Benghazi Committee

Benghazi Brouhahahaha

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For a bunch of people who like to complain about government spending, taxes and even the collection of taxes, Republicans don’t have any inhibitions toward spending it on wasteful partisan politics, goose chases, manufactured scandals, and witch hunts.

Republicans have spent over two years and $7 million of taxpayer money in a partisan Congressional investigation trying to destroy Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. On Thursday they released what is supposedly their final report on Benghazi which failed to be the destructive force for Clinton they had hoped it would be. All it revealed is what we already knew, that there were plenty of failures within the State Department and U.S. military, but no evidence of actual wrongdoing or professional misconduct by Hillary Clinton or any other Obama administration members. Republicans want to cry…or keep making up stuff.

The GOP spent more time on an investigation on Benghazi than they did on 9/11, the largest and most destructive terrorist attack ever committed against the United States. There have actually been seven Congressional investigations into Benghazi. The 9/11 hearings were bipartisan and weren’t designed to destroy George W. Bush. Every member of that committee, Democrat and Republican, signed off on the investigation. The Republicans on the Benghazi Committee refused to even let their Democratic counterparts see their report before they released it to the public.

Kevin McCarthy, a Republican member of the committee, even boasted months ago how the committee was hurting Clinton’s poll numbers.

The only thing the Benghazi Committee succeeded in doing, other than wasting time and money, was build stupid and ridiculous conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, which Republicans are gullible enough to believe anyway and without having to spend $7 million of taxpayer money.

Republicans keep bringing up the names of the four Americans who died in Benghazi and have blamed Clinton and President Obama for their deaths. What the GOP has actually done is used their graves, service, and memory for cheap political gain.

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No Burning Of Hillary

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I don’t like cheer leading. I don’t like saying somebody did something awesome. I prefer to be negative and to criticize. Editorial Cartooning is a negative art form. However there really is not a doubt Hillary Clinton knocked it out of the park during her testimony at Thursday’s Benghazi hearing. She was calm, professional and informed. She knew her business. This is what people mean when they talk about an adult in the room. There were other adults in the room, specifically Ranking Member Elijah Cummings who could have done a mic drop after going off on the Republicans.

The GOP’s plan was to grill her for eight hours or so. Testifying underneath that pressure will make anyone crack. The witness will get testy, lose their temper, become sarcastic and angry. I know I would. I’d be biting heads off within five minutes. Hillary testified for nearly eleven hours and kept her cool the entire time. They even questioned and insinuated that she didn’t care about those lost in Benghazi. Clinton only raised her voice twice and each time it was to defend someone else. I don’t know how she didn’t lose it during Jim Jordan’s machine gun questioning tactic. Somehow the guy can talk without breathing. Also to Clinton’s credit she only laughed once at the stupid questions (Were you alone? Were you alone all night?).

Committee chairman Trey Gowdy said after the hearing he didn’t learn anything. If that’s the case then what was the point for this hearing, after seven other Congressional investigations and 32 hearings? Maybe one of the Republicans could have asked about those who perpetuated the attack, yet they didn’t ask one question about the attackers.

While Clinton represented herself well, and even looked presidential, the Republicans were sweating. Gowdy had a very slick sheen going on during the hearing. Pundits often say the Clintons are lucky for the enemies they have. That is true. The GOP have been very incompetent in their pursuit for dirt on Clinton, as they have been in the past. I believe this is what accounts for their irrational hatred for all that is Clinton.

I believe stupid people are not aware they’re stupid. There will be plenty of conservatives who will say Clinton was terrible. They’ll say she was condescending. Her looks of patience can also be interpreted as one of smugness, but it’s hard to keep a straight face when you’re forced to suffer fools. There are conservatives who are admitting the committee was an embarrassment and they really got spanked. I don’t think Clinton hurt them as much as they hurt themselves. It would help, after all the hearings and investigations, if they had an idea how the State Department worked.

You can focus on emails, who had her email address, if Clinton was alone the night of the attack, why she is friends with Sidney Blumenthal, when she talked to the victims, but none of that helps prevent future terrorist attacks, which is supposed to be the point of the hearings.

There were hearings on 9/11, the Beirut Bombing, the Oklahoma City Bombing, the bombing of African embassies and the USS Cole. Those hearings were to find out failures to prevent the attacks. There should be an investigation on the attack in Benghazi and there’s been eight. After eight investigations and over $20 million it’s not about preventing future attacks. It’s purely partisan and political. A political party should not use deaths of Americans for political gain. This is what the Republicans have done and it’s disgusting.

What does the committee do now? Nobody knows. Not even those on the committee. They’re out of matches and it’s time to wrap it up. If they want to beat Hillary Clinton for president they need to do it on the campaign trail and maybe actually have a candidate who can oppose her who isn’t ridiculous.

I actually watched most of the hearings. I’m a geek like that.

Politicize This

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President Obama visited families of the victims of the Oregon shooting last Friday. There were protest. Why would anyone protest the president visiting families to express his condolences? Why indeed? Because they’re mad the president wants to take away their guns.

The protesters speak of their gun and killing furry animals culture and they believe Obama wants to end that. Obama has actually voiced support for their hunting culture. Usually when one hunts (animals), the weapons of choice are shotguns, rifles, or a bow of some sort, not semi-automatic weapons, so hunters are safe from the prez taking their guns. The president isn’t even trying to take away their semi-automatics.

Yet, they believe the president is coming for their guns. These people are probably the Alabama of Oregon. They’re also upset the president would politicize the shootings, so they stand at the airport and along the road with signs, protesting the politicizing. That’s a head scratcher. Many of the signs also said he needs to go home and back to Kenya. I’m really glad they’re taking a stand on politicizing a crisis. During Friday’s news coverage of the protests, including many interviews, I didn’t see anyone from Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC say “oh by the way, that taking your guns away thing…not happening.”

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., more fun from the Select Committee on Benghazi. Republican representative Kevin McCarthy swears it’s not a political witch hunt, after he blurbed out it was a political witch hunt designed to destroy Hillary Clinton.

Now a fired investigator for the committee is spilling the beans that it is indeed designed only to destroy Clinton. Many say you can’t take his word because fired people are always upset and try to drag down those who fired him. True. But he is a Republican.

The investigation into Benghazi has so far costs $4.6 million.

The attack on Benghazi resulted in the death of an ambassador, U.S. Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith, and two private CIA contractors. Do you know how many private contractors died in Iraq? As of June 20, 2012, 1,569 American contractors have died in Iraq. Where is the outrage? Where are the investigations? Why aren’t we looking for scapegoats?

The president admits he is politicizing gun deaths. He wants change to current gun laws so there will be fewer gun deaths. Will the Benghazi investigation prevent more deaths of Americans on foreign soil? Or is it just designed to destroy one politician the opposing party dislikes?

Conservatives, you have Fox News to assist in your take down of Hillary Clinton. You have Breitbart (if you have a hankering for some racist comments from right wing trolls read the comments under any Breitbart article). You even have that One America Now network (I know nobody watches it but you should visit it one late night for hours of stupid). If nothing else, there’s a gazillion right wing racist trolls on social media to help you. So take the advice from The New York Times editorial page and end your stupid committee. Plus, if Hillary is such an awful candidate, who can’t be elected, who you’ll beat so easily, who’ll eventually destroy herself because she’s untrustworthy, then you don’t need to spend $4.6 million of our money to destroy her.