During his testimony on Thursday, David Petraeus shot holes in Pepaw McCain’s Benghazi-Rice conspiracy theory. McCain thinks Susan Rice is “not very bright,” you see, because she shared CIA-approved talking points about the Benghazi attack when she did the Sunday News show circuit the weekend after the attack.
Yes, that’s right — As it so happens, the CIA approved Rice’s comments; and for anyone with a brain, that should put to bed the “Is Susan Rice History’s Greatest Monster” question.
But not for Pepaw. He is doubling down. This morning on Face the Nation, Pepaw grunted that not only does he oppose Susan Rice as potential nominee for Secretary of State, he opposes all nominations for the post, period. No one can be secretary of state until John McCain gets some answers, dammit! Answers that he could have gotten had he not been busy holding a press conference complaining about how no one will give him any answers at the same time he should have beeen attending a hearing to get the answers he demanded. Answers that he already has because David Petraeus testified that Pepaw McCain and Lindsay Graham should STFU already. Answers that other Republican assclowns have already accepted.
Confused? SO IS PEPAW MCCAIN:
SCHIEFFER: Until then, you will remain opposed to her nomination?
MCCAIN: Under the present circumstances, until we find out all the information as to what happened, I don’t think you would want to support any nominee right now. Because this is very very serious and it has even larger implications than the deaths of 4 Americans. It really goes to the heart of this whole light foot print policy that this administration is pursuing.
Please block all of President Obama’s nominations, because what we need right now as the clusterfuck in the Middle East becomes more fuck-laden, is for a bitter old man who still can’t believe he lost to That One to block the nomination of a new Secretary of State to replace Hillary Clinton.
Somebody get the man a butterscotch pudding. This crisis could use more butterscotch pudding. And perhaps a well-placed kick to the shins.
[via Think Progress]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Joseph Nobles
A big mug of Shut The Filibuster Off is more like it.
I mean, Jeezum Crow, Pepaw. Let’s correct the record of your part in the Keating Five actual-scandal first.
JWL
The GOP always doubles down, no matter how absurd their premise. Truth, much less common sense, holds no terror for that bunch. It’s who they are.
some guy
Senator Grampa is still shouting at clouds
Scuffletuffle
And by “shins,” you mean “nuts”…right?
huckster
Well, Saxby seems to think rice has some ‘splainin to do, and peter king is convinced that she “knew” more than the agreed upon talking points and somehow should have overidden the damn CIA and told the truth. But none of them apparently want to give Johnny walnuts his own select-committee so there’s that anyway.
gbear
Or Snausages.
ABL
@Scuffletuffle: of course, but I am a lady.
(I could barely type that without laughing.)
gbear
I would imagine that Scheiffer then followed up with some hard questioning to get to the heart of the matter and make McCain defend his obstructionist stance.
Not. Other villagers may shill worse than Scheiffer, but no one is lamer.
Chris
God, that dude’s as senile as Ronald Reagan.
Mike in NC
The grapes, they are sour.
My wife’s cousin is a career Middle East diplomat and turned down the offer to be our next man in Benghazi.
JPL
@Chris: Senile as Reagan and as nasty as Nixon.. The Perfect Republican.
McCain/Palin 2016
IowaOldLady
@Chris: You know, I think you’re right. Or at least he’s losing his ability to censor himself. You notice that in old people who start swearing or blurting out what they really think. McCain is just pathetic.
Scuffletuffle
You mean, a … Lady!
quannlace
Can somebody explain what the hell that’s supposed to mean?
Big Daddy
Sen McCain is stating that Pres Obama insisted on keeping the security footprint too light in order to avoid offending the muslim sensibilities of our erstwhile hosts. Who can argue with that? Clearly we did not have enough folks on the ground in Libya to keep our personnel safe. The fact that we would willingly do so, despite their multiple requests for support, is disgusting, shameful, and undeniable. Most of you have never fought, never sacrificed, never suffered. You are going to jump on the band wagon of whoever most closely espouses your stupid and untested ideas. In this case, you are W-R-O-N-G. And if you had ever in your lives been anywhere in conflict you might understand this. But sadly, you have not and therefore you do not. God rest the souls of the fallen. God forgive the souls of the mistaken. God help the souls of the mournful.
Richard
McCain is edging into Joe McCarthy territory with this pathetic smear campaign. Someone really needs to to turn to him and say:
“Let us not assassinate the ambassador further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Sterling
“…not only does he oppose Susan Rice as potential nominee for Secretary of State, he opposes all nominations for the post, period.”
The man’s inflated sense of his own importance is staggering. Old white guys really can’t take losing an election to a young Kenyan socialist muslim. Apparently it unhinges them from reality.
Chris
@IowaOldLady:
Or maybe just the desire. The run for the White House that dominated the decade and a half of his life or so is now over, so he doesn’t need to watch his mouth anymore.
(Always thought that was one of the things that explained his predecessor, Goldwater, being so passionately anti-religious right – by the eighties, his glory days were over, so he could say what he really felt like. Too bad McCain’s newfound freedom isn’t being used as constructively).
Stacy
I don’t watch the Sunday morning shows, did Schieffer follow-up and ask McCain why he didn’t go to the briefing?
I sincerely doubt it though.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion
@Scuffletuffle: You mean “Our Lady” (per John Cole).
Karen in GA
Block all the things!
Mary G
Somebody needs a nap.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@IowaOldLady:
This is an actual thing. When dementia begins one of the first changes is a reduction in what’s called Executive Function. Common name: self control. Other causes can lead to the same effect, but it’s commonly observed in older people.
ETA: or possibly he’s just a self-important jerk who’s had his ass kissed for decades and now considers it his birthright or something.
Felonius Monk
@IowaOldLady:
Unsympathetic
John McCain:
You lie!
quannlace
Gozer
@quannlace: I was about to ask the same thing. Apparently Gramps McGrumpy-pants wants beaucoup boots on the ground everywhere and for all time.
blingee
He is doing this because he is losing his primo committee position and there is nothing left for him other than indian affairs. Apparently these lifetime senators like their committee positions because it’s all about titles and pecking order for these entitled pricks I guess.
So McCain is staring irrelevance in the face and decided he is going to throw a temper tantrum as an old man baby hybrid creature till someone creates a whole new committee just for him so he can sit around doing one partisan investigation after another like Issa is doing.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Gozer:
That goes without saying. McCain never met a war he didn’t like, and the warrier the better.
Garbo
I’m told holding your breath til you’re blue in the face is an excellent way of expressing your high moral principles. Pepaw should totally do that. Also stamping your feet on the floor.
JWL
The more things change the more they stay the same.
The South attempted to secede in 1860 because they couldn’t stomach the results of a contest they willingly entered, only to lose.
McCain personifies that same mentality, but lacks the guts and decency of Jeff Davis & Company, people who made no bones about where they stood, and why.
Instead, McCain pussy foots around that counter-revolutionary echo, and is today reduced to dishonestly attacking a single political apparatchik in emulation.
The man lacks an elemental courage. He knows it, too, which explains his notorious short fuse and ugly temper. The fact he endured torture in captivity in no way mitigates that simple fact.
Emma
@Big Daddy: Idiot. A large number of the readers of this blog are actual, real, serving personnel or veterans. They have earned their right to an opinion the hard way. And I would trust theirs over yours every step of the way.
Raven
Hi everybody Bodhi says hi from the beach. Caught a really nice pompano and just ate it!
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
And just as an aside, the names Pepaw and Mamaw make me flinch every time. Apologies to anyone with beloved elders referred to by these names but it just sounds like developmentally-disabled-person baby-talk coming from an adult and it’s ridiculous.
JWL
Wow. MY comment (above) is “awaiting moderation”. WTF is that all about? What does it even mean?
Hill Dweller
@Big Daddy: It was a f’n CIA operations base masquerading as a consulate. Almost no one there worked for the actual State Department.
Furthermore, the WH has nothing to do with security at our embassies/consulates. That is the job of the Secretary of State. Are you suggesting Obama prevented Clinton from adding more resources?
Let’s also remember the wingnuts demanding and getting massive cuts in the Embassy security budget. That is likely the primary cause for any potential shortfall in security. Although there seemed to be some confusion/miscommunication between the CIA and State. But McGramps isn’t going to go after Clinton nor Patraeus, because he’s a fraud.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@efgoldman:
Now that Lieberman is sliding into further irrelevancy you’ll probably actually see more of McCain, if that’s even possible. They were the Sunday Morning Twins for years. Probably shared dressing rooms with their names painted on the door.
Southern Beale
On the radio today I heard a lot of Republicans wanting “to get to the bottom” of who gave Rice that intel that she spoke, like this this was the biggest intel failure in the history of America. And all I could think was, where was the outrage about the intel over Iraq’s WMD? And how come no one but us outraged hippies is even talking about that?
Ruckus
@ABL:
I have tried typing several snarky comments but it just doesn’t seem appropriate.
Some were even pretty good if I do say so myself. But then I wouldn’t be on the receiving end so…
JPL
@Raven: I see a centerfold for next year’s calendar.
What a beauty.
Big Daddy
Look – I do not agree with everything Sen McCain says and does . . . and I am in fact quite pissed off that he failed to make Friday’s intelligence briefing on this matter on the Hill. BUT – we clearly did not have enough folks on the ground in Libya to protect our Ambassador from a bunch of junior varsity assclowns. (Face it: those shitbags who breached our walls in Benghazi would have been bitch-slapped by your average LA street gang.) All Sen McCain is saying is that Pres Obama’s desire to avoid offending the islamic sensibilities of our Libyan hosts and “friends” is what drove him (the President) to order our Ambassador into that shithole without enough security. Do any of you disagree? If so, how on Earth do you argue against the multiple requests for increased security that Ambassador Stevens sent . . . and that your State Department (and therefore White House) ignored? I think the evidence is pretty clear. The President failed to establish sufficient security on the ground in Libya. Period. Dot. End of story.
catclub
@quannlace: I think it is a policy to not do the first stupid thing that pops in your head. Kind of in oppositions to what McCain would do.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Southern Beale:
Translation: Republicans will keep digging until they get an answer that’s maximally damaging to their political opponents. If they run out of room to dig, they’ll settle for scurrilous rumors.
Emma
@Big Daddy: Maybe you can ask Congress why they chopped off several hundred million dollars from the State consular security budget.
Calming Influence
You misspelled “testicles”.
Ruckus
@Raven:
Your dog looks and acts smarter that gramps.
Also better looking.
Also probably a better friend.
Certainly would be a better senator.
Raven
@Big Daddy: Who the fuck are you talking to, douchebag?
catclub
@Big Daddy: Except for the fact that the House cut security funds for the state department. Practically no problem. Oh, and that targeting with mortars is a little above the average LA street gang’s firepower. Oh, and that when one is a guest in another country one tends to resist offending the sensibilities of one’s host rather than look for ways to insult them, as you seem to prefer. Besides those, pretty much agree, not.
huckster
@Ruckus: where are you? Panhandle?
JPL
@Big Daddy: The Army has outsourced security to Blackwater and private security is not allowed in Libya because of previous atrocities. You are correct that we aren’t able to provide the security that is needed, I’m not sure what the answer is. We could close all our embassies, I suppose. Chris Stevens was a hell of a person and spent his life among the Libyan people. He was often among the Libyan people although he new of the dangers.
Big Daddy
@Emma: Really, Emma? Where have YOU been? I’ve served two tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. The comments I routinely read on this spot convince me that many of these folks have NEVER deployed outside the United States. Who did YOU serve with? Where did YOU deploy to? You can call me an idiot all you want, you homebound jackass, but the fact of the matter is that I did more last year (alone) than you have ever done.
Ruckus
@huckster:
What?
OK I see that wasn’t aimed at me. Sorry.
huckster
@Raven: where are you? Panhandle?
huckster
@Ruckus: sorry
Frankensteinbeck
Guys, come on. Try to look at this from McCain’s point of view. He spent years cultivating his media maverick image, and more years running for president. He served his time and worked his way to seniority to be the nominee, and it took a LONG time and swallowing a lot of repellant insults, like the primary against Bush.
Then he gets to his turn and God smiles and sends him a colored as his opponent. And the colored beats him. That’s it, he’s lost the election, he’s lost his chance of ever being president, he’s lost the respect of his fellow senators (because he’ll never be important now), and even the image as a maverick that makes him feel all special is shot.
He’s not racist, of course. John McCain has colored friends. Polite ones, not like this colored, who doesn’t give McCain the respect he’s due when McCain expresses his natural frustration at this turn of events.
Then it gets worse. This colored who beat him in the election goes on to pass all kinds of legislation McCain naturally tries to slap down. Big laws, the kinds of things that make you famous in the history books. Laws McCain should have gotten to pass, only his would have been smarter and not coddle other coloreds who don’t deserve it. Still, big laws.
Through all this, McCain could hold onto one hope. When reelection came up, McCain would get to watch this colored learn his lesson. But no, the colored won again, and now there’s nothing McCain can really do to him.
Really think about John McCain’s position. Imagine how he feels. Then point and laugh.
Patricia Kayden
I really could care less about McCain. What gets me is where are the other Democratic Senators to call him out? Why aren’t they on the morning shows challenging him face to face? Or better yet in the Senate calling him out on his bs? Why does he get to run around spouting crazy nonsense without being challenged by Democratic Senators/Representatives, etc.? Does President Obama have to do everything himself?
I really wish a flood of Democratic politicians would speak up and stop ceding ground to fools like McCain. Or we’re in for four more years of Republicans running around saying all kind of nonsense and President Obama having to defend himself by himself.
Mary G
@Big Daddy: Let us not forget that the House Republicans cut funding to State for embassy security.
I think the Republicans cut their own talking points off on this by being stupid. Romney came out with a statement slamming Obama while the incidents were still going on and McCain et al. take off after Susan Rice, which is what I think of as shooting the messenger. Right-wing blogs were all abuzz about the terrorists dragging the ambassador’s body through the streets when in fact it appears they were citizens trying to get him to a hospital. Romney triumphantly announces at the second debate that it took the White House two weeks to call it terror when Obama had said “acts of terror” in the Rose Garden the next day.
Not getting the facts straight means loss of credibility for your side. This is why only Fox News has stories about this day in, day out.
I share your concern about what went wrong and how we could prevent it happening again, but with all the yelling about OBAMA IS THE WORSE PRESIDENT EVER, that point is getting completely lost.
Ruckus
@Big Daddy:
Many of us here are vets. Most of us even if not vets like to discuss facts and reality, not pipedreams. Several people have given you those, the budget, it wasn’t an embassy, it was a CIA operation, but you seem to want to disregard all of that.
If you spent 4 tours in country then you should have seen that the world is not always as you want no matter the budget. Of course one doesn’t have to be a vet to figure that out.
Big Daddy
@Hill Dweller: Did not President Obama state “the buck stops here?” I think he was very emphatic about that during the Presidential debates. So, if the president is stating the “buck stops” with him, I am merely agreeing with him. That said, I was quite inspired by the President’s weekly video today and hope the Democrats and Republicans can figure out a road ahead that avoids the fiscal cliff and eventually eliminates our deficit. I don’t think the president is covering anything up, per se, with regard to Libya. I just wish he would admit they screwed up and their stupid decisions cost American lives. That’s all. Accept responsibility. What is so hard about that? Thank you for your service overseas.
huckster
@Patricia Kayden: proceed senator?
Big Daddy
@Raven: Your mom, douchebag.
Patricia Kayden
@Big Daddy: So what about the fact that Republicans voted down a request for more $$$ for additional base security? Try again.
Emma
@Big Daddy: I don’t think so. You see, in this democracy, your opinion doesn’t count for more than mine. Tough. HOWEVER, I do know the people here. I have been watching them interact with each other and interacting with them. I know when they speak of military matters they do it from experience and with their full intelligence engaged. So I trust them more than I trust a drive by commenter.
Narcissus
I read this as Pepaw McCain’s Law and thought it was going to be a new show on TNT
Big Daddy
@Hill Dweller: On a serious note, thank you for your service overseas.
Raven
@Big Daddy: She’s dead you punk ass motherfucker.
Raven
@Big Daddy: Fuck that weak “thank you for your service shit”.
Ken_L
Please let the troll stay hungry.
McCain is effectively saying he won’t endorse a new Sec of State until Obama adopts a foreign policy that meets McCain’s approval.
These are the guys who harp endlessly on the beauties of the constitution and its separation of powers.
Pinkamena Panic
Ignore the chest-thumping nothing called “Big Daddy”. Probably just another 101st pants-pisser.
Oh, and to the ignorant idiot himself: When you’re stuck in a hole, don’t use dynamite to dig out.
Raven
@Ken_L: Proly spatula.
Raven
@Pinkamena Panic: Lil c-4 and det cord would work well on his sorry ass.
liberal
@Big Daddy:
Yawn. Like Bush, after 9-11? Like Bush, after his illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq?
Patricia Kayden
@Big Daddy: What stupid decisions? Any citations?
And why do you keep ignoring all the comments about the Republicans voting down a request for additional security funding for international bases?
And who cares if you served overseas? I haven’t served overseas. Does that mean that I cannot comment on this story?
From reading your comments, I don’t see anything that makes you such an expert that everyone should be bowing at your feet. Please. lol.
Big Daddy
@Ruckus: Ummm . . . I did spend four tours overseas, and I do understand the budgetary process quite well. Our light footprint in Libya had nothing to do with budgetary cuts to State Department security. The fact of the matter is that the president did not want “too big” of an American footprint in Libya. We therefore willingly jeopardized American lives in order to avoid offending the locals. It is disgusting. I’m not saying Mr. Obama is a bad president . . . his ideas certainly seem better than that of the other side. I’m just saying that Sen McCain, despite his inability to articulate his own ideas, does in fact have a legitimate question when he asks why we had such insufficient security on the ground in Libya.
Hill Dweller
@Big Daddy: Again, this wasn’t your run of the mill consulate. The place was crawling with CIA agents posing as diplomatic personnel.
Yes, Obama is ultimately responsible, but State and CIA were making the decisions about the Benghazi consulate’s security. Why isn’t McCain going after Clinton and/or Patraeus?
hells littlest angel
He was never a war hero, and he has always been a rotten old fuck.
RepubAnon
@Big Daddy: Oh, please – remember when the Republicans “starved the beast” by cutting the State Department’s security budget? Should that aspect of the situation be investigated?
More to the point, how does a lack of physical security for the consulate tie into Susan Rice’s post-incident CIA-approved talking points? If the Republicans are actually concerned with pre-attack security issues, why not investigate that? Why are the Republicans instead concerned about side issues, such as when the word “extremist” was added to Susan Rice’s talking points? Are the Republicans saying that some terrorists are not extremists?
What’s really going on: the Republicans don’t want to talk about tax cuts for the rich right after losing an election by pushing for tax cuts for the rich. The Republicans are therefore cynically exploiting the attack on the Benghazi consulate to change the subject (and, of course, attack President Obama).
Big Daddy
@Raven: I truly am sorry.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
It’s fine to say with the benefit of hindsight that the consulate should have been more heavily defended. Perhaps a more visible security presence would even have discouraged the attempt. But the USA has hundreds of consulates, and Libya isn’t the only unstable country. Are we willing to arm them all to repel a mortar attack and coordinated invasion? Every one? That would be the only rational response to the conclusion that the Benghazi compound was too lightly defended. No matter what the Republicans find in their ‘investigations’ they’ll have no solutions of that sort. Guaranteed. They already had the chance and turned it down.
Raven
@Big Daddy: How would you know? Don’t sweat the small shit, there are some pretty crusty vets here.
LeftCoastTom
@Big Daddy:
If he can’t articulate his own ideas, then:
1) why the bloody hell is he on talk shows every Sunday, shouldn’t they look for someone who can articulate…something?
2) why would you assume he’s asking a legitimate question? If he can’t articulate his thoughts, then aren’t you just putting your own question into his mouth? And, if that was his question, shouldn’t he have spent Wednesday at a briefing on the topic instead of holding interviews?
Shawn in ShowMe
@Big Daddy:
I grew up in a military family. You don’t sound like any soldier I ever talked to. They served with honor and class and wouldn’t have ever thought to lord their service over others.
Big Daddy
I’ll be back. Unlike most of you, I have to goto work tomorrow. (THAT is humor, my friends. I know that at least a few of you have jobs tomorrow as well!)
PS- I adopted the name “Big Daddy” in this forum because of my grandfather . . . who served as a Sgt in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II and was a lifelong Democrat. He was in fact president of the local pipefitters union in Tampa for more than 10 years. I am quite sad that he lived for 89 years without ever seeing the folly of his political viewpoints. BWA-HAHAHAHA! Good night to all.
Raven
@Shawn in ShowMe: Military folks are as diverse as any other group.
Big Daddy
@LeftCoastTom: I agree. I am pretty aggravated that he did not attend the briefing.
Big Daddy
@LeftCoastTom: I agree. I am pretty aggravated that he did not attend the briefing.
Raven
@Big Daddy: The All Americans!
GregB
The entire Benghazi GOP was initially about that stupid video.
Romney and every other GOP shitheel were screaming that Obama was caving into terrorists because he didn’t come out in support of the video and the concept of the free press.
Then if morphed to “he didn’t call it terrorism for three weeks!”.
Then Obama shoved that foolish lie up Romeny’s uptight ass and now it is some jibber jabber about a cover up.
In short the GOP thought and language police believe it is a scandal to not use the exact same words they demand you use forever ad infinitum.
aimai
@Big Daddy:
Oh you fucking Moron–did your multiple tours result in the illusion that other countries don’t have sovreignity? That we can just bomb them at will, or tell them what they will or won’t accept? The idea that the US president decides what Libya will accept in terms of our military presence is disgusting, literally disgusting. We are not at war with Libya and we did not conquer them.
aimai
Big Daddy
@Shawn in ShowMe: I’m not a soldier. Even better, I am a Marine. I’m not lording it over anyone . . . I’m just expressing my viewpoints . . . like you. That said, I find it ironic that you insult me but not those who insult the gentleman (McCain) who survived many years as a POW in Vietnam. He might aggravate some of us with his comments, but I hope we can all agree that he is a patriot who loves his country. Ok, now I’m out. Goodnight!
PeakVT
This whole nontroversy is massive wingnut projection. Bush failed to protect Americans when he was told there was a threat, so Obama must have done the same. Benghazi is their first chance to prove it, and they going to prove it, by gum, whether or not it’s true.
The whole thing would be a lot funnier if the country didn’t have actual problems which need to be addressed by the legislature.
Felonius Monk
@Big Daddy:
Big Daddy
@aimai: If they are not willing to accept our security team then we should not send an Ambassador into their midst.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Big Daddy: This is Mr. Cole trolling his own blog right here. You still know how to speak the language, John .
Raven
@Big Daddy: He used that shit up long ago. Picking Palin was the nail in the coffin.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Big Daddy:
What viewpoint are you expressing here:
“Where have YOU been? I’ve served two tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. The comments I routinely read on this spot convince me that many of these folks have NEVER deployed outside the United States. Who did YOU serve with? Where did YOU deploy to?”
If that’s not lording your service over others, what would you call it?
Yutsano
@Evolving Deep Southerner: I’m not sure. I don’t think JC would fess up to Dawgdom like that, much as he has a love/hate relationship with them. I’ve been wrong before though.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Big Daddy:
@Emma: Really, Emma? Where have YOU been? I’ve served two tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan.
Yup – that certainly qualifies you to lay down the law on diplomatic agreements with host countries in other nations.
But since I, myself, have once had a urologist examine me, I can rule that you’re speaking bollocks.
General Stuck
@Big Daddy:
There is a real question of whether there was even a State Dept mission at this location, or that an Ambassador was there as cover for a sizable CIA covert spy shit. This whole story screams out the latter as more likely and why the narrative has been so crazy coming out of the administration. But jeevus dude, give it a rest. The election is over and Obama kicked your sides motherfucking ass. So let go of histrionics and fulminating bullshit and let the investigation be done.
Betsy
Can I just ask what is the deal with butterscotch pudding, and if I had to guess, it definitely sounds like something that has a place in the Lexicon.
gwangung
@Big Daddy:
Idiotic statement.
MOST countries do not accept other countries’ security in lieu of their own. And at almost all times, they provide the bulk of security vis a vis diplomatic service.
You sound pretty damn ignorant, service or not. To boot, you seem as arrogant as hell in your ignorance.I suggest you remedy that. You have the time for that, since you are out of the service.
Raven
@Evolving Deep Southerner: Woof motherfucking woof!
Amir Khalid
On the subject of embassy security, I reckon the State Department can only make an educated guess at how much security a given embassy/consulate needs, how much it has to allocate in resources, and what is acceptable to the host country. The unexpected can happen: in 1975 the Japanese Red Army took 50 hostages at a commercial office building here in Kuala Lumpur that housed a US consulate and other countries’ embassies. So the threat isn’t always from a host-country national.
Laura
@Big Daddy: FYI dude, being an oorah Marine gives you absolutely no more authority to talk about this in an informed manner than us lumps who sit at home. Way to be a stereotype.
Ruckus
@Big Daddy:
Message transmitted.
Message received.
Response. First sentence of reply. Facts not in evidence.
End transmission.
aimai
Why does McCain get a pass from Big Daddy for being a patriot and the President, who given the rise in assassination attempts since he took office is risking his own life every fucking day for this country not also given the respect due to a “patriot?” I’m not understanding this concept of patriotism and the assorted gift bag that it apparently entitles some people to.
All the footstomping and cliche mongering in the world (the buck stops here? really?) doesn’t change the fact that the people most responsible for the clusterfuck on the ground in Libya were the people on the ground in Libya–the CIA, the staff at the various “consulates” and safe houses and, yes, even the Ambassador himself. Higher up the chain of command would have been Petraeus and Clinton. The President would have been completely uninvolved in the issue of general security for the Embassy staff and of course the day to day decisions that led to the Ambassador being summoned to an extremely dicey location during a period of potential unrest (the 9/11 holiday and the overall public hysteria over the movie).
McCain’s lack of sincerity in this matter, as well as his conspicous disinterest in real reform of Embassy safety procedures, is evident in every stupid thing he has said and done. He’s no better than Romney, shooting his mouth off to score political points hours after the killings–and if you remember McCain’s eternal posing as a man of principle who has had access to many classified briefings you have to argue that he is substantially worse than Romney. He, at least, should have known better than to try to climb on a mountain of corpses and scream that classified information be broadcast on the Sunday shows for the delectation of the rubes and the comfort of our enemies.
aimai
RareSanity
Who let the concern troll in?
Dammit! If I’ve told you folks once, I’ve told you a thousand times…if you leave the screen door open, trolls get in!
Now we’ve got a concern troll walking around that, “doesn’t like McCain”, but curiously enough, thinks McCain also has some points we should consider.
Jay S
On the bright side, McCain’s threats should provide fuel for the filibuster reform movement.
Hypatia's Momma
@RareSanity:
Just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean they are always wrong.
Felonius Monk
From Booman Tribune:
El Cid
I’m truly shocked that the situation in post-overthrow Libya was so dangerous and unstable, including the fact that the Islamic fundamentalist armed militias who had just concluded their fighting to help oust Qaddafi and who were based in and around Benghazi were in fact still Islamic fundamentalist armed militias who still possessed the arms they had just been using a short while before and who were still located where they were a short while ago.
aimai
@Hypatia’s Momma:
Sure, a stopped clock is right twice a day. And, conversley, even people we like can be wrong or have points to make that we think are ridiculous. Liking, or not liking, someone like McCain isn’t the issue. He is either not sincere in his expressed concerns or he is sincerely foolish. He is basically accusing the President of the United States of having deliberately caused the death of one of his own Ambassadors and/or covered up his own malfeasance in this matter. And he is trying his case on the Sunday talk shows. The first accusation, without which none of the rest of the hysteria makes any sense, is simply absurd. It was McCain’s own party leader, Bush, who actually ignored direct evidence of danger to the US. Obama simply has no comperable history–in four years he and his team have not been caught napping. So right off the bat McCain’s perspective and his “just asking questions” defender here, Big Daddy, lack–what’s the word I’m looking for? Standing to make the accusations.
aimai
Davis X. Machina
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
More like ‘Embassies and consulates are full of foreigners, foreigners who want stuff from us. Close them.’
Ted & Hellen
@Southern Beale:
Well, exactly.
But don’t you worry, President Obama has been hammering on this ever since he took office and I’m sure…
…oh wait.
Never mind.
Pssst…what’s even weirder is that we’re not supposed to talk about that here at BJ either.
I know, right?
Full Metal Wingnut
That a guy who graduated third from the bottom of his class is calling *anybody* “not that bright” is amusing. Calling someone who was Phi Beta Kappa at Stanford that is hysterical.
Note-I know the Naval Academy ain’t easy. I know a couple guys who went there. But they weren’t anywhere near the bottom of their class.
Ted & Hellen
@Patricia Kayden:
Patricia, in the kabuki show that passes for our government, the Dems play the good cop to the Repub bad cop, don’t you know that by now?
It would be intemperate and most impolite to call out Mr. McCain.
Dexter's new approach
Big Daddy should rent Starship Troopers and imagine the bugs are Muslims.
Ted & Hellen
@Raven:
@Ken_L: Proly spatula
Com here, you big lunk of hot luscious luvin’…
Felonius Monk
@aimai: You are being far too kind both to Big Daddy and especially to the Infected Hemorrhoid of the U.S. Senate from AZ.
Ted & Hellen
@Big Daddy:
OH PLEASE.
Do you believe everything you read on the Intertrons, Daddy?
Raven is one of the most vile insult mongers at BJ. Don’t let his faux hurt fee fees fool you.
Ted & Hellen
@Raven:
Or so they SAY…
Ted & Hellen
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Then you must be pretty appalled at all these alleged vets at BJ always reminding us about their “service” and implying same bestows magic credibility.
Raven
@Ted & Hellen: Yea, you are right my mom is not really dead. You fucking little weasel.
Ted & Hellen
@Laura:
OK, you’re kidding right? Popular cool kid alleged vets at BJ use their alleged “service” to establish and maintain cred all the time.
Daddy’s only problem is he’s not spouting the BJ approved line on Obama.
Ted & Hellen
@aimai:
aimai you are such a ridiculous Obot caricature that nothing you say can be taken seriously.
But carry on.
Ted & Hellen
@Dexter’s new approach:
aaaaaaaaaaaaand here we go!
WaterGirl
After giving up on this thread because it’s turned into a wasteland of useless back and forth with this “Big Daddy”, I went back to my other open BJ tab and had to laugh as I noticed the title is “What a Jackass”. That gave me a giggle, as it seemed like the perfect sentiment for the thread I had just given up on.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
All the footstomping and cliche mongering in the world (the buck stops here? really?)
Also, seriously consider the statement “the buck stops here”. It does NOT mean “every buck stops here”. People below you can, and often are, fully responsible for screw-ups – the buck can, indeed, stop BELOW you. What it means is that you can’t pass the buck further UPWARDS.
Citizen_X
Was there a troll shift change or something?
Ted & Hellen
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
Wow. This goes in the honorary Obot book of extreme rationalizations.
Well done, comrade!
Ted & Hellen
@Citizen_X:
Yes. YOU are now the troll.
gogol's wife
@Citizen_X:
My thoughts exactly.
Dexter's new approach
@Ted & Hellen:
What? Didn’t get the reference?
aimai
I really have a very special dislike of McCain because he acts like he’s the only person ever to lose the presidency. Al Gore went out and earned the Nobel Peace Prize, FFS. Jimmy Carter served one term and then went on to become world renknowned for his efforts on behalf of democracy, for Habitat for Humanity, and for being a mensch. McCain, and now Romney, are the only two losers I can recall who have displayed such utter, bitter, classlessness in defeat.
aimai
Smedley the Uncertain
@General Stuck:
You broke the code, General.
Sadly, now that you know Sir, we will have to kill you.
Ruckus
@aimai:
And have so little class that they will keep doing it as long as anyone, even one other person, will listen. Like all conservatives, their sell by date has expired and all we get is the smell of old rotten bullshit.
Ken_L
McCain is just pissed cos he had to take down the picture of Petraeus from his bedroom wall.
I read even Lieberman has abandoned him over the Banghazi thing. If you’ve lost Lieberman in a national security matter, you’ve got problems.
General Stuck
@Smedley the Uncertain:
In that case, my real name is Ted And Hellen.
Hal
@aimai:
This X 1000. What a bitter old man. Still, still, cannot believe he lost to Obama. Ed Harris’s portrayal of McCain in Game Change is far to kind.
hitchhiker
McCain was prepared to foist Sarah Palin on the USA. He really agreed to let that woman onto a national ticket. Full effing stop.
She frightened her handlers on the campaign so badly that at least one of them didn’t even vote for the ticket; she was that stupid, reckless, and fatally wrong as a candidate.
Now he wants to be endlessly interviewed about his deep concern for the direction of our foreign policy? This is beyond farce.
fuckwit
Exactly who is this asshole and what the fuck is he doing on my Sunday morning TV all the damn time?
AxelFoley
@JWL:
Say what?
Yutsano
@fuckwit: How dare you speak so disrespectfully! Didn’t you know John Sidney McCain was a POW? It’s called instant gravitas!
AxelFoley
@catclub:
Glad you and the others ripped into this asshole before me.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Ted & Hellen:
Oh, go screw yourself. It bugs me to see people using that wrong.
Truman had it on his desk to remind himself that whenever a matter made its weary way through the bureaucracy to reach him, he couldn’t fob it off on anyone else. Plenty of stuff didn’t reach his level.
Notably, it wasn’t original to him, and he explicitly laid the meaning out in speeches.
– http://www.trumanlibrary.org/buckstop.htm
Trying to pass it off as “The President is responsible for everything” is just foolish.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@gbear:
Tapioca pudding, I heard that’s the rage among the silver haired toothless old fucks. Ol’ Grandad Walnuts can gum on that to his hearts content while sitting in the living room of one of the houses he forgot he owned. McCain’s life story shows that the people who have voted for him have voted for a crappy loser. He was a crappy pilot school trainee, a crappy pilot, a crappy husband, a crappy Senator and a crappy presidential candidate.
He is just a crappy person. His only claim to fame is his having been a P.O.W. and that’s probably because of his having been a crappy pilot. McCain could be a case study in how someone is able to become wildly successful despite being an epic failure.
Speaking of epic failures… a front page post at RedState, titled “Ironic: Teamsters Called For Secret-Ballot At Hostess While Pushing To Eliminate Secret-Ballots”, has a photograph with a ‘rubber stamped’ word over it that is misspelled.
Morans indeed.
AxelFoley
@aimai:
This. All this.
AxelFoley
@Ted & Hellen:
Oh, lookie. The other troll showed up.
JWL
@AxelFoley: The Confederates wrote state Constitutions, each of which made clear they revolted/seceded in the name of preserving slavery.
Ruckus
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
Once again it is conservative projection. They think the president micromanages the entire government, even the independent branches and makes every decision. Like what color the military uniforms will be and what my VA doc prescribes for me and what laws each state passes and how elections are run and how many staff is in each post and…
They just don’t understand. Maybe they are stupid. Look at the crap they believe even when proven wrong. Look who speaks for them. I’m tending to go with stupid even based on just a very elementary glance at the evidence.
unsympathetic
OvercompensatingDaddy:
You’re wrong. Period.
Your precious Republican lawmakers decreased the dollars for embassy security, and then demanded that the lowest bid for embassy security be accepted from outside contractors. The lack of security is on Republicans, not the Democrats.
And no, I do not and will never believe that McCain “wants something good for America” in every action he performs. Your intent does not matter – only your actions matter. McCain is being a deliberately mendacious partisan ass.
Punchy
Blocking all nommys should send a huge message that McCain is too fucking old to read election results. Does he have a Depends fundraiser planned soon?
Smiling Mortician
@AxelFoley: At pretty much the same time that the first one finally made good on his GBCW.
LD50
@Big Daddy:
“HAR HAR HAR, LIBTARDS DONT HAVE REAL JOBS LIKE US REPUBLICANS HERR HERR!!” Eat shit and die.
Gwangung
@LD50: yeah. He’s overcompensating like crazy.
karen
GOP – We can’t impeach Obama for being black so this is another way we can impeach him.
That’s all this Benghazi stuff is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LD50: Yeah, big ol’ troll tell.
I haven’t been able to follow the Benghazi story as closely as I’d like, but I still haven’t seen any real evidence that there was any intelligence beforehand that the attack was coming, or any suggestion since that this was the kind of premeditated attack McCain seems to think they should have guessed was coming. That anyone has to point out the absurdity that the people who promoted Condi “I believe the memo was entitled…” Rice are trying to scapegoat Susan Rice is, even after we’ve spent more than a decade on this side of the Lookingglass, un-fucking-believable.
Death Panel Truck
@AxelFoley: Spatula renamed.
Death Panel Truck
@Big Daddy: I don’t believe you spent five minutes in uniform. Any asswipe can call himself a Marine on an online forum. I don’t believe you. At all.
Sammy
@gbear: Knee-benders don’t ask hard or follow-up questions of republicans. They are the same type of shills.
Sammy
@gbear: Knee-benders don’t ask hard or follow-up questions of republicans. They are the same type of shills.
Bob h
Filibuster reform to require 55 votes for closure?
aimai
@Hal:
There was a disckeningly laudatory column in the New Yorker or the Atlantic or some place like that after McCain lost about how he was joining a “select club” of great Senators who came back to work at the Senate after losing their campaigns. It had a touching set piece about how Lieberman met him at the start of the mini train ride on the underground toy train the Senators use and how the two of them walked off, patting each other’s backs. It was so fucking sentimental and so incredibly unfair to Gore, Kerry, Dukakis, Mondale, McGovern–all people who didn’t get a second chance from the voters or the press but who were treated as interlopers and the butt of jokes. McCain has had his ego stroked every day since he lost and its still not enough for him.
aimai
aimai
@Bob h:
Jeebus, it should be 40 votes for Cloture, 51 to get something actually through. this two thirds majority for everything has to die. The regular pace of business shold be brisk, not slow. The onus should have to be on the entire minority party plus a few majority party members to block legislation, not the onus on the party trying to move legislation.
aimai
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
The Senate is a filibuster to begin with. Senators representing much less than a quarter of the population can vote anything down—do we really need those representing a tenth of the population to be able to prevent even a vote?
The filibuster was invented so that an individual who felt strongly about an issue could slow things down till clearer heads prevailed. The Constitution says nothing about allowing political parties to gang up and bring the working of government to a halt. Political parties—”Faction”—were anathema to the Framers, and certainly were not authorized by the Constitution.
Since we seem to be stuck at 438 as the number of Congressmen, regardless of population growth or demographic changes, there should be a total of 876 votes in the Senate, with each Senator getting between 1 and 53 votes, depending on how many Congressmen their state has. The Founding Fathers never intended land to outvote people.
debbie
Then how does McCain explain that bill passed by House Republicans which slashed embassy budgets by a half-billion dollars?
Lisa
I’m pretty sure that Susan Rice actually parachuted in and killed the 4 embassy employees herself and THAT is why there has been a giant coverup. I have no actual “facts” to back this up but I do have a gut feeling. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with what she did. I just feel that I should be informed of any secret government mission that’s taking place. That’s why the American people elected me in the first place. Oh…wait a sec….
Iceskatingschnauzer
Putting the pie filter to good use on this thread!
Rob in Buffalo
It’s been mentioned several times and no faux-daddies or other concern trolls have responded (other than to claim it has nothing to do with Benghazi), but here are some specifics:
“For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program — well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security” — a charge Republicans rejected.
Ryan, Issa and other House Republicans voted for an amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations, including funds for 300 more diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s budget, non-defense discretionary spending, which includes State Department funding, would be slashed nearly 20 percent in 2014, which would translate to more than $400 million in additional cuts to embassy security.”
Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2012.
Full Metal Wingnut
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: When the Constitution was written, there were only 13 states and the population distribution wasn’t nearly as skewed. I mean, VA and NY had shitloads of people compared to Rhode Island and Delaware, but there weren’t literally dozens of states with populations orders of magnitude lower than the biggest state. Today, the least populous state, Wyoming, has something like 1.3% the population of the most populous state, California. Back in the day that figure was closer to 10%. Ridiculous. And it’ll never change, thanks to Article V.
Big Daddy
@catclub: You know . . . that’s a pretty good point about the mortar team. It seems I conveniently forgot about that.