Benghazi: What really happened

This is very interesting: (H/T InstaPundit)

David Petraeus was betrayed by his own bodyguards and vengeful high-ranking enemies in the CIA, who made sure his affair with his biographer was exposed to the public, a new book claims.

MailOnline can reveal a new angle on the story that rocked Washington last fall. It comes from two retired special operations commandos – a Navy SEAL and a Green Beret – who say they discovered a plot against the former CIA director while doing research about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Senior CIA officers targeted Petraeus because they didn’t like the way he was running the agency – focusing more on paramilitary operations than intelligence analysis. They used their political clout and their connections to force an FBI investigation of his affair with Paul Broadwell and make it public, according to ‘Benghazi: The Definitive Report.’

‘It was high-level career officers on the CIA who got the ball rolling on the investigation. It was basically a palace coupe to get Petraeus out of there,’ Jack Murphy, one of the authors, told MailOnline. — Via U.K. DailyMail

Needless to say, this is going to be an explosive book and could bring down people in the Obama Administration.

Get the Book:

Hope and Change: Government drops probe of possible inside trading by media companies

Hmmmmm… Maybe Cornell West has a point:

The dismissal of an investigation into major media companies suspected of giving clients a sneak peek at crucial data drew great surprise on Wall Street, where traders make their living profiting from blips of information moving at the speed of light. Federal authorities had been pursuing allegations that various media companies — including Bloomberg LP, Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones and Co. — leaked key economic data to select investors, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. But the investigators dropped the probe, according to the paper, in part because they could not conclusively determine that investors were able to use the advance look at the numbers to extract profits. Wall Street analysts pronounced that explanation baffling, noting that in modern markets — fueled by high-frequency trading and robotic transactions — a mere fraction of a second can be enough to execute trades worth billions of dollars. — Government Drops Insider Trading Probe Of Media Companies, Baffling Investors

How much you want to bet that these companies told Obama, “You want our support? You had better call off your dogs on this probe.” How much you want to bet that this is what went down? I would be willing to bet you a nice steak dinner, with all the trimmings that is what happened here. This is why I did not support the Democrats this time around; because I knew this is what was going to happen. Believe you me, it would not have been any better with Hillary either; she is bought and paid for like the rest of them.

This is why I won’t be voting for Democrats in 2014 or 2016; because they are two sides of the same coin. Bought out, corrupt, self-serving vermin is all that they are, anyone that believes anything else; is crazy.

Taking Religion out of the Military?

I have mixed feelings about this one:

“Soldiers with minority religious beliefs and atheists often feel like second-class citizens when Christianity is seemingly officially endorsed by their own base,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “We are very happy the Pentagon and the Army decided to do the right thing.” A military spokesman told Fox News the cross was literally dismantled and will be removed from the base to be in “compliance with Army regulations and to avoid any misconception of religious favoritism or disrespect.” “After a Christian prayer, the cross was removed from the roof of the chapel,” the spokesman said. “During the removal, the cross was dismantled; however the cross was reassembled and currently awaits transportation to a larger operational base.” The military told Fox News the cross will only be brought out during Christian services and will be designated as a “non-permanent religious symbol.” Silverman said a Christian chapel on an Army base in Afghanistan could have put American troops in danger. “It inflames this Muslim versus Christian mentality,” he said. “This is not a Muslim versus Christian war — but if the Army base has a large chapel on it that has been converted to Christian-only, it sends a message that could be interpreted as hostile to Islam.” An Army spokesman said all chapels must be religiously neutral. “The primary purpose of making a chapel a neutral, multi-use facility is to accommodate the free exercise of religion for all faith groups using it,” he said. “We take the spiritual fitness of our Soldiers seriously and encourage them to practice their faith and exercise their beliefs however they choose.” Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, of the Family Research Council, told Fox News a Christian cleansing of the military is under way. “I don’t think you can categorize it any other way,” he said. “There is a strong effort, led partially by the Administration as well as by atheist groups to destroy the identity of who we are as a nation and that means robbing us of our history.” —- Military: Crosses Removed ‘Out of Respect for Other Faiths’ | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

On one hand, I would hate to think that having Christian symbols on a battle front could be putting our Military at risk. On the other hand, I would hate to see Christianity being removed from the Military entirely. However, we are in a Muslim Nation is Afghan region; one would think that the Military would want to be respectful of those people and their culture.

It is a mixed bag, and all the more reason why we really need to get out of that Country. Our mission is done there; we killed Osama and we need to leave. We do not want to make the same mistake the Russians made there. Besides all that, Al-Qaeda has moved into other regions and is much more a threat to other interests in other parts for the world now.

So, to this Independent, the quicker we leave, the better.

Answering Digby

Just thought I’d answer a progressive blogger.

Digby who runs Hullabaloo, which is a left-wing blogger, reacting to this story here, asks the following:

I have to say that while Scott Walker is clearly the meanest of all the GOP wingut Governors (and Jan Brewer is clearly the dumbest) Rick Scott has got to be the weirdest. And that is saying something.

Florida, what were you thinking?

via Hullabaloo.

The same darned thing that you progressives and the rest of the rube idiots were thinking, when you elected and reelected that flipping dishonest, wall street brought and paid for, Marxist asshole in the White House — that’s what! The man campaigned on hope and change and what’d we get? More of the same. More of the same polices of George W. Bush. More drone strikes of American Citizens, More of “F*** the big three!” More of this President being interested in so-called “High tech jobs” and not low tech, general labor jobs.

So, the next time you want to lash out at the right there Digby. Remember, try looking in your own backyard for a change. (Hope Change?) Because your man is not really much of a prize either. In case you have not figured it out; I was not, am not, and never will be a fan of this President. Not because of his skin color; but because of what he is. Malcolm X summed him up very nicely — there are two kinds of blacks — Field and House; and Obama is a House. I have friends who are Field, and they are the best people ever. Most of the House kind are on Fox News and now are in the White House.

Now only this; and this comes from a personal standpoint; namely mine. He promised these jobs would come springing out of the woodwork. Just where the hell are all of these jobs at? I am unemployed, have been since 2005. Well, except for blogging, which really does not count as a job; because for one, I love doing it and for two, it really does not pay that great. But, where are these “Shovel-Ready” projects that this idiot actually had the stones to say would come popping out of woodwork? Now, you cannot blame the Republicans! You all had a majority in the Congress and the House for the first two years. Not to mention now, you basically have a majority in both houses, with a bunch of candy ass Republicans in both houses. So, where are the jobs at, that your “Hope and Change” savior promised?

The truth is, he could not create jobs! You knew it, Obama knew it; and the Democratic Party knew it! But, they instead chose to LIE to the uneducated idiot voters and they bought that damned lie and proceeded to elected and reelected the man. I knew what Obama was about, long ago. Which is why I broke away from that Party! Yeah, the Republicans are for the rich people. I get that; but at least they do not blow smoke up people’s butts and promise them stuff that they cannot deliver on. I give them that credit. Which is a heck of a bunch more than I can say about Obama and the Democrats now.

My detractors always tell me, “get a job!” My response is, “find me one, and I will!”

Of course, when you are a housewife out in Santa Monica and not actually in the real world, trying to find a job; one can only expect so much. I am just saying.

I hate to say it, but he does have a good point

A very good point:

Obama won two elections giving voice to these policies, but within the neocon-dominated punditocracy and a Congress subject to pressure by the increasingly extremist American Israel Public Affairs Committee, they are akin to kryptonite. Hagel’s critics have been quick to unsheathe the McCarthyite tactics employed whenever opposition to any position of Israel’s right-wing government is at issue. The accusation is almost always “anti-Semitism,” but rarely has that charge proven as empty as in Hagel’s case. Leading the assault have been Pavlovian attack dogs like William Kristol and The Weekly Standard, Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post, ex–AIPAC flack Josh Block, the ADL’s Abe Foxman, Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal, and convicted criminal and former Reagan and Bush II official Elliott Abrams, now respectably ensconced at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The allegation rests in significant measure on a 2008 quote in which Hagel—whom the interviewer, author and former US diplomat Aaron David Miller termed “a strong supporter of Israel and a believer in shared values”—criticized the use of political intimidation by the “Jewish lobby,” an infelicitous phrase he accidentally used to describe AIPAC. Hagel later said he misspoke and had meant to refer to the “Israel lobby,” just as he did elsewhere in Miller’s interview. It’s an easy mistake to make, since the “Israel lobby” is pretty darn Jewish. (Dick Cheney, for instance, has made the same error.) As it happens, Hagel is a better friend to Israel than the Likud quislings and apologists who make up what journalists mistakenly term the “pro-Israel lobby”; for starters, he is willing to tell its leaders the truth. Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general and adviser on US affairs to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, wrote recently that “Barak was thoroughly impressed not only by Hagel’s military background, but by his analysis, knowledge of the Middle East, and his understanding of Israel’s security issues and predicaments,” adding that Hagel “is not anti-Israeli and he is not an anti-Semite. In fact, if I were him I would lodge a complaint with the Anti-Defamation League, asking their assistance and support for being unfairly called an anti-Semite.”

What these hysterics may actually indicate is a genuine fear on the part of the neocons and conservative professional Jews that they are about to be exposed as generals without armies, demanding fealty to policies opposed by the vast majority of American Jews for whom they profess to speak. How marvelous, then, that Barack Obama finally decided there was one time he’d rather fight than switch. via Hooray for Hagel | The Nation

One thing that I really wish to dwell on here, and it bears repeating:

Hagel’s critics have been quick to unsheathe the McCarthyite tactics employed whenever opposition to any position of Israel’s right-wing government is at issue. The accusation is almost always “anti-Semitism,” but rarely has that charge proven as empty as in Hagel’s case.

I must admit, I can truly relate to this; I have accused of the very same stuff myself. I support Israel’s right to exist and all. But I do not support the stupidity of the Neoconservative right at all. This whole idea that America has to defend Israel unto the death is idiotic at best. Furthermore, the idea that America has to be the world’s policeman is out of touch with our economic realities here at home. The fact is that Wilsonian foreign policy is a disaster and America has had to learn the hard way many times already. We learned it in Korea, we learned in World War I, we learned it in Vietnam and now, we have learned it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Furthermore, Israel has my support on existence; but this idea that Israel has the right to build on disputed territories and then sit, and moan and complain when Palestinian and Gaza terrorists fire rockets into Israel is mindbogglingly stupid. It is something that I cannot support at all. The said part is, that these Wilsonian Neoconservatives will tell you that I am a Jew-hater and Antisemite for simply saying what I just said to you here. I call it playing the Jew Card or playing the Semite Card. It cheapens the discussion and frosts any kind of criticism at all. Which is precisely what Joseph McCarthy did in the 1950’s.

So, as much as it pains me to say this; even though he is of the far left —- Alterman has a good point.

Ugh: The Birthers are still at it

They are still at it….:

You might think that President Obama’s comfortable reelection last month would put an end to the Republican birther conspiracy. But if you do, you don’t know Arizona Republicans.

The latest battle for the movement that believes Barack Obama is ineligible to be President was fought Monday at the state’s Electoral College vote, where a trio of Republican electors — including state GOP chair Tom Morrissey — once again raised concerns that Obama’s birth certificate is a fake during the electoral college vote.

They were rebuffed by other Republicans in the room, including Gov. Jan Brewer. National Republicans have also distanced themselves from the birther movement. But in Arizona, the birthers aren’t going quietly, even if they do recognize that they are going.

Morrissey, the leader of the Republican Party in Arizona and a former Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for the state, tried to present his concerns over Obama’s eligibility as something other than birtherism.

“My issue isn’t whether he was born here,” he told KFYI radio in Phoenix Monday. “I have questions [about Obama’s longform birth cerfiticate]. … You know, I have a law enforcement background. I come at this with a little different perspective. It just doesn’t ring right with me.”

via Arizona Electors Fight The Birther Fight One More Time | TPMDC.

I will admit something to you all. Back in 2007, When Barack Obama was still running for President, when I was running my old blog; I gave these very stupid people a minute of my time and took them seriously. What a huge mistake that was, I quickly realized that these people were nothing more than bitter and ugly racists. I can also tell you where this whole conspiracy originated from or at least I can tell you were I saw it originally.

Back in 2007, when I was running my old blog, I happened across an article at a site called The Conservative Voice, which merged with Townhall.com. In it was an article by someone, whom now I forget was his name and in it, it contended that Barack Obama was not an US citizen. Around this time, the Hillary camp picked up the story and feed it to the media. From there, it took a life of its own. The funny thing was in that article was a quote that was not sourced. So, I did a little investigation work and ran the quote through Google search and guess where it came from? It came from none other than the White Nationalist Website, Stormfront.org.

I was shocked that someone would make such an accusation like that, with no real proof. Much less, lifting a quote from another article taken from a site like stormfront. Which brings me to my point here. This “Birther” movement is nothing more than racism at its worst. Barack Obama is a citizen of this Country and the white people just need to get the hell over it. The Klan era is over folks, you lost the battle, now get over it and move on.

What really sucks is that we have people, who are millionaires and of politically privileged ethnic background; who claim to be on the side of liberty and freedom, who have pushed this nonsense and for what? So that they can get into newspapers and get attention paid to them. It is sick and sad, and it makes the Conservative movement, which has some very good American ideals behind it, look like an idiotic clown show.

This is why I stopped paying attention to those who involved with this many moons ago.

So much for transparency

I guess that is another promise broken, WaPo reports:

At a meeting with the Business Roundtable on Wednesday morning, President Obama publicly warned Republicans that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling. But after those opening remarks, reporters were ushered out of the room so Obama could talk to the gathered CEOs in private.

“”Yeah, I think the press is … they’ve probably got enough there to spin a story,” Obama said as the reporters were kicked out of the room.

via Press kicked out of Obama Q & A.

I guess Cornell West was right:

This is pretty much dead on

Erick Rush writing at Canada Free Press, which has a ton more ads that I will ever have here:

On November 19, Pravda’s Xavier Lerma wrote an article asserting that President (I use the term loosely) Barack Obama had been re-elected “by an illiterate society.” Some conservatives have been wont to dismiss and ridicule some of the dead-on assessments of the former Soviet newspaper since it was once in fact a Soviet newspaper.

Some of this dismissal and ridicule did occur relative to Lerma’s piece; I think however, that such observations made by those who have been there and done that ought to be considered, if not heeded.

Lerma writes “He [Obama] is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so… His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia. Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.”

Sounds pretty dead-on if you ask me…

[…]

Over the past two weeks, congressional lawmakers have been posturing over the “fiscal cliff” upon which America is allegedly teetering, and the resulting debate on taxes: Obama wants to raise taxes; the Republicans in Congress ostensibly want to cut spending; the Democrats offer some spending cuts in trade for raising taxes, and so on… Considering the intellectual indolence of the American public thus far, I suppose there’s no reason for Congress and the Obama administration to believe we’d call them out for this blatant display of smoke and mirrors.

With the knowledge that increasing income taxes to 100% on all earners in the US, and confiscating every dollar we currently possess wouldn’t make a ding in the national debt or the deficit, let alone a dent, it becomes obvious that all of the maneuvering by Republican lawmakers is mere pretense. Why not simply detail the detrimental effects that raising taxes will have on the economy?

Perhaps because they don’t want advertise these facts to the American public any more than Obama does…

While it might be a no-brainer to you and me, the average non-partisan American voter will not be aware that this is the worst possible time for Republicans to be conciliatory with regard to this administration on any issue. Thus, they will perceive Republicans as obstructionist if they do not compromise with evil. Any Republican lawmaker possessed of the knowledge of Obama’s intent ought to be fighting him at every possible turn as a matter of course, publicity be damned.

I would also submit that there aren’t any GOP lawmakers who are sufficiently stupid or uninformed not to know that Obama is taking us down the road to communism. If they presume to this, they are engaging in deception.

Spot on. I would suggest that you go read all of that.

They’d better quit with the hope and do something

Because if this here is any indication, we’re screwed.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Fears of going over the fiscal cliff were showing signs of receding on Wednesday, as both Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama indicated optimism about reaching a deal and U.S. stock markets rose.

In comments early Wednesday morning, Boehner said he was “optimistic that we can continue to work together to avert this crisis, and sooner rather than later.” The comments helped send U.S. stock markets higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI:DJIA) lately up about 78 points and the S&P 500 up 6 points. See Market Snapshot.

Obama, speaking at the White House, said he’s hopeful about striking a deal before Christmas.

“Our ultimate goal is an agreement that gets our long-term deficit under control in a way that is fair and balanced,” Obama said. “And I believe that both parties can agree on a framework that does that in the coming weeks.” Read more MarketWatch fiscal cliff coverage.

In a sign of intensifying negotiations, the Treasury said that Secretary Tim Geithner will hold talks on Thursday separately with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Boehner, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. White House legislative director Rob Nabors will also participate.

Geithner will “continue discussing the actions we need to take to keep our economy growing and find a balance approach to reduce our deficit,” a Treasury statement said.

Chief among the sticking points: how to deal with competing positions on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Obama on Wednesday again urged Congress to pass a bill extending tax breaks for all but the wealthiest 2% of Americans. Republicans insist that lower rates continue for all earners.

via Boehner, Obama hopeful on fiscal cliff deal – MarketWatch.

A bit less, “Well, I hope we can.” and more of getting down to business and getting it done, would be very nice. Of course, the Obama Administration’s more interested in killing business and capitalism; and maybe even bringing down our capitalistic system, than he is saving the Country.

I’m just saying.

BP should tell the USA, “Hasta la vista!”

Because this is nothing more than this Presidential Administration trying to run this oil company out of business:

WASHINGTON — Government officials have temporarily banned BP from new federal contracts because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill that killed 11 workers and polluted hundreds of miles of Gulf of Mexico shoreline.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it was taking the action because of BP’s “lack of business integrity” demonstrated by the accident and the company’s inability to curb the flow of oil into the gulf. BP pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges arising from the disaster and agreed to pay $4.5 billion, including $1.26 billion in criminal penalties.

The suspension will be effective “until the company can provide sufficient evidence to E.P.A. demonstrating that it meets federal business standards,” the agency said in a statement. The action does not affect the company’s existing federal contracts.

BP had no immediate comment on the announcement.

The British oil company is one of the American government’s largest contractors, 45th with $1.47 billion in federal business in 2011, according to a ranking compiled by the General Services Administration. The company’s biggest customer is the United States Department of Defense, to which it provides more than $1 billion a year in fuel.

via United States Temporarily Suspends BP From New Contracts – NYTimes.com.

If I were BP oil, I would tell the EPA and the Obama Administration, “When your reign of terror is over, we will come back. Until then, we are out of here.”

Because it is quite obvious to this writer that the Obama Administration trying to break this oil company’s back or force them to leave the Country. Therefore, I would give them what they wanted and I would end the North American Operations of BP and sell off all the American company assets to the highest bidder and get out of the American oil business until the end of Obama’s term.

If Obama is that desperate to see the American oil industry handed over to his Arab friends, than I would allow that to happen; so that Americans can see just what kind of person that he really is. Which is someone who cares about American workers and America itself, as he does about his own socks.