Romney’s meltdown last night on the “act of terror” nonsense is entirely the result of his having spent the last four years deeply entrenched in the right wing echo chamber. They’ve been running around saying offensive and stupid things for years, but since they just dismiss everyone outside of Fox News as the liberal media, they are never forced to admit they are wrong. They can just attack, attack, attack, and there are never repercussions. This is why, when Romney charges that Obama never called it terrorism, and Obama states he did, the record shows that he called it an act of terror in the Rose Garden, the hive mind still refuses to believe reality, because they have never been forced confront facts and reality before. As such, you get this kind of nonsense from the clown caucus over at Breitbart:
The lowest and most dishonest part of Crowley’s disgraceful “moderation” was when she actually jumped into the debate to take Obama’s side when the issue of Benghazi came up. To cover for his and his administration’s lying for almost two weeks about the attack coming as the result of a spontaneous protest over a YouTube video, Obama attempted to use as cover the claim that he had called the attack a “terrorist attack” on that very first day during his Rose Garden statement.
Romney correctly disputed that.
Crowley, quite incorrectly, took Obama’s side and the crowd exploded.
Here’s what Obama said that day:
No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.
Context matters and the context here is that Obama connected this “act of terror” to … a mob action over a YouTube video — not a deliberate terrorist attack. Obama was using the term generically and it would be almost two weeks before he used it again.
Got that? They quote Obama saying acts of terror, but then, like a stoned freshman rhetorician, manage to convince themselves that he didn’t mean it, and since he didn’t really mean it, well, then, Romney was right that Obama never said it.
This is what the outcome of living in a self-enforcing echo chamber looks like. It’s how you can believe the earth is 9,000 years old and that Jesus rode on dinosaurs and that global warming is a myth and that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim socialist with a crazy anti-American Christian pastor, and so forth.
Cassidy
I thought it was 6,000? Where di the extra 3,000 years come from?
The Other Chuck
Yeah, because all the talk about bringing perpetrators to justice is exactly what you say about a crowd of fucking protesters. Oh hay maybe that’s why they had to snip out one sentence from the paragraphs that surrounded it.
Isn’t “Squid Cloud of Butthurt” a tag? Would apply nicely to this…
Southern Beale
I was just reading over the #BindersOfWomen hashtag thread at Twitter and saw some idiot claim (no link, of course) that there are 780,000 more women out of work now than when Obama took office. I would love to know where a person found that figure. I guess I could Google it but I’m too lazy.
And this is why I just can’t be bothered to worry about most of the crap that right-wingers think. I can’t be bothered to worry about 60% of Ohio Republicans thinking that if Obama wins it will be proof that Dems orchestrated voter fraud. They’re going to think that anyway, no matter what, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.
Southern Beale
@Cassidy:
I thought it was 7,000.
We are not all entitled to our own facts, dammit!
:-)
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
Their argument is absurd – an angry mob killing people is just as much terrorism as some guy with a suicide vest. It’s all violence to try to intimidate another group.
chopper
Even funnier is that Obama referred to the attack as an ‘act of terror’ the day after the rose garden speech. not that those idiots figured that out either.
Hill Dweller
They can’t even get their bullshit excuse right. Obama called the attack terrorism again while in Vegas.
RaflW
As long as they manage not to drag the whole country down with them, I think there’s a Darwin Award-level comeuppance headed their way.
The Other Chuck
@Southern Beale: When economies tank, it’s often women who get laid off first, partly due to old fashioned sexism, and also due to being less senior (itself due to getting laid off all the fucking time).
So they can throw around that figure, sure, but it really only works in the echo chamber. It doesn’t automatically connect with the average person to convey the sentiment of actually _caring_ about the plight of those 780,000. Or in fact, coming from a republican, giving a shit about women at all except as breeding vessels.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The entire Lybia debate/discussion seems to me to be out of control. I heard (slighly firebaggish, more than slighly self-righteous) Sam Stein on MSNBC this morning saying Romney’s flub saved Obama from having to confront his “intelligence failures”; Candy Crowley is saying that “they” (the admin) did try to pass it off as being related to the video, maybe because the people who actually attacked the consulate (not the embassy) actually said that was why they did it
and as this reporter said yesterday, the outfit that conducted this attack knows people who know people who are in contact with al Qaeda, who are no doubt thrilled to have Republicans building up their reputation in the US and international media.
This is a serious matter, and there may well have been intelligence failures. We don’t know yet. That’s the point.
Cassidy
Will we be treated to “republicans in disarray” stories?
dmsilev
Wait a second. I thought Romney’s campaign declared that context was irrelevant. Or is that statement now no longer operative?
kooks
It wasn’t just the “act of terror” line either. There were a few instances where I was like, “has no one told Romney that the Republican primaries are over??”
I mean seriously, he brought up Fast and Furious – who gives a fuck about that except the Fox News crowd? I couldn’t quite tell if Romney thinks this stuff actually resonates, or if he realized that he was getting his ass handed to him and just defaulted to old talking points.
Hill Dweller
@Southern Beale: If that number is true, which I doubt, it would be largely due to Republican state governments firing hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, who were disproportionately women.
Sterling
If only Obama had used the term, “act of righteous mob violence” Romney would have totally burnt him. Romney would have been able to go all like, “That’s a burn! Burn, sizzle, sizzle.” But fucking Obama didn’t give him the chance, totally ruining what would have been the single greatest debate burn since earlier in the evening when Obama burned Romney with the joke about the size of Romney’s pension.
lonesomerobot
What we learned from Mitt Romney last night:
-The economy under a Romney administration will be so good that even women will be able to get jobs.
-But, “if you are going to have women in the workforce,” you have to make sure they get flex time so they can get home and make dinner.
-The epidemic of gun violence is the fault of single mothers.
-He’s in favor of affirmative action for women, as long as they come in binders.
-He doesn’t care about the Latino vote, because if he did, he wouldn’t still be using the term ‘illegals’.
-He must be a fan of Fox News, the only network pushing the false ‘didn’t call it an act of terror’ line of attack. Thanks Fox!
-He’s outraged that Obama didn’t push the immigration plan… although that plan was a bad idea anyway, in Mitt’s opinion.
-He has enough respect for the President of the United States to tell him, “you’ll get your turn.”
-He STILL has no specifics on his tax plan.
-He will apparently be different than Bush in many ways, but not on foreign policy, which is probably the most important way to be different than Bush.
-He is dumb enough to hand Obama the 47% comments on a silver platter.
Scout211
Is this from Politifact?
Sounds like it.
Marked Hoosier
“Context matters?” Funny, it didn’t matter for the whole YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT thing.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@Hill Dweller:
Obviously negated by the “What gets said in Vegas, stays in Vegas” rule.
Adam C
Nah, it works like this:
“Act of terror” = some violent act designed to scare people.
“Terrorist act” = Muslims did it.
Obama did not sufficiently blame the attack on Muslims. Probably because he is one. And there you go, no delicate parsing or denial required.
sharl
In an earlier thread, there was some discussion about how Bob Schieffer would likely perform as moderator for the next (and final) debate.
By now it should come as no surprise to anyone actually paying attention, that there is good reason to not expect a stellar performance by Mr. Schieffer.
CONVENTIONAL VILLAGER WISDOM, BITCHEZ!
Napoleon
@Hill Dweller:
Actually that is a large part of it. I do not know if that number is correct but I did read several months ago that initially men were loosing jobs quicker then woman, then when the government budgets were tightened a year or 2 later the trend reversed.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Cassidy: You are correct. The Young Earth Christians believe the Earth was created about 1000 years AFTER the Sumerians invented ink. IOW the Sumerians invented ink about 7000 years ago. Cole must be using McArdle’s calculator today.
The Other Chuck
@Marked Hoosier: Even more egregious example: “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose”.
Face it, GOP voters are voting for Inanimate Carbon Rod. Truth and meaning doesn’t matter.
Another Halocene Human
@The Other Chuck: When economies tank, it’s often women who get laid off first, partly due to old fashioned sexism, and also due to being less senior (itself due to getting laid off all the fucking time).
But the irony was that the first massive wave of unemployment hit men harder than women. There were numerous stories about it at the time, down the memory hole for Republicans. That’s because the housing bubble burst and the construction industry imploded.
Women and people of color got whacked two years later, in the GOP RECESSION as the GOP House and GOP Governators sliced public sector employment.
lonesomerobot
@kooks: despite the fact that the ATF gun-walking began during the Bush administration. Don’t try to tell a winger that, though – they won’t believe you.
Count Ulster
Yes, when you’re used to battle-practice fastballs, live pitching can be awfully hard to hit.
Robert
@Hill Dweller: I thought I read somewhere that the number being used were mostly teachers and health care workers who were laid off or made part time…but the number sounds off…It was also mentioned that it was republican controlled states that were in the lead…It was hard climbing out of bed that day too…
beltane
Fox News has made it impossible to engage in dialogue with virtually any Republican on virtually any subject. They are like Stalinist dead-enders and there is no reasoning with such people. The scary thing is that people such as this are capable of all sorts of atrocities committed in the name of their delusional beliefs. This frightens me.
Mnemosyne
I love how they say that “context matters” while leaving out the very next sentence, which is the one that provides the context.
Do you think they have any comprehension of the fact that they’re lying, or are they really so stupid that they think that pulling one sentence out of context means they’re giving you the whole picture because “context matters”?
I always picture the Breitbrats’ staff meetings going something like this, so I vote for them being so mind-numbingly, brain-damaged dumb that they actually don’t realize that they’re lying.
aspasia
Wow! Cole knows the term “rhetorician” and uses it correctly. Thanks from someone who taught and studied rhetoric for over forty years. NTL I still find it hard to understand how few people know that rhetoric is a serious art and not just a synonym for “hot air.”
Aspasia
Wiesman
This was similar to my take.
http://somedisagree.com/2012/10/17/bubbled-romney-stumbles/
Another Halocene Human
@lonesomerobot: Besides his Mitt “perry mason” Romney #FAIL, Romney went rambling off into Drudge/Alex Jones territory a couple of more times before the debate was over.
People tell me it’s “FOX News” and I believe them, because who the fuck even watches that shit anymore?
Seriously, even 4 years ago that would have been considered conspiracy theory stuff, well, before Pamela Gellar became FOX’ source for all things NYC-building-permit-related.
General Stuck
I look at this entire Libya attack nonsense coming from the RW, as a kind of litmus test on how little Obama has given the gooper scandal mongers the past 4 years as red meat for that ravenous beast.
So they have been forced to spin into complete fucking nonsense what little grist for the wurlitzer they get, being reduced to lame mind reading of prez Obama, and tight ass proclamations of because O didn’t cough up the precise details of an attack at night on the other side of the world, within minutes or hours of the event – then he is lying, or covering up, or presidenting while black. or all of the above
With no self perception just how churlish and opportunistic they sound. Not to mention ghoulish and cruel to the victims families making this an electioneering football.
joes527
@dmsilev: That statement is only relavant in certain contexts.
Trinity
Although humorous, I find their bubble deeply disturbing and frightening.
Tractarian
Every time Obama and Romney got into it over some (usually trivial) detail, and each took turns calling the other one a liar, I always think that there’s a perfect argument-ending comeback for Obama to use. Something along the lines of…
Maybe he’s saving this for the final debate.
Michael
@Cassidy:
Where those numbers come from
David in NY
@aspasia: “rhetorician”
Doesn’t Cole teach rhetoric? I think so. I didn’t even know it was still a subject of study.
David in NY
@Southern Beale: That number of jobs lost is BS. Another Romney lie. Now, if I could just remember where I read that.
The Other Bob
It would be sweet if Seal Team 14 or whatever hauled a bunch of the Bengazi thugs to justice on November 5th.
USA!
USA!
USA!
Villago Delenda Est
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again:
These are the people Orwell was warning us about.
beltane
@Trinity: I agree. History has shown us that people who believe crazy things tend to do crazy things when they come into power. Since we live in a country where 50% of the population, including a sizable majority of the white population, is amenable to these crazy people and their crazy ideology I don’t see anything funny about this.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Talking about context mattering is a tell that they’re taking things out of context and they know it. They’re trying to preempt anyone criticizing them for taking things out of context.
lonesomerobot
@Another Halocene Human: I wonder who watches Fox a lot. Then I wander into some local business here in Tennessee, and there it is on their TV screens. I always wonder if it’s just that they don’t care if they just lost my business, but the answer is obvious – I’m a libtard and they don’t want my communist, muslim-loving welfare dollars.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Michael Crowley at Time
If you read his article, he links to Ross Douthat’s opinion column as a factual back-up for that “macro right”, not the NYT reporter’s column that pretty much debunks everything chunky bobo wrote.
I’m not usually a tumbrels and guillotuine kind of guy, but faced with this, not just incompetence, but smug incompetence, I start to hum the marseillaise.
rlrr
@lonesomerobot:
A typical winger will tell you Ruby Ridge happened during Clinton’s watch…
Hob
@kooks: I kind of suspect that Romney was advised to bring up Fast and Furious just to bait Obama into arguing about it. Not only was his summary of it bullshit, he delivered it with an inflammatory “they’re covering it up, I wonder what their real reason was for doing this” spin that’s not his usual style. If I were Obama I’d be extremely pissed about that, but I think he was right to let it slide– it’s not an easy story to explain without sounding defensive, and Romney obviously would’ve just said “nuh-uh, it was really [some other nonsensical factoid]”.
Bubblegum Tate
Others aren’t even going as deep as that:
Sad But True
Bubble Boy? More like Costanza, insisting that the correct answer is MOOPS!
dmsilev
The Emergency Mitt Gaffe Clean-Up Squad is on the job:
I feel a certain, small, amount of pity for the members of the EMGCUS. Tough life.
Joel
Romney doesn’t even need to venture far outside of the bubble to get some pushback. He has been getting constantly bashed by Jeffery Goldberg, no great friend of liberal foreign policy, from the start.
Violet
@lonesomerobot:
This was kind of amazing. Romney said, “if you’re going to have women in the workforce”. IF? WTF?
Maeve
@The Other Chuck:
Women also took a bigger hit in public sector job layoffs because many of the types of jobs eliminated had more women inthem. The loss of public sector jobs are largely at the state level, many from the more conservative states on the “austerity” bandwagon.
RSA
@Marked Hoosier:
But it did for the whole I LIKE TO BE ABLE TO FIRE PEOPLE thing. Weird. I guess context matters only in context.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@beltane: Radio Rwanda.
There will be a civil war in this nation, in my lifetime. Bank on it.
ETA: Unless a lot of things change about the left, I have a pretty good idea of who ends up winning it.
blingee
All I gotta say is…wtf are you doing over at Brietbart in the first place? Do you also go and have root canals just for fun?
Jay C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
True this; and more to the point: we didn’t know (for sure) at the time, either!. To their credit, the Administration, from Pres. Obama and Sec’y Clinton on down, aren’t trying to BS or spin this (Obama’s statement at the debate couldn’t have been more straightforward): but as usual, IMO, the Republicans have utterly blown their credibility as critics.
That some sort of “intelligence failure” was in play in Benghazi should be obvious – and, justifiably, a cause for serious inquiry. But Mitt and the GOP are still fixated on foolish “who-said-what-when” semantics, and factually incorrect ones to boot, as critiques. Critiques which the public (outside the Wingnut Bubble) doesn’t seem to be buying.
I think Romney’s original blurt-out was probably a closer reading of what the GOP would really like to make the substance of their attacks on President Obama over the Benghazi tragedy: that he muffed security precautions because he sympathize(s) with America’s “enemies” – and I think we will probably see a revival of that line as Republican Doomsday (i.e. Election Day) approaches.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
To give an example from the universe of nerds:
Spock: Random chance seems to be operating in our favor.
McCoy: In plain, non-Vulcan English, we were lucky.
Spock: I believe I said that, Doctor.
Brachiator
@beltane:
To a large degree, Fox News is Romney. A recent Rachel Maddow Show pointed out that a number of regular Fox pundits were also Romney campaign advisors.
Ronmney built and staffed his own Labyrinth. And now he can’t escape it.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Mitt’s caught in his wingnut bubble.
beltane
I wonder if Mitt Romney knows any women who are not family members or domestic help. His lack of real-life experience in just about everything is quite jarring. People say his and Ann’s marriage hearkens back to the 1950s but since no one in my family lived like that even back then, I cannot vouch for this.
T. Bombadil
In reality all social groups have echo chambers – some more formal than others. I have seen some feverish Democratic behavior in this regard where no descent is welcome and things get personal very quickly. It’s so disappointing no matter the direction.
T. Bombadil
In reality all social groups have echo chambers – some more formal than others. I have seen some feverish Democratic behavior in this regard where no descent is welcome and things get personal very quickly. It’s so disappointing no matter the direction.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@aspasia:
Too many years of: My Ethos can beat up your Logos and steal its lunch money. And that’s just Pathetic.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@The Ancient Randonneur: The number is actually in some dispute among different groups. The time can vary from 6000 to 10,000 years, depending on how the times in the bible are actually interpreted.
Bubblegum Tate
Oh, wait, this one’s even better:
He was so close to having starbursts!
Maude
@Trinity:
That’s why we need to vote them out of power.
GregB
The GOP Hive Mind is in full shape-shift damage control mode. Just witnessed a GOP-er friend on FaceBook outraged at Candy Crowley for covering for Obama because “he talked about the video at the UN” two weeks later.
So the old he didn’t call Benghazi an act of terrorism has been replaced to he did talk about the video.
So the new meme: He did too mention the video is now in full swing.
MattR
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I’ve believed that for the past 15-20 years. When I was in college I came to the realization that the next great war our nation faces will be an internal religious/cultural one. I think I have mentioned this before here, but can you imagine the battle lines that would be drawn if we had to start fresh and write a new Constitution that the entire country agreed on. The issue of whether or not we are a Christian nation would be enough to guarantee that nothing would ever be ratified.
Citizen_X
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I hear yet another tagline for the blog.
flukebucket
@beltane:
I picture it as being a kind of June and Ward Cleaver thing. Fake as hell then and fake as hell now. All of the constant smiling and the glassy eyes. They all look like they have been waterboarded.
kuvasz
The details of your post show quite clearly why I have been kicking Republican liars in their rhetorical balls for over two decades. Never let them get away with anything, it only encourages them.
General Stuck
I can’t even click on memerandum anymore. The wave of whining wimpering republicans is the blob that ate the blogs.
Then you have so called ‘fact checkers’ like Kessler and FactCheck.org shrieking about the meaning of ‘ism’ and Romney was right cause act of terror is somehow different than terrorism.
After last night, and all the other days of showing Mitt Romney unfit to be president, there isn’t really much left to discuss until voting time.
When the American populace will decide whether to stumble on toward the light, or grab the cannonball and go over the side.
TooManyJens
I’ve been arguing with people over this ‘act of terror’ thing since last night, and I don’t even know why. To claim that he didn’t refer to the attack in Benghazi as an ‘act of terror’ requires a reading of the speech that is so counterintuitive it would have to be willful. And people like that aren’t persuaded by argument.
I just want to know exactly they think the world would be a better place if Obama used the word “terrorism” every time he talked about the incident.
Just Some Fuckhead
From the article:
So NOW context matters? After the complete abandonment of context during the “We Didn’t Build That” nonsense, this is certainly a surprising development.
Rob in Buffalo
” . . . and it would be almost two weeks before he used it [the word ‘terror’] again.”
The next day, actually. But you know, whatever.
Ash Can
@The Other Bob:
Just in time for the next debate, which will focus on foreign policy. Yeah, that’d work.
WWStBreitbartD
This shows what a great intellect Obama has over the rest of his followers.
He knew the truth 2 weeks before the rest of his administration and the netroots.
How Obama’s claim (and Crowley’s intervention) will likely backfire
Ben Franklin
@TooManyJens:
I don’t even know why.
They go into the election with the ammo, they have.
catclub
@Southern Beale: Lots of state governments have laid off lots of teachers, much later in the cycle than the housing construction collapse.
elmo
@beltane:
I’ve said this before, but what I’m really waiting for is for the right-wing noise machine to go “election truther” on November 7. What’s to stop them from telling their audience that Mitt Romney won? And claiming that “the liberal media” is lying about Obama winning Ohio/Florida/Pennsylvania/take your pick?
I’m not talking about ginned-up stories of election fraud, although I don’t doubt we’ll get plenty of those. I’m talking about flat-out claiming that Romney is the winner, and that it is only a conspiracy between Obama and the media to claim that he isn’t.
Chris
Best line in the movie “Mississippi Burning:” the local Ku Klux Klan leader giving his speech to the media and going “we are against Jews, because their control of international banking is at the root of Communism!”
Not that good a movie and a pretty depressing one otherwise, but I had to pause for that line, I was laughing so hard.
Violet
All this defense for Mitt and his poor debate last night is instructive. The Republicans and other wingnuts are working overtime to spin, spin, spin the post-debate. No whining, tearing of hair, calling their guy lazy, not-in-the-game, etc. Nope. Their guy did GREAT! The other guy (Obama) sucked and lied and the media is to blame, etc., etc.
The Republicans and wingnuts are good at spinning for their guy. He’s their guy, even if he’s a terrible candidate. They’ll have his back.
catclub
@MattR: I’ll bet against it.
Muddling through is what we are pretty good at.
celticdragonchick
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Speaking for myself:
I have no problem shooting back, and I have a few weapons I can loan to my fellow progressive friends. Let’s hope we don’t go down that road, though.
General Stuck
@TooManyJens:
The way I look at it, and suspect Obama and crew did as well, was that is was an attack of terror, but using the word terrorism would imply we had specific knowledge that a recognized group that what we call terrorist orgs was who did this. That is something that takes some investigation, and always, ALWAYS, is dealt with gingerly by powers that be. Regardless of who is president. The wingnuts are so fucking desperate to make this a defining issue they can rally around. And to plug into their message drones to repeat, like “was for it before against it” or ‘flip flop’, whatever the asinine charge is. It is all they have, and it is not nothing as far as possibly swaying an election. This one is a stretch to put it mildly, though. Especially in an economy election against the guy who got Bin Laden.
Punchy
Wingers in my office already saying that Romney won the debate “easily”. Like two diff worlds we live in.
Culture of Truth
I had to read The Accidential Terrorist in school. Then it became a movie with William Hurt and Geena Davis.
rlrr
@elmo:
don’t give them any ideas…
Gary K
This is part of the spin from Fox News:
Reminds!
Boots Day
The Politifact entry on the Libya foofaraw is perfect self-parody:
Romney said it took the president 14 days before he called the Libya attack terror.
In fact, Obama described it in those terms the day after the attack.
Those are the first sentences in their summary of the whole thing. So what do they rate Romney’s statement? “Half-true.”
beltane
@flukebucket: Ann was essentially a child bride, groomed for her role as breeding vessel for a Mormon prince from the age of 16. The only thing this anachronistic marriage transition lacked was a dowry or bride-price paid. It’s all so foreign to me, like something you’d see in Afghanistan.
Wapiti
@Forum Transmitted Disease: In the event of a second civil war, my money is on the U.S. military forces over the rebels.
Yeah, there may be some political statements from the odd officer, and there may be some polls that show that the servicemembers believe this or that. But when the orders come down, like for gays in the military, they’ll salute smartly and pull together for the country.
WWStBreitbartD
@rlrr:
A typical progressive moonbat will tell you Operation Fast and Furious started under Bush and gunwalking was stopped by Eric Holder.
Operation Wide Receiver ended 2 years before Bush left office.
FlipYrWhig
@WWStBreitbartD: WTF is the matter with you idiots? It was a terrorist attack that used the video, and the protest over the video, opportunistically. Jim linked this NYT article in this very thread. What do you even think you’re arguing anymore?
catclub
@TooManyJens: If you read what Obama says (not just this case, but many), it is clear that he is very careful with what he says. That statement is an example. It can be parsed various ways, depending on how the later news turns out. Did he know that it was probably more ‘hostile action’ than ‘out of control mob’? probably.
so what.
It also means that when Obama talks about say, healthcare, one is more likely to hear what you want to hear, than what he actually says.
Ben Franklin
Unless a lot of things change about the left, I have a pretty good idea of who ends up winning it.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think the left has more experience than the Muddle.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@MattR: Jesusland and the coasts. At least at first.
Problem is that the coasts have all the money, power, know-how and wealth, and the Know-Nothing Jesuslanders have all the guns and are not just willing but eager to use them.
I’m not going to state the obvious solution, it will be derided as both uncouth and immoral and it’s probably far too late anyway. Try as I might, I don’t see the left taking responsibility for their own defense into their hands.
Spaghetti Lee
Let ’em whine. If you’re whining you’re losing.
SensesFail
@General Stuck:
Exactly. Before it was: “OMG HE USES A TELEPROMPTER!”
Ash Can
I mean, really. Look at this: WWStBreitbartD (And thank you, StBreitbart, for this concise and well-timed example.)
This is what these people are reduced to. This is what they have. The black Dem in the White House is so squeaky clean and has been doing his job so well that all these idiots, thugs and charlatans who have been waiting, waiting, waiting for him to fuck up so they could pounce on him have slowly been driven (even more) wack, to the point where they’ll grab hold of something like this and tear it to itty bitty pieces, thinking it’s a monster the size of Godzilla when all it is is a dust bunny that fell out of their ear. It’s amazing and disturbing to see so many fellow Americans just completely lose their shit.
General Stuck
@Boots Day:
Yeah, I saw that. Just amazing the dysfunction of our media apparatus to create drama out of so simple and straight forward a question and answer. They can’t resist asking the question that Romney didn’t ask, and calling that ‘half true’
Spaghetti Lee
Also, I’d like to see one person predict a ‘new civil war’ who doesn’t seem to secretly want it to happen, if only to prove their point about what brutes the other guys are. It’s like the racist dead-enders who have been talking about the great Race War starting ANY MINUTE NOW since 1967. If they haven’t done it by now, they’re not going to.
Chris
@Wapiti:
Don’t forget foreign policy. French support was critical in helping the Americans win the Revolution. Lack of French or British support was critical in helping the South lost the Revolution. (Though that part doesn’t make for good “MRKA FUCK YEAH!” so we tend to downplay it).
In the event of a Democrat-Republican civil war, the idea of the Republicans (especially as the insurgent force) getting support from any Western country other than Israel is pretty hysterical, and I wouldn’t even bet on Israel helping them (given that the bulk of American Jews will be on the other side). The only way Republicans get foreign support is if someone like China or Russia chooses to support them in the hopes of bleeding America dry. But that’s pretty far from a given, too.
(Sorry, I know it’s a complete hypothetical, but just for fun…)
raven
@Spaghetti Lee: No shit, I’m so sick of that bedwetting bullshit.
J.
It’s amazing to me that anyone could vote for Mitt Romney with a straight face (or conscience). But then I thought, there must be some reason to vote for Bubble Boy — and came up with several reasons why someone would vote for Romney (and Ryan). (And, no surprise, a member of the echo chamber threw a hissy fit.)
Brachiator
@beltane:
Princess Diana? Kate Middleton? Katie Holmes?
Culture of Truth
Look, I just want a President who shoots first and asks questions later. Is that too much to ask?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Wapiti: You are thinking of the last war. In the scenario I have been contemplating, the US Military will not be a factor either way.
kay
@WWStBreitbartD:
Because it’s still an act of terror. Murdering people over a video is an act of terror. The phrase fits both possibilities.
You can’t win this. If you want to promote the lie idea, you need more than you have. There is no smoking gun in the Rose Garden statement. You have to look elsewhere.
Why is it taking you so long to figure this out? You’ve had weeks and it’s not a long statement. What you want isn’t in there.
MattR
@catclub: That is a bet I’d happily lose :)
I am not so confident about the timeframe, but I’ll stand by my claim that the next great threat (whenever that may be) will be internal division and not from an external entity.
@Wapiti: I don’t think we can assume that the rebels are right wing nuts who hate the government for treating everybody equally. It could end up being liberals rebelling against the decline towards theocracy.
@kay:
Why are you expecting a troll to acknowledge reality? It is not interested in truth, only irritation and distraction.
WaynersT
…and on a ‘binders full of women tumblr’ tangent – isn’t this Rand Paul?
http://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com/post/33778459879
Soonergrunt
@celticdragonchick: I was about to say, I know I’m good to go. And I’ll help out anyone who needs it.
ETA–civil war is highly unlikely, given that conservatism’s hallmark is fear of change.
Kyle
Who the hell except Fox News pecksniffs gives a crap what the attack was called? What kind of mental disease do you have to be afflicted with to obsess so much about what word was used rather than the action response? Because they think Obama secretly supports terrorist attacks against US embassies? “It was terrism but you didn’t call it that at the start”. “OK, you called it that but you didn’t MEAN it”. “You didn’t say it loudly and repeatedly enough”. “You talk all college fancy-pants instead of how a real President should sound, which is like a retarded comic-book John Wayne”.
The authoritarian-follower rightards are just pissed that Bush wasn’t still in office so they could get the vicarious thrill of their sad, powerless little lives watching the USAF bomb Venezuela, Tibet or New Zealand in response.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
I’m going to a GOTV rally tonight so I can do my part to make sure we burst his bubble for good.
JenJen
Oh, this is rich: Megyn Kelly over at Fox News assembled a “focus group” of mostly Romney and GOP hacks to discuss CandyGate:
Focus Group Explodes Over Candy Crowley Debate Moderation
I guess they’re gonna keep fucking that chicken.
WWStBreitbartD
@FlipYrWhig:
There’s video of the Benghazi attack
Spaghetti Lee
I know everyone hates Buzzfeed (does everyone hate Buzzfeed? I think they do.) but this was pretty funny: http://www.buzzfeed.com/networkdeskpeon/its-arrested-decision-2012-53wv
Spaghetti Lee
“The moderators are mean to me, America! Vote for me!”
Jim Pharo
Context Matters. Context doesn’t matter.
Tax cuts create jobs. Even revenue-neutral ones. But Government can’t create jobs.
Up is down. Down is up.
…seems like a pattern…
beltane
@Brachiator: I think Princess Diana taught preschool for a bit before her ill-starred marriage to Prince Charles and the other two were quite big on the party circuit. Ann Romney has lived in a form of Mormon purdah her entire adult life. I have never personally met anyone of even my grandmother’s generation who has led such a cloistered existence as Ann Romney.
MattR
@Soonergrunt:
IMO, this is exactly why civil war is almost inevitable. When you force conservatives to change and adapt to new realities, they resist and eventually they will snap .
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JenJen:
Let me remind you..that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
Ash Can
@JenJen: I have to wonder if this whole experience doesn’t serve as something of an eye-opener for Crowley.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@WWStBreitbartD: You mean the ATF quit that in the same way my dad keeps quitting smoking, over and over again.
ETA: It took the DOJ getting involved to END it.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Spaghetti Lee: You’ll never believe this, but I truly don’t. Most of my family is in the reddest of the Red South. They would lose everything they own and likely their lives in the bargain. What I’m seeing is desperation by the right, as they keep losing one battle after another, and there’s only one logical end result when a group of people gets backed into a corner with their beliefs and ways of life at stake.
Michael
Well, if Republicans want to keep focusing on what was undoubtedly Mitt’s worst moment in the debate, I say let em
danimal
Warning: Semi-OT rant to follow:
The reason the media blows it is because they consider themselves the authoriteh on what happened. Even if the rubes see the video for themselves, the media MUST interpret what they just saw, often in the most ridiculous terms. The media acts as a filter for events, and in the computer age, the media filter is just not as important as it once was.
Remember, when Americans vote on the economy, they are not voting for an unemployment rate, or on housing starts or GDP. They are voting on whether they have a job, whether they have a home or can afford to move, whether the cost of gas is too high, etc. The media look at aggregate economic numbers and try to divine the horse race outcome, but real humans aren’t wired like that.
Consumer confidence is increasing, and fairly dramatically; if you want to interpret the election, then figure out why. That exercise will be more beneficial than parsing the importance of whether Obama said “act of terror” or “acts of terror” or “terrorism”. Such nonsense is truly beyond silly.
The media filter is rapidly becoming an anachronism, and the media practices have not updated to the realities of the day.
handy
I’m so glad there are people out there crusading for the truth about an attack on the Benghazi consulate. Imagine the HORROR, the HORROR were Obama and his goons able to get away with not saying the word “terrorists.” What a failure of leadership!
What we need is a true Commander-In-Chief who will get in front of TV cameras and rightfully declare the one fitting response to this egregious act–a war with Iran.
SatanicPanic
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
NO WAY. Have you seen the demographics of these wingnuts? My wingnut uncle is in a “militia”. He’s in his mid-sixties, is in the worst shape of anyone I know. I’m sure he owns a gun and can shoot it, and he even has some military training- he spent the Veitnam war guarding the coast in northern CA. Seriously, am I afraid of this dude? It’s just a dumb hobby he has and like the rest of his buddies, he’s all talk. Their army could be defeated by an average flight of stairs.
Oh, and I know quite a few armed liberals, they’re just not so vocal about it.
Redshift
@WWStBreitbartD:
“Word on the street” from a Glenn Beck site equals “it’s true!” to you?
I’m sure we’ll see that right after the “Whitey Tape” is released.
ed_finnerty
@StDrugAddict 117
that is quite a website you link to. It is remarkable that you are even moderately sane for someone who has been exposed to that nonsense.
Capri
@MattR:
Naw, we all shop at Wal-Mart and Apple Stores.
We all used to watch American Idol and now watch The Voice.
We all talk about the Superbowl Ad.s
More importantly, GWB had republican majorities in both houses and during that time abortion remained legal and largely ignored.
Despite the inflammatory talk from politicians and members of the politico-industrial complex, the US is a very stable place.
Culture of Truth
Look this is simple. It wasn’t one of those deliberate acts of terror it was one of those accidental acts of terror and Obama was clearly speaking of generic “terror” like “oooh that was scary” and not Brand-Name Terrorism®
Gloryb
@Southern Beale: As a give’s employee myself, I can tell you that the reason that female and minority unemployment is so high is because we are over represented in government. The repub governors have been laying off like crazy. THAT’S the reason for those numbers.
It pisses me off that they lay off tens and hundreds of thousands, turn down the stimulus cash that could have saved those jobs, and then blame it on the Pres.
Another Halocene Human
@lonesomerobot: I walked past a business owned by wingtards today.
I called them once about buying a mattress and their quote was so out of line with everyone else I nearly fell out of my chair. Needless to say a purchased two mattresses from two other local businesses, not theirs.
They still had their sign for their winger primary candidate (who lost) leaning against their building. I guess at least they supported the boring ultra-conservative versus the empty-headed teapartier who ultimately won? Ugh. Everything about their lot screamed CHEEP! And no customers in sight.
Their property is in crappy shape, they’ve uglified their lot with furniture they made from PVC pipes and joints (uh… I guess they brag about their frugality, like R&R do), seems like they overcharge and who knows, maybe they also sell brand-name and take kickbacks or however that stupid industry works to get the money to pay THEIR bills.
It just kills me these small business owners who suck at business and then go super-Republican because some little payroll taxes are going to kill them.
There’s another guy in town who owns a couple of retail stores, has a Sealy store right now and the mattresses just seem to roll off the lot. I don’t buy new brand-name, but I do patronize one of his other businesses. The dude knows how to run a business. That means treating customers right, selling stuff they want to buy at a price they can afford, and it means a certain amount of busting your ass, too.
Redshift
@Kyle: How can you say that? Don’t you understand that real Murkins value the absolutely correct words much more highly than actions? Mitt made that absolutely clear last night when he declared that foreign policy of the president who got bin Laden is “crumbling” because he didn’t yell “terra, terra, terra” like he-who-shall-not-be-named (but whose initials are GWB.)
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Culture of Truth:
Clark Kent: Has anybody been hurt?
Jimmy Olsen: Well, so far the hostages are unharmed.
Clark Kent: The hostages?
Jimmy Olsen: Yeah! Tourists! About twenty of them!
Perry White: Yeah, but that’s just petty stuff. These guys claim that if the French government doesn’t meet their demands, they’ve got a hydrogen bomb ready to level Paris.
Clark Kent: Well, geez Mr. White. That’s t… terrible!
Perry White: That’s why they call them “terrorists,” Kent.
Triassic Sands
The best thing for a president to do after an attack on Americans is to immediately begin calling names and throwing around accusations. If he accuses pretty much everyone, then later he’ll be able to say he was right.
It’s important to understand that when Romney is president he’s simply going to tell the rest of the world what to do, and because they will recognize that he is the master and they are the servants, they will do what they’re told. And, like all good servants, they will obey without comment.
In that world, diplomacy is unnecessary.
Somehow, Crowley didn’t get that message last night. Thus, she became one of those people Mitt would enjoy firing.
Joel
@Capri: Yep, I’m with you. The wingnuts are all talk. Scary, mean-spirited, violent talk, but basically talk. They’re cast in the mold of Larry the Prep School Guy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Obviously, an attack by a small Libyan Islamist group means we have to invade and occupy Morocco for eight years.
Condoleeza will lead us! Put up the Cheney signal! Where have you gone Frank Gaffney, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Oo oo oo.
Soonergrunt
@WWStBreitbartD: Ahh yes, the famed “word on the street.” Well, that shows us.
Patricia Kayden
@Southern Beale: True. The only interesting thing about knowing the Rightwing’s craziness is that we can point and laugh at their ridiculousness. Otherwise, stupid people are not something that we can worry about. Let them continue raging and ranting about nonsense. They can rage on after President Obama is re-elected.
evinfuilt
@Boots Day:
Just read what’s bolded, it’s true. So half of what Romney said was true, you just have to remove the 14 days part. Will Politifact hire me now?
Chris
@SatanicPanic:
I LOL’d. What a fucking surprise.
Considering how loudly the wingnuts whine about how dangerous all these young thugs in the inner city are, and how comparatively weak and castrated white America has become, I always have to chuckle when I hear them say just a few sentences later that they would totally kick ass if there was a civil war. Who do you think the Scary Young Thugs are gonna be fighting for, brain surgeon?
JenJen
@Ash Can: It certainly should be an eye-opener for her. Isn’t it interesting, that after the first debate, the liberal media did not hesitate to proclaim Romney the winner, rending their garments over Obama’s performance and doing, it appears now, true harm to the candidate. But instead of conceding defeat, Fox and the right wing media spent the day after the Biden-Ryan debate whining about facial expressions, and now, this entire day after the second presidential debate whining about the moderator. It is staggering to me and it should be to Crowley as well.
I’m not sure what the lesson here is. Maybe Democrats should work on being better spinners? Problem is, our insinct is to tell the truth.
celticdragonchick
@Soonergrunt:
Also. Too.
Bill E Pilgrim
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: That’s so weird, every time I saw your nick I read it as “That Left Turnin’ Barbecue”, and just now for the first time realized that’s not what it says.
I pictured a sort of rotisserie, but now I’m not sure what it means. That left, turn in Albuquerque? That left turn in a bar, cue? Hmmmm..
There’s another one I always read as “Béla Fleck, Idaho”.
FlipYrWhig
@WWStBreitbartD: There’s an organized attack and there’s also a roiling mob. The attack uses the mob for cover. What you’re on about is like saying that the cops didn’t come clean about the Aurora shooting because they kept talking about a Batman movie when really it was a planned terror attack. Yes, an attack planned to coincide with another event. Both things are true. Movie and shooting. Protest and attack. Jesus Aitch, man. Stop being so willfully stupid.
Michael
@Bill E Pilgrim: Didn’t watch much Bugs Bunny?
Eta: I’d provide a YouTube link but that’s hard on an iPad. Google it and it’ll pop up
Paul
@Kyle:
FoxNews and the rest of the extremists on the far right seems to just be a bunch of clowns. They are upset about Obama’s response to Libya. Where the hell were these hypocrites after 911? Why didn’t they get mad at bush when he took valuable intelligence and troops from Afghanistan (that actually attacked us) to Iraq which had nothing to do with the attack.
Again, they love their party more than they love America. And they are showing it now.
Culture of Truth
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Golly
evodevo
@The Ancient Randonneur: Actually, the Sumerians invented writing, but it didn’t involve ink (cuneiform on clay) and the earliest are from around 5500 years ago. Amazing that they didn’t melt in The Flood, isn’t it!
GxB
@Bubblegum Tate: I guess Mitt’s planning a redecoration project was why he spent the next minute stammering like a 40 year old virgin asking for service in a whorehouse. Frightening how many people in this country can’t or won’t abide reality.
lacp
@Gary K: They left out “by Col. Mustard with the lead pipe.”
Bill E Pilgrim
@Michael: Not enough I guess. Okay, got it, thanks.
kay
Mitt Romney’s smug little self-satisfied smile when he “rests his case” against Obama-on-Libya is just the best part of that whole video.
And then it all goes terribly wrong…and he looks stricken and a little queasy.
FlipYrWhig
@Paul: I kind of wanted Obama to do a riff on how terrorists have a decades-long record of killing people regardless of who the president is and what party he’s from, calling out Bush and Reagan along the way, but I get how that’s not a great idea.
Seanly
No one’s making fun of Romney’s bizarre statements about energy independence. I could’ve sworn I heard him say that we could be energy independent with all our new technology since 2008. I know some scientists have figured that we might be able to get enough biodiesel eventually from algae to replace fossil fuels but I thought there were 2 problems:
A) it would require a dedicated landmass the size of Maryland (a lot, but much better than corn ethanol which requires a landmass greater than the entire USA)
B) they’ve made some progress but are still dealing with just a few square feet.
WWStBreitbartD
@FlipYrWhig: Redshift and Soonergrunt
If the Blaze story is not creditable. How about the State Dept?
State Dept.: No Mob In Benghazi; Whistleblower: We Begged For Help
Are you guys are saying that the State Dept lied?
Paul
@kay:
It will be a classic – just like “you are no Jack Kennedy”.
SatanicPanic
@Chris: the ghetto will probably be the safest place, because you know General Limbaugh isn’t going to lead his army there
handy
@WWStBreitbartD:
Probably. Why am I supposed to care though?
cmm
I watched last night but until I was watching the clip just now I missed tht in addition to the rest of the fail in the Libya segment, Romney went baack to the “apology tour” and “leading from behind” wells again too. Just…ugh.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Bill E Pilgrim:
FYI, my handle is based on a famous Bugs Bunny quote.
Ajaye
OMFG. Listening to NPR. 5 conservative regular folks type people. They say Romney won. Old lady called president liar re Benghazi. Finally one liberal who a. Said Romney did great. B. talked about how sucky Obama was last time so he was happy Obama did not suck this time.
So I guess village consensus is shaping a dramatic win for Obama into a toss up and the msm will follow FOx into full blown Benghazi mania. I despair for our country.
SatanicPanic
@WWStBreitbartD:
I don’t know how you define mob, but this sounds like a mob to me.
Elizabelle
Everyone’s talking about binders, but what really surprised me about the debate was Romney’s possibly believing the Fox News crap on Benghazi.
It’s one thing to use Fox to put one over on the rubes in your base. It’s another to consider it a credible news source.
And throwing in the “Fast and Furious” reference?
I am thinking “Mrs. Wal-Mart undecided ladyvoter” heard that and thought “Oh, Gawd, I can never get my father in law off of that topic.”
FlipYrWhig
@WWStBreitbartD: Just read the article that Jim, Foolish Literalist linked and quoted above. There were protests and crowds and also terrorists attacking which also drew further crowds. What are you trying to do with this, anyway? “They didn’t say the magic word ‘terrorist’ because they wanted everyone to think it was something else but it wasn’t really and also even when they did say something LIKE the magic word it was the wrong magic word, ‘terror,’ and at the wrong time, because they should have said it more in the period between a day later and two weeks later, so there, terrorist terrorist terrorist, Romney 2012, case closed.” This is tedious and won’t stick. Give up.
kay
@Paul:
It’s loooonger than that, so more painful to watch.
You get it, you see the trap, and he keeps going!
“Don’t keep climbing the stairs, Mitt. He’s behind the door!”
Elizabelle
@Ajaye:
Call your local NPR station and tell them you will not support programming that simplistic.
Be firm. Tell them you’re a busy person and can go elsewhere for your news and analysis, and analysis masquerading as news.
FlipYrWhig
@SatanicPanic: No, see, a group of armed terrorists isn’t a “mob,” it’s an “attack.” Everyone knows it’s one of those idioms, like “murder of crows” or “shrewdness of apes” or “dangle of teabaggers.”
FlipYrWhig
@SatanicPanic: No, see, a group of armed terrorists isn’t a “mob,” it’s an “attack.” Everyone knows it’s one of those idioms, like “murder of crows” or “shrewdness of apes” or “dangle of teabaggers.”
Mike G
From Yahoo News right now:
The chutzpah is breathtaking.
Bill E Pilgrim
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Yes Michael pointed me to it, thanks. No offense, I just realized that I always scan past it quickly and never noticed what it actually said, which struck me as funny.
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
The logic as I understand it from the Facebook-ramblings of those (well, the one, really) who believe this shit, is that Obama was trying to conceal terrorist involvement because he wants us to believe that the war on terror is over (and he won it by killing Osama Bin Laden).
How the fuck the fact that we’re still carpet-droning the bejeezus out of the Af/Pak region is supposed to click with the notion that he “believes the war on terror is over,” I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation though.
SatanicPanic
@FlipYrWhig: You’re right. I’m a lousy soldier in what is clearly the biggest front in the Civil War Part II- semantics.
wrb
@WWStBreitbartD:
I’ve been probing some wingers on this and they are absolutely convinced that this response by stbrietbart is a definitive rebuttal.
They hold that
1) an act of terror can’t have been caused by the film
2) organized action cannot have been caused by the film
3) the disorganized violence across the Islamic world was probably not caused by the film because “nobody saw it.”
4) when Obama speaks of any violence caused by the film, he is doing so to claim that the attack in Libya was not organized and thus not an act of terror.
-The question of where or not it was an act of terror under their definition is very, very important.
-Obama, being naturally desperate to disguise this act of terror, continued to talk of the film, and by so doing was lying about the nature of the event in Libya.
It is nutty. But they seem to have infected the MSM with the nuttiness and they are scoring points.
FlipYrWhig
@Chris: Yeah, I think I’ve heard that too, but for my part I don’t seem to recall Obama ever claiming that he defeated terrorism forever.
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
Of course not. Just like I’ve never heard him claim that he would unilaterally bring peace on Earth, or that he was the messiah, or whatever. Just like I have yet to hear him “apologize for America,” or whatever it is they’re calling it these days.
But you’ve got to understand, we’re liberals and we really suck. Certainly we’re not Very Serious People material. You need to have been wrong about every major policy decision in the last thirty years in order to reach that hallowed status.
Mnemosyne
@WWStBreitbartD:
Because the terrorists said that they did it because they were pissed off about the video.
I would say you’re grasping at straws, but I think you’re grasping at half-molecules that broke off from actual straws at this point.
Djur
@Boots Day: That is completely fucking ridiculous. Here’s the link.
Day 1: Obama says the attack is an “act of terror”.
Day 2: Obama says the attack is an “act of terror”.
Day 2: Jay Carney says the protests are in reaction to the movie, not to US policy.
Day 3: A State mouthpiece says the department is cautious about drawing conclusions as regards the identity of the perpetrators, their motivations, and whether it was premeditated. She also says that people in the region have cited the video as a motivation. None of this necessarily invalidates Obama’s claim that it is an “act of terror”.
Day 5: Susan Rice says there isn’t information yet showing that the attack was premeditated or preplanned.
Day 9: Jay Carney calls it a “self-evident… terrorist attack.”
Day 9: Obama says the protests arose because of the video and that extremists used the protests as a cover for their attack.
Day 10: The administration is unified in calling it a terrorist attack.
Politifact cites this as enough “confusion” to call Romney’s claim “Half True”. Half true! “14 days” is a lie even with Politifact’s tortured logic.
Beyond that, is there really any inconsistency in the above series of statements? The administration said that the attacks were an act of terror (true), that the protests arose from anger over the video (true), and that the protests were used as cover for the attack (true). The only way Politifact’s rationale works is if you assume that the administration was referring to the protests and attacks interchangeably, which is nonsense.
Several people in State also made noncommittal remarks about the current intelligence situation. Well, what a fucking surprise that the goddamn US diplomatic arm would refrain from speculating on incomplete intelligence.
And there’s one more point: even if we do think the administration knew more than they were telling us earlier on, since when do we expect the President to give us a regular intelligence briefing on situations currently in progress? I’m as big a critic of the security state as anyone, but it’s the administration’s job to handle the release of intelligence information. If we can’t trust the President to keep quiet about current intelligence operations, what the fuck good is he?
General Stuck
@wrb:
Maybe with the choir. But to have a coverup, there needs to be shit covered up, and for a period of time as info becomes available. The Obama admin has acknowledged this unfolding info without hesitation.
Most people with a brain are going to scoff at the lack of basic characteristics of a coverup, and the over reach of this being some kind of Obama Waterloo. When Obama has had a good run with events from national security the past 4 years. And a fair amount of pol capital in that arena.
Paul
@wrb:
I doubt it. Most people have no clue what Benghasi is. It is beltway lingo. People care about their pocketbooks, not what Obama was thinking when he said the phrase “act of terror”.
If asked, my friends who are not at all into politics (but will vote) would say the fabricated Libya issue is at best 59th on the level of importance.
steve
@beltane:
“Fox News has made it impossible to engage in dialogue with virtually any Republican on virtually any subject. They are like Stalinist dead-enders and there is no reasoning with such people. The scary thing is that people such as this are capable of all sorts of atrocities committed in the name of their delusional beliefs. This frightens me.”
Look up Fox Geezer Syndrome. I noticed some time ago that thanks to fox, rush, etc, I couldn’t have a conversation with modern-day ‘conservatives’ because their heads had been filled to the brim with nonsense. They were living in a different world.
Before the debate last night, some of the lunkheads I work with were talking about how Obama was going to get destroyed again because he can’t talk no good without no teleprompter. Today they were beside themselves–you see, the moderator and questions were so monumentally biased against Romney that Romney looked bad. Oh, and Obama only looked good because he told a whole bunch of lies.
There’s no way you could get me in a political discussion with them, because there’s no shared reality to build my arguments on.
FlipYrWhig
@Djur:
That’s particularly maddening to me too. In the midst of an ongoing crisis, diplomats have a tendency to be, what’s the word, ah yes, “diplomatic.” DIPLO-fucking-MATIC. Their entire profession is synonymous with caution, politeness, and circumlocution.
General Stuck
@steve:
Add on to that the ones with an IQ above room temperature, who seem to have lost all concern for what is true for truth sake.
It is like a large group of humans losing their fear of human inhibitions, and all that is left is to covet and conquer. By one means or another.
mainmati
@Cassidy:
According to Creationists, the Earth was created on October 23, 4004 BCE. This means that the Earth will be 6016 years old next week a day after the next debate. Don’t know why God picked Oct. 23. Maybe it’s her birthday. Anyway, get your “facts” straight and mark your calendars.
Berial
@Chris: I swear I saw a Fox interview of Gingrich in which the topic ‘Graphic’ was ‘Obama thinks war on terror is over’.
So I guess all those drone attacks we hear about are just for shit’s and giggles.
These people are scary for the simple reason that they ACTUALLY BELIEVE LIES shown to them by the ‘one true source of information’. Fox.
And the lies can contradict. They simply ‘forget’ the previous lie and accept the latest one.
Brachiator
@beltane:
Nicely done. You acknowledge that Ann was not born and raised a Mormon, but joined willingly.
Like Princess Di and even Katie Holmes, Ann Romney signed up for the cult as an adult with open eyes. In some ways, she pursued Mitt (or they were made for each other). And I find this little tidbit amazing.
This isn’t just 50s June Cleaver stuff. This is not a woman who was swaddled and hidden away. She dissed her parents to hitch her star to the Mittwagon.
She had even sent Mitt a Dear John letter previously and was seeing another guy at BYU. Maybe it was to get Mitt to move his ass and marry her. He certainly asked her to wait for him, and she agreed.
Seems to me that there she saw something in Mitt and what he might offer her and jumped in willingly with eyes open. There may be steel and calculation and ambition behind a mask of subservience.
wrb
@Paul:, stuck
Hopefully.
I’ve noticed a lot of phrasings this, “while the Administration’s muddy and changing story on Benghazi deserves analysis, and Fox News and others are to be applauded for demanding that the administration come clean, Romney was incorrect last night when…”
That granting of probable fire, because there has been enough smoke generated can be quite damaging.
I think it is a mistake to dismiss their Benghazi efforts as more birtherism.
They could be affecting the polls. They seem to have the “there is something nasty in that woodshed” and “coverup!”
memes well planted.
gnomedad
Whenever there is violence abroad, President Mitt will immediately freak about terrorism and not wait for some intellectuals to “investigate”.
Paul
@wrb:
Intrade was at 62.2 for Obama when the debate last night started. It is right now at 65.0
I’m not concerned about Benghazi. I’d be much more concerned about the jobs report that will come out 5 days before the election. If the 7.8% number goes back to 8.1% you are likely to have a weekend of headlines about the economy. And the economy is what drives people’s votes in this country. Like it or not.
By the way – who in the MSM said this: I’ve noticed a lot of phrasings this, “while the Administration’s muddy and changing story on Benghazi deserves analysis, and Fox News and others are to be applauded for demanding that the administration come clean, Romney was incorrect last night when…”
In other words; who in the MSM said that FoxNews should be applauded? Sounds like someone with an agenda…
WWStBreitbartD
@SatanicPanic:
FlipYrWhig
So Seal team 6 could be defined as a “mob” when they killed Bin Laden [while following the direct commands of Obama who was managing the raid in real-time]?
SatanicPanic
@wrb:
So what do you propose we do?
SatanicPanic
@WWStBreitbartD: The confederates have opened another front in the Battle of Semantics… this time a small skirmish has erupted in the area of Defining the Word Mob… heavy casualties are expected
Onihanzo
Kerners are GO!!
'Niques
@Hill Dweller: I haven’t read thru all the comments yet, so forgive me if this has been addressed:
What the right wing is saying (but can’t really say) is that Obama didn’t immediately blame the Muslims.
Romney would have.
Soonergrunt
@WWStBreitbartD: Being the only guy around these parts whose actually dealt with situations like this, (and as it happens is experienced in the field generating the reports under fire AND in the headquarters receiving and reacting to the reports from the field) where one thing happens in the midst of other things happening, and then later when all the reports are looked at again the true patter emerges from the “fog of war”, I’m saying that State Department (who aren’t exactly experts in filing contact reports) got it wrong.
I’m also saying that no matter how many times you try to fuck this chicken, you’re not going to get your man-bird. You’re just going to look like a fucking moron fucking a dead chicken.
pseudonymous in nc
You know when the US had really fucking cast-iron intel on Libya? When Gaddafi was in charge. Now that he’s gone, it’s a bit fucking trickier than that, because there’s an awful lot of people who hated the fucker and wanted him gone and want a stake in the running of the country. Some of those people are not the kind of people you want in charge.
danimal
Folks, let’s think this through.
1. We are supposed to think that conservatives care about Libya.
2. We are supposed to think Americans will vote on Libya.
3. We are supposed to be ignorant about the facts that Libyans are deeply grateful to the U.S., that we didn’t lose any servicemembers in Libya, and that we aren’t in a ground war in Libya.
4. We are supposed to forget that the Libyan people attacked the radicals responsible for the attack.
5. We are supposed to consider this horrible attack in a way different than the multitudes of attacks that have been conducted against American diplomats during the terms of Democratic AND Republican presidents.
6. We are supposed to care about the difference between ‘terrorism’, ‘acts of terror’, and ‘act of terror’, because one formulation shows that Obama is serious and the others don’t, for gawd knows what reason.
7. We aren’t supposed to notice that the Libyan policy of Mitt Romney was all over the place last spring.
8 We aren’t supposed to notice that Obama’s Libya policy WORKED.
Come on. They’re flailing around on this. Don’t fear the Libya discussion.
Joel
@danimal: Yeah, not at all worried. If they want to die on that hill, let them. Throw us in that briar patch, motherfuckers.
MikeBoyScout
Can’t believe nobody on this thread has pointed out …
Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
g
It’s all about Spells and incantations. You have to use the right magic words or you’re not patriotic enough. What the hell is wrong with these Right Wing Idiots, it’s like they’re practicing some kind of political witchcraft.
wrb
@SatanicPanic:
take them seriously, don’t treat it as birtherism to be ignored.
DPirate
Romney said why didn’t they know it was an act of terror and if they did know or when they did know why did it take two weeks for them to admit it.
Obama stated he said the very next day that it was an act of terror.
So, Romney then said you did? lets get this straight and was going to proceed, in that case, with the second part about them knowing but being happy calling it a protest about a movie, but then Obama got nervous and couldn’t stop talking and the moderator jumped in and things got fucked up.
The sentence Obama actually spoke is ambiguous. It doesn’t say “This was an act of terror.” It could just as easily be construed as a blanket statement toward all violence. But here in the debate he came out and said that no, he did know it was an act of terror and said so, pretty much, so Romney was right to jump on it because if they knew and continued to say it was the movie protest for two weeks, that’s a problem.
Obama opened his big mouth and jumped into the trap and the moderator saved his bacon.
amk
@DPirate: wingers’ world ====> that way.
El Cid
What if it had been an attack from an armed militia seeking regional or other power within Libya?
Is that “terrorist”?
It is true that it would be “stateless,” but would it be an act of war by a militia?
Or is anyone attacking US targets now “terrorist” so that the category is a moral one, rather than any sort of useful delineation of actors?
Mnemosyne
@DPirate:
Dude, read the link that was provided to you waaaay up at Comment 10 that explains that the attack happened because the militia that attacked was pissed off about the video.
You can parse and re-parse, slice and dice it all you like, but Romney was lying his ass off. It was an act of terror, and that act of terror happened because of the video.
pattonbt
@WWStBreitbartD: And I assume the Whitey tape is coming out soon, yes?
DPirate
@Mnemosyne: Ok, I read that now. I still don’t see how the guy lied.
Paul in KY
@General Stuck: Good point, General.
DavidTC
Here is my attempt to explain where the right keeps crashing into the rocks.
I think some of the right have come to the delusional idea that you can have accidental acts of terror. They think when Obama said ‘acts of terror’, he _actually_ meant ‘protest that got out of hand’. However, this is not even slightly possible. An act of terror is a deliberate attempt, via violence, to make a threat. It is extortion writ large. There is no other meaning of ‘act of terror’ whatsoever.
Obama calling it an act of terror means he thought that some people came in and _deliberately_ killed people. And everyone basically knew that anyway! Protests can get out of hand, and some sort of fight with guards being killed could, in theory, be plausible by accident, but this was clearly an _invasion_. There was no other possible interpretation of what happened.
Now, there’s a place where they are _almost_ right:
Terrorism is a _strategy_ to make political changes via acts of terror. However, you can have individual acts of terror _not_ as part of some specific terrorism plan. (It is, if you will, the difference between a mugging and a protection racket.)
So I think the rest of the right is really yammering about is that Obama didn’t say, for two week, that the attack was part of a strategy of terrorism, as opposed to a random act of terror. The problem there is two-fold:
1) No one appeared to _know_ this at the time Obama spoke.
But that is easy to gloss over, to make a conspiracy out of, or to imply that he simply didn’t care to find out. There’s all sorts of ways to get that past low-information voter. No, where they really fucked out was #2:
2) The right keeps saying ‘he didn’t say acts of terror’ instead of claiming ‘he didn’t say terrorism’.
This, uh, blew it. Completely and totally blew it. It’s an own goal. It’s pointing the racecar in the wrong direction. Their inability to actually articulate what they meant has totally fucked up their point. A point that is not very good but that _might_ have worked to score points among low-information voters…if Fox News (Where this came from) hadn’t been inarticulate fucktards.
And they can’t fix it. Oh, sure, they can raise that point _now_, (If they weren’t so stupid that they are _still_ arguing the wrong thing, because refusing to admitting an error is more important than scoring points) but the problem is, the people who know about corrections are not the low-information voters they are trying to sway anyway.
They’re even going to have trouble bringing it up in the _next_ debate, because all Obama has to do is claim to have covered that in the last debate, and all the low-information voters will just nod along, remember the point that Obama won.
So barring time travel, they’ve just blew their talking point, because Fox News failed to actually _do research_ and state their made-up point better. Thanks, Fox News.