Sunday, December 29, 2013

Full Pictorial Email: DNC In Panic Mode Over Possible Obama Impeachment

7:42 PM By No comments


Full Pictorial Email: DNC In Panic Mode Over Possible Obama Impeachment
- image credit: ehow -
Full Pictorial Email: DNC In Panic
Mode Over Possible Obama Impeachment

Below is an email the Democratic National Committee sent out to Obama's campaign "zombies"...

######

You are receiving this message as an Obama for America supporter.
The Democratic National Committee is solely responsible for the content of this message.


Click here to automatically join the Democrats:

https://my.democrats.org/Elect-More-Democrats

Paid for by the Democratic National Committee, 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington DC 20003. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Contributions or gifts to the Democratic National Committee are not tax deductible.
This email was sent to ########. Click here to unsubscribe from the Obama for America email list.


######

A couple hours later the DNC sent out another email solicitation mentioning Obama impeachment:

######

Friend --

Thanks for saying you'll stand with Democrats.

This year, Republicans held their first committee hearing on impeaching President Obama.

We can make sure that doesn't happen again -- and get Congress back to work -- if we take back the House and protect our Senate majority.

Before Tuesday's deadline, donate to elect more Democrats.

Thanks.

######

FLASHBACK: Rep. Farenthold Can’t Bring Himself To Say Obama Legitimate - VIDEO HERE.

FLASHBACK: Rep. Farenthold Talks Sheriff Joe's Obama Fraud Case; Impeachment - VIDEO HERE.

FLASHBACK: Rep. Bachmann: Obama Committed Impeachable Offenses; Disobedience - VIDEO HERE.

FLASHBACK: Audio: Sen. Inhofe: Benghazi Cover-up May Lead To Obama Impeachment - VIDEO HERE.

FLASHBACK: Rep. Bentivolio: Impeachment Would Be Dream Come True; Need Evidence - VIDEO HERE.

More here: Rep. Michele Bachmann. Rep. Blake Farenthold. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio. Sen. James Inhofe.





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Seems kind of high.

6:57 PM By No comments


Seems kind of high.
(Source.)

Another post courtesy of my daughter.

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Believe: Congressman Responds To Obama Birth Certificate Forgery Evidence

12:14 PM By No comments


Believe: Congressman Responds To Obama Birth Certificate Forgery Evidence

Exclusive: Congressman “Believes Obama American”
Despite Birth Certificate Forgery Presentation
NEW INFORMATION “SHOULD HAVE OPENED HIS EYES”
By Sharon Rondeau | The Post & Email

(Dec. 28, 2013) — On Friday, Mike Volin of WheresObamasBirthCertificate.com (WOBC) informed The Post & Email of a response letter written by Rep. Paul Ryan to a constituent who had hand-delivered one of Volin’s Sheriff’s Kits to Ryan’s district office in November. In the letter, Ryan indicated no knowledge of the criminal investigation conducted by the Maricopa County, AZ Cold Case Posse into the long-form birth certificate image posted on the White House website concluding that the image is fraudulent despite the detailed presentation provided on the DVDs.

Mike Volin and several other citizens traveled to Washington, DC
in November to distribute information demonstrating that the
long-form birth certificate posted on the White House website has
been found to be fraudulent by a 28-month criminal investigation.
Additionally, Volin has met with several congressmen in their district offices.
The Sheriff’s Kits come with a letter of introduction from Volin and can be distributed in DVD form or downloaded electronically.

Last month, Volin and a team of concerned citizens traveled to Washington, DC and distributed approximately 300 kits, 200 of which were given to members of Congress, chiefs of staff and aides, some with live demonstrations.

On Thursday, Volin reported that two U.S. senators not in receipt of kits had specifically requested them, with hand deliveries made by David Small on December 4. While there, Small also delivered a kit to House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte and the chief counsel of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

In early March of last year, Cold Case Posse lead investigator Mike Zullo and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio gave a press conference in which they announced that the birth certificate image did not originate with a paper document and deeming it a “computer-generated forgery.” The posse also concluded that Obama’s purported Selective Service registration form is fraudulent, a copy of which was sent to The Post & Email following a FOIA request made in 2010 in which the responder stated that he was “unable to answer” certain questions.

A second press conference revealing details of the ongoing investigation was held on July 17, 2012, after which the mainstream media attempted to excoriate the messengers rather than perform its own independent investigations of the conclusions, which were that the case for claim of forgery had surpassed the standard of probable cause.

During his interview on Friday, Volin related that a response similar to Ryan’s had been received from Rep. Charlie Dent, to whom he and CDR Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. (Ret.) had personally presented the information contained in the Sheriff’s Kit in September in a district office. Zullo had joined the session by telephone. Volin said the meeting lasted “almost two hours,” with Dent’s communications director also in attendance.

Kerchner is a constituent of Dent’s.

Of Dent’s level of interest, Volin reported:

He asked question after question. It was all talking points. “Why didn’t John McCain do anything about this?” I said, “Excuse me, congressman, but this information wasn’t available when McCain was running.” “Why didn’t Gov. Linda Lingle do anything?” “Well, she did, but her health department director, Chiyome Fukino, said that it was “half-typed and half-handwritten.” The next governor, Neil Abercrombie, said he couldn’t even find it. And the congressman just kept coming back with that.
When we played the part about the Selective Service stamp forgery, he said, “I’ve never seen this,” and I said, “Well, congratulations.” Anyway, five weeks after giving him the presentation, his answer was he “believes Obama is an American.”
In September, we met Congressman Dent in his local office. When I went to Washington, DC in November, I made it a point to stop by his office. We had just gotten that word that he believed Obama was “an American.” So I knocked on his door, and the chief of staff came out and told me to come back in a half-hour, which we did. When we got there, I said, “Hi, we just got the word that the congressman said that as a result of the information we gave him, he ‘believes Obama is an American.’ There’s something wrong here; maybe he’s mistaken me for somebody else. Could you find out?

After Volin and his team returned to Rep. Dent’s office, the following interaction took place with his chief of staff:

The long-form birth certificate image posted on the White House
website is a forgery, but no one has been prosecuted for the crime
of producing a fraudulent government document, which is a felony
She said, “I spoke with the congressman; he told me who you are; he knows who you are; I now know who you are. I’ll give you a couple of minutes of my time. Do you need my time?” and I said, “Yes.” I gave her a quick overview of the presentation which took me about 7-10 minutes. I said, “This is what we showed the congressman along with the presentation from Mike Zullo,” and she said, “So what’s the problem? he thinks he’s an American.” And I said, “The problem is we don’t think the congressman knows it’s us; he must be confused with somebody else.” She knew what we were talking about.

She just stood up then and said, “He has the final word; it’s over; that’s it. That’s his decision.”

Don’t forget: we had Mike Zullo on the telephone [in September]. For 45 minutes, the congressman asked him questions, and Mike Zullo gave him information that nobody has heard before. It should have opened his eyes.

It took five weeks of almost everyday phone calls to get an answer from him, and this is what we got.

The Post & Email asked, “To your knowledge, has that information since been made public or someone else?” to which Volin responded, “It has not been made public.”

Volin further said:

Mike was being a true professional. He saw that CDR Kerchner and I took the time to meet with the congressman, that we had the meeting set up, we were all situated in the congressman’s office on speakerphone with the congressman. He thought that this was considered important enough as a national security issue and that he could trust everybody in the room, including a congressman, with that information. And it didn’t phase him.

“The standard response is ‘We believe he’s eligible,’” Volin said, although the information presented to the congressmen is that the birth certificate image is a forgery. “It’s like a cover-up,” Volin said.

The Post & Email observed to Volin that many letters received from members of Congress early in Obama’s first term stated that Obama “was born in Hawaii,” but that letters now appear to be focusing on the contention that Obama is “eligible.” The Cold Case Posse has stated that a reliable source has told them that “There never was a birth in Hawaii” in regard to Obama.

Volin said that as a result of advertisements run by Kerchner in The Washington Times recently on three consecutive Mondays have resulted in calls for Sheriff’s Kits.

Source link. © 2013, The Post & Email. All rights reserved.

RELATED: True Colors: Reps Who Continue To Deny Obama Birth Certificate Forgery - DETAILS HERE.





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Gee, I almost forgot. Happy Birthday Tripp Johnston!

11:32 AM By No comments


Gee, I almost forgot. Happy Birthday Tripp Johnston!
Photo courtesy of Brancy's blog.
I know that 2013 was a little difficult for the little guy, but here's hoping that 2014 brings more stability and time with his Alaskan family.

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Young mother turned away at Christian charity has her Christmas saved by Atheist group.

10:58 AM By No comments


Young mother turned away at Christian charity has her Christmas saved by Atheist group.
Tiffany Wait and little one.
Courtesy of Press Republican:

Tiffany Wait said she, her husband and their 7-month-old baby went to Bible Baptist Church's Toy Shop on Christmas morning to get gifts for their child, but were met with animosity because Wait did not want to give her baby to the volunteers while she selected gifts.

"I am poor and would not be able to celebrate Christmas this year without their charity," she said. "I went last year and it was a life saver. This year, however, I was treated shockingly bad."

Wait said her baby doesn't like strangers and she'd prefer to be with him. She said the volunteer said it has to be done that way, or the family wouldn't be able to participate.

"I stood there, fighting back tears and asked, 'You would turn a baby away on Christmas?'" said Wait.

The volunteers held their ground, and according to Wait, one woman tried to forcibly take her child.

Eventually, a woman brought a toy out to Wait.

But Wait soon took to the internet, posting her story on various social media sites, and that is when Oklahoma Atheists' Director Red McCall and members of his group set out to save Christmas.

"We had several people donate things and send her money through a PayPal," said McCall. Christmas is a secular holiday now, according to McCall. He said everyone deserves to have a happy holiday.

"The Christians turned my baby and I away, and a group of atheists showed us compassion, kindness, and charity," Wait said. "They brought us toys, dinner, gift cards, donated money and really saved our holiday."

Okay I am not sure what that whole "Let us hold your baby while you look for gifts" thing is all about, but it seems a little odd to me.

Perhaps the young mother misunderstood, or their was some safety concern? I don't know, but clearly it could have been handled differently.

I am glad the Atheists came to her rescue, though to be fair I am sure there were plenty of Christian organization that would have offered help as well.

By the way the head pastor of Bible Baptist said they tried to contact the mother but failed in that attempt. Hopefully that is true, and is not simply a case of CYA.

Christmas should be for everybody, and this Atheist group demonstrated that the spirit of giving is certainly NOT something that simply belongs to the religious.

P.S. By the way if somebody had tried to grab my baby out of my arms what they would have received for Christmas would have been a gaping head wound. Just saying.

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President signs bill to combat sexual assault in the military.

10:19 AM By No comments


President signs bill to combat sexual assault in the military.
Courtesy of Think Progress:

The day after Christmas, President Obama signed a defense bill with provisions to curb sexual assault in the U.S. military. Under the new law, anyone who engages in sexual assault will face dishonorable discharge, commanders are prevented from reversing jury decisions, legal assistance will be provided for victims, and “retaliation” against a victim will be punished.

This is good news, especially considering what was revealed in my earlier post. And as I reported then, the number of unreported sexual assaults is staggering.

According to the Department of Defense, roughly 86 percent of assaults go unreported, as victims fear punishment — including job termination — for speaking out.

For some this new law does not go far enough.

Although the bill is considered a positive development, many argue the newly instated regulations are not drastic enough. In contrast to Sen. Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act, which called for independent authorities to oversee and prosecute assault claims, the new bill still grants victims’ commanders the power to hear assault claims and administer punishment — a policy that often leads to inaction or failure to hold perpetrators accountable.

I agree that more needs to be done, however I find it very positive that at least this much has been accomplished, and hopefully there will be bipartisan support to do muhc more in the future.

Personally I think that protecting our service men and women from unwanted sexual contact should be something that we ALL can agree is a good thing.

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GLAAD releases statement in response to news that Phil Robertson's suspension by AandE is now over.

9:44 AM By No comments


GLAAD releases statement in response to news that Phil Robertson's suspension by AandE is now over.
Courtesy of the LA Times:

GLAAD is not pleased with A&E's decision reversing the suspension of Phil Robertson from "Duck Dynasty."

"Phil Robertson should look African American and gay people in the eyes and hear about the hurtful impact of praising Jim Crow laws and comparing gay people to terrorists," the organization said in a statement. "If dialogue with Phil is not part of next steps then A+E has chosen profits over African American and gay people – especially its employees and viewers."

GLAAD was of course one of the first groups to speak out about Robertson's homophobic remarks and inspired A&E to temporarily suspend him.

Clearly A&E has done the math and are convinced that they stand to lose more viewers and advertisers by keeping Robertson off the show, and angering the Biblically homophobic, than they do by allowing him back on the show and angering the gay and progressive community.

I would stop watching the program to demonstrate my irritation at this decision accept for the fact I have never been so hard up for entertainment that I lowered my standards to watch it even once.

I mean once you've seen Deliverance once.

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Country star Toby Keith opens a new restaurant in Virginia. "No Guns Permitted" sign on the front door. Cue the rootin tootin six gun shootin outrage.

8:55 AM By No comments


Country star Toby Keith opens a new restaurant in Virginia. "No Guns Permitted" sign on the front door. Cue the rootin tootin six gun shootin outrage.
Courtesy of My Fox:

A big country star opened a huge, new restaurant last week in Woodbridge, Va. But a house rule for the new establishment is roiling some Virginians: no guns are allowed inside.

Toby Keith is not only a hugely successful country star (and actor), he also has personally opened a couple of restaurants, and through other companies, has now expanded those establishments into about a dozen cities.

The latest Toby Keith restaurant opened in Woodbridge. Prominently displayed on the front door is a sign saying: “NO GUNS PERMITTED.”

Virginia happens to be a gun-friendly state, where it’s quite permissible for citizens to strap on a weapon and go into a bar or restaurant, as long as the weapon is clearly visible. State law is silent on the issue of drinking while openly carrying a gun. (State law does prohibit most citizens who are legally carrying a concealed weapon from consuming alcohol, but they, too, are allowed to go into a bar or restaurant.)

The owners have the right to say "no" to firearms, and that's the rule at Keith's Woodbridge restaurant.

Facebook has erupted over the issue, with one patron saying she's "disappointed" and believes the no guns policy announces to criminals that "anyone leaving your establishment is likely completely defenseless and easy pickin's for a robbery." That poster said she will not patronize the new Toby Keith restaurant.

Another person wrote on the restaurant's Facebook page: the no guns policy is "sad" and it creates a "more dangerous environment."

That's right keeping guns OUT of a bar or restaurant makes the establishments MORE dangerous.

Just like keeping sharks OUT of indoor salt water pools increases the number of shark bites.

Just common sense,

And how dare Mr. Fancy Pants Country Star go out of his way to protect his patrons from flying bullets. Doesn't he know what country he is doing business in?

I imagine that much like the brouhaha over the Duck Dynasty dipshit that the paint chip eaters will petition and protest until Keith caves and allows guns in the building and starts selling ammunition as a side dish. After all you can't reason with people who think the Constitution was written by Jesus himself, and that he signed it with a spray of gunfire.

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Breaking: Sen. Ted Cruz Hires Lawyers To Renounce His Canadian Citizenship

6:56 AM By No comments


Breaking: Sen. Ted Cruz Hires Lawyers To Renounce His Canadian Citizenship

Sen. Ted Cruz Hires Lawyers
To Renounce His Canadian Citizenship

Hinterland Gazette reports: Birther Watch: Sen. Cruz Hires Lawyers to Renounce Canadian Citizenship

Sen. Ted Cruz said he has hired lawyers to renounce his Canadian citizenship and show his followers how “American” he really is, unlike the Kenyan Muslim Socialist in the White House. The Dallas Morning News reports that Sen. Cruz was “unaware of his dual nationality” until the newspaper reported it this past August.
[...] - Hinterland Gazette.

Dallas Morning reports: Ted Cruz says he’s hired lawyers to renounce Canadian citizenship

WASHINGTON — The junior senator from Texas is still a Canadian. But he’s working on it, eh?

Born in Alberta 43 years ago last Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz was unaware of his dual nationality until The Dallas Morning News explored the issue in August.

Since then, he said in a recent interview, “I have retained counsel that is preparing the paperwork to renounce the citizenship.”

He expects to complete the process in 2014. That time frame jibes with predictions from Canadian legal experts.

He doesn’t dispute holding dual citizenship. “Not at this point,” he said. [...] Dallas Morning News.

REALITY: Constitutional Law Professor Explains What Natural Born Citizen Really Means - VIDEO HERE.

FLASHBACK: Fox News Declares Canadian-born Sen. Ted Cruz Ineligible To Be President - VIDEO HERE.



FACTS DON'T LIE:


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Globe Magazine: Fuddy Murdered For Knowing Where Obama Was Born

6:16 AM By No comments


Globe Magazine: Fuddy Murdered For Knowing Where Obama Was Born

MURDERED FOR KNOWING
WHERE OBAMA WAS BORN
Globe Magazine

The Hawaiian official who released President Barack Obama's birth certificate was the ONLY one of nine people onboard a flight to die when the plane mysteriously crashed. Now investigators, who believe Obama's certificate was faked, wonder whether the woman was murdered to stop her from telling what she knew. Get the new GLOBE for all the details of this startling new Obama scandal. - Source: Globe Magazine.

CURRENT COVER:





CONFIRMED:





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Watching Darrell Issa squirm over new revelations about Benghazi.

5:40 AM By No comments


The above was the exchange between David Grefgory, Andrea Mitchell, and a clearly uncomfortable Darrell Issa. Transcript courtesy of Mediaite:

“You’ve said repeatedly that it was al Qaeda,” Gregory said. “The reason that matters is that you and other critics said that the president specifically won’t acknowledge that it was al Qaeda because it was an election year and he wants to say that after bin Laden [al Qaeda] has been decimated, and it would make him look bad if it as al Qaeda.”

“Al Qaeda is not decimated and there is a group there involved that is linked to al Qaeda,” Issa replied. “What we never said—and I didn’t have the security to look behind the door, that’s for other members of Congress—of what the intelligence were on the exact correspondence with al Qaeda, that sort of information—those sorts of methods I’ve never claimed.”

“Why use the term al Qaeda?” Mitchell asked, somewhat rhetorically. “Because you and other members of Congress are sophisticated in this and know that when you say al Qaeda, people think central al Qaeda. They don’t think militias that may be inspired by bin laden and his other followers. So it is a hot button, for political reasons, from the administration’s view.”

“But Andrea, it was accurate,” Issa responded. “There was a group that was involved that claims an affiliation with al Qaeda. Now, al Qaeda is not a central command and control. It was, in fact, a loose group that could take general statements and act on them…The fact is people from this administration, career professionals, have said under oath there was no evidence of any kind of a reaction to a video and, in fact, this was a planned attack that came quickly. That’s the evidence we have by people who work for the U.S. government and were under oath.”

Issa is a slippery POS but he is caught repeatedly during this exchange in lie after lie, and simply changes the focus every time he is cornered.

By the way his contention that the video was not "widely seen in Benghazi" at the time of this attack is essentially irrelevant. It only had to have been seen, or at least heard about, by the actual attackers.

And that fact is reported in the New York Times piece:

The violence, though, also had spontaneous elements. Anger at the video motivated the initial attack. Dozens of people joined in, some of them provoked by the video and others responding to fast-spreading false rumors that guards inside the American compound had shot Libyan protesters. Looters and arsonists, without any sign of a plan, were the ones who ravaged the compound after the initial attack, according to more than a dozen Libyan witnesses as well as many American officials who have viewed the footage from security cameras.

So though a rather unspecific attack HAD been in the planning stages before the assault, it was the anger over the video that provided the spark.

Now Susan Rice did not yet have the information about nonspecific plans for an attack, all she knew as that there were no direct ties to al-Qaeda at the time she went on TV in an attempt to head off a full frontal attack from the Right during an election year.

This is what she said:

MS. RICE: Well, Jake, first of all, it’s important to know that there’s an FBI investigation that has begun and will take some time to be completed. That will tell us with certainty what transpired.

But our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo. In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated.

As it turned out there was no evidence of any protests outside this compound, but based on reports around the world of similar occurrences, and the limited eyewitness accounts at this time, there is every reason to believe the administration was relating what they believed to have taken place in good faith.

What the Republicans did in response, was anything but in good faith.

And what Darrell Issa did in particular should be categorized as either criminal or treasonous behavior.

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Police officer to paramedic minutes before entering the Sandy Hook school after the massacre, "This will be the worst day of your life."

4:56 AM By No comments


Police officer to paramedic minutes before entering the Sandy Hook school after the massacre, "This will be the worst day of your life."
Courtesy of The Guardian:

Police released thousands of pages Friday from their investigation into the Newtown massacre, providing the most detailed and disturbing picture yet of the rampage and Adam Lanza's fascination with murder, while also depicting school employees' brave and clearheaded attempts to protect the children.

Among the details: more than a dozen bodies, mostly children, were discovered packed "like sardines" in a bathroom where they had hidden. And the horrors encountered inside the school were so great that when police sent in paramedics, they tried to select ones capable of handling what they were about to witness.

"This will be the worst day of your life," police Sgt William Cario warned one.

The documents' release marks the end of the investigation into the December 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead.

I have little doubt that it was indeed the worst day of that paramedics life, as evidenced by what was revealed in these documents.

Included were photographs of the Lanza home showing numerous rounds of ammunition, gun magazines, shot-up paper targets, gun cases, shooting earplugs and a gun safe with a rifle in it.

A former teacher of Lanza's was quoted as telling investigators that Lanza exhibited anti-social behavior, rarely interacted with other students and wrote obsessively "about battles, destruction and war."

"In all my years of experience, I have known (redacted) grade boys to talk about things like this, but Adam's level of violence was disturbing," the teacher told investigators. The teacher added: "Adam's creative writing was so graphic that it could not be shared."

The documents also fill in more details about how the shooting unfolded and how staff members looked out for the youngsters. Teachers heard janitor Rick Thorne try to get Lanza to leave the school. One teacher, who was hiding in a closet in the math lab, heard Thorne yell, "Put the gun down!" An aide said that she heard gunfire and that Thorne told her to close her door. Thorne survived.

Teacher Kaitlin Roig told police she heard "rapid-fire shooting" near her classroom. She rushed her students into the classroom's bathroom, pulled a rolling storage unit in front of the bathroom door as a barricade and then locked the door.

She heard a voice say, "Oh, please, no. Please, no." Eventually, police officers slid their badges under the bathroom door. Roig refused to come out and told them that if they were truly police, they should be able to get the key to the door which they did.

Others weren't so lucky.

Police Lt Christopher Vanghele said he and another officer found what appeared to be about 15 bodies packed in another bathroom. So many people had tried to cram inside the bathroom that the door couldn't be closed, and the shooter gunned them all down, Vanghele surmised.

Vanghele also recalled another officer carrying a little girl in his arms and running for the exit. Vanghele ran with him through the parking lot as the officer repeated, "Come on sweetie, come on sweetie." The girl didn't survive.

There were amazing stories of bravery that day from the teachers, the principal who gave her life, and even the janitor who confronted the young gunman.

And the compassion of the police who had to witness such a terrible event, and then had the forethought to select only those paramedics that they thought could handle the scenes of carnage, to send into the school with the warning "This will be the worst day of your life."

This compassion stands in stark contrast to some on the Right who were so desperate to disprove another terrible shooting had taken place that they invented a crazy conspiracy about a false flag operation designed to energize lawmakers into passing new restrictions on gun ownership.

I wonder if any of those people would change their tune after talking to the police or paramedics who had to witness the aftermath of our lax gun laws in this country?

Yeah, probably not.

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New York Time report finds that assault on Benghazi did NOT involve terrorist organizations and WAS partially inspired by the US made anti-Islamic video. That sound you hear is hair being pulled out of Republican heads. Update!

4:22 AM By No comments


New York Time report finds that assault on Benghazi did NOT involve terrorist organizations and WAS partially inspired by the US made anti-Islamic video. That sound you hear is hair being pulled out of Republican heads.  Update!
Courtesy of USA Today:

A lengthy New York Times investigation of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, found no involvement by al-Qaeda or other international terrorists groups and was accelerated in part by anger at a U.S.-made video denigrating Islam.

The attack left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The six-part report on the investigation is written by David D. Kirkpatrick and was posted Saturday on the Times' website. It centers on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who, the newspaper says, had direct knowledge of the attack and its context.

"The attack does not appear to have been meticulously planned, but neither was it spontaneous or without warning signs," the Times concludes.

The newspaper notes that Republicans have argued that the Obama administration was trying to cover up al-Qaeda's alleged role in the attack.

"It was very clear to the individuals on the ground that this was an al-Qaeda-led event," Rep, Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said last month on Fox News. "But the Republican arguments appear to conflate purely local extremist organizations like Ansar al-Shariah with Al Qaeda's international terrorist network," the Times report says.

"The only intelligence connecting Al Qaeda to the attack was an intercepted phone call that night from a participant in the first wave of the attack to a friend in another African country who had ties to members of Al Qaeda, according to several officials briefed on the call. But when the friend heard the attacker's boasts, he sounded astonished, the officials said, suggesting he had no prior knowledge of the assault."

First CBS is forced to retract their Benghazi story and now this.

In light of this report if Fox News had a shred of journalistic integrity they would simply fold up shop and go out of business. You know, if they had a shred.

It is almost like a crazed Right Wing conspiracy can't catch a damn break anymore.

When reached for comment Darell Issa started frothing at the mouth. rending his clothes, and shouting "Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!"

Update: I just watched Issa on MTP this morning, and he was incredibly duplicitous in his response to questions, suggesting that the attackers "had ties" to al-Qaeda, which according to his rather loose interpretation could be defined as simply being sympathetic to their cause.

He also has this extremely annoying technique of seeming to agree with somebody (In this case Andrea Mitchell and the New York Times reporter.), and even complimenting them, and then modifying what they just said right in front of them to fit his narrative and almost daring them to correct him. Which I have to say neither of them did effectively.

As you might imagine Issa is not the only Republican who is fighting back against this report.

“I dispute that, and the intelligence community, to a large volume, disputes that,” Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.”

He also repeatedly said the story was “not accurate.”

It is important to note that the New York Times piece does not give the administration a free pass. but it does completely blow out of the water any idea that there was a conspiracy to lie to the American people about Benghazi.

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Number of reported military sexual assaults shot up 50% this year.

12:01 AM By No comments


Number of reported military sexual assaults shot up 50% this year.
Courtesy of Politico:

The number of reported sexual assaults across the military shot up by more than 50 percent this year, an increase that defense officials say may suggest that victims are becoming more willing to come forward after a tumultuous year of scandals that shined a spotlight on the crimes and put pressure on the military to take aggressive action.

A string of high-profile assaults and arrests triggered outrage in Congress and set off months of debate over how to change the military justice system, while military leaders launched a series of new programs intended to beef up accountability and encourage victims to come forward.

According to early data obtained by The Associated Press, there were more than 5,000 reports of sexual assault filed during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, compared to the 3,374 in 2012. Of those 2013 reports, about 10 percent involved incidents that occurred before the victim got into the military, up from just 4 percent only a year ago. That increase, officials said, suggests that confidence in the system is growing and that victims are more willing to come forward.

Asked about the preliminary data, defense officials were cautious in their conclusions. But they said surveys, focus groups and repeated meetings with service members throughout the year suggest that the number of actual incidents — from unwanted sexual contact and harassment to violent assaults — has remained largely steady.

As much as I would like to take solace in the fact that the increase is not due to more attacks but instead due to the fact that more are being reported, the fact that the number is more than 5,000 kind of prevents me from doing that.

And as we know between 50 to 90% of rapes go unreported. So even if there has been an uptick in the number of reported cases, the vast majority of them are not brought to the attention of the military, which means the rape culture within our armed services is completely out of control.

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