Last Call For Benghazi, For Good

So lost in all the chatter of House Republicans now being the party of maximum deportations is the fact the House Intelligence Committee's report on Benghazi has been declassified, and the main finding after 23 exhaustive months of Republican screaming is the fact that Republicans found zero wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the deaths of four Americans.

The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee. […] 

Thompson said the report “confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given.”

So Republicans themselves were not able to find anything wrong.  After nearly two years of ridiculous accusations, endless moronic preening by Darrell Issa, and fake outrage driven by the FOX noise machine, the game is now over.

Of course until the next manufactured outrage arises, and we play the game all over again.

GOP Playing The Dozens

I had somehow manged to miss this last week: National Republican Senate Committee head Jerry Moran is now talking about Republicans gaining 12-14 seats in November, because he's completely high on his own supply at this point.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Jerry Moran said Tuesday the GOP’s pickup opportunities have expanded to around a dozen states — twice as many as needed to take control of the Senate. 

“I think we have a good map in the sense that we have good candidates and good states,” Moran told CQ Roll Call’s Niels Lesniewski. “The map has expanded over time. In my view, [it] started out with six or seven — now 10 or 12.” 

Republicans have clear advantages in South Dakota, West Virginia and Montana. About three months before the elections, the party is also in a better position in Iowa and Colorado than it was at the beginning of the year, and the GOP is giving Democratic incumbents strong challenges in states including Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Alaska. 

Beyond that, Republicans are hopeful in Michigan, New Hampshire, Minnesota and a couple others, though Democrats remain favored in each of those. 

“Again, all — all circumstances are positive for having good candidates in states that they can win,” Moran said.

Moran later told the Daily Caller that number could be as high as 14.

Look, I expect Moran to say stuff like this, for the same reason DCCC char Steve Israel says he thinks the Dems can take back the House.  But 14 seats?  Al Franken and Jeanne Shaheen losing, along with Jeff Merkeley in blue, blue Oregon?  He's bonkers.

Yes, it's going to be a rough fight in NC, Louisiana, and Alaska (and SD, WV and Montana are pretty much lost causes.)  But the Dems can win those races because they've won them before.  Most people are talking 5 or 6 seats, not fourteen.

At any rate, the trick on our part is to get out and vote in November, and get other people to vote too. Registration deadlines are coming up in a number of states in the next few weeks.  It's time to make sure our game faces are on.

A Complete And Total Walsh-Out

The editorial board of Montana's Billings Gazette paper is pulling no punches, calling on Sen. John Walsh to surrender the race, stop campaigning, and to finish out his appointed term to follow up Max Baucus after his retirement and to leave without a fuss.

Gov. Steve Bullock, who chose Walsh as his lieutenant governor running mate in 2012, endorsed his Senate bid and appointed him to the U.S. Senate earlier this year, bears significant responsibility for sending Montanans a weak Senate candidate.

Other Montana Democrats, including Bullock, should put pressure on Walsh to do the right thing. They need to distance the party from this, as well as demonstrate they can make a stand beyond politics. Instead of closing ranks around Walsh, Democrats should call on him to do the right thing.

Having repeatedly said that he wants to do the honorable thing, Walsh should stop campaigning and do his utmost to serve Montanans well in the remainder of his brief Senate appointment. That is the honorable course.

We call on Walsh to devote all his time to serving as U.S. senator and bag the campaigning. Montana needs full representation as the Senate reauthorizes the surface transportation bill, finalizes the budget, deals with public land issues, veterans services and numerous other issues important to our state.

Haunted by a serious lapse in academic honesty, Walsh is finished as a U.S. Senate candidate. But he should work even more diligently to finish the Senate job he already accepted.

That's a pretty rough assessment and an even rougher solution.   The Gazette freely admits that if there was more time between now and November Walsh should resign, but that would leave Montana with only one senator, and the board complains very loudly that it would just put the now-suspect Gov. Steve Bullock in the same situation he was in before of having to appoint someone.

Still, calling on Walsh to abandon his campaign and for the rest of the state's Democrats to turn their backs on him is a major and telling blow.  The cold reality is that there's little the Dems can do to keep this seat in November at this point.

StupidiNews!

• A magnitude 6.1 earthquake in China's Yunnan province has left at least 390 dead and nearly 1,900 injured as the city of Zhaotong and surrounding areas saw thousands of building destroyed.
• As the situation in Libya continues to worsen, a British navy ship is helping to evacuate British nationals from the country's capital of Tripoli to the nearby island of Malta.
• Palestinians are already accusing Israel of breaking its own unilateral cease fire as the IDF pulls troops out of Gaza after destroying the bulk of Hamas tunnels into Israel.
• London Mayor Boris Johnson wants Britain out of the EU unless trade policies are reformed over the next three years.
• The LAPD wants people to stop flying camera drones over its police stations after confronting a man operating one over a station in Hollywood.

Last Call For The Racoon And The Tree

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy this afternoon, and brother, this movie certainly does not disappoint.



Based on the Marvel comics series, the movie opens in 1988 with young Peter Quill visiting his sick mother in the hospital and realizing he has to say goodbye, as her cancer is terminal and she doesn't have long.  After the inevitable happens, he runs out into the night only to have the hand of fate scoop him up and put him squarely on the path to destiny among the stars.

Cut to 2014, and grown-up (physically, but surely not emotionally) Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is a space-hopping thief and con man whose latest score brings the promise of untold riches, not to mention a very big bounty on his head.  Galactic-level bad guy Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) wants the artifact Quill has stolen, and it becomes a mad dash for the cash when bounty hunters Rocket (voiced brilliantly by Bradley Cooper) and his partner Groot (Vin Diesel in full emotive Iron Giant mode) give chase, and Ronan sends his own trump card Gamora (a verdant Zoe Saldana) to grab the loot.

Only Quill isn't as stupid as he seems, and the four of them get rounded up by Nova Corps, the galactic equivalent of Interpol (headed by Glenn Close, no less!) and tossed in the nearest space prison, where they meet Drax the Destroyer (who knew WWE wrestler Dave Bautista could act?) The five of them escape from Ronan and his sidekick Nebula (Karen Gilliam) and the adventure truly begins as the real villain pulling Ronan's strings is the same person responsible for that pesky invasion of Earth in The Avengers: Thanos, the Mad Titan (Josh Brolin), who has his own plans for the artifact.  It's up to Quill and his new "partners" to stop him and save the galaxy.

I personally had a blast at this film.  Cooper and Bautista provide some laugh out loud moments, and Pratt's charm is evident as he smirks his way from one disastrous situation to the next.  The film is well-written and doesn't get bogged down, and like The Avengers you're definitely pulling for this team of ragtag destruction by the end of the film. The movie is well-written and doesn't get bogged down with too much exposition, and Marvel aficionados will see a lot to like here as we get our first real taste of Marvel's cosmic-level players.

I highly recommend this film.  But don't take my word for it, odds are you've probably seen it this weekend as the movie blew up with the highest August weekend opening ever.

Republicans Keep Talking Impeachment

Ross Douthat:

Over the last month, the Obama political apparatus — a close aide to the president, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the “independent” voices at MSNBC — has been talking nonstop about an alleged Republican plan to impeach the president. John Boehner’s symbolic lawsuit against the White House has been dubbed “impeachment lite,” Sarah Palin’s pleas for attention have been creatively reinterpreted as G.O.P. marching orders, and an entire apocalyptic fund-raising campaign has been built around the specter of a House impeachment vote.

Anyone paying attention knows that no such impeachment plan is currently afoot. So taken on its own, the impeachment chatter would simply be an unseemly, un-presidential attempt to raise money and get out the 2014 vote.

But it isn’t happening in a vacuum, because even as his team plays the impeachment card with gusto, the president is contemplating — indeed, all but promising — an extraordinary abuse of office: the granting of temporary legal status, by executive fiat, to up to half the country’s population of illegal immigrants.

We're up to the point where we're not talking about impeaching the President for something he did, but for something he might do, and could, legally.

Rep. Steve King:

Host Chris Wallace asked King what he would do if Obama decides to delay deportations, and Rep. King answered, “None of us want to do the thing that’s left for us as an alternative, but if the president has decided that he is simply not going to enforce any immigration law, or at least not against anybody except the felons, which essentially he has done already this is a broader group of people. I think Congress has to sit down and have a serious look at the rest of this Constitution, and that includes that i-word that we don’t want to say, and I only say now on this program, because I want to encourage the president, please don’t put America into a constitutional crisis, please don’t do that. There’s too much at stake in this country to be deciding that you can take over the Constitution and write it at will.”

Wallace asked if he was saying that impeachment was on the table. King answered, “I think that we have to sit down and take a look at that. Where we would we draw the line otherwise? If that’s not enough to bring that about, then I don’t know what would be.”

So now we have Republicans openly threatening the President with impeachment if he acts.  But it's all a Democratic party ploy, right?   Steve King is blatant:  if you act on immigration, we will impeach.

But yes, it's all Democrats talking it up.

What The Frack Is Going On In Toledo

Remember, Republicans like those in Gov. John Kasich's party want to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency.  I can't see why that would be an issue at all.

A toxin discovered in a northwestern Ohio treatment plant left 500,000 people without drinkable tap water for a second day Sunday.

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins said the level of toxins in the water has decreased, but that more tests are needed to ensure that the city's water is safe to drink.

"This is not over yet," Collins said Sunday.

Residents of Toledo, its suburbs and small areas of southeastern Michigan began lining up for water Saturday after news of the contamination surfaced. Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared a state of emergency for Lucas, Wood and Fulton counties and deployed the National Guard to get water and meals ready to eat, or MREs, to the area.

"What's more important than water? Water's about life," Kasich said. "We know it's difficult. We know it's frustrating."

In a news release, the city of Toledo said the toxins likely came from harmful algae blooms in nearby Lake Erie.

"These organisms are capable of producing a number of toxins that may pose a risk to human and animal health," the release said.

Samples of water were flown to the federal and state Environmental Protection Agency offices in Cincinnati and Columbus and a university in Michigan for testing, officials said.

Toxic algae in Lake Erie?  Can't imagine where that could have come from.   Maybe, I dunno, Kasich's fracking program?  Now thousands in Toledo can't drink the water, but let's trash the EPA and expand drilling in the Great Lakes.  Remember, Kasich said the Great Lakes would be protected.

What could go wrong?

Fancy Farm Fracas

If it's the first Saturday in August, it's time for the St. Jerome Catholic Church picnic, aka Fancy Farm, Kentucky's premier "eat a crapload of BBQ and heckle your political opponent" event.  This year's headliner bout was no exception, as Alison Grimes took on Sen. Mitch McConnell, exchanging some brutal blows.

"Thirty-five is my age - that's also Senator McConnell's approval rating," Grimes quipped.

Polling from earlier this year indicated McConnell's approval rating was in the low 30s.

And Grimes gave McConnell grief for serving in Washington for so long, saying he'd forgotten about the people of Kentucky.

"After three decades in Washington, you've just given up. You don't care about us any more. Thanks to you, D.C. stands for 'Doesn't Care," Grimes said.

But McConnell had something to say about how important his experience is while highlighting Grimes' inexperience, drawing parallels between Grimes, who's two years in as Kentucky's secretary of state, and the relative inexperience of President Barack Obama before taking office.

"He was only two years into his first big job when he started campaigning for the next one. Sound familiar?" McConnell said.

And of course, Rand Paul crashed the party.

"There once was a woman from Kentucky, who thought in politics she'd be lucky. So she flew to LA for a Hollywood bash. She came home in a flash, with buckets of cash," Paul said.

While the race has clear national implications and is one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, Grimes said she wants the focus to be on Kentuckians.

"This race is between me, you and the people of Kentucky," Grimes said to McConnell, seated just a short distance away.

Polls show the race is nearly tied just three months away from the election.

The big prognostication sites, 538, Upshot, Cook Political Report, etc continue to give Grimes almost no chance of winning this race.  Mitch is too entrenched in the state, too politically savvy, too rich to lose down the stretch and he'll pull away and win by 8-10 points.  I think Mitch will get the fight of his political life.

We'll see.

Classic George Will Concern Trolling

George Will makes the obnoxious argument that if Democrats were serious about winning in 2016, they'd nominate Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown over Hillary Clinton, but they won't because he's a white guy, and Democrats hate white guys.

If Ohio’s senior senator were named Sharon Brown instead of Sherrod Brown, progressives would have a plausible political pin-up and a serious alternative to the tawdry boredom of Hillary Clinton’s joyless plod toward her party’s presidential nomination. Drop one of Brown’s consonants and change another and a vowel, and we might be spared the infatuation of what Howard Dean called “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” for Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Sherrod Brown won’t be considered because the Democratic Party’s activist core is incurably devoted to identity politics — the proposition that people are whatever their gender is (or their race or ethnicity or sexual orientation or whatever seems stupendously important at the moment). And the party’s base seems determined to nominate and elect a woman, thereby proving that what has occurred in Britain, Germany, Israel, India, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and other nations can happen here. Feel the excitement.

This is classic projection here, as George Will assumes Democrats have the same thought processes as Republicans would in the same situation.  Of course Republicans would nominate the white guy, and of course Hillary Clinton and Liz Warren are only being considered because they are women.

Will proceeds to rattle off Brown's pretty decent record as a progressive, and then ends with this:

Are progressives so preoccupied with gender that they prefer Clinton’s risk-averse careerism, or Warren’s astonished tantrums about the obvious dynamics of big government, to Brown’s authentic progressivism? Yes.

See, if Democrats don't nominate the clearly more qualified white guy, it's because of affirmative action or something.  It's almost like Will knows nothing about the party, or politics, or anything.

Napoleon, Blown-Apart

Martin Longman argues that given the CIA's not-so-hilarious hijinks in snooping in Senate computers (and that's just the last straw), it's finally time for President Obama to toss CIA Director John Brennan out on his ass.

The administration defends John Brennan's actions by correctly pointing out that he was the one who asked the Inspector General to investigate this matter, and it's true that he did that and that he is allowing the investigation to go forward. But he also obstructed the investigation, leveled false charges at the Senate Intelligence Committee staff, filed those charges with Department of Justice, and oversees a process that has overly redacted their report.

By any normal standard, John Brennan would be prosecuted for his actions. But he is being protected by the administration. I don't think this is best explained by the idea that Brennan is doing a good job in other respects. He's a major embarrassment to the administration and protecting him makes them look extremely bad. From the very beginning of his administration, I think President Obama has simply been afraid to take on the Intelligence Community. And his official rationale is morally bankrupt:

Even before I came into office, I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values. I understand why it happened. I think it's important when we look back to recall how afraid people were after the twin towers fell and the Pentagon had been hit and the plane in Pennsylvania had fallen and people did not know whether more attacks were imminent and there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security teams to try to deal with this. And, you know, it's important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had. A lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots, but having said all that, we did some things that were wrong. And that's what that report reflects.

This is how the president rebukes these unnamed CIA officers for acting contrary to our values without daring to hold them accountable despite what the law and our treaties say. It would be overly "sanctimonious" to hold them accountable. In actuality, it would be dangerous to hold them accountable. If anything is "sanctimonious," it is the failure to recognize that danger.

Even I have to call horseshit on President Obama's logic there.  9/11 happened 13 years ago.  It was hard on a lot of people, especially all the families who lost loved ones because our intelligence agencies screwed up.  It also has nothing to do whatsoever with spying on Senate Intelligence Committee computers in 2013, and he's lied multiple times about what the CIA has done.

The problem is Brennan's ouster would prove Rand Paul correct.  And getting a new CIA head right now would be impossible.  And given America's many foreign policy problems, slagging the CIA, even if they deserve it, has to take a back seat.  There are bigger problems out there, Putin, Netanyahu, Assad, and we need the CIA to keep us in the loop there.

I hate it and I want to see Brennan go.  It's not going to happen.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• House Republicans have passed the border bill many Tea Party members wanted, that would deport all immigrants here under President Obama's deferment.
• WHO officials say West Africa's Ebola outbreak is outpacing efforts to contain it, as at least 729 are dead from the disease.
• A factory explosion in China's Jiangsu province has killed at least 68 and injured 120 as officials say a flame ignited a dust-filled room.
• A Florida judge has ordered the state's legislature into special session to redraw unconstitutional congressional districts by August 15, possibly delaying elections.
• Facebook is facing a European class-action privacy lawsuit that is being opened to US and Canadian residents, alleging privacy violations under EU law.

Last Call For Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

We've finally reached the point where Israeli hard-liners have made American hard-liners look like complete wimps, as Times of Israel contributor Yochanan Gordon ponders whether or not Israel has the justification to exterminate every Palestinian in Gaza. (Hint: his answer is "yes.")

The Times of Israel scrubbed an inflammatory blog post on Friday after the writer was widely ridiculed and condemned for making a case for genocide.

In the post titled "When Genocide is Permissible," Yochanan Gordon framed his premise as "a question for all the humanitarians out there."

It's the most lunatic thing I've read in some time.  It makes our crazy warmongers look like Mother Teresa. And it gets a whole lot worse:

I wasn't aware of this, but it seems that the nature of warfare has undergone a major shift over the years. Where wars were usually waged to defeat the opposing side, today it seems - and judging by the number of foul calls it would indicate - that today's wars are fought to a draw. I mean, whoever heard of a timeout in war? An NBA Basketball game allows six timeouts for each team during the course of a game, but last I checked this is a war! We are at war with an enemy whose charter calls for the annihilation of our people. Nothing, then, can be considered disproportionate when we are fighting for our very right to live. 

The sad reality is that Israel gets it, but its hands are being tied by world leaders who over the past six years have insisted they are such good friends with the Jewish state, that they know more regarding its interests than even they do. But there's going to have to come a time where Israel feels threatened enough where it has no other choice but to defy international warnings - because this is life or death.

It's amazing.  His reasoning is exceedingly simple:  we have to exterminate all Palestinians in order to save Israel.  The irony of this is enough to power entire separate realities.

Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely?

So at this point, I fully expect tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties in the coming days and weeks.   The news of a captured Israeli soldier just hours into what was the start of a 3-day cease fire has all but assured that thousands of Palestinians will now have to die as a result of Hamas and Israel.

The war will continue unabated now.  Regardless of what you think about Yochanan Gordon's idiocy, a lot of people are going to be slaughtered and very, very soon.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Steve M. observes the chaos in the House GOP and its laughable border vote fiasco, the bill pulled by Boehner rather than he have it be defeated, and asks an excellent question:

I know I'm supposed to regard this as a tremendous black eye for Republicans, and for John Boehner in particular -- and obviously it is in the eyes of political insiders and mavens. But are any Republicans actually going to be punished for this in a way that's going to sting?

Not by Republican voters, that's for sure.

But here's my question: Which Republican is going to lose an election in November because of this? I assume the answer is "None of them." This makes House Republicans look like terrible public servants who accomplish nothing on behalf of the American people. But Americaalready regarded House Republicans that way before today, and they were poised to hold pretty much every seat they hold now, largely because of gerrymandering, while their party was -- and still is -- certain to gain seats in the Senate, quite possibly enough to gain control.

Does anyone seriously think any of that has changed?

In fact, these clowns have probably increased their appeal to the Fox-addled voting base of their party. And even if a handful of swing voters now have a blinding flash of insight and realize that Republican legislators are outright frauds, in what district is the race close enough to matter? Name me one.

I can't.  And that's a gigantic problem.  The irony is however if we don't vote and try to change it, it will never ever get any better, so I choose to go down swinging and hope that maybe I can get the word out to enough people for them to try to go down swinging too.  I can vote while I still can, and try to get others to vote too.

Eventually either enough of us will give a damn and we'll scrub the stables clean of filth, or we'll drown in the flood of crap.

Of Course They're Going After Birth Control

The forced birth loonies will never stop only outlawing abortion as a health care procedure.  Their true goal is to turn birth control into a luxury for the few, and the rest of those people need to close their legs, the sluts.

An anti-Abortion group in Minnesota has been campaigning against a new Planned Parenthood in Richfield, Minn., even though the clinic doesn't actually perform abortions, Cosmopolitan reported.

The clinic opened at the end of June, and since then Pro-Life Action Ministries (PLAM) has been vigorously objecting to it. The group has started a petition, held meetings and are now distributing flyers around town. 

They protested the grand opening and have kept a constant presence outside of the clinic to offer "sidewalk counseling," according to Cosmo. PLAM activists blasted the city's Chamber of Commerce for "advocating for abortion" by putting together a ribbon cutting for the building in which no abortions are performed.

Brian Gibson, executive director of Pro-Life Action Ministries, told Cosmo that the group only take issue with the clinic's role in providing abortions. The group argues that certain forms of birth control "can cause early abortions" and that emergency contraception drugs "function most often as abortion-inducing drugs."

The new Planned Parenthood opened up after the Centro de Salud clinic in South Minneapolis closed, potentially leaving a gap in services for the Hispanic community.

The group claims they have gotten a largely positive response to their efforts to protest the clinic and refer individuals to a Catholic crisis pregnancy center.

Believe me when I say the wealthy will always be able to afford abortions.  But this idiocy involving birth control equating to abortion is both stupid and very, very savvy.  The last couple of years especially, the push to make birth control as "bad" as abortion has worked, and a population of woman with unaffordable birth control will be less independent, less healthy, and less well-off.

That of course is the goal and has been for some time.

StupidiNews!

• Despite a 72 hour cease fire that went into effect this morning, fighting continues in Gaza and the agreement has fallen apart with both Israelis and Hamas blaming each other.
• The Senate has passed a $16.3 billion measure to overhaul the Department of Veterans Affairs in a 91-3 vote, sending the measure to President Obama's desk to be signed.
• A US aid worker infected with Ebola while working in West Africa will be flown to a special ward at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
• Portugal's Esperito Santo family, one of the country's wealthiest banking families, is now reeling from a tax fraud scandal that could see the family's patriarch in prison for money laundering.
• The newest threat to catch your credit card number from stores is a program called "Backoff" that grabs information through legitimate remote services.