own personal political power.
If they did this to Ambassador Stevens, then they’ll do it to any of the news networks; they’ll do it to any bureaucrat; they’ll do it to the gays or the abortionists or the illegals. All of the White House’s allies and useful idiots need to be put on notice that Obama Doesn’t Care, and that they could be the next to go under the bus.
These people are Evil. Undeniably, objectively, documentably Evil. Those who would call Obama “a Good Man” need to come to grips with their delusion, and quick.
. . . self-preservation and blatant betrayal are some powerful levers we can put to work.
On that point, or to that end Squid, there’s a powerful exchange in the very last minutes of the House Oversight Committee hearing last Wed., between Rep. John Mica, Greg Hicks and Mr. Nordstrom [starting roughly at 5:37:00] —
Mica: [speaking of the unclassified “ARB”] […] “… there’s a certain plateau, and then everybody below that gets the blame. Uh, up on page 4 (when I had my time before) I said (this is from the report) ‘. . . Embassy Tripoli did not demonstrate strong and sustained advocacy with Washington for increased security for Special Mission Benghazi’ — and yet we’ve heard your predecessor, Mr. Hicks, pleaded for additional help, you pleaded for it (it’s documented), but you didn’t get it: you actually got a reduction — is that correct? This was pointed out?
Hicks: “Yes, we got a drastic reduction.”
Mica: “So it wasn’t like this was all over the place. Finally, for the ARB, you put in here ‘to ignore the role senior department leadership played before, during or after the Sept 11th attacks sends a clear message to all State Department employees’.
Looks like they’re whitewashing the folks at the higher pay grades and levels, you all are taking the blame. Is that a fair assessment?”
Nordstrom: “I think the basic message is that whether or not you’re sitting out at the post requesting resources, preparing for testimony before this Committee, or standing on a building surrounded by an armed mob attacking you, the message is just the same: ‘You’re on your own.’ ”
Mica: “Mr. Hicks?”
Hicks: “I share what Mr. Nordstrom had to say.”
They “fixed it at the [deputy] assistant secretary level”, as per that piece you emailed.
he has the hat though
Kerry Spouts Dem Talking Point on Benghazi: ‘I Really Haven’t Learned Anything New’
Smart Diplomacy evidently necessitates an extreme adherence to a state of permanent self-abnegation, something beyond mere modesty, verging far closer to servile slavishness. It’s a wonder that such a diplomacy could ever distinguish a purpose for itself.
Oh wait! It can’t!
[…] last week, at the first hint of that swirling mist around Benghazi might lift, Jeff at Protein Wisdom voiced all my disgust in one post. Read it all. I’ll […]