May 20, 2013

I agree

Everybody is reflexively/knee-jerking a political response to these situations instead of simply letting the investigations into these matters, particularly the IRS situation, take their course and let them lead where they will. The whole thing is really overblown IMHO, especially considering that nobody lost their lives or livelihoods over being asked a few more questions. I'll stipulate that perhaps the IRS employees went about things the wrong way (with minimal guidance and supervision) but it's sort of unclear whether or not rules and legislation have been firmly established in the post-Citizens United era, which probably was a contributing factor.

May 19, 2013

I remember that

but I've NEVER met anybody who described themselves as a Democratic tea partier and if such a creature did exist, it would almost have to be something like a Dixiecrat, which AFAIK really don't exist anymore. Nowadays, people like that are just called Republicans, usually live in the South, and almost never vote Democratic. I don't buy most people calling themselves "Independents" either as most of them when speaking claim to feel "betrayed" by President Obama because of the stimulus, health care reform, etc. and constantly and uncritically regurgitate Fox News- and/or Republican talking points and usually wind up pretty consistently voting Republican in the end. Frankly, I still don't really know what the Tea Party stands for other than total and unapologetic opposition to all things Obama and Democratic/liberalism/progressivism. They try to dress things up to make it look like they have legitimate gripes about things like government spending, taxes, "Socialism", etc. but at their core is hatred of President Obama and "the left" in general and a desire to obstruct social and economic progress in this country, which is messed up given that most of them are screwing themselves and helping the 1% in the process but they don't realize it.

At any rate, though, I get your point.

May 16, 2013

Anybody else detecting a note of palpable euphoria among right-wingers right now?

They seem to be swarming the message/comment boards for news sites, blog sites, etc. with some of the most vile, hateful, racist, anti-Obama rhetoric, gleefully declaring that the end is nigh for President Obama and Democrats. I know that in some corners there's always been a similar segment of people constantly trolling the internet with their rabid bile but they seemed to have multiplied exponentially in response to the recent furor over Benghazi, the IRS, AP, etc. Anybody else notice? I'd caution everybody away particularly from sites like Politico. It's just.......bad out there right now, pretty much anyplace but DU.

May 15, 2013

Politico is popping the bubbly tonight: "DC Turns On Obama"

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/dc-turns-on-obama-91386.html?hp=t1_3

It mentions that Democrats are turning on President Obama too. Democrats like............Maureen Dowd! Well, I guess that it's all over then for President Obama. Methinks that the folks over at Politico are popping the bubble a teensy bit early.........I mean, I know that they want to see President Obama crushed and destroyed and see Republicans get back to running the show in Washington but them saying that President Obama is finished in DC doesn't make it so..................

May 15, 2013

"perhaps even faster than many economists think is advisable for the health of the economy..."

Wait.....what??? I thought that the all-mighty deficit was going to destroy our country and Greece and all that.............. I guess that that means that we can stop cutting and start spending again, right????

May 14, 2013

No

not that you should automatically distrust the WH either. Anybody who has lived through the Clinton years should be automatically suspicious of all of this stuff piling up at one time geared to embarrass a Democratic Administration. Whatever some people think of President Obama, I'm also way more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt way more than Bush/Cheney. I just don't think he and his Administration are filled with a bunch of incompetent, corrupt cronies with negative agendas. Not everybody is great, of course, but his Administration has generally been managed and run cleanly and relatively scandal-free and most of the "scandals" that have arisen have been mostly Fox News/Glenn Beck/Breitbart-inspired "manufactroversies" that almost always fell apart under closer scrutiny. If I've had a problem with how he's handled these things, it's that he's usually been too quick to fire/demand resignations/withdraw nominations without first insisting on a more thorough investigation first IMHO. On some level, I just don't think that he wants the distractions but sometimes he needs to push back more or at least demand more evidence of wrongdoing before letting the right-wing claim another scalp.

May 14, 2013

What's Going On?

While the Benghazi "scandal" has been simmering off and on since last fall, all of the sudden we have new "scandals" popping up all within a rather short amount of time with the IRS and the Justice Department. True, while none of them directly implicate President Obama nor do any of them involve outright criminal behavior (so far), they are all related to executive branch agencies which most people tend to assume- to some degree based on their knowledge about how government works- is linked to the President. So now we will have Congressional Republicans and Fox News nipping at President Obama and Democrats in general with even more intensity and voraciousness than usual. It almost seems like an almost too "perfect storm" for right-wingers seeking to undermine the Obama Administration. Even Jon Stewart joined in on skewering the Obama Administration last night. Why all this? Why now? I have a bad feeling that whatever nuances exist to these stories will, as usual, be lost on right-wingers and members of Congress as they scramble reflexively to put the lid on them.
I'm not going to go too much into the Benghazi situation as it has been discussed frequently and regularly here and I'm not sure I fully understand the situation suffice it to say that I think that the Republicans are just chasing their tails and absent allegations of actual wrongdoing/lawbreaking, it's stuck in neutral IMHO.
President Obama and Democrats have been put in the position where they can't help but apologize for the IRS situation because the IRS has already admitted to some degree of culpability for the matter. Now, the fact that some Tea Party/right-wing groups might really not be legit non-profits won't be discussed but rather the malfeasance of the IRS. Some Tea Party/right-wing groups now are trying to bully/intimidate the IRS into getting tax-exempt status whether or not they might legitimately qualify.
I'm a little murkier on the AP story but it seems as though the Justice Department was conducting a legitimate investigation into a national security leak but that's not the impression that one gets from the breathless reporting of it.
All of the stories do seem to share a common theme, which is the federal government run amok, which helps feed into right-wing paranoia about things like background checks, which, of course, was recently a heated subject of debate and which the Republicans in the Senate were taking a lot of flak for (those that voted against expanded background checks) and, of course, health care reform, which is progressing towards full implementation by next year. I just can't help but feel that all of this are conveniently timed distractions.

May 13, 2013

I think that some people want him and/or Hillary to have done something really wrong (re: Benghazi)

but nobody can really prove that either them did anything wrong at this point- but it sounds like the Republicans are going to keep digging anyway. They are busy throwing all of these hints and allegations around and making it seem that President Obama and/or Hillary are evil, underhanded villains whom let Stevens and the rest die for their own craven political reasons but nobody really believes that either of them are like that, esp. Hillary. However, we all know the standard Republican MO: Throw a bunch a stuff and see if it sticks. Of course, they've been doing that ever since he was elected and they keep coming up "snake eyes", which is, I suspect the real reason that they're chronically unhappy and pissed off.

May 13, 2013

Oh yeah. Good point

Too bad such a distinction/nuance will be lost on them. The other problem is that the IRS has already apologized (has it fired the individuals?), so now Republicans now have *proof* that, "SEE! the IRS wronged us!" Bonus points for being able to add fuel to the fire to right-wing paranoia about President Obama "persecuting" right-wing groups that, admittedly, do not like him. I wish that there had been more of an investigation into the matter before (what looks like) pre-emptively/reflexively apologizing for what was supposed to have happened.

May 12, 2013

I'm afraid that it is probably inevitable that they will try to get him on *something*

As much as I utterly dislike him, I don't think that Boehner wants to go there but he's not *really* in charge, so if the teabaggers in his caucus REALLY want it, he'll probably go along with it. The biggest problems for them as far as Benghazi goes are that a.)there is currently no evidence of any actual crimes that can be linked to President Obama (are there any actual crimes even being alleged?) b.)most average (and maybe even some above-average) people don't fully understand what the ruckus is about- which isn't that surprising given that there's not much, if anything, *there* that's concrete and easy to understand and c.)Impeaching President Obama isn't going to give people jobs, healthcare, or put more money in their pockets, which I know doesn't matter to most right-wingers but they're not really in the majority. But for the fact that we need less chaos and more REAL work getting done in DC, I'd tell the Republicans to please proceed.