... and Never will. Let me emphasize at the very outset that I believe that Ms. Rice is fully qualified to serve our great Nation as Secretary of State in the Second Obama Term. Why you ask? To answer this inquiry, we'll look at the qualifications of just one of her predecessors, her unrelated name sake, Condi Rice. (I'm not close to Condi, but use her nic name, as I can't spell Condelleiza - see!) Now, back to my comparison - as President Bush's National Security Advisor in 2001, Condi Rice was absolutely clueless about Osama Bin Laden and Al Quida's terrorist capabilities and intentions for a deadly assault on our country. Indeed, after the World Trade Center attack, Condi proclaimed that no one in the Administration, herself included, had envisioned the possibility of commercial airliners being used as weapons. Really? I guess that Professor Rice never heard of the WWII Pacific Theatre of combat in which hundreds of young Jap pilots, sincerely believing that committing suicide by flying their planes into our warships guaranteed them an eternity in Heaven, did so to great effect, but just one time each. Yet, despite this egregious admission of historic ignorance, Professor Rice went on to serve as a heralded Sec. of State in the Bush Second Term, credited with assembling the Coalition of the Willing to topple the Butcher of Bagdad.
So, what's my beef with Susan Rice, you again ask? Its the absence of beef that I find blame worthy. Where was the intellectual integrity and rigorous preparation for her appearance on all five Sunday News shows in which she spoke to the entire nation about a spontaneous demonstration that was followed-up by "opportunist extremists" attacking the Benghazi consulate and CIA Annex a mile distant. Of course, that narrative was false. Were Ms. Rice to have asked anyone these questions, President Obama included: who observed this demonstration at the consulate, asked to see the photographs thereof, asked to read the cables from the State Department officials in Benghazi describing the demonstration, she would have been informed that none of these items ever existed, because no demonstrators ever existed in Benghazi. Therefore, it's obvious that Ms. Rice merely towed the party line, which is the one essential qualification to be a valuable and heralded Secretary of State in any Administration.
In previous blog Posts, I have postulated that any former President, except Jimmy Carter, would have fired, as soon as informed of the names of his subordinates, those Administration officials responsible for the DOJ criminal gun running to Mexico's drug cartels. Similarly, what President allows his subordinates to put out a false narrative of a non-existent demonstration, when our Intelligence Community spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year to know the actual facts on the ground? That level of incompetence would be a firing offense for the Director of the CIA on Day One had the President actually have been so misinformed. He wasn't.
Accordingly, all the machinations of the Republicans on Fox News whining about who in the White House changed the CIA talking points by deleting the references to terrorists and substituting "extremists" are as clueless as Condi Rice. Forget the semantics, there are three unforgivable scandals here, none of which involve wordsmithing: (1) allowing our Ambassador to go into a terrorist controlled area unprotected on the deadliest terrorist day of each year - 9/11; (2) not sending military forces to his rescue for over seventeen hours; and (3) to this very day, months later, having brought not one terrorist, nor even a single street demonstrator, to justice for these heinous murders. I find Susan Rice to be uniquely qualified to be a major figurine in such an accomplished Administration.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Why Bill Plante Still Matters
The current national political discourse reminds me, not of Watergate, but of the Ronald Reagan Era Iran-Contra debacle. When, in the early days of President Reagan's second term, Attorney General Ed Meese took the podium in the White House Press Room, he announced to the utter disbelief of the assembled media reps that, without the knowledge or approval of the President, an obscure retired Marine, Oliver North, working for the National Security Council in the White House basement, had himself acquired and sold large quantities of anti-aircraft missiles to America's sworn enemy, Iran. Then, again by himself, Colonel North took the millions in his illegal gun running profits and gave it to armed rebels fighting a communist government in Central America.
When the Attorney General concluded his defense of President Reagan by emphasizing the "rogue" nature of this National Security Council operation over three continents involving tens of millions worth of military assets, dozens of Air Force cargo planes and cakes with keys, the WH Press Room erupted in outrage. One of the most angry Patriots demanding accountability from the President was the CBS Chief White House Correspondent, Bill Plante, who literally shouted at Meese: "If the President didn't know, then WHY DIDN'T HE? In 1980's America, the nation's media, indeed the entire national political establishment, unequivocally rejected the Sargeant Schultze: "I know Nothing" stance of Meese.
Thirty years later, first in the "Fast and Furious" DOJ gun running criminal conspiracy, and now with the Benghazi/Petraesis/Allen scandals, where is Bill Plante and the national clammer that our President know what his subordinates are doing when hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican innocents, a American Ambassador and three American heroes are dead.
When the CIA Director is sleeping around, the General Officer running the Afghan war is spending more time e-mailing a woman not his wife than he is in the trenches, keeping these matters from the President - because neither rose to the level of a national security risk, is OK. WHAT? - the top national security official makes himself liable to blackmail by Iran, China, Russia, even France, and the media accepts Holder's nonsense that we didn't tell Obama because Pretraesis' dalliance was merely a personal indiscretion? That is a national disgrace. Now, I know that Bill Plante still is not dead. Therefore, I expect he and every American Patriot to demand better. The traditional America of accountability following responsibility must be preserved in the 21st Century.
When the Attorney General concluded his defense of President Reagan by emphasizing the "rogue" nature of this National Security Council operation over three continents involving tens of millions worth of military assets, dozens of Air Force cargo planes and cakes with keys, the WH Press Room erupted in outrage. One of the most angry Patriots demanding accountability from the President was the CBS Chief White House Correspondent, Bill Plante, who literally shouted at Meese: "If the President didn't know, then WHY DIDN'T HE? In 1980's America, the nation's media, indeed the entire national political establishment, unequivocally rejected the Sargeant Schultze: "I know Nothing" stance of Meese.
Thirty years later, first in the "Fast and Furious" DOJ gun running criminal conspiracy, and now with the Benghazi/Petraesis/Allen scandals, where is Bill Plante and the national clammer that our President know what his subordinates are doing when hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican innocents, a American Ambassador and three American heroes are dead.
When the CIA Director is sleeping around, the General Officer running the Afghan war is spending more time e-mailing a woman not his wife than he is in the trenches, keeping these matters from the President - because neither rose to the level of a national security risk, is OK. WHAT? - the top national security official makes himself liable to blackmail by Iran, China, Russia, even France, and the media accepts Holder's nonsense that we didn't tell Obama because Pretraesis' dalliance was merely a personal indiscretion? That is a national disgrace. Now, I know that Bill Plante still is not dead. Therefore, I expect he and every American Patriot to demand better. The traditional America of accountability following responsibility must be preserved in the 21st Century.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Why Winston Churchill still Matters
As Does Ms. Charlene Lamb
Wow, This was definitely the Week that Was - we got to see all levels of government at work and play. First, Superstorm Sandy pummels the northeast Big Time. Governor Chris Christy, the "Insultinator", who other than John Sununu, gave us the best rips on President Obama's lack of leadership skills, this week kissed up to the President so big time that not only did he get a brown nose, his freikin head now looks like a over-sized Milk Dud. Go figure!
In NYC, Mayor Nanny-State, who sees the role of government to be to limit the public's right to drink soda in one large cup (while allowing consumers to purchase simultaneously a six pack or more of almost as large soda containers, so not real reduction in calorie intake, just additional expense and difficulty in carrying multiple cups) decided to ignore the well being of millions of New Yorkers - in jeopardy of starving and freezing to death in the dark - so he could watch some tens of thousands of runners jog around the City while police and utility assets catered to their needs. Go figure!
So you ask, where does Ms. Charlene Lamb fit into this morass of politicians acting stupidly? Squarely at the Apex of arrogant refusal to be honest, candid and truthful, regrettably.
As an Elite Member, you are knowledgeable big time, as well as being fully aware of my disdain for this Chief Executive, who will not hold subordinates accountable for their egregious mis-judgments that literally cause the deaths of innocents. So, when Ms. Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomat Security, told us all in sworn testimony before the Congress that the security assets in Benghazi were sufficient despite the murderous attack by dozens of terrorists armed with heavy weapons, including multiple mortars, she should have been shown the door immediately. Can you imagine the reactions of the American diplomats across the world upon hearing that a cerifiably insane woman is still in charge of guarding their very lives in the aftermath of Benghazi?
Hey, at least the Commander-in-Chief is consistent: he didn't fire anyone in his Administration after learning of the death of Brian Terry in the Fast & Furious scandal; hell, he didn't have the Army stop paying Major Hasan his full six figure salary after he murdered 14 fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood; so, it appears that Ms. Lamb's four bumps in the road of the Arab Spring, while not optimal, were not a big deal for her continued career of government service. Hell fire, I defy any Elite Member to name a single governmental official that this President has fired in his four years of executive government leadership.
Well, this Tuesday, November 6th, we the American people can prove Winston Churhill right by confirming that Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others, by voting to fire the current occuppant of 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue, and replace him with new tenants for the next four years. As citizens, we have a moral obligation to finally hold someone in the Obama Administration accountable for the last four years, and if not Charlene Lamb, then it should be Barry himself. Just vote.
Wow, This was definitely the Week that Was - we got to see all levels of government at work and play. First, Superstorm Sandy pummels the northeast Big Time. Governor Chris Christy, the "Insultinator", who other than John Sununu, gave us the best rips on President Obama's lack of leadership skills, this week kissed up to the President so big time that not only did he get a brown nose, his freikin head now looks like a over-sized Milk Dud. Go figure!
In NYC, Mayor Nanny-State, who sees the role of government to be to limit the public's right to drink soda in one large cup (while allowing consumers to purchase simultaneously a six pack or more of almost as large soda containers, so not real reduction in calorie intake, just additional expense and difficulty in carrying multiple cups) decided to ignore the well being of millions of New Yorkers - in jeopardy of starving and freezing to death in the dark - so he could watch some tens of thousands of runners jog around the City while police and utility assets catered to their needs. Go figure!
So you ask, where does Ms. Charlene Lamb fit into this morass of politicians acting stupidly? Squarely at the Apex of arrogant refusal to be honest, candid and truthful, regrettably.
As an Elite Member, you are knowledgeable big time, as well as being fully aware of my disdain for this Chief Executive, who will not hold subordinates accountable for their egregious mis-judgments that literally cause the deaths of innocents. So, when Ms. Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomat Security, told us all in sworn testimony before the Congress that the security assets in Benghazi were sufficient despite the murderous attack by dozens of terrorists armed with heavy weapons, including multiple mortars, she should have been shown the door immediately. Can you imagine the reactions of the American diplomats across the world upon hearing that a cerifiably insane woman is still in charge of guarding their very lives in the aftermath of Benghazi?
Hey, at least the Commander-in-Chief is consistent: he didn't fire anyone in his Administration after learning of the death of Brian Terry in the Fast & Furious scandal; hell, he didn't have the Army stop paying Major Hasan his full six figure salary after he murdered 14 fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood; so, it appears that Ms. Lamb's four bumps in the road of the Arab Spring, while not optimal, were not a big deal for her continued career of government service. Hell fire, I defy any Elite Member to name a single governmental official that this President has fired in his four years of executive government leadership.
Well, this Tuesday, November 6th, we the American people can prove Winston Churhill right by confirming that Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others, by voting to fire the current occuppant of 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue, and replace him with new tenants for the next four years. As citizens, we have a moral obligation to finally hold someone in the Obama Administration accountable for the last four years, and if not Charlene Lamb, then it should be Barry himself. Just vote.