Gates: Obama White House Spent All Their Time Bashing Bush…

Weasel Zippers

"ROBERT GATES: I think the book is clear that when the president responded to Hillary’s comments that he was vaguely agreeing that opposition to the surge broadly had been political. And I absolutely believe that, having lived through that in the spring of 2007 up on the Hill. There are two things that made me remember what Hillary had said.

"The first was that I was on the opposite side of the table. Admiral Mullen and I used to joke, particularly in the first months of the Obama administration, when kind of every meeting in The Situation Room, everybody would trash the Bush administration and everything the Bush team. You know, what a bunch of bums the Bush team were and everything. And we’re sitting there thinking, what, are we invisible? We were integral members of that team, and so the fact that she would say something like that." ...

Is Chris Christie Less Believable Than Tawana Brawley?

Ann Coulter  "I agree with MSNBC. I find it hard to believe that Gov. Chris Christie knew nothing about his staff's plotting a massive traffic jam on the ramp to the George Washington Bridge for political retribution.

"On the other hand, I also find it hard to believe that Obama didn't know his own IRS was auditing his political enemies.

"And I find it hard to believe that Obama didn't know you wouldn't be able to keep your doctor under Obamacare.

"But most of all, I find it hard to believe that MSNBC host Al Sharpton didn't know Tawana Brawley was lying when she claimed to have been gang-raped by rogue cops on the Wappingers Falls, N.Y., police force." Full article.

 

....
Coulter concludes with this appropriate question (that I expect Chris Matthews will condemn as racist). "What kind of culture exists at MSNBC to encourage such willful blindness?"

'Oh, Kylie! What did you do? Next time, please don’t...': What mother told Military Cross hero daughter who twice braved hails of bullets to tend war wounded

UK Daily Mail 

"When Lance Corporal Kylie Watson was summoned to the office of her commanding officer for a ‘fireside chat’ she feared the worst. ‘Do you know why you are here?’ he asked the combat medic. ‘Am I in trouble, Sir?’ she enquired. ‘No,’ he told her. ‘You’ve been awarded the Military Cross.’
"The 23-year-old, whose tour of Afghanistan’s Helmand province was her first as a fully qualified battlefield medic, was stunned.
" ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right soldier?’ she asked. But there was no mistake. The extraordinary heroism she displayed by twice running into Taliban fire to treat wounded comrades had been recognised with one of the UK’s highest honours."   Read more.

...."The motto of the Royal Army Medical Corps is ‘In Arduis Fidelis’: Steadfast in Adversity. And so Lance Corporal Kylie Watson MC has proved."

Benghazi-gate Update: Obama Admin knew with 15 MINUTES it was a Terror Attack:

Common Cents 

 

Lieberman: Benghazi ‘Obviously a Terrorist Attack by Any Definition of Terrorism’  "Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) told a House committee this morning that the Obama administration rush to blame the Benghazi attack on an anti-Muhammad video underscored the White House’s narrow definition of Islamic terrorism."

These next two from Lucianne
 

Senate report: Attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi could have been prevented

“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Benghazi: Obama Administration Lied Before They Lied  ... "In the fall of 2012, the Obama White House was focused on re-election to the point that it was shutting its real duties out. President Obama was shutting his own real duties out, campaigning far more than governing. He hadn’t met with his jobs council in months. He was skipping his daily security intel briefings. The Sept. 10 release was sent out to make him look presidential, without actually performing the duties of president. There was no security meeting, and no forces were actually moved around anywhere to gear up for the 9-11 anniversary. There was a conference call, a conversation, and a press release."   Bryan Preston

Robert Gates: Harry Reid Calling Iraq War “Lost” Was “One of The Most Disgraceful Things I’ve Heard A Politician Say”…

Weasel Zippers 

 

"Then again, this is Harry Reid we’re talking about."

Via Free Beacon:

“The troops believed and still believe that they were being successful in their mission,” Gates said. “So I think they were able, to a certain extent, to set aside the politics here at home.”
But, Gates continued, “When you have somebody like the Senate Majority Leader come out in the middle of the surge and say ‘this war is lost’, I thought that was one of the most disgraceful things I’ve heard a politician say.”
“That sends a riveting message to kids who are putting their lives on the line every day that they’re doing it for nothing,” Gates noted, “and that was absolutely not the case.”

Obama: A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief; In Bob Gates’s first memoir, other presidents are more loyal and serious.

Michael Barone  Gates' book "presents a significantly more negative picture of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton than Gates’s statements in office led anyone to expect.

"And it presents an interesting contrast with Gates’s previous memoir, ...
To be sure, Gates in Duty says many positive things about his most recent former colleagues. He calls Obama’s decision to target Osama bin Laden the “most courageous” presidential decision he has seen.

"He praises Clinton’s judgment, her sense of humor, and her penchant for hard work. Though he doesn’t make the point explicitly in the excerpt, the secretary of state and secretary of defense weren’t constant and mistrustful antagonists.

"But he also presents some damning testimony. Listening to Obama soon after he had ordered a surge of troops into Afghanistan, “I thought: The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand [Hamid] Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.' ” ...
....
And the reason for Barone's title of his column:
"In the excerpts from Duty, Gates seems to take a similar view of George W. Bush, a “mature leader” who on the Iraq surge “risked reputation, public esteem, credibility, political ruin and the judgment of history on a single decision he believed was the right thing for the country.”

"But the excerpts suggest that Gates sees Obama as out of line with the continuity he admires in his predecessors."

 

The Obama Afghanistan Policy

investors.com

Forget Congress; Mr. Obama will run this nation all by himself.

 

Obama promises more dictatorial action in 2014   '“But one of the things that I’ll be emphasizing in this meeting is the fact that we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone," he added.
Translation: Obama is set to use his executive authority to bypass Congress -- again."

Dan Pfeiffer: 'President Obama is ready to use every executive action available'    "White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer sent an e-mail early Tuesday to preview President Obama's plan to use his executive power in ways Americans have never seen before."  Lucianne

You’ve Been Warned   ... "unfettered by having to face the electorate again, a second Obama term would be a nightmare for the country — four years of unencumbered mischief in the Oval Office while the criminal organization masquerading as a political party gets on with the serious business of picking its next candidate to ensure that eight years of “fundamental change” are irreversible:" ... Lucianne

Rush Limbaugh: Dictator Obama: I'll Use Executive Orders to Make This Lousy, Unjust Country Fair 

... " He's gonna make this lousy country finally fair! Never mind he's been running it for five years.  Never mind the fact that his entire economic policy has undermined the old saw about work hard and you can make it. Because not only can you not work hard, you can't work. " ...

 

Alan Caruba: Blueprint for Tyranny  "There are lots of Americans who, after the first five years of living under the governance of Barack Hussein Obama, have concluded that, among his most notable characteristics, he is an incompetent, a pathological liar, a Marxist, and, fearful as the prospect is, a potential dictator who will not leave office when a new President is due to be sworn in. "

Chris Matthews, check out this left-wing bigotry!

Weasel Zippers  "If she married a white reporter from MSNBC or CNN you can be sure the “progressive” left wouldn’t be barraging her with racist insults."

 

From Mediaite

 "Sister Sister star Tamera Mowry tearfully told Oprah Winfrey’s network that her marriage to Fox News correspondent Adam Housely had earned her scores of racially-tinged abuse on Twitter and elsewhere."

 

Adam Housley  ... "In April 2013, he secured an exclusive interview with a Special Operations whistle-blower who felt the government betrayed the four men who died in the Benghazi attacks on September 11th. Previously, he covered the 2012 wildfires in Waldo Canyon, Colorado, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and reported in both English and Spanish during the Chilean Miners rescue in 2010. While at FNC, he has covered several hurricanes, including Katrina and Rita. " ...

Hillary's Hit List

Politico Reports That Hillary Has A Hit List, Shocking No One
"Remember the 2008 Democratic primary, when Obama was at the top of the list?"

First this one: Report: Hillary Clinton Has Secret “Hit List” of Those Who Have Crossed Her…

 

Followed by this one: Democrats On Hillary Clinton’s “Hit List” Beg For Forgiveness…
 "Democrats atop a political “hit list” of politicians who betrayed Hillary Clinton in 2008 are trying to get back in her good graces as she weighs a 2016 comeback.
"Clinton campaign aides kept a detailed list of lawmakers who supported Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, according to excerpts from the forthcoming book HRC: States Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, by The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Politico’s Jonathan Allen. The book says aides ranked them according to the gravity of their perceived betrayal, with several prominent Democrats — including Secretary of State John Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator — earning the blackest of black marks." ...

The ‘crime’ of the IRS

NY Post

RS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner testifies before Congress

 — but she shed little light on the scandal, only saying that she'd done nothing

wrong and that she wasn't planning on saying anything else.

 

"Only days after we learned the Obama administration had appointed an Obama donor to head investigations into the IRS targeting of conservative organizations, we now have a leak from law enforcement saying the FBI doesn’t expect to file criminal charges.

"That’s the gist of a late-breaking story Monday evening in The Wall Street Journal. The story notes that though the investigation may go on another few months, unless other evidence is unearthed, the FBI conclusion will be that the IRS was a “mismanaged bureaucracy” enforcing rules “ it didn’t understand.' ”

Has your Rep signed Congressional letter against Israel academic boycott?

Legal Insurrection

"I reported last Friday on the draft Bipartisan Congressional letter to denounce academic boycott of Israel.
"The letter reads, in part:

We write in strong opposition to the American Studies Association’s (ASA) recent decision to boycott Israeli universities and academic institutions. While ASA has every right to express its views on policies pursued by any nation or government, we believe that the decision to blacklist Israeli academic institutions for Israeli government policies with which ASA disagrees demonstrates a blatant disregard for academic freedom….
Even more concerning is the singular targeting of Israel for boycott. Like all democracies, Israel is not perfect. But to single out Israel, while leaving relationships with universities in autocratic and repressive countries intact, suggests thinly-veiled bigotry and bias against the Jewish State.

"As of Friday, there were 36 signatories. As of yesterday, the number had risen to 57.  [Update - see list at bottom of post for most current numbers and signatories]
"The final signature list should be released later this week.
American civil society has been heard loud and clear, with major academic organizations and 190 University Presidents (as of this writing) rejecting the academic boycott.
"Now it is the time for American political society to be heard against the anti-Israel academic boycotters, as well.
"Is your House Representative on the list of signatories? If not, now is the time to reach out to their offices and find out why not." ...