Benghazi Hearings Are a Truth Hunt, Not a Witch Hunt

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

By Charlie Daniels.

In the early days of the inquiry into the Benghazi debacle, it became obvious that the Obama administration was going to stonewall efforts to find out what happened when they tried to feed the American public the lie about the whole thing being caused by some obscure piece of film that insulted Mohammed and was played on television in the Muslim world.

They even stood at the coffins of the four murdered Americans, President Obama and Hillary Clinton still maintaining to the parents of the four men who had given their lives in service to this nation and let them believe that their sons and loved ones had been slaughtered by a random group of Muslim fanatics who just happened to be in the area and decided to kill some Americans.

The lie was soon exposed, but there were others like myself who never believed it to start with. I told my Twitter partners in 2012 that I was going to bring up Benghazi every day until the truth was known and I have, every day since.

People question me as to why I continue to post the Benghazi reminders daily because it’s old news, or they claim that the situation has been adequately explained, all the questions answered and it’s time to move on.

I vehemently disagree with those positions. To me, Benghazi is a symbol of a government that is poorly-led and out-of-control, an example of the indifference of a president who calmly went to bed and flew off to Las Vegas the next morning for a fundraiser.

Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: NEWSCOM

Photo Credit: NEWSCOM

Who’s Crazy?

By Stephen F. Hayes.

Benghazi, crazy. That’s the association the White House and its allies want to encourage as a House Select Committee begins what should be the most thorough investigation of the Benghazi attacks to date. The White House wants to delegitimize the process before it begins and preemptively discredit the findings. So last week senior White House adviser David Plouffe claimed that “a very loud, delusional minority” is driving the Republicans on Benghazi, and former representative Jane Harman compared questions about Benghazi to conspiracy theories about Vince Foster and aliens.

At first blush, it might seem an odd strategy. A Fox News poll taken in mid-April found that 60 percent of voters want Congress to continue investigating the Benghazi attacks—a total that included 77 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of independents, and 42 percent of Democrats. The same poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe the Obama administration is “trying to cover up” the real Benghazi story—87 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of independents, and 33 percent of Democrats. Just 26 percent think the administration has been “open and transparent.” Notably, this poll was taken before the court-ordered release last month of previously withheld White House emails and talking points, a revelation that provided fresh evidence of White House stonewalling.

But the Obama administration’s strategy isn’t intended for the country at large so much as it is for the Washington press corps. The goal is to convince reporters that by investigating Benghazi they are doing the bidding of crackpots and political hacks. The White House is betting that journalists are more cynical about House Republicans and their motives than they are about the Obama administration’s mendacity on Benghazi. There’s some evidence that’s right.

Most of the reporting after John Boehner’s announcement of a select committee hinted at political motives. The New York Times, in a story that typified the coverage of the latest developments, led this way: “House Republicans on Friday escalated their battle with the White House over the continuing investigations into the 2012 attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, ensuring that the issue will not recede in the midst of a fierce partisan fight for control of Congress.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Republicans Block Energy Bill, Forfeit Keystone Vote

Photo Credit: shannonpatrick17

Photo Credit: shannonpatrick17

U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday blocked an energy-efficiency bill backed by manufacturers and environmentalists, forfeiting a chance to vote on the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

On a nearly party-line vote of 55-36, President Barack Obama’s Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bipartisan energy bill supported by the White House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, had offered a vote on a separate bill to take the final decision on Keystone out of Obama’s hands and give it to Congress if Republicans allowed passage of the energy bill.

But Republicans refused. They complained that Reid barred them from offering amendments to the bill, including one that would have reined in emissions-cutting regulations on coal-fired power plants, a top strategy in Obama’s fight against climate change.

The blocked energy-efficiency bill would cut electricity use by imposing tough building codes and requiring federal data centers to find ways to consolidate and become more efficient.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rep. David Schweikert: VA Scandal Likely ‘Nationwide’

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Veterans Administration controversy that already has been linked to the deaths of some 40 veterans appears to be spilling over to other VA offices nationwide, with members of Congress bracing for repercussions in states around the country as more details emerge regarding extremely long waiting periods for veterans seeking medical care.

What began as a scandal over duplicitous document keeping at the VA office in Phoenix – a scheme apparently intended to conceal the fact that veterans were being left to languish in some cases over a year on waiting lists before getting access to a doctor — has already blown up into an Inspector General probe involving offices in Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Arizona, and possibly other states as well.

As many as 40 veterans are said to have died while awaiting medical care.

On Monday, GOP Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona told “America’s Forum” that the revelations so far may be just the tip of the iceberg.

“Be prepared,” Schweikert ominously advised “America’s Forum” hosts John Bachmann and J.D. Hayworth on Monday on Newsmax TV. “There’s going to be more and more of this as the investigation gets deeper and deeper.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Steyn: #BringBackOurBalls

Photo Credit: Steyn Online

Photo Credit: Steyn Online

It is hard not to have total contempt for a political culture that thinks the picture at right is a useful contribution to rescuing 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by jihadist savages in Nigeria. Yet some pajama boy at the White House evidently felt getting the First Lady to pose with this week’s Hashtag of Western Impotence would reflect well upon the Administration. The horrible thing is they may be right: Michelle showed she cared – on social media! – and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?

Just as the last floppo hashtag, #WeStandWithUkraine, didn’t actually involve standing with Ukraine, so #BringBackOurGirls doesn’t require bringing back our girls. There are only a half-dozen special forces around the planet capable of doing that without getting most or all of the hostages killed: the British, the French, the Americans, Israelis, Germans, Aussies, maybe a couple of others. So, unless something of that nature is being lined up, those schoolgirls are headed into slavery, and the wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama’s hashtag is just a form of moral preening.

But then what isn’t? The blogger Daniel Payne wrote this week that “modern liberalism, at its core, is an ideology of talking, not doing”. He was musing on a press release for some or other “Day of Action” that is, as usual, a day of inaction:

Diverse grassroots groups are organizing and participating in events such as walks, rallies and concerts and calling on government to reduce climate pollution, transition off fossil fuels and commit to a clean energy future.

It’s that easy! You go to a concert and someone “calls on government” to do something, and the world gets fixed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boko Haram Video Showing Captured Schoolgirls Features al-Qaeda Banner (+video)

Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

A new Boko Haram propaganda video released Monday, showing some of the more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls it abducted last month wearing Islamic garb and chanting the Islamic declaration of faith, also features an al-Qaeda banner.

The banner held up behind the reciting girls by two of their number, is the black-and-white one first used by al-Qaeda in Iraq about seven years ago but since displayed by al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Libya.

Bearing the Arabic script for the Islamic declaration of faith or shahada – “There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger” – it is the same flag that was hoisted at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo during an anti-U.S. protest on Sept. 11, 2012, after the American flag was destroyed.

Western security officials have long suspected that Boko Haram has links to al-Qaeda’s affiliated in North Africa and Somalia – al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and al-Shabaab.

As early as June 2012, then-U.S. Africa Command commander Gen. Carter Ham was voicing concern publicly about indications that Boko Haram, AQIM and al-Shabaab were “seeking to co-ordinate and synchronize their efforts.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul Threatens to Hold Federal Reserve Nominees Unless His Fed Audit Gets A Vote

Photo Credit: Darren McCollester / Getty

Photo Credit: Darren McCollester / Getty

Sen. Rand Paul threatened Monday to place a hold on three nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors unless his bill to subject the Fed to an audit gets a vote in the Senate.

It’s a replay of a maneuver the libertarian Republican and Fed critic attempted last year when current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s nomination was under consideration.

In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, Paul wrote that “there is no more appropriate time to provide Congress with additional oversight and scrutiny of the actions and decisions of the central banks” than during the Senate’s consideration of the nominees, whom the Senate Banking Committee approved in late April. The candidates are Stanley Fischer, the former top Israeli central banker nominated to be the Fed’s vice chairman, former Obama Treasury official Lael Brainard, and Jerome Powell, a current member of the board seeking a second term.

Read more from this story HERE.

Murdered Alaska Troopers Remembered in Memorial

Photo Credit: AP / THE FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER

Photo Credit: AP / THE FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER

Law enforcement officers from as far away as Florida on Saturday mourned the loss of two Alaska state troopers killed earlier this month in a remote village while trying to make an arrest.

A memorial for Sgt. Scott Johnson and Trooper Gabe Rich began with a procession and a drum cadence at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

Col. James Cockrell, head of the Alaska State Troopers, said Johnson and Rich touched many lives during their careers, and their deaths will strengthen the bonds between officers.

“This is a time to begin the healing process and come together as a community to provide strength to those who are still feeling the pain of their loss,” Cockrell said. “For in times like this, true Alaskans stand together.” The Anchorage Daily News said some 4,000 people attended the memorial.

A Fairbanks grand jury on Thursday indicted Nathanial “Satch” Kangas, 20, on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths May 1 of Johnson and Rich. The two were assigned to rural law enforcement in 23 remote communities and were occasionally featured on the National Geographic Channel show “Alaska State Troopers,” which shows officers patrolling the state’s wild terrain.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gay Couples Marry in Arkansas, Most Clerks Sit Out

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

More than 200 gay couples obtained Arkansas marriage licenses Monday after a judge tossed out the state’s 10-year-old same-sex marriage ban, but only at a handful of courthouses as an overwhelming majority of county clerks in this part of the Bible Belt said they first wanted the state Supreme Court to weigh in.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel — who recently announced his personal support for same-sex marriage rights but said he would defend the law — filed paperwork Monday to at least temporarily preserve the ban, which voters approved by a 3-to-1 margin.

In other states that have seen gay-marriage bans overturned, judges either issued stays with their orders or state lawyers sought them with some immediacy. McDaniel’s office requested a stay from the local judge Friday night but had to wait until the full court record was available Monday before going to the state Supreme Court, under the justices’ rules. Justices gave both sides until midday Tuesday to file arguments.

Seventy of the state’s 75 clerks have not granted licenses. A handful of clerks, including one who granted licenses Monday, filed a stay request saying the judge’s decision didn’t address a law that threatens clerks with fines for “wrongful issuance of a marriage license.”

With the weddings Saturday and Monday, Arkansas became the 18th state to allow same-sex marriages, and the first among former states of the Confederacy.

Read more from this story HERE.

A ‘Nightmare Becoming Reality’? Iran Unveils American Drone Replica

Photo Credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader / AP

Photo Credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader / AP

Iran has unveiled its own copy of an American stealth drone it captured in late 2011, claiming to have cracked the “secrets” of the bat-wing craft and added weapons capabilities.

Today, Fars News Agency reported that while Iran’s duplicate of the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone was smaller, it also had a “bombing capability to attack the US warships in any possible battle.” The story in Persian was headlined: “America’s nightmare has become reality.” State television showed footage on Sunday it said was of a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf filmed by an Iranian drone.

The drone replica was unveiled at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) exhibition on Sunday, where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was briefed on how the drone, its systems, and structure had been reverse-engineered. He called it a “sweet day.”

The stealth replica would “soon take a test flight,” an IRGC officer said on Sunday. Aerospace chief Amir Ali Hajijadeh said today that they are working on two more models of the replica drone.

Proving its prowess

Engineers with the IRGC were ordered to reverse engineer the captured US drone, which was on a CIA mission to spy on nuclear and military sites in Iran when it was brought down in Iran largely intact. Iran reacted with euphoria, trumpeting the capture in an “electronic ambush” showed Iran’s technical prowess.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Don’t Record Me, Lady’ – Police Charge Woman With Wiretapping After She Records Her Own Arrest

Photo Credit: IJ Review

Photo Credit: IJ Review

Massachusetts woman has been charged with unlawful wiretapping after she recorded her own arrest on her smartphone. 24-year-old Karen Dziewit allegedly had too much to drink and got too loud and belligerent at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, and police were called out.

Dziewit allegedly refused to cooperate with instructions from police officers and was arrested. However, before she was arrested, she activated the voice recording feature on her smartphone.
Mass Live reports:

Springfield Police Capt. Harry Kastrinakis said 24-year-old Karen Dziewit of Chicopee was drinking in front of 140 Chestnut Street shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday when police were called to assist a security officer at that address. Police said Dziewit was screaming and yelling and disturbing the tenants of the buildings, and she refused to stop her tirade when police asked her to.

She was arrested. But, before she was taken into custody, she apparently started the voice recorder in her smart phone and put it in her purse…

Read more from this story HERE.