RT to share the news: The House will vote to establish a new #SelectCommittee on #Benghazi. pic.twitter.com/zpKW4b4Cap
— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) May 2, 2014
Dave Weigel, at Slate:
…. Rep. Trey Gowdy, who led the D.C. subcommittee on oversight until that was collapsed into the larger committee last year, will head up the special Benghazi committee. This is absolutely all the Benghazi question-askers could have hoped for. Gowdy, a former prosecutor (and Slate columnist!) is a dramatic questioner whose every other time at the mic turns into a viral video. Among the hits: the time he bellowed that he didn’t give “a damn whose careers are ruined” on the way to getting truth … and the time his eyes grew damp as he told the family members of victims that the Congress would never give up the hunt. “We can’t give you closure. Just facts. The truth.”…
Weigel later adds:
Republicans Are Really Stoked About This Benghazi Select Committee… According to National Journal’s Alex Seitz-Wald, someone tweets about Benghazi every 12 seconds, on average. Many of these people currently hold safe seats in Congress.
From the company paper, the Washington Post:
House Democrats said Friday afternoon that they had not been contacted by the Republican leadership about the select committee.
“We have not been contacted by Speaker Boehner or the Republican leadership concerning a select committee proposal,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement that the Republicans’ new-found focus on Benghazi is for political gain.
“There have already been multiple investigations into this issue and an independent Accountability Review Board is mandated under current law. For Republicans to waste the American people’s time and money staging a partisan political circus instead of focusing on the middle class is simply a bad decision,” Reid said. “While Republicans try to gin up yet another political food fight, Senate Democrats will remain focused on fostering economic growth for all hard-working Americans.”
***********
Apart from being glad we’re Democrats, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
lamh36
dmsilev
Maybe we can send the entire House GOP on a fact-finding mission to Benghazi. And then the plane bringing them back will have “mechanical difficulties” and they can stay there for the next several months while a replacement plane is eventually located.
gnomedad
Still looking for the impeachment pony.
lamh36
Whoever might think Black girls shouldn’t be Ballet dancers, can suck it!!!
Damn, this pic made me rethink that candy bar I was eyeing just now…lol.
srv
We need to Double Benghazi.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36:
Are there such people? I mean other than the usual jackwads?
scav
@lamh36: He really ranks high on the owning people scale and hasn’t managed to grab that clue yet. Granted, looking at the target journal, he’s got company. No doubt this is seen as a sympathetic and endearing description on the cuddly ol’ sweetie.
WereBear
@lamh36: Bwahahahaha!
Gee, when’s the last time a old billionaire white guy had to suffer consequences of being an utter asshole?
Can’t think of the last time…
Buffalo Rude
@lamh36: This is gonna be one hell of a lawsuit.
mdblanche
This subcommittee is the final, definitive proof that Obamacare is a success and is here to stay. The Republican plan to run against it until November is not going to work, so they’ve fallen back to their previous monomania.
Ruckus
Trying to rehabilitate myself. I’ve got to figure out how many times a day I can look at FB without going insane, because every time I do I’m ready to unfriend about 75% of the people I know. It really is sad that a great amount of the political landscape is a vile, rotting swamp.
BGinCHI
Reid and Pelosi should get one of those tickers that counts constantly how much money the House GOP are spending on this. Install it somewhere prominent.
Nest to it put a sign that counts how many jobs bills they have passed.
0.
Suffern ACE
I’m tired of the internet of things.
Ruckus
@WereBear:
Was there a first time? If so I think I may have missed it.
Poopyman
@Ruckus:
Hi everybody! What’s up! I felt my ears burning and thought I’d check in.
jl
@lamh36:
‘I wish I had just paid her off’
Will be interesting to see how that story plays out.
Stiviano’s lawyer says she was never his girlfriend, and never ‘involved’ with him no way whatever nohow, nope… shhhhsss NO!
So, Stirling was smearing her with all the talk about blow jobs in the back of limos?
Would Sterling do something like that? Heavens!
lamh36
Ruckus
@Poopyman:
Didn’t mean to send out the bat signal.
Sorry false alarm, go back to your regularly scheduled whatever.
BBA
@BGinCHI: They passed something called the JOBS act a couple years ago.
It consisted entirely of financial deregulation and hasn’t done diddly-squat for jobs.
some guy
can the House Select Committee on Beghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi find some time to investigate the crucifixions that are currently occurring in Raqaa?
cuz that would be super badass
jl
And for good news, today’s jobs report. A few more like that and I think Senate 2014 will start to look better.
And, GOP will try to make BENGHAZI!!! a monthly paid holiday.
Citizen_X
@lamh36:
Jesus. Stay classy, you ancient sack of turds.
Omnes Omnibus
@WereBear: He’s not quite a billionaire, but Mitt Romney got to spend a shitload of his own money to prove what an asshole is and not get elected president in the process.
Ruckus
@Citizen_X:
Money can buy a lot of stuff and some people but it’s becoming apparent to me that there is no clue store.
Gin & Tonic
I know asking random strangers on the Internet for legal advice is hep these days, so: if your situation is relatively simple, are the fill-in-the-blanks do-it-yourself wills worth it, or is that one of those areas where you absolutely, positively need professional assistance? What about advance directives, medical powers of attorney, that sort of thing? I have no immediate plans, but having never died and gone through probate, I’m wondering what’s prudent.
Suffern ACE
@BBA: yes. But IPOs are secret now!
Keith G
The Select Committee might just be an empty threat to satisfy the Fox herd. I am not sure why the smarter crowd in the GOP (as small as it is) would want a select hearing.
Such a prominent action will do in 2014 what the GOP did in 97-98..work the last nerve of their “independent” support. And as I typed earlier, if this White House has done the right thing and I believe it has, then they will come out of this okay and then the story will be over for all but a very few deadenders. And it will be over before Hilary announces her candidacy. That is why this is sort of a mistake on the part of the GOP.
Mike in NC
My wife’s cousin retired from the State Department a few years ago. His last assignment was ambassador to Lebanon. One day Darrell Issa (Lebanese-American) showed up in Beirut on some boondoggle. Cousin said Issa was one of the slimiest, most despicable characters he’d ever met. This after a career based in the Middle East.
Anne Laurie
@Gin & Tonic:
I am not a lawyer, but I’ve been told by people who are that it’s like using the EZ form for your taxes. If you don’t have significant assets, you’re not married, you have no kids, the simple forms are probably good enough, as a stopgap.
If you have kids, or have been married more than once, distribution of stuff you may have overlooked (like company-paid life insurance, or other survivor benefits) gets complicated, and all too likely ugly.
schrodinger's cat
Jowly Shields and Bobo Brooks told me that it is all doom and gloom for the Dems, from now until forever and Obama is weak.
ruemara
recovering from gum surgery. my mouth is killing me and everyone is checking in on me. my bp is not low enough and I burnt my hand making a pot of soup. can’t wait for this recovery to take hold.
schrodinger's cat
@Mike in NC: But he is not muslin, so its all good.
Davis X. Machina
They can form a select committee, but will they call the right witnesses, like the guys at my local Legion hall?
Because Obama had planned to have the diplomats ‘kidnapped’, and then ‘rescued’ just before the elections, to wipe out the late Romney surge. But Ayrabs don’t stay bought, somebody screwed up, rogue CIA assets, ex-Afghan jihadis, etc, etc. and the ‘hostages’ wound up dead instead.
Now if that ever came out, it would drive Obama from the White House, which is why it will never come out. It’s essential that Hillary be the next President, to keep the cover-up in place for another 4-8 years beyond 2016
This is what happens when you elect Democrats with no military experience. Only Republican warrior-presidents like GWB, and Reagan, can see to it that black ops get pulled off right.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: Oww, I had that two years ago. Not being able to eat is no fun. Make sure to take probiotics if you are on any antibiotics.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
You don’t need to be within 3 area codes of Issa to know that he is exactly like that chunk of dog shit that you can’t ever seem to get all of off your shoe. Worse is that if you had stepped in it in your bare feet, amputation is the only sure way to get rid of the stink.
Craig J
The fact that the GOP made up a fancy “breaking news” graphic to accompany the announcement tells you everything you need to know about this.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Gin & Tonic: IANAL.
My understanding is that in most states, wills aren’t really necessary for married people. Stuff will go to the surviving spouse. Of course, if you’ve got kids, or if you both die in a car wreck, then that’s another issue. :-/ I don’t think do-it-yourself wills are less valid than ones done with a lawyer. (We don’t have professionally-written wills, but we have no kids.)
We took care of my wife’s elderly parents here at home for ~ 7 years. J went to a local attorney that specialized in eldercare issues to get appropriate advance directives, durable power of attorney, etc., etc. That was money well spent. It only took an hour or so, IIRC. The best language apparently can vary from state-to-state.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic:
Define simple. Is it I am leaving everything in equal shares to my kids and Bobby is my executor? Or do you want to leave some specific bequests, set up a trust for your kids, and leave some money to charity? Basically, if your situation is complicated enough that you probably should have a will, you probably should have it done by a pro. A trust and estate lawyer will ask about some of the things AL mentioned and raise other potential issues. Finally, a generic form will might cause you to do things that are not legal in your state and invalidate some or all of the document. A fairly uncomplicated will isn’t very expensive, and it should give you piece of mind that what you want to happen to your stuff will happen.
Disclaimer: I do not and have not done trust and estate work.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Like everything else it depends.
I had to take care of both my mom and dad’s stuff when they passed. Neither had real up to date stuff but mom’s was better and made it easier. I’d find a lawyer and get an appraisal of what it would cost given your situation. You might find that it is not that expensive or if it is it will be worth it to the survivors.
I’m trying to figure out what to do with the $1.95 I have because I have no one left to handle anything.
Bob In Portland
What’s on the agenda? Apparently roasting trade unionists in Odessa.
Ruckus
@ruemara:
Good luck, had a bunch of oral surgery as a kid, it got better pretty quickly. Hope yours does as well.
Suffern ACE
@ruemara: if you want to know who you’re friends are, just smile at them when they check in and ask “does it look bad?”
Suffern ACE
I was born the wrong species.
Pogonip
@Poopyman: Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee. I love you, Poopy.
Baud
Is it wrong to hope that the Select Committee travels to Benghazi for a fact-finding mission?
ETA: I now see I was too slow.
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
Can it have those mechanical difficulties in the middle of its flight across the Atlantic instead? Like maybe a wing or two falling off?
Suffern ACE
@Baud:
David Koch
This has been a very, very bad month for the wingers: Obamacare is a wild success, David Wildsten turns states evidence on their only electable 2016 candidate, a religious right congressman is forced from office after he was caught breaking up another marriage, a regular wingnut congressman is indicted on 20 felony counts, almost all of the Teabag contributions are being skimmed by the grifters, Fixxed News places all it’s bets on a welfare rancher and it blows up in their faces, Donald Sterling turns out to be registered republican, Palin makes an ass of herself, polling for Democratic candidates rise, Colbert gets Letterman’s spot, and the jobs report blows away expectations, nears 300K.
Keep fucking that BENGHAZI1I1I1I1 chicken, GOP. Can’t wait for your murder melons sequel.
Roger Moore
@srv:
I think it’s time for double secret Benghazi.
Suffern ACE
@Roger Moore: only if we know where the plan goes down. We do not need CNN back on missing planes again.
Thank god for MERS.
Pogonip
@Suffern ACE: I bet most guys would like to die the antechinus death.
Have you ever read about that toad species that tries to mate with everything: other male toads, female toads of the wrong species, shoes, dropped cigarette lighters, large beetles, you name it. The article had a picture of Studly Panttoad trying to get it on with a biologist’s finger ( and probably wondering how to distract the finger briefly so he could make a pass at the thumb). It was hilarious.
By the way, where has Studly Pantload been?
Heliopause
Awesome that we will have this freak show, seeing as how the international situation is all peaceful and serene right now.
Hal
@mdblanche:
I think you hit the nail right on the head. There must have been some meeting where Boner and others figured they needed something else to run on since Obummer care hasn’t utterly destroyed all of reality.
This committee is so transparently political it could very well blow up in Boehner’s face just like the shutdown did.
ruemara
I’m more occupied balancing the bp meds and the pain meds. I feel like I imagine heroin abusers feel. These fricking nods.
trollhattan
@Bob In Portland: Hodor!
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: A lot closer to A than to B. Thing is, my mother’s situation was pretty uncomplicated, she had a professional will and we still spent thousands in legal fees. A few years earlier I got stuck handling the affairs of a black sheep relative who died suddenly, intestate, and left a fucking mess, and I spent thousands in legal fees. So I’m not seeing all that much difference from where I sit.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Who’s Weeping Cheeto? Is that his Indian name?
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
Check with your local hospital or visiting nurse service. Hospitals often run free seminars with a local attorney who will help you with an advance directive and medical power of attorney free of charge. Sometimes these attorneys are just starting out and looking for clients and will help you draw up a will or durable power of attorney for a very reasonable price. I think it is worth getting advice. I’d hate to see you leave a family member with a big lien to deal with because of nursing home expenses. In many places there are more lawyers than clients so you can absolutely negotiate on price.
Thomas
the teatard freakout over Benghazi may be the most pathetic thing I’ve seen since whitewater/lewinski. It’s just unbelievable that a sentient human can keep going with this shit….yet there you have it
jl
@Suffern ACE:
” I was born the wrong species. ”
Try high intensity interval training and 8 cups of water a day. You could be a pioneer for the human species.
You’ll go down in history, and it will be banned in Kansas and South Dakota. Glory!
Pogonip
@trollhattan: Hodor! Hodor!
JGabriel
Fix’t that for you, Harry.
different-church-lady
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!
MomSense
@ruemara:
My turn next month. Ugh. Not a fan of this getting older business. Hope your recovery is smooth and fast!
pseudonymous in nc
Some junior staffer in Boner’s office was actually told to make a BENGHAZI! graphic? And pick an appropriately BENGHAZI! font for it?
Dear me.
(Anyone want to photoshop that image using Cooper Black or Comic Sans as the font?)
S. cerevisiae
Surprised JC has not weighed in on game 1 – his Pens are tied in the third.
oh and LET’S GO WILD!!!!!
Pogonip
@efgoldman: I bet it comes in second, behind “I love you, Poopy.”. It took me 54 years to find an occasion to say that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: FWIW a lot of firms will do a straightforward will for a flat fee. It may be bias on my part, but I am a bit leery of boilerplate legal documents. YMMV.
As far as the medical docs go, absolutely have them drawn up by an attorney and make sure your wishes are clearly stated in the docs. Also, make sure that the person you choose to make the decisions not only understands your wishes but is also likely to abide by them.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Mom and dad’s must have been easier than I figured, I spent nothing on legal fees other than the death certificates. Of course both of them didn’t have anything left and had spent the last ten or so of their years in nursing homes on medicare and medicaid.
different-church-lady
@pseudonymous in nc: My favorite part is the script font for the word “on”. Obviously someone in the speaker’s office is a fan of 50s film trailers. (Thus, my comment at 65)
CaseyL
I don’t think this is about Obama, except tangentially.
It’s about Hillary.
They want to be able to subpoena her to testify, and subject her to political theater they think will hurt her in 2016.
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
Beats the alternative.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@ruemara:
My condolences on the gum surgery. I had it several years ago and the recovery can be an ordeal. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
scav
@different-church-lady: Maybe it’s a clue about the street name for the drug they’re clearly addicted to.
David Koch
@Pogonip: Weeping Cheeto
PurpleGirl
@lamh36: Who said what and where? Do you have a link or references I can use to track down the story?
I know this been an issue in classical ballet circles for decades.
Villago Delenda Est
To include those of you and all your fellow witch-hunting Rethuglicans, maggot?
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Actually, my mother’s medical stuff was mostly boilerplate, and we had no issues with that. It probably helped that she had made her wishes explicit repeatedly for probably 40 years.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Villago Delenda Est:
The truth is whatever they say it is – today, at 6:37 PDT.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO5VV5PISHU
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: The thing with the medical stuff is, if someone disagrees with the decision that is being made and wants to fight it, you want it to be airtight. If everyone knows want you want and they are willing to go along with it (even if they personally disagree), then you are fine. Same with wills. Odds are that you don’t need the extra protection, but…
ETA: It is really all about your comfort level and only you can decide.
raven
I happened to catch a bit of Hannity on a grocery run and he is fucking hilarious. He will guarantee that this is IT, all legal means will be exhausted to rectify BENGHAZI!!!!!!!
catclub
@David Koch: David Wildsten turns states evidence on their only electable 2016 candidate,
Link? did I miss something?
Suffern ACE
Ok. I’m not quite sure how this would work without having to ask passengers to strap themselves to the floor while they approach the station, but this is kind of cool.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s my experience. My dad was very clear in what he wanted but the physician made certain everyone in the room agreed 100% when we decided to pull the plug. One bit of doubt and they would not have done it.
Higgs Boson's Mate
I had pretty much given up TV by 9/11. That must be why I missed the Republicans’ fearless investigation into that event.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: Good for her. About this time ten years ago I almost died. In the ICU with a tube down my throat for a week plus. This time last year my mom was in the ICU for a month. This is not a good time of the year for my family I guess.
We all never wanted to be on a machine. Push comes to shove, let us go. We never had that in writing. It is in writing now. IMHO something important.
catclub
@efgoldman: i disagree. Benghazi is about Hillary. Only thing related to her.
IRS probably plays better [‘everyone’ hates the IRS] in making Obama look bad, but no Hillary.
JDM
@Gin & Tonic:
I recently did a will for the first time myself. It wasn’t expensive, but you do need to shop around. I found a lawyer who did just estate stuff and charged $225 for the will, a power of attorney, medical thingie and all. Other lawyers in the area charged up to $500-800 for the same thing, and no better a job. It’s really a simple thing for them to do; my guy spent maybe 2 or 2 1/2 hours total. Check out lawyers in your area online, and email them and ask how much for a simple will (assuming yours is simple; it probably is as most people’s are).
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: My mother thought Kevorkian was a hero.
kindness
If the Repubs really meant it they’d have capitalized it. You know..
BENGHAZI!!11!
scav
@Suffern ACE: I keep thinking it’s going to do a loop-di-loop. Definitely a new contender for the monorail through Tomorrowland.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: Yeah, if you are within the edit window, I would take that down.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Yup
Cacti
Voters want more Benghazi, lower wages, and no healthcare.
That’s what the unskewed polls tell the GOP.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Ah. His Indian name is Stands With A Fifth.
Tommy
Outside the front of my house is a few hundreds acres of farm fields. It is so nice to wake up, look outside and see corn, winter wheat, or soy beans (depending on the crop rotation). Land broke today and it is going to be all homes. I think 97 of them. The lady that lives directly to my left owns the land. I want to yell no, no, no. But I can’t. People want to come live where I live. That isn’t a bad thing and maybe my house will increase in value.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: They’re going to need extra-legal means to get the outcome they think they should get. Or they’re going to need to all go to the Bizzarro Universe that they came from to get satisfaction, because they’re not going to get it in this one.
Baud
@Pogonip:
FTFY
raven
@Villago Delenda Est: It was pretty funny listening to him. I can just see the mouth breathers foaming!
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: In my experience there are medical professionals who, while they will not actively assist, may be clear in their instructions to family members, along the lines of “make sure he takes *only one of these* and not more” while you get a bottle of 30. Those who see a lot of death understand it at a different level than the rest of us.
pacem appellant
@Gin & Tonic: We’ve done it both ways. After that experience, I recommend going the lawyer route. The DIY seemed simple enough, but the software had some of the forms incorrect, and our local notary didn’t catch that. The county did, and that meant that for several years (what can I say, we got busy/lazy) our house was not in the trust.
Two trips to the lawyer and a chuck of change later, everything is squared away and legal. For the extra money, the JD was worth it. /mytwocents
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, I am sure it happens, but plausible deniability is rather useful, don’t you think?
Belafon
@CaseyL: Even my parents knew the point of this was Hillary.
Debbie
Is that Ken Starr knocking at the door?
barbequebob
@Davis X. Machina:
You’re right there.
We all remember the great job Reagan did when he sent the marines to Beirut in 1983. Funny how everyone, including our media, forget about all the terrible military tragedies that have occurred in the past 30 years when a Republican was “Commander in Chief”
p.a.
@Gin & Tonic: I have actually had good luck using Lawyer Referral.
I have a Q for any lawyers or legal eagles in the audience. I’ve been an admin. once and an executor once. Both very modest estates went through probate. As I understand the law here in RI, the purpose of probate court is to allow anyone who may have a claim against the deceased’s (decedent’s?) estate to attempt to recover their money. That wasn’t an issue in mine. All I remember are lawyers’ fees, don’t even remember any court fees. They may have been included. Yet I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people, barely scraping into the middle class to solidly middle class, talk about ways to avoid probate as if it were the Inquisition. I didn’t think you could avoid it, except maybe by setting up trust funds etc. to shield the resources from claims. Seems like it would cost more to do this for a modest income estate than to just go through the process. Yet I’ve had people adamantly state the need to avoid probate, and look at me like I was a dope for not trying. What gives?
some guy
whoa, Bob in Portland was correct, cacti’s fascist pals in the Ukraine did burn 31 trade unionists alive in Odessa. today.
James E. Powell
@mdblanche:
This subcommittee is the final, definitive proof that Obamacare is a success and is here to stay. The Republican plan to run against it until November is not going to work, so they’ve fallen back to their previous monomania.
You need to get in touch with the Democratic powers that be and make them put your exact words into the mouth of every Democrat in the nation. This needs to be repeated over and over and over and over and over and over.
Omnes Omnibus
@p.a.: Generally, the reason one wants to avoid probate is to avoid jumping through a shitload of formal hoops. A number of states have an informal probate procedure that one can follow that simply require an accounting to the probate court rather the formal procedures. IMO, there are some attorneys who try to sell prepackaged estate plans and use “avoid probate” as a sales tool. I do not hold them in high professional regard. Although I don’t practice in the area, my grandmother was taken in by one of these lawyers shortly after my grandfather died. She was seeking an estate plan that would protect her assets and maximize her estate for her beneficiaries, but the attorney sold her a trust scheme that simply avoided probate. Luckily for her wishes, the asset protection aspect of the trust was never needed.
GregB
Ronaldus Maximis Reagan did nothing when the commie Rooskies shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007and killed 62 Americans including a sitting Congressman. That one is down the deep memory hole.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Not exactly what Reuters says, is it?
ETA: Nor the AP.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
More than 30 people were killed in violent and chaotic clashes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa on Friday as pro-Ukraine activists stormed a building defended by protesters opposed to the current government in Kiev and in favour of closer ties with Russia.
Odessa’s large Soviet-era trade union building was set alight as the pro-Ukraine activists mounted an assault as dusk fell. Police said at least 31 people choked to death on smoke or were killed when jumping out of windows after the trade union building was set on fire.
debbie
@raven:
Glenn Beck was babbling about Obama’s gunning running in Benghazi this morning.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Where in your quote is there any evidence that the people who died were trade unionists? The fact that they were in a trade union building does not establish that. Guesswork or propaganda? Honestly, I don’t know. Hard right assholes in an East European country don’t surprise me at all. Russia, Ukraine and/or both. Bob in Portland’s suggestions that Russia is just protecting innocent Russia supporters from fascist Ukrainians is spurious hogwash at best.
ETA: Is this Guardian article the source of your prose? Common courtesy still asks for a fucking link.
some guy
kind of like when AP and Reuters count how many people Cacti’s pals in al Qaeda in Syria kill. the US media tend to be a bit more conservative in the body count than non-US media are. though I will admit, AP at least tends to correct their body counts in a later release, usually by tacit omission, in the form of a different story by a different stringer with the correct body count.
if AP quotes the Qatar-funded Syrian Observatory or when using a quote from AIPAC’s think tank, WINEP, they go with the body count Cacti’s pals in al Qaeda prefer, but in the follow up story (see their coverage of Homs and Aleppo) AP will cite the real number of casualties, once that the international press has fully and accurately reported the war crime by al Qaeda in Syria.
sad to see AP falling victim to using the Anne Hubbard/Liz Sly prism in their coverage of Ukraine.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
maybe one of your paralegals could use the Gazoogle to see how many of the 31 burned alive in the House of Trade Unionsby the Ukranian fascists were actually trade unionists.
putz
CaseyL
@Suffern ACE: Very cool, but is it supposed to take anyone anywhere other than up-and-down? the drawings don’t show how the train connects to anything like, oh, shops or business districts or residential areas.
Unless there’s a catapult at the top… so you get off the train, get loaded onto a giant slingshot, and then are forcefully tossed to where you’re going? That would certainly make rush hour a lot more interesting!
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Is there a dictator with whom you are not willing to get on board? The revolution does demand ever so much.
@some guy: You and BiP made the claim that the people who died were trade unionists. Burden of proof falls on you. I simply remain agnostic.
some guy
hee, the putz reaches for the ad hominem to deflect his own cluelessness. score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gin & Tonic
@some guy: Fascinating video available which shows the crowd outside the building, and also shows a fire starting inside an unbroken window on the third or fourth floor (higher than anyone could throw a firebomb from outside.)
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: How was it ad hom?
Gin & Tonic
@some guy: You mean the 15 with Russian passports and the 5 with Transdnistrian passports? Tourists?
mai naem
Can people stop fucking this poor chicken? It is tired. Very very sore. Find another chicken to fuck. Did the birther chicken finally die or can they go back to fucking that chicken. How about they go fucking that purdy Black Reparations chicken?
scav
@some guy: No one’s disputing that people died, nor that violence is occurring and unfortunate. some are just far less willing to jump in and assign a single white-hat award based on competing propaganda from involved sources with agendas, especially in a chaotic, evolving situation. Add those that have yet to be convinced that the situation is “ours” to “fix”. But as you’re determined that you are perfectly able to judge all the complexities of a situation from long distance and worthy to judge all others based upon your perfect factual and moral understanding, well, have at it.
@CaseyL: um, that’s the station. The trains are apparently taking a 45° angle to park in it, see the little palm-tree thingies at the bottom of it. Total funhouse ride right at the beginning or end, pivoting chairs, luggage shifting in overhead compartments, the works. Slingshot would be fun though. Shorter distance rapid transit? Or, maybe ziplines off the roof to favored destinations . . .
some guy
@Gin & Tonic:
is that before or after we see the (edited) men on the rooftops (see the edit at 1:52)? definitely after the fascists have burned the protestors tents, but I wonder why the camera tilts up to just the right window at just the right time? oh, I get it, the trade unionists immolated themselves in an act of fervor at the same time the camera tilts down from the burning window to the fascists throwing Molotov cocktails 3 stories below.
total coincidence.
please try harder when presenting edited videos
Suffern ACE
Is there an equivalent to cleeks law for fake lefty foreign policy?
Omnes Omnibus
@mai naem: Don’t make me link to Rude Pundit’s stuff about Karl Rove’s leather slave. No one wants that.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: You and BiP have no actual evidence. For all that I know, you might well be right, but your certainty that a pure pro-Russian view is correct is a bit suspect.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
hey, when you get into the office on Monday maybe you could ask one of your paralegals to use the Gazoogle to
a) find an accurate death count for the House of Trade Unionist Fire in Odessa
b) find out which stringer AP used to update their story using an accurate body count
c) find out how many of the 31 were not, in fact, trade unionists
just for shits and giggles. I am sure your paralegal would find it an intersting assignment
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Since the pro-Russian activists are known to have been taking over government buildings in Ukraine for at least a month, I’m pretty sure the onus is on you to show this isn’t one of them. Hell, some of them even mistook a theater for Kharkiv city hall.
Suffern ACE
@scav: I wonder if the trains will make that clicky tickey sound that roller coasters do when going up that first hill. There is a diagram of the interior of the station showing how people will enter and exit. The train tracks run underground. I have no idea how they solved the luggage problem. It seems like the type of thing best tried in Europe or Japan. I wouldn’t trust us to build a working railway at this point, let alone an innovative one. Innovations in transit are best left to people who know what they are doing.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Look up the meaning of ad hominem.. Then answer my question.
And again, you are claiming that all of the dead were trade unionists. I say I have no idea how many of them were. You mock my profession, but we have standards of proof and burdens of proof. You have offered not a fucking thing that would satisfy either. If I remember correctly you are a graduate student at a reputable university, as such you should know how to support any claim you make by data or text, right? So do it.
some guy
the support for Svoboda/Right Sector in this forum reminds me of how the Center Right in America cheered wildly for the Afghan “resistance” to the godless communists in Kabul, circa 1979. it took 13 years for our”mujahadeen” friends to end the godless ways of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, and I bet it will take Svoboda and Right Sector less than that to take control of Odessa.
gwangung
@some guy:
Dude. You made the claim. Polite thing to do is to support it.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
remind us again how many people died in this fire, according to your proffered sources, AP and Reuters ?
gwangung
@some guy:
Don’t play that card. With ME.
trollhattan
@some guy: Hodor Jr!
sm*t cl*de
(Anyone want to photoshop that image using Cooper Black or Comic Sans as the font?)
I suggest that Gowdy Old Style is more appropriate.
some guy
wow, AP has already updated their lede paragraph to include all 31. good for them.
I guess Ukraine IS different from Syria. AP simply updates the story, rather than using a stringer to get the actual body count accurately.
progress of a sorts, I guess.
Gin & Tonic
@some guy: Just curious, but who was it who attacked a peaceful march of Odessa and Kharkiv soccer fans (marching together!) for a united Ukraine, igniting this mess?
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: 30-40+. And?
Suffern ACE
@gwangung: don’t mess with a man with blowback on his mind. He’s liable to hit you with something from 30 years ago in his attempt to figure out that ideal strategy where his country can be a great power and no one gets hurt.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
You mean the Right Sector guys that the current government of Ukraine has been hunting down? Or are there different Right Sector guys who are totally in the Ukrainian government but are different than the ones who say they’re Right Sector?
You and Bob really need to try and get your stories straight.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Good point.
scav
@Suffern ACE: If it doesn’t do the clickity, I’m not half as excited.
some guy
cholinesterase inhibitors have important things to tell us. you should ask your paralegal to look into them.
Scott Alloway
@Ruckus: I always say. “Thank you. You amuse me.” Drives them wild. But I’m a 64-year-old fart who just likes to tease them on with comments.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: So are you ever going to address my points? Why was my comment ad hom? And what is the evidence to support your claim that the people within the building were trade unionists? Note that I do not claim that they were not trade unionists. I simply ask for evidence that they were.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Deflection? Can’t you answer the questions you have asked? If so, why not?
some guy
well, if Maidan Square puschtist leader Volodymyr Parasyuk thinks Right Sector has to go then Right Sector has to go. clear as daylight.
points to Nemo for pointing out how responsible Center Right thought leaders in Ukraine have the ultra fascists on the run these days. besides that unfortunate fire in Odessa, I mean.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
My paralegal will get right on it, on Monday when she gets into the office and boots up her Dell and opens up the Gazoogle. Is Monday mid-day good for you?
TG Chicago
@mdblanche:
Excellent point.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Have the fucking balls to address your comment to someone.
@some guy: So the answer is no. Dishonesty, cowardice, laziness… One shan’t speculate. You are welcome.
Scott Alloway
@jl: Yes, but then they can study the situation in Freedonia and why hasn’t Obummer done something about that!!!!
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
so you are not interested in what my paralegal finds using the Gazoogle on Monday?
she’ll be so disappointed.
some guy
got a link for that?
Gin & Tonic
@some guy: Tiresome and unoriginal.
Jebediah, RBG
@CaseyL:
Its a terminal
you can walk out of the station to the shops
and then walk back to the station
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Seriously. you have no willingness to provide any kind of substantive response to anything I have said? Your only response is cracks about paralegals? You are a sad little boy. I really do feel badly for your students. Paying what they do for an education and getting a TA who doesn’t have the intellectual honesty of naked mole rat. It must be upsetting.
some guy
@Gin & Tonic:
any more edited videos posted on YouTube from the fascists in Ukraine justifying their firebombing you care to share with us? seriously, think about widening your paramaters, the fascists in Syria LOVE LOVE LOVE to use YouTube to edit their videos. hell, from their edits to Anne Hubbards A1 story in the Times or Liz Sly’s A1 story in the Post, YouTube has proven to be the go to resource for Center Right/ Rightwing activists worldwide. I am sure Gin & Tacos could add some value to these :news” sources. “Today in Liberation” or something like that.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus:
substance is for commenters who offer substance. peacocks are for pruning
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: So your answer is no. You have nothing. Got it.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Just thought it was worth pointing out to any bystanders that you have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Forget it, LaRue, this is Polynesiantown.
Omnes Omnibus
@some guy: Evidence is a wonderful thing. Find some. I am to it. You just don’t seen to find it,
Come on, lad. I fear for your students; having an instructor who lies about academic matters is difficult to walk away from.
Gin & Tonic
@some guy: Sorry, no more video for now. So here’s a photo of a brave anti-fascist shooting from the roof of the trade center, into a crowd of pro-unity marchers.
Interesting, too, how the brave trade unionists were inside a closed building (with May Day on Thursday, pretty much everything was closed on Friday, including the trade union building.)
Suffern ACE
So militia men shoot at a crowd. Criowd turns violent in response? How dare they attack people who shot at them.
James E. Powell
@p.a.:
The one easy answer to why one would wish to avoid probate is that it takes time and money and if you don’t have to do it, why do it?
States vary somewhat, but joint & survivor ownership and trusts cause the property to transfer immediately at death rather than months plus later.
Ruckus
@Scott Alloway:
I like to laugh and make snarky comments. Well at least I did. But it makes me so sad any more to think that so many people are so narrow minded, selfish fucksticks that I can’t be bothered any more. It’s like trolls here(of which there are a couple on this post) always trying to derail the issue at hand by being colossal dicks with their tiny one issue minds who don’t know the subject and can’t be bothered to try and understand, they just regurgitate something that someone else got wrong because they know if they had their own blog they’d have 2 readers. And one of those would be mocking them all the time. What I’m really trying to say is I’m tired of trying to hold back the ocean of stupid. More power to those of you who haven’t reached that point.
serena1313
Since ObamaCare is not so much a viable issue anymore and Republicans never came up with a Plan B returning to their favourite rallying cry: Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi! is hardly surprising.
Which is to say Benghazi is their only other option if they want to keep their base in a heightened state of excitement & money flowing into their campaign coffers.
But how do Republicans explain the multiple investigations by multiple committees including:
. State Dept Accountability Review Board
. Senate Intelligence Committee
. Senate Armed Services Committee
. House Intelligence Committee
. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee
. House Armed Services Committee
. House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform
. House Committee on Foreign Affairs
that have transpired over the last year and a half and not one shred of evidence turned up suggesting a cover-up or wrongdoing. If there had been, we would have heard about it.
Thus explains why Republicans cannot or will not let Benghazi go & by appearances sake neither will the lapdog media.
CBS Bob Schieffer, for instance, breathlessly announced tonight, that he will interview Lyndsey Graham (R-SC) about the Benghazi emails, referring to them as the “smoking gun,” on Sunday morning. So that is the “narrative.”
Nevertheless I do wish that once, just once, the MSN would start asking Republicans accountability questions like how many more hearings do they plan on holding; how many millions of taxpayer dollars have already been spent and how many millions more do they plan on wasting chasing a nothing-burger.
But that will not happen; it doesn’t fit the “narrative.”
Republicans along with a compliant media are not fooling anyone but the willfully blind, ideological far-right loyalists & extremists who believe the hearings are “legitimate” and even if they knew otherwise it would not matter; they are in a heightened state of emotional turmoil and cannot think straight.
They just want to win.
And they are convinced Benghazi will get them there. But there is no there, there just like there is no there, there with ObamaCare.
Sooner or later their base will figure it out. Not if, but when they do there will be hell to pay.
eemom
Don’t even you ever get tired of the same old copy & paste + “apart from” schtick, day after day, night after night, 24/7/365?
Just curious.
gian
@some guy:
oops the cbs reporters who could’ve done that got kidnapped
reportedly by Russian speaking guys who range feed cattle without paying fees
*yes comic effect
debbie
@serena1313:
This is why I”d love to see a financial accounting of the overall cost to the taxpayers.
TerryC
@David Koch: Backwards week: Izahgneb! Izahgneb! Izahgneb!
chopper
@Mnemosyne:
yeah, but he seems to be doing a great job on that front all by himself.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@serena1313: As CaseyL said above, this is (mostly) about Hillary and the lessons the Republicans think they learned during the Clinton years. Remember that “Citizens United” was a hatchet-job film about Hillary. Remember that Hillary was in charge of Clinton’s health care efforts.
One can make a pretty strong case, I think, that the vehemence of the opposition to Obamacare and Benghazi!!111 is their trumped up visceral dislike of Hillary Clinton. That’s why they keep pounding on what a “failure” Obamacare is. That’s why they’re continuing with the Benghazi stuff. That may even be why they tried to go nuclear on strong women like Sandra Fluke. They seem to feel they must destroy anything that has Hillary’s backing or that supports her.
It used to be that the Republicans would find a shiny object like Flag Burning or Pornography or Balanced Budget Amendment or Hollowed-out Military or Communists or Threat to Marriage to get their supporters riled up enough to show up at the polls. Almost all of those things have failed as issues. Now, in the end, it’s Hillary. (And the perennial “Life” stuff that is really about women being able to control their reproduction or not.)
They want to cut her off at the knees before she declares. But they’ve learned that going after her appearance or pants-suits or (lately) “Grandma!” doesn’t work well enough. So they’ll try to destroy all the policies she has had a hand in. It’s the Republicans latest shiny object.
The Benghazi stuff has very little to do with Obama now, it seems to me. They think they’ve succeeded in bottling him up so that he can’t do anything. They don’t think Biden is his natural heir, so she’s the target.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who still thinks she’s not going to run.)
Alex S.
@different-church-lady:
Or maybe 40s – like, Casablanca II – Benghazi.
Alex S.
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Yes, they just planted “Benghazi” into the minds of their followers to give them some reason not to vote for Hillary, because actually, Hillary might be an attractive candidate to them, based on her populism and occasional centrism. “Benghazi” is the code word for “Don’t vote for Hillary” and for “Democrats are weak on foreign policy and military stuff” – masking the competent execution of the Libya war.
Also, they are afraid because the Clintons know about the whole “right wing conspiracy”, even more than Obama. The Clintons have played the game of politics all their lives. They know what conservatives mean when they speak about tax breaks and entitlement reform. Obama decided not to play the game at all, but the Clintons will.
debbie
@Alex S.:
Hopefully, there will be a Democrat somewhere courageous enough to publicly point to the joke that is the basis for Republicans’ claim to their military acumen — the decade-plus of “Shock and Awe” in Iraq.
Chris
@serena1313:
… how much money they plan to allow through on embassy security, now that their previous vote against same appears to have been inadequate…
Patrick
@serena1313:
I hope Bob Schieffer will also finally explain why the 4 dead with Obama’s Benghazi are worth more than the 50 dead during the 13 Benghazi’s that took place under Bush. I won’t hold my breath.
D58826
Three Senators want to know where Obama was on the night of the Benghazi attack. The clear assumption is that Obama wasn’t doing his job and if he did those people would not have died.
hildebrand
@D58826: Those three senators can go fuck themselves. I would kill for one intrepid reporter to ask them, ‘Don’t you have real work to do?’
Death Panel Truck
@Tommy:
I saw winter (and spring) wheat outside my window for 20 years. But then, I grew up on a wheat farm in eastern Washington. :-)
mi sitio web
yeah, but he seems to be doing a great job on that front all by himself.