I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

 - well, lewing, I'm definitely a do as I say not as I do type of person.  I sincerely detest going to the doctor and avoid as much as I can.  Just don't let it linger too long, as pain in the ribcage can be a sign of pneumonia as well as a sign of a hurt rib.  OK, ok....  no more naggin'

(From PoliticusUSA following Obama's presser today with PM David Cameron):

Asked if the White House misled the public about its involvement in the Benghazi talking points, the President responded, “On Benghazi, we’ve now seen this argument that’s been made by some folks on Capitol Hill for months now. Here’s what we know: Americans died in Benghazi. Clearly they were not in a position where they were adequately protected. The day after it happened, I acknowledged that it was an act of terrorism.”

Obama explained that he said we needed to figure out what happened and that’s exactly what they have done. He said he would hold those responsible accountable. At the time, the government did not know who was responsible, or what was taking place. He pointed out rather irritably that the emails referred to by the reporter were provided by the White House to congressional committees months ago. Those committees concluded nothing wrong had happened. Then, three days ago, they were “spun up”.

Obama called it out, “The whole issue of talking points has been, frankly throughout this process, a side show. We have been very clear that we were not sure how it had been carried out, who was responsible… Nobody understood exactly what was taking place during the course of those first days. The emails you referred to were provided by us to congressional committees.”

“There’s no there, there. Keep in mind, these so called talking points, five-six days after the attack occurred pretty much matched the assessment I had.” He said that 2-3 days after Susan Rice appeared on TV shows with the talking points, he sent out the information that became the basis for assuming it was terrorism. If this was an effort to downplay what was happening, it would be odd for the White House to put out the information showing it was a terrorist attack. He asked, “Who stages a cover up for just three days?”

The President said we should be focusing on protecting diplomats, not on playing these kind of political games. That is what he has been trying to do. We dishonor them when we turn problems like this into a political circus. He referenced Tom Pickering’s report, and the recommendations that the review board came up with after determining “harsh judgments” on how the government protected consulates, which are being implemented.

Obama said that political motivations are behind this. Opponents have challenged the integrity of Hillary Clinton and others in his administration. He said it is not surprising they are challenging Obama’s integrity too, but he’s used to it. “It’s a given that mine (integrity) gets challenged by these folks. They’ve used it for fund-raising.”

Obama says he has taken responsibility for the fact he could not prevent these four deaths.

Obama challenged Republicans by saying if anyone out there wants to actually focus on how we focus on how to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again, he would be happy to do anything he can to make that happen.

When the former President Bush’s administration was found to have told at least 935 public lies based on false talking points unsupported by the intelligence in the lead up to the Iraq War, Republicans were not very interested in investigating it. They put off the investigations for years, conveniently postponing them until after elections, and then failed to release all of the findings.

So, to answer the President’s question about who stages a cover up for three days, well, no one, because that’s no kind of cover up. But if you ask who successfully stages a cover up for years and then declares the truth unimportant after 100,000 plus deaths, the answer is the Republican Party.

Hi Everyone,

It's a chilly windy spring day.  My allergies have gone into overdrive in this weather ... just wish it would warm up and the wind would die down a bit.

Crazy-E ... thinking of your and your scans today and tomorrow.  I hope they don't take too long and cause you pain laying on those hard skinny tables.

Athena ... so glad to see you posting.  I hope your neck doesn't hurt too bad.  It would be pretty cool if you and Crazy-E were in the same trial together.

Sending hugs to all,

Bren

Republicans obviously don't know their own history!

The Republican Party is so far off the sanity cliff that according to a new PPP poll, 41% of them think that Benghazi is the biggest scandal in history.

The latest PPP poll on Benghazi revealed just how far off the reality beaten path the Republican Party has strayed. In the country overall, the Benghazi scandal is failing to catch on. Voters trust Hillary Clinton more than congressional Republicans on Benghazi by a margin of 49%-39%. Majorities of voters said that Congress should be focused on passing background checks and immigration reform instead of investigating Benghazi, and 65% of voters polled did not think that Benghazi was the biggest scandal in American political history. Seventy nine percent of Democrats, and 69% of Independents don’t think Benghazi is the worst scandal in American history.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the biggest political scandals in history would be Republican scandals -- the failure of the Cheney Administration to act on firm intelligence that a terrorist attack on U.S. soil was imminent in the summer of 2001 and Watergate would be right up there. Iran-Contra would be in the running, too. And howsabout the outing of a CIA operative and the subsequent deaths of several assets? And then there would be lying us into a war with a country that didn't attack us. There is that.



L

I'm still waiting for the investigation into Enron/Ken Lay/ George Bush >> collapse of Calif economy due to soaring energy rates by Enron >> Secret Meetings between Cheney and Oil Industry Execs >> non-existent WMDs, outing of CIA for having a non-cooperative husband discussing yellow cake fabricated story on Iraq >> getting us into a war that cost us $$ Trillions and the lives of hundreds of thousands >> for oil >> and then there are the banks and 2008.

And Benghazi is about what?? Seriously?? Talking points?

What about their famous talking points - mushroom clouds anyone?

Ok, all of this is worth mentioning over and over, so sorry if a duplicate. 

From Add nfo just now:

The 2012 election was by far the dirtiest, most negative election I have witnessed in my life and experts have agreed. Everywhere we turned we were encompassed by angry ads; every time we turned on the television, computer or opened the mailbox, our brains were assaulted. By November, America was ready for it to be over, sick and tired of the saturation of mind-numbing negativity. It didn’t really matter which candidate you were in favor of, the consensus was the same: let’s get this election over with so we can move on with our lives.

So November came and went, President Obama was reelected and America breathed a collective sigh of relief that we could turn on our televisions and watch the normal air freshener commercials for the next few years. Unfortunately for us, this break was short-lived and the 2016 attack ads have begun already.

The first one? Here’s the video:

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/13/shannons-attack-ad-piece/#ixzz2TCvFZ9Jd

You know, Linda, for all the hysteria and whining that the regressives do, accusing President Obama of "taking away our freedoms" (although they can't name one "freedom" that has been taken away) and accusing him of "destroying the Constitution" (although they can't name one part of the Constitution that has been destroyed or even damaged), the real destroyers of the Consitution are the regressives in Congress who are refusing to perform their CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED functions just because they don't like the guy who won the election (twice, with more than 50% of the vote each time). They are the ones who are really endangering the Republic. They are the ones who are destroying the framework of the government as laid out in the Constitution. If the regressives around the country REALLY understood the Constitution and really cared about what happens to this country, they would be descending on their dishonorable representatives by the hundreds of thousands, demanding that they DO THEIR JOBS AND GOVERN instead of squatting in their little holes whining about the President who was elected with more support than they have ever seen.



I fear the regressives will destroy the country in their zeal to take us back to the 19th century and the era of workhouses and child labor and unregulated capitalism.



L

from Ringside Seat today:

TAXGHAZI

Within hours after the news broke that the Internal Revenue Service singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups that had applied for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status for extra scrutiny, conservatives were already complaining that the story wasn't getting enough play in the media. "Imagine if this had happened under President Bush!" they cried. For starters, it actually did. In that case, it was the FBI, not the IRS, that went after liberal groups under the pretense that they might be harboring al Qaeda terrorists (after all, it's well known that the first thing a sleeper cell does when they get to the U.S. is maintain their low profile by participating in an anti-war protest).

Now that there are finally a couple of Obama administration "scandals" for conservatives and the media to chew on, we're going to be hearing a lot of comparisons to what went on in prior administrations, so it will be useful to get our history straight. One Republican after another has declared the Benghazi affair "worse than Watergate," which is sort of like declaring that hangnail you just got "worse than the Ebola virus." History buffs will recall that Watergate was so serious that the president of the United States, facing impeachment and all-but-certain conviction, resigned over it. "But how many people died in Watergate? Huh? Huh?" conservatives are fond of saying, convinced that their brilliant rhetorical gambit has won the argument. By that measure, the worst scandal in American history was the Civil War. Perhaps it's not too late to impeach Lincoln?

Getting back to Richard Nixon, more than a few times we've heard the recently revealed IRS actions referred to as "Nixonian." They might be—if it turns out that President Obama personally ordered the IRS to audit his political opponents. Because that's what Richard Nixon did. On tape. Nevertheless, a survey just released by Public Policy Polling shows "Republicans think by a 74/19 margin than Benghazi is a worse political scandal than Watergate, by a 74/12 margin that it's worse than Teapot Dome, and by a 70/20 margin that it's worse than Iran Contra." I suppose we can forgive the fading memories of Teapot Dome, but on the others, one has to ask, are these people nuts?

Those bizarre poll results clue us in to an immutable truth: whatever we do or don't learn about these affairs, in the coming months, Republicans are going to make fools of themselves. Count on it.

And another one: