Benghazi and the Politicization of Intelligence

Accuracy in Media

 

"Mike Morell, then-head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC), had the task of helping to prepare talking points for then-U.S. Ambassador to the UN "Susan Rice, who was slated to appear on five Sunday morning talk shows a few days later. Morell was personally responsible for “cutting some 50 percent of the text,” including all “references to Al Qaeda” and the many earlier terror attacks against U.S. and other Western targets in Benghazi....it was clear that Morell not only had misrepresented his own role, but also had been less than forthcoming about the close oversight role played by the White House in ensuring that all references to al-Qa’eda terrorism would be scrubbed. Morell also made sure to scrub from the talking points the honest assessment that “We cannot rule out that individuals had previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.' ”

....

"This is particularly damaging because there is the appearance of a coordinated cover-up staged to ensure the re-election of a President who’d staked his campaign on the repeated assertion that al-Qa’eda had been “decimated,” or was on “the path to defeat.' ”

Is Henninger Right about the 'Carterization' of Obama?

First, Mr. Henninger's WSJ piece:

Henninger: Putin Carterizes Obama, Totally ; The Democrats are vulnerable again on handling the world.

Candidate Reagan said of President Carter, "The response from the administration in Washington" to foreign threats, said Reagan, "has been one of weakness, inconsistency, vacillation and bluff."

"Our allies are losing confidence in us, and our adversaries no longer respect us," he said. Our partners "are confused by the lack of a coherent, principled policy from the Carter administration."

....

"...And in truth, Mr. Carter's team included sterner ballast in Defense Secretary Harold Brown and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Nothing similar exists today in the Obama administration. " (Emphasis added, TD)

....

"A realistic hope for peace, Reagan said, is possible only if the U.S. maintains "the vital margin of safety." The margin of safety wasn't about public threats of war. It is about the marginal advantage gained when an adversary negotiating with a strong U.S. believed we might act militarily. If friends and foes conclude no one in the U.S. believes this in 2014, the margin of safety is gone."

American Thinker  ... "In fact this theme, that Obama is as awful a president as Jimmy Carter, has been a thread woven through the narrative of many conservative writers (including yours truly) ever since BHO assumed the presidency.  And indeed, I believe that history will record these two naïve and unexpected presidents as among the absolutely most horrible of our chief executives. Moreover, that assessment will pertain to domestic as well as foreign policy."

Krauthammer: Arrogant Obama 'Semi-Delusional,' 'Radically Unaware' of His 'Failed Foreign Policy'    “ 'I think it’s a kind of arrogance,” Krauthammer said. “He thinks he has a good foreign policy. I think he is semi-delusional about the results of these five years. There is not a spot in the world you -- can go from Syria to Libya to Iran to China, to Russia to Ukraine where the United States is not worse off, less regarded, considered weak than it was five years ago. This is a completely failed foreign policy. And he seems radically unaware of that.' ” Via Lucianne

Video 

Another major Democrat sides with teachers unions against charter schools

 

Mona Charen; Mayor de Blasio: The defender of the powerless or of the teachers’ unions?   "Just try to envision the scene: A newly elected Republican mayor of a large American city takes steps to close down some of the best schools serving an almost exclusively minority population. You know how it would go. We’d be hearing that Republicans “hate” the poor. The words “cruel,” “vicious,” and “racist” would circle the new mayor like sharks."...

 

"It is, of course, the new Democratic mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who is shutting down a number of highly successful public charter schools (his son attends a magnet school). Charters are public schools run by parents or others and are not constrained by the usual public-school rules, hours, or curricula." ...

 

"...it betrays the cold brutality of some Democrats who claim to speak for the poor."

 

De Blasio turning on friends in charter school, pre-K battles ... "The clarity extends to something else, too. There is no reason to believe de Blasio will limit his carpet-bombing approach to charters. New Yorkers are seeing how he intends to govern. It’s going to be a long four years." ...

UPDATED: Buildings Collapse After Explosion, Fire In East Harlem

UPDATE, 10:53 am, CDT:  Two dead and at least 17 injured in Manhattan apartment building explosion after residents reported smelling gas

 

CBS NY  "Two buildings have collapsed after an explosion Wednesday morning in East Harlem.

It happened around 9 a.m. on Park Avenue on 116th Street, the FDNY said. One of the buildings that collapsed had a piano repair shop with apartments above. The second building housed a church.

"It’s unclear if anyone was inside the buildings at the time of the explosion. Officials believe the buildings were both 5 stories tall.

Video from the scene shows heavy smoke rising from the area as hundreds of firefighters battle the blaze, which has been upgraded to five-alarms. Debris and rubble could be seen scattered all over the area."

 

Terrorists? Maybe, but why would they attack someplace other that a conspicuous major area?

This Story Is Guaranteed To Make Your Day: Patriotism Is Alive And Well In Texas

IJ Review  "This moving photo was captured during the pledge of allegiance and moment of silence that opened Friday’s school day at Cy-Fair High School. Groundskeeper Clayton Allen Jr. set aside his equipment to honor the moment and a teacher took a picture of him doing it.

You will need to scroll down a bit to pause Diane Feinstein's video to hear this one. The both begin playing together.

The Lurking Peril of Ignorance

THE DRYER REPORT  "On this the day that 68 years ago Churchill first proclaimed and coined the phrase “Iron Curtain”…we can see today the prophetic words he spoke that day.  Churchill warned ….

 

From what I have seen of our Russian friends and allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. Last time I saw it all coming and I cried aloud to my own fellow countrymen and to the world, but no one paid any attention. Up till the year 1933 or even 1935, Germany might have been saved from the awful fate which has overtaken her and we might all have been spared the miseries Hitler let loose upon mankind. There never was a war in history easier to prevent by timely action than the one which has just desolated such great areas of the globe. It could have been prevented, in my belief, without the firing of a single shot, and Germany might be powerful, prosperous and honored today; but no one would listen and one by one we were all sucked into the awful whirlpool. We must not let it happen again.

 

Park Service Knew World War II Veterans Would Be Locked Out

National Review Online

"Internal e-mails reveal Interior feared being blamed, bent rules for its own staff."

 

 

"The Department of the Interior knew beforehand that two groups of aging veterans would be visiting the World War II Memorial as the partial government shutdown began on Oct. 1 but decided to barricade the site anyway, according to e-mails obtained by National Review Online.

 

"The newly released public records also show National Park Service employees busily monitoring the news for any bad publicity and making shutdown exceptions for their co-workers."

....

"Tom Buttry, a legislative correspondent in Harkin’s office, wrote on Sept. 30:

While I understand that these memorials have remained accessible to the public during past shutdowns (I’d imagine with the mall being so open, it’d probably [be] more manpower intensive to try to completely close them), I wanted to do my due diligence and make 100 percent sure that people could visit the outdoor memorials on the National Mall in the event of a shutdown.

"The Department of the Interior and National Park Service decided instead to fully shut down the site, e-mails show:"  Full article

The President will protect us from the IRS

http://terrellaftermath.com/

UPDATE: New Oversight report claims Lois Lerner misled Congress on IRS targeting

"A GOP-led House panel Tuesday released an extensive report that attempts to show former top Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner lied to Congress about her involvement in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

 

"Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the 141-page report “offers detailed evidence about steps she took to crack down on organizations that exercised their Constitutional rights to free political speech.' ”

What Else Can the Obama Administration Do to Undermine U.S. Security? Feinstein's bombshell .

Ron Fournier  "They spied on you. They lied to the Senate. They seized telephone records from the Associated Press and considered criminalizing investigative journalism at Fox News. What else can the U.S. intelligence community do to destroy its credibility, curb civil liberties, and ultimately undermine U.S. security?

 "Spy on Congress.

 "Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat bravely challenging a Democratic White House, accused the CIA of searching computer files used by her staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee to review the CIA's now-defunct interrogation programs, potentially violating:

• The constitutionally sacred principle of separation of powers, which prohibits one branch of government (say, a runaway executive branch) from strong-arming the other two branches.  
• The Fourth Amendment, which protects from unreasonable search and seizure.
• The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Executive Order 12333, which bar domestic surveillance.

Full article

 LA Times: Feinstein publicly accuses CIA of spying on Senate computers
 

"The expanding dispute has opened a rift between the CIA and the Senate committee that oversees it and often has defended it. Already, some CIA officers could face criminal prosecution as a result of a Justice Department investigation of the incident."  More.

Sharyl Attkisson resigns from CBS News

Politico  "Attkisson, who has been with CBS News for two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias, an outsize influence by the network’s corporate partners and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt that her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her reporting on air.

 

"At the same time, Attkisson’s reporting on the Obama administration, which some staffers characterized as agenda-driven, had led network executives to doubt the impartiality of her reporting." ...

Via Lucianne 

Leftist Racism 101:

Bloviating Zeppelin compares these two stories and comes up with a conclusion about leftist racism.

Example One: We Ask DNC Members: How Much of Opposition To Obama is Racist?

"MRCTV's Dan Joseph decided to stop by the DNC winter meeting to ask committee members just how much of the opposition to President Obama is racist." 

CNS lists their bona fides:

CNSNews.com is not funded by the government like NPR.

 CNSNews.com is not funded by the government like PBS.

 

EXAMPLE TWO: FCC targets black conservative in TV station fight  

"For years, the Federal Communications Commission has allowed TV stations to execute joint operating agreements allowing themselves to outsource tasks such as advertising sales to group owners with more resources.

 

"But when conservative columnist and entrepreneur Armstrong Williams recently purchased two stations, making him one of America’s few black owners of local TV affiliates, the commission unexpectedly decided to use his acquisition as a test case to review the practice." Video at the link.

 

Juan Williams writes about this in the Wall Street Journal: The Feds Target a Black TV Station Owner 

"How many black people own a broadcast television station in the United States? The answer is one: Armstrong Williams. I know this because he's a friend.

 

"So imagine my surprise when I heard that the Federal Communications Commission is currently considering pulling the financial rug from under him by changing its regulations to—get this—promote diversity."

 

So BZ concludes with this revelation:

 

Now, in brief, what have we learned?

1. That to question Mr Obama, who is black, is racist in nature, and
2. To question a black who is a Conservative is not racist in nature

See?  Aren’t racial issues simpler when you’re a Leftist?

 

Daylight savings time gives us a longer day.

Bloviating Zeppelin