Of Doctors and Diplomats: Decisions on Death in Benghazi

ConservativeReport.org  (Hardly an unbiased source I admit, but neither is MSNBC, also known as "Obama's Pravda")

"In what is being termed a “fierce gun battle”, a team of special ops experts freed the doctor and spirited him back to Bagram Air Force Base. In the gun battle, one Navy SEAL was wounded and ultimately succumbed to his wounds. The SEAL was identified as Petty Officer 1st Class Nicholas D. Checque, 28 of Monroesville, PA. No reports are coming out about other casualties."

.... "Does this sound different from Benghazi? Not one iota. Then, we need to ask ourselves why this doctor’s life was worth more than an ambassador, one CIA computer expert, and two Navy SEALS to this administration.

"The answer was contained in that CIA compound…and that answer led to the US weapons supplied to the very people who attacked the facility."
Having said that, we are glad this doctor is safe and that our men went in there to get him. My regret is that nobody in Benghazi paid a price for what they did to our embassy and our ambassador.
Hat tip to Chip Jones at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook\

150th Anniversary of the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg

Did you know that you can get an app to help you tour the battlefield? The Civil War Trust has this on Fredericksburg and other battlefields.  More on maps and apps:
Apps for other battlefields.  Maps of battlefields.

Other links from the Civil War Trust
See the battlefield. "Wander the battlefield digitally and explore clickable details." This downloaded a bit slowly on my old laptop.

The Tunnel Wall posted this on the battle one year ago.  Be sure to run the interactive map with details and time lines running throughout the animation. Numerous other links on the battle, the officers, and the battlefield, then and now.

Commemoration booklet to show you what we missed at the occasion (pdf)  Some events are still going on at this time.

You expected this, didn't you? Zero Dark Thirty blasts torture by giving us plenty of it to watch

Danger Room  "One scene features a bloodied, disoriented and humiliated man strapped to a wall with his pants around his ankles. A second scene depicts the same man having liquid forcibly poured down his throat; later, he’s shoved into a box that could barely hold your stereo. And all of this takes place in the first 45 minutes or so of Zero Dark Thirty, the new movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. It’s enough to make you wretch. It’s arguably the best and most important part of the movie."
Typical of Hollywood, those being victims of actions it disapproves are pictured as sympathetic, pitiful people. The movie people's take on the subject:

"Kathryn Bigelow’s new film about the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden begins with an unsparing, nauseating and frighteningly realistic look at how the CIA tortured many people and reaped very little intelligence. "
...."At the same time, the film makes viewers come to grips with what Dick Cheney euphemistically called the “dark side” of post-9/11 counterterrorism. Meanwhile, former Bush administration aide Philip Zelikow, who termed the torture a “war crime” in a recent Danger Room interview, will probably find the movie more amenable than Cheney will. What endures on the screen are scenes that can make a viewer ashamed to be American, in the context of a movie whose ending scene makes viewers very, very proud to be American."
But Hollywood will do all it can to make sure you are not too proud.

Speaking of guys who advocate torture, this guy was a guest of honor at the Obama White House.
"The guy who made a poor quality video about Muhammad sits in jail.
"The guy who advocat[ed] the torture and painful, slow deaths of the U.S. military and their families…HE got to perform at the president’s Christmas party.
"It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD world."

Waiting to see what Obama is going to do to us with taxes

Obama vague on naming spending cuts  "He spoke one day after meeting privately at the White House with House Speaker John Boehner, whose office expressed frustration with the talks to date.
"We continue to wait for the president to identify the spending cuts he's willing to make as part of the 'balanced' approach he promised the American people,'" said a written statement from the Ohio Republican's office.

From the Wall Street Journal, under "The Republican Tax Panic":  The GOP should negotiate with Obama, not each other. .  "If any Republicans thought that President Obama would respond with magnanimity in victory, they now know better. He is determined to rout them on taxes, give as a little as possible on spending, and blame them for any economic damage in the bargain. ..."So it's a shame that Republicans are playing into Mr. Obama's hands, negotiating in public among themselves, prematurely giving up on the tax issue and undermining House Speaker John Boehner in the process. Mr. Obama isn't going to blink on the budget if he thinks Republicans are going to blink first, and so far the emerging GOP position seems to be to surrender on taxes first and hope Mr. Obama will have mercy on them later on entitlements."

Obama tax plan no small deal to small businessmen  "House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans have said they are open to more tax revenue through reducing or eliminating tax breaks. But Boehner opposes Obama's proposal to increase tax rates on high earners.

" "Raising taxes on small businesses instead of taking a balanced approach that also cuts spending is wrong," Boehner, said recently. "It's only going to make it harder for our economy to grow. And if our economy doesn't grow, Americans don't get new jobs and the debt problem that we have will continue to threaten our children's future." "

Charles Krauthammer; Obama’s objective is to fracture the Republican majority in the House.
"This is why he sent Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the Republicans to convey not a negotiating offer but a demand for unconditional surrender. House Speaker John Boehner had made a peace offering of $800 billion in new revenues. Geithner pocketed Boehner’s $800 billion, doubled it to $1.6 trillion, offered risible cuts that in 2013 would actually be exceeded by new stimulus spending, and then demanded that Congress turn over to the president all power over the debt ceiling."

Question: "What do you do?" Answer: "I'm me!"

Legal Insurrection  "(Almost) Everything that has gone wrong with this country summed up in one video.
"Hang on to the conclusion for the “surprise” ending."

We have met the enemy and he is...US!

Nobody can fix blame on others as well as the Petulant-Juvenile-in-Chief

Obama’s Kingdom of Fairness; Forget the deficit. It is now the role of government to soak the undeserving rich.

Victor Davis Hanson  "All the old criteria in a free-market economy that decide how much we are able to make — education levels, hard work, personal responsibility, particular tastes and values, skill sets, self-discipline, or even sheer luck, accidents, relative health, or inheritance — now matter far less.

"Instead, Obama’s all-knowing, all-powerful federal government, through higher taxes, more spending, and greater deficits, will set right what the unfair marketplace has so skewed. At last, we learn what Obama really meant when, in unguarded moments, he sermonized about “redistributive change,” the need to “spread the wealth,” knowing the proper time not to profit, and “at a certain point” making too much money.
"Do we need to heed any longer the ancient advice — scrimp to leave something behind for your kids; try to get a promotion; make sure your savings account is larger than what you owe — if some inequality results?"

Rich Terrell cartoon from: Soaking The Rich Is Not The Answer. It’s A Large Part Of The Problem.

"In my last article, “The Fiscal Cliff Is Closer Than You Think“, I pointed to reliable facts that show that successful US citizens are leaving the USA in record and growing numbers. I also asked you to look at those facts and then do the math."

John Gaver is the author of “The Rich Don’t Pay Tax! …Or Do They?“ To learn more about this flight of wealth from our shores and what can be done to easily reverse it, read this Amazon 5-star rated book, which is available in print, Kindle, and Nook formats. http://TheRichDontPayTax.com/

Coming to America: Britain's Brain Drain: Professionals Flee High Taxes  "Britain’s high rates of income tax, alongside an increasing cost of living and slow economic recovery, are seen as key factors in the sharp increase in professionals leaving the country. John Cridland, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, one of the UK’s leading independent employers’ organizations, agrees that taxation is an issue, but believes that a remedy is imminent. “These are disturbing figures, there is no doubt that the spike in recent years was due in part to high personal taxes, which the Chancellor is now tackling.” "
Currently many are coming to the US, which I fear may be short-lived, thanks to this crop of Democrats.

 But finally, after long years of stifling taxes, Britain may be learning. America, I fear, is just entering the phase that the UK is now trying to escape from. Obtuse* liberals.
*Obtuse: not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect; not sensitive or observant; dull.

Support Fracking- For Gaia's Sake!

Via Instapundit:   Fracking can help fix the CO2 problem  "Before we all put on the sackcloth and ashes, though, note some good news: America’s carbon dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992. And while no single factor can account for the entire shift, much of the credit goes to something environmentalists often detest: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking."....
"All of that was achieved without government direction — and in the face of considerable environmental resistance. Now the world’s worst CO emitter, China — which gets 80 percent of its electricity from coal — has taken up fracking, too. China’s natural gas reserves are 50 percent bigger than America’s. If climate change is the worst danger facing the planet, as some environmentalists contend, then Chinese fracking should be good news."

"But most environmentalists hate fracking. Instead, they have placed their bets on other horses — many of which have come up lame "....

Hat tip to The Silicon Graybeard

If only our president respected America as much as he does the UN

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Morning Bell: Stop Meeting with the U.N. on Climate Change  "Two days ago, the 18th United Nations conference on climate change wrapped up. As they did at the previous 17 conferences, developing nations demanded that the United States and other developed countries pay them for the climate’s effects.

"In short, the joke’s on us. And these U.N. conferences are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
"Poor nations, including small islands, are seeking a new “international mechanism” to have developed nations pay for storm damage to their countries. This is based on the assumption that global warming is causing stronger hurricanes, typhoons, and the like, which is still unproven."
So, not only we taxpayers pay for half the American population to stay home on the dole, we would supply kitchens, homes and graft to every small nation that blames global warming for their damages.

Lord Monckton -the man Al Gore refuses to debate -mocks UN Climate Conference  "Ridicule is our strongest weapon to break through the media-generated web of lies and distortions undergirding the progressive movement. There are so many phonies in the global warming industry that mockery has no limits, if only conservatives have the creativity and will to have at them satirically."

Barone: Soul-crushing dependency

Michael Barone  " “This is painful for a liberal to admit,” writes liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, “but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in soul-crushing dependency.”

"Kristof is writing from Breathitt County, Ky., deep in the Appalachian mountains, about mothers whose Supplemental Security Income benefits will decrease if their children learn to read. Kristof notes that 55% of children qualifying for SSI benefits do so because of “fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation,” far more than four decades ago when SSI was just a new program."....
Via Instapundit, along with this companion piece about "government cheese" that declares the government will turn not just Americans but third world populations all into beggars because "they're easier to please""

Cartoons