Thursday, January 24, 2013

Rand Paul Calls Benghazi ‘worst tragedy since 9/11’



Well I’m back. After giving my brain a rest for a few weeks I could no longer hold in my frustration over the climate of American politics. With gun control debates in full swing and the media humping every opportunity to cover a school shooting I just needed to step away from the news and relax, just kind of clear my head for a bit.



But today I came across this interesting little piece about the Benghazi attack that happened last year. Rand Paul actually said that it was the ‘worst tragedy since 9/11’ and puts the blame squarely on Hillary Clinton’s shoulders.



For those who forgot, the Benghazi incident occurred on September 11th 2012 in the Libyan city of Benghazi, where armed group of people killed four Americans. “Between 125 and 150 gunmen, "some wearing the Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants," are reported to have participated in the assault.[24][25][26] Some had their faces covered and wore flak jackets.[27]



The thing that bothers me about this is the fact that Benghazi really wasn’t the worst terror attack since 9/11. There have been so many others, and many Americans have died in terror attacks after 9/11 while under Bush’s administration. Have we all forgotten about that? Have we forgotten that terror attacks have been down since the tail end of the Clinton administration? 




The 9/11 terror attacks were on US soil, and approximately 3,000 people were killed, hundreds more injured, and many more died later because of diseases they contracted from the dust and debris of the fallen towers. That truly is the worst attack against this country since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.



And it’s not like this sort of thing didn’t happen after 9/11. 19 US Consulates have been attacked since 1979 and seven of those were under the Bush administrations watch. Why is it that no action was taken against the Bush administration? Why is it that when stuff like this happens when a Democrat is in office that suddenly this sort of thing is bad and isn’t just a fact of life?



Fox News is acting like the Benghazi attack was some horrible attack the likes have never been seen before on or off the battlefield. But when you think about it this sort of thing has been happening since before Bush’s time, before Obama’s time, before Clinton’s time. This isn’t some new phenomenon that is somehow only now manifesting itself because there is a Democrat in office.



I think saying that this attack is worse than 9/11 is pure 100% political exaggeration on the part of Republicans. We’ve had a lot of good Americans die on their watch, and several US Consulate attacks in which Americans lost their lives, and we are going to focus on this one now because Obama is in office? When Bush was in office and the Dems tried to condemn him for attacks that occurred under his watch did the right-wing not say that there was no way to know when an attack is going to happen and that all attacks are tragedies but we are in a time of war and these things happen and you shouldn’t say disparaging things about your President?



Well hey, guess what folks? We are still at war! No matter how much we Democrats would like to believe that Obama has ended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t mean that it’s so. We still have military presences there, and we are still fighting people there. Just because Obama sent some troop’s home doesn’t mean the climate of the war has changed. And the right-wingers are right too, these things happen during times of war. So why is it that they can say that and get away with it when their guy is in office, but when a Democrat is in office it has to be the ‘worst tragedy since 9/11’?



I’ll tell you what the worst tragedy since 9/11 was, it was the war in Iraq. 3,542 American soldiers died in combat while serving in Iraq, some of them had their bodies dragged through the streets and hung from large over passes as trophies as their charred guts spilled out onto the street. War is hell and is the ultimate tragedy which trumps any US Consulate attack.



Those Americans who died during this attack were brave people. You have to be brave to be a diplomat in a potentially hostile foreign country. You don’t just hide behind the curtains; you have to mix with the people, mingle with them, and get to know them. That is the function of a diplomat, and that is a pretty scary thing to do if you think about it. Your life is at risk every moment you are putting yourself out there, making yourself vulnerable in the name of diplomacy and peace.



This is just another case of politicians using certain events for their own gain. The Democrats are doing the same thing right now with gun control, and now the Republicans are doing the same thing with Benghazi. Pointing at each other and trying to point out flaws and place blame.



The blame should really be placed on all of our shoulders, meaning the American people. Either way you slice it we are allowing this type of bullshit to propagate, this he said she said, diversionary tactics type of bullshit which all politicians use against use. To say that the attack in Benghazi was the worst tragedy to happen since 9/11 is like saying that an assault rifles ban will stop school shootings. It just isn’t real, folks.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Presidential Failure! Obama Starts Off Second Term on Wrong Foot



So who heard about what Obama signed just recently? Do you have any ideas? Was it a world peace treaty? Did he sign a bill that made the Federal Reverse illegal, thus eliminating the national debt? No, none of that. What he did was something sinister in my eyes, something that the people who voted him in did not want to see happen.



Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2013, thus continuing to allow indefinite detention of American citizens and the continued operation of Guantanamo Bay. This comes after the President said that he would veto the NDAA bill, leaving some to believe that Obama gave into GOP pressures, especially after the tense fiscal cliff debate which was never solved on time due to some major conflicting politics.



FROM THE ARTICLE:

"President Obama has utterly failed the first test of his second term, even before inauguration day,” American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement. “His signature means indefinite detention without charge or trial, as well as the illegal military commissions, will be extended.”

Can you imagine how pissed off I am right now? Maybe you can’t, because maybe to you this doesn’t matter and you think our President can do no wrong because you’re a Democrat and everything he does is golden. But this isn’t the first time the President has said he was against something or for something than gone completely back on his previous word.



Remember in 2009 when the health care debate was a hot button issue? One of the major talks was about a Public Option for health care which Obama supported during his run for office for the 2008 ticket. While the debate was happening Obama came out and said no to a public option, saying that he never campaigned on that issue and was never one of his causes.



Luckily for us Rachel Maddow from MSNBC remembered exactly what Obama said, she even replayed some of the Obama campaign videos in which he clearly states that he is in favor of a public option. Maddow played this clip repeatedly, but did it make anyone change their minds about the President. No, of course it didn’t. Many people probably don’t even remember it.



The problem with this President is that he gives in too easy, and on top of that he’s just a politician like all of the rest. At the beginning of 2012 Obama was completely against gay marriage, and boom just a few months before the election he says he is in favor of it. If you were ever looking for a quicker way to get the majority of intelligent homosexuals to vote for you that’s the way to do it, and boy did it work out well for him.



But now we have this President who we voted for because we wanted less war, less power to government authorities who can drag us out of our house and lock us up for no reason without a trial, and the closure of the Guantanamo detention center. Did he do any of this? No, instead he signed the bill allowing the government to lock us up indefinitely, and will keep Guantanamo open for an undisclosed amount of time.



Doesn’t this just kind of go to show us something here? First the President wants to take our guns away and now he is backing the NDAA bill, which he wanted us to think he would veto. Hmm, disarm the public then make it legal to detain them for ANY REASON you want.



 Think that the war on drugs is bullshit and are talking shit on it? Pull that asshole out of his house and throw him in a cell.



Think the Administration of this or future White Houses is corrupt? Break that terrorists door down, gag him, and make him disappear.



Don’t agree with the newest law that was passed limiting you’re free speech? Label that douche an anti-patriot socialist and let society shun him.



This is what I’m talking about here, the government’s resistance to its own people. And to think we voted for Obama because we thought he was enlightened and would steer us away from this, but alas we were dead wrong.



The scary thing is that many people who voted for Obama who were against NDAA and indefinite detention and Guantanamo and pretty much all of those things in the PATRIOT ACT which the NDAA will be extending will still be in support of Obama. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we truly believed that Obama would repair the mistakes that were made by the Bush Administration, but instead he is going to extend those mistakes and just act like he never did it.



Obama even said that he has “reservations” about the NDAA bill, and also said that no one from his administration would ever invoke the indefinite detention part of the bill. But that is just his opinion on the law, not the law. He leaves the door wide open for another administration to interpret the law a different way. What if the next administration will invoke the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial? Does that mean that Obama’s administration is clean of any wrong doing? Oh my god, hell no! You still signed the damn thing into law! You may not use the law you just signed in but who says other people after you won’t? What would you say then, Mr. Obama? “Uh, oh well.”



This is what Obama does into his second term? Is he really going to spit in the faces of those who got him elected by doing exactly what they DIDN’T want him to do?



Still, I think Obama was a better choice than Romney for obvious reasons, but why the hell would we want to vote him in for a second term is he is going to be “Romney Lite”? We didn’t vote for a Republican, we voted for a Democrat, a Democrat who made promises to not be like his opponent but then gets voted in and becomes a carbon copy of what we didn’t want. Hey at least he pretended to be on our side, right?





The reason we are mad about this is mainly because of some of the wording we see here in bills like the NDAA. It basically states that shall the President believe that anything he signs into law is unconstitutional then he can treat it as non-binding. So it basically means that the President can choose what he wants to do whenever he feels it is necessary.



 “I know I said I was against using this law, but I have decided it would be a good idea to use it against this list of people right here. Still, this does not affect the majority of law abiding citizens in America so everyone needs to calm down because this isn’t some indiscriminate search and detain mission…or is it?”



I am pissed. The man I trusted with my country, twice now, has gone across the line this time. All we wanted was for him to do what the people want, and he can’t even do that. This is a democracy, isn’t it? Then why do I not have control over my government? Why is it that I vote in a guy who says he is on my side and then breaks his promises to me? Why did you have to be all sneaky about it and sign it into law when everyone was still rearing over the Sandy Hook events and the fiscal cliff debate? It was almost like one was used for the cover of another, and if this was a plan then it was executed without nearly any hiccups. This is not the man I voted into office, this is some Republican “Body Snatcher” who has hijacked Obama. Damn, if that were only the case.



So what do we do as the American people? I mean, we don’t want this law, do we? If we don’t then why don’t we do something about it, like send letters to him and our representatives? We need to do something. We need to let Obama know that he is OUR President and he does what WE want him to. We did not vote him in to make decisions for us, and this is the message that we need to send to this administration. 

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