Tuesday, May 06, 2014

STRATFOR: Europe's Buffer States Must Arm and Ally

Guest post by George Friedman

I will be leaving this week to visit a string of countries that are now on the front line between Russia and the European Peninsula: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Azerbaijan. A tour like that allows you to look at the details of history. But it is impossible to understand those details out of context. The more I think about recent events, the more I realize that what has happened in Ukraine can only be understood by considering European geopolitics since 1914 -- a hundred years ago and the beginning of World War I.

In The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman wrote a superb and accurate story about how World War I began. For her it was a confluence of perception, misperception, personality and decisions. It was about the leaders, and implicit in her story was the idea that World War I was the result of miscalculation and misunderstanding. I suppose that if you focus on the details, then the war might seem unfortunate and avoidable. I take a different view: It was inevitable from the moment Germany united in 1871. When it happened and exactly how it happened was perhaps up to decision-makers. That it would happen was a geopolitical necessity. And understanding that geopolitical necessity gives us a framework for understanding what is happening in Ukraine, and what is likely to happen next.

The German Problem

The unification of Germany created a nation-state that was extraordinarily dynamic. By the turn of the 20th century, Germany had matched the British economy. However, the British economy pivoted on an empire that was enclosed and built around British interests. Germany had no such empire. It had achieved parity through internal growth and exports on a competitive basis. This was just one of the problems Germany had. The international economic system was based on a system of imperial holdings coupled with European industrialism. Germany lacked those holdings and had no politico-military control over its markets. While its economy was equal to Britain's, its risks were much higher.

Economic risk was compounded by strategic risk. Germany was on the North European Plain, relatively flat, with only a few north-south rivers as barriers. The Germans had the Russians to the east and the French to the west. Moscow and Paris had become allies. If they were to simultaneously attack Germany at a time of their choosing, Germany would be hard-pressed to resist. The Germans did not know Russo-French intentions, but they did know their capabilities. If there was to be war, the Germans had to strike first in one direction, achieve victory there and then mass their forces on the other side.

When that war would be fought, which strategy the Germans chose and ultimately whether it would succeed were uncertainties. But unlike Tuchman's view of the war, a war that began with a German strike was inevitable. The war was not the result of a misunderstanding. Rather, it was the result of economic and strategic realities.

Vintage Media Juxtaposition o' the Day

BadBlue alerts us to a snippet at its technological granddaddy, Memeorandum:


Which leads us to the fairly unsurprising article entitled "Just 7 percent of journalists are Republicans. That’s far fewer than even a decade ago.":

Larwyn's Linx: Pew: Huge Majority Have Had Enough of Barack Obama’s Failed Policies

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Pew: Huge Majority Have Had Enough of Obama's Policies: WZ
USA Today: GOP leads generic ballot, more than in 2010, 1994: ConIntel
Establishment Would Rather Lose Nebraska Than Support Conservatives: RS

Infiltration Of The U.S. Government: Cliff Kincaid
Hillary Clinton should be worried as Benghazi coverup unravels: Timmerman
Obama Sets Up Devilish Trap For The GOP On Immigration Reform: TPM

Consider This, Mr. Federal Agent: Christian Mercenary
We Are Legion: WRSA
Obama’s Phony Ambivalence on Keystone: David Limbaugh

May Southern Primaries Set Up GOP for Fall Battles: PJM
Students, It’s Illegal To Wear An American Flag Shirt On Cinco De Mayo: DC
US Supreme Court Strongly Affirms that Americans are Free to Pray: BarbWire

Economy

It’s Official: The IRS Will Raid Your Tax Data Through Obamacare: Blaze
Oligarchy and Democracy: Jeffrey A. Winters
Government waste: Where has all the money gone?: Cal Thomas

Scandal Central

White House Suggests it Won’t Cooperate with Benghazi Panel: Dossier
CRUZ: Democrats treating the death of four Americans as nothing but a political inconvenience : Scoop
Return of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy: Ace

Speaker Boehner has chosen Rep. Trey Gowdy to Chair Benghazi Select Committee: Scoop
Flashback: The Day After Benghazi Massacre, CBSNews President David Rhodes Said...: Ace
McCain: Dems, Obama Administration Scared to Death of Benghazi Committee: Breitbart

Climate & Energy

Podesta: Congress Can’t Stop Obama On Global Warming: Matt Walsh
MARK LEVIN: Tomorrow’s Climate Change push isn’t about the weather, it’s a REVOLUTION: Scoop
People Are Starting To Recognize How Useless Mary Landrieu Is: HayRide

Media

Fox News: Email prove Obama top officials went nuts over Fox News Benghazi report: Scoop
Gary Becker (1930-2014): Thomas Sowell
Benghazi Victim’s Uncle: Obama is a “Paid Serial Liar”: ConTrib

Sooner or later, they're going to come for people you do like: Instapundit
Correlation Between NRA Convention and Lower Violence?: TR
Gov. Kasich Lies About Obamacare, Common Core on WTAM 1100: MediaTrackers

Rutgers Paid $32K to Welcome Snooki, But Condoleezza Rice Gets a Protest: FoxNation
Washington Post Reporter: Benghazi Scandal May Actually Help Hillary in 2016: MRC
PBS Journalist: 'There's So Many Important Issues' Other Than Benghazi: TR

World

Hamas tells kids to shoot all the Jews: Commentator
Kerry’s Top Officials: We Need Another Intifada Against Israel for Progress: Daniel Greenfield
Islam: Girls For Sale: Yahoo!

US F-15 Intercepts Russian Strategic Bomber Near Guam: ZH
Why Is the State Department Supporting a Jewish Conspiracy Book Fair?: Commentary
Chinese contingency plan if North Korean regime collapses leaked: Fox

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

UK retailer Tesco will launch its own Android-based smartphone this year: TNW
WordPress.com Parent Automattic Raises $160 Million, Valued at $1.16 Billion: Recode
Can Internet Security Ever Work?: Cryptome (2011)

Cornucopia

Why We Fight: Scoop
The Pinball Wizards of Washington: MOTUS
10 photos from L.A.'s long-gone Pacific Ocean Park: Boing Boing

Image: 'I will sell them,' Islamic Boko Haram leader says of kidnapped Nigerian girls
Sponsored by: Today's the Day: Fire John "Amnesty" Boehner; Support J.D. Winteregg!

QOTD: "We have four dead Americans. A U.S. ambassador’s body was dragged through the streets, okay? It was beyond heartbreaking and infuriating. No one in custody. Have an arrest warrant out. No one in custody. And in the immediate aftermath, the response was to go political.

If this were George Bush, [if he] would have done anything like this, you would be going nuts on it. You would be going ballistic." --Laura Ingraham

Monday, May 05, 2014

BOOM: Support for Johnny "Amnesty" Boehner Drops Under 50 Percent Ahead of Tuesday's Primary

Writing at The Daily Caller, Patrick Howley gives us the good news:

Republican House Speaker John Boehner would win only 49 percent of the Republican vote if his re-election race were held today, according to an internal survey conducted by Gravis Marketing, results of which were obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller.

Boehner picked up 49 percent support in his re-election bid and registered a 30 percent “unfavorable” rating in the poll, which surveyed Republican voters in Ohio’s eighth congressional district that have voted in all four of the last Republican primaries in the state. The internal phone survey was based on a sample size of 2,275 high-propensity voters in the district.

Boehner faces tea party challenger J.D. Winteregg in Tuesday’s Republican primary, in which approximately 85,000 voters are expected to head to the polls. Winteregg, who has been endorsed by the Tea Party Leadership Fund, was recently fired from his job as an adjunct professor at Ohio’s Cedarville University for running a viral commercial parody accusing Boehner of “Electile Dysfunction.”

Winteregg joined Boehner’s 2010 Democratic opponent Justin Coussoule in an exclusive club: Boehner’s last two serious district challengers were both fired from their Ohio jobs during their campaigns.

Know anyone in Ohio? Please call them. Please email them.

It's time to fire Johnny "Amnesty" Boehner and tomorrow's the big day.


As Economy Stumbles and War in Europe Nears, a Very, Very Busy President Tweets Out an Important Message

I truly wish this had been a Biff Spackle original and not an official White House tweet. But real it is.


A record number of Americans have dropped out of the workforce, the Secretary of State is encouraging Muslim terror attacks on innocent Israeli civilians, no one knows what the president did for 10 hours after he learned his Ambassador to Libya was missing, the economy has flatlined, Vladimir Putin is reenacting Adolf Hitler's moves from the 1930s, radical leftist billionaires are preventing America from becoming energy independent, and illegal immigration is ripping America to shreds.

And the White House staff is busy photoshopping the president sitting on the Iron Throne.


Hat tip: Western Journalism

A BOYCOTT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI? For Democrats, Party Always Comes Before Country

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: A Democratic member of the House intelligence committee called Sunday for his party to boycott the newly announced select committee that will probe the Benghazi terrorist attacks, calling it "a colossal waste of time."

Almost as soon as "Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi" had fallen from the lips of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — a reprise of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "What difference at this point does it make?" — Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" that he thinks the planned select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attack is a "colossal waste of time" and suggested that Democrats not participate in it.

The congressman responded to Speaker John Boehner's announcement that a special committee to investigate Benghazi, and the cover-up that followed, by dismissing claims that new emails were "smoking gun" evidence that the inflammatory video excuse was concocted to safeguard President Obama's re-election and Hillary's future candidacy.

Calling the yet-to-be-approved committee a "tremendous red herring," Schiff said: "I don't think it makes sense, really, for Democrats to participate." After all, we got the maker of the video, as Hillary Clinton promised the parents of the dead while their son's casket arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C.

Former White House adviser David Plouffe, speaking on ABC's "This Week," called the committee "bogus." He was one of the recipients of a Sept. 14, 2012, email from Ben Rhodes, an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, discussing the prepping of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice before her whirlwind tour of five Sunday talk shows to specifically and emphatically blame an Internet video for the attack.

YET ANOTHER CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS: White House Suggests It Will Ignore Select Committee on Benghazi

I've lost count. How many Constitutional Crises does this make?

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today indicated the White House will refuse to cooperate with a new House committee tasked with investigating Benghazi.

“We have always cooperated with legitimate oversight,” Carney said this afternoon during the daily White House briefing. Asked whether the panel qualified as “legitimate,” he said: “I think if you look at what even some Republicans have said, it certainly casts doubt on the legitimacy of an effort that is so partisan in nature.”

“You know, at some point, you just have to assume that Republicans will continue this because it feeds a political objective of some sort,” he added. “At the same time you have to ask, ‘What about the American people who want to see Congress work for them?’”

What about the American people who wanted to see the Commander-in-Chief attempt to rescue them from a half-day long terror attack? You know, all of the dead and grievously wounded at Benghazi waiting for military back-up that would never come?

Simple question for the Democrats:

Has a president ever gone AWOL for 10 hours (that's 100 My Pet Goats, fat boy) after a U.S. Ambassador was reported missing and dozens of American diplomats were facing imminent death during a terror attack?

That's a rhetorical question for you drones: the answer is no.

If Obama does indeed refuse to cooperate with Congressional oversight, it will be more than past time to initiate impeachment proceedings. More conservatives in the House and Republican control of the Senate will go along way towards making that a reality.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: Legislators Are Digging Their Own Grave and Taking Us Down with Them

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Legislators Dig Their Own Graves, Taking Us Down with Them: Janine Turner
The AWOL Commander-in-Chief : Andrew C. McCarthy
Benghazi select committee chair announcement could come Monday: FAM

Liberal Racism: Derek Hunter
Using Mitch McConnell's Words Against Him: BarbWire
Rand Paul Promotes School Choice as "The Great Equalizer": Wire

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton: 'Benghazi a corpse': BarbWire
Meet the Serial Killer Who Murdered Living Babies: Foundry
What Obama Did on September 11, 2012: Jack Cashill

House select committee must peel back Benghazi coverup: Exam
Democrat Party Accepts Money from Anti-Gay Cult Leader: GayPatriot
Harry Reid should lead, not attack and distract: LVRJ

Economy

Tax Cut Denialism, With A Freudian Slip: JOM
In Open Letter, Volkswagen Employees Rip Into UAW Boss: LUR
Obama Vacations Have Cost $40 Million Total; $625,000 per month: RWN

Scandal Central

John Bolton: Benghazi Panel Needs to Question Hillary Clinton for 'Hours and Hours': Paul Ebeling
Benghazi: During Attack Denis McDonough and Tom Donilon Replace Obama and Biden: Treehouse
One Year Later: Americans Targeted by the Obama Administration’s IRS Deserve Justice: RS

Climate & Energy

No Statistically Significant Warming In 17 Years And 9 Months: Cove
EPA Employees Received $500,000 In Unauthorized Bonuses: LoneCon
New EPA Rule Gives Feds Authority Over 'Nearly All' Water: CNS

Media

“Two Dads are Better Than One”: pro-gay adoption ABC profile of convicted pedophile: Wintery Knight
Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?: JOM
Obama Mocks Biden's Jealousy of Hillary Clinton: WS

Not A Cover-Up, A Strategy: JOM
Correspondents’ Dinner 2014: We Do Hot Messes Right: MOTUS
Kentucky Derby fans are sick of NBC’s Bob Costas, and BLAST him on Twitter: YC

Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) Talks Twitter: The Talkhouse
Brit Hume fears no one, eviscerates Democrat Rep. for defending false Benghazi narrative: YC
LiberalRacism: The Left's Cynical Perpetuation of Racist Plantation Politics: AmPower

World

Global Creeping Sharia Never Ceases: BarbWire
Maldives: Progresive Muslim Nation Enacts Death Penalty For Children: BCF
Top Saudi Cleric says true Muslims must believe the Sun revolves around the Earth: Commentator

From Sir, With Love: Theodore Dalrymple
‘They Are Worse Than Hitler’: Telling Words from an Iranian Émigré: Tatler
Former Russian Foreign Minister on Ukraine: No Bluffing: PJM

Exclusive: CIA Falls Back in Afghanistan: Daily Beast
Norway: No Saudi mosques, as long as there's no freedom of religion in Saudi-Arabia: IIE
Gold Jumps Back Above 200DMA As USDJPY & Stocks Continue Slide: ZH

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Scientists reverse aging in mice by giving them young blood: Engadget
Listen To NASCAR Explain Dogecoin Thanks To 'The Google Machine': Jalopnik
Department of Defense to study bitcoin as possible terrorist threat: Fox

Cornucopia

Fifth Grade Boys Steal Talent Show With Synchronized Swim Routine: GWP
LaFerrari first drive review: AutoCar
‘Seeing the irony here?’ Valerie Jarrett poses for photo with her ‘#Scandal bosses’: Twitchy

Image: Detainees freed after Odesa police HQ stormed
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Fire John "Amnesty" Boehner Today -- Support J.D. Winteregg!

QOTD: "There is an enormous amount of theorizing about what the “real story” behind Benghazi really is. To me it’s always been obvious. The White House was caught off guard — for reasons stemming both from ideology and incompetence — on September 11, 2012. As they have after virtually every other (jihadist) terrorist attack on Americans, they acted as if it had absolutely nothing to do with them. As with the Times Square bomber, the Fort Hood shooter, and other Islamist assaults, there’s always some other reason for the bloodshed, some attempt to claim, at least for a while, that this was an “isolated incident” with no broader implications for the War on Terror or Obama’s foreign policy. Admittedly, even this White House understood that spinning the Benghazi attack as an isolated incident wasn’t going to work (such intense spinning could risk irreparable scrotal torsion). So they went with the story about the video..." --Jonah Goldberg

Sunday, May 04, 2014

SWEET FANCY MOSES: In only 9 years, phone memory cards have grown from 128MB to 128GB

Moore's Law hardest hit.

Emerging in 2005 out of the need for a memory card small enough to fit inside a mobile phone, microSD cards have rapidly matured to their current status of global ubiquity and adoption. This year's Mobile World Congress marks a significant milestone in their growth, with SanDisk introducing the first 128GB microSD card. That will store a thousand times more photos, videos, and GIFs than the original maximum of 128MB.


At such large sizes, microSD cards are approaching the typical storage you'll get on an SSD-equipped laptop or tablet, which will surely contribute to the ongoing erosion of the distinction between mobile devices and PCs...

I'm not sure if I have this right, but I believe my first real PC had 128KB of RAM and a whopping 10MB hard drive. And it cost about $5,700 if memory serves.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News

The Ruling Class has Borrowed and Printed and Spent $3.2 Trillion... and Hasn't Put a Dent in Unemployment

Guest post by Phoenix Capital Research

The great attempt to prop up the US economy through spending and printing money is at an end. The world takes a long time to catch on to these changes, but the shift has already begun. It’s now...

The financial media are gaga over the alleged great jobs numbers from last week.

We’ve been over this saga many times. The methodology for calculating jobs gains is not even close to accurate. The unemployment rate is now a marketing gimmick rather than an accurate economic metric.

Indeed, here are some staggering statistics that indicate just how messed up the US economy is right now.

·      • The labor participation rate is the lowest since 1978.

·      • There are over 90 million Americans without a job right now.

·      • An incredible 20% of all American families do not have a single member who is employed.

·      • There are over 47 million Americans on food stamps.

There is simply no way to spin these numbers. The US Federal Reserve has spent over $3.2 trillion and generated virtually no real job growth (accounting for population growth).

See for yourself:

When you account for how the potential labor pool has grown, the number of employed Americans has gone almost nowhere but down since the 2008 recession “ended.”

JANINE TURNER: Gorgeous And Brilliant

Janine Turner just hit a grand-slam.

The number one threat to our republic is not the debt, is not the entitlements, is not invasion from another country. The number one threat to our country is lust. It is not a sexual lust. It is a lust for power. Since time began, the lust for power and its ruthlessness has ruined liberty, derailed democracy, wrecked republicanism, crippled nations and killed millions. The paths have been many but the goal singular — lust, lust for power.

Our founders knew firsthand how the lust for power corrupted human rights. They knew that, to quote James Madison, “men are not angels.” Thus, they created a government of checks and balances that would keep tyranny at bay. According to the Constitution, one branch of government can never usurp the other and no one branch can be autonomous.

There has been, and is, a faction amongst us that wants to change the fundamental structure of these checks — the progressives. The progressives don’t want a multi-tiered, self-checking and self-limiting government. They want an all-powerful, singular nexus of decision-making in the executive branch, free from checks and balances...

...Their mission is to eradicate the potency of the U.S. Congress, thus eliminating the utterly crucial check on executive power. They accomplish this by diminishing the reputation of the legislative branch and thus crippling its power and effectiveness. Our legislators fell for this in 1912. They are falling for it again and they are taking the American people with them.

Progressives had astonishing results in 1912 and 1913 with the 17th Amendment. Progressives managed to convince the state legislatures and the U.S senators that they were, themselves, corrupt. They convinced them to vote for their own demise. In the late 1800s, patient and premeditated, the progressives had planted a negative Senate public-relations campaign to germinate into the nucleus of the culture. With political comments such as “the Senate is dictated by special interests” and “the Senate is ineffectual,” the progressives fanned the flames of destruction.

They manipulated a masterful coup in the Senate, denying states’ rights, with a simple message – “The Senate is corrupted by special interest groups.” Sound familiar? It was simply stunning. Henceforth, the senators would no longer be appointed by the state legislators, but by the people. With this singular, monumental sweep of states’ rights, the Constitution, which they conveniently believe to be outdated, was thrown off-kilter.

Be aware: the progressive are not finished. They are enacting the same campaign today. Now instead of the Senate, the entire legislative branch is the problem. “The legislative branch prevents all good from taking place.” “The legislative branch is corrupt.” “The legislative branch is a bother.” “The legislative branch never gets anything done.” “The legislative branch is corrupted by special interest groups.” By beating down the legislative branch, the executive branch rises.

Read the whole damn thing.

And ask yourself: is it so difficult for a Republican leader to step up and articulate these issues as well as Ms. Turner?


Hat tip: BadBlue News

How do you transport a half-million pound mining truck that is roughly the size of a city block?

Mercedes has the answer.



Hat tip: BadBlue Car News

A TRUTHFUL VERSION OF THE OBAMA 2012 SLOGAN: "Chris Stevens is Dead and Al Qaeda is Alive"

Stephen F. Hayes offers an incisive summary of the fraud perpetrated against the victims' families and the American people regarding the Benghazi attacks.

At the same time the White House was putting the video at the center of the Benghazi story, intelligence professionals and U.S. officials on the ground in Libya were describing a precise attack carried out by al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. The Weekly Standard has learned that an analysis from the Defense Intelligence Agency produced a day before Rhodes sent his email assigned blame for the attacks to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar al Sharia Libya. The DIA analysis did not mention a video. It adds to the still-growing body of memos and warnings from top U.S. officials. The top U.S. intelligence official on the ground in Libya repeatedly told officials in Washington that the Benghazi attacks were part of a planned assault by al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. The top diplomat in the country said the same thing. Last week, a top intelligence official for AFRICOM told Congress that he shared that view.

We are left with this reality: Top diplomats and intelligence officers in Libya offered assessments of the Benghazi attacks that were true when they made them and remain true today. But top Obama administration officials ignored those assessments. Six weeks before the 2012 presidential election, those officials—at the direction of White House communications and political strategists desperate to maintain the fiction that al Qaeda was “on the run”—lied to the public about how four Americans were killed in a sophisticated attack carried out, on the anniversary of 9/11, by terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda.

Andrew C. McCarthy rolls back the fraud even further, painting a compelling case that the unknown filmmaker's video was not the cause of any of the 9/11/12 violence, including that which occurred in Cairo.

POLL: What was Barack Obama doing for 10 hours after learning of the Benghazi attacks?

A new poll courtesy of @BiffSpackle:



Remember all of the liberal criticism of George W. Bush reading My Pet Goat (I'm talking to you, fat boy) after being alerted by aides that the World Trade Center was under attack? Never mentioned by the liberal loons: Bush was asked by the Secret Service to give them some time to secure an evacuation route to Air Force One. So he read the book to the schoolkids for a total of six whole minutes.

The criticism from the Left was deafening.

Yet, in Benghazi, we can't even find out what the President was doing for 10 hours after learning of the attacks, leaving Americans to die awaiting a rescue that would never come.

10 hours, or 100 My Pet Goats.

Talk amongst yourselves.


Larwyn's Linx: Trey Gowdy: ‘I Have Evidence’ of ‘Systematic, Intentional’ Benghazi Cover-Up

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Trey Gowdy Has Evidence of ‘Systematic, Intentional’ Benghazi Cover-Up: TPNN
Benghazi Emails: Proof Obama put politics ahead of truth: Jay Sekulow
Trey Gowdy: Benghazi Select Committee Bulldog: Rotten to the Core

It is not possible to get leftists to feel embarrassment or shame: Q&O
Obama Again Calls the United States a Constitutional Democracy: Sara Noble
Honesty in Chicago Politics? Open Socialist Runs for City Council: Loudon

Bill to allow law licenses for non-citizens passes: Times
Inevitable: Rich GOP donors warn Christie their first loyalty is to Jeb Bush: Hot Air
Shellacking II: The Sequel: WFB

Economy

Welcome To ‘Operation Chokepoint’, DOJ's Massive Overreach: WZ
Obama Vacations Have Cost $40 Million, Averaging $625,000/Mo.: WZ
FCC Cronyism Stiffs Taxpayers and Destroys Jobs: Phil Kerpen

Scandal Central

Sharyl Attkisson: Emails Prove White House Cover-up: Reason
‘Smoking Gun’ Benghazi Email Distribution: Muslim Brotherhood Agent: Shoebat
Non-English Speakers Qualify for Disability Benefits More Quickly: WFB

Father of SEAL Killed in Benghazi Attacks: White House 'Watched This Battle Happen': FNI
Judge Jeanine Pirro: ‘Why Wouldn’t We Impeach This President For Benghazi?: Nice Deb
Libya Yada Yada: Crockett Lives

Climate & Energy

Global Warming Causes Schizophrenia*: Ed Driscoll
Westerners fear Obama preparing monuments land grab: Thomas Burr
The ocean ate my global warming: WUWT

Media

Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege: Tal Fortgang
The Dudes Abide: Ed Driscoll
Tommy Vietor Comix: MB

Feminist Theory Ruins Everything: @AmyGoodloe’s Lesbian Sedative: R.S. McCain
Bob Beckel meltdown – throws a tantrum over Benghazi cover-up: FAM
From The “What If Bush Had Said It” Files: Pres Jokes Conservatives Talk About Putin’s Chest: Scoop

Guard of Honor - Review: ‘The Marines Take Anbar’ by Richard H. Shultz Jr.: WFB
Would you please watch this?: GayPatriot
As Correspondents’ Dinner Comedy Act, McHale Denigrates Republicans as Racists: CNS

World

Dangerous Times: Still Missing the Strategic Meaning of Benghazi: James Lewis
Libya: Muslim Art Critics Destroy 12000 Yr. Old World Heritage Rock Paintings: BCF
Reprisals in eastern Ukraine as army continues advance on pro-Russian rebels: EuroNews

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Boeing’s Stealth Bird of Prey: Tactical Life
Company Uses Bogus Polls And Gag Orders To Protect Image Of License Plate Scanning: TechDirt
The next NSA? Police departments under scrutiny for phone, license plate surveillance: Fox

Cornucopia

Thug Finds Out What Happens When You Sucker Punch an Ex-Special Forces Business Owner: RWN
Capitalist Oppression: Slave Descendant Is Charged 20¢ for Cup of Water: MB
Sober driver arrested on bogus DWI charges after sheriff's deputy leaves her with a broken neck: Daily Mail

Image: Inevitable: Rich GOP donors warn Christie that their first loyalty is to Jeb Bush
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Fire John "Amnesty" Boehner Today -- Support J.D. Winteregg!

QOTD: “The [Benghazi cover-up] case has been reopened... [Jay Carney's assertion] is a preposterous proposition. The reason Susan Rice was on the show, the reason she got the prepping, the reason she had to be told our goals was because of the Benghazi deaths, it was not because anybody would have cared about the Cairo demonstrations.

There wasn’t a protest, there wasn’t a demonstration, the video was irrelevant. This was a way to tell her to tell the nation a story about a video that would in essence politically exonerate the president six weeks before an election." --Charles Krauthammer

Saturday, May 03, 2014

LIMBAUGH: Watergate is Benghazi. Except this time, Woodward and Bernstein are helping Nixon cover it up.

Rush Limbaugh:

What we’re watching here today is the equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein helping Nixon cover up Watergate. The mainstream media is Woodward and Bernstein. Watergate is Benghazi. Except this time, Woodward and Bernstein are helping Nixon cover it up.

The media are not interested in this at all. They don't really think there is anything, and those of them who do know that there's something here want to cover it up. Now, the media are made up of a lot of stupid people. And the media are made up of a lot of uninformed people and the media are made up of a lot of people with a lot of prejudice. And there are a lot of reporters who will discount Benghazi simply because of who is interested in it. For example, Fox is interested in it and it automatically is nothing. If I'm interested in it it doesn't rate any interest, because Fox and me, all we want is to get Obama.

That's how prejudiced they are and short minded. You have some of the media who know full well what they're doing and they're working with the regime to cover it up. Then you have real activists in the media who know exactly what happened and who fear the truth coming out and are going to do everything they can to protect Obama, including trying to lay the blame off on Republicans somehow or the military, or the video that nobody ever saw...

The memo shows that the White House knew exactly what happened and was trying to protect Obama from it, with Susan Rice being briefed. And Dr. Krauthammer says that's the equivalent of the Nixon tapes being discovered.

The Nixon tapes were big. The 18-minute gap, Rose Mary Wood, the secretary, Nixon taping all the people, Haldeman and Ehrlichman. It's what enabled Woodward and Bernstein to go. I still like my comparison that the Drive-Bys of today are the equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein helping to cover it up. When Dr. Krauthammer says the other media are somewhat embarrassed because they allowed themselves to be stoned spun and rolled for a year and a half. Now the memo appears, it's obvious they missed the story....

The media and the administration official in the White House were both ragging on Fox. They were watching Fox. They were watching the O'Reilly Factor and they were e-mailing each other back and forth. O'Reilly was going back and forth how Benghazi was a big thing and the media was missing it and clearly the video had nothing to do with it. And these two people, one a Drive-By reporter, the other an administration official, were both writing back and forth about what B.S. Fox was talking about...

AP reporter Matt Lee and Regime official Victoria Nuland, State Department, were writing back and forth. E-mails to each other about what a bunch of B.S. is on Fox as O'Reilly is discounting the Regime theory on the video explaining why there were protests in Benghazi and that's why the Ambassador is dead. So the point is you have a State Department official writing back and forth with a news media person, Matt Lee. If you read it, it's clear that Matt Lee from the Associated Press is offering his assistance to the regime.

My only point in bringing this up is the media didn't have to be spun. The media didn't have to be rolled. I'm not criticizing Krauthammer, please don't misunderstand. I'm disagreeing with the role of the media here. They're totally already in the Obama camp. They are Obamaites first and journalists second. They're liberal Democrats first and journalists second. They're not even journalists anymore. So you have Victoria Nuland at the State Department and this Matt Lee guy and they're watching O'Reilly and O'Reilly is making all the sense in the world about the video not being responsible for anything here, and these two people are writing back and forth about what a bunch of B.S. is on Fox.

Now, the AP reporter, he doesn't know from anything. He's not asking the State Department babe, "Hey, is what I'm hearing on Fox right?" He's not asking the government official, "Hey, could O'Reilly have a point here? Maybe the video doesn't have anything --" No, the AP reporter was already in bed with the State Department official, and they were already conspiring with each other on how to make sure nobody believed the Fox report or the Fox version of things. They wanted to make sure that the Fox version of things remained marginalized and isolated. I don't think the media has to be spun, and I don't think they're embarrassed now. I don't think there's any regret that they missed this story.

The regret is they weren't able to successfully cover it up. If anything, the Drive-By media is gnashing its teeth over the fact that the original Fox and anti-standard media version of this, my version, is the one that's real, that the regime has been lying. They're mad that that has been learned. So now they've gotta cover it up. So we're into the cover up of a cover-up now. The media is not interested in the truth of this story. They never have been. This has been a circle the wagons event from the get-go. From the night of the Benghazi attack, this has been a circle the wagons moment. Now they've gotta do it again.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

ANOTHER NEW LOW FOR JOHN KERRY: "We need another intifada" to force Israel to surrender its sovereignty

And you thought John Kerry had already hit rock bottom, n'est ce pas?

In anonymous briefing to top columnist, members of Kerry’s team slam Netanyahu, empathize with Abbas, warn Palestine will rise ‘whether through violence or via int’l organizations’


American officials directly involved in the failed Israeli-Palestinian peace process over the last nine months gave a leading Israeli columnist a withering assessment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the negotiations, indicated that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has completely given up on the prospect of a negotiated solution, and warned Israel that the Palestinians will achieve statehood come what may — either via international organizations or through violence...

...One bitter American official told Barnea, “I guess we need another intifada to create the circumstances that would allow progress...”

...In a rare attribution of some blame to Abbas, the Americans said they “couldn’t understand why it bothered him so much” to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. But here too, ultimately, the Americans were empathetic to Abbas: “The Palestinians came to the conclusion that Israel was pulling a nasty trick on them. They suspected there was an effort to get from them approval of the Zionist narrative.

...Israel can expect to face international isolation and possible sanctions from countries and companies across the world if Netanyahu fails to endorse a framework agreement with the Palestinians, Obama cautioned in an interview with Bloomberg at the time. If Netanyahu “does not believe that a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for Israel, then he needs to articulate an alternative approach,” Obama said then. “There comes a point where you can’t manage this anymore, and then you start having to make very difficult choices,” he said.

The president went on to condemn Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank, and said that though his allegiance to the Jewish state was permanent, building settlements across the Green Line was counterproductive and would make it extremely difficult for the US to defend Israel from painful repercussions in the international community. “If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction — and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time — if Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited,” Obama warned.

Late last year, Kerry -- whose face has been distorted by repeated failed plastic surgeries and now resembles that of Mr. Potato Head -- lashed out at Israel and mentioned the possibility of a "Third Intifida" (i.e., a wave of mass murders of innocent women and children).

Never before, to my knowledge, has an American diplomat hoped for a wave of mass murder on the civilian population of an ally.

I placed the map of Israel above for a reason. The purple borders illustrate how Egypt and Jordan could tear down their security walls and thereby allow Palestinians freedom in Arab lands.

Why doesn't John Kerry talk about that? Why doesn't Barack Obama mention that?

We know why. Indeed, we know exactly why.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: Boehner announces he will allow vote to establish select committee on Benghazi

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Boehner to allow vote to establish select committee on Benghazi: UnitedLiberty
Trey Gowdy ‘On the Record’ on the Select Committee for Benghazi: Gretawire
Boehner to appoint panel on Benghazi: The Hill

S&P Capital IQ: 144 Million to Lose Their Employer Health Plans: Lid
Yet Again, Anarchists Highjack Peaceful Left Wing Protest: Ace
GOP Establishment: ‘The McConnell Strategy’: Rotten

Is Obama Too Smart for the Presidency-or Is It Too Tough for Him?: Michael Walsh
Bunkerville Remains The Flash Point: Christian Mercenary
Wendy Davis has Some Explaining to do on Ethics: RWN

Economy

5 Ways Liberals Hurt The Poor: John Hawkins
What is the Real Unemployment Rate?: Federalist
Break Up the Golden State?: City Journal

Scandal Central

Vid: A few times Obama, Clinton, etc. blamed Benghazi on Video: Bryan Preston
Finally, Boehner to Launch a Select Committee on Benghazi: David Weigel
Go Trey, Go Trey: William A. Jacobson

Does Harry Reid Own 93 Acres Near Bundy Grazing Land?: BuzzPo
Obama Had “Debate Prep” Meeting on September 11, 2012, the Day of the Benghazi Attack: Patterico
Benghazi Vs. Botched Execution: Cove

Climate & Energy

Supreme Court Ruling Empowers EPA: Bill Straub
How To Talk To People About Hotcoldwetdry: Cove
Claim: U.S. corn increasingly vulnerable to hot, dry weather; Data: corn trend positive: WUWT

Media

CBS Evening News Finally Notices Benghazi Emails; Discloses Exec.'s Family Tie to White House: MRC
David Gregory Connects Benghazi Directly to Hillary Clinton: Bryan Preston
100,000 New Yorkers demonstrate downtown against Nazi Jew-hatred, media doesn’t run it: Geller

Benghazi: Not Exactly Rocket Science: DiploMad
Krauthammer's Take: New Benghazi E-mail Akin to Discovery of Nixon Tapes: NRO
LIBS TO LIBS: 'CNN Has Gone In The Toilet, FOX Is Only Place For Straight News': Clash

World

Obama Never Made it to Situation Room During Benghazi Attack!: GWP
Benghazi, Lies and Videotape: Nonie Darwish
Pope Francis Says He Cried After Seeing Pictures of Christians Crucified By Islamists In Syria: WZ

The Real Problem With Kerry’s ‘Apartheid’ Myth: RWN
Mexican Military Repeatedly Invades the USA – Obama Does Nothing: Eagle Rising
Japan puts early-warning aircraft on Okinawa amid China's moves: Stripes

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The Flying Car That Could Expedite Your Morning Commute: Discover
Mind blown! Facebook’s f8 makes a mobile move into marketing automation: InsideFacebook
BICEP2 and the Origins of the Universe: Behind the Buzz: Space.com

Cornucopia

No Sex, Just Lies: Still Waiting On the Emails and Videotape: MOTUS
Bizarre Arizona landscape swirls and sways like brushstrokes from a surrealist painting: Daily Mail
Rob Schneider Tells Chris Stigall: We Are Sliding Very Fast Towards Fascism: CBS Philly

Image: Officials to hold largest security drill in Boston’s history
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: John Lott starting an honest gun research center

QOTD: "...a trio of Republican senators wrote to Obama Friday, demanding he reveal his whereabouts during the attack after former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Fox News that Obama was not in the White House’s basement Situation Room monitoring events.

“Over a year and a half has passed since the terrorist attacks, and the American people still do not have an accounting of your activities during the attack. Mr. President, can you now confirm that Mr. Vietor’s account of your absence in the White House Situation Room is accurate?” the letter asks." --Russell Berman

Friday, May 02, 2014

BEN RHODES HITS THE QUADFECTA: Email Breakdown

Thanks to JudicialWatch (PDF), we have the original email from White House propagandist Ben Rhodes regarding the Benghazi cover-up.

Check out the four talking points, annotated by @BiffSpackle:


Oh, my.


Related: May 10, 2013: Ted Cruz has 12 Questions for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

TOMMY VIETOR COMIX in "Dude, where's my van?"

Via our summer intern, @BiffSpackle and based on a true story.


Methinks Mr. Vietor will soon be back living in his van, down by the river.