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I lurk here to read and learn, I am a political junky and I cannot help myself. Imagine my lack of surprise at seeing the fluff and clutter being discussed. Hell, even the Grand Poobah himself, nice make over Doug, has decided that it is easier to turn a blind eye than to raise the alarm. But, since all politics are local, and party politics seem to trump the truth, I am not surprised.
It started with the IRS harassment of conservative organizations, politicians and private citizens. The excuse factory was unleashed, Obama knew nothing, there was no intent, blah, blah, blah. I have only a passing interest in the why of this situation, but I fear the future and what effect it will have going forward. Let’s suppose that a Republican gets elected in 2016, he has just been given a green light to use the IRS as a political sledgehammer. The IRS should not be used as anything other than a collection agency for taxes, it should be apolitical. The fact that you have accepted the outrage and the excuses is madness.
Let’s get this out of the way first, this is partisan politics and Obama’s administration is to blame. It doesn’t matter if he really didn’t know about it, a doubtful accusation that would say more about an administration out of contact with everyday reality than it absolves him personally. It is one of life’s unfair truisms, the buck stops at the top of the food chain and Obama is the figurehead at the top.
Benghazi might be the most outrageous, but it is just another political hack fest in Washington and at CHB. The ambassador was murdered, the administration watched it real time and didn’t offer any help. It took six hours and nothing, no help, no covering fire, no Special Forces. So, fast forward to Thursday, there is a hearing and the families of the murder victims are going to be allowed to speak and the Dems on the committee walk out before they have a chance to hear what the families have to say. I knew politicians were cowards, but that was insulting.
Politics in America have gotten so screwed up that up and down are no longer recognizable. You are the activists, you are the soldiers of change. Yet you sacrifice your honesty in the name of party affiliation. You want to change politics? You want to change your world? Look in a mirror and ask yourselves if you are truly happy with the “representative” government currently running the US.
A proud member of the Vast Right-wing Conspiracy, Massachusetts Chapter
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson
"It's not a lie if you believe it." -- George Costanza The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. --Bertrand Russel
It started with the IRS harassment of conservative organizations, politicians and private citizens.
You mean that faux Republcian "scandal" of how the IRS investimagated groups of radicals who wave their guns around in public, threatening to not pay their taxes and bring down the whole gub'mint, before granting them a special "you don’t have to pay taxes because you are SO SPECIAL" waiver, the very same scandal that T-Tard Republicans accuse Obama of hiding from the public because it was an election year when they knew about it too last year?
The same "scandal" that Darrel Issa instructed the IRS to only look at Tea Party groups because that’s all Issa asked themto look at creating this "scandal" which actually benefited Issa financially?
Wait!! Does that mean Republicans are in on this "hiding" information too?
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Much has been made of the fact that senior Treasury Department officials were told about the investigation into the treatment of tea party groups in June 2012 – months before last year’s the Presidential election. Republicans who requested the investigation were also told about it at approximately the same time.
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In a letter dated July 11, 2012, the man who conducted the investigation – IRS inspector general J. Russell George – wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, telling him that he was investigating the issue and offering to keep him updated as the investigation progressed.
“The Oversight Committee knew about the audit because it requested it,” an Issa aide told ABC News. Issa released the letter, along with his own letter dated June 28, 2012 requesting the investigation, last week.
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A spokesman for Russell George, Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, said they were asked by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) "to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations.
Oh man!! Talk about awkward! Republicans are running around shrieking about how the Obama administration knew about this investigation last year, long before the election, but they kept it on the down-low because EVIL NEFARIOUS SCHEMES. Except Republicans, including Issa himself, knew about it too. At the same time?!? And they didn’t say anything either?!? Perhaps Darrell Issa and his fierce investigatin’ skills haven't gotten to the bottom of this thing yet because he knows it's adding to his re-election war chest.
Originally Posted by Ma_Republican
Benghazi might be the most outrageous, but it is just another political hack fest in Washington and at CHB. The ambassador was murdered, the administration watched it real time and didn’t offer any help.
Didn't Admiral Mullen, a man with forty years of experience in the military, factsplain to the T-Tards, that no, contrary to their expectations born of watching every Chuck Norris movie in the 1980s, there was no way Delta Force or the Rangers or even Team America could have gotten to the consulate in time?
...and didn't Pickering, a man who spent forty years with the State Department, have to explain very slowly and using small words so the Republicans would understand, that the U.S. has over 270 embassies and consulates around the world, and what with our military stretched thin by its various commitments and the GOP in its budget-cutting mania having actually cut security funding for our diplomatic outposts, and it is not realistic to think that the Expendables were going to swoop in and save everyone?
...and remember those "smoking gun" Benghazi emails that the Republicans made up? Yes, really, some idiot(s) flat re-wrote parts of the emails, then presented these exquisite works of fiction to the press as evidence of a cover-up. They did this to make the emails more scandalish, except the "scandal" they wanted to play up was "the State Department wanted to cover its ass" which is not so much a scandal as: HELLO! My name is Politics, have we met before?!?
Time to switch from Kool-Aid™ to green herbal tea Ma - it's better for your heart and blood-pressure than that artificially colored super sugary stuff you're used to drinking.
You are welcome!!
Last edited by Doug Thompson; 09/22/1304:01 PM. Reason: Edited to remove a reference to Congressman Issa that violated the rules.
The last night I was in Ireland I went into a pub in Ballycase More, near Shannon. I was on my third Guinness when I became aware of a fellow sitting in a corner, rhythmically pounding on his own head with a ball peen hammer. Unable to stifle my curiosity, I asked the bartender why this fellow as doing that. He looked at me as if I were crazy. "Because it feels so fooking good when he stops."
Debating MaR is pretty much the same thing.
Take the nacilbupeR pledge: I solemnly swear that I will help back out all Republicans at the next election.
Last edited by Doug Thompson; 09/22/1310:26 AM. Reason: Use of obscenity.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
Perhaps it's appropriate that the scion of libertarian right wing conservatism voiced his thoughts today on Pat Robertson's 700 Club. He feels much the same way Ma-R feels, and he has come up with a "final solution".
It is interesting, that termites don’t build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have… The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.
A "godly fumigation"? Isn't that similar to "The Final Solution"?
Last edited by Doug Thompson; 09/22/1304:00 PM. Reason: Edited to remove a violation of the rules in reference to former Congressman Paul
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD deepfreezefilms.com
Welcome back, Ma. I mean that sincerely. I enjoy getting a different perspective.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
By the way, WTF is happening to America is a major political party that isn't the Democrats being so incredibly partisan that it would rather destroy the government than cede control, even though it represents a shrinking minority of the citizenry. The exemplars provided nicely make the point, as Rick has so thoroughly illustrated.
My wish, actually, would be to see a GOPartisan actually take his party to task for its behavior. For instance, wouldn't it be better to address the elephant in the room, a minority of the minority holding its own party hostage by threatening a government shutdown by tying the budget to a measure that has failed 40+ times already? Or using a budgetary gimmick (debt ceiling) to destroy the economy, rather than let the perception that Obama has succeeded at anything see the light of day. I find myself defending the administration against the most ridiculous tripe, when it would be far more interesting to debate the details of policy - many of which I disagree with.
Doug has, on many occasions, railed against the partisanship. Here's where I see a genuine difference, and why he and I often disagree about the label. I firmly and truly believe that Obama is trying to do the right thing - to get the parties together, to find compromise, to represent all Americans, to further an inclusive agenda. I see little of that in the Republican party, except sporatic, desperate attempts by Speaker Boehner to save face. I think his motivations are also, by the way, more genuine than the majority of his colleagues.
By all means, we should root out the desperate fringes of partisanship that are destroying America. But let's start with the worst offenders, and anyone with a shred of honesty left knows who they are.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
By the way, 'destroying America' starts by destroying the institutions of America - which means, the government. Isn't government supposed to represent the collective will of the people? And if one is attacking the collective will of the people, isn't one really attacking the people?
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
From all appearances, honesty is not allowed in practical "politics".
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
