The Benghazi Hustle

Tags

Benghazi, GOP, Libya, State Department, teabaggers

Here we go again. Everybody hold tight because this merry-go-round is speeding around the curve and headed for–well just about anything that the GOP imagination can dream up.

In a valiant attempt to turn a mole hill into a mountain, Republican Tea Snorters are busy twisting and feigning shock and awe at the shameful and deliberate attempt by the Obama Administration to get “brave Americans” murdered by, well, you know, their true friends.

If one reads the headlines of the extreme-stream media, here is what you will find:

“Benghazi Witness: First Time in my Career that a Diplomat Has more balls than somebody in the Military.”

“Benghazi revelations today could obliterate Obama’s Credibility and Sink Hillary’s 2016 ambitions.”

“Issa seeks more whistle blowers after dramatic Benghazi hearing.”

“Two key witnesses refuse to testify at Benghazi hearing.”

“Benghazi Makes Watergate look like kindergarten: The End of Obama”

“Hillary perjured herself on Benghazi?”

“Benghazi Whistleblower: You Should have Seen what Clinton Tried to do to us that night.”

And on and on it goes.

Here’s what I think we know at this point.

1. A YouTube video riled up Muslims around the world and demonstrations were being held in a variety of places, Egypt among them.
2. A demonstration occurred at Benghazi, that was violent.
3. Ambassador Stevens was fairly well known to favor less security rather than more in an attempt to be open to the residents of the country.
4. Republicans had steadfastly refused State Department requests for more money to beef up security around the world.
5. The Ambassador and three others were killed in the first attack.
6. Air support could not have reached the outpost for hours, a minimum of 5-7 according to the military.
7. There was no basis for suspecting a second attack.
8. There were no deaths or serious injuries sustained in the second attack.
9. A team of FOUR, a military security forces was located at Tripoli but they were concerned about security there, and even John Bolton admitted that they were unable to determine whether the four men should leave that facility for Benghazi when the deaths had already occurred and there was no reason to suspect a second attack.
10. Senator Tom Corker from Tennessee, sat on the Senate hearings on Benghazi and said that he read all the material and thought he knew what happened and was satisfied.
11. The President termed the attack a “terrorist attack” the day following the attack.
12. That Susan Rice delivered the cautionary remarks that we were unsure what happened based on material supplied her by others in the State Department or other agencies.
13. That Al Qaeda is not an organization so much as an idea, and many Islamic groups claim “affiliation” without benefit of any actual connection. To this day, we don’t know I don’t think who this group consisted of.
14. There was no reason to believe that naming it other than a terrorist attack was some how beneficial to the White House in the midst of an election. Most presidents, following some catastrophe or other see their polling improve as people tend to “rally round” the Administration. If the President had war mongered the event, the GOP would have been arguing just the opposite–that he was making it much worse than it was in order to gain sympathy.

The bottom line to me here is simply. The Benghazi outpost was under-secured. Certainly the GOP bears SOME responsibility for that fact as do congressional Democrats who agreed that they didn’t need additional funds. There was apparently not good plans in place for an emergency like this. There should have been.

Beyond that, it was a sad tragedy. But let us remember. Americans are dying around the world every day. They are dying in service to the country, and as employees of corporations doing business in dangerous places. These four were doing their jobs. They perhaps did not receive the full support they should have, but such is life in dangerous occupations. I don’t mean to minimize it, but it should not be overstated either.

The GOP tried to make this into some scandal during the fall of 2012 to hurt the chances of the President to be re-elected, and enhance their candidates chances. That didn’t happen. Now they see polling that suggests that Hillary Clinton, if the nominee will beat any Republican so far put forth, easily and soundly.

Is it hard to see why this is happening now? Of course not. This is just an attempt to dirty up Clinton and force her to not run.

That’s my take on it.

And what is yours?

Republicans are united in their insanity that this will lead to impeachment.

Do you?

Related articles

• Republicans continue to press for answers on Benghazi (nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com)
• Yet Another Benghazi Nothingburger Today (motherjones.com)

If You Talk From Your Ass, I Guess You Talk From Three Sides of Your Mouth

Tags

2nd Amendment, NRA, tea party, teabaggers, teapotters

Half the civilized world has now reacted to the bilge that comes out of the anal region of Wayne La PEE PEE Pierre, so I won’t bore you with more.

Except this.

Part of me secretly snickers at how the NRA, along with all the Right-wing elites, (read Fox, corporate interests, and GOP politicos), play their audiences for a fool. I mean to the rest of normally functioning America, you are always saying, “how can people be so stupid to not get it?”

Get what?

Oh, get that the Right-wing elites get the little people, mostly working class but definitely middle class wannabes, to do their bidding. They do this by such blatant lying and cursing of the truth, that, well, it only works if you are burdened with a lack of grey matter with which to discern reality.

I mean, face it, smart people are not listening to Fox, only those who are (how can we say this delicately?) intellectually challenged respond to that crap. It’s really a combination of lack of intellectual acuity and lack of interest in well, thinking, that motivates the average working Joe to “just let Fox do it”–the thinking that is.

How else can you explain Wayne’s rant at the NRA conference and the illogical crap he spewed to ears who can hear, but alas cannot decipher the message?

Wayne says, (not wanting to exploit a tragedy of course), that the poor people of Boston “cowered” behind their locked doors, wishing for all they were worth that they had guns with which to protect themselves against the monster bombers roaming the streets.

Now such a statement defies intelligence. Boston has no laws against the ownership of firearms. Everybody in Boston prior to the bombing there, has all the firearms they wanted. Nobody was cowering without defense unless they were of a mind that ownership of firearms was not a thing for them.

Now Wayne is not stupid. Insane, maybe, but not stupid. He knew that. He knew nobody in Boston was wishing they had guns. If they had wished such a thing, they would have bought one, or many. But Wayne is talking to stupid Teapotters out there. And frankly one can’t assume they don’t know this. For Teapotters think that background checks = national registry = confiscation of guns=abandonment of the 2nd Amendment=last step before communism=end of the world. They truly do believe that. They believe it because Fox and Wayne have told them so.

And as one listened to the endless parade of new civil war mongering that passed as “speeches” at the NRA convention, one cannot help but understand that these people really truly don’t know any better. I’m not sure that one of their survivalist “stores” isn’t designing the Teapotter uniform even as we speak, in anticipation of the coming militia call-up ordered by Wayne and his band of boobs.

Which is all kind of amusing since Kelly Ayotte is scrambling to make herself “understood”. See, she really does support background checks. Really, really, really. It was just the mainstream media and it’s awful use of “tapes of her answers” that got everybody all confused. Or her explanation that background checks would impose burdens on gun sellers that was unfair, that got taken out of context–the context being the word salad she wallowed in while trying to figure out what to say.

But Ayotte too is well aware that she is playing to a weak audience. She raises the NRA claim that those persons denied the right to buy weapons under the current NICS system aren’t prosecuted enough. That is a straw argument and Ayotte knows it, although she hopes her audience doesn’t. She calls all those rejected by NICS as “criminals”. They aren’t of course, they just don’t qualify for gun ownership. She bemoans that this is the problem with the system–police and prosecutors aren’t using their resources to prosecute a person who the system has successfully prevented from buying a gun. I mean wow, better they should get that year’s probation while the rampage of house break-ins continue from lack of police power. There are priorities and then there are priorities!

Meanwhile, Jeff Flake from Arizona has had a change of heart as well. Likening his popularity in Arizona to that of “pond scum”, Flack now alleges that the reason he opposed the legislation was that it made it a “commercial sale” if I emailed you and said I had a gun and would you like to buy it. Jeff is now sure that “that can be worked out” and he had happily join the majority and vote for background checks.

I rather think that his resemblance to pond scum had a lot more to do with his decision than did the flimsy made up email crap.

While the NRA continues it barrage of hate spewing and fear mongering, it seems that the tide is turning. Frankly nothing points that out more clearly than looking at who spoke at the NRA and who didn’t. Rick Santorum? The “don’t forget me,”  girl, Sarah? Glenn “I’m madder than any hatter” Beck? Surely you jest?

With a lineup like that, I mean does it say it all? Where were the Rubio’s? The Graham’s? The Ryan’s? The Cantor’s? Where were they? Oh, they quietly whispered, “gosh darn Wayne, you know my heart is with you, and I’ll work tirelessly behind-the-scenes, but I can’t AFFORD to publicly support you. You understand. Elections coming. Can’t rile up the folks now can we? *wink*wink*nudge*nudge. Just don’t ahh, mention that you invited me okay?”

Did I mention that we, the sane ones are NOT GOING AWAY this time?

Did I mention that?

You heard me? I don’t have to shout?

Good.

PS: I hear that some of these boobs are calling for an “armed march” on Washington on the 4th of July. Good luck with that.

Related articles

• Wanna see a real gun nut? Meet Wayne LaPierre (capitolhillblue.com)
• Jon Stewart gleefully mocks NRA’s blatant contradictions (rawstory.com)
• Gun Dealer: Wayne LaPierre Is on the ‘Wrong Side’ (newser.com)
• NRA kicks off annual meeting with talk of ‘culture war’; Scott Walker among speakers (host.madison.com)
• Hoyt Hilsman: The Political Suicide of Kelly Ayotte (huffingtonpost.com)
• NRA Celebrates Gun Control Defeat, Senators Face Backlash – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• ‘Celebratory’ atmosphere at NRA convention in Texas (video.msnbc.msn.com)
• Playing At Delegitimization and Insurrection: How the GOP Is Turning Into a Political Wing of a Paramilitary (mikethemadbiologist.com)

Just One of Those Crazy Accidents

Tags

2nd Amendment, children, gun culture, guns, NRA

So said the local county coroner, Gary White, declaring the shooting of a two-year-old by her five-year-old brother, just one of those things.

Crazy things happen when guns and kids are mixed. The parents are just really feeling stupid for leaving the boy’s “first rifle” propped in the corner and left loaded.

Just an accident. Move on.

Well, HELL NO!

First let me clear the air. Let there be no mistake about what’s about to come your way. I am utterly opposed to guns personally. I have lived with guns all my life. My father was an avid hunter. All my male relatives were as well. I had plenty of occasion to handle guns during my professional career. I know my calibers and I know firearms identification. I’m not ignorant of the territory.

I am also not a mother. This seems an important fact to some. A right-wing, “I love Jesus, the bible, and my guns” adherent told me that I was probably incapable of compassion for unborn babies because I was not a mother like her. So be forewarned, I am going to speak about that which I have no knowledge–children and guns and parents. (Okay, stop laughing–that would eliminate all men from being compassionate I know. But who in the hell ever accused a right-wing TeaPotter of being either rational or logical?)

You may have heard about the story of the five-year-old. For his fourth birthday, his stellarly-bright parents thought it a good idea to buy their boy his first gun. The gun in question is called a Crickett, manufactured by Keystone Sporting Arms. They have since cleaned up their website, because, well you know. Their commercials to kids look pretty damn sick about now. Luckily, it was captured before their wiped the site clean.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a deputy sheriff was showing off his arsenal to guests when his child grabbed a gun off the bed, fired it, and killed the female guest. This is of course nothing new. Although statistics often include more than just accidents, something like a couple of hundred children under the age of 12 die every year from firearms “accidents”. This is to say nothing of the suicides (the method of choice, and by far the most successful) accomplished by our youth by guns.

We can talk about gun violence all day. We can talk about all these tragedies. We can talk about background checks, and assault type weapons and high-capacity clips. Yet who would have thought that it would be legal to market and sell, and buy a gun for a four-year-old? Who in their thinking mind can contemplate that such a thing would be legal?

Apparently the manufacturers don’t specify any age when such weapons are “appropriate”. Goodness, that’s shocking isn’t it. Little triggers for little hands. Ahh, can you just swoon with the sweetness of this new market? Increasingly, as the gun makers have found the male market literally saturated, they have turned to women and children as new targets.

And this marketing is very real, as you can see.

Generally speaking, it is left up to the states to determine the rules under which guns can be legally in the hands of youth. Almost all require that one be 18 to buy a gun on their own, but many states allow people to buy guns for children as gifts, and there seem to be no restrictions in some states at least as it relates to shotguns and rifles.

The penalties imposed upon adults for negligence also vary considerably.

A whole culture has grown, and continues to grow around the “family that shoots together”. This kind of behavior is touted as bonding, and ultimately of course hints at the need of children to be able to defend themselves. Yes, we all want kids to turn to guns as their first line of defense don’t we?

Of course, such things are kept subtle. Mostly the ads suggest that the family fun of gunning is all about “sportsmanship” and family togetherness.

Don’t delay, get your child in on his new membership in the NRA the ads tell you.

The real intent–to sell guns and make profits is hidden behind lofty goals of “gun safety” and the joys of target shooting, to say nothing of spending quality time with dad in the woods in pursuit of making a bloody mess of Bambi.

Studies show that kids who are exposed to guns at an early age, have, as you might expect, good thoughts about gun ownership in general, and worse yet, they are more apt to encourage their friends to join in the fun.

WHY IS THIS LEGAL?

I can only ask the question because the answer seems so obvious. It should not be. At least to the vast majority of rational beings.

Guns are lethal. Cigarettes are harmful to one’s health. We don’t let parents buy them for their kids so start them on the joys of puffing. Alcohol is dangerous to one’s health. We don’t allow parents to invite all the little one’s at Sally’s birthday party to throw a few back between games of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and ice cream and cake do we? We don’t allow children to drive automobiles on public streets. We don’t allow them operate all kinds of dangerous machinery, work before a suitable age, work at many dangerous jobs. The list is endless.

But somehow we let them use lethal firearms because mom and dad like a well-armed family.

This magazine is for kids.

I’m glad to know that “glocks are for girls” aren’t you?

These kids after reading this bilge will not be begging for Barbies. They will be begging for more fire power!

What kind of insanity is this?

Look, as I said, I’m no parent. But I was once a child.

I knew a lot of other children when I was one.

I know a heck of a lot of adults today.

I know that most people are not competent to tie their shoes without supervision let alone raise kids.

Most of us manage to grow up not being serial killers because I guess the drive to be average is so darn strong that we avoid those pitfalls.

But most of us are from dysfunctional homes to one degree or another. Some of us came from wretched conditions, some of us were physically assaulted, some of us just emotionally assaulted.

Most parents are lousy. But we make allowances because nobody requires potential parents to take classes. We cut our parents slack because they “did they best they could” given their own upbringing. We are generous that way.

But there is a time and place to draw a line. And I draw it when parents are ALLOWED to buy guns for children for “fun”. I draw the line there. I don’t just draw a line. I erect a damn wall. And if you cross it, I am inclined to grab your kid and run while you sit in some damn cell and think about it for twenty years.

I of course, would allow no gun maker to make children’s weapons nor market them, nor sell them to anyone. They are NOT APPROPRIATE–EVER!

Is this country stark raving mad?

Is it just me?

Cuz if it is just me, then boy, I am too damn dumb to breath.

Well?

Does this image make you feel all warm and happy?

Does it?

Or this one?

 

Related articles

• Anyone for Cricketts? The rifles made especially for children (independent.co.uk)
• Guns made for kids: How young is too young to shoot? (newsheadiesblog.wordpress.com)
• Cricket My First Rifle……. (theobamacrat.com)

Stop Projecting Your Crap on Me!

Tags

conservatives and liberals, essay, human nature, the mind

A couple of ideas got to floating around in my head, and the best way I know to get rid of them is to bore you with them. Think of yourselves as my therapists. Cheap treatment eh?

Anyway. You know for the longest time, I figured that humans, being humans, and not giraffes or hermit crabs, probably thought pretty much the same way. Not the same opinions, mind you, but they processed in similar ways.

You know the drill, gather the information (in your head), sort through it, categorize it, and in the end define your “opinion”. As you came across new facts, you tweaked your opinion, were happily confirmed in your opinion, or ditched it for a better one.

A couple of remarks by folks the last week or go, brought me to the utterly sure conclusion and “opinion” that that is simply not the case. Most people might operate as above, but whole groups of people do not, and I think they are identifiable.

Know thy enemy various sage warrior types tell us, and indeed it’s true. But one cannot do that if one just assumes that your enemy thinks like you do. Often they don’t.

It has happened more than once that a commenter on this or one of my other blogs will bemoan the fact that “the people who need to read this won’t.” And that seems undeniably true. I’ll explain further in a moment.

The other statement that struck me (because it was not at all true) went something like this: “You criticize everybody on our ‘side’ as wrong, and you think everybody on your ‘side’ is right.” Actually no.

So in trying to fathom these two statements I realized that indeed, we don’t think alike.

Now this is not a new concept I suppose, for it’s well documented that the certain minds do operate quite differently, yet I had never see it in how they process information.

The fundamentalist mind is a mind in terror. It doesn’t like the world as it exists, and finds it both chaotic and scary. So it creates an illusory perfect world that works for them. If everyone were to behave in the “right” way, then their lives could finally be happy and safe. They are prone of course to religious fanaticism, finding this a perfect vehicle for achieving the world they want. They also are, if you hadn’t noticed, unreservedly conservative.

In fact, they aren’t conservative by any known definition at all. They are reactionary in their outlook. And it is this that causes them to process information so very differently.

As we engage in the back and forth of normal dialogue and debate, one thing becomes obvious. Liberals and progressives read all the material offered up by the reactionary right. We read it, find the errors in it, check out the sources, check out the backgrounds of the writers. Then we make our objections and our arguments. Reactionaries don’t return the favor. They studiously refuse to read any material you offer to them as proof of the point you contend.

At first I saw this as a manifestation of passive-aggressiveness. And partly, that is probably the case. However, it goes much deeper.

The reactionary is on very unstable logic grounds. They somehow intuitively know this. The people I debate with are frightfully uninformed about basic information and what information they do have comes from unreliable sources that makes them even worse, mis-informed.  They tend to engage in hit-and-run tactics. They present the information, and when you show them the reasons why it is unreliable, they don’t argue the facts, they simply argue that you are “just against the conservative point of view.”

That is because that is how they operate. They read ONLY what pleases them and reinforces their predetermined beliefs (ones that serve their purposes). They are not interested and don’t want to contend with information that is contrary to what they believe, because they are comfortable in their world and don’t want it disturbed. Facts might do that.That might cause them to have to think. Horror of horrors they might find out (as liberals and progressives do every day), that they have to change their mind about something.

Talk about upset the apple cart! How is one to survive in this insane world without the anchor of truth, justice and the American Way on your side? How to live with a book that is the recipe for how to live?

The reactionary right will always claim that the liberal/progressive is the same as they are. They truly believe that. They believe that MSNBC and CBS are “just as bad” as Fox at telling lies. They believe that en mass the Democrats are just as evil as the Republicans.  To them, proving that Fox is an awful “news” outlet and not to be trusted, means nothing, because to them, MSNBC is no better. There is no distinction in their mind whatsoever, no shades of grade, not qualitative difference.

They cannot fathom for instance that some liberals on some subjects are very unhappy with the President. That some are very unhappy with Harry Reid. They don’t think we “know” that Democrats are often as guilty of self-serving greed as Republicans. When we agree with them that MSNBC is often lousy at news, they are taken aback and think we are lying.

They refuse to see a qualitative difference, because they don’t engage in any media EXCEPT right-wing blathering. They assume we are all alike, just opposites. We know they are not the same, because we engage in both.

It is true that the people who need to read things which would help them see themselves in a mirror, won’t. No amount of asking them to will work because it is just too damn dangerous. A created worldview is a fragile thing. It cannot bear the light of reason or facts. It crumbles in the daylight, and therefore  must be kept safe.

I believe what I believe because it suits me, and I read what tells me I am right. I do not read what threatens that. Ever. I simply project my own closed mind onto everyone else. They are just like me. I am not ignorant. Fox is really fair and balanced, at least it’s no worse than the rest.

Such minds are not reachable.

They are locked away, growing dusty and angrier by the minute.

They are more susceptible to demagoguery.

They are sure they are right, and no fact will ever be allowed to tarnish that shiny bag of beliefs.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

A lot of minds out there are being wasted.