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