January, 2018, Part 5, Political Class Insanity - The Self Destructive of an Unbiased Press

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let's get started:

1) One of the pillars of any democracy such as ours is freedom of the press. Freedom of the press should provide a strong, independent watchdog that helps keep unbridled political lust and corruption in check. For hundreds of years it worked great in this country, informing the voters, uncovering corruption, and being a watchdog for freedom.

That tradition of independence has probably been violated and endangered with the current collection of journalists in positions of power in this country today. “Fake News” went from a nothing to a hot topic in a very short time. Mainstream media outlets stake out positions rather than remaining unbiased, neutral observers and reporters of news and reality in order to maximize their companies’ bottom line profits by creating cults of followers. 

The lack of unbiased reporting by traditional news outlets has let to the formation of new, fast growing alternative news outlets who also usually cater to a political point of view or leaning. While they arose because of skewed reporting of the traditional outlets, the newer outlets are usually just as skewed and just as biased.

And one of the causes of this breakdown in the traditional goodness of the free press in this country has been the cross pollination of journalism with the political class, as the following list illustrates:

• ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, National Security Adviser.
• CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications.
• ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman is married to former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
• ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary
• ABC President Ben Sherwood is the brother of Obama’s Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood
• CNN President Virginia Moseley is married to former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides.

So you can see why many people feel that the free press in this country can no longer be trusted. Not only have they seen and experienced slanted and biased news reporting over these past few years, but the above list shows one reason why that might be true: the political world is now tightly married into the journalism world, leading to the very high potential for collusion between what were once opposing forces in our society. 

Any collusion between the political class and the journalists that are expected to keep it honest is not healthy for any democracy. Think Pravda in the former Soviet Union for an example of how close we are to our democracy imploding because politicians and journalists are manufacturing fake news or manipulating real news over the dinner table, be it at the home of Virginia Moseley and Tom Nides or the home of Susan Rice and Ian Cameron. Dangerous, dangerous insanity.

2) Let’s combine this previous point, the mainstream media and journalists not reporting the whole news in an unbiased manner, and update the sexual predator exploits of politicians across the country. The Daily Wire recently put out a list of two dozen potential and real sexual predator situations involving two dozen Democratic politicians. 

The point the article made, besides actually reporting on these new sexual predator situations by politicians, is that Virginia Moseley types at CNN deemed them not worthy to be reported as news since, the implication being, they involved Democrats behaving badly and that if this list was about Republican politicians, CNN would be all over the stories listed below: 

• According to the Daily Mail on November 20, 2017, four more women have come forward to accuse former Democratic President Bill Clinton of sexual assault. The women’s attorneys have notified Clinton that they plan to file four separate lawsuits against him.
• The Huffington Post reported on November 21, 2017 that Congresswoman Diana DeGette accused a former Democratic Congressman, Bob Filner, of sexually assaulting her when both were serving in Congress: “Some years ago, I was in an elevator and then-Congressman Bob Filner tried to pin me to the door of the elevator and kiss me. And I pushed him away. I mean, I was his colleague. He couldn’t take action against me. And believe you me, I never got in an elevator with him again.”
• The LA Times reported on November 20, 2017, that Democratic California assemblyman, Raul Bocanegra, had resigned his leadership role in the California state government and will not seek re-election after sexual harassment allegations were made public. A total of six women so far have accused him of sexual harassment.
• The Washington Beacon reported on November 13, 2017 that a New Mexico Democratic Congressional candidate, David Alcon, had been arrested for stalking. He had been sending unwanted text messages to a woman, one of which included a picture of his genitals.
• CBS in Denver reported on November 10, 2017 that Democratic state lawmaker Steve Lebsock had been accused by ten women of sexual harassment. One of the women was a fellow lawmaker who says, “says Lebsock became aggressively lewd at a bar on the last day of the 2016 legislative session when he found out that Winter’s husband was out of town."
• On a related story to the previous point, the Denver Post reported on November 14, 2017 that Colorado Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran had been accused of covering up the sexual harassment allegations against the same Steve Lebsock.
• The Minnpost reported on November 21, 2017 that Minnesota state lawmaker Dan Schoen had resigned over sexual harassment allegations. Two women had made the accusations with one claiming that at a campaign event back in 2015 Schoen had grabbed her buttocks while stating she had a "good door-knocking ass." 
• The Sacramento Bee newspaper reported on November 16, 2017 that a third woman had come forward to accuse California Democrat state senator Tony Mendoza of sexual harassment. 
• The Mercury News reported on November 11, 2017 that Democratic Senate leader Kevin Leon was also now involved in a sexual harassment controversy.
• The Inquirer reported on October 11, 2017 that Democratic Pennsylvania Commissioner of the town of Radnor had been arrested on multiple counts of child pornography. He is charged with receiving and sending hundreds of images of child sexual abuse, some involving toddlers and infants.
• The Buffalo News reported on November 20, 2017 that a woman had claimed that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had ignored her pleas to investigate one of his staff people who was allegedly sexually harassing her. Cuomo himself is named in a Federal lawsuit that the woman has filed.
• The Ledger Enquirer reported on November 13, 2017 that a Democratic state lawmaker, Calvin Smyre, has been accused of sexual misconduct. A so-called Democratic Party activist claims that Smyre sexually assaulted her in 1996 in Chicago.

You get the idea, I will list the other 12 politicians below, there story is about the same as the twelve listed above. Now, please note, that in most cases, all of these are currently just accusations, nothing has been proven in most cases. 

However, that is still not a reason for the CNNs of the world not cover at least a handful of these stories. If these were 24 cases of Republicans and sexual harassment and sexual assault I would bet that the Virginia Moseleys of the world would be all over these stories. But they are Democrats acting poorly so no coverage at all as the Daily Wire proved in their research for their article, they could not find any coverage via CNN on these politicians at all. 

It is obvious that CNN has chosen “sides” in the world of politics which renders the free press an appendage of the political class, not an independent reporter and overseer of the political class. And when the press becomes an appendage, our country and democracy suffers irreparable damage.

**********************************************

The remaining twelve Democrats allegedly acting perversely but not being covered by CNN:

• Florida Democratic Party President Sally Boynton Brown resigns amidst sexual harassment controversy. (Sunshine State News - 11/20/2017)
• New Mexico Democratic legislator Sen. Michael Padilla accused in two Federal lawsuits of sexual harassment. (The Albuquerque Journal - 11/18/2017)
• Colorado Democratic Rep. Paul Rosenthal accused of sexual harassment and groping. (The Denver Post - 11/17/2017)
• Illinois Democratic Sen. Ira Silverstein accused of sexual harassment. (CBS CHicago - 10/31/2017)
• Missouri Democratic Rep. Josh Peters accused of sexual harassment. (The Kansas City Star - 01/25/2017)
• Nevada Democratic Sen. Mark Manendo resigns amid numerous sexual harassment allegations. (KTNV - 07/18/2017)
• Oklahoma Democratic lawmaker Will Fourkiller accused of sexual harassment. (NewsOK - 01/10/2017)
• Oregon Democratic lawmaker David Gomberg accused of inappropriately touching women. (Pregon Lives - 10/30/2017)
• Former Washington Democratic lawmaker Brendan Williams accused of sexual harassment. (The Seattle Times - 11/01/2017)
• Connecticut Democratic councilman Scott Chamberlain resigns after ‘furry’ profile revealed. (The New York Daily News 09/08/2017)
• Florida Democratic Sen. Jeff Clemens resigns over sexual misconduct. (Politico - 10/27/2017)
• Ohio Democratic governor candidate Justice William O’Neill brags about his sexual history on Facebook. (The Washington Post - 11/18/2017)

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

November, 2017, Part 5, Political Class Insanity: A Still Dysfunctional VA, Another Silly Bernie Sanders and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let's get started:

1) We often reported on how during the Obama administration the Veterans Administration (VA) was a disaster. Long lead times to get an appointment to see a doctor likely resulted in many, many veterans dying while waiting for medical attention. This scandalous behavior was made worse when it was shown that high ranking Veterans Administration executives then tried to cover up their incompetence by manipulating waiting time records to cover up their ineptness.

For eight years, Obama promised to fix what was broken and never accomplished any worthwhile improvements. Trump came into office with high promises to also clean up the VA’s management lameness. Apparently, he also has not totally fulfilled that promise, as described in an October 3, 2017 article on The Hill website by Jacqueline Thomsen:

• The VA inspector general is investigating a European trip that VA Secretary David Shulkin recently took.
• His travels took him to London and Denmark and somehow tripped an investigation switch by the inspector general.
• The VA inspector general’s office was not saying at the time why they thought it necessary to start an investigation.
• But the Washington Post gave a potential insight to the investigation when they reported that Shulkin and his wife spent half of the trip's duration sightseeing and shopping.
• His activities with his wife apparently included the Wimbledon tennis tournament, a river cruise on the river Thames, and touring other locations.
• The Post did report that the Secretary took commercial flights do get over to Europe and sat in coach on at least one leg of his trip.

You know, maybe nothing nefarious happened. But given the past incompetence of the VA and the mistrust that the public has for the organization, why would a high ranking government official be so stupid to act in such a way that even triggered an inspector general investigation even if he did nothing wrong. Insane.

2) Cristina Laila, writing for the Gateway Pundit website on September, 27, 2017, discussed just one of many operations that were undertaken by the Obama administration that was probably illegal and possibly unConstitutional:

• According to Ms. Laila, Congressional members are investigating how and why members of the Obama administration illegally made public people’s names who were supporting Donald Trump in the run up to the Presidential Election in 2016.
• Susan Rice, a high ranking member of the Obama administration, recently admitted that she herself “unmasked” Trump associates to understand more about a meeting between an Arab crown Prince and senior Trump advisors.
• At the time, Rice was the National Security Advisor and should have know better than to unmask these people whose names accidentally came up during an investigation.
• Details of what is going on and why were put forth by quoting reporting from the Washington Free Beacon: “Congressional leaders and other insiders told the Washington Free Beacon that the investigation into the Obama administration’s unmasking campaign is gaining greater steam, even as the federal probe into alleged collusion with Russia drags on. “The misuse of intelligence information by members of the Obama administration is a serious issue that requires an exhaustive investigation and accountability,” Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), chair of House Subcommittee on National Security, told the Free Beacon. The investigation into these unmasking efforts continues to focus on top Obama officials, particularly Power, who is said to have had little need to unmask such sensitive classified information from her perch at Turtle Bay. Rep. Sean Duffy (R. Wis.), another Republican member closely tracking the unmasking scandal, encouraged his congressional colleagues to move past the Russian probe in pursuit of the facts about Obama’s potentially illicit spy operation on Trump associates.”
• A Congressional official followed up with more details of the potentially illegal activity: “Congress is determined to follow the facts wherever they may lead us. And, ironically, the most damning revelations of the Russian investigation thus far incriminates the Obama administration,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak on record. “Susan Rice’s admission to widespread unmasking against Trump associates may just be the tip of the iceberg. We are going to get to the bottom of this.”
• And apparently it's not just a few Americans who were unmasked since it appears that former UN ambassador Samantha Powers unmasked hundreds of innocent Americans names during her tenure under Obama.
• Trump advisor, Jordan Sekulow, discusses how badly Powers abused her unmasking power: “Her number of requests are unprecedented in the history of UN Ambassadors who also have the position to unmask. No other UN Ambassador has ever even made half of the requests Power made in their ENTIRE CAREER, let alone a few months.”

Just another lawless adventure during the Obama administration's lawlessness that so far has gone unpunished as have most of his other administration’s running afoul of the law actions. America truly does have two justice systems, one for those in power in which breaking the law has no consequences and one for the rest of us where we break the law, we pay the price.

For a comprehensive list of law breaking during the Obama administration go to:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-2-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

3) We have often pointed out how when politicians and government try to solve a problem they usually make it worse. Obama Care was going to fix the health care cost problem in this country but it made the problem worse. Politicians want to raise the minimum wage and when they do, people ending up getting no wages as the higher wage levels cause businesses to cut back on their other costs which is usually payroll and staff

Another example of such political nonsense was described by Mary Claire Amselem, writing for the Heritage Foundation on October 5, 2017:

• Senator Bernie Sanders has this pipe dream proposal that would call for the American taxpayer to pay for “free” college tuition at public universities in this country.
• He somehow thinks that this proposal will help the poorer kids in this country get a “free” education and lead to better lives for them.
• Given what happened in England when that country decided to give kids “free” college educations, it is difficult to imagine that Sanders knows what he is talking about.
• A recent study in England found that removing college tuition fees for students actually benefited wealthy families much more than poorer families, the target of Sanders’ concept of “free” education.
• It seems that back in the 1960s, England gave “free” college education to all its citizens who are fulltime students (but it was really not free, it just shifted the tuition cost burden to taxpayers).
• Not unexpectedly, this caused a huge increase in the number of kids going to college in England, after all, it was “free” so why not.
• But this huge increase started to financially burden the process and “after years of concerns about financial sustainability, England started to slowly introduce tuition fees in the late 1990s.”
• A research study into the history of this program found that when tuition fees were introduced, the number of poorer students enrolling in Eland’s colleges actually doubled between 1997 and 2015, which does not seem to make common sense since one would assume that by introducing fees, poorer families would be least likely to afford college.
• But the research actually found that this doubling of lower income students into college actually did make sense.
• Under the old rules where EVERYONE got “free” college, the higher education system started to crumble because of so many students, with the quality of the education eroding and the financial situation deteriorating.
• To stay fiscally viable, the government in 1994 capped the number of students allowed into the program to get a “free” college education.
• By capping and rationing the “free” education seats available to only the brightest, it was the wealthiest students who were most qualified, since they had the best high school education, to get into college and get access to the now limited “free” number of seats.
• Thus, not only did the wealthiest families get their kids “free” education because of this rationing, it was the poorer families and kids who actually had to pay for the ”free” education for the wealthier kids via higher taxes since there really is no such thing as “free” in this world.

So, another government program that raises taxes, advantages the wealthy, and leaves the original problem either unresolved or worse. And Sanders wants to implement this type of insanity in this country even though it is a known failure. What did Einstein once say: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” “Free” education fits this definition perfectly but as always, it does not stop a politician from trying to do what we know is a failure.

That will do it for today, what did we learn: nothing is free, the VA might still be dysfunctional and wasteful, and Obama and his cronies might have broken even more laws then we have previously identified. More insanity to follow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2015, Part 3, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science:

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in man made global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of man made global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control on our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical post listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) As we have mentioned any number of times in this global warming series of posts over the years, the science is not settled when it comes to man made global warming and climate change impacts. Just this week we have talked about how the CERN Institute and a Nobel Laureate have disputed this “science is settled” deception from the likes of Al Gore, Barack, Obama and others.

Today, let’s add another noted scientist to that array of scientist that say not so fast, the science is not settled. Consider the following facts as it relates to a world famous scientist:

• Dr. Freeman Dyson is supposedly one of the world’s most renowned and famous theoretical physicists.
• He has worked at the Institute For Advanced Study with Einstein.
• He has been an advisor to the U.S. Federal government on a whole range of different science based issues. 
• In his opinion, Obama has backed the “wrong side” in the climate change “war.”
• Dyson claims that the climate forecasting models used by certain climate scientists are getting worse over time in predicting climate realities and that carbon dioxide does far more good than harm.
• In a recent interview conducted by writer Andrew Orlowski of The Register, Dyson “expressed his despair at the current scientific obsession with climate change which he says is “not a scientific mystery but a human mystery. How does it happen that a whole generation of scientific experts is blind to the obvious facts.”"

There you have it, another scientist that says it is okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science because man made global warming and climate change are not the reality of our times.

2) One nasty habit that global warming advocates have is that whenever something bad happens in the world, they somehow try to connect it to global warming. A typhoon in the Pacific - must be global warming even though there have been typhoons in the Pacific since the beginning of time. Forest fires in Canada - must be global warming even though there have been forest fires in Canada since the beginning of time. 

Never mind that they almost always have no data, no studies, or no proof that this is a true causal relationship, they just assume that bad news = man made global warming. Science and facts be damned.

And now the advocates have moved from blaming ordinary natural events on global warming to blaming political events on global warming. National Security Advisor Susan Rice recently gave a speech where she suggested that climate change was at least partially responsible for the civil war and refugee crisis in Syria.

In her opinion: “In the years prior to civil war breaking out in Syria, that country also experienced its worst drought on record. Farming families moved en masse into urban centers, increasing political unrest and further priming the country for conflict.”

Let’s step back and analyze her position:

• First of all, she is not a scientist. She is a political appointee. She has no credibility in predicting cause and effect when it comes to climate science. 
• To many Americans, she was a blatant liar in telling the world via five Sunday morning TV news shows that some obscure video caused the death of four Americans at the terrorist attack on our consulate at Benghazi. We now know that the whole video story was a cover up to protect Obama’s re-election rhetoric. Liar than, liar now?
• She presents no scientific evidence that this cause and effect actually happened. 

Maybe some other factors were involved such as the Asaad family oppressing large segments of the Syrian populations for many decades, the chemical warfare that Asaad waged on the rebels, the crackdown on freedom protests, the fight for control of oil and natural gas transportation in the entire Middle East, the rise of ISIS once Obama abandoned Iraq, the centuries long fight of Shiite vs. Sunni Muslims in the Middle East, etc. 

Pure speculation and fear mongering on her part. Did I mention that she is not a scientist? In our first point above, Dr. Freeman Dyson, world renowned scientist says Obama is on the wrong side of the whole global warming debate. So who to believe: a real life scientist or a political appointee with no climate science background.

But no need to answer that question since Rice goes on in the same speech to completely kill her credibility, stating that: “Consider the impacts—to the global economy and to our shared security—when rising seas begin to swallow nations whole,” and that we will see rising sea levels of “as much as 20 feet.” Even most of the global warming advocate scientists do not predict that sea levels will go up anywhere near that high. 

And since the polar ice caps continue to expand and thus, reducing the possibility of any ocean rises in the near future, this is nothing more than speculative fear mongering backed up by NO facts.

3) Consider a recent scientific finding of epic proportions that was recently reviewed in the Canadian Free Press:

As world leaders get ready to head to Paris for the latest pact on cutting CO2 emissions, it has emerged that there isn’t as much urgency about the matter as had been thought. A team of top-level atmospheric chemistry boffins from France and Germany say they have identified a new process by which vast amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted into the atmosphere from the sea – a process which was unknown until now, meaning that existing climate models do not take account of it. The effect of VOCs in the air is to cool the climate down, and thus climate models used today predict more warming than can actually be expected. Indeed, global temperatures have actually been stable for more than fifteen years, a circumstance which was not predicted by climate models and which climate science is still struggling to assimilate.—Lewis Page, The Register, 30 September 2015

Much like Susan Rice, I am not a climate scientist. However, this discovery appears to be very significant in many ways but one that stands out relative to being a global warming doubter and believer in science: This phenomenon was never incorporated into any of the now defunct and failed climate forecast models over the years simply because no one knew about it.

Since VOCs reportedly cool the earth, is it not important to include them in any climate model in order to get a more accurate reading of what the future might hold? If this discovery holds, it should greatly mitigate the forecasted disasters that climate scientists’ forecast models tried to predict since it now appears the oceans of the world are producing an effect to cool the earth.

This is just another example showing that no matter how strongly a scientist or politician or a political appointee advocates for man made global warming and climate change, the reality is that they know very little about what is really going on. If they did know, then VOCs would be part of the discussion but it is not since no one knew about them until recently. Thus, doubting anything in this field of massive ignorance is not a bad thing to do.

That will do it for today. A recent discovery (VOCs) might prove why the doom and gloom climate forecasts models were always dreadfully inaccurate, why political appointees need to shut up when discussing climate change since they have zero background and credibility in the area, and another world renowned scientist comes down on the side of how rational it is to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science. More good stuff tomorrow.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

The Obama Scandals: Scandal Number One, The Benghazi Terrorist Attack Cover Up

We are going to take a few days break from our updating of the disaster known as Obama Care to address the three, major unfolding scandals of the Obama administration:

1. The Benghazi consulate terrorist attack and cover up.
2. The use of the IRS to hamper, harass, and intimidate American citizens and organizations that held political opinions contrary to the Obama administration’s positions and opinions.
3. The unauthorized and secret confiscation of confidential telephone logs of Associated Press news reporters by the Obama Justice Department.

Any of these serious, serious scandals have the potential for criminal and civil lawsuits and other proceedings that could result in people losing their jobs, going to jail, paying fines, and being removed from political office.

Any of these scandals by themselves is indicative of a government that is out of control and at war with its own citizens. It is pretty obvious and certain that when the smoke settles on these three scandals, we will see that there were blatant attacks on citizens’ Constitutional rights for the sole benefit of political gain.

Every American who cherishes freedom, regardless of their political interests and passions, should be disgusted and insulted by these activities that were executed within the halls of Washington government. The audacity of their actions and the feeble excuses and cover ups in response to these scandalous events evoke the image of Nixon and the sorry tale of Watergate and subsequent impeachment.

The stories on these three scandals are exploding so quickly that it is taking some time to get a handle on how far reaching and wretched they are. Until I can get a coherent grasp on everything for summary in this blog, I am going to use the insights of people with far more experience than myself in the next three days to set the groundwork on bad these scandals are.

The first scandal that we will cover today is the lies, cover up, and deceit as they relate to the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack back in September. The best person I found to summarize what is going on is Thomas Sowell and the May 14, 2013 opinion piece he put out entitled, "Lies About Libya," which is reproduced below.

Mr. Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. He is currently the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. I have found all of his previous writings on politics and economic matters to be insightful, well thought out, and usually correct even if his correct conclusions were almost always at odds with the American political class.

After his thoughts, I pose some questions of my own that need to be answered so that the four brave Americans who died as a result of this demonstration’s foul ups, cover ups, and possibly illegal activities are not forgotten.

**********************************

Lies About Libya
By Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

There can be honest differences of opinion on many subjects. But there can also be dishonest differences. Last week's testimony under oath about events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 makes painfully clear that what the Obama administration told the American people about those events were lies out of whole cloth.

What we were told repeatedly last year by the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the American ambassador to the U.N., was that there was a protest demonstration in Benghazi against an anti-Islamic video produced by an American, and that this protest demonstration simply escalated out of control.

This "spontaneous protest" story did not originate in Libya but in Washington. Neither the Americans on duty in Libya during the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, nor officials of the Libyan government, said anything about a protest demonstration.

The highest American diplomat on the scene in Libya spoke directly with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by phone, and told her that it was a terrorist attack. The president of Libya announced that it was a terrorist attack. The C.I.A. told the Obama administration that it was a terrorist attack.

With lies, as with potato chips, it is hard to stop with just one. After the "spontaneous protest" story was discredited, the next claim was that this was the best information available at the time from intelligence sources.

But that claim cannot survive scrutiny, now that the 12 drafts of the Obama administration's talking points about Benghazi have belatedly come to light. As draft after draft of the talking points were made, e-mails from the State Department pressured the intelligence services to omit from these drafts their clear and unequivocal statement from the outset that this was a terrorist attack.

Attempts to make it seem that Ambassador Susan Rice's false story about a "spontaneous protest" was the result of her not having accurate information from the intelligence services have now been exposed as a second lie to excuse the first lie.

Despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's loudly proclaimed question "What difference, at this point, does it make?" the difference is between an honest mistake and a calculated lie to deceive the American people, in order to win an election.

Barack Obama's election campaign oratory had proclaimed the death of Osama bin Laden as an accomplishment of his administration, as part of a general defeat of Al-Qaeda and other terrorists. To admit that these terrorists were still in action, and strong enough to kill an American ambassador and three other Americans in a well-coordinated military style attack, would be a politically devastating admission during the election campaign.

Far better, politically, to come up with a story about a protest demonstration that just got out of hand. This could be presented as an isolated, one-time event, rather than part of a continuing pattern of terrorism by groups that were still active, despite President Obama's spin suggesting that they were not.

The problem with telling a lie, or even a succession of lies, is that a very small dose of the truth can sometimes make the whole thing collapse like a house of cards. The State Department's own foreign service officer Gregory Hicks was in Libya during the attack, so he knew the truth. When threats were not enough to silence him, it was then necessary to try to discredit him.

After years of getting glowing job evaluations, and awards of honors from the State Department for his work in various parts of the world, Mr. Hicks suddenly began to get bad job evaluations and was demoted to a desk job in Washington after he spoke with a Congressman about what he knew. The truth is dangerous to liars.

The Obama administration's excuse for not trying to get help to the Americans in Benghazi while they were under attack — namely, that it would take too long — is as shaky as its other statements. A small fighting unit in Tripoli was ready to get on a plane to Benghazi when they were ordered to "stand down." Other fighting units located outside of Libya are designed precisely for fast deployment — and nobody knew how many hours the attack would last.

But it will take more investigations to determine who gave the order to "stand down," and why. How many new lies that will generate is another question.

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Nice job of putting a ribbon around scandal number one of the Obama administration. I would add the following questions that need to be answered for the sake of the families who unnecessarily lost loved ones in the attack:

• Why was nearby U.S. military help not sent to rescue the two dozen or so consulate employees and workers during the seven hour terrorist siege?
• Who gave the direct order to nearby military resources to “stand down” and not rescue the consulate people?
• Who decided to not blame terrorists for the attack even though it was known almost immediately that this was a terrorist attack and instead manufacture a fictional story that some lame ant-Islam YouTube video caused the attack?
• Did U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice know she was lying about the cause of the attack when she made the rounds on Sunday morning political talk shows with the inane YouTube story?
• Why were high ranking military personnel, who had military responsibility for that area of the world, quickly relieved of duty after the attack? Was it because they disagreed with the stand down order not to save those in need?
• Was this consulate operation actually a covert and illegal CIA front to illegally run guns to Syrian rebels without Congressional approval?
• Was this a botched kidnapping plot between Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood to eventually swap the kidnapped U.S. ambassador with the so-called blind Arab sheik, who is currently in a Federal prison, as part of a political ploy to make Obama look strong going into the November elections, a ploy that was fouled up by two brave Navy Seals on site doing their jobs and ignoring any stand down orders?
• Why were ineffective local people hired to as security guards to protect a U.S. consulate building in one of the most violent places in the world?
• Why were repeated requests for additional security refused for months ahead of the attack by the highest officials in the Federal government, especially the State Department?
• How could State Department procedures be so screwed up and the ambassador so weakly defended that the fatally wounded U.S. ambassador was taken to a local hospital by local Libyan citizens?
• Did the President actually leave the situation room in the White House during the attack, retire to the living quarters of the White House, not inquire about the situation during the seven hour siege, and promptly leave for a campaign fundraising event in Las Vegas the next day while the ruins of the consulate still burned?
• Why were State Department whistle blowers intimidated and demoted for telling the truth about the attack and who is responsible for attempting to suppress the truths they could and should tell?

I am sure there are and will be other questions that will arise as this scandal unfolds. It is a disgrace that we allowed this situation to occur and more of a disgrace that Washington politicians tried to cover up their actions in light of the attack.

We will get back into this swill in a little while as we disseminate additional reports but thank the words of Dr. Sowell for putting things into a concise summary of the lies. Until then, please do not forget the faces of those that died for no reason in Benghazi and help everyone seek answers and justice for their families:

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