Romney Talks Middle East; Obama Talks Big Bird
Romney has started to hit back hard on the Obama administration’s lies about Benghazi.
I know the President hopes for a safer, freer, and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States. I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy. We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds, when our defense spending is being arbitrarily and deeply cut, when we have no trade agenda to speak of, and the perception of our strategy is not one of partnership, but of passivity.
This excellent video from Heritage lays out the lies that were told so you can see them with your own eyes, together with just a little of the evidence that shows they knew they were lying.
Why were a special forces team and a security team removed before the terrorist attack, despite numerous warnings of increasing extremism and the approaching of the September 11 date?
And while Romney is discussing these important matters, what is Barack Obama discussing? Big Bird:
He’s Barack Obama and he approved this message.
This guy is a joke and it’s about time we got him out of there.
The Empty Suit(tm) has a special understanding of puppets.
SPQR (768505) — 10/9/2012 @ 7:30 amBig bird is really, really big and important – think of the children. Libya is really far away, what do the children care about something so really far away.
Joe-Dallas (ea8609) — 10/9/2012 @ 7:34 amRe-elect President Obama. Because he won’t cancel Sesame Street — just the security request for the Libyan consulate.
h/t Hot Air
aunursa (7014a8) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:13 amCORRECTION: h/t Mark Steyn @ The Corner
aunursa (7014a8) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:15 amThat plays like an SNL spoof ad…
elaine (9dae76) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:17 amFor someone that — according to Sloe Joe — supposedly carries a big stick, it’s pathetic how often Teh Won winds up playing small ball.
Icy (20d2de) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:17 amThat second video is embarrassingly stupid.
I realize some people don’t realize that Sesame Street would thrive in the absence of government subsidy, but everyone realizes that the PBS issue has nothing to do with Wall Street. The joke the video attempts comes across as not having anything better to argue. People expect presidential adverts to be powerful and important.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:24 amThat’s a pathetic ad from the Obama campaign, one. Two, those names that were mentioned…Weren’t they products of the Clinton administration?
Just wondering.
© Sponge (9fff1f) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:45 amDemocrats are showing themselves to be hate filled and racist in their reaction to Stacey Dash endorsing Romney on Twitter and not backing down.
Good on ya, Stacey.
PCD (1d8b6d) — 10/9/2012 @ 8:55 amThe contrast between the Obama campaign ad and what Romney is talking about really defines the candidates. One is desperately struggling to find relevancy, the other doesn’t bother to play that game because he already knows the relevancy of what he’s focused on. Obama wants to make people bristle over …Sesame Street. Romney wants people to bristle over…a corrupt administration that believes passivity and hope and change is the basis of our Middle East policy – and one only has to look at the top video to see the results of that policy.
Ironically, Sesame Street Workshop is requesting the Obama campaign take down the ad,
Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 9:03 amThe campaign inadvertently outs its own lack of confidence and belief in the president that out of the entire debate, the sticking point to fight back with against Romney, is…Big Bird?
That speaks volumes.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 9:19 amThere definitely should be more coverage of Stacey Dash. With lots of pictures.
radar (3a664a) — 10/9/2012 @ 9:22 am_______________________________________________
Democrats are showing themselves to be hate filled and racist in their reaction to Stacey Dash
The only “race” or “ethnicity” that many liberals care about is the race of (if ideology could be converted into a race) liberalism. I’m being just a tad bit sarcastic when I say that, since I really do suspect that if 90-plus percent of black American were staunchly moderate to conservative, a lot of white liberals would fire up the idea of bringing back Jim Crow or “separate but equal”—which, incidentally, were policies activated by progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson and a Democrat-dominated Congress back in the early 1900s.
Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/9/2012 @ 9:24 am
Greetings:
I can understand why President Obama is so upset by former Governor Romney’s attack on Big Bird. They’ve both been parroting other people’s word for 40 years.
11B40 (6288a2) — 10/9/2012 @ 9:35 amNice try…Romney brought Big Bird into the discourse as a (laughable) example of what programs he’d cut if he became President Slasher.
Axing Big Bird is ROMNEY’s idea of a serious economic proposal.
Thanks for keeping this in the news btw.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:00 amAnd yet, media liberals will solemnly decry the use of “wedge issues” and complain that the election is far too focused on “frivolous issues.” That is, of course, when they can blame conservatives for this problem, not when they have to acknowledge their own culpability.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:03 amIllman remains 100% mendoucheous 100% of the time.
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:06 amP.Tillman, it is more actual budget cutting than Obama has done in four years. Your comment is what is laughable.
SPQR (768505) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:09 amThanks for keeping this in the news btw.
Comment by P. Tillman — 10/9/2012 @ 10:00 am
I hope it remains in the news. Nothing could more clearly evidence the weak desperation of the Obama campaign. It’s unfortunate for him that his handlers and campaign managers have lost so much confidence in him that this is the level they’ve been somewhat forced to stoop to.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:12 amComment by P. Tillman — 10/9/2012 @ 10:00 am
Sesame Street makes $80 million a year from grants and merchandise sales. Big Bird is part of the 1 percent. He doesn’t need to be on welfare.
aunursa (7014a8) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:14 amIt is a good example of the echo chamber that Democrats think that “Big Bird” / PBS is a winning theme. A lot of people associate PBS with limo liberalism and elites ( disclosure, I watch a lot of local public TV channels – mostly for foreign TV series like Mhz’s Maigret and Beck ).
SPQR (768505) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:14 amExcept he’s given a wide range of proposals that include letting the private sector handle programs that the government doesn’t need to pay for.
Meanwhile Obama’s idea of a spending cut proposal is to promise huge new programs and not pass any budgets at all.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:16 amThere definitely should be more coverage of Stacey Dash. With lots of pictures.
Comment by radar — 10/9/2012 @ 9:22 am
— Personally, I favor LESS “coverage” of Stacey Dash . . . if you know what I mean.
Icy (20d2de) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:22 am“Illman remains 100% mendoucheous 100% of the time.”
Coming from a polygamist worshiper of Moroni the Angel that’s rich.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:26 am“Except he’s given a wide range of proposals that include letting the private sector handle programs that the government doesn’t need to pay for.”
Except that he has done no such thing. His plan is to raise taxes on the Middle Class…probably most of you rubes.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:27 amExcept that he has done no such thing. His plan is to raise taxes on the Middle Class…probably most of you rubes.
Lie. Is that all you have got?
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:28 amSesame Street makes $80 million a year from grants and merchandise sales. Big Bird is part of the 1 percent. He doesn’t need to be on welfare.
aunursa, check out this great picture which I first saw on a friend’s Facebook wall.
– Personally, I favor LESS “coverage” of Stacey Dash . . . if you know what I mean.
Icy, as you probably know, Ms. Dash posed for Playboy a few years back. I won’t be linking to those photos however.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:29 amDana’s comment 10, showing Sesame Street called for Obama’s ad to be taken down, should be an update to the post.
Some liberals assume everything the taxpayers pay for is their prop, but it’s not so.
Ten years from now, when democrat failures are associated with Obama like current ones are with Carter, that Obama based his reelection on Big Bird (ignoring so many serious matters) is going to be a hilarious joke.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:29 am“Illman remains 100% mendoucheous 100% of the time.”
Coming from a polygamist worshiper of Moroni the Angel that’s rich.
But talking about Rev Wright is racist. Thanks for lifting the veil of your seething hatred, illman. Not that it was in question, but it is nice of you to display your hate so proudly.
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:30 amComing from a polygamist worshiper of Moroni the Angel that’s rich
I am a polygamist, or a worshiper of Romney?
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:32 amExcept that he has done no such thing. His plan is to raise taxes on the Middle Class…probably most of you rubes.
Let’s pretend for a moment that is true. I would prefer a plan that cuts spending and includes tax increases (even on middle-class folks like me) if it leads us on the path to a smaller government and a balanced budget. Obama’s plan is to use tax increases — allegedly on the rich at first, until he gets around to rolling out his carbon tax — as a way of avoiding having to make necessary spending cuts. That is why the Obama plan only reduces the deficit for a few years (if at all), before it starts climbing again. Paul Ryan very effectively pointed this out when Timmy Tax-cheat Geithner testified in front of the House Budget Committee last year, and Geithner was forced to concede that the Obama plan forecast rising deficits again after 2017 or 2018, once automatic increases in spending overtook any additional tax revenues.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:35 am“His plan is to raise taxes on the Middle Class…probably most of you rubes.”
Petey – That Obama lie has been sploded to bits. Try to keep up.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:43 amTillman’s attacks on the Mormon religion are mendacious to the max and made all the more silly and doubly steeped in hypocricy because his candidate was a regular “worshipper” at Rev. Wright’s facility of hate.
elissa (76bb09) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:43 am“but it is nice of you to display your hate so proudly.”
You call this hate? You are confused. But if I were like that I’d fit right in around here, wouldn’t I.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:51 amWhen your U.N. Ambassador is Susan Rice, talking about Big Bird is a quantum-leap up in intellectual capacity.
AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:53 am“Petey – That Obama lie has been sploded to bits. Try to keep up.”
No it hasn’t. In fact, an independent analysis just came out that shows there is NO WAY Romney/Ryan can keep their pledges of not raising taxes on the top 1% AND reduce the deficit as he says he will without doing just that.
http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2012/10/08-romney-tax-debate-gale
“For months, Mitt Romney had been advocating tax cut proposals that would reduce revenues by about $5 trillion over the next decade, and that were heavily tilted toward the rich. Yet he did not explain how he would pay for these cuts, just that he somehow would.”
“Our conclusion was not a prediction about Governor Romney would do as President, it was an arithmetic calculation: all of the promises couldn’t be met simultaneously without resorting to tax increases on households with income below $200,000.”
Of course if you’re accusing me of not “keeping up” with Sean Hannity’s brilliant analysis (or any other partisan ODS Republican hack) I plead guilty as charged (and proudly so).
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:58 am“Tillman’s attacks on the Mormon religion are mendacious to the max…”
Yea, like…totally rad and true!
Too bad you clearly have no idea what “mendacious” means.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:59 amGood point. Big Bird comes across as one of the smartest things to come from this administration! Except of course it didn’t even come from this administration. But it’s not like they can point to anything that did, least of all foreign policy.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 10:59 am__________________________________________
His plan is to raise taxes on the Middle Class…probably most of you rubes.
What a laugh when a liberal actually expresses concern that taxes will be increasing. Or just about every person on the left is bothered that the wealthy aren’t paying more in taxes than whether John Q Public (ie, “rubes”) is paying too much.
Cry me a river.
^ This reflects the automatic ending of the tax cuts that a Republican White House (George Bush Jr) initiated and activated. If it helps their goal of “fairness” and feeding the monster of Big Brother Bureaucracy, liberals (or ultra-liberals) like Obama and the Democrats in Congress will tolerate (if not relish) everyone getting smacked in the face by the IRS when 2013 rolls around.
Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:01 am“and Geithner was forced to concede that the Obama plan forecast rising deficits again after 2017 or 2018, once automatic increases in spending overtook any additional tax revenues.”
Link please?
And if anything…that’s just an admission that the proposed tax increases are STILL insufficient to close the gap.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:02 amIllman’s hour of hate shows how desperate the Left is becoming.
JD (7ddc11) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:12 amHere’s your link, Tillman. It’s a YouTube video, so you don’t even have to ask somebody to do the reading for you. Note how at the :50 mark Geithner acknowledges that the strain that Baby Boomers will put on entitlement spending for seniors will overwhelm the Obama budget plans. Ryan then challenges Geithner on the long-term outlook, and Geithner admits that “more work needs to be done.” In other words, the Obama folks just plan to run out the clock and leave the mess for the next Administration to solve. How courageous of them.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:14 amJVW exposed illman’s ignorance pretty badly.
Your call caps screaming forgot to ask: What if we cut spending?
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:18 amMendacious
Definition: 1. likely to give false information or tell lies; 2. untrue, false, or intentionally misleading. Synonyms: spurious, lying, dishonest, false, fallacious, …
elissa (76bb09) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:19 amWasn’t it Turbo-Tim that said that he didn’t know if the Obama plan would work, only that they didn’t like the GOP plan?
AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:20 amHe may be a Moron, but he’s a somewhat honest one.
Dustin – or if the economy grows, or if we repeal the multi trillions of ObarckyCare, etc …. The idea that was an independent analysis is laughable.
JD (7ddc11) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:21 amThe Campaign Count.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:22 am@ Dustin,
I’m pretty sure that’s a racist comment.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:23 amP. Tillman,
Doesn’t your beloved Barry Obama even know anything about licensing agreements ?
Sheesh, I thought he was supposed to be the most ethical and smartest thang under the sun, and there he goes and uses Big Bird in a campaign ad without Big Bird’s permission. And Obama even approved the message.
That would make a great mock Sesame Street episode where some puppets teach the President of the United States a lesson about
stealingborrowing other people’s intellectual property without their prior permission.Then the Alinsky puppet would wander along and yell at Big Bird, “You didn’t build that !”
Elephant Stone (65d289) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:26 amYour call caps screaming forgot to ask: What if we cut spending?
Precisely. Tillman and Obama are consistent in one regard: they both intend to accomplish any and all deficit reduction via tax increases. Of course, as the video acknowledges, if you don’t also control rising spending eventually it overtakes whatever increase in revenue (if any) you derive from your tax increase. So it is pretty clear what liberals will do in 2017 once the deficit is projected to explode again: they will come back and demand yet another tax increase. This time we’ll hear that it is the patriotic duty of the rich to pay a 45% marginal rate, and that a carbon tax is this awesome way of asking everyone to share a little bit of the burden. In 2022 when that revenue is exhausted they will come back with the value-added tax on all goods, and an increase of all capital gains taxes back up to regular income tax rates. This will go on and on until we have strangled every last taxpayer in the country.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:27 amYup and yup. I was trying to keep it simple, though.
Of course, Obamacare’s impact on employers is just enormous. Overtaxing success is no help either.
That’s just hilarious.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:27 am“Most obviously, despite all of the hoopla and name-calling, no one has proved or really even tried to prove that the analysts’ original calculation was wrong”
Petey – The above is from your link. Both the Tax Policy Center and Prof. Rosen from Princeton said Romney’s plan is doable. Stef, I lie for a living, Cutter said the $5 billion tax cut talking point is bogus on CNN. You can blow me.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:28 amYep.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:36 amHey, Obama forgot one greedy guy in his ad: Jon Corzine.
Must have been an oversight…
Patricia (e1d89d) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:37 amBack on topic, it’s appropriate that Romney is talking seriously about the ME while Obama is talking about Big Bird.
That’s about Obama’s speed. Just as he can’t speak well without a teleprompter he just isn’t a serious man.
He’s the ideal leftist intellectual poseur. He’s got the dogma memorized, when confronted with actual evidence that conflicts with the dogma he calls the evidence a lie, and since he’s black it’s racist to criticize his abilities, his work ethic, or his infantile grasp of the actual world. And he surrounds himself with like minded over-educated fools who reinforce his self-image as a genius.
So, yeah, Big Bird. That’s a subject he can wrap his mind around.
Who else remembers this blast from the past?
Barack Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy
Yup. Big Bird on cultural issues. Winnie the Pooh on foreign policy and national security. College freshman Marxist on the economy. That’s Obama in a nutshell.
Perhaps the Romney campaign can work that into it’s ads about why Obama’s “Winnie the Pooh” ME policies are a disaster.
Along with the numerous photoshops that resulted.
It all would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that Obama was promising us a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of the ME, Benghazi, and a nuclear Iran during the 2008 campaign and over 50% of the idiotic electorate voted for him anyway.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:39 amIt’s almost like they were projecting.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:43 am@ Steve57,
And yet it’s not appropriate for the incumbent President of the United States to be talking about Big Bird and the candidate is the one talking about the ME. And that’s the problem.
People like Mr. Tillman might find it appropriate for a leftist ideologue like Obama and one in over his head, however, for most Americans, I think they see the inappropriateness of that.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:43 amDana, it’s appropriate for Obama to be talking about Big Bird because that’s who he is.
For the same reason, it’s not appropriate that he’s the incumbent President.
What the hell were the people who voted for him thinking, I’ll never know.
But he promised us this foreign policy, and this economy. And they voted for him anyway.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:50 amI hope for the rest of our sakes that in 2012 you’re right. Because that wasn’t the case in 2008.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:51 am“Back on topic, it’s appropriate that Romney is talking seriously about the ME while Obama is talking about Big Bird.”
Steve57 – Absolutely. It is a campaign of distractions for Obama since he can’t talk about his record, serious issues or his plans for a second term.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/9/2012 @ 11:57 amhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/09/can_obamas_lead_resist_the_forces_of_gravity_115721.html
This lays out the squirrel strategy, and how important the polls are for their narrative.
JD (7ddc11) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:03 pm“In other words, the Obama folks just plan to run out the clock and leave the mess for the next Administration to solve. How courageous of them.”
You don’t seem to have paid attention yourself to Geithner’s point about Ryan’s plan…it doesn’t “solve” the problem either. In fact it makes it worse.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:07 pm“JVW exposed illman’s ignorance pretty badly.”
Guilty…I am not well-versed in the gobleddgook Paul Ryan “plan” to destroy entitlements and the government’s role in society.
You’ve hitched your wagons to two consummate liars; Obama may misstate things every once in a while (what politician doesn’t) but the levels these two morons have brought it to is breathtaking.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:11 pm“Back on topic, it’s appropriate that Romney is talking seriously about the ME while Obama is talking about Big Bird.”
Romney brings up Big Bird in a Presidential Policy Debate as an answer to a question. Seriously.
Obama then uses this idiotic comment in a campaign ad.
LOL…Romney talking seriously..you are all seriously deluded.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:13 pmWell, Sesame Street doesn’t think it’s appropriate for Obama to be talking about Big Bird. Or rather using Big Bird against their will.
Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads
Par for the course, the Obama admin lies and uses people to claim they support him and his positions. When they flat out don’t.
For instance, since the TPC “study” that Tilly is so ga-ga over has been thoroughly debunked, the Obama camp has been reduced to lying that even the studies Romney cites as supporting his plan really don’t.
When in fact the economists, pace Obama’s lies, say Romney’s plan makes mathematical sense and does not result in a tax hike on the Middle class.
Case in point:
Princeton Economist: Obama Campaign Is Misrepresenting My Study on Romney’s Tax Plan
The Obama adminipermacampaign has released an ad saying that Princeton Economist Harvey Rosen concedes Harvey Rosen both concede that paying for Romney’s tax cuts would require large tax increases on families making between $100,000 and $200,000.”that paying for Romney’s tax cuts would require large tax increases on families making between $100,000 and $200,000.”
Of course, he said no such thing. Here’s his response to the ad.
This is classic Obama. Recall when his admin said that a group of experts had supported his plan?
NYT: White House Editing Caused Drilling Ban Dispute
The Obama admin has to lie. So do it’s supporters like Tilly.
What’s insulting is the low quality of the lies. Like when they denied that Netanyahu ever asked for a meeting with the President. Did they expect that the Israeli PM would just lie down and let them lie about him.
The same about that absurd story they made up about the “spontaneous attack” on the Benghazi consulate. I won’t go into the lie upon lie, like layers of an onion, that made it an obvious lie from the start. But I knew there were too many people they were lying about for that ridiculous fairy tale to stand when they first uttered it. That they kept it up for days just made it more obvious, in the words of Obama’s pastor and spiritual adviser (“let me give a shout out, where is he”) their chickens would come home to roost.
And they are.
These people aren’t smart. They’re in over their heads. And they aren’t even slick enough to know how to lie about it.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:17 pmChuck Todd this morning told Scarborough that he doesn’t get the Big bird ad at all. He doesn’t know why the O team keeps talking about the disastrous debate and bringing up things that happened at the debate and rehashing points that were made at the debate. The WH communications staff for a long time deep buried Fast and Furious, and the Benghazi attack details, and the pages of surprise stuff inside Obamacare. But what they should be burying– and trying to surgically remove from voters’ minds–the President’s awful performance last Wednesday–they can’t seem to allow themselves to do. They’re still yammering about it and giving excuses for it. It’s like a car crash the O team can’t stop thinking about and talking about. Chuck Todd says every day that debate stays in the news it continues to help Romney, and I think he is right.
elissa (76bb09) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:17 pmIllman is instructive, an object case in ignorance and dishonesty.
JD (7ddc11) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:17 pmHe didn’t really bring him up, then. Romney answered a question about his view that we do not need to subsidize PBS. If PBS is making eighty million dollars on Sesame Street, we do not need to subsidize that with tax dollars. We desperately need to cut spending, after all.
Obama’s rested his campaign on Big Bird, something his administration didn’t even accomplish. They just dole out the cash, to Solyndra, to the Chevy Volt, to Egypt, and to Big Bird. The best result they can point to is Big Bird.
It’s pathetic.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:18 pmRomney issues one throw away line showing he’s not afraid to take on the moderator as well as Obama.
But he’s not stooooopid enough to make it a centerpiece of his campaign.
It takes Obama-esque quantities of weapons grade stooopid to do that. Which, as elissa points out, just works against him (which the trow away line in the debate did not work against Romney).
And Tilly thinks others are deluded. Perfect.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:26 pmI’d go a lot farther than defunding PBS and NPR.
Hopefully Romney’s experience at Bain has him ready to get creative about cuts. I’d love to see the post office overhauled into something we can afford. I suspect there are more thoughtful cuts to the DoD that should be made.
I would love four years of Romney proposing cuts and democrats hyperventalizing about things like Big Bird. This is really getting me enthusiastic about voting.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:26 pmObama’s the most dishonest President or major candidate for President ever by light years. Why don’t you start explaining what all these lies of Romney-Ryan are? I see the Democrats’ talking point that Romney lied repeated over and over by leftists like you but you never explain what the lies are.
Obama’s lies are enumerated, like his $5 trillion tax cut claim or his fantasy about tax breaks for moving jobs overseas or his claim to have enacted $4 trillion in spending cuts. And that’s just in the debate.
Gerald A (f26857) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:27 pm“Why don’t you start explaining what all these lies of Romney-Ryan are?”
Just watch the debate….and when Mitt speaks, it’s a lie.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:35 pm“Illman is instructive, an object case in ignorance and dishonesty.”
Is that like you Mormon’s Lying for the Lord?
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:36 pm1) “[G]et us energy independent, North American energy independent. That creates about 4 million jobs”. Romney’s plan for “energy independence” actually relies heavily on a study that assumes the U.S. continues with fuel efficiency standards set by the Obama administration. For instance, he uses Citigroup research based off the assumption that “‘the United States will continue with strict fuel economy standards that will lower its oil demand.” Since he promises to undo the Obama administration’s new fuel efficiency standards, he would cut oil consumption savings of 2 million barrels per day by 2025.
2) “I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. I don’t have a tax cut of a scale that you’re talking about.” A Tax Policy Center analysis of Romney’s proposal for a 20 percent across-the-board tax cut in all federal income tax rates, eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax, eliminating the estate tax and other tax reductions, would reduce federal revenue $480 billion in 2015. This amounts to $5 trillion over the decade.
3) “My view is that we ought to provide tax relief to people in the middle class. But I’m not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high-income people.” If Romney hopes to provide tax relief to the middle class, then his $5 trillion tax cut would add to the deficit. There are not enough deductions in the tax code that primarily benefit rich people to make his math work.
4) “My — my number-one principal is, there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. I want to underline that: no tax cut that adds to the deficit.” As the Tax Policy Center concluded, Romney’s plan can’t both exempt middle class families from tax cuts and remain revenue neutral. “He’s promised all these things and he can’t do them all. In order for him to cover the cost of his tax cut without adding to the deficit, he’d have to find a way to raise taxes on middle income people or people making less than $200,000 a year,” the Center found.
5) “I will not under any circumstances raise taxes on middle-income families. I will lower taxes on middle-income families. Now, you cite a study. There are six other studies that looked at the study you describe and say it’s completely wrong.” The studies Romney cites actually further prove that Romney would, in fact, have to raise taxes on the middle class if he were to keep his promise not to lose revenue with his tax rate reduction.
6) “I saw a study that came out today that said you’re going to raise taxes by $3,000 to $4,000 on middle-income families.” Romney is pointing to this study from the American Enterprise Institute. It actually found that rather than raise taxes to pay down the debt, the Obama administration’s policies — those contained directly in his budget — would reduce the share of taxes that go toward servicing the debt by $1,289.89 per taxpayer in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.
7) “And the reason is because small business pays that individual rate; 54 percent of America’s workers work in businesses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate, but at the individual tax rate….97 percent of the businesses are not — not taxed at the 35 percent tax rate, they’re taxed at a lower rate. But those businesses that are in the last 3 percent of businesses happen to employ half — half of all the people who work in small business.” Far less than half of the people affected by the expiration of the upper income tax cuts get any of their income at all from a small businesses. And those people could very well be receiving speaking fees or book royalties, which qualify as “small business income” but don’t have a direct impact on job creation. It’s actually hard to find a small business who think that they will be hurt if the marginal tax rate on income earned above $250,000 per year is increased.
P. Tillman (fcbc8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:38 pm8) “Mr. President, all of the increase in natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land. On government land, your administration has cut the number of permits and licenses in half.” Oil production from federal lands is higher, not lower: Production from federal lands is up slightly in 2011 when compared to 2007. And the oil and gas industry is sitting on 7,000 approved permits to drill, that it hasn’t begun exploring or developing.
9) “The president’s put it in place as much public debt — almost as much debt held by the public as all prior presidents combined.” This is not even close to being true. When Obama took office, the national debt stood at $10.626 trillion. Now the national debt is over $16 trillion. That $5.374 trillion increase is nowhere near as much debt as all the other presidents combined.
10) “That’s why the National Federation of Independent Businesses said your plan will kill 700,000 jobs. I don’t want to kill jobs in this environment.” That study, produced by a right-wing advocacy organization, doesn’t analyze what Obama has actually proposed.
11) “What we do have right now is a setting where I’d like to bring money from overseas back to this country.” Romney’s plan to shift the country to a territorial tax system would allow corporations to do business and make profits overseas without ever being taxed on it in the United States. This encourages American companies to invest abroad and could cost the country up to 800,000 jobs.
12) “I would like to take the Medicaid dollars that go to states and say to a state, you’re going to get what you got last year, plus inflation, plus 1 percent, and then you’re going to manage your care for your poor in the way you think best.” Sending federal Medicaid funding to the states in the form of a block grant woud significantly reduce federal spending for Medicaid because the grant would not keep up with projected health care costs. A CBO estimate of a very similar proposal from Paul Ryan found that federal spending would be “35 percent lower in 2022 and 49 percent lower in 2030 than current projected federal spending” and as a result “states would face significant challenges in achieving sufficient cost savings through efficiencies to mitigate the loss of federal funding.” “To maintain current service levels in the Medicaid program, states would probably need to consider additional changes, such as reducing their spending on other programs or raising additional revenues,” the CBO found.
13) “I want to take that $716 billion you’ve cut and put it back into Medicare…. But the idea of cutting $716 billion from Medicare to be able to balance the additional cost of Obamacare is, in my opinion, a mistake. There’s that number again. Romney is claiming that Obamacare siphons off $716 billion from Medicare, to the detriment of beneficiaries. In actuality, that money is saved primarily through reducing over-payments to insurance companies under Medicare Advantage, not payments to beneficiaries. Paul Ryan’s budget plan keeps those same cuts, but directs them toward tax cuts for the rich and deficit reduction.
14) “What I support is no change for current retirees and near-retirees to Medicare.” Here is how Romney’s Medicare plan will affect current seniors: 1) by repealing Obamacare, the 16 million seniors receiving preventive benefits without deductibles or co-pays and are saving $3.9 billion on prescription drugs will see a cost increase, 2) “premium support” will increase premiums for existing beneficiaries as private insurers lure healthier seniors out of the traditional Medicare program, 3) Romney/Ryan would also lower Medicaid spending significantly beginning next year, shifting federal spending to states and beneficiaries, and increasing costs for the 9 million Medicare recipients who are dependent on Medicaid.
15) “Number two is for people coming along that are young, what I do to make sure that we can keep Medicare in place for them is to allow them either to choose the current Medicare program or a private plan. Their choice. They get to choose — and they’ll have at least two plans that will be entirely at no cost to them.” The Medicare program changes for everyone, even people who choose to remain in the traditional fee-for-service. Rather than relying on a guaranteed benefit, all beneficiaries will receive a premium support credit of $7,500 on average in 2023 to purchase coverage in traditional Medicare or private insurance. But that amount will only grow at a rate of GDP plus 1.5 percentage points and will not keep up with health care costs. So while the federal government will spend less on the program, seniors will pay more in premiums.
16) “And, by the way the idea came not even from Paul Ryan or — or Senator Wyden, who’s the co-author of the bill with — with Paul Ryan in the Senate, but also it came from Bill — Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.” Romney has rejected the Ryan/Wyden approach — which does not cap the growth of the “premium support” subsidy. Bill Clinton and his commission also voted down these changes to the Medicare program.
17) “Well, I would repeal and replace it. We’re not going to get rid of all regulation. You have to have regulation. And there are some parts of Dodd-Frank that make all the sense in the world.” Romney has previously called for full repeal of Dodd-Frank, a law whose specific purpose is to regulate banks. MF Global’s use of customer funds to pay for its own trading losses is just one bit of proof that the financial industry isn’t responsible enough to protect consumers without regulation.
18) “But I wouldn’t designate five banks as too big to fail and give them a blank check. That’s one of the unintended consequences of Dodd-Frank… We need to get rid of that provision because it’s killing regional and small banks. They’re getting hurt.” The law merely says that the biggest, systemically risky banks need to abide by more stringent regulations. If those banks fail, they will be unwound by a new process in the Dodd-Frank law that protects taxpayers from having to pony up for a bailout.
19) “And, unfortunately, when — when — when you look at Obamacare, the Congressional Budget Office has said it will cost $2,500 a year more than traditional insurance. So it’s adding to cost.” Obamacare will actually provide millions of families with tax credits to make health care more affordable.
20) “[I]t puts in place an unelected board that’s going to tell people ultimately what kind of treatments they can have. I don’t like that idea.” The Board, or IPAB is tasked with making binding recommendations to Congress for lowering health care spending, should Medicare costs exceed a target growth rate. Congress can accept the savings proposal or implement its own ideas through a super majority. The panel’s plan will modify payments to providers but it cannot “include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums…increase Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and co- payments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria” (Section 3403 of the ACA). Relying on health care experts rather than politicians to control health care costs has previously attracted bipartisan support and even Ryan himself proposed two IPAB-like structures in a 2009 health plan.
21) “Right now, the CBO says up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next year. And likewise, a study by McKinsey and Company of American businesses said 30 percent of them are anticipating dropping people from coverage.” The Affordable Care Act would actually expand health care coverage to 30 million Americans, despite Romney fear mongering. According to CBO director Douglas Elmendorf, 3 million or less people would leave employer-sponsored health insurance coverage as a result of the law.
22) “I like the way we did it [health care] in Massachusetts…What were some differences? We didn’t raise taxes.” Romney raised fees, but he can claim that he didn’t increase taxes because the federal government funded almost half of his reforms.
23) “It’s why Republicans said, do not do this, and the Republicans had — had the plan. They put a plan out. They put out a plan, a bipartisan plan. It was swept aside.” The Affordable Care Act incorporates many Republican ideas including the individual mandate, state-based health care exchanges, high-risk insurance pools, and modified provisions that allow insurers to sell policies in multiple states. Republicans never offered a united bipartisan alternative.
24) “Preexisting conditions are covered under my plan.” Only people who are continuously insured would not be discriminated against because they suffer from pre-existing conditions. This protection would not be extended to people who are currently uninsured.
25) “In one year, you provided $90 billion in breaks to the green energy world. Now, I like green energy as well, but that’s about 50 years’ worth of what oil and gas receives.” The $90 billion was given out over several years and included loans, loan guarantees and grants through the American Recovery Act. $23 billion of the $90 billion “went toward “clean coal,” energy-efficiency upgrades, updating the electricity grid and environmental clean-up, largely for old nuclear weapons sites.”
26) “I think about half of [the green firms Obama invested in], of the ones have been invested in have gone out of business. A number of them happened to be owned by people who were contributors to your campaigns.” As of late last year, only “three out of the 26 recipients of 1705 loan guarantees have filed for bankruptcy, with losses estimated at just over $600 million.”
27) “If the president’s reelected you’ll see dramatic cuts to our military.” Romney is referring to the sequester, which his running mate Paul Ryan supported. Obama opposes the military cuts and has asked Congress to formulate a balanced approach that would avoid the trigger.
Democrat, what is your problem with Mormons? Have you ever met one? They are the mildest people in the country, and you only hear of them when they do something nice for someone.
I think the polls indicate the vast majority of Romney’s supporters ain’t Mormon, btw.
Please reconsider your bigotry.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:38 pmStunning. Toby Harnden says the President left the stage last Wednesaday in Denver thinking he had won. Also–Obama toured Hoover Dam instead of doing debate prep. Didn’t think he needed to engage Romney. Hubris, thy name is Barack
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215173/Obama-believed-beaten-Romney-Denver-debate-ignoring-advice-aides.html
elissa (76bb09) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:41 pmI bet he doesn’t make that same mistake twice.
But what if his advisers can’t convince him he lost the debate? What if the only people he trusts are the people who think he won the debate?
But how is Obama supposed to dig his way out of this hole? If he shows up at the next debate being too hostile, it will look like he’s a sore loser. When Romney attacks him on foreign policy, it’s going to be related to real failures and dishonesty… it will come across as serious. How does Obama react to this effectively?
That goes to the original problem for Obama in the debate he already lost: he’s not losing just because he’s lazy or didn’t show enough pizzazz. He’s losing because his ideas and record cannot win a fair debate.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:47 pmPetey – Hilarious list. Thanks. I needed a laugh.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:56 pmHow is Romney responsible for Bernie Madoff? Ken Lay? etc.? What is the connection? None is made. Just garbage slurs. Very bad ad.
Conversely, in fact one of Barack Obama’s first appointments was James A. “Jim” Johnson for his VP search/selection team. (Johnson was/is a long time Dem party operative and was a long time Chairman at Fannie Mae, with Franklin Raines and Jamie “Mistress of Disaster” Gorelick, where they all wildly cooked the books; Johnson got away with $21-Million, Raines $90-Million and Gorelick $26.5-Million, while Fannie crashed. See Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon (2011) by Gretchen Morgenson.) Another first appointment was tax cheat Tim Geithner. Another appointment was Tom Daschel for Secretary HHS, but he withdrew when his repeated failure to pay taxes on his $80,000/yr limo was reported.
And where are the investigations, indictments of Jon Corzine and the other crooks at MF Global, who illegally took over $1.6-BILLION in customer account funds on MF Global’s crash to the bottom. (Both Obama & Biden have stated Corzine was the smartest financial guy around and Obama was considering appointing Corzine as Secretary of the Treasury.)
Of course, then there are all of Obama’s shady deals with the Chicago connections.
Wall Street. Sesame Street. Clearly Obama has been bad for Main Street and the American economy.
gzerman (86e3e2) — 10/9/2012 @ 12:57 pmTillman has almost as many points there as Romney’s first plan. Maybe he can get in a debate with Sammy on some disused post.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:01 pmNaturally Tilly doesn’t provide a link, because no to he got that wall of text from PolitiFraud or some such libtard meme check outfit.
In which partisan dem reporters and opinion writers figure they can trick the public into thinking they’re non-partisan if they relabel themselves as “fact checkers.”
Yup. Soviet style fact checkers. That will fool the same public that figured out that if you look past all the new labels old-fashioned marxists keep thinking up to hide behind, they’re still the same old-fashioned marxists.
But that isn’t why I’m here to point and laugh at Tilly. And Obama.
Because both of them just haven’t a clue why President “do over” just looks pathetic rehashing his debate shellacking.
The rest of the world not drinking the kool aid sees it. They don’t.
UK Mail Online: Obama finally gets in his witty replies to Romney – 48 hours late. Did the TWO teleprompters help a bit?
Keep making a fool of yourself, Tilly. Just like your Messiah, who’d like us to forget he’s been President for the past 3 years and 10 months.
Forget all that. President Mulligan is running for a second first term. He wants a “do over.”
Pathetic. Just like his attempt to replay the debate to to try to make us forget he got his a** handed to him the first time. The actual time.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:01 pmObama toured Hoover Dam instead of doing debate prep.
You can only play so much golf. Which I bet Obama isn’t going to be allowed to do again until Nov 7.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:03 pmP.Tillman lives in a fantasy world. We’ve got the Obama administration in numerous lies that cost American lives, and he dumps a cut and paste that argues interpretations are “lies”.
That’s the Democrat fantasy land.
SPQR (768505) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:06 pmSteve, you’re right.
If the left had its emotions in check, it would move on from the debate instead of painfully trying to somehow win it for Obama somehow. It looks pathetic.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:13 pm#74
Wow!!! Romney sure does lie doesn’t he? I’m thinking you got all those from the same place.
Let’s try this one:
Oil production could be the result of various factors not under Obama’s control. What’s under his control is new permits.
Fact check: Oil and natural gas production under Obama
The number of unused permits is totally irrelevant. There are always unused permits. They may have no intention of drilling those locations because they don’t think they’re promising.
Gerald A (f26857) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:15 pmTillman
You should get your talking points from a credible source – think progress is not credible.
Joe-Dallas (ea8609) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:15 pmCutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive.
–Tweeted by Niel DeGrasse Tyson during the debate
It’s too close to election time, I guess. People losing perspective and their sense of humor. The big bird thing is silly, but effective I would guess. Ridiculing your opponent has been SOP in campaigns since the Roman Empire, I’m sure.
I hope that P Tillman didn’t choose that handle for the reason I suspect. Sullying a good man’s name and all.
carlitos (49ef9f) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:15 pm==You can only play so much golf. Which I bet Obama isn’t going to be allowed to do again until Nov 7.==
If this weren’t such a deadly serious election it would be much more enjoyable to watch the ones that created and enabled this monster now have to try to deal with and corral the insufferable ego they allowed to develop.
elissa (76bb09) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:15 pmIt’s well known Obama plans military cuts. It has nothing to do with the sequester.
I don’t see any Romney lies in your list.
Gerald A (f26857) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:20 pmSince when is Obama a friend of Big Bird
Neo (d1c681) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:26 pmOT: The assault of the Leftist Media by those right of center is escalating quickly. It is about time the right started to fight back. Never seen the right this muscular and in their face. Every lie is being confronted. Left is apoplectic.
Latest … Santelli on CNBC abused Obama Bone Smoker Steve Lies-man. Basically said Labor Force Participation Rate has been manipulated from Day 1 of Obama Presidency to make numbers look better. (Which it has — LLFPR has been jammed down for first time in BLS History.)
Rodney King's Spirit (9ce6d4) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:28 pmSince when is Obama a friend of Big Bird, so now Obama is trying character assassination of Big Bird. Has this man no shame.
Neo (d1c681) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:29 pm#87 If we did that for every program that is useless, might get $100 to $200 billion.
That is how Liberals argue against budget cuts — everything is too small and what is too big is too important.
They are mentally ill.
Rodney King's Spirit (9ce6d4) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:30 pmWe also know that President “don’t blame me, let me point the finger at somebody else” is holding national defense hostage over deal-breaking, economy killing tax hikes.
So he can blame the GOP when he gets exactly the defense cuts he always wanted.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:34 pmYou don’t seem to have paid attention yourself to Geithner’s point about Ryan’s plan…it doesn’t “solve” the problem either. In fact it makes it worse.
Quit pulling that garbage out of your fundament, Tillman. It doesn’t make the problem “worse.” The most cogent criticism of the original Ryan plan was that it did increase the deficit in the first couple of years in order to implement a tax cut which would spur the economy. Since the Ryan plan calls for more spending cuts, the trajectory of the deficit continues to fall long after the Obama deficits decline, bottom out, then begin increasing again. If anything, I don’t think the Ryan plan moves fast enough towards a balanced budget, but it is a whole lot more likely to get us there than the Obama plan.
And guess what Obama and Geithner aren’t telling you — they want yet another round of stimulus which will pretty much undercut the administration’s projections for a lower deficit in 2013 and 2014. So the choice comes down to Ryan’s tax cuts plus budget discipline which leads to a long-range decrease in the deficit, or Obama’s tax increases and continued entitlement spending increases (with the possibility of another round of stimulus) which turns us into Greece by 2017.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:41 pmLabor statistics can always be manipulated, just like any other statistics such as infant mortality rate, to make a country’s situation reflect better on its government.
For instance, Japan was widely admired by leftists during the 80s for its “full employment rate” (something to do with how well centrally planned economies courtesy of bureaucracies like MITI do compared with true free markets).
Except it was all a lie. I had the chance to meet several economists in the early 90s who explained that if Japan calculated its unemployment rate the same way the US did at the time, Japan’s unemployment rate would have been much higher then the US.’
For instance, how many hours does an individual have to work a week in order to be considered to be employed part time? One hour? Eight hours? Twenty hours?
Depending upon which number you pick your unemployment rate can be made to look better or worse. Japan picked one hour; if you mowed your neighbor’s lawn once a week you were “employed.”
It’s so easy to do. As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:43 pmThat is how Liberals argue against budget cuts — everything is too small and what is too big is too important.
One of my favorite arguments from liberals is why we can’t end the PBS subsidy. They will begin by telling us that the nearly $500 million the Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets is a just a tiny fraction of the overall PBS budget, but in the next breath they will tell you that those dollars are absolutely vital to the survival of public television.
But if the last twenty years have taught us anything, it is that every dollar spent by Washington has a built-in lobby for its own preservation. That’s why even the lowest-hanging fruit manages to rot on the Federal tree.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:45 pm“I’m Barack Obama, and I approve these lies.” That’s what I think every time I see one of his ads, and it is usually correct.
John (f21711) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:47 pmWhy is Tillman posting the phonebook at #74?
i love Stacey Dash.
papertiger (e55ba0) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:49 pmActually, “this guy” and his sidekick are both jokes.
Via Instapundit:
It Looks Like Carter All Over Again
Iowahawk
So let’s not get sidetracked by Tilly as he tries to drown us in lie after pre-debunked lie. Who, by the way, is also a joke.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:54 pmThis why:
WaPo: Before attack on U.S. mission in Libya, State Dept. concluded risk of violence was high
In order to distract us from the disaster that is Obama, the administration and it’s useful idiots have to try to drown us in propaganda.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 1:59 pmAnd if anything…that’s just an admission that the proposed tax increases are STILL insufficient to close the gap.
Comment by P. Tillman — 10/9/2012 @ 11:02 am
Well, we could always cut spending–but I realize that worshippers of the Central State are incapable of performing basic math, so I’m sure you’ll go on ignoring it.
Not that I think Romney will be able to cut spending to fall more in line with tax revenues, but anyone who thinks raising taxes back to Clinton-era levels is going to close a $1.2 trillion gap, when the Labor Force Participation Rate is at 30-year-lows, is kidding themselves.
Another Chris (6c8528) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:00 pmNo matter what leftists think, Rich White Men aren’t going to be able to prop up the Welfare State for the Free Stuff Army (both 1% and 99% varieties) anymore.
Btw Sesame Street’s revenue generating merchandise is made where?
China (ding)
So who is outsourcing American jobs?
Big Bird = that’s who!
papertiger (e55ba0) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:10 pmH/T- Instaundit…..
“Meanwhile: Report: Shake-Up in Works at Obama Campaign Headquarters.”
Posted at 4:12 pm by Ed Driscoll
AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:24 pmThis joke we have in the WH would be funny, if the joke weren’t on the rest of us.
Obama camp: Big Bird ad a response to ‘grassroots outcry’
Mitt Romney’s “attacks” on Big Bird the WH responds to right away.
Al Qaeda’s attacks on our embassies, with an actual body count of 4 Americans, don’t merit a rapid response.
Priorities. It’s why Obama looks like a feckless, spineless fool. To the whole freakin’ world. Seriously, how does it play when Obama gives the cold shoulder to world leaders because he can’t fit them into his busy schedule. But “the View,” “Letterman,” and “Pimp with a Limp” make the cut?
You just need to look at the smoking wreckage that was our Benghazi consulate to answer that question.
If only he were a national joke. Unfortunately, he’s an international joke.
And useful idiots like Tilly think the way to pull his worthless a** out of the fire is to come up with BS talking points about Romney/Ryan’s non-lie “lies.”
In fact, what makes them useful idiots is that they want to pull his worthless a** out of the fire he put a match to and then poured gasoline on in the first place.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:27 pmComment by Dustin — 10/9/2012 @ 12:38 pm
You could have reminded him that the U.S.Senate Majority Leader, the Senior Senator from Nevada, is a Mormon –
AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:32 pmbut he’s not a very good illustration of a “nice guy”.
“There’s been a strong grassroots outcry over the attacks on Big Bird. This is something that mothers across the country are alarmed about, and you know, we’re tapping into that,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
Straining much? She insults mothers nationwide. Mothers are working one, two, three jobs to put food on the table and keep a roof over their families’ heads and this twit thinks that they’re alarmed about…. Big Bird?
Could the Obama camp be any farther removed from reality? They need to spend time with *real* people and not in the echo chamber.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:37 pmJD, not only are you a polygamist, but NONE of your wives are brown-skinned!
Icy (20d2de) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:37 pmWhere did Illman copy and paste that from?
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:39 pmJust piling on now.
Why does the Obama admin want to distract us with bogus stories about some fictional “attacks” on Big Bird? Why is Tilly cutting and pasting the phone book?
This is why:
Reuters: U.S. officer got no reply to requests for more security in Benghazi
According to the article, DoS wanted to keep security “artificially low” in Libya.
This is what happens when you’ve got a President who’s “thinking” (you can’t really call what goes on in this guy’s head that) on ME conflict was formed at the dinner table of former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi. Who thinks you can learn about foreign policy from Winnie the Pooh.
And when the way over-rated Hillary! gets filled in by Muslim Brotherhood intimate Huma Abedin.
It explains the deer-in-the-headlights look when events contradict their naive world view.
So let’s all talk about Big Bird!
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:39 pmIcy – I can barely handle one, why would anyone want many?!
Dana – I prefer them to remain in their echo chamber, it will make their bitter tears and shock that much more enjoyable in November.
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:41 pmAs to be expected, Tillman’s totally bogus “Romney will raise middle class taxes” screed is based on the twin FALSE beliefs that government spending cannot be cut, and raising taxes is the only way to increase revenue.
Trying to have a rational, reasonable conversation with Tillman is like being shot and then hanged.
Icy (20d2de) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:46 pmIcy,
Tillman’s false beliefs remind me of what we’re always told in Cali: We don’t have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem.…this as we’re sliding over the edge into the dark, deep abyss of financial insolvency.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:49 pmAs Ray’s dad said on Everybody Loves Raymond:
Icy (20d2de) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:50 pm“If you’re having trouble with your woman you don’t go out and get another woman — then you have TWO problems!”
Mitt Romney, speaking to a crowd of about 1,200 on a farm here in Van Meter, Iowa, criticized President Obama’s recent focus on Big Bird on the campaign trail.
“You have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird,” he said. “I actually think we need to have a president who talks about saving the American people and saving good jobs.”
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:51 pmWhy do they worry about saving Big Bird?
Well, wouldn’t it fall under birds-of-a-feather?
AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/9/2012 @ 2:58 pmAfter all, both Obama and Big Bird are part of the 1%!
There’s always an exception to the rule.
Amen to that.
Not to mention, there is no threat to Big Bird.
Carlitos, that’s fair.
That’s a fallacy. I call it the zero plus zero equals zero fallacy (I don’t remember where I picked that up.
Imagine you’re on a diet, and so you just eat a sliver of cheesecake, thinking it’s essentially nothing. Then you eat a small piece of a cookie, thinking it’s essentially nothing. Then you drink an 8 ounce coke… it’s not like that one coke would have made a difference. Then you eat a slice of pizza… it’s just a rounding error of fat gains.
Over time, all these “zeros” add up to being overweight.
The federal government needs to cut 100 things the size of PBS in order to make a 1% decrease in government spending. And it should!
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:14 pmLaura had Buchanan on this AM beating Willard bloody over the Syria interventionism he “proposed”.
Not sure what Romany might have said, less so what bright ideas I might have for the suck.
Kinda sh*tty she had to bring in gutter effluent to hash it out tho.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:15 pmBecause based upon their donors from the 2008 campaign, Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the muppets were among their contributors.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:15 pmHey, no WH press briefings since September 24th. I wonder why? Any answers stoogeman?
Stillman type dumb (721840) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:15 pmWhere did Illman copy and paste that from?
Anyone want to guess where Tillman’s long and boring post in #74 above came from? It’s not as if he was willing to attribute it. Without Googling, guess which of the following it came from:
a) The Huffington Post
b) MoveOn
c) The Nation’s blog
d) Slate
e) Think Progress
f) National Review Online
One of those is the standard outlier choice, included to see who is just randomly guessing.
Submit your response, and the answer will come later this evening.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:18 pmJVW – My gut reaction was thinkregress.
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:21 pmNot surprising that Sesame Street is made up of 1%ers:
President Obama, who has railed against the “fat-cat bankers on Wall Street” and the wealthy, has been an eager defender of Big Bird and public broadcasting this week in light of Mitt Romney’s comments that he would defund it in last week’s debate. But it turns out that many of those behind Big Bird are actually members of the 1 percent themselves (anyone with a total income of $343,927 or more as of 2009), based on their salaries.
At Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to the CPB’s 2011 tax forms:
Patricia De Stacy Harrison, president and CEO $361,895
At PBS, according to 2011 tax forms:
Paula Kerger, president and CEO $669,260
Michael Jones, chief operating officer $477,296
Barbara Landes, chief financial officer, treasurer, and senior vice president $402,355
Katherine Lauderdale, senior vice president and general counsel, $381,855.
At Sesame Workshop, according to 2011 tax forms:
Gary Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop until October 2011, $988,456
H. Melvin Ming, current president and CEO, $584,572
Lewis Bernstein $406,387
Terry Fitzpatrick $439,741
Myung Kang-Huneke $389,005
Sherrie Westin $463,892
Susan Kolar $401,425
Miranda Barry $397,175
Maura Regan $379,733
Joseph Mazzarino $556,165
Caralynn Sandorf $354,476
Anita Stewart $455,369
And while the actor who plays Big Bird (Carroll Spinney) doesn’t have a salary that puts him in the 1 percent, he’s not far off: Spinney makes $314,072.
And who’s funding this? Well, in part, taxpayers: the federal government gave the CPB a grant of $444.1 million in 2012.
Dana (292dcf) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:25 pmI thought everyone was saying this was a tiny sum of money, not worth worrying about?
If we can’t balance the budget, that’s $444 million plus interest our kids and their kids will have to pay. It’s debt and instability we can resolve by cutting this entirely.
Let the private sector handle broadcasting.
Dustin (73fead) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:29 pm120. Not a clue, Slate?
How is Medicare different than a voucher system?
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:30 pm“Obama opposes the military cuts and has asked Congress to formulate a balanced approach that would avoid the trigger.”
Obama has asked Congress to do his job. Again. And again. And yet again.
When is Obama going to actually produce a budget that meets his own claimed goals? Never is the obvious answer.
SPQR (768505) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:32 pmEd Driscoll posted this on Instapundit: another reader emails: “Today’s Obama for President commercial was brought to you by the number ’1.1 trillion’ and the word ‘deficit’.”
SPQR (768505) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:41 pmHave “The Count” standing in front of the Nat’l Debt Clock… that might make a good ad.
Colonel Haiku (9097ac) — 10/9/2012 @ 3:54 pmI’m cool with the government investing in PBS as long as PBS pays into the U.S. Treasury all royalties and other funds it made and continues to make from its shows. Alternatively, it should repay the government’s investment plus a generous rate of compounded interest (retroactively, of course) and continue to pay it until the investments cease.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 4:22 pmThe level of the denial and coverup was remarkable, and it has weakened the regime that has backed us;
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/09/top-security-chief-to-testify-on-libya-missteps.html
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/9/2012 @ 4:32 pmPS: A breakdown of public television (PBS+others) revenue and funding as of 2009.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/9/2012 @ 4:33 pmRacists.
JD (4cf319) — 10/9/2012 @ 4:42 pmAnd birdists.
And deficitists.
And, Kyoto.
If food stamp wants to make this election a referendum on a big gay bird I’m okay with that
happyfeet (810c95) — 10/9/2012 @ 4:56 pmYes, he was this out of his depth
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215173/Obama-believed-beaten-Romney-Denver-debate-ignoring-advice-aides.html
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/9/2012 @ 4:57 pmhttp://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/08/an-incriminating-timeline-the-obama-administration-and-libya/
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/9/2012 @ 5:28 pmP. Tillman,
Sounds like you realize Obama’s going to lose.
Elephant Stone (65d289) — 10/9/2012 @ 5:43 pmnarcisso, no surprise there. I recall a recent NYT (of all papers!!) article detailing how Obama thinks he’s great at all sorts of things. Poker, basketball, etc. And other reports about how he believes he’s a better speech writer than his speech writer, a better campaign manager than his campaign manager.
And he’s not actually competent at any of that.
He is delusional. As are his admirers.
In other “he’s in over his head” news, via Ace.
State Department: No video protest at the Benghazi consulate
Even Maureen Dowd, when the Obama admin concocted that “spontaneous reaction to ‘anti-Muslim’ YouTube video” lie said it was destined to unravel.
The article is full of the usual Obama admin officials attempting to dissemble away reality; that there might have been some basis for the lie that there was some “spontaneous protest” these al Qaeda affiliates then hijacked.
The problem is within days there were people reporting that there was no protest. By that I mean there were witnesses saying that from the start but it took days for the US press to report on it. But it was all out there before the Obama campaignistration sent Rice out to lie on King Putt’s behalf.
The security guards who were injured in the attack said that there wasn’t “an ant” on the street prior to the assault. And a doctor from Massachusetts General Hospital was on the phone with one of the Ambassador’s staffers discussing a scheduled meeting at Benghazi Medical Center with the Ambassador the next day.
Massachusetts General Hospital: Mass General Physician Reports from Benghazi, Libya
boston.com: Massachusetts General Hospital doctor was in Benghazi at time of attack
The security guard said there was no way the Americans would have stayed at the consulate had trouble been brewing outside in the form of a protest.
I don’t know about that; they may not have wanted to have been ambushed on the road. But I can guarantee you the ambassador and his staff would not have been on the phone conducting business-as-usual and discussing a meeting scheduled for the next morning, either.
Slate: The Wreckage of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Still Isn’t Very Secure
At the very least, had they any warning, they would have been tied up burning those documents. Not greeting visitors and chatting on the phone.
The articles about the Mass. Doctor are from the 13th and 14th of Sep. In other words, they predate Rice’s Sep. 16th Sunday morning lying tour. It was already common knowledge there was no protest, and her story was false. Really, the Obama disinformation campaign had its cover blown before they attempted it, so much information was already out there.
Yet they stuck to the pre-demolished lie. These people are so in-over-their-heads they can’t even come up with a lie good enough to convince Maureen Dowd. An obviously false cover story so bad it unravels before they even finish the first sentence, yet they stick with it for weeks.
That’s beyond pathetic.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 5:47 pmP. Tillman,
I realize you’re a tough lunch pail-carrying union guy, or you’re on food stamps or something, and your paycheck depends upon big-government liberals such as The Obamessiah to deliver you the goods, but I really don’t think that “Re-elect me—I’m for Big Bird !” is a sign of a successful Presidency.
That’s just too Mickey Mouse, dude.
Elephant Stone (65d289) — 10/9/2012 @ 5:59 pmJVW – My gut reaction was thinkregress.
JD, your gut did not let you did. Tillman’s long-winded screed was indeed lifted verbatim from the clowns at Think Progress.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 6:18 pmUgh. “Your gut did not let you down.
JVW (f5695c) — 10/9/2012 @ 6:19 pmIt seems that everyone forgets Romney’s expressed reason. It wasn’t that he doesn’t like PBS or Big Bird, it’s that he doesn’t think we should borrow money from China to pay for it.
And it’s just one example from a list of things that we shouldn’t borrow money from China to do.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/9/2012 @ 6:24 pmIt is also annoying that PBS gets most of its money from donations, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that if all the liberals whining about Big Bird just sent in $20, PBS would have no problem at all without sucking on the government teat.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/9/2012 @ 6:27 pmObama — flipping the bird is NOT above his pay grade.
Icy (20d2de) — 10/9/2012 @ 6:48 pmJVW – it had that distinctive tone.
JD (7ddc11) — 10/9/2012 @ 7:05 pmMy goodness, when Romney cuts fed funding for PBS I’ll apply for Big Bird’s job and tell them I’ll take a 50% pay cut.
Here’s an exercise to show Tillman why we have so little enthusiasm to vote for the reelection of President Obama:
1) Make a list of campaign promises kept, possibilities include Muslims would like us more, he would cut the deficit in half, the attitude in DC would change with less partisan rancor, the unemployment rate would not rise above 8%, Joe Biden would make a good VP
2) Demonstrate how his budget priorities show good judgement as reflected in the budgets he has championed and signed into law
3) Discuss his consistences concerning national defense, how concern over the military being stretched too thin has been alleviated by cuts in personnel and equipment
4) How about that promise to be transparent- IG firings, F+F, Libya, flexibility with Putin
for something more enjoyable, nk linked a jam session honoring Roy Orbison, from there you could hit the Traveling Wilburys, from there you can find all of the mega concerts involving George Harrison, including this:
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/9/2012 @ 7:16 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4UcaLHaabY&feature=related
30th Anniversary of Robert Zimmerman’s first album, with Clapton, Harrison, McGuin, Petty, and Young just for starts
Ugg. It’s best President Tiger Beat shuts his trap about the ME and sticks to Sesame Street and “Keeping up with the Kardashians.”
He still looks stupid. Just not this stoooopid and unhinged.
Obama Defiantly Declares ‘Al Qaeda Is on Its Heels,’ Even After Successful Terrorist Attacks
AP reports via ABC news:
Al-Qaida Making Comeback in Iraq, Officials Say
Someone, I forget where I read it, has noted that not even the press is willing to go along with this delusional narrative. Case in point:
Reporter Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle East
Well, I would point out it’s not my arrogance. It’s King Putt’s. He’s the one not listening, rejecting the evidence so he can look at these Islamofascist zealots as his marxist ideology teaches him to do: as if they’re really only good socialists on the inside, just upset over the inequality of wealth and the lack of government services that he’d so like to rectify as he makes all nice and kissy face with them.
More via ABC:
Security Team Commander Says Ambassador Stevens Wanted His Team to Stay in Libya Past August
Security Officer in Libya Refers to Post Being Directed to “Normalize” Operations and Reduce U.S. Security Presence
When I hear Obama make his frankly insane statements in direct conflict with reality, I can’t help but think of this movie quote (guess the movie).
The problem is the raving lunatic just won’t shut up.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/9/2012 @ 7:23 pmI think Obama is more a Marxist and opportunist considering his religious convictions, but then I see this:
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/10/2012 @ 5:04 amhttp://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/10/obamas-ring-there-is-no-god-but-allah.html
I’m willing to chalk that ring up to stupidity. I’ve concluded Obama is a lightweight. Actually I concluded that after his historically illiterate Cairo speech. And every opportunity he gets he reinforces the opinion. But the thinks he’s great.
He’s an idiot. I know he lived abroad and that’s supposed to make him worldly and sophisticated. Well, some of the worst interpreters of events are those who were there. If they have not clue one what’s going on around them. Obama’s sophistication is a thin veneer camouflaging a quivering mass of misapprehension.
I believe there’s a saying about horses, water, and getting them to drink.
About that ring. It was probably just something “cool” and black, and Obama was all about proving how black he is after being raised in Indonesia and then Hawaii by his white grandparents.
It probably means no more to him then when basketball players get the Chinese characters for “crazy” tattooed on their necks. Thinking it has the same connotations as it does in contemporary American English; wild, uninhibited, living on the edge.
When in fact it’s like getting “criminally insane” tattooed on your neck. Pronounced “kichigai” in Japanese. There’s nothing cool about it. There’s no redeeming qualities to it.
That’s what the only people who can read their tattoo are thinking. “That guy should be locked up, and he knows it so he tattooed it on his neck.”
Point being, Doc, they know not what they do.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/10/2012 @ 6:06 amSteve57 – Do we really know why the Ambassador was in Benghazi when he viewed it as so dangerous? We know he had meetings with various people during the day on 9/11. I have a suspicion the reason for his trip is being covered up and he may have been ordered there by superiors since there is not much discussion of why he went. Just a guess.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/10/2012 @ 6:48 amIsn’t mercenaries (Blackwater) who provide security for Hillary’s State Department? If we can buy them, why can’t somebody else pay them more?
nk (875f57) — 10/10/2012 @ 7:03 amIssa is investigating, in part reportedly due to requests from whistle-blowers within the state department. So maybe we will find out enough of what we need to know.
nk- I have read that a lot of jobs for the state dept, etc., that are military type security are contracted to private firms staffed with ex-military. I imagine being bribed to go on the dark side is a risk like in police work or intelligence or anything of that nature, and I imagine they have precautions they take to prevent/minimize it.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/10/2012 @ 7:27 amnk, did you see my link at #145? If you search YouTube for Harrison you get all kinds of grand rock star lineups. There’s a video of the Traveling Wilburys minus Orbison with his guitar in an empty chair in the circle of players.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/10/2012 @ 7:30 amListening to it now, MD. I’m a 000 fan but I like the Rickenbacker sound too. My favorite wife likes the Ventures.
nk (875f57) — 10/10/2012 @ 7:49 amThe daughter (My The Daughter) just started guitar. On her own volition — we had her in piano.
My very beautiful violin-backed Guild is (admittedly) hard on the fingers so she’s doing electric to start with. And she picked trumpet, of all things, for band. Sigh.
nk (875f57) — 10/10/2012 @ 7:59 am________________________________________________
Reporter Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle East
By contrast, Ambassador Chris Stevens reportedly was the type who believed that do-gooderism and kum-ba-yah-ism were the main ingredients in making our enemies come around to our way of thinking. That a happy, tolerant face will solve a lot of conflicts and problems.
Or the type who when dealing with, as one example, the issue of murderers and their victims — and capital punishment, etc — immediately fret not about the victim but about the life history and sad plight of the killer.
“More daycare, better lunch subsidies for public schools, more welfare programs, less racism and nicer cops will help curb acts of murder!!”
Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:05 amthey were probably tracking groups like AAS, and possible munitions like AMPADS
http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/ap-still-pushing-fiction-youtube-video-was-behind-libya-terror-attack/
narciso (95a56c) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:16 amNot all that bad an idea, Mark.
First fill their bellies, then teach them virtue.
It’s very ancient, in the Bible, reinterpreted by the father of existentialism.
People, by nature, are communal and cooperative while at the same time fratricidal and canibalistic. I don’t know if we can be tamed and I do not truly wish it.
nk (875f57) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:17 amthe scandal, was how bad the intelligence he bought
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/09/peter-king-obama-admin-may-have-given-classified-briefings-to-daily-beast-columnist/
narciso (95a56c) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:20 amMark, please. Leave it alone.
The diplomat died trying be diplomatic.
So what?
He didn’t serve his country?
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:23 amMD. Safe. http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/06/review-guild-f-20-acoustic-guitar/
nk (875f57) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:23 amI have the old one, not the remake I linked, long time ago, but looks the same.
nk (875f57) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:26 amR.I.P. Alex Karras
Icy (a4b2f2) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:55 amMark, I don’t know that I would appreciate Amb. Stevens’ personal philosophy on either domestic or foreign affairs political topics but I don’t see that that is relevant at this stage. We are about to vote on whether to reelect his boss, not him. He died following Obama’s instructions, not vice versa.
SPQR (cde90f) — 10/10/2012 @ 8:57 am==He died following Obama’s instructions, not vice versa==
SPQR, that is absolutely right. Ambassador Stevens and the other Americans in Benghazi also apparently died as sitting ducks due to State Dept. incompetence and neglect. People in service to our country in dangerous places deserve better.
elissa (acdee1) — 10/10/2012 @ 9:24 amVery similar appearance to my guitar, but likely smaller. My guitar mentor was a Martin-playing bluegrass fan, mine is a Sigma, budget line under Martin. (Sort of, sold under another name at 50% off because of a flaw in the finish).
I remember listening to Walk Don’t Run while eating pumpkin pie with my dad in a Big Boy restaurant when I was somewhere less than 8.
There is no one “sound” I like. I can appreciate Clapton, Harrison, Knopfler, Santana, Young, etc.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/10/2012 @ 10:09 amComment by elissa — 10/10/2012 @ 9:24 am
You think Obama will throw Hillary under the bus.
papertiger (e55ba0) — 10/11/2012 @ 2:49 amShe certainly deserves it.
But I have a feeling he won’t.
Someday when the serious tell-all book about this “bump in the road” comes out (as it inevitably will) the nation will find out whose idea it was to use Susan Rice as the administration’s face and front person hawking the idiotic video story to the media that first weekend. And that fact will tell us a lot.
If State started the cover-up to protect itself (Hillary) it would have realized that because of Susan Rice’s personal closeness to the West Wing, using Rice would therefore immediately draw in and involve the President in the cover-up (who would then have an investment in keeping it going even as the cover-up disintegrated).
On the other hand, the idea to “use” (and you can take that word several ways) a trusted friend and lieutenant (Rice) may have come from ValJar or Axelrod or Obama himself because they did not trust Hillary to carry their water in an election year– and they wanted to continue to escalate their unfair political attack on Romney’s early comment even as the truth about the attack started to leak out.
Either way, I can’t imagine Rice is very happy about this very public hit to her cred. I do wonder whether or not she knew at the time she was paraded around the Sunday shows in her pretty pearls how much she was “stretching the truth”.
elissa (f4b76b) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:00 amComment by elissa — 10/11/2012 @ 6:00 am
I read where Issa plans to question her in a closed session next week, demanding to know who told her what and when.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:14 amRemember Obama going on 60 Minutes and trash-talking Romney (“shoot first, aim later”).
Icy (d35969) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:14 amIt came from the White House.
Elissa – what cred? 🙂
JD (9ace9f) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:18 amShe was the one, who blocked Sudan’s offer to give up UBL, whereupon he ended up in Afghanistan.
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:26 amComment by narciso — 10/11/2012 @ 6:26 am
The amount of difficulty caused by career operatives under the public radar must be immense. It would be nice to have a better way of holding people accountable for actions that are against US interests done according to personal ideology by people in State, CIA, etc., etc.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:35 amFrom PowerLine:
Funniest Official Response Ever?
The Obama campaign has taken abuse from just about everyone for its silly “Big Bird” ad; among others, PBS protested. So a reporter asked Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki, on board Air Force 1, whether the campaign will take down its Big Bird ad. Psaki replied:
We have received that request [from PBS]. We’re reviewing it. I will say it doesn’t change the fact that there’s only one candidate in this race who is going to continue to fight for Big Bird and Elmo, and he is riding on this plane.
How far Obama has fallen! From the candidate of hope and change to the only candidate in the race who is fighting for Big Bird and Elmo! I suppose his spokesmen would explain that they are middle class Muppets…
Wasn’t sure to post this here or under “things that make me smile”.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:41 amI assume this is real and not made up at the Onion, as PL is pretty reliable.
Fighting for Big Bird and Elmo, and leaving ME consulates with inadequate security.
They need to take a collective sigh, regroup, and think seriously about running the country for at least the next few months.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:43 amWell their foreign policy strategy, in large part was telegraphed by one official, during the camapign, Fmr Navy Secretary, Richard Danzig,
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:50 amwho referenced ‘Winnie the Pooh’
MD, food-stamp moms that plop their kids in front of the tv to keep the rug rats occupied so they can talk to their friends on their Obama phones don’t give a flying crap about the Middle East.
Icy (d35969) — 10/11/2012 @ 6:50 amComment by Icy — 10/11/2012 @ 6:50 am
True, Icy,
But even Piers Morgan knows when to react in incredulity to DWS:
http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2012/10/11/piers-morgan-gets-tough-with-dws-on-libya/
What!?!?
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/11/2012 @ 7:20 amI have no doubt you’re correct to some degree. My suspicions were raised by the administrations insistence that the attack on the Benghazi consulate had nothing to do with them or their policies.
Which, considering the source, means of course it did.
We know some of the pieces of the puzzle. For instance, earlier I mentioned the doctor from Mass. General conducting an exchange visit to BMC. I didn’t mean to imply that I believed that was the sole purpose of the ambassador’s visit to Benghazi. We know, for instance, that the two former SEALs were not there to provide personal security for the ambassador. They were there to destroy munitions. We know that the militias providing security for the Benghazi consulate were angry at the USG because to the Obama administration’s interference in internal Libyan political affairs. And we know the militias were not disarming per our and the Libyan government’s timetable.
We also can’t be sure of the real purpose of the ambassador’s previous trip to Austria, and whether it was connected to his sudden dash to Benghazi upon his return.
Of course you’re right. There’s no reason to believe that while Stevens may have sincerely wanted to visit BMC and was intent on opening “an American space” in Benghazi those were the real purpose of his trip at the time he made it.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:09 amDon’t think all mercs don’t have standards. Sure, the pay is better. But there’s lots of reasons why an operator would want to become a merc. I knew quite a few SEAL officers who got out after they commanded a platoon, for instance. Because they just wouldn’t be in the field as much. They’d be involved more and more in administrative duties the higher up in rank they got. And that wasn’t why they become SEALs.
Becoming a merc is one way to stay in the field. But it isn’t like they’d sell out their country just because they’re doing it on contract.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:26 amThere was a former State Department official, Ethan Chorin who was running a hospital project, and he was one of Steven’s contacts, also his c.v, suggests something more than your typical diplomat.
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:27 amI need to qualify my last comment. I’m not entirely sure if the pay is better. The Navy was offering some hefty incentives to SEALs to stay in when I retired.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:30 amDyncorp usually does high profile security, like for Karzai, and they hire the best generally.
narciso (ee31f1) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:44 am_____________________________________________
Mark, I don’t know that I would appreciate Amb. Stevens’ personal philosophy on either domestic or foreign affairs political topics but I don’t see that that is relevant at this stage.
It’s very relevant because his way of thinking apparently infuses the current White House, State Department and even portions of the US military.
I don’t think Stevens is very different from a very liberal person I was speaking with a few weeks ago. He’s the type who is fascinated with and enjoys very dangerous, dysfunctional societies. He mentioned to me of trips he has taken through the years to dangerous parts of Africa and South America, apparently for the exotic thrill of it all. That includes one moment not too long ago in South Africa where he was fearful for both his safety and security. He also chirpily mentioned to me about his experiencing the crime-ridden favelas (or slums) in Rio de Janeiro about 2 years ago.
They say a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. Some liberals can be mugged over and over again, but they don’t bat an eyelash and remain as foolish as ever before. So when such people keep getting mugged repeatedly — almost willingly, and either literally or figuratively, or both — it’s hard to see them as victims.
Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:49 am_____________________________________________
First fill their bellies, then teach them virtue.
But in the world of modern-day liberalism, the government fills their bellies while at the same time teaching them not about virtue, but things more along the lines of the following…
This should make us all feel warm and fuzzy.
Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/11/2012 @ 8:56 amNice try. Romney brought this up as a laughable examble of what the government subsidizes.
Thanks for keeping this in the news btw.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/11/2012 @ 9:14 amUnder different circumstances I’d be tempted to agree. But from the reportage it seems to me that Stevens did communicate the danger he felt he was in. I would have used different language, but I’m not a lib nor am I a career diplomat.
There’s one point I’ve been harping on and I’m going to keep harping on. There was no intelligence failure here.
The administration willfully ignored the intelligence. Why did we, alone amongst all other western nations, keep our consulate in Benghazi a going concern? We didn’t know what they knew?
B******t!
To focus on the number of trigger pullers is to miss the big picture.
Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/11/2012 @ 9:26 amI think the (reported, anyway) response of the Libyan government and demonstrations against the jihadists by the general populace demonstrate that Stevens was probably an honorable person trying to do good work and was known for it, no matter what some of his political ideals may have been.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/11/2012 @ 9:51 amIf he made a mistake in political philosophy it was likely to have trusted his compatriots/comrades to have his back (not stab his back).
I haven’t read it, don’t know the details, but my understanding is that Michael Medved was a pretty serious leftist growing up then became disenchanted when he saw some turn on their own when convenient, undercutting the whole idea of a “noble cause”.
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