Perpendicular Atrophy
Wannabe:
Oh, Republicans have been stirring up
their base with all kinds of impeachment this and impeachment that as
qualifiers for impeaching President Obama throughout his time in office, but
none of them come close to a proper reason for impeachment. They are as
irrelevant as a crowing donkey. This president is unimpeachable in his
executive endeavors as far as U.S. presidents go and dislike, even disdain him
as much as ya may…a president cannot be impeached simply because someone
doesn’t like him.
GOP politicians know this and that is why they have not proceeded ahead. You just know they would if they only could; they surely should, but only from thoughts in their perceived mythical world. All this impeachment nonsense has created a problem for the GOP and it is a tad more than just minor, for it has stirred up their base into a frenzied crescendo.
GOP politicians know this and that is why they have not proceeded ahead. You just know they would if they only could; they surely should, but only from thoughts in their perceived mythical world. All this impeachment nonsense has created a problem for the GOP and it is a tad more than just minor, for it has stirred up their base into a frenzied crescendo.
All the conservative blog sites are
screaming, “Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!” They not only expect they demand
impeachment. I really wish the GOP would, for it would make them a laughing
stock even more so than the fifty plus repeal Obamacare vote counts, more so
than all the senseless investigation hearings in vain attempts to pin something
onto Obama and even more so than all the obstruction they’ve produced against passing constructive legislation for the nation.
Louisiana Republican governor, Bobby
Jindal at a ‘Faith and Freedom Coalition’ conference held this past June 21st,
stated that the right-wing is even willing to go further than impeachment and
arrest of the president. Jindal claims that a rebellion is brewing with “a
hostile takeover” of the nation’s capital.
Republican politicians have backed
themselves into a very tight and wet painted corner. If they called for
impeachment with only unfounded accusations, they would lose even more of their
integrity in the eyes of the nation as a whole and might possibly result in their
political suicide. On the other hand their extreme right-wing base is clamoring
for impeaching the president no matter if a just impeachable cause is
nonexistent. They got to do something to get out of that clenched corner. So,
this week on June 25th, House Speaker John Boehner announced the
Republican house was going to sue the president.
One can only imagine the quarreling that
went on in their secretive cubbyhole coming up with this suing president stunt. The
lesser extreme half confessing that calling impeachment proceedings will destroy us
as a party while the major extreme argues they have got to do something for the
right-wing base or there will be revolts. The answer…Why not sue? Sure sue;
it’s not as stiff as impeachment with no merit, but yet might still pacify the
roiling base by maybe inferring it could be the first step leading to
impeachment.
But did they come up with any legitimate
reasons as to sue…naw…that’s just a minor detail. During the announcement
Boehner merely stated the reason for the lawsuit was, “I believe the president
is not faithfully executing the laws of our country.” When asked by a reporter
exactly what the lawsuit is about, Boehner quipped, “When I make that decision,
I’ll let you know.”
Most likely they’ll cast it on Obama’s
executive orders as the reason never minding that all presidents have not only
the right in issuing the orders, but all past presidents (except for William H.
Harrison who died in office after serving only one month) have utilized that
right. The Republican’s semi-deity, Ronald Reagan enacted 381 executive orders.
Besides, to date Obama has issued 180 executive orders the lowest for any two
term president. It’s about time he starts using his executive clout to get
things done in bypassing the most obtrusive and obstructive congress this
nation has ever witnessed.
In all honesty, Boehner wouldn’t answer
the reporter’s question because he has nothing. He and Republicans got
bagatelle.
This is strictly political posturing for
the upcoming 2014 elections and political parlor games in general. In
conferring that point, when Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) went to
announce the good Republican news on her favorite mouthpiece TV show, Fox News,
she didn’t get the reception she thought she would. She got nailed by Fox News
reporter, Neil Cavuto, who normally concurs with all the GOP deceits, but even
he sees this has gone too far. Check out the video below and see for yourself.
Casuistry:
My, oh my, the hypocrisy of it all! Instead
of legislating articles and bills for the better good of the nation, replacing
it instead with vain attempts to make this president look bad through obstruction,
filibustering, politically motivated ceaseless investigations and
senseless/repetitive repeals…Republicans have looked foolish in making the
party out to be one big hypocritical scourge.
If ya might recall, back in 2011 Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a solution to settling future debt
limit fights. So stern was he on allowing it to proceed it became known as the
‘McConnell Rule’ which would allow Congress to reject a debt limit extension by
a majority vote—but then be subject to a presidential veto, and a
super-majority override requirement.
Then, as ya might recall again, when Tea
Party extremists shut the government down for sixteen days teetering the nation
on the brink of fiscal calamity, a few Democrats proposed passing the McConnell
Rule. Ol’ Mitch however disagreed, for it didn’t fit the current ploy of his
politics. Eager to pander for his reelection while facing a right-wing primary
challenge even before a tough general election, McConnell then and now says he
opposes his own rule—hypocritically changing the name referring to it as the
‘Schumer-Obama plan.’
Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), the
guru of Republican intelligentsia has had on his budget proposals for the last five
years requested Social Security benefit cuts or either have it become private.
Do you know how Ryan made it through college? It wasn’t that he worked his way
through, no, his studies was paid for by his deceased father’s Social Security
checks. Apparently what is good for Ryan the rest of us are not as obliged.
Concerning the IRS hearings, never mind
that the IRS has turned over 24 thousand e-mails as evidence, the ones lost
through a computer crash are being regarded as a cover-up. Besides Ryan’s little
tough boy with the big britches rant, Representative Darrel Issa (R-CA) has
even accused IRS commissioner, John Koskinen of lying when he sniped the
commissioner was “one step shy of perjury.” He also stated to the commissioner,
“We have a problem with you and you have a problem maintaining your
credibility.”
Koskinen was able to slip one sting in
himself when Representative John Tierney (D-MA) apologized to Koskinen, saying he
could not remember seeing “a display of this kind of disrespect in all the time
I have been in Congress. It is unfortunate that anyone would be subjected to
it.”
Issa then cautioned Tierney “not to
characterize the intent or the character of your fellow members here.” That is
when Koskinen slipped in his zinger, “But it’s fair game to question the
integrity of the witness?”
Anyway, all this is dealing with the
lost IRS emails and Issa cannot understand how the computer crashed and they
are not retrievable. Issa can’t understand how aged computer equipment the IRS
has to work with due to budget constraints could crash, even though since
January 01 of this year alone 2,000 IRS employees have experienced computer
crashes.
That’s the story now, but during the
2007 investigations of the Bush/Cheney White House investigations, it’s quite a
differing story where Issa portrays himself as a computer expert.
In 2007, multiple scandals such as the
Valerie Plame affair, the unethical political firings of eight federal
attorneys and Karl Rove’s improper usage of the RNC e-mail account had put the
WH in a hot seat. When asked for e-mail evidence, all of a sudden, 22 million
WH e-mails went missing without explanation. Issa back then on the other side
of the fence, defends the Republican WH in losing the email documents and goes
into an excusable oratory on how that could justifiably happen. In his attempt
to cover for the lost e-mails, he portrays himself as some kind of crackerjack
in the knowledge of computer language.
Click on the link below and see the
C-SPAN video of Issa’s computer savvy hypocritical account back then compared
to his confusion with the current IRS lost e-mails.
After facing all the terse comments from
Republican politicians like Issa, Ryan, Reps Trey Gowdy R-GA), Jason Chaffetz
(R-UT) and among others, Koskiken made them fume even more when he declared, “I
don’t think an apology is owed. Not a
single e-mail has been lost since the start of this investigation.”
On another hypocritical note mentioned
in my previous article, ‘Nefarious Persuasion,’ Issa actually defended Dick
Cheney, a vice-president no less in invoking presidential executive privilege
where he wouldn’t have to divulge any names participating in his 2001 secret
energy meetings.
Back then Issa concurred with Cheney and
as a House Energy Committee member, blocked all attempts at exposing CEO names
active in the secret meetings. Of course now, Issa is assailing Obama in
executing executive privilege when as president, he has every constitutional right to. Ever notice
how Issa and ISIS sound kind of familiar…just saying….
So saith Representative Eric Cantor, the
number two man of the House when the Veterans Affairs scandal broke the last
day of April, “It is time for our president to come forward and take
responsibility for this and do the right thing by these veterans and begin to
show that he actually cares about getting it straight,” as he stressed the
president wasn’t acting swiftly enough.
And so saith Representative Kevin
McCarthy (R-CA) the House Republican whip, “The election of President Obama
ushered in a new era of big government and with it a renewed flurry of
mismanagement. The president truly did not know about these scandals and
mistakes, we should doubt his ability to properly manage the leviathan
government that he helped create.”
Meanwhile, Republicans harped
constantly about Obama’s 2009 stimulus package adding $1 billion to the VA
budget, the GOP relished greater resources being curbed for veteran housing and
mental health services under Republican induced austerity and sequestration
measures and voted down every single veteran’s bill except for the last senate
vote this June after light of VA conditions.
When Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) lit
into Republicans for blocking his first attempt to pass his veteran’s bill this
past February 27, 2014, he exposed their hypocrisy for exactly what it is for
those that have half a brain and can’t see it yet.
The bill would have provided $21 billion
worth of medical treatment, education and job training programs. This is what Sanders
stated…
“If you listen to the remarks made by
the Republican senators, what they were saying is this is an expensive piece of
legislation, and the answer is to some degree, it is. And my response has been,
and always will be, if you are not prepared to take care of the men and women
who put their lives on the line to defend this country, who came back wounded
in body, wounded in spirit. If you’re not prepared to help those people, then
don’t send them to war in the first place. I find many of these Republicans
it’s just hypocritical to be talking about the cost of this legislation when
they don’t understand the real cost of war and what it means to the people who
fight in those wars.”
Then when the VA fiasco comes to bear, Republicans
create disaster for their own public relations (PR) in callous attempts to turn
the VA scandal into an Obama scandal.
Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell
led the charge in blocking the bill through his filibuster stating it was too
expensive and whining that senate Democrats wouldn’t allow Republicans to
attach an Iran sanctions amendment to it. Of course when the Phoenix VA episode
is out, McConnell huffs ‘n’ puffs in rearing his weary ol’ head exclaiming, “Unfortunately
[we] have yet to hear. [Obama’s not treating the] VA crisis with the
seriousness it deserves.”
Sanders sees another opportunity to
bring his bill up to the senate floor for another vote and just see how
Republican senators would vote again after whining about the VA. He wanted to
witness if they would put their actions where their words currently are in
pretentious honoring of our veterans or insert their foot into their mouth
again. He seizes the moment and the bill is voted on again this past June 11th
and passes with only three Republicans voting no.
One of those three, Senator Ron Johnson
(R-WI) who said he voted no because “it cost too much to fund the VA.” Senator Jeff
Sessions (R-AL), another one of the three claims that it will create unlimited
“entitlement for veterans.” The third and last one to vote no was Senator Tom
Coburn, who didn’t really say anything as to why he voted nay, but before
passage he attempted to force the bill into a procedural vote that would stymie
it.
Even though the bill passed with the aid
of Republican votes, the GOP was plenty mad for being shoved into that spot. On
June 5th in knowing the vote for Sanders’ VA bill was coming up
again, Representative Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in Republican bogus hypocritical
fashion proclaimed that Democrats were the ones moved to vote on the bill only
after the VA scandal.
This is his claim, “It’s been more than
177 days since the House passed bipartisan legislation that would authorize
these VA clinics. Only after news broke that our veterans are dying because of
inadequate health care did Harry Reid and Senate Democrats take action.”
Apparently he prefers to ignore Sanders’
attempt to pass his S.2450 ‘Veterans Access to Care Choice’ bill back in
February. The VA scandal erupted and first came to light on April 30, 2014. So,
in Cassidy’s mind the bill was blocked in February by Republican filibustering
and voting no, but it is the Democrats fault even though every one of them
voted yes for the bill to pass. Interesting huh…
It is kind of like this ya see, if
Republicans keep crying VA bills will bust the budget, they then have got to
understand that always insisting on putting a dog into the fight, foreign
combat is going to really cost us. In doing battle, it creates maimed and
wounded soldiers. Even with Obamacare, in a country that still relies on a
private corporate healthcare system, all wounded vets are stacked into this one
agency we call the VA. This one department will continually get bogged down in
claims processing creating backlogs and extended delays that eventually will
lead to inadequate care and the false record keeping of patient doctor visits
we have just witnessed. Get with it Republicans…
Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
apparently tends to lead the closed door life of his fellow GOP colleagues in the
likes of former Senator Larry Craig and former Representative Bob Allen who
although had homosexual tendencies and acted upon them in secret, voted no on
anything pro LGBT.
McHenry aggressively votes against LGBT
rights and vociferously supported a constitutional amendment against same sex
marriage. All this even though he once bought a house with a male companion and
literally had a hissy fit when he was denied access to an Iraqi U.S. military
gym due to his gay tendencies.
Of course the GOP portrayed Obama as a
puffy marshmallow in his early years in office when it came to foreign
diplomacy and defense. They still do from time to time, but ever since the
success of his drone strikes in taking out terrorist leaders, they decided to
find fault in that even though it goes against the grain of their spine. Undeviatingly
had Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) filibuster it.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who I
actually once lauded as the Republican maverick, but since those days are well
over, he’s been acting in chorus with his party and had this to say about the Bowe
Bergdahl exchange for five Taliban prisoners of war (POW).
On a prior Bergdahl release CNN February
18, 2014 interview, McCain had this to say, “Now this idea is for an exchange
of prisoners for our American fighting man. I would be inclined to support such
a thing depending on a lot of the details.
On a post Bergdahl release CNN June 03,
2014 interview, McCain had this to say, “We were never told that there would be
an exchange of Sergeant Bergdahl for five Taliban.”
Ya see, McCain knew about a swap in the
making, he just wasn’t informed of the specifics. To make matters worse in
hypocritical fashion, McCain was openly criticizing the Obama administration
for not doing enough to acquire Bergdahl’s freedom, then acts outraged once
Bergdahl was exchanged.
And that leads us into the next segment…
Bowe
Gate:
It wasn’t just McCain’s about face in
regards to Bergdahl’s release, it was pretty much any Republican you want to
name whether a politician or from the street; even a few Democrats as
well…shame on all of them…
Before the release the GOP was a constant
goathead in Obama’s backside to free America’s single POW. Senator Kelly Ayotte
(R-NH) issued a press release stating, “As part of ongoing efforts to urge the
Department of Defense to do all it can to find Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl and bring
him home safely, Senator Ayotte worked successfully to include a provision in
the bill that presses Pakistan to fully cooperate in the search for SGT
Bergdahl.”
Immediately after Bergdahl’s release
Ayotte had this to say, “With 29 percent of former Guantanamo detainees having
reengaged or being suspected of reengaging in terrorism, the administration’s
decision to release these five terrorist detainees endangers U.S. national
security interests. It also sets a precedent that could encourage our enemies
to capture more Americans in order to gain concessions from our government.”
First, the five Taliban prisoners were
not terrorists, they were Taliban POWs and were going to have to be released
soon once the Afghanistan War is over.
Last year, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)
stated, “The mission to bring our missing soldiers home is one that will never
end. It’s important that we make every effort to bring this captured soldier
[Bergdahl] home to his family.”
Now he’s heavily criticizing Obama for the
release swap and stated on Fox News, “It wouldn’t make any difference who
Bergdahl was. You don’t swap out and turn back to the fight people who have
killed Americans, people who are the brain power of Taliban.”
One more outspoken Republican in
chastising the Obama administration in not getting Bergdahl home was
Representative Rich Nugent (R-FL) who stated before the release, “Last year, on
the fourth anniversary of Sgt. Bergdahl’s capture, on the floor of the House of
Representatives, I introduced a resolution in the House calling on the United
States to do everything possible not to leave any members of the armed forces
behind during the drawdown of Iraq and Afghanistan. Believe it or not, I had
members of Congress come up to me and say, ‘I didn’t know we had a living POW
in Afghanistan.’ That was shocking to me.”
Then after the release, even though
Nugent had previously said he wanted the Obama administration to “do everything
possible” for Bergdahl’s safe return he had this complete turnaround response,
“But what angers me so much about this situation is that knowing full well that
there was strong opposition to a prisoner swap in Congress, the Administration
decided to go behind our backs and release the detainees without the
notification required by law. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I
look forward to getting answers from the administration soon about how they
intend to ensure that these senior Taliban detainees do not return to the
battlefield. Now mind you I am still getting all of my information from press
accounts three days later, but apparently the detainees are completely free to
move about Qatar however they please and will be free to travel after one year.”
There never was a strong opposition to a
prisoner swap, Republicans at the time were in unison telling the White House
to bring Bergdahl home “at all costs” and letting their constituents know about
it.
The reversal in sympathy pretty much had
no issue on moral, ethical, patriotic, sane or reasonable grounds; it was
merely to go against this president no matter what the flavor of the day is in
politics.
Once Bergdahl’s release got out it was
simply amazing how rapid a unified patriotic event could change into a
political felony. Lashing out in condemnation tones, Republicans and Fox News
turned the noble event into a holocaust host of horrors giving criticizing
justifications from not giving congress a thirty day notice to the prisoner
swap.
For me personally, I have never
experienced or read of such an about face in stance over an event that should
have brought the nation closer instead of rifting it further apart.
Representative Buck McKeon (R-CA) as
House Armed Services Committee chairman immediately dashes in to announce but
yet another endless investigation hearing. Two House Republicans, Reid Ribble
(WI), Scott Rigell (VA) and two House Democrats, John Barrow (GA), Nick Rahall
(WV) who are representatives from Republican districts filed a resolution to
officially condemn Obama for the prisoner transfer.
Fox News even began attacking Bergdahl,
his family and town. Bill O’Reilly and Brian Kilmeade decided that Bergdahl’s
father, Bob looks like a terrorist. That I suppose is due to the beard Bob was supporting
until his son came home. After five years he had quite a forest growing over
his face. But if that is so, then I guess O’Reilly’s and Kilmeade’s favorite
reality show, ‘Duck Dynasty’ has a quartet that looks exactly like terrorists
as well. Guess what sports fan, Bob Bergdahl is a Republican himself, voted for
Romney…surprise, surprise Fox Faux…
The conservative ‘Drudge Report’
actually calls Bowe a “rat.”
Senator Rafael Teddy Cruz called the
release of Bergdahl, “very disturbing” on ABCs ‘This Week.’ Ex-half-term Alaska
governor, ex-2008 Republican vice president candidate, ex-Fox News host and ‘x’
in general, Sarah Palin stated on her Facebook page, due to a magazine she
claims she read that Bergdahl’s thoughts were “horrid anti-American beliefs.”
This instant GOP metamorphous even
caught some Republicans off guard, while a couple of Democrats as well wimped
out.
Once the news of Bergdahl’s freedom was
announced, Representative Lee Terry (R-NE) put this out on his Facebook
account, “A grateful nation welcomes the news of the return of Sgt. Bowe
Bergdahl. I have the pleasure of regularly speaking with our nation’s active
duty military and veterans and I know that there is nothing more solemn than
the pledge to never leave one of their own behind on the field of battle.” Once
his party ruptures a blood vessel, he quickly deletes his comment.
The same occurred with Representative
Mark Amodei (R-NV). He wrote on his Twitter account, “Best news I’ve heard in a
long time! #standwithbowe,” then deleted it within fifteen hours.
Republican candidate for Iowa senate
Joni Ernst tweeted, “US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl freed after being reported
missing 5 years in Afghanistan. Thoughts & prayers go out to Sgt. Bergdahl
& his family.” Ernst only kept the tweet for twenty-five minutes before
deleting it.
Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) deleted
two of his tweets praising Bowe’s release once all the Republican uproar commenced
and I myself find that very wimpish for a Democrat to respond in kind to GOP
political theatrics.
All this rushing to judgment strictly
for political effect is downright shameful. Bowe’s hometown has cancelled their
celebratory reunion due to death threats. We all as yet do not know the full
Bergdahl story as if it should matter. We bring our soldiers home, if there is
need for further review, let it be in an American judicial system rather than a
Taliban one.
The claim that six servicemen died
looking for Bergdahl is unfounded. Pentagon officials so far cannot confirm
the allegation. Those ex-soldiers condemning Bergdahl that said they were a
part of his platoon, one of them, Sargent Josh Korder was discharged as “other
than honorable.” These guys, along with the rest of the platoon never did
report Bergdahl as missing after they had found out he was gone, in which a
commander finally did hours later.
The search for Bergdahl only lasted
around a week, for intelligence had told the military that he was being held as
prisoner by the Haqqani network in Pakistan where the U.S. military are forbidden
to put boots on the ground. So the search stood down.
Bergdahl as a deserter will be awful
hard to prove since he was captured, for as defined the military article, UCMJ
85 stresses that it must be proven that a deserter intended to leave his
military duties permanently.
As mentioned earlier, the five Taliban
detainees were going to be released soon anyway after the U.S. pulls out of
Afghanistan officially ending the war. It’s good common sense that Obama used
that end for leverage in freeing Bowe. None of the five Gitmo prisoners were
facing any military or civil charges due to their actions. This prisoner
exchange was simply a means to a more opportune end for the U.S.
John Bellinger, a former W. Bush lawyer
serving as a national security adviser made this point on Fox News, “In my
view, the U.S. would not be able to hold them forever. Indeed, it is likely
that the U.S. would be required, as a matter of international law, to release
them shortly after the end of 2014, when U.S. combat operations cease in
Afghanistan. The Administration appears to have reached a defensible,
hold-your-nose compromise by arranging, in exchange for the release of Sergeant
Bergdahl, for the individuals to be held in Qatar for a year before they return
to Afghanistan.
Bellinger also confessed during Bush’s
eight years in office, the Bush/Cheney administration “returned something like
500 detainees from Guantanamo.” Today you have Cheney along with all the other GOP
cheerleaders lambasting Obama stating he “has done enormous damage to our
standing.” In exchanging only five for an American soldier, in which Cheney got
nothing in return for freeing the 500, I certainly call that a bargain.
Why didn’t the White House consult with
the general congress thirty days before the swap was to take place? That
question has an obvious answer. First off, the timing was critical to proceed
ahead and not wait the thirty days as intelligence sources were stating
Bergdahl’s health was deteriorating and along with already having a swap
agreement fail in 2012, they felt a strong need to react before time would wane
on the minds of the Taliban’s decision.
Secondly though, to announce it a month
beforehand to congress before taking action was a great risk of leaks occurring
and without doubt in this political climate, leaks would have abounded
jeopardizing the exchange.
An example of this is Issa. As committee
chairman of all these investigations, documents sent to him that he demanded
from the state department concerning Benghazi, Issa through political contempt,
released their classified information to the public. This greatly curtailed an
ongoing investigation in federal officers’ attempts in tracking down the actors
in the Benghazi compound attack. Issa also did not redact Libyan names that
were aiding U.S. intelligence and FBI officers in locating the culprits. This
put the Libyan informers on dangerous exposed grounds.
So, if a chairman of a congressional
committee can leak as easily as Issa did, then how can one trust the whole
congress? Actually, forget Obama baseless impeachment cries, Issa himself
should be charged for treason in the manner he handled these documents.
Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chief of Staff
Chairman insisted on 06/03/2014, “This was likely the last, best opportunity to
free him.”
No matter how many Republicans are
claiming they were kept in the dark, according to one, not all were.
Senator James Risch (R-ID) refuses to
join in his parties’ choir and criticize Obama for the exchange. He is also a
member of the senate intelligence committee and insists they were constantly
updated by Obama’s administration on Bergdahl’s whereabouts and stated in an
Idaho Statesman newspaper interview that, “There wasn’t a week that went by
that we didn’t get a briefing.”
As mentioned earlier, there was an
original plan initiated to exchange prisoners in 2010. The Taliban proposed
receiving $1 million plus the release of twenty-one Afghan prisoners along with
the release of the Pakistani scientist, Aafia Siddiqui who was convicted in his
failed attempt to execute U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
After much bargaining where the Taliban
had even threatened to execute Bergdahl if their demands weren’t met,
negotiations broke down in 2012 and Obama had to call it off, but not give up.
Negotiations restarted in June 2013 deriving at the final transfer of
prisoners. That was some remarkable haggling from where it started off from
where it wound up. According to the Defense Department and Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel who is a Republican by the way, this swap deal may even lead to
peace negotiations with the Taliban, for it has opened a window of
communication and a sense of trust between the tribal Pushtans and the U.S.
Congress should be grateful that they
can misbehave as such, for it was Obama’s pursuit as senator before he became
president that congress may have some input, but the final constitutional authority
to exchange prisoners during wartime lies solely with the executive branch.
As Bellinger finalized on that Fox News
Interview, he was emphatic when he said, “We don’t leave soldiers on the
battlefield under any circumstance unless they have actually joined the enemy
army.” If you claim to be a true patriotic American you have to ask yourself,
did Bergdahl deserve to be released or be abandoned by his country?
Obama displayed an honorable act in getting an American home. He should be proud of his actions; we all as Americans should be…
Obama displayed an honorable act in getting an American home. He should be proud of his actions; we all as Americans should be…
To end this segment I leave you with a
retired veterans take on the Bergdahl affair. I’m going to give you a portion
of Naval Chief Warrant Officer, Jim Wright’s opinion on all the theatrical
nonsense going on instead of what we should be doing and that is celebrating
Bergdahl’s safe return. I will forewarn ya though, his choice of words might be
a bit too colorful for those ears not adjusted to cursing. Here is what Wright
has to say…
“Are we really going to do this? Is this
what it’s finally come down to, is it really?
Look at yourselves, you silly selfish
bastards. Look. At. Yourselves.
Go on, do it, find a mirror and look
into your own dead zombie eyes and see the empty void looking back.
This revolting, disgusting display of
hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy, is this what we’ve finally become?
Are we now so filled with foul bilious hatred,
are we now so consumed with soul-destroying fear, do we now despise our own
selves so much that we would actually protest the return of one of our own? Is
that it?
Is that what we’ve become?
If so, then the sooner America collapses
of its own maggot-ridden gangrenous rot, the better.
No. no, don’t you dare look away. Don’t
roll your eyes and dismiss the question. Don’t change the subject. Don’t click
on to another story you find more palatable. You started this. You look into
your own rotten soul and you answer the question.
Is this who we are?
Because the utter unmitigated, unhinged,
unbounded yellow-eyed hypocrisy that defines this sick twisted morally bankrupt
philosophy has finally, today, reached its zenith. There is nowhere left to go.
I didn’t think these people could
dishonor the spirit of this country any more than they already had, but I was
wrong.
And maybe he is. Maybe he’s both. And
maybe he isn’t.
We don’t know. No one knows, except for
Bergdahl himself.
And Bergdahl has neither admitted his
guilt nor proclaimed his innocence as yet. There’s been no Article 32 hearing,
no trial, no court-martial. The military and the intelligence agencies haven’t
even begun his debriefing. All we know for certain is that an American soldier
was taken captive by the enemy, held for years, and returned as part of a
prisoner exchange. That’s it. That’s
what we know. We don’t know what events led to his capture, not all of them,
not yet. We don’t know the details of his captivity. We don’t know the particulars
of his release beyond the broad details that have been published in the press.
Nevertheless, Bergdahl has been
condemned by the popular media, by social networks, by pundits and politicians,
not because they know more about the situation than you or I do, but solely
because they hate the president. If Obama was behind Bergdahl’s release, then
Bergdahl is a traitor, Q.E.D. because the president must never, ever, be
allowed even the slightest acknowledgement of patriotism.
This condemnation isn’t about Bergdahl,
it’s about Obama.”
Ben
Gauze It:
Again another attribute the Obama
administration performed for the nation that Republicans have to downplay, even
scorn it. We captured the mastermind behind the Benghazi compound attack that
killed four of our own and instead of at least breathing a sigh of relief for
some closure, the GOP complains. In hunting down and gaining evidence on Ahmed Abu
Khattala, which was jeopardized by the aforementioned Issa leaks, our
intelligence officers and security forces finally had enough on him to capture
Khattala, take him to a secure location outside Libya and finally to the U.S.
to be prosecuted in a federal civilian court.
Not one person, Libyan or American were
killed in the raid as the operation went off like clockwork. This should be looked
upon as a major victory not just for Obama, but for the nation. When we stress
that the nation will hold anyone accountable for the harm they’ve done to any
Americans…you had skippy well better believe it, well, except for Republicans.
No, Republicans had to downplay it.
Since Khattala’s ordered detention by
Obama and now his arraignment, Fox News’ Lisa Kennedy relayed and conveyed over
the TV screen some Republican thought that the raid was timed to boost Hilary Clinton’s
new book tour. How I don’t know, for Republicans plus Benghazi has not been too
kind to Mrs. Clinton.
The usual Republican rhetoric is
beginning to ring its normal partisan bell and is attempting to make political
hay for yet another occurrence that should be celebrated as a national victory.
Why won’t they just go with it and take a victory lap. The reason is the same
as when Osama bin-Laden met his demise due to the decisions of
Obama…Republicans cannot credit this president for anything. Republican
congressmen are quickly signaling that this momentous national achievement
might be turned into a political issue by them.
Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ) do not like the way he will be tried in a civilian court and are complaining. Boehner simply states that he feels the military should be able to question him without Miranda rights.
Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) got a
little peeved at all the wrangling and let ‘em have it. Good for you Harry;
after all he once was a boxer ya know. Reid has emerged lately as a bit feisty
and it is refreshing to see a Democrat finally hit the snake on the head
instead of running from it. Recently he has been engaged fervently in a
tug-of-war with the Koch Brothers, blasted Republicans and a few Democrats on
criticizing the Bergdahl episode and now he has lit into the complaining of the
capture of Khattala. Here’s what he had to say when he addressed his news
conference this past June 17th…
“It doesn’t matter what your ideology
is, you should feel good about this. There’s no conspiracy here, this is actual
news. But the reaction of some of the Republicans, I’ve been told, is to
downplay and insult the brave men and women of our special forces and the FBI.
They’re trying to say, oh, it’s no big deal. I wonder if the men and women who
captured the terrorist agree. But the Republicans said it’s no big deal. Even
in these days of polarization, created by the obstruction, the delay, and
diversion of the Republicans, even in these days of polarization, their
reaction is shocking and disgusting. They’re so obsessed with criticism,
criticizing anything President Obama does. They’ll go so far as to sit here and
insult the men and women in uniform and in law enforcement. They should stop
and think, just for a little bit, about what it’s like to put your life on the
line and to do something for our country…that’s what they did. They’re
insulting these good men and women who did some courageous things, heroic
things, in order to criticize President Obama. I think they’ve lost touch with
reality; it’s really pathetic, there’s no other word for it.”
Amen Brother Reid.
On one final but very interesting note
here, there was numerous testimony gathered by intelligence and FBI officials from
Khattala acquaintances and Islamic fighters that testified Khattala had told
them “he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an
insult to Islam in an American-made online video.” Some who he spoke to also added that
after the attack he told them, “The attack in Benghazi was retaliation for the
insulting video.”
Now Republicans, rerun through that…
ISIS
Capades:
Actually calling the offshoot al-Qaeda
cell, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a misnomer. It’s better to
refer to the terrorist group as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)
because the terrorist cell’s goal is to conquer not only Iraq and Syria
Here come all the former failed Iraqi
war mongers crawling out of the dark nooks and crannies of the woodwork putting
in their one and a half cents worth on how President Obama has failed us as a
nation in Iraq. All this is Obama’s fault.
Well, instead of repeating what John
Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld and Billy Kristol have said
this week in how Obama has failed us in Iraq, I’m just going to stick with Dick
Cheney. No one has criticized Obama as a failure to foreign diplomacy as much
as Cheney has.
Cheney has accused Obama of making false
statements about terrorism in context to ISIL. Obama has stated the “Core of
al-Qaeda is on its heels, has been decimated” That’s true, when he stated this
back in 2012. No one, not even intelligence knew of this new off-branch ISIL
back then.
Now let’s review a few of Cheney’s false
Iraq statements. “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has
weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use
against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” That’s one, now two…
“We learned more and more that there was
a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida that stretched back through most of
the decade of the ’90s. [Hussein] also had an established relationship with al
Qaeda, providing training to al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons, gases,
making conventional bombs.”
There’s more, “My belief is we will, in
fact, be greeted as liberators. I think it will go relatively quickly, weeks
rather than months.” This was in reference to his propagandizing to the
American public that we need to invade Iraq.
How about one more when Cheney speaks to
Rush Limbaugh on 09/13/02, “What’s happening, of course, is we’re getting
additional information that, in fact, Hussein is reconstituting his biological,
chemical, and nuclear weapons programs.” There was no such new intelligence,
Cheney made it up.
According to the ‘Center for Public
Integrity’ the Bush administration made 935 false statements just concerning
Iraq.
Cheney’s charge on Obama could be pure
entertainment for a laugh or two if it weren’t for the 4,487 U.S. soldiers
killed along with the 32,332 maimed that sacrificed heavily for Cheney’s
corporate welfare war.
Below is a video clip with PBS’ Charlie
Rose interviewing Dick Cheney this past Tuesday June 24th. Rose floors
Cheney making him jostle to find uncommon ground in Rose’s comparison. Watch
it…
Unimportant Importance:
A final say in an opinion piece…
Really, what do you suppose Republicans
would call their latest scandal if Obama had pulled back and did not finalize a
settled arrangement to get Bowe Bergdhal back home? It doesn’t take much
imagination; it most probably would read something like, ‘Obama Leaves a Brave
Soldier to Rot in a Taliban Jail.’
What is wrong with Republicans today?
They are so hung up on making this president appear as a failure they will even
negate any policy that will benefit the nation. After American’s took a big hit
from the greatest recession ever to unfold in lost employment, livable wages, pensions,
savings and mortgages, Republicans, either through filibustering or nay votes,
blocked jobs bills, unemployment extensions, public and small business tax
credits and corporate incentives to start insourcing jobs back home that they
outsourced overseas.
Yes, that’s right Republicans voted no
on matters that are engrained in the GOP platform, simply because it was a
priority of Obama’s.
In July of 2012 (of course a
presidential election year, can’t make Obama look good going forward into the
election), senate Republicans, by refusing to vote blocked an executive bill
that would allow corporations to receive significant tax breaks if they brought
their job creating facilities back home from overseas. After they filibustered
the bill, in the 56-42 vote count it failed in reaching the majority 60
filibuster count.
Written by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), again
an $85 billion tax credit package for small business was filibustered by Republicans,
then voted down by every senate Republican but one, Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) in
a 53-40 vote count.
It just appears to me in the GOPs
unending quest to portray Obama as a socialist, they are actually making him
out to appear more conservative and corporate than they are.
But ya cannot shake them from touching
any of the large corporations’ record profits by raising their tax tables even a
smidgeon. To avoid raising taxes on the rich, Republicans were prepared to
ignore the debt ceiling and even shut down government.
The Republican mantras…“tax hikes are
off the table,” “tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy will wreak havoc on
the economy,” “job creators” and “cutting government spending”…are all myths
under a recessionary economy.
The wealthy are doing just fine thank ya
very much. In 2009, while the average American was reeling due to the
recession, the top 1% owned 40% of all the $54 trillion of wealth in the U.S.
The Republican’s so called job creators were sitting on a pile of $5 trillion and were not job creating with it.
Even in times of a recessionary economy, in the GOP mind as Boehner so eloquently put it in February of 2011, “if cuts cost government jobs, so be it.” But he claims government cuts create private jobs. Well, since we’ve been hit by Republican austerity measures and the sequestration, where are all the new private hires? They are nonexistent.
When Republicans insist, as Eric Cantor
once so unabashedly portrayed in the debt ceiling negotiations, “All of our
efforts are centered around jobs – starting with cutting spending and federal
regulations – to grow the economy so that people can get back to work,” it is
so full of malarkey. Where is there any economic data that would back that
claim up? Where, especially during a slow recovering economy?
All Republicans have done since the
recession’s hit when it comes to jobs is worsened the situation by cutting
government jobs which did not in the least on its own merit create private
jobs.
I have to say that the Republican mindset when it comes to living and getting along in a society is rather weak minded.
Take for instance a little responsibility
in gun control. We’re not going to argue the integrity of U.S. gun laws, but
rather on the dignity of those that blindly feel owning assault rifles,
bazookas, M1A2 Abrams tanks or even a Howitzer is their undue right.
Back in May of 2013, conservative radio
talk show host, Bob Davis had this to say to the parents of the Sandy Hook
victims, “Just because a bad thing happened to you doesn’t mean that you get to
put a king in charge of my life. I’m sorry that you suffered a tragedy {no he’s
not}, but you know what? Deal with it and don’t force me to lose my liberty,
which is a greater tragedy than your loss.”
One year later this past May, to one up,
Samuel Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe the Plumber in referencing the shooting and
killing at the University of California in Santa Barbara sounded just as stridulous to
the victims’ parents when he said, “As harsh as this sounds – your dead kids
don’t trump my Constitutional rights.” Joe actually made it a point the parents
would hear his opinion by publishing his open letter to them on the website ‘Barbwire.’
A majority of Republicans outwardly
anyway will agree with these comments. Personally I will not only fight against
that type language, I will also fight its mindset.
If one chooses to live in a society one
must conform and share in that society. This is no infringement on individual
or constitutional rights; it is protection for societal individuals to live in
the pursuit of happiness.
In agitating members on right-wing blog
sites by inputting my redneck liberal viewpoints and factual substance, I’m
relentlessly called commie at the beginning of their sentences as well as at
the ending.
Actually, anyone who chooses to live in
a ‘society’ conforms to ‘social’ justice and that being makes us all a bit of a ‘socialist’ as these words are all rooted. So, if one chooses to live in a
society, then he/she must give back a little of what he/she has obtained from
the benefits of living in that society. If not, then pack up the bags along
with your money bucket and go live out a parsimonious life on a mountain top or
remote river bottom…see how much you enjoy what is yours away from society.
For ya see, it is not the poor trapped
in poverty that is the moocher on society, it truly is the one who has gained
from that society but does not want to share in giving anything back. No one,
but no one has done it all on their own. When they were down some form of a
lending hand was offered. I don’t care if that one was dirt poor or filthy rich,
everyone at one time or another has been in need. Republicans just cannot grasp
this.
In a society one must be reasonable, cooperative,
considerate, mindful, thoughtful, as educated as one can be and think
critically to replace the primitive traditions or rhetorical beliefs that hold
truth back. If that makes me a socialist then so be it.
Helping each other out when one is down
is not bad. For those that are mired in poverty does not equate to laziness.
Live in their shoes before you judge.
We’ve only survived as a species because
we incorporated into a societal norm. Whether it was simply a family, a small
related group, a clan or a small village, without the protections of societal
origins, man would have only been a footnote in evolution, for his general weakness,
lack of speed and agility prowess would have had him overtaken by other life forms
long ago. It was the banding together as a species in a societal framework that
saved us all.
As a nation unfolded in a societal norm we
don’t need change through dishonesty in only aiding and abating the few, while
promising the rest to wait for the trickledown effect crumbs that never come.
If you don’t care in pushing your
government to help the weakest link of the chain, or in paying more attention to
an ever increasing polluted environment and changing climate on the only home
we have strictly due to a scrooge pursuit of monetary gain…then as far as
society is concerned…Get Out…
Work in Progress,
BJA
06/01/2014
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