RARE REPUBLICAN REALITIES

 " From Robert Reich comes this gem of a paragraph !

( referencing the likelihood of a new Congressional Budget )

 "In this as in other domains of public policy, Republicans have not shown a particular affinity for facts.

Climate change? It's not happening, they say. And even if it is happening, humans aren't responsible. (Almost all scientists studying the issue find it's occurring and humans are the major cause.)

Widening inequality? Not occurring, they say. Even though the data show otherwise, they claim the measurements are wrong.

Voting fraud? Happening all over the country, they say, which is why voter IDs and other limits on voting are necessary. Even though there's no evidence to back up their claim (the best evidence shows no more than 31 credible incidents of fraud out of a billion ballots cast), they continue to assert it. 

Evolution? Just a theory, they say. Even though all reputable scientists support it, many Republicans at the state level say it shouldn't be taught without also presenting the view found in the Bible.

Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? America's use of torture? The George W. Bush administration and its allies in Congress weren't overly interested in the facts.

The pattern seems to be: if you don't like the facts, make them up.

Or have your benefactors finance "think tanks" filled with hired guns who will tell the public what you and your patrons want them to say.

If all else fails, fire your own experts who tell the truth, and replace them with people who will pronounce falsehoods. "

There's one big problem with this strategy, though. Legislation based on lies often causes the public to be harmed. "

I cannot say it much better. Oh hell, I cannot come close,

ED

SNIPPETS OF THE DAY

Arguing against the Ohio "heartbeat bill", State Representative Robert F. Hagan, D-Youngstown is quoted as saying " I did not put my hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. "

And today, November 21, 2014 :

When reminded by Wolf Blitzer on CNN that President Obama had deported more immigrants than any other President, Sen. John McCain simply said " not true."

So Blitzer put the CNN staff to work and came up with this photo :

THIS IS FOR ALL OF THE ACA (OBAMACARE) HATERS AND CONSPIRACISTS

Poll: Good reviews for Obamacare coverage

By Lucy McCalmont

11/14/14 6:43 AM EST

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/obamacare-health-exchanges-coverage-112892.html#ixzz3J3q9PDsk

A majority of Americans give good reviews for insurance they recently acquired through government exchanges within the past year, a new poll shows.

With the second round of Obamacare enrollment set to begin on Saturday, 71 percent said their coverage through the exchanges was good or excellent, according to a Gallup poll released Friday. Another 19 percent said the coverage was fair, while 9 percent rated it poorly.

The pollster notes that these marks are comparable to all who have health insurance. However, those newly insured through the exchanges are more satisfied with the cost of health care — with 75 percent saying so — versus 61 percent of all insured respondents who said they were satisfied with the cost of health care.

A majority — 68 percent — who received insurance through the exchanges said they plan to renew their policy, while an additional 7 percent said they will look for a new policy, but through the exchanges.

The Gallup poll was conducted Oct. 22-Nov. 12 and surveyed 407 adults who were newly insured through a government health care exchange in 2014. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

Talk to Mr. Gallop if you don't believe me,

ED

GRUBER GRAB GRUBBY

The fake controversy about Jonathan Gruber's claim to be the " Architect of the ACA " is explained by the following paragraph :

“Was he in the administration, was he in the Congress, did he draft provisions of the law?” said Chris Jennings, a health care consultant and former White House aide on health policy. “The answer to all those questions is no, so just by definition he was not the architect of the law. He wasn’t a member [of Congress], he wasn’t an elected leader, he wasn’t [a] staff member to those members, he was not a political or career appointee to the administration. He was a private consultant.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/obamacare-jonathan-gruber-architect-112886_Page2.html#ixzz3J3JIa0gj

Obviously I can't just dream up something that is printed in " Politico "

ED

KEYSTONE KOPS KISS

Wow, the number of jobs projected to be attributed to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline just keeps growing and growing. Last year the proponents talked of 10,000 jobs. Today in the U.S. House Rep. Pete Sessions claimed that the pipeline would create 42,000 jobs. That's 42,000. I guess if we wait another year to start construction we will create 100,000 jobs. I wrote about this earlier this year. 

http://edward-truth.blogspot.com/2014/01/keystone-xl-pipeline.html

If you want to know the true figure of created jobs click the link.

For all of you that are tired of hearing about the job producing pipeline that the Republicans think can save the country with a lot of  jobs, read the following critique :

http://www.livescience.com/38735-putting-keystone-pipeline-job-numbers-in-context.html

The construction of Keystone XL, which would generate 3,950 person-years of work according to the U.S. Department of State, has a job creation potential on par with building a shopping mall or the campus renovations the University of Oregon announced last week.
Moreover, after it's built, Keystone XL will only employ between 35 and 50 people — and some of those positions will be filled in Canada. That's a small fraction of the long-term employment benefits one could expect from a shopping mall.

While the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline is not a national jobs creator, it would be a significant new source of climate pollution, adding 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon pollution to the atmosphere over its estimated lifespan. For that reason it fails the President's climate test and should be rejected.

Facts are really hard to disprove because they are, you guessed it, FACTS

ED

ALABAMA ASS AND ACRIMONY

Today on C-Span during the "Washington Journal" segment, a Republican woman named Michelle from Birmingham, Alabama concluded her remarks about people getting "Obamacare for free" by stating that " because the President is black he has no content of character ! "

The moderator did not gasp as I did, but proceeded on to the next caller. Great restraint showed she !

I am speechless, simply speechless,

ED

A COMEDY OF TERRORS

Before the recent midterm election the airways were regurgitating the tired meme that President Obama had mishandled or underestimated the dire consequences of ISIS/ISIL and EBOLA. While I agree that the public face of those crises was not presented well, the actual processes of containment are precise and effective in the case of ISIS/ISIL and in the case of the Ebola crisis the main problem is fear itself.

Now only four days after the election and the right-wing fearmongers have moved on. They have decided to monger fear about the terrible scourge of immigration. Using the euphemism of "waving a red flag in front of a bull" they are warning the President not to take executive action on immigration because they want to come up with a plan in congress. "Let congressional action take its course" they say. 

Well hear me out ----- THEY HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR 6 1/2 YEARS !

Now Boehner, Barrasso, McConnell and Cornyn INC. are hitting the airways lamenting that the President "just doesn't get it."

The President DOES get it. The proposal to fix the status of the "dreamers" was a part of his campaign in 2008 and has been a priority of his administration ever since.

Now comes the rejuvenated right-wing delusionists claiming an election mandate against OBAMA'S policies when the reality is that Republicans got only 15.5% of the registered voters to agree with them.

Of course the apathy of the electorate was appalling, but so too was the success of the Republican 

redistricting circus and the vile voter suppression across the nation.

This entire governing by revenge thing makes me tired ---

ED

POST PARTISAN DEPRESSION

I was all set this morning to collect my observations of the Tuesday election and start pontificating, when I stumbled across a full six page spread about the new JAMES CANCER HOSPITAL in The Columbus Dispatch.

Touted to be the greatest, most advanced, most technologically capable cancer hospital in the world, it does have one anomaly noteworthy to expose.

Despite the fact that this is the year 2014, despite the fact that the hospital was designed by architects and engineers with the complete and constant collaboration of the top Physicians, Physicists, Psychiatrists and Scientists in the WORLD, and cost $750 MILLION, 

THE NEW JAMES CANCER HOSPITAL HAS NO THIRTEENTH FLOOR ! 

The stated reason is -- a reflection of the "UNLUCKINESS" often associated with the number.

Please save us from the superstitious ignoramus bureaucrat that made this decision.

How can I possibly trust my cancers to people that believe in superstition and luck ?

I did not make this up, read it and weep.

ED

FEMALE WARRIORS FRIGHTEN ISIS/ISIL

A rifle company of 260 female fighters is prepared to enter the fight against the terrorist army known as   ISIS or ISIL. The Kurdish warriors present a whole new ironic pulse to the battle. While the terrorists degrade, rape & murder women as a matter of policy, they are fearful of the female Kurdish warriors. 

Why you may ask. They fear that being killed by a female will prevent them from going to paradise. That in turn prevents them from enjoying their 76 virgins. Oh the irony !

I did not make this up, look it up !

ED

THE NEXT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE

Enough said ?

REP. JOHN MICA JOINS WILLIAM SHATNER & CAPT. OBVIOUS

At the hearing regarding the recent lapses in security involving the Secret Service, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla), actually held up an ADT sign and asked the Director of the Secret Service " have you heard of these guys?" You simply must watch the video to appreciate the base, common, down to earth reasoning of our leaders ! I actually was watching C-Span at the time of this gem. Now I share it with you.

http://youtu.be/ZDNjEOe45OQ

ANOTHER GEORGIA POL LOSES HIS WAY

Amanda Terkel at The Huffington Post writes this gem.

Sept. 30, 2014

WASHINGTON -- Georgia GOP Senate candidate David Perdue has touted his background as a businessman in his race against Democrat Michelle Nunn, arguing that his experience in the private sector makes him better qualified to take on America's economic problems.

During a Georgia Chamber of Commerce forum on Aug. 21, Perdue talked about the best way to spur economic growth. 

"We're losing our competitive edge because we're not paying attention to our infrastructure," he said. "It's one of the five basic precepts of economic development: regulatory control, educated workforce, water, cheap power and infrastructure. That’s how you grow an economy."END

MY TURN

I am astounded to read that a Georgia Republican includes " REGULATORY CONTROL " as one of the precepts of economic development. Those two words are never uttered by the conservative pols ! I did not make this up, read it for yourself at :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/30/david-perdue-economy_n_5907496.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

RIGHT WING PARANOIA PERSONIFIED

CONGRESSMAN PAUL BROUN JR. (R-GA)

Excerpted From Matthew Pulver of "Salon"

Sept. 30, 2014

Broun, a skilled purveyor of a Southern politics of persecution, was an early alarmist, predicting a violently oppressive, explicitly Hitlerian regime just days after President Obama’s election in 2008. Broun’s repeated evocation of Hitler and Stalin would later find its way into the crass iconography of Tea Party protests. The stakes have always been existential to Broun. In an almost mystical ritual, Broun, a born-again Christian, snuck onto the inaugural stage in 2009 to anoint the door through which Obama would pass with holy oil, entreating God to come to the aid of His besieged and cleanse the new president of his tyrannical evil. Broun’s persecution narrative, dismissed by many at the time as hayseed hyperbole, now forms the basis of conservative arguments on nearly every issue. 

END

MY TURN

I do not want to belabor this point, but the political right is indistinguishable these days from the religious extremists or the cultist religious extremists. You cannot separate or draw a line between any Republican and Religion. The concept of keeping Religion out of politics is completely destroyed.

The very idea of Rep. Broun anointing a door through which a newly elected President was to pass in order to " entreat God to come to the aid of His besieged and cleanse the new President of his tyrannical evil " just flat out boggles my little gray cells. Had Barack Obama ever done anything tyrannicaly evil or was the pot calling the kettle BLACK !

Read it for yourself at:

SALON.COM

DEMOCRACY OR NO DEMOCRACY

Check out this article on Talking Points Memo

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

SHORT WARS DO NOT EXIST WITHOUT INTELLECT

When in the course of human events, intelligent men come forth. 

Theodore Roosevelt once commanded his cowboys on a steer roundup, " Hasten Forward Quickly There." Then there was the George W. Bush group of cowboys.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM TURNS GREEN WITH APOPLEXIA

According to video, Sen. Graham appeared on the FOX Sunday morning show and just got his knickers totally tied up in a knot. He was apoplectic, eyes bulging, hair standing on end, trying to reach through the camera to grab people by the neck, screaming that "we will all die" because President Obama is not taking ISIS/ISIL seriously enough according to the Graham doctrine of WAR ABOVE ALL ELSE !

Seriously, Sen. Graham seems to think that the ISIS/ISIL Army is going to load up, all 30,000 of them, onto the ISIS/ISIL Navy vessels or the ISIS/ISIL Air Force planes and said ARMADA will head out to America so that they can "KILL US ALL"

Oh yes, then there was one of his favorite phrases, "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS PRESIDENT TO ----"

The only thing missing in this display is that his Left Hand Man, Sen. John McCain was somewhere else proclaiming that President Obama was personally responsible for the Middle East Wars of the last thousand years, all the while stating that there would be peace in the Middle East if only HE were President.

I did not and could not make this stuff up, 

ED

VIRGINS AND HEAVEN AND VAPOR

I wonder exactly how the terrorists belonging to ISIS/ISIL plan on having sex with the 32 virgins in heaven promised to them, if they themselves have been vaporized by a missile. I'm not talking dead or blown apart, I'm talking total vaporization as in molecules drifting around. It makes me very sad to think of the disappointment.

Simply sad, 

ED

SEN. AYOTTE NEEDS TO GO TO MILITARY SCHOOL

The good Senator said today on CNN that we need boots on the ground to act as spotters for our air strikes against ISIS. I simply cannot figure out how to explain to her that we have already flown over 150 missions and that SOMEONE was doing the spotting !

It is all true, look it up,

ED

SEN. BOB CORKER TRIES TO FLY AND ANOTHER SENATOR TRIES TO FOLLOW

At 3:45pm today on the Senate floor, Sen. Bob Corker began a tirade about the Presidents' speech to be given tonight at 9:00pm. Note that the President has not spoken yet.

I have personally never seen so much arm flapping in my life. I realize that the Senator is not a very big guy, but I kept watching, thinking that he actually could lift off the floor. 

The irony of this is that as I was typing this, Sen. Bernie Sanders took the floor to speak about campaign spending and he too was trying to fly up off the floor. 

I am relieved to say neither Senator actually achieved liftoff. 

ED

53rd ATTEMPT TO REPEAL THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT OCCURS TODAY

The title of this post says it all. 

Well, almost all. The 53rd attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act is occurring under the 75th closed rule in the house since John Boehner became Speaker of the House.

For those of you that don't know the impact of a closed rule, it basically means that the debate must be on the bill as written without allowing any amendments or debate on the substance of any desired amendments. 

So much for Speaker Boehners promise for a more open House process. What a farce our congress has become. 

No wonder the congress currently has an approval rating of 14%.

ED

SEN. JOHN CORNYN DISTORTS THE IRAQ WAR DISTORTION

Once again in a free thought statement, Sen. John Cornyn has completely distorted the war stance of the United States. Today in a speech on the Senate floor, the Senator said that the United States was the " glue that held Iraq together " and that President Obama by withdrawing our troops had caused the country to be once again rendered asunder by war. 

Please forgive me for pointing out the incredibly obvious fact that it was the United States under Presidents GHW Bush and GW Bush that split the country of Iraq apart to begin with ! It can be argued and I accept the premise that the first war started by Iraq  when it invaded Kuwait and GHW Bush reacted with some justification. 

To suggest that we had a war to be won under GW Bush is beyond reality. Nothing, I mean nothing proved to be true as a justification for a war with Iraq.

To now state that President Obama is responsible for " tearing the country apart " is not only irresponsible but ignorant. 

The only thing more ignorant is invading Afghanistan because twelve men from Saudi Arabia caused the horrible events of 9/11/2001. 

As for anyone believing that war in Iraq is ever going to cease, please remember that the Iraqis have always been at war between themselves or some other country. 

I did not make this up, it is all too real !

ED

REPUBLICAN ECONOMIC CLAIMS MOSTLY FALSE

Please read this commentary of Leonard Pitts Jr. from the Miami Herald :

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/09/04/gops-economic-performance-doesnt-match-its-rhetoric.html

COMMUNICATING WITH THE FEAR MONGERS

:

I am currently trying to engage with my district congressman about a tweet he sent out yesterday about the Affordable Care Act and seniors. Of course I am disturbed by the use of the term "Obamacare" to begin with, but maybe he thinks it helps his Tweet character count. That is not the crux of my problem with the tweet however. It basically says that seniors in the 12^th Congressional District have had their Medicare Advantage cut by about 10 percent since Obamacare became law. Included in the tweet is a link to the study. 

The words "have had" appear and later a link to a study offered by the "American Action Forum" showing supposed cuts to Medicare Advantage in 2015. ( The American Action Forum is a sister organization of the American Action Network, a center-right organization funded by right and far right donors. ) This is 2014 so the term "have had" means before now. The Tweet attempts to insinuate that the supposed cuts in 2015 "have had" a deleterious effect on seniors since 2009 when the Affordable Care Act was enacted. 

Also the statement totally ignores the fact that the administration in April rescinded some of the future 2015 cuts:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/07/obama-administration-reverses-proposed-cut-to-medicare-plans/

I do not know how my dialogue with the congressman will work out ( so far the communication is only through his Communications Director ) but I have expectations that it will be warping, skewing, dodging, evasive stuff career politicians are so good at. I do know that my list of Fear Mongering Politicians keeps growing ( Ted Cruz, Louie Gohmert, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Darrell Issa, 

Jim Jordan, Rick Perry, and now Pat Tiberi OH-12 )

WHAT DO THESE FIVE PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON ?

If you said that they are the five votes favoring the Hobby Lobby religious freedom stand against women's reproductive health you would be right, but you would have missed the important point. 

If you said that they are all MEN deciding WOMEN'S health issues you would be right, but you would still be missing the important point. 

This case was never about contraception, it was about abortion. Therefor the important point about these five people is that they are all CATHOLICS. 

The decision was never ever in doubt. You must always remember this: the Supreme Court has NO Protestant members. The Court has six Roman Catholics and three Jewish members.

I cannot make these things up, look it up for yourself,

ED

IRS, IRS, IRS, ISSA, ISSA, ISSA

The Republicans investigating the IRS apparently believe that every single one of the 89,500 IRS employees are Democrats or at the very least protecting Democrats.

They also seem to believe that computer hard drives don't inexplicably crash. I personally am on my fourth !

They also didn't seem to find what they wanted in over 170,000 e-mails so now they are demanding to take possession of the recycled hard drive of Lois Lerner. I hope a search of the recycled stuff dump will cough up that hard drive so that Chairman Issa can personally recover the e-mails that he claims will show a vast left-wing conspiracy to make people pay the taxes they owe. 

Of course they could just read the 24,000 e-mails of Lois Lerner that have been recovered from the hard drives of the people that she sent those e-mails to. That would be too hard to understand I guess.

I mean seriously, they would have to know the difference between the TO: block and the FROM: block.

I am not confused, this is all true,

ED 

ONE MORE TIME

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH RELEASED 526 BAD TERRORISTS FROM GUANTANAMO !

FLIP FLOP JOHN MCCAIN FLIPS SWAP

From the POLITICO site

By JEREMY HERB | 

6/8/14 9:44 AM EDT

Sen. John McCain said on Sunday the Obama administration could have released other prisoners in the swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, rather than the five commanders requested by the Taliban.

In February, the Arizona Republican said he was inclined to support a prisoner swap, depending on the details of the exchange. And Democrats have seized on McCain’s past comments, but McCain has argued the details of the deal made are unacceptable to him.

“I believe there are other prisoners, some of whom we have already released, that we could have released in exchange,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “These five are the top five picked by the Taliban. Not by us, but by the Taliban.”

McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said that the swap should have been weighed against the risk it could pose to other U.S. troops.

“We should do everything we can in our power to win the release any of American being held," he said, "but not at the expense of lives and well being of their fellow service men and women."

From Me, Edward L. :

McCain actually seems to believe that the Taliban would agree to a swap of Guantanamo detainees that had already been released and our soldier Bergdahl. It is time or should I say past time for Sen. John McCain to retire. He has molded his life into a continual cycle of :

1. Wake up in the morning, read newspaper, find out what that guy Obama has done now.

2. Get dressed, appear on Fox News, propose that HE would have done the opposite.

3. Subsequently proclaim that the Main Stream Media had distorted his statements.

The public is not amused after seeing old videos of McCain that refute his angst.

I refuse to try to make these things up, McCain does it for me.

ED

FLORIDA CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL

Denouncing "job-killing legislation," the Republicans repealed former Gov. Crist's climate law, disbanded the state's climate commission and eliminated a mandate requiring the state to use ethanol-blended gasoline. Asked about climate change recently, Republican Gov. Scott demurred, saying the state has spent about $130 million on coastal flooding in his first term, as well as millions on environmental restoration.

I say we should ask Gov. Scott what he thinks about spending all of that taxpayers money on things he claims doesn't even exist. Puzzling isn't it ?

I just cannot figure out how to make up anything more ridiculous than this.

ED

GOP’s quiet Obamacare disaster: How this week’s biggest story got overlooked

Just do yourself a favor and click on the following link:
GOP’s quiet Obamacare disaster: How this week’s biggest story got overlooked

NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD TERRORIST

You just have to sit back and take a deep breath when you hear Republicans complain that President Obama has released five bad terrorists. There is no such thing as a good terrorist. 

In fact, actually, President Obama has released 88 bad terrorists from Guantanamo.

Now the reason for the deep breath exercise is this :

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH RELEASED 526 BAD TERRORISTS FROM GUANTANAMO !

NEWS FROM THE BEYOND ( INSERT EERIE MUSIC HERE )

Appoint Special Committee for Benghazi because all the questions have been asked and answered but we don't understand the answers. ( Speaker Boehner )

Get pissed because you have been left out of the Special Committee and sabotage said committee by releasing critical, before now unknown, items of interest. ( Rep. Issa )

 First call for the freeing of our soldier Bergdahl from the clutches of the Taliban by trading prisoners, then when that is accomplished go on Fox News and proclaim that the President has traded the wrong terrorists. ( Sen. McCain ) 

Go to briefing on the circumstances surrounding said soldiers release, leave the briefing early, get on Fox News to complain that you didn't learn anything. ( Sen. Chambliss )

Suggest that Soldier Bergdahl's release was, although in process for months if not years, was actually scheduled to keep newspapers from putting the VA scandal on the front page. ( Gov. Perry )

Excoriate the First Lady Michelle Obama for trying to help get our children physically fit and enabling them to eat healthy food at school. ( just about every Republican out there )

I CELEBRATE WOMEN, TODAY IT IS DIANNE HUMETEWA

QUOTES FROM THE RIGHT, UNEDITED

RYAN ZINKE

Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL and state senator who is now running for Congress in Montana, said during a campaign stop this week that he is worried the country is losing sight of the real threat to the nation: Hillary Clinton.

“We need to focus on the real enemy,” said Zinke on Monday, referring to Clinton, according to the Bigfork Eagle. He also called the former Secretary of State the "anti-Christ."

MICHELLE BACHMANN & STEVE KING

“He may think he is king, he may declare he’s a king, but that’s not what he is under the Constitution,” Bachmann said Tuesday. Rep. Steve King of Iowa had Bachmann’s back, arguing that Obama has repeatedly acted outside of the bounds of his constitutional authority. Not only should Congress bring Obama to court, King said, but the House should also consider a formal resolution “that lists all of [Obama’s] constitutional violations, or at least the clearest ones—there are very many, I don’t know if we’d ever get to all.”

ALLEN WEST ON COCA-COLA SUPER BOWL AD 

"If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'America the Beautiful' in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come — doggone we are on the road to perdition," wrote former Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., on his website. 

West called the 60-second ad "truly disturbing" and included a lengthy quote by former President Teddy Roosevelt, which ended, "We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, and American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house; and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

However, another prominent Republican tweeted the opposite view :

Sen. Lisa Murkowski ✔ @lisamurkowski

My favorite commercial so far? Coca Cola's America the Beautiful ad. Gave me goosebumps, and I don't even drink pop! #superbowlcommercials

8:09 PM - 2 Feb 2014

OBAMA DISSES O'REILLY AND FOX

In two very short and sweet sentences President Obama sorts things out. 

“Your detractors believe that you did not tell the world [Benghazi] was a terror attack because your campaign didn’t want that out,” O’Reilly said. “That’s what they believe.”

“And they believe it because folks like you tell them that,” Obama said. "These kinds of things keep on surfacing in part because you and your TV station will promote them."

13 BUSH BENGHAZIS

Let us just list a few of the Benghazi style attacks during the BUSH administration. I found this exhaustively well researched article by Bob Cesca, host of the Bob and Chez Show, published on The Huffington Post, 05/29/2013.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/13-benghazis-that-occurre_b_3246847.html

The article is really worth reading in its entirety, but I want to list the attacks that Cesca has highlighted:

January 22, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami attack the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed.

June 14, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber connected with al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 and injuring 51.

October 12, 2002. Denpasar, Indonesia. U.S. diplomatic offices bombed as part of a string of "Bali Bombings." No fatalities.

February 28, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Several gunmen fire upon the U.S. Embassy. Two people are killed.

May 12, 2003. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armed al Qaeda terrorists storm the diplomatic compound, killing 36 people including nine Americans. The assailants committed suicide by detonating a truck bomb.

July 30, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A suicide bomber from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan attacks the U.S. Embassy, killing two people.

December 6, 2004. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate and occupy the perimeter wall. Nine people are killed.

March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers. (I wonder if Lindsey Graham or Fox News would even recognize the name "David Foy." This is the third Karachi terrorist attack in four years on what's considered American soil.)

September 12, 2006. Damascus, Syria. Four armed gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar" storm the U.S. Embassy using grenades, automatic weapons, a car bomb and a truck bomb. Four people are killed, 13 are wounded.

January 12, 2007. Athens, Greece. Members of a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy. No fatalities.

March 18, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Jihad of Yemen fire a mortar at the U.S. Embassy. The shot misses the embassy, but hits nearby school killing two.

July 9, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four armed terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed.

September 17, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with an arsenal of weapons including RPGs and detonate two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband (they had beenmarried for three weeks when the attack occurred). This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months.

All of these attacks on our embassies and consulates occurred during the GEORGE W. BUSH administration.

Read the article to see if Sen. Lindsey Graham or FOX NEWS made a stink about them and then get back to me.

I did not and cannot make these things up, unbelievable,

ED

THE PRESIDENT IS RIGHT

Experts Argue That Obama Administration Has Authority To Implement Delay

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/delaying-parts-of-obamacare-blatantly-illegal-or-routine-adjustment/277873/

Constitutional Scholar Simon Lazarus: Delay Is "Well Within The Executive Branch's Lawful Discretion." In a post in The Atlantic, Constitutional Accountability Center Senior Counsel Simon Lazarus wrote that the delay is "a sensible adjustment to phase-in enforcement, not a refusal to enforce" and "well within the Executive Branch's lawful discretion":

The relevant text requires that the President "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Scholars on both left and right concur that this broadly-worded phrasing indicates that the President is to exercise judgment, and handle his enforcement duties with fidelity to all laws, including, indeed, the Constitution. As McConnell himself notes, both Republican and Democratic Justice Departments have consistently opined that the clause authorizes a president even to decline enforcement of a statute altogether, if in good faith he determines it to be in violation of the Constitution. But, McConnell contends, a president cannot "refuse to enforce a statute he opposes for policy reasons." While surely correct, that contention is beside the point.

The Administration has not postponed the employer mandate out of policy opposition to the ACA, nor to the specific provision itself. Thus, it's misleading to characterize the action as a "refusal to enforce." Rather, the President has authorized a minor temporary course correction regarding individual ACA provisions, necessary in his Administration's judgment to faithfully execute the overall statute, other related laws, and the purposes of the ACA's framers. As a legal as well as a practical matter, that's well within his job description. [The Atlantic, 7/17/13]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/delaying-parts-of-obamacare-blatantly-illegal-or-routine-adjustment/277873/

STARTING A BUSINESS

That snarky comment about poor people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps usually is accompanied by " They could start a business."

That clearly would require some money, ( can you define the word "poor" ? )

How many people in the USA are poor ? Fifty million.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/poverty-rate-government-aid_n_4227925.html 

So FIFTY MILLION people could start a business to become " unpoor "

Granted that figure includes children, so let's say TWENTY MILLION people could start a business to become " unpoor "

Now the conundrum, if everyone in the country is an employer, where do we get employees ?

Who are the customers ?

I know you think I am being snarky myself now, or too simplistic. I just have this funny feeling that not everyone can own a business.

I cannot figure this out,

ED

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

KEYSTONE PIPELINE
For all of you that are tired of hearing about the job producing pipeline that the Republicans think can save the country with a lot of  jobs, read the following critique :

http://www.livescience.com/38735-putting-keystone-pipeline-job-numbers-in-context.html

The construction of Keystone XL, which would generate 3,950 person-years of work according to the U.S. Department of State, has a job creation potential on par with building a shopping mall or the campus renovations the University of Oregon announced last week.
Moreover, after it's built, Keystone XL will only employ between 35 and 50 people — and some of those positions will be filled in Canada. That's a small fraction of the long-term employment benefits one could expect from a shopping mall.

While the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline is not a national jobs creator, it would be a significant new source of climate pollution, adding 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon pollution to the atmosphere over its estimated lifespan. For that reason it fails the President's climate test and should be rejected.

Facts are really hard to disprove because they are, you guessed it, FACTS

ED

SOCIALISM NONSENSE

Tweets flowing out to the world during and following the SOTU address by President Barack Obama were a telling diatribe against a President that Republicans have deemed to be a dangerous radical Socialist. Terms bandied about are creative nonsensical tripe like:
Kommandant -in-Chef (yes that's the way the tweet was worded) from Texas Republican Representative Randy ( I am trying to be relevant ) Weber

Randy Weber        ✔ @TXRandy14

On floor of house waitin on "Kommandant-In-Chef"... the Socialistic dictator who's been feeding US a line or is it "A-Lying?"

8:09 PM - 28 Jan 2014
And from FOX NEWS resident snark :

Citizenship is standing up and defying a tyrannical ruler

Monica Crowley @MonicaCrowley

The Skinny Socialist is about to speak. #HELP

9:15 PM - 28 Jan 2014
And from the Senator who thinks he is relevant :

Ted Cruz        ✔ @tedcruz

“President Obama meets every definition of an imperial presidency. He is the president [Nixon] always wanted to be.” http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/01/28/Video-Obama-s-Abuse-Of-Power …

5:38 PM - 28 Jan 2014

So now we have a kommandant-in-chef, skinny socialist, imperial presidency.
Oh wait, I forgot the Tyrannical Ruler part.

Whew, I am exhausted

ED

This just in:
Some Republicans have decided to file a class action suit against the President of the United States apparently claiming that his use of Executive orders violates the Constitution. 
They obviously have not seen this chart from New York Magazine :

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/obama-executive-orders-gun

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REPUBLICAN HEALTHCARE NONPLAN

From The Dailybeast.com :
"Republicans haven’t offered a response to this because, as of this moment, the party doesn’t have a response. Yes, there are conservative intellectuals with ideas for reform, but as an institution, the GOP has little to say about the constellation of problems in American health care. Even in their drive for repeal, Republicans failed to offer an alternative. At most, lawmakers like Bob Corker of Tennessee have tentatively called for “market-driven” reforms, like changes to the tax code, and allowing insurers to sell across state lines. Ironically, the Affordable Care Act allows for these changes, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the GOP."

From your host Edward L. Nice :
I would like to posit some here on a couple of simple issues I have with the big thrust of the Republicans whenever they claim to have an alternative to the ACA. 
Number one:
This business of selling health insurance across state lines. That is a ridiculous idea and is easily refuted. There is a very real reason that insurance companies have different rates for not only each state but different areas of each state. The cost of healthcare in metropolitan areas is significantly lower than in remote or sparsely populated areas. The idea that a person in remote parts of Texas or Alaska can access healthcare at the lower cost of a person in Chicago or Columbus or Pittsburgh just doesn't work out. If everyone got healthcare at the same price that would be part of Socialistic policy that the Republicans decry. 
Number two:
So-called TORT REFORM. While this may have merit and could be a reasonable reform that could lower physicians insurance cost there is a Republican gimmick. 
I watched hours and hours of committee hearings during the run up to the Affordable Care Act.
If you drill down to the tort reform proposed by the Republicans, you will find that they propose limiting the amount that plaintiffs attorneys can charge for a malpractice suit. They did NOT, however, limit the amount that the defendants attorneys could charge. I don't need to go very far with an argument here. Any person with a brain knows the outcome of a court case when one side can spend without limit (read millions) and the plaintiff can only spend thousands. That is the gimmick.
They always have a gimmick.
I can't make it up, check the transcripts,
ED

SOTU COMES AND GOES

Last night I recorded the SOTU. I was really interested as I am every year to hear the proposals, watch the sideshow of the pols jostling for position to shake hands with the president they claim to despise, and finally to watch the reactions on the faces of  both sides. I was sure for awhile that Speaker Boehner had been replaced with a cardboard cutout, grimaced and painted orangish brown so that he could just watch on TV while smoking a fag and sipping Merlot. But then, then he moved ! It really was him.
So, anyway, the speech came and went. The Republicans came out with rebuttals. This year it took FOUR Republicans to refute everything the President proposed, even the ones that Republicans used to tout when they claimed they knew everything before Socialism came to Washington. Oh well.
You can't make these spectacles up, I won't try to.
ED