Benghazi Hearings Rant – The Reality of the Situation.

So I’ve only discussed this a little bit, but after today’s performance from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I feel like making a little rant to get some things off my chest. First of all I think I speak for most people when I say that I am very tired of the overuse of the phrase, “with all due respect.”

When I was in the Navy we were always taught to have respect for our seniors and not to disagree with them in public unless we first use the phrase, “with all due respect.” So using that phrase is equivalent to a lady in the south starting a comment about another person with the phrase, “Bless her/his little heart.”

Today I must have heard that phrase about a million times and in this overly-charged, politically-correct world that we live in I think it’s time for us to remove some of that political correctness and just lay it out as it really is. So here we go!!

The Benghazi debacle is the biggest bunch of SNAFU that I have seen since the stained dress, or Iran-Contra, or Watergate, or Scooter Libby, or the….well hell, I can’t go into them all, but safe it to say this is a mess and the real truth is pretty well been figured out but no one wants to just come out and admit to it all.

Today we had congressmen questioning the Secretary of State. Each of them got a whopping five minutes of time to question her and except for Secretary Clinton; NOONE was prepared for the day’s events. Between the grandstanding by the congressmen and the evasive avoidance of answering a question once posed, nothing was accomplished except a lot of cross talk and that smelly stuff you try not to step in while in a stable.

Now I am not going to get into too many details as I do not want to bore anyone and I am not writing a book, which I could with this mess. But I will touch on the main points and the ridiculousness of this all. First let’s go with the part that bothers me the most. Libya one of the hotbeds of foreign troubles then and now should have been one of the priorities of the foreign service; however, the new embassy in Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi had less security as far as physical barriers and security personnel than those in England and France – HUH.

Just seems like this a war zone and the countless requests for more security from the personnel on the ground in Libya it would appear logical for more security to be provided here.  But apparently, due to the small number of personnel assigned to the embassy staff in Libya, more security was not authorized. Apparently the size of the staff and not the security of the country is the deciding factor involved with determining the size of the security detail assigned.

Of course the four State Department individuals responsible for this lack of common sense were later suspended from service as a publicity stunt with a Friday afternoon press release; however, they were later reassigned to other departments in the state department. So apparently their ineptness that resulted in the death of four people, including the U.S. Ambassador, was not enough to warrant their permanent removal from the service – AMAZING!!

Then let’s look at the talking points that were designed to deal with the immediate fallout associated with this horrible event.  Within 24 hours most everyone on the planet with even a modicum of intelligence knew this was a terrorist attack. But the Obama Administration’s story that this was a demonstration that got out of hand was the story that the administration went forward with for two weeks because they either thought no one would find out the truth, or that as a populace us Americans were just gullible enough to accept this ridiculous explanation.

Today Secretary Clinton tried to walk that back and say that she and the President both called it a specific act of terrorism right from the beginning. But other than speaking in generalities about the evil of terrorism n general, neither of them called it terrorism and both taped Public Service Announcements (or commercials) that played on Arab television apologizing for the video they continued to blame for the incident. Meanwhile four American families are burying their murdered loved ones back here in the states.

They believed that us American suckers would buy this whole story hook, line, and sinker. They even rolled out U.N. Ambassador (and former Secretary of State hopeful) Susan Rice to go on the Sunday morning new show circuit and recite this finely crafted lie in hopes that Americans would buy this poisoned bill of goods; and guess what, far too many of the voters did.

But now we know the truth, Rice was unleashed with a set of talking points designed to blame the deaths of these fine men on a video and not disclose the inadequate capabilities of the Secretary of State, her staff, the intelligence community at large, and even the President himself. Today Clinton said she was not there when these talking points were developed but that is a point of discussion also since there are currently five differing lists of who were in those meetings and she is on two of them. Which begs another questions, if there was a group meeting to determine what had happened and she was in Washington then why wasn’t she in that meeting?

Today, a rattled Hillary Clinton made the screaming statement that it did not matter if it was an organized attack or a group of individuals who decided to kill some Americans. Well I beg to differ when you reason in the fact that just a few days ago American intelligence and the Foreign Service missed the very organized attack on the petroleum production site in Algeria. An organized attack that utilized many weapons that will probably be traced back to the Libyans rebels we aided.

It would be interesting to find out how many of the weapons used in Algeria actually came from Libya. Of course we would have to be able to trace those weapons and since the current administration can’t even trace the weapons they allowed to be illegally sold and smuggled into Mexico, well I guess we’re not going to get anywhere with that investigation either. See how far the ineptness goes when there is a leadership vacuum at the top.

Today Secretary Clinton said that serving overseas in the Foreign Service was inherently dangerous and those who served knew that when they signed on. But I am sure they figured they would be given the resources to do their jobs with at least a minimum of security requirements. When I was in the Navy and we were overseas I always knew that many times we would be in a dangerous situation; you kind of take that for granted. But whether the President was Reagan, Bush, Clinton, or Bush again; I never felt like we were inadequately provided at least that minimal amount of security.

Then there is the argument that Hillary Clinton made trying to lessen the importance of the State Departments incompetence. She tried to rationalize their deaths by saying that they knew their job was hazardous and that their acceptance of that knowledge essentially excused the State Department for the incompetence that cost them their lives; as ludicrous and asinine as that sounds that is precisely why she made that statement.

Later, Secretary Clinton, with the help of several liberal congressmen, went on to attack congress for a failure to fund the state Department with enough funds to provide the proper security in Libya. But the truth is the Military made an offer to augment the Libyan embassy security staff and that offer was rejected by State Department personnel. You know, those folks who were suspended on a Friday and working in another department with the month – BRILLIANT!!

Maybe if the State Department would have saved some money on Secretary Clinton’s travel, or if the Obama Administration had not funded those thoroughbreds like Solyndra, they might have been able to afford the additional security.

Well that is not the end of it, but that is all I am going to write about this evening. I feel like that is enough to ingest this evening. In the future I intend to praise the positive and hammer the negative that occurs in Washington, Austin, and for me, right here in Milam County, Texas.

With All Due Respect…Goodnight!!

Bill

End of the Week Notes!

Okay, so this is sort of a rant but since I put out a rant earlier this week as well as one on my Sports Blog (Buffalo Bill’s End Zone), I figure I would title this blog a little differently. So without further adieu, here we go.

1.       Well today is payday. Did you notice your paychecks might have gone down a little because of higher payroll taxes? But don’t worry; the fiscal cliff bill only raised taxes on the rich!!! RIGHT!!

2.       All Gore has made some moves in the last few weeks and guess what; he is now worth more than even that Fat Cat Mitt Romney!! That’s right; Al is now worth about $80 million more than old Mitt. Of course Mitt made his money in the business world and Al made all of his via nepotism, selling his cable network to Arab propagandists (Al Jazeera), and by scaring the hell out of everyone with his global warming movie filled with misdirection and scientific falsities. GOOD JOB AL!!

3.       Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is in North Korea this week to work on getting an imprisoned American released from a North Korean Prison. So how does the Obama Regime address it? By attacking Richardson’s efforts by saying it’s not an approved visit. Of course the Obama regime couldn’t even secure the release of an illegally imprisoned American veteran having to rely on some conservative media members and a couple of congressmen to make this happen. Maybe the Obamaites should look at Richardson for Secretary of State and not Lurch….un, I mean John Kerry.

4.       West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller announced this week that he will not run for re-election this next year – AMAZING!! This is one of the problems with the federal government. Our founding fathers intended for those serving in government to be citizen servants and not lifelong politicians. Rockefeller is the model for career politician and is what all Americans should be hesitant to allow. After 509 years, with no real improvements to show for it other than defending public television (his wife’s employer) he is the picture perfect example of that which we should all strive to replace in Washington.

5.       The President met with the Afghan President and suggested that the peace talks with the Taliban are positive and the Taliban’s plan is a good start –WHAT? This is the same group the allowed Al Qaeda to flourish, ruled the Afghan people with a repressiveness we have not seen since Stalin’s Soviet Union or Mao’s China, and most importantly for women’s rights advocates, a group that repressed women’s rights beck to the Stone Age. But of course this is from a President who has spent the last week appointing his men’s club members to cabinet positions rather than the best qualified, maybe he needs Mitt’s binders full of women?

Well that’s the short and serious of it all….Kind of!!

Later,
Bill

A Kind-Of-Weekly Rant!!

Well I wrote a sports rant earlier today but there is so much going on right now it just feels right to put out a rant on the rest of the world. Here it goes.

1.       The President has selected his National Security Advisor John Brennan as his choice to take over the CIA. Just for past reference, we already went through this four years ago with Brennan, but he pulled his name out of the nomination process because he was too concerned about the scrutiny he would face for failed predictions from earlier. Of course he’s only had to admit he failed the current president on about a half dozen occasions since became NSA. Just a short list of his mistakes; Benghazi, The Iranian Uprising in 2009, the state of the Iranian Nuclear Program, the make-up of the Egyptian uprising, and the list just keeps on growing. Nice Choice there.

2.       The President has selected former Senator Chuck Hagel as his choice for Secretary of Defense. Another nice choice, especially if you are all for allowing the Iranians to do whatever the hell they want – Unchecked – and if you are absolutely anti-Israel. Chuck Hagel proclaims himself a Republican and he is….I guess. But he is the Republican who gave Barack the 2008 GOP boost similar to 2012’s last minute boost by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  

3.       Speaking of Chris Christie and his instrumental moment in the Re-Elect Obama Campaign; Today the good Governor came out and complained that when the President came to New Jersey he said that all the red tape and bureaucracy would be cut out to make things right. Christie railed the feds for it now being 70 days since Hurricane Sandy and how it only took seven days to get cracking on making things right following Hurricane Katrina. Gee, maybe the good governor should have thought of that when he was hugging Barack!!

4.       Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, former commander in Afghanistan, began his anti-gun rhetoric saying that only soldiers should carry certain weapons. What a crock of you-know-what. The constitution has the 2^nd amendment and any other gun laws should be left to the states under the 10^th amendment. Once again the 2^nd amendment is about creating an atmosphere that allows the citizenry of the country to never fear the federal government and enforcement of the 2^nd amendment is what helps to manage that. Of course McChrystal is known for shooting himself in the foot by shooting off his mouth a little too often in Afghanistan.

5.       Today government officials released a report in which they state that they think the former FBI agent Robert Levinson was being held by Iran or one of their proxies. Well, that is an amazing deduction as he was captured/went missing on the Iranian island of Kish in 2007. Gee, with this sort of intelligence breakthrough they might be able to crack the whole how many licks to the center of a Tootsie-Roll Pop dilemma.

6.       In regards to another overreaching underachieving government agency, congratulations to the EPA, due to new stricter (and unnecessary) emissions standards, 15 coal power plants will be closing in Georgia in the next few months causing a loss of nearly 450 jobs and reducing the power grid efficiency by 15%. Nice job there, or should I say nice reduction in the job creation of the federal government’s policies.

7.       Now for a little lighter material. A Dutch non-profit company, Mars One, is sponsoring a reality TV based program to select the astronauts it will use to begin the colonization of Mars. Only catch, once you get to the Martian surface there is no return trip. The good news is that as far as anyone knows there is no income tax on Mars. Sound good? For more information go to the following website; www.thenextgiantleap.com.

Well, that’s it for tonight. Hope I didn’t offend anyone!! Remember, it’s all fun until someone loses an eye!!

Later,

Bill

Harry Reid again earns the “Idiot of the Senate” Award

I have mostly never thought much of Harry Reid as a Senator, an organizer, or a leader; but I think Louisiana Senator David Vitter hit the nail on the head when he said, “Sadly, Harry Reid has again revealed himself to be an idiot, this time gravely insulting Gulf Coast residents.”

What did good old Harry DO?

Well here is Harry Reid’s statement: and remember, this is the majority leader of the United States Senate. His comments in support of the aid package for Hurricane Sandy Relief went as follows, “The people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt, but nothing in comparison to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey.”

WHAT??

Now before we go too much farther I want to first acknowledge that both of these hurricanes left a path of destruction and grief that can never be defined for those who were and are affected and we should never politicize the suffering of our fellow Americans. So with that said let’s look at how the stats back Harry’s statement.

Just looking at the two stats that are generally considered the watershed numbers for a disaster let’s look at dollars of damage and deaths.

Deaths

125 – Sandy
1833 – Katrina

Damage in Dollars

$62 billion – Sandy
$108 billion – Katrina

I give these figures not in an attempt to trivialize the issue, but to explain how once again Harry Reid has chosen to lie for the sake of making a point and to make someone else seem less caring than he and his precious Democrat partisans. That’s very sad, especially on an issue that needs to be taken care of in a responsible manner and not subjected to traditional party politics or to the addition of trivial pork as was done by many in the Senate – also allowed, and passed, by Harry.

Out of habit Harry later apologized saying he simply misspoke, just like all the rest of the times he has lied, or fudged the truth or in his words misspoke on the floor of the senate in order to make or create a point. Of course then he blamed the Republicans by saying he wouldn’t have felt the pressure to misspeak if he hadn’t had to face GOP opposition.

But let’s give Harry some slack; this is hardly the first time he has misspoken. Think of this, if we listen to Harry, Ford would be out of business without the auto bailout (GM and Chrysler took that money) and Mitt Romney never paid taxes (Um except like the $2+ million he paid in 2011). I guess we should all pay a little more attention to what Harry says and does. After all, thanks to those gamblers in Nevada we have another four years of Harry’s intelligence!!

Ante Up,

Bill

Even More Less Certain!!

So last year the congress and President passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling, keep the Bush Tax Cuts, and begin the difficult process of cutting spending by creating a “super-committee” to come up with the cuts otherwise we would go through a process called sequestration. A process that was so scary that it would force the elected officials make the changes necessary to make it all work.

Guess What?

It didn’t work!!

Now the talking heads in Washington are no closer to a deal, we are no closer to permanent tax reform, no closer to spending reform, no closer to a balanced budget, no closer to avoiding sequestration, and no closer to anything that even closely resembles and working government.

Want proof? How about this, as of today the federal government has not passed a budget in 1341 days!! That’s right, the U.S. Government has not had a budget passed and signed into law since 2009….It leaves one speechless doesn’t it. NOT ME!!

It completely ticks me off. For the first time ever, after the last few decades of politicians in Washington they are going to leave the future of this country in worse shape than they found it. Are they seriously going to tell us that they can’t find cuts that will save $1.5 trillion over the next decade? The fact is we have to cut the budget and spending in a manner that will balance the budget immediately.

Do we seriously think we can slowly lower spending and that will save it all? Hell no we can’t.

We have to balance the budget NOW, not in the next decade but NOW!!!!

The United States Government takes in roughly $2.1 trillion a year in taxes yet still finds a way to spend $3.5 trillion plus a year and without a budget that number will grow as the spending is allowed to increase because the congress and President signed in a law allowing the spending to grow a little each year making the budget more of an unnecessary guideline rather than a hard-line rule to govern spending that it should be.

“Govern”….sounds like a word that ought to mean something in Washington, D.C. – See the Irony?

But seriously, $2.1 trillion, how can that not be enough to govern the country? It sure seems like it should be but maybe it’s not enough because too many of us in the public who complain don’t actually take the time to pay attention and keep an eye on their elected officials and see how they are doing.

Think your voice doesn’t matter, get with a few friends and call your congressman or send him a letter that you also post on Facebook, or Twitter, or some other social network. Let everyone see what you said to him and then promise to post their response, or lack thereof, and see if they don’t respond.

Today the Senate has come up with a proposal to keep the taxes they are for most Americans but doesn’t address anything else at all. They just want to address the taxes but keep spending where it is – WORNG ANSWER!!

And many of those in the Senate seem good with a lot of it but are they? And if they are let’s get an explanation for it – NOW! This agreement the senate leaders are discussing will just pass the buck down the road and nothing will get done. The national debt will increase and our future will be even more less certain.

Sequestration was supposed to force the leaders in Washington to reform taxes, lower spending, and pass a budget; instead, the only thing that seems to get passed is, once again, the BUCK!!

We must have a balanced budget. Federal government must do their job and nothing more. Congressional leaders should lead for the betterment of the country and not the betterment of their party. If they governed with the future of this nation in the forefront then elections would take care of themselves. Instead they all govern with the next election in mind.

I could care less with the political parties; I care about my children and what the future holds for them. Those in Washington are showing how little they are truly worried about their children and grand-children’s future and more about their own.

I need a breath of air!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Bill

Tomorrow is the Day!

After over a year of hard work, tomorrow is the day when we can celebrate a little as we will have a swearing-in for those taking office here in Milam County. So come on out to the Milam County Courthouse at 10:00am in the District Court Room as our candidates will be sworn-in giving Milam County 14 Republicans holding local office!!

I remember three years ago several folks (actually lots of folks) telling me that we were crazy for setting out to create a Republican Revolution here in Milam County and now here we are with a majority of Republicans in local office and a GOP majority on the County Commissioners Court – AWESOME!

So come on out tomorrow morning, yes I know it is New Year’s Day and there are a lot of things going on, but come on out tomorrow morning to give our candidates some more support and to congratulate them on their victories and thank them for their efforts to serve us all. I know I am always amazed at the time and energy involved with the candidates running for office but the amount of time and efforts they put into the job once elected is even more impressive. So come help them enjoy their day tomorrow.

There will be no formal party following the swearing-in but many of us will be gathering at the Cameron Country Club to get some lunch following the ceremony so please feel free to join us!!

See You There!!

Bill

Syria is Signaling the END!

Most folks have shown little care about the current civil war in Syria, it has worried me mightily. We must pay attention now.

For over a year we have heard the Obama Regime make one strong but ineffective statement on Syria after another. Rather than take the lead and take a real stand that the world will respect, our leadership in Washington has kicked the ball down the road and not taken care of an issue that is a real national defense crisis for America…FOR ALL OF US!!

Tonight word has come out of Damascus (the capital of Syria) saying that Syrian President Assad has armed warheads with weaponized Sarin gas. For those who do not know, Sarin gas is one of the scariest chemical weapons ever created by man. It is 500 times more deadly than Cyanide and can kill a man in less than ONE MINUTE!

That’s right, for over a year we have drawn lines in the sand, attempted to set up various sanctions that the UN Security Council has vetoed, and accomplished exactly NOTHING on this issue. And when I say we, I mean the Obama Administration including Secretary of State Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

Now, the leadership of the flailing Syrian government has armed their troops with one of the deadliest substances ever created. This regime has been involved in terrorism throughout the Middle East and the world so it is not out of the realm of possibility that it could use these weapons as a last strike against any and all of Assad’s former allies and enemies including those in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Turkey as well as any number of other nearby targets. But while the use of these weapons is unconscionable to think of, what might be worse is who could get a hold of the unused cache of Sarin weapons that might be left over following the end of this war.

Think this is an unreal fear to have, well consider this; during the Libyan civil war there were multitudes of weapons given to Libyan rebels and where are they now? I don’t know, you don’t know, and guess what, no one else knows either – including the Obama Administration. So once the Syrian civil war is over and these Sarin weapons are left outstanding, anyone have any idea whose hands they might end up in? Neither does anyone else.

The only difference between me and the government is I think Americans should know about it and the Obama administration wants to keeps it as hidden as possible, “Nothing here to see….Move along!!”

This is one of the times when the U.S. Military is needed to be the “Big Stick” President Roosevelt talked about. Not to end another county’s civil war, but to keep Americans safe. We don’t need another failed nation-building project, we need to show the world that when we “Speak Softly” and say simmer down that’s what we mean and that any perceived threat will bring out the “Big Stick!”

God Speed to our Service Members,

Bill