A FRIDAY MEDITATION ON WHAT’S AT STAKE TUESDAY: Among other things, we will likely get an answer to old Ben Franklin’s question of whether we can keep the republic.
Archive for 2012
November 2, 2012
SECRET SERVICE AGENT KILLS SELF AMID AFFAIR PROBE.
THE HILL: Issa accuses the Obama administration of hiding information on Benghazi. “The chairman of the House oversight panel sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a scathing letter on Thursday accusing the administration of hiding information pointing to Libyan authorities’ possible involvement in the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The letter comes after Foreign Policy reported earlier in the day that reporters in Benghazi had found evidence that a Benghazi police officer appeared to have photographed the inside of the mission on the morning of the attack. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died when Islamist militants attacked the mission that night.”
#SANDY IS UNPRECEDENTED: You keep using that word…
SHEDDING NEW LIGHT ON GEORGE LUCAS AND DISNEY: Owners Race to Sell Their Businesses by Year-End to Avoid 67% Capital Gains Tax Increase.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Criminal Negligence: Benghazi Gave 1-Month Warning.
A month before the terrorist attack, the State Department was warned Benghazi couldn’t protect itself and was surrounded by Islamist militia and al-Qaida camps. It was 3 a.m. and the administration pressed “snooze.”
When the U.S. mission in Benghazi called an Aug. 15 emergency meeting, it wasn’t to discuss an obscure Internet video. It was to discuss the lack of security for a consulate surrounded by at least 10 terrorist camps.
An Aug. 16 cable to the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and obtained by Fox News reported that the State Department’s senior security officer “expressed concerns with the ability to defend post in the event of a coordinated attack due to limited manpower, security measures, weapons capabilities, host nation support and the overall size of the compound.”
We note use of the phrase “coordinated attack” one month before just such an attack occurred. It’s a phrase the administration didn’t use for weeks after Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack for which the al-Qaida-linked group Ansar al-Sharia took credit as it was happening.
Read the whole thing.
JIGGERY-POKERY: RNC pushes 6 states to fix machines that give Romney votes to Obama.
Following reports that swing state voters attempting to cast a ballot for Mitt Romney saw the machine check President Obama’s name instead, the Republican National Committee is pushing six states to ensure that ballots are properly cast.
“I understand that, in a significant number of cases, voting machines in your states have populated a vote for Barack Obama when a voter cast his or her ballot for Mitt Romney,” wrote RNC chief counsel John Phillipe to secretaries of state in Nevada, Ohio, Kansas, North Carolina, Missouri, and Colorado. “I further understand that the causes of this problem are varied, and include miscalibration and hyper-sensitivity of the machines,” he acknowledged. But he called for four actions at the state level:
1. All voting machines be recalibrated before Election Day.
2. Additional technicians in the event of further issues.
3. Sign notification reminding voters to double-check the correctness of their ballot in the machine before final submission.
4. Verbal guidance to remind voters to make sure that the ballot they cast is correct.
“I believe these common-sense steps will greatly assist voters on Election Day,” he wrote.
Indeed.
#BENGHAZI: Roger L. Simon ponders how it will play out for Mr. Obama if he wins on Tuesday.
OOPS: Wilder raises doubts about Obama in battleground Virginia.
Wilder, an emphatic Obama supporter in 2008, said his fellow Democrat should have focused more on creating jobs during his first term and faulted the president for failing to keep his campaign promise to bridge the partisan gap in Washington.
“I think he’s governed left of center and didn’t focus on jobs and economic recovery,” Wilder told The Washington Examiner.
Do tell. Plus: “Wilder said the presidential race in the state remains a tossup this late into the election cycle because many independents feel disappointment in the man they helped put in power four years ago. That has opened the door for Romney to make his case and it has been a compelling one so far, Wilder said.”
MARATHON MIKE: “‘We Need Food, We Need Clothing’: Staten Island Residents Plead for Help 3 Days After Sandy,” ABC reports. However, as the New York Daily News notes, such horror stories aren’t preventing Mike Bloomberg from focusing on more important mayoral duties:
Desperately needed food, water and generators were being rushed Thursday to Sandy-ravaged Staten Island while local leaders blasted the city’s “idiotic” plan to stage the New York City Marathon in the midst of the crisis.
Staten Island Councilman James Oddo urged Mayor Bloomberg to reconsider, especially while rescue efforts are still underway on the hard-hit South Shore.
“The notion of diverting even one police officer, one first responder, one asset away from this carnage is beyond irrational,” the Republican lawmaker told The Daily News.
“The mayor said to me, ‘We’re not going to diminish what is happening on Staten Island.’ You know what happens on marathons – you put a cop on every corner. How are we going to have enough resources?”
Speaking of which, the New York Times evidently has enough resources, in spite of the myriad disasters caused by Sandy, to run stories such as this article yesterday: “A Restroom Plan Can Reduce Worry:”
A raceday outfit. A prerace meal. A playlist. A warm-up routine.
And there is one more thing runners obsess over but are often too shy to discuss in public: making sure that digestive issues have been dealt with. “If you don’t address it or wing it then that’s when you lose valuable time in the marathon,” John Honerkamp, chief coach for New York Road Runners, said.
It is a vital part of any proper prerace routine, said Adam Banks, chief executive of NY SportsMed, a sports therapy practice. “Carrying that extra weight with you for 26 miles is extremely uncomfortable.”
That’s why 1,750 portable restrooms, from A Royal Flush, are placed at the start of the New York City Marathon.
“A lot of runners laugh about it, but a really important component to having a good race is doing your prerace business,” said Beth Risdon, a running coach and running blogger.
No really — that’s an actual headline and the first paragraphs of an article in the most important paper in the most important city in the world in a time of natural disaster.
Gray Lady Down, indeed.
INTOLERANCE, HORRORS POLITE DISCOURSE FROM CONSERVATIVE HOST: How a conservative talker responds to gay caller. Yes, even in disagreement. If you’re surprised, you must be living in a bubble.
GEE, THIS SURE WOULD HAVE BEEN HANDY LAST WEEK: Test plugs prevent flooding of tunnels.
November 1, 2012
YOU KNOW YOU DESERVE BETTER (ALL AMERICA DOES): Lessons from Experience in Sex and Politics. It’s time to throw his stuff out on the front lawn and change the locks. Cutting the crotch out of his favorite jeans is strictly optional.
THE 9TH WARD OF NYC: Overlooked Staten Island pleads for help, slams Red Cross for lack of response.
MICHAEL LEDEEN: Letter to My European Friends. (And mine too, please.)
BILL WHITTLE: Firewall: Falling On Principle. Why you shouldn’t vote for Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, etc.
I DON’T KNOW WHY. THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES WHO RODE TO THE SOUND OF THE GUNS. CIA Takes Heat for Role in Libya. If the way to advance your career is to do nothing, let’s just abolish the agencies, so that they can do nothing at no cost to the taxpayers.
UPDATE: A paralyzing “groupthink pandemic” at State, and no leadership from Obama.
LIBYA UPDATE: Fred Thompson Makes News With Benghazi Comments at AFP Event.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson today said he was “totally disgusted” by the Obama administration’s handling of the Libya terrorist attack, saying that U.S. officials failed to act “while our people were being systematically slaughtered” at the Benghazi consulate.
Speaking at an event sponsored by the free-market group Americans for Prosperity, the former Republican senator from Tennessee invoked his experience nearly 40 years ago as a Watergate investigator, saying that Congress must “get to the bottom of” the administration’s failures in the Sept. 11 incident that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead in Libya.
“This is probably the biggest cover-up in American history – and you’re talking to an expert in cover-ups,” Thompson said.
Ouch.
THE BLOOMBERG SYNDROME: In January of 2011, when New York had just dug itself out from under a couple feet of white powdery global warming, Victor Davis Hanson wrote:
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was a past master of lecturing about the cosmic while at times ignoring the more concrete. Governing the boroughs of an often-chaotic New York City is nearly impossible. Pontificating on the evils of smoking, fatty foods, and supposed anti-Muslim bigotry was not only far easier but had established the mayor as a national figure of sensitivity and caring. He was praised for his progressive declarations by supporters of everything from global warming to abortion.
But Bloomberg’s carefully constructed philosopher’s image was finally shattered by the December 2010 blizzard and his own asleep-at-the-wheel reaction. An incompetent municipal response to record snowfalls barricaded millions in their borough houses and apartments, amid lurid rumors of deliberate union-sponsored slowdowns by Bloomberg’s city crews.
* * * * *
Quite simply, the next time your elected local or state official holds a press conference about global warming, the Middle East, or the national political climate, expect to experience poor county law enforcement, bad municipal services, or regional insolvency.
His namesake news service has seen all bad economic news since January of 2009 as occurring “unexpectedly,” but nobody else should be surprised by Bloomberg’s shtick this week, or that his cosmic rhetoric belies an incompetence in regards to more down to earth matters.
On the other hand, as Jonah Goldberg wrote today, Bloomberg is making baby steps of a sort: “Well, at least he didn’t blame Sandy on some guy with a political agenda who doesn’t like the health care bill or something.”
MEANWHILE, BLOOMBERG IS WORRIED ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING: Video: Blacked Out New York Lighted By Candles And $10 Mini Flashlights.
PARENTING: How the ‘Having It All’ Debate Has Changed Over the Last 30 Years.
Notice that nobody ever seems to worry about whether men can “have it all?”
CHICAGOBOYZ: KEEP CALM AND FINISH HIM.