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PoliGAF 2013 |OT2| Worth 77% of OT1

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W

Wilsongt

Member
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...."

Oh God.

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen..."

Not again. Here it comes!

"BENGHAZIBENGHAZIBENGAZIBENGHAZI"

House committee issues subpoena for Benghazi documents

The Republican chairman of a congressional oversight committee ordered the State Department on Tuesday to provide documents related to "talking points" prepared for television interviews about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a subpoena ordering 10 current and former State Department officials to hand over "documents and communications" related to the attacks in Libya last September 11, in which four Americans were killed.

The subpoena gives Secretary of State John Kerry a June 7 deadline to provide the material. A State Department spokesman said the department would look at the request and decide how to respond.

Republicans and Democrats have been waging a political battle over the attacks.

Republicans have accused President Barack Obama's administration of covering up details of the assault on the mission out of concern that it could tarnish the Democrat's foreign policy credentials during his re-election campaign.

Democrats dismiss the Republican charges as a politically motivated fishing expedition seeking to discredit Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is considered a top Democratic presidential contender in 2016.

Many of the cover-up accusations stem from unclassified "talking point" memos from intelligence agencies used to prepare Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, for television talk show appearances on September 16.

In those appearances, Rice suggested the attacks were a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic film, rather than a premeditated assault.

'NO ALTERNATIVE'

The Obama administration insists the talking points were based on the best information available at the time. It has since acknowledged that militants linked to al Qaeda were behind the attacks and that there was no demonstration in Benghazi.

The administration also released 100 pages of copied emails earlier this month documenting the genesis of the talking points.

Issa said the State Department had refused multiple requests to voluntarily provide the material he seeks.

The subpoenaed documents include communications to or from William Burns, a deputy secretary of state; Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman whom Obama has nominated as assistant secretary of state for Europe, and Cheryl Mills, who was counselor and chief of staff for Clinton.

"The State Department has not lived up to the administration's broad and unambiguous promises of cooperation with Congress. Therefore, I am left with no alternative but to compel the State Department to produce relevant documents through a subpoena," Issa said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry accompanying the subpoena.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the department had cooperated with Congress on Benghazi to "an unprecedented degree," including by participating in more than 30 hearings and briefings and sharing more than 25,000 pages of documents.

Ventrell said Kerry and Obama were focused primarily on implementing the recommendations of the board that reviewed the Benghazi attacks and going further to improve security for U.S. diplomats and development workers overseas.
Click to expand...

Not a day goes by...

Twenty children are still dead due to gun violence, but that barely got much of a blip on the radar compared to Benghazi-, IRS-, AP-, Umbrella-. FoxNewsSpying-, NotSalutingGate.
 
E

el retorno

Member
Wilsongt said:
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...."

Oh God.

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen..."

Not again. Here it comes!

"BENGHAZIBENGHAZIBENGAZIBENGHAZI"

House committee issues subpoena for Benghazi documents



Not a day goes by...

Twenty children are still dead due to gun violence, but that barely got much of a blip on the radar compared to Benghazi-, IRS-, AP-, Umbrella-. FoxNewsSpying-, NotSalutingGate.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Issa has seen the documents and they will reveal nothing that we don't already know.
 
K

KingK

Member
CharlieDigital said:
My faith in government has been shaken by how ridiculous Congress has gotten. The whole thing with Inhofe and Oklahoma wanting federal aid dollars is just yet another example of the bullshit hypocrisy and fundamental issue with how one side of our government works today and it's fucking disheartening.

Having been through Superstorm Sandy and then having to read and hear all of the bullshit from the GOP on funding for the recovery and Boehner's delay of the vote...makes me fucking sick that these bastards now expect the rest of the country to treat them differently and with greater compassion than they showed the people of tri-state area after Sandy.

I have no confidence that we can do amazing things any more.
Click to expand...

The bolded is exactly what the Republicans want (and has been their entire governing strategy for 30 years). Get elected on the platform of small government claiming, "the government can't do anything right!" and then proceed to make damn sure that the government doesn't do anything right while in office. Blame "big government liberals" and repeat.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
el retorno said:
I'm sure Issa has seen the documents and they will reveal nothing that we don't already know.
Click to expand...

Dunno. Emptywheel has been covering Benghazi smartly from the beginning IMO
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/11/petraeus-revenge/

TLDR: Petraeus or someone close to him could be guiding the GOP's hand here (pointing the finger at State, when this was clearly a CIA fuck up), flagging which emails to demand; unfortunately for Petraeus, the GOP fucked up the last batch with blatantly false quotes. Maybe this time they'll handle it better.
 
P

Piecake

Member
KingK said:
The bolded is exactly what the Republicans want (and has been their entire governing strategy for 30 years). Get elected on the platform of small government claiming, "the government can't do anything right!" and then proceed to make damn sure that the government doesn't do anything right while in office. Blame "big government liberals" and repeat.
Click to expand...

Well, I think it sort of back-fired because they lost the youth vote for this generation and it will only get worse over time with the youth vote getting less and less white. And it is during these years that political opinions are usually solidified so all of these young democrats are probably going to be young democrats for life

That whole young people democrat, old people republican is a bunch of BS. Reagan owned the youth vote during the 80s, for example.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
PhoenixPause said:
Dunno. Emptywheel has been covering Benghazi smartly from the beginning IMO
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/11/petraeus-revenge/

TLDR: Petraeus or someone close to him could be guiding the GOP's hand here (pointing the finger at State, when this was clearly a CIA fuck up), flagging which emails to demand; unfortunately for Petraeus, the GOP fucked up the last batch with blatantly false quotes. Maybe this time they'll handle it better.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Petraeus among the people who let some of the air out of the GOP's tires regarding Benghazi?
 
K

KingK

Member
Piecake said:
Well, I think it sort of back-fired because they lost the youth vote for this generation and it will only get worse over time with the youth vote getting less and less white. And it is during these years that political opinions are usually solidified so all of these young democrats are probably going to be young democrats for life

That whole young people democrat, old people republican is a bunch of BS. Reagan owned the youth vote during the 80s, for example.
Click to expand...

I agree, it does appear to have backfired. It seems conservatives don't tend to think long term, they were just focused on whatever got them power right away.
 
empty vessel

empty vessel

Member
Wilsongt said:
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...."

Oh God.

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen..."

Not again. Here it comes!

"BENGHAZIBENGHAZIBENGAZIBENGHAZI"

House committee issues subpoena for Benghazi documents



Not a day goes by...

Twenty children are still dead due to gun violence, but that barely got much of a blip on the radar compared to Benghazi-, IRS-, AP-, Umbrella-. FoxNewsSpying-, NotSalutingGate.
Click to expand...

Can you imagine what the left could have made of Rumsfeld's notes about 9/11 if they were anywhere nearly as organized as rightwing crazies are? That had actual substance. The evidence of war criminality was blatant.

PhoenixPause said:
Dunno. Emptywheel has been covering Benghazi smartly from the beginning IMO
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/11/petraeus-revenge/

TLDR: Petraeus or someone close to him could be guiding the GOP's hand here (pointing the finger at State, when this was clearly a CIA fuck up), flagging which emails to demand; unfortunately for Petraeus, the GOP fucked up the last batch with blatantly false quotes. Maybe this time they'll handle it better.
Click to expand...

Emtywheel is good reading.
 
R

RustyNails

Member
Piecake said:
Well, I think it sort of back-fired because they lost the youth vote for this generation and it will only get worse over time with the youth vote getting less and less white. And it is during these years that political opinions are usually solidified so all of these young democrats are probably going to be young democrats for life

That whole young people democrat, old people republican is a bunch of BS. Reagan owned the youth vote during the 80s, for example.
Click to expand...
Judging by the past two elections, they've lost the female vote, youth vote, Black vote, Hispanic vote, Asian vote, and every other demographic. The only solid Republican voting block is white male, usually above the age of 40. As far as I'm concerned, the teaparty simply hastened/is hastening the demise of GOP. The downside is obviously shitty gerrymandered districts that keep them in office.
 
C

ClassyPenguin

Banned
empty vessel said:
Can you imagine what the left could have made of Rumsfeld's notes about 9/11 if they were anywhere nearly as organized as rightwing crazies are? That had actual substance. The evidence of war criminality was blatant.
Click to expand...

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

-Donald Rumsfeld

#GOPwordstoliveby
 
empty vessel

empty vessel

Member
ClassyPenguin said:
"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

-Donald Rumsfeld

#GOPwordstoliveby
Click to expand...

Ironically, that's the wisest thing Donald Rumsfeld has ever said. It's true. What he didn't say was that among the known knowns was that he was going to commit war crimes with impunity.
 
J

jamesinclair

Banned
State election lols.

Mr tea Party thinks he won. His opponent concedes. He was already picking out curtains for his new office.

DEWEY WINS

After Hanford Republican Andy Vidak posted a convincing victory Tuesday over Bakersfield Democrat Leticia Perez in a 16th state Senate special election, Democrats were hoping history can repeat itself -- and Republicans were calculating how to solidify Vidak's future.

Vidak, who still was enjoying his win Wednesday, said he had yet to think much about how he'd go about his work over the next 18 months.

"A smile and a handshake, that's where we have to start," he said.

Vidak said he talked on the phone Wednesday with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, the top Democrat. He said the conversation was good.

"He congratulated me," Vidak said. "He said we ran a good campaign."
Click to expand...

No really

There are still around 6,500 absentee and provisional ballots left to count in the district, which covers all of Kings County and parts of Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties.

But Perez -- or the three other candidates who ran -- would have to win slightly more than two-thirds of the outstanding ballots to push Vidak below the 50% threshold, which would force a July 23 runoff.

Even Perez acknowledged that was impossible, conceding the race to Vidak.

"I want to congratulate Andy Vidak on winning this hard-fought race," she said in a written statement.
Click to expand...

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/05/22/3310244/after-16th-state-senate-win-andy.html#storylink=cpy

But wait.

In a stunning turnaround that caught the Valley political world completely off guard, Hanford Republican Andy Vidak -- the apparent winner in a 16th state Senate District special election -- will now likely face a runoff.

It was a task seen as all but impossible -- but that's exactly what happened.

On Friday, the new count showed Vidak at 49.8%, Perez at 43.8% and Francisco "Frank" Ramirez, Paulina Miranda and Mohammad Arif splitting the remaining 6.4%.
Click to expand...

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/05/24/3313163/senate-district-16-updated-vote.html#storylink=cpy


A run off!

It's all but official: Bakersfield Democrat Leticia Perez and Hanford Republican Andy Vidak will face off in a July 23 runoff to see which one will take over the vacant 16th District state Senate seat.

Both Kern and Tulare counties certified their election results on Tuesday, and Kings County election officials said they were finished counting, though the county has yet to certify the election.

But it is almost a certainty that Vidak won't get enough Fresno County votes to go above the 50% threshold and win the May 21 election outright in the battle to replace Bakersfield Democrat Michael Rubio, who resigned in February.

At this point, he is 87 votes short of crossing that point. But the 50% is a moving number, and the real number of votes he needs is actually around 175.
Click to expand...
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/05/28/3317544/its-all-but-official-vidak-perez.html#storylink=cpy


The comments, of course, are nothing but classy

Oh boy, exactly what we need another female, minority liberal in COngress. Yippee!
Click to expand...

Perez ran a horrible campaign. After the terrible platform of raising the minimum wage, what does she do for an encore? Increase welfare benefits for married gay couples while giving free college tuition to their undocumented adopted child after they get a free mortgage pay down on the home where they nightly burn the US flag?
Click to expand...



Best part? Same thing happened to him in 2010. He won....and then the provisionals came in and he lost.

Apparently, democrats suck at voting. Cant ever find their right polling place.

Hes certain to lose the run-off race because the moderates split the vote.
 
S

speculawyer

Member
Have you seen that Bob Dole interview? He's salty as fuck and is bitch-slapping the GOP hard.

The failure of today’s government to solve America’s problems is “almost unreal,” Dole said. “We weren’t perfect by a long shot but at least we got our work done.”

He criticized the Republican Party, saying, “I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says closed for repairs until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.”
Click to expand...



Read more: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/2...teran-republican-proud-american#ixzz2UeXCz7uK

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/2...y-interview-veteran-republican-proud-american

All well he should. He's pissed that the GOP nuts bailed on a Disabilities Treaty based on his ADA because of crazy-ass UN conspiracy theory nonsense.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502782
 
G

Gotchaye

Member
empty vessel said:
Ironically, that's the wisest thing Donald Rumsfeld has ever said. It's true. What he didn't say was that among the known knowns was that he was going to commit war crimes with impunity.
Click to expand...

That's not fair. The possibility of suffering negative consequences for committing war crimes would have only been a known unknown, at the time.

Joking aside, yeah, what Rumsfeld said there was actually a nice way to put an important point.

speculawyer said:
Have you seen that Bob Dole interview? He's salty as fuck and is bitch-slapping the GOP hard.
Click to expand...

I'm really impressed with Dole and Wallace both, there. I don't typically watch Fox, and I wasn't expecting Wallace to set Dole up to be critical of the Republicans to nearly the extent he did. For his part, Dole was surprisingly one-sided in his criticism; the only bad thing he had to say about Obama and Democrats is that Obama isn't friendly enough.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
speculawyer said:
Have you seen that Bob Dole interview? He's salty as fuck and is bitch-slapping the GOP hard.





Read more: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/2...teran-republican-proud-american#ixzz2UeXCz7uK

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/2...y-interview-veteran-republican-proud-american

All well he should. He's pissed that the GOP nuts bailed on a Disabilities Treaty based on his ADA because of crazy-ass UN conspiracy theory nonsense.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502782
Click to expand...

I still can't believe they did that crazy shit when it came to the disabilities treaty. Still pisses me off.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
Additional scrutiny of conservative organizations’ activities by the IRS did not solely originate in the agency’s Cincinnati office, with requests for information coming from other offices and often bearing the signatures of higher-ups at the agency, according to attorneys representing some of the targeted groups. At least one letter requesting information about one of the groups bears the signature of Lois Lerner, the suspended director of the IRS Exempt Organizations department in Washington.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney representing 27 conservative political advocacy organizations that applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status, provided some of the letters to NBC News. He said the groups’ contacts with the IRS prove that the practices went beyond a few “front line” employees in the Cincinnati office, as the IRS has maintained.

“We've dealt with 15 agents, including tax law specialists -- that's lawyers -- from four different offices, including (the) Treasury (Department) in Washington, D.C.,” Sekulow said. “So the idea that this is a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati is not correct.”
Among the letters were several that bore return IRS addresses other than Cincinnati, including "Department of the Treasury / Internal Revenue Service / Washington, D.C.," and the signatures of IRS officials higher up the chain. Two letters with "Department of the Treasury / Internal Revenue Service / Washington, D.C." letterhead were signed by "Tax Law Specialist(s)" from Exempt Organizations Technical Group 1 and Technical Group 2. Lerner’s signature, which appeared to be a stamp rather than an actual signature, appeared on a letter requesting additional information from the Ohio Liberty Council Corp.

Lerner has become one of the public faces of the controversy after refusing to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last Wednesday, citing her Constitutional Fifth Amendment rights after reading a brief statement: “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws, violated IRS regulations or provided false information to this or any other committee.”
Click to expand...

Two IRS Cincinnati employees who have talked to NBC News dispute one part of the IRS’ explanation, saying that application of inappropriate selection criteria and the extra scrutiny for Tea Party and other conservative political advocacy organizations was not the work of a few low-level “rogue” employees.

But they also have told NBC News that they believe there was no political or partisan motivation for the targeting or scrutiny.

"We're outstanding public servants, dedicated to our craft and to the public we serve,” said one current IRS Cincinnati employee contacted at home over the weekend, who agreed to speak to NBC News on the condition of anonymity. “To suggest that we're 'rogue' should be considered slander.”

Asked about the motivations for the targeting, the employee said, “I trust my management team."

Bonnie Esrig, a 38-year IRS veteran and a manager in the Cincinnati office until she retired from the IRS in January, also has told NBC News that decisions about how to handle cases came from management, and that all employees were subjected to considerable oversight. She also said that she believes there was no political or partisan motivation for the added scrutiny.
Click to expand...
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_new...ive-groups-letters-show?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=2

ugh. Even if it's nothing, the media won't let it be nothing.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Cyan said:
It slightly bothers me that people make fun of that statement. The underlying idea isn't wrong, it's just poorly worded.
Click to expand...

I don't know what the context was for it, but reading it now, it makes perfect sense. I'm guessing it's being portrayed as nonsensical by people who can't follow the statement.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
Some Republicans think the president has become distracted from the deficit by intensified public controversies over the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of Tea Party groups and the Justice Department’s investigation of The Associated Press.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...-being-wined-and-dined-by-obama#ixzz2Uf5aDPCj
Click to expand...

Reads like it came from The Onion.

GOP complains Obama distracted by Republicans trying to distract him!
 
G

Gotchaye

Member
Cyan said:
It slightly bothers me that people make fun of that statement. The underlying idea isn't wrong, it's just poorly worded.
Click to expand...

I don't even see what's poorly worded about it. I'd have a hard time doing better with double the word count.

Maybe it's just familiarity, but those labels for the three different categories are also reasonably useful in regular conversation when you don't want to have to be explaining risk vs uncertainty. I've heard a bunch of people in the UQ field gloss what they're doing in terms of known and unknown unknowns.

Likewise "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", although Rumsfeld didn't originate that. Really pithy way to put a useful point, even if it turns out to be necessarily false if you're reading it literally.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
Gotchaye said:
Likewise "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", although Rumsfeld didn't originate that. Really pithy way to put a useful point, even if it turns out to be necessarily false if you're reading it literally.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's moot when the onus is on the positive claim.
 
A

Averon

Member
Bachmann gone!?!?!

Only two possible reasons:

1.) She broke the law and is expecting to get charged.
2.) She got a lucrative offer elsewhere to peddle her brand of crazy rightwing-ism.
 
I

Incognito

Troll
So an "ethics investigation" forces Bachmann out? I wonder if it was ordered by the same folks who initiated the targeting of conservative groups at the IRS.
 
Jackben

Jackben

bitch I'm taking calls.
She isn't leaving because she doesn't think she can win though guys. Seriously. Also it has nothing to do with the investigation about misappropriating her presidential campaign funds. Absolutely nothing. Not related at all.
 
T

TacticalFox88

Banned
oh-shit.jpg


Obligatory
 
S

shadowsdarknes

Member
She's just going to troll like Palin does.

We haven't seen the last of her, that's for sure. But I'm surprised people even like her.

Is there anyone on the "left" that's unlikable as her? Michael Moore maybe?
 
L

LosDaddie

Banned
shadowsdarknes said:
She's just going to troll like Palin does.

We haven't seen the last of her, that's for sure. But I'm surprised people even like her.

Is there anyone on the "left" that's unlikable as her? Michael Moore maybe?
Click to expand...

I'm sure Fox News conservatives could name a few real quick, but there's no one on the Left like Bachmann who is also considered a leader among liberal groups.
 
G

gcubed

Member
shadowsdarknes said:
She's just going to troll like Palin does.

We haven't seen the last of her, that's for sure. But I'm surprised people even like her.

Is there anyone on the "left" that's unlikable as her? Michael Moore maybe?
Click to expand...

people on the right hate Pelosi with probably as much passion, but its for different reasons then Bachmann (she's not dumber then a box of rocks)
 
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