I’ve been watching with considerable amusement Twitter feeds about the spate of scandals rocking Washington.
The folks on Twitter are coming up was some witty comments and in an epic demonstration of freedom of speech many of these comments are directed squarely at the White House, and various representatives.
I’ve added my 2 cents from time to time but for the most part I’ve just been reading the comments.
On the one hand nothing happening in Washington is anything new. Abuse of power comes with the territory. Kennedy, Nixon, Clinton, Roosevelt, Bush, all of them abused power to greater or lesser degrees. I suspect that part of the sitting Presidents problem is that regardless of political affiliation.
We All HOPED it would be different.
In that regard, even those who have axes to grind with President Obama were hoping they were wrong. For them now I’d bet that they feel doubly betrayed even though they’ve been proven correct.
That dichotomy really pisses some people off.
The IRS has in my opinion been an abusive, hostile organization from it’s inception.
“PAY UP! You don’t have money? We’ll put a lean on your home, YOUR WHOLE FAMILY WILL SUFFER!”
“Your wife works? We’ll garnish Her paycheck too. Your kids are going hungry? Not our problem, pay your taxes!”
“Oh your company made a mistake in your W2 reporting. We owe you money? Yeah… Uh we’ll get around to that refund in 6 -9 months.”
“Interest? HAHAHAHA NO Dumbass! YOU pay US Interest… We don’t pay you interest!”
That people are just NOW realizing the IRS is a corrupt entity who uses strong arm Mafia collection tactics is astounding to me.
Wiretaps on AP phones?
That surprises anyone?
Did you bother to even skim The Patriot Act? You know… The act that should have expired but that President Obama signed the extension on?
When you have laws on the books that allow wiretaps without warrant if any remote case can be made that national security is threatened, are you really surprised that power was abused?
Really folks?
If the President calls you a terrorist YOU’RE a TERRORIST! If you spoke with or worked with someone from the MiddleEast you meet the national security requirement to have your phone records monitored.
Monitoring isn’t necessarily listening to your conversations… it appears this is more like being able to see the numbers you’ve dialed and received calls from on your phone bill. It’s still a violation of privacy. My concern isn’t that the government can do this.
My concern is that the bar that allows this kind of monitoring is set way too low.
Of greater concern is that it’s just now an issue to our lawmakers.
Benghazi?
Uh Hello?
All you had to do was listen to the news coverage during the event. The story changed before our eyes. It was obvious some kind of spin was being applied. The question is WHY?
Why was it somehow inappropriate to say terrorists attacked the embassy? Who cares if those terrorists were motivated by a dumb, poorly acted, less than complimentary film about Muhammed, or as Hillary said “They just wanted to kill Americans?” Terrorists they were, are and will remain.
So why not use the word? It’s descriptive and accurate.
More importantly are little issues;
An attack on an embassy and the murder of an Ambassador has traditionally been an act of war.
We should have treated this attack as such. Yes we’re spread thin, but move special forces in immediately if they’re available. Start hunting the perpetrators down and leave them dead in the streets as an example to others. The Libyan government was doing all in it’s power to assist us until we publicly humiliated that government with our UN ambassador telling the world a fiction about a movie.
It made the Libyan government appear to have no control over their population and further, bringing worldwide attention to the movie sparked riots all over the place.
The truth was a better more stabilizing and compelling story. Ambassador Rice could have said something like;
“This was a terrorist attack, the Libyan government has provided us with excellent intelligence and while the information is still coming in, we are impressed with and appreciate the assistance the Libyan government has give to us in this matter.”
That simple acknowledgement would have opened many doors and allowed everyone to do their jobs.
That the State Department didn’t get it worries me more than the apparent obfuscation.
I find myself wondering what else the State Department has overlooked or misinterpreted.
Fast & Furious?
Why the hell does Holder still have his job?
Really? In what universe does it make any sense to sell guns to known criminals to find out where those guns go?
How about a simpler method? collect all the serial numbers of guns stolen from law aiding citizens and then compare how many of those stolen weapons end up being used in crimes… The percentage that end up in Mexican Drug Cartel hands will tell you how much of a problem gun trafficking is.
You’re still having to track the serial number of the gun(s)… RIGHT?
The Obama administration is a world wide joke.
It’s time for the President to get his ducks in a row, put and end to rogue elements in his administration and get to the business of being The President.
The first step is prosecuting every single person that’s been involved in wrong doing.