You are right he isn’t even a half way decent liar. Good evening Fern.

I read it first in the newspaper on saturday and then on Sunday my visiting pastor repeated it.
The Evangelical Pastor said that he still felt The Mormon Religion is a Cult (whether Billy Graham has decided it is no longer a cult or not), but that he will vote for Romney anyway!
Evangelical pastors and the Catholic Church have endorsed Romney!
Hypocrits are everywhere!
I need a new church!

No my friend you do not need a church at all. If you have God in your heart then you have the only church you need. That was Christ’s message to the masses. No person has the right to tell you how to believe. That’s personal between you and God. It is no different than any of your other important and meaningful relationships. You wouldn’t have a third person telling you how to conduct your relationships would you? Of coarse you wouldn’t. God knows your love and devotion. Sorry about my rant but there is a point to it. I don’t believe these are men of peace, I believe these are men bent on controlling everyone and everything for the sake of personal pleasure and ego. At this point, I don’t see a difference between religious leaders and these egocentric maniacs. People desperately need to wake up and pay attention NOW!!!!!!

The first time I heard Franklin Graham downing Obama and talking up Romney a few month ago…..I thought…WTF…doesn’t he know the diff? And he is the one that lead Romney to Billy….WTF.

In other words you saw what you wanted to see.

Didn’t you?

Unless montana was watching a different debate than we watched.

It is really hard to have empathy for ALL those GOP cases of “Cranial Rectumitis” when it is self-imposed.

LOL…I FULLY agree!!!!

I love the TRUTH and this is one reason I LOVE YOU!!!!!

You know …just as a historical aside…during the Pax Romana 500 years of peace the senate was made of people who had served in the Legions and had witnessed first hand the ugliness of war. At the fall of the roman empire the senate was made of rich priviledged sons of warriors who thought war was glorious.. Quote “Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori.” They only knew the legends of heros not the heart break of watching your friends guts leak out. They loved the idea of conquering but wanted no part of it for themselves so they hired mercenaries to fight and claimed victory because it was their money that paid them…our house and senate is about 80% non vet, and we have blackwater mercenaries fighting under our flag…I’m not saying it is a prerequisit to effective governance but …history says when the people declaring war have no skin in the game and no concept of what skin in the game even feels like we are in deep trouble.

Yea, I agree they should apologize for voting for republicans also. I don’t get into politcal wars with anyone except on this blog, but have had talks, some a little heated. So far I’ve talked six republicans into not voting that way this time. I have to give alot of credit to the republicans for making my job easier though. Can you believe these idiots?

Again I am surprised, not at your accomplishments, your position, unless I have misread, you better than most, should understand the need to improve in this area.

Well I can honestly say that I have witnessed an increase in technical high schools in my area that focus on just those subjects. The goal is to produce more engineers and scientist and help those people like my wife and niece who love numbers, to pursue their quest with some assistance when needed.

We are in agreement, I just don’t believe that Romney would take that route.

Not at all what he is saying, but so be it.
Guess what I did when my less than middle class parents couldn’t pay a dime toward my college? Hint, I didn’t borrow any money and I still managed to pay for eight years of college education without a scholarship. It is a nasty four letter word starting with ‘w’.

We know he was elected President of the HLR, but we don’t know the circumstances.
He was a lecturer and then a senior lecturer. Though the University of Chicago may consider that as ‘professor’ level status, that would not be the case at the schools I attended or where I was considered a lecturer.
His schedule from the school shows him teaching two or three classes in the fall and winter terms — usually Constitutional Law III: Equal Protection and Substantive Due Process; Voting Rights and the Democratic Process; and Current Issues in Racism and the Law.
The President’s education is like mine would have been had I stayed strictly on an engineering track, very narrow.

Disregard my question Bill, I got my answer. I’m glad you worked and paid for your education and congrats on your achievements. But it is wrong and unfair for you to blame and accuse President Obama for a broken down education system. Do you credit any blame for Bush #2. Because remember,” NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND”.

We definitely don’t have 16 years. As a former elementary school teacher who was thrown into teaching a science class because no one would even try, I can identify with what you are saying. I am sure that you also realize that we lost a lot of our qualified Math and Science teachers due to the fact that they could be better compensated in private industry. Teachers salaries should be commiserate with their importance to the future of our society. Their salaries are and have been to low for quite some time. Make the incentives more rewarding to attract those we must have to insure our countries positive future.

Again we are in agreement. Why have we stood by and allowed education cost to go crazy? Why is more money being consumed in administration fees as oposed to the actual education of our children, again our fault And there definitely should be a system of weeding out those nonproductive teachers and administrators

As a Vice President of a Local for 17 years, I can acknowledge that they may have fattened the pot a little to much in some instances. However, I also know that without the Unions and people coming together the working conditions and the mistreatment of the worker would still be normal as it still is in some places in this country. The Coal Industry readily comes to mind.

So can we agree that the Unions were and still are a vital part of the work scene. Although there should be some serious adjustments to address the areas that have gotten out of control..

Well now you have met one whose only interest is in making sure that the worker is treated with respect and not taken advantage of in any way.

We know the system isn’t perfect and definitely needs some adjustments on both sides. I understand the devastation of closing factories to a community. I have friends and relatives who went into the factory straight out of high school, work there 25/30 years only to have it close and they are to young to retire with their whole way of life gone in an instant. Can we ever reach a balance where human dignity and profit margin can co-exist?

There have been situations when the employees have been willing to take a cut in benefits and salary only to be refused due to management’s unwillingness to wait the time necessary to fully recover.

That is where I have problems with this system. It always leans to the side of profit margins, in my opinion, and fails to understand, not only the human factor, but the overall ripple effect to communities, neighborhoods and eventually cities..

Correct, however in my mind we must be able to create a balance if we have any hope of surviving.I endorse the capitalistic system, I just don’t believe that we are to discount everything else, the environment and humanity, for the sake of making a profit. I consider myself as one of the fortunate in this country and believe all of us deserve the opportunity to live in peace with dignity and respect. My fear is that if we continue down this road we will finally be two societies the haves and the have nots. Have you ever cornered an animal before? No matter how small, they rise up and become dangerous, as will anyone when they feel they don’t have anything to loose. Desperation brings about irrational thinking and choices and violence. How long will I watch my children go hungry before I do what ever I need to do. Especially if I am convinced that the system is against me..

You are preaching to the choir as far as small business and economic growth are concerned . My childhood was spent hearing about how home ownership and being self employed was the key to financial independence. I also agree that new employment avenues need to be explored. I believe that there are vast opportunities to create massive job growth through rebuilding our infrastructure, especially since there would be many feeder businesses involved and perhaps created in the process.It is also my position that had the banks made the loans to the small businesses as they were supposed to, the situation would be a lot different. I also believe we should be moving away from fossil fuels and really investing in alternatives. I also understand the resistance to moving away from fossil fuels. You are right, they do have cash to invest. The part that is hard for me to accept is that the profit margin comes before country. All of those who have earned enough money to take it to another country, or move factories there, were able to do so because they live in this country and they show their loyalty by doing the very thing that will injure the country most, hindering economic growth..

We can stop that practice if we spoke out as one voice. I don’t have all of the variables where fossil fuels are concerned. I do know that LA was being consumed by smog, so much so you might not see the sky for days at at time. Mandates in California evolved into a successful, efficient electric car. The project was so successful at addressing the air pollution that some great mind decided to recall all of these cars and would not allow citizens to even purchase them. They were hauled off in the middle of the night and destroyed. Why? Closer scrutiny reveals the oil industry in the mix. All of this is public information.

I sucked at math too. Strange, my last job was book keeper.

The only place I would take issue with you is about conservatives blaming government for life failures. Conservatives are about individual initiative and the freedom to pursue it, failure or success. Conservatives have issue with government when government sets up roadblocks to individual initiative. Along with successes, I’ve had my share of failures. None of which I ever thought the government had a hand in. That said, I have had to fight long and expensive battles with governments over zoning and building permits. All eventually won, but a person with lessor resources would have been defeated. Defeat would have meant that the jobs eventually created would never have been created.

Excellent! A lot of technical people are very willing to give their time to such projects. I can tell you that engineers don’t generally make good classroom teachers. Most of their liberal arts classes, English, composition, etc. was limited to their freshman year, basically one semester of each. They are not trained in speaking or general communications. But they can mentor or assist in math, chem and physics.

The school is obviously not up to speed on the capabilities of special needs children. Some can do astounding math, some can’t add two numbers. Some of the them thrive on history, boring to others. They are special needs, not handicapped.
Big problem in an ‘everybody gets treated the same’ structure. That is one reason why home schooled kids generally wind up way ahead of public school kids.

That is the key. Everyone is an individual with different strengths and different desires. The solution for your kids works well for everyone. Too many people simply take a job to earn an income. If they would simply do a little soul searching, determine what they really want to do and then work to become the very best they can at it, income usually follows and certainly a more contented life.

Very true, but there is still a bunch enjoying the sunshine at Guantanamo while
al-Zawahiri and mullah Omar still run free, and, as Romney pointed out, growing numbers throughout Africa, Yemen and other mid-east states.

Let’s just say that Obama removed, “have them on the run” from his al qaeda reference in his stump speech. An honest look at the situation might result in a better policy. That is what Romney was saying.

Might be worth it just to see Michael Moore exploding. Other than that, you are simply trying to excuse bad policy and bad actions.

The one that will concentrate on getting the American economy and jobs back.

That is lemon picking at its best. Please get the full story. Only some companies are reporting profits, others are reporting losses. The market itself is driven by emotion, not very much by the real record of the companies.
I know that job exporting line is straight from the Democrat playbook, but it isn’t anymore true than blaming Obama for an even larger job loss overseas under his watch. Each situation has to be viewed and analyzed independently. For example, if a product largely requires unskilled labor to produce it, expect that the job will go to the country with workers willing to work for less money. When their standard of living rises, the job will move again.

Bain under Romney did have failures, just as every other funding company. The initial part of each story is that the companies in question were failing and about to go under. Bain injected capital and management and tried to turn them around. It is far more profitable to them to be successful than to have to liquidate.

Moral has nothing to do with it. Businesses are not about morality or altruism.

I wouldn’t characterize it as a problem, it is simply the way businesses are. Typically, many businesses are benefactors of their communities, but the reality is that it is because it is good for business, not because they feel an obligation. Individuals are quite different. Most successful people are very big contributors to charity and to their communities. It may be direct or through a foundation. Such charity is far more directed and efficient than government programs. Romney gives 20% of his income to charity. A large part of that is to church related charity, but the Mormons are well known for helping others outside of their own. For example, they were the first group into New Orleans after Katrina.

Was someone holding a gun to their heads?
A clue: all businesses are in it only for the money!

It was Bain and Romney had left. Here is something you and others need to get clear. Businesses are created and operate to make money. Nothing else. Business will create jobs if it helps make money. Businesses will be good to their employees if doing so will help them succeed. If not, they are under no obligation to hire or offer benefits to anyone. If a business plan says they can make more money by moving to the next town or to another country, they will do it. It has nothing to do with altruism or ‘feel good’. Now you may not like that definition. If not, then you start a business, hire a lot of people, give them medical and dental insurance, weeks of paid vacation, a week of holidays, fund their retirement and don’t pay any attention as to whether you are making money or not.

And, Teachers do not build or stimulate an economy. They provide services that will have a long term affect on our people but do not create jobs. This is why I get so annoyed when Obama says his plan is to invest in teachers and education – no disrespect to teachers.

Motivated people create jobs. Motivated people seek out the education they need to be successful. Some wealthy people are handed nice educations and make nothing of it out of laziness or lack of appreciation for it. Likewise some poor people find the resources to get the education they need, generally appreciate it more because they have to work for it, and make more out of it. And, of course in my generalization, we know that all people are individuals and will make out of this life what they choose to. This is a difference between individuals and you can never even out that playing field no matter how hard you try.

Yes, it is good to have a long term plan to provide a good education for our people. But that is not a fix for our failing economy and certainly isn’t going to do anything very quickly.

The other whole pile of crap that Obama has been selling is this taxing the rich idea. It’s total garbage. It presents an image of doing what is fair but to say that it is an actual solution is ridiculous. Most wealthy people I know probably wouldn’t mind paying a little more in taxes if they new it was going to good use. But it is going to the federal government who has a history of spending foolishly. And if the revenues made any significant impact on the deficit at all they would support it. But they don’t. The projected revenues are so insignificant that it’s not even worth all the air time it has been getting. Come on Obama, if you really want to cut the deficit give us a real plan.

Sorry Cairn, Clinton already had a booming economy and he got an extra little bonus from social security which was taking in more than it was paying out at the time. So Clinton used the social security surplus to get to his $234 billion dollar budget surplus. A stroke of luck for him as he actually never cut spending while he was in office. So as not to play favorites, GW decided not to include the wars in his budgets which helped make his numbers better so they are all liars in my opinion – or shall I say mis-leaders.

But I have no problems with the concept of having the rich pay a little more, and like I said, most wealthy people I know don’t really have a problem with it either. What I have a problem with is Obama running around the country selling this tax increase to the American people as if it is actually a solution to our problems. We are already $16 trillion in hole and scheduled to be another trillion in at the end of next year. What is $90 billion going to do? Absolutely nothing. Obama is just kicking the can down the road to keep his power for another 4 years. And if he really cared about the little people of this country like he says, he would have started addressing this debt and deficit issue immediately – or started preparing the American people for the circumstances of not getting it under control. Unfortunately that is not popular to talk about on pop culture TV shows – the only thing he books himself on lately in order to avoid the tough questions.

No, they do not create jobs and without available jobs, even a very well educated person can be out of work. That’s stating the obvious, isn’t it. Lots of examples out there. But once business feels free to invest and expand again, lots of well educated people will be needed.

Obama talks about, “a balanced plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. On top of the $1 trillion in spending we’ve already cut, I’d ask the wealthy to pay a little more. And as we end the war in Afghanistan, let’s apply half the savings to pay down our debt and use the rest for some nation-building right here at home.” A couple problems with this claim. For starters, he has not actually cut spending by $1 trillion already. Instead, he agreed last summer to a debt ceiling deal that led to a “sequestration” process which lets future spending increase a little more slowly than previously planned over the next decade. But over that period, spending still goes up. Secondly, the war is being paid for with borrowed money. There is no ‘rest’ when the war ceases to pay down our debt unless he intends to pay down our debt with borrowed money.
It is very much like his claims that new taxes on the rich will pay down the deficit, the debt and buy lots of new stuff.

Federal spending totaled $3.6 trillion in fiscal 2011, the period that ended Sept. 30, 2011, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This fiscal year, which ends Sunday, total spending is expected to decline to $3.56 trillion, and decline further to $3.554 trillion next year. Those two brief cuts total just $49 billion over the two years – well short of $1 trillion. And after that, spending starts to rise again, and by 2015 should again top the 2011 figure. By the end of the 10-year period in 2021, the CBO projects federal spending of $5.5 trillion.

That is a left field comment. We should be guardians of the people we put in harm’s way.

Are you saying we shouldn’t try to protect those we put in harm’s way?

I understand and fully agree with your disgust. It doesn’t stop with companies profiteering from government contracts, it also goes to military people who are tasked with defining and testing material. I was involved in aerospace contracting for a few years of my career and am fully familiar with the sometimes all too cozy relationships between military personnel and contractors. I won’t go into my set of horror stories here, but getting unfit or defective material happens all too often and it isn’t just the contractors who are to blame.

So, Bill, lets start being guardians, here in America because there are alot of our American citizens in harm’s way and dying at the hands of derranged gun owners.

Bill, clearly you have married yourself to a host of issues, here in America and abroad. It’s obvious you are gravely concerned and that’s understandable. In your reply to me, you gave statistics comparison of lives lost to deranged gunowners and auto drivers, but why did you throw in immigrations laws. Are you implying that American citizens are in harm’s way because of immigrants?

Bill you are really subtle and sneaky. I realize if I continue in conversation with you, it will be never ending and there will be one issue after another. Instead of using your intellect and intelligence on the negatives, focus on the positive and put forth solutions. Because the world care very little about what a man or woman know; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.

Thank you old blue, We cannot go into every country that has problems.

You always like to skirt the issue. My point was that we should have posted a ship carrying helicopters and Marines in the Gulf of Sirte to protect our people in either Tripoli or Benghazi. That would put them no more than about a hour away from either site.

well said my friend and Semper Fi!

I’m sure, that like many of today’s critics, that you knew full well that there were no WMD’s before we went in. It is also true that it has been proven that Bush knew there were no WMD’s. Oh, it hasn’t?

Probably not comfortable enough to pull a gun on you.

So when an answer hits the mark, you move to ridicule. You could work for Axlerod.

Less money in the budget would have some effect on service provided.

Okay they should know

We would all like to see a true democracy, rule of law and peaceful citizens in Libya. It is exactly the same vision Bush had for Iraq. Sometimes tribal societies simply don’t see things the same way we do. That Consulate was American territory. If we won’t defend it, who will in a basically lawless country? We put our faith in the locals without a backup plan.

Excellent. And I would hope that he would utilize Condoleeza Rice, as well.
I wanted to see if you came up with the Cheney/Rumsfield junk that others on the left have posited.

Not exactly. Marines are there to protect U.S. territory, not to kill people not on U.S. territory. Technically, once the bad guys are on U.S. soil (i.e., the Consulate grounds), they’re fair game. In practice, lethal force against intruders (attackers) is rarely used. It is the job of local authorities to keep attackers away. In this case, they didn’t do their job–if there were even local authorities available. From what I’ve heard, the Libyan people are grateful for American assistance in getting rid of Ghaddafi. You would turn them against the U.S. by allowing Marine guards to kill innocent civilians. . . . That’s worked really well in Iraq.

A marine detachment is four to six men depending on the mission. For a typical Consulate deployment, I’d expect a six man team.

“So in your world…” is your interpretation. What I said clearly was that adding marines to the mix would likely not have changed the outcome. An attack by a dozen highly armed militants (equiped with RPGs) would have overwhelmed the lightly fotified, temporary facility in every locale but Hollywood. So, yes, six marines and the four Consulate employees would have died.

No, dense one. Had they gotten a marine detachment as a security detail when they asked earlier for the unit in Tripoli, they would have received a six-man team.

When the six-man team relocated from Tripoli to the un-reinforced, unsecured, temporary, consulate facility in Benghazi, the marines would have used their light weapons against the RPG- and AK47-equipped attackers and been killed.

Arnie and Sly are movie heros. If you’ve got those guys on your team, you don’t need aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, or atomic weapons.

Unfortunately, in the real world the real marines, like those in Beirut in 1983, die just like other mortals. Six men with light duty weapons (and only one with a sidearm) would have become the principal targets of the assassins who were wielding RPGs and AK47s. Yes, some of the attackers would have been killed instead of none. And ten Americans instead of four would have joined them.

As do air power. And artillery. None of which was available to our consulate in Libya.

Our embassy agreements with the host countries specify what arms our security detachments may carry. They are typically not combat arms. Since consulate security is in the purview of the host country, there may be even more stringent limitations of what arms our personnel may carry. In any case, only officers carry sidearms, which would have been the most useful weapons to repel an invading group without inflicting huge amounts of collateral damage.

The standard security weapon is the 5.56mm M249 automatic or the .223 cal M4. Both are short range weapons designed for devastating, debilitating wounds, not necessarily to kill outright. The AK47 is equivalent to the old .30 cal M1, is designed for close to medium range combat action, and the round is designed to kill outright. The timelag from the first outbreak of violence during the demonstrations may have allowed a marine unit to don armor, but the AK is still wickedly lethal in leg and upper arm hits. Rules of engagement would likely have limited the amount of return fire our folks could have sent back, given the crowd around the compound (again, the sidearm is the better choice.)

I suspect you’re going for the old Patton quote: “untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets”. It is well to remember that they’ve been practicing too.

I agree that Libya is complete chaos right now. What I keep saying is that embassy agreements have provisions in them that we accept when we sign them. Among those agreed provisions are the security provided by the host country for consulates. Under those agreements there are probably restrictions on what forces, and under what circumstances, we may bring our own “army” to a consulate. I doubt the ambassador would violate those agreements, even in complete chaos.

WRT AKs, thus my comment on leg and upper arm injuries. Armor, even if worn, still leaves appendages open to lethal wounds, and appendage injury is more liekly during a spray-fire comfrontation (should any injury occur) BECAUSE the shooter is not aiming for center-of-mass. I’m not sure whether night-vision gear is standard issue to a security force (had they been assigned in Tripoli.)

Covering fire doesn’t help when rules of engagement limit fire to identified targets and a mob of unarmed civilians is all around. Helicopters hovering over or landing in a zone covered by RPGs doesn’t seem like a good strategy to me. It seems like it adds more marine deaths to the body count. So, the marines land a mile or so away and fight their way to the consulate?

I’m sure the ambassador felt safe or he wouldn’t have gone to Benghazi. Maybe think back to 1972. The Germans were responsible for the Olympic Games security, the Isreali athletes trusted them, and the Palestinians were threatening all kinds of mayhem. A determined force defied the Israeli army and the German defense forces to penetrate security attack the athletes at an unfortified location.

I have ultimate confidence in our military, but I also recognize that they require time to spin up, and a few hours to marshall resources to repel an invasion by unknown quantities of unknown forces with unknown weaponry is not enough. If it were, we wouldn’t have lost 241 marines in Beirut in 1983, right? Because otherwise Reagan meets all the criteria you attribute to the president.

Then a simple question. You are the President. You know that Libya is a very unstable and volatile country with a growing insurgency. You have an Ambassador who has asked for additional security several times, warning of danger. You have the command of our military forces. You know al qaeda likes to strike on 9/11.
Is campaigning more important to you than paying close attention to details?

In the TRADITION of Bush/Cheney…..LOVE IT!

That is why you have a daily, morning security briefing. You simply cannot get all the information you need if you rely on written reports. Discussion will bring out material not in the reports and you can ask questions to be sure you fully understand the reports. When I heard that the President was skipping those meetings, I wasn’t shocked, because I knew that since he had never been a businessman in charge of a company, he hadn’t learned the discipline.
And sometimes, you simply have to think for yourself. It is what you do if you are in charge.
The Libya situation had red flags all over it. Not only were we not prepared for such an eventually, our slow response has PYA all over it.

I am not a vet. I was too young for Korea and too old for Viet Nam. But I have been in leadership positions in various small, medium and large companies and organizations for many years. Not even close to having some one shooting at me, except for a hunting incident when I was younger. Having to make a payroll in tough times can be stressful but certainly not life threatening.

No. And you can cite no evidence to support your presumed position that the President thinks campaigning is more important than paying attention to details.
Let us pretend for a moment that you know something about governing, that you know something about large organizations (be they governmental or private) and how they operate and you know something diplomatic missions. No one operates with perfect knowledge ahead of, during or after the fact. The decisions regarding the request for additional security were not made directly to the Secretary or her immediate staff or the White House or the President or his immediate staff. The requests went through channels and the questions were answered in ordinary and muddled way such questions are always answered, with one eye on the cost and the other on security assessments. (The Humvees we sent into the Iraq war in the beginning are a great example of big organization retrospectively obviously stupid ideas. If we had been prescient, American soldiers and Marines would not have spent months driving around in those death traps). After the fact, a lot of things become obvious. (Such as the President’s mistaken belief that Republicans actually wanted to help and were open to compromise and negotiation concerning the problems facing the nation.) The leaders of large organizations always bear ultimate responsibility for what occurs under their watch. It is, however, one thing to say the responsibility for not preventing an event ultimately lies in a particular place and quite another to actually blame an event’s occurrence on that person while ignoring how the world actually operates. (This is reminiscent of blaming a murder victim’s parents for not doing enough to protect him or her, rather than blaming the actual responsible party – the murderer.) President Bush was not responsible for 9/11 and should not be blamed for not preventing it (despite what my liberal friends say). The very same can be said in this case regarding President Obama. It was a tragedy. We should try to learn from our mistakes so that we might prevent such occurrences in the future if we can. The long term interests of this nation aren’t served by trying to make political capital from such events. You have no real interest in actually understanding what occurred, you are just interested in finding reasons to assign blame. Every mistake you ascribe to him, and every success you say is someone else’s.

You are absolutely wrong about who made this a political event. Is it your expectation that had the President come into the Rose Garden the following day and said what you say he should have said that this event would have been ignored by the GOP and Mitt Romney for its potential to embarrass the administration? If it is, then you are completely delusional. The other choice would have been to say nothing. That would have gone over well. “One can only surmise”? Seems like there is a whole bunch of surmising going on. Surmise is a fancy word for guess. One can only surmise that Mitt Romney knows he is prevaricating when he says he has a secret five point plan. Prevaricating is a fancy word for lying.
I have seen the video of the President’s statement and I have read the text. He very clearly is not making this a political event. This is mostly in the form of a memorial to those who lost their lives. It has its “we a great nation” moments, all Libyans aren’t bad guys, without saying it directly- all Moslems aren’t bad guys and we are going to get justice on this. It says it was an act of terror and it does not make any claim that this was just an anti-film demonstration gone bad and it does not say anything about who perpetrated the attack. It was never intended as a fact based rendition of the events. Maybe the President made the mistake of thinking Republicans loved their country more than they relish the idea of defeating him in November. Maybe he thought it is more appropriate to appreciate the sacrifice who died and deal with the specifics later. There is no statement he could have made that you would not find fault with. There is no statement he could have made that you would not have parsed looking for an angle from which to criticize him. Democrats don’t do the crap you guys do and the reason is we are just better “Real Americans” than you are. When someone attacks the nation we swing into line. Years later we get rewarded for our patriotism by being told we can’t say it was a mistake because we gave the President at the time the benefit of the doubt. Of course at the time of the damn war you were busy impugning the integrity and patriotism of anyone with the temerity to criticize it or question its necessity in any way. There are simply no limits to your hypocrisy or your willingness to make up alternative realities. In your desire for power there is no sewer so foul you won’t go swimming in it.

I have looked at the timelines. So what? There is no there there. There is no smoking gun. This comes down to people complaining this wasn’t clearly labeled a terrorist attack from the very beginning, because there was some info that said it was. Since that info turned out to be correct it was the only info that should have or could have been correct. The time line has nothing to do with the content, intent and purpose of the Rose Garden statement. More than anything it is a memorial and clearly never intended to be a factual recounting of the information the Administration may have had or not had at that time. The early CIA reports said spontaneous and other sources said organized attack. Sitting here after in the aroma of perfect aftermath info you pick and chose the reports and information to believe because you and others now know what happened. You can do the very same thing with 9/11. How could anyone have failed to see that coming? How could anyone initially been unsure of what was going on? This is the event postmortem where everyone who wasn’t there is correct about what occurred, but the opinion of the guy who was there is totally discounted. You know more than anyone about what occurred and you weren’t even in the info pipeline or present at the discussions of this info. It boils down to this, whether you understand how people actually operate and think, how information in the pipeline is contradictory and incomplete, and whether you automatically assume every inconsistency is evidence of malevolence. But in any case you make sure you try to turn this into a national crisis on par with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, because that fits your “agenda.”

The obfuscation is in your imagination. The military assets activation is SOP in any situation where there is no clear ability of the locals to provide security and fluid situations such as this. We have done that many times for less reason than this. Maybe he can hold a press conference and produce his birth certificate and his academic records also. I think he should have a press conference every time you and Fox News think he should. Then you could go on ad nauseum about how there must be something going on because he held a news conference. Keep flogging that dead horse. Conspiracy theorist always know what is going on, even when nothing is.

I am not worried about them asking questions. It is their job. I think you are wrong about the facts and I think time will prove you wrong.

They don’t need to the House and Fox are on the job. I am sure they will do their usual fair and unbiased work in this case, just as they have in so much. Civics Lesson: The President cannot prevent a formal investigation by Congress. He can refuse to cooperate with it, but he can’t avoid it. I look forward to it happily. Tell those slack jaws in the Republican majority in the House to get busy. Wait, they already have. Maybe they are too busy campaigning to give it their full attention. I am sure it will be just as enlightening as the Whitewater investigation. There will be no there there when it is over. Do you ever pass on any kind of conspiratorial thoughts or do you just swallow all of them whole?

Not exactly true. The budget for foreign service has been raised significantly the past few years to $1.2 billion. In exchange for more spending in other areas requested by the Democrats, the Republicans asked for a $330 million cut to that budget. In negotiations, the cut was reduced to $270 million. It had absolutely no effect on the Libya situation.

You are engaged in issue avoidance now, Maggie.

You were the one who said we needed boots on the ground. Answer me truthfully, are any of those boots going to be yours or your kids?

I noticed he didn’t answer the question

Look up the real history of their budgets.

Well, you must admit that white hoods CAN interfere with your hearing.

There you go again. He has disclosed his taxes for the past two years, which is two years more than Roosevelt and other well-to-do people who became President ever did. His ‘fair share’? What is that? Is that an arbitrary number you make up? He is paying his legal share, which happens to be quite a big number in real dollars.
Raided American companies using Federal monies? Get a better understanding of what Bain Capital does and where it gets its money and what it is in business to accomplish.
Get the truth about Romney and the auto industry. GM did file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Romney wanted the legal actions to complete and THEN THEY WOULD BE ELIGIBLE for government backed loans. Obama simply bailed out the UAW without really saving GM. He did it by subverting the legal process.

What happened when he released last return? He was immediately criticized for donating 20% of his income to charity, because the largest recipient was his church.
We know he hasn’t done anything wrong with his taxes otherwise the IRS would be all over him. So exactly what is the point for the Democrats? It is to find something, anything, to use to continue the demonization of Romney so the focus isn’t on Obama’s record.
I pay 33% also and taxes to six states, none of which I live in or visit. But I don’t begrudge what Romney pays or what he does with his money. It is his money and his business.
Since you are calling Bain a scavenger company, I don’t believe you are at all familiar with private equity companies.
Had GM been allowed to complete Chapter 11, they would have still been in business and they still would have received government backed new financing. The primary difference is that UAW got to keep their $50+/hr wages and GM’s obligation to their enormous pension requirements, while bond holders who originally lent money to GM, got their rights abrogated in violation of existing bankruptcy law. And GM is much less able to be competitive.

Having a little problem with wealth envy there, jarhead?

Obama realizes it was hard work to get wealthy? He wrote a couple of not-so-complete autobiographies. He used other people’s money to become President.
He is blessed with two attributes. 1) He is, or appears to be, a good family man, 2) he is blessed with the ability to talk and make it sound like he is saying something. If you are going to be a charlatan, it is a very important gift.

If you want jobs, a good economy, the middle class to become strong again, fewer people in poverty, then I’m trying to convince you, you are going the wrong way.

Hey Fern how are you doing tonight? By the way, that’s five times to many for me and ironic considering they are the ones screaming voter fraud.

Happy to do it…though I must say Dawg while I was in there searching for words I noticed one of your fillings is loose. love ya bro.

And Andy I believe you are correct as well Although what MacArthur did for Japan was pretty incredible…his take on Korea was off base by a bit. Patton was basically a cowboy with a big name and not much sense. Rommel cleaned his clock in every fair fight they got into, the only way we finally won that one was to cut off his gas supply and make him a stationary target. Patton was a loose cannon and needed to be reined in.

Nah, he gushes too much shit on a daily basis for that!

now now, Gene… you know that’s precisely the reason TO vote FOR Romney. Obozo has been a disaster in domestic policy and the economy. He needs to be gone NOW!

* Economic growth of 1.3% per year is horrible. Not even keeping up with inflation
* 23,000,000 Americans un/underemployed.
* Obozo promised 5.4% unemployment. It’s still 8% in phony numbers, 14.7% in real U6 numbers. That’s 9 MILLION AMERICANS DIFFERENCE!!!!!!
* Gasoline prices have more than doubled because of Obozo
* Median American income has gone down nearly 10% from $54,500 to $50,000 under Obozonomics.
* Workforce participation is at an all-time low since the Great Depression
* The national debt has been run up to $16 TRILLION in 3.5 years. Obozo has added $6 TRILLION of that amount, the most of any other president in history, by far.
* His own White House budget forecasts between $20 to $22 TRILLION by 2016.

And you want more of that, Gene? Come on bro, don’t be a fool. How can you look at his record and say you want more of that? That’s downright pathetic, Gene. It is, and you know it. All you can do is believe a false narrative that a failed president has made up about his opponent because he has NOTHING to run on with his record. Nothing Obozo says about Romney is true or sticks, except with the useful idiots out there.

Gene, you need to wise up and break free from your racist ways. You know you’re only voting for Obozo because he’s black, because it sure as hell can’t be because of his record. We’ve established that.

Wise up buddy. I’m here to help you, Gene. Just ask me and I’ll coach you through the addiction every step of the way. I’m here to help. Don’t be oblivious, OK?

Have a great day, my friend!

“The difference between being stupid and being a fool: A stupid person at least has an idea about their own inadequacies. The fool is oblivious to them, and is more inclined to believe their own fantasies and lies as truth.” – ObozoMustGo