George Zimmerman is going on trial for shooting an unarmed kid (Trayvon Martin) as he strolled through his neighborhood chatting with his girlfriend on the phone. This threatening act (walking and talking) raised warning flags for Sheriff George, self-proclaimed neighborhood watch captain who somehow forgot neighborhood watch are never armed and should never confront people. Zimmerman called in this suspicious African-American kid to police, but when Zimmerman’s stalking finally unnerved young Trayvon Martin – who then tried to flee – Sheriff George violated all aspects of neighborhood watch training and went after Martin armed.

What ensued has never been fully understood, and may never be. But one thing we do know is Goerge Zimmerman’s account is fictional – since physics and forensics prove beyond a doubt what did happen could not have happened the way Zimmerman claims.

Continue Reading »

Tags: George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin

I cannot recall the last time I saw poll numbers like this:

Three-quarters of U.S. voters want a special prosecutor to investigate the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party groups, according to a poll that showed a drop in President Barack Obama’s approval and trust ratings.

In the survey released today by Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University, registered voters favored a special prosecutor by 76 percent to 17 percent. Those backing such a move included 63 percent of Democrats.

Want to know how powerful that number is? Its right up there with support for “Christmas”:

A new poll shows Americans are overwhelmingly decided on whether it is a “Christmas” or “holiday” tree.

Eight in ten side with “Christmas” over “holiday,” according to the latest poll from Clarus Research Group. Only 12% refer to it as a holiday tree.

The fact is the IRS is the over-bearing, cold, government enforcer that takes our heard earned money so Congress can give it to their political cronies, or blow it mind numbingly stupid ideas. Or both.

So it is no surprise most people want justice in this matter, and want people to be punished. Punished just as swiftly and coldly as the IRS would take action against any of us if we so much as put a toe (or a dime) out of line.

And now the IRS is associated with one political party – Democrats. And one power drunk administration. An administration that not only used the IRS, but used many government agencies to harass Americans simply participating in the democratic process:

Texas businesswoman Catherine Engelbrecht says she never had trouble with the government. That is, until she founded two groups with conservative causes. Now, she’s telling a fascinating story of alleged harassment not only by the IRS but also other agencies that she believes targeted her and her organizations because of their political ties.

…

Within months of the groups filing for tax-exempt status, Engelbrecht claims she started getting hit by an onslaught of harassment: six FBI domestic terrorism inquiries, an IRS visit, two IRS business audits, two IRS personal audits, and inspections of her equipment manufacturing company by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Texas environmental quality officials.

We are not paying taxes to fund thugs to harass us. There is no better example of bloated government run amok than this case. And no stronger argument for limited government over bureaucratic tyranny. And as the party of Big Government (now synonymous with bureaucratic tyranny) the Democrats get to take the political heat for this.

And justifiably so.

Update: Ed Morrissey makes a very good observation and point on the matter of the IRS investigations:

Congress would prefer to hang onto investigative power themselves.  The legislative branch has the authority and the responsibility to investigate malfeasance in the executive branch, and Capitol Hill has just gotten started.  If prosecutions become necessary, then a special prosecutor will probably be necessary, especially with the Department of Justice’s scandals expanding from the top down.  Until then, though, Congress should stay on the job and uncover the evidence itself.

This is very important, since the Congressional investigation will be visible to the public and the voters, while criminal investigations are kept under wraps and only some of the results may come out (those that will ensure conviction if taken to trial, if there is a trial). To ensure these shenanigans get full exposure, Congress must proceed and shine its light on every cockroach now scurrying for cover.

Tags: Holder, IRS, Obama, Special Prosecutor, Tea Party

I am a Virginian through and through, but…

It is hard to believe Virginia was the heart and soul of America when it was formed. Most of the first 10 Presidents hail from the Old Dominion. The US Bill of Rights was derived from the Virginia version, at times almost verbatim. Virginians helped explore this country, form this country, fight for this country. We stand for democracy.

But the Virginia GOP has turned its back on this great legacy, and turned its back on Virginians as a whole. The VA GOP no longer asks Virginians who they want representing them in government. Instead the party now tells us who they want, and we either accept or let Democrats run amok.

Sadly, some years the VA GOP makes the Democrats the lesser of 2 evils:

A minister who compared gays to pedophiles and Planned Parenthood to the Klu Klux Klan is not the No. 2 candidate Republican Party reformers had in mind for the marquee race of 2013.

…

Blame Virginia’s quirky political process, a raucous convention speech and a racial undercurrent for vaulting Jackson—an also-ran in the 2012 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate—onto a stepping stone to the top job in one of the closely watched swing states in the country. Blame Cuccinelli, who steered the party away from holding a potentially more competitive primary and toward a convention that ensured his nomination but left the lieutenant governor’s slot up to only a few thousand hard-core activists to fill.

Jackson’s unexpected entrance into the Virginia statewide elections this year is one of the starkest examples of the challenges facing the GOP as it tries to broaden its appeal on the way to 2016.

I support Cuccinelli for Governor, but he will probably loose now  because VA is so competitive the slightest drag can be devastating.. The selection of Jackson as the GOP standard bearer plays into the worst images of the GOP. How could we go from McDonnell to Jackson like this? While there are aspects of Jackson to admire (I have respect for former Marines), his rhetoric is too harsh for my taste.

If the VA GOP wants to broaden its appeal, it would run primaries and live with the broader conservative selection. Purity by some on the far right has the same results as purity by the far left – minority status through massive election losses. In a democracy you have to moderate and lead the mainstream, not fight it. You have to build consensus without losing those core values that most people share.

Democracy is not easy. It is not suppose to be. It is simply much more preferable over the other options – which are increasing gradients of tyranny. For a party that supposedly opposes big government – where just a few control the rest of us – the VA GOP sure stepped in it this year. The convention has always spelled disaster for the VA GOP. It leaves conservative independents like me cold and out of the process.

If I can tell the VA GOP anything it is this – trust Virginians to make the best choice. Stop trying forcing leaders on us. They will usually be rejected, based on principle alone if need be. Go back to democracy.

We are seeing all around us the signs of a collapse. Not just economic collapse, social collapse or imperial collapse.

What we are seeing is the collapse of the myth surrounding the all powerful, all knowing, all pure, Big-Government!

Just look at how the Obama Administration’s second term has collapsed and is now impotent. We have Bengahzi, we have the tyranny of the IRS, we have surveillance of reporters for – reporting! It’s insane how badly these people abused their positions.

The IRS scandal is the one everyone in America will relate to. It involves the common enemy of all hard working Americans, and it is how the government picks our pockets to initiate so many screw ups. But there is a bright line between wasting our hard earned money, and using our money against us to intimidate us:

We now know that Lois Lerner, the Director of Exempt Organizations for the Internal Revenue Service – who refused to testify before a House committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment – has a paper trail that reveals her direct involvement in sending intrusive and harassing questionnaires to Tea Party groups in 2012.

For this abuse of power, Lois Lerner is now on paid vacation. What kind of punishment is that? She refused to resign? Fire her. Recall, she was made aware of the abuses going back to 2011.  Did she stop them? NO!

She joined in on the harassment. Fire her and strip her of her pension. That is in the taxpayer’s best interest.

And I was dead-on right about Holder and Obama when it comes to getting warrants to snoop on the press. Those kinds of actions require the top people in government to sign on!

As it turns out, Holder not only heard of it, he personally approved it.  The warrant in the Rosen case specified that he was considered a potential suspect in the leak of classified material, the reason that the DoJ didn’t bother to follow the existing Watergate-era statute in coordinating the records request with Fox News.  And note that Holder’s testimony in this case wasn’t produced by some sophisticated perjury trap sprung by a Republican, but as a freely-offered representation to no particular question during the question period of a Democrat.

There is no other way to view this except as a lie.

Abuse of power, perjury…

Is Holder going to get a paid vacation too?

And don’t even get me started back on Benghazi, where the new excuse is: “silly us, we were just idiots”

Obama administration officials who were in key positions on Sept. 11, 2012 acknowledge that a range of mistakes were made the night of the attacks on the U.S. missions in Benghazi, and in messaging to Congress and the public in the aftermath.

…

“We’re portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots,” said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. “It’s actually closer to us being idiots.”

Ignoring warnings of security risks, ordering people into harms way. Covering up a clearly coordinated attack and withholding the chance for the cavalry to arrive. All this ending with the death of 4 brave Americans. And the excuse is we were idiots? So what are surgeons who operate drunk and cause a death, or train operators who text while drivinh and cause death, or airline pilots who fly tired and exhausted and people die? Idiots?

Paid vacations all around – on the taxpayer’s dime.

And don’t think it is only in the US where this is happening. Check this out:

From a common point in 2005, three lines diverge widely to reflect the fact that prices in Europe are now 37 per cent higher than those in the US, and almost 20 per cent higher than those in Japan.

That chart captures a growing fear in Europe that rising energy prices now pose a threat to the industrial competitiveness of a region mired in recession. It has been driven home by a steady stream of announcements from European manufacturers about plans to build new production facilities in the US.

The chart says it all. If you are a follower of the Church of IPCC/Gore, you want expensive energy because – you know – the sky is falling due to rampant global warming.  Warming that has disappeared for over a decade and may not show up for 2 or 3 more. Idiots.

The big-government model is falling apart because it was never sustainable. It was never going to work.

Humans are fallible and make mistakes. Sometimes tragic mistakes.  When someone goes made and goes on a shooting rampage, or people become obese, or kids get hurt playing with toys, the old mantra was protect these poor saps from themselves. Bring on Big Government!

Thus we get ludicrous and useless gun laws, soda size limits and toys that do nothing so no one can hurt themselves. The almighty government has come to the rescue. Now there are no murderous rampages, obese people or kids getting hurt – right?

Here is the fallacy in this simple minded concept. Humans are fallible.  When they screw up as an individual, the damage – while tragic – is also contained. There may be a dozen Hitler wannabes out there, but they are safer as one of the masses than the leader of a major country. But when these error prone and egotistical humans are handed unlimited power over others, even the slightest error in judgement can be deadly.

You don’t have to be evil to do harm. You can just be a normal, fallible human taking on too much.

And that is why big government always grows to the point it becomes so engorged it implodes. It is full of fallible humans stumbling and bumbling. This appears to be one of the immutable laws of the universe.

I found the commentary by Rep Mike Kelly against the IRS targeting of conservative 501(c)4 organizations to be one of the few laudatory political statements I have heard in over a decade. We had amazing political statements post 9-11 from both sides of the aisle, when the nation rallied against a murderous and vile enemy. Since that time though,  it has been pretty much crap.

Last week, in the wake of government power and abuse run amok, we were enlightened by a populist rant that also will rally the people. But this time – hopefully – rally them to clean up our own government gone out of control and mad.

Before we get to Kelley’s commentary, lets reprise why his statement was so powerful. And that begins with laying out why the IRS actions were not the simply mistakes of fools, as the testimony by those responsible implied. But clearly premeditated immoral – and likely illegal – acts.

How could it be “an accident” to only target (and then delay) conservative group tax exempt applications in the wake of a rising tide of new organizations, when there was no rise in applications?

A number of people have sought to explain the IRS targeting of Tea Party, patriot, and 9/12 group applications — as well as those from other conservative groups — for “specialist team” treatment (mainly delays and excessive and inappropriate questions) in 2010 by pointing to the Citizens United decision that year allowing for unlimited, undisclosed fundraising by such groups. That’s the explanation IRS official Lois Lerner gave a week agowhen she first revealed that the agency had improperly handled a slew of applications — the political shorthand was a mistaken attempt to deal with a surge in applications.”[W]e saw a big increase in these kind of applications, many of which indicated that they were going to be involved in advocacy work,” Lerner said.But Todd Young, a Republican congressman from Indiana, pointed out at Friday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing with former acting IRS commissioner Steve Miller and Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George that this was not the case, according to the very data the IRS provided to the Treasury IG’s office.

There were, he noted, actually fewer applications for tax-exempt status by groups seeking to be recognized as social-welfare organizations that year than the previous one, according to this IRS data.

Oops. I guess that excuse did not pass the BS-Smell test. The surge did not show up until 2011. And it was in the middle of 2011 that the scandal was breaking inside the IRS and Treasury – so it could not be due to that year’s surge:

A senior Internal Revenue Service official knew in 2011 that IRS agents were giving extra scrutiny to conservative Tea Party groups, according to documents from a watchdog office obtained by Reuters on Saturday.

…

The TIGTA report finds that Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS’s tax-exempt groups unit, knew of the extra scrutiny as early as June 2011.

So, was the IRS even handed in their handling of this non-surge in 501(c)4 applications? Well, they did not seem to slow down left leaning organizations:

In February 2010, the Champaign Tea Party in Illinois received approval of its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 90 days, no questions asked.

That was the month before the Internal Revenue Service started singling out Tea Party groups for special treatment. There wouldn’t be another Tea Party application approved for 27 months.

In that time, the IRS approved perhaps dozens of applications from similar liberal and progressive groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows.

Notice how the targeting started in March 2010, and was beginning to raise a stink by June the next year!

Well, if this was nothing more than a way to filter applications, why were there delaya only on right leaning groups? Clearly that excuse is not passing the BS-Smell test either. And one wonders, were those liberal groups subject to the same invasive, irrelevant and out of bounds questions? Were liberal organizations asked to explain the contents of their prayers to their God?

Finally, was this problem with non-profits universal? Did it apply to larger, established groups? Apparently not:

And yet, the IRS effort between 2010 and the presidential election last November exclusively targeted small start-ups opposed to the administration’s agenda while leaving the big players alone, the Associated Press reports today:

That smell coming from the IRS is BS, piles and piles of BS. As we know, the IRS does not give taxpayers any leeway in terms of excuses or ignorance. There are no excuses for errors or omissions – simply penalties.

Which is why Mike Kelly struck such a sympathetic nerve with America’s taxpayers. Taxpayers who would be in real hot water with the IRS if they proffered such obvious lies as to why they did not pay the proper amount of taxes.  Kelly speaks for the American taxpayer, channeling how fed up we are with people who take our money, blow it constantly, and then add more debt onto our backs as if nothing else matters.

This is why this is the video of the year, if not the election cycle:

Tags: 501(c)4, IRS, Mike Kelly, Penalties

A long, long time ago I postulated that “Global Warming” is more likely due to dynamics in the Earth’s crust than human produced CO2. One of my first posts on the matter was in reference to a large undersea volcanic explosion under the Arctic Ice Cap at the bottom of the Arctic Sea.  Many people do not understand that the Northern Ice Cap floats on an open ocean, unlike the Southern Ice which sits atop one of the 7 continental land masses:

Above is three-dimensional view of the Arctic Basin.

The North Pole is in the vicinity of that large ridge the runs from Russia to Greenland.

This map of the continent of Antarctic shows the land mass at the South Pole

So when I learned about massive volcanic explosion at the bottom of the Arctic Sea, not too far distant in time from the recent loss of Arctic Ice mass, I realized there were MORE forces at work than simply solar energy and green house gases.

The natural basin that is the Arctic Ocean is possibly the reason why Arctic water temperatures were rising because the warming caused by these massive underwater explosions couldn’t really circulate out of the basin. Is this the real culprit for why the ice and glaciers have been receding in the Arctic and ice as been growing in the Antarctic? Seems highly possible.

Another seismic mechanism has now been identified in the Arctic atmosphere, one that is more likely the cause of the warming Arctic than human produced CO2:

A Russian-U.S. expedition comprising 28 scientists has, in its research of the Arctic seas, found powerful methane emissions in the northern sector of the Laptev and Bering seas. Expedition Chief Igor Semiletov says that ‘methane torches’ have been running up from the depth of the ocean with methane emitted into the air. Possibly, methane comes from the depth of the Earth crust, which is a sign of a strong seismic activity in this region, Semiletov said.

The danger of methane releases triggered by seismic activity in the Arctic was described by Carana in Runaway Warming (2011a) and in Runaway Global Warming (2011b) and by Light (2011). The link between earthquake activity along the Arctic Gakkel Ridge with destabilization of the submarine Arctic methane hydrates and the release of giant plumes of methane to the atmosphere was highlighted by Light and Solana (2002).

I strongly recommend researching the links.  One has this to say about methane in the atmosphere:

Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere, having 20 times more warming potential than CO2 over a 100 yr period and 56 times more over a 20 yr period.

These are actual measurements, so I tend to give them a lot more credence than IPCC models. This methane cloud would explain why the Arctic Ice has been shrinking, while the Antarctic Ice has been growing over the last two decades. And it would explain how CO2 climate driven models cannot correctly address the Arctic phenomena:

It is hypothesized that this bias is driven by the desire to more accurately capture the observed recent acceleration of warming in the Arctic and corresponding decline in Arctic sea ice. However, this convergence is difficult to justify given the significant and widening discrepancy between the modeled and observed warming rates outside of the Arctic.

The hot interior of our palnet has a big role to play in the energy balance of Earth, its oceans and its atmosphere. I still maintain the El Nino/La Nina cycle is driven not so much by Trade Winds, but by the amount of energy being poured into the Eastern Pacific by a volcanic plume off Cost Rica:

My initial assessment was that the frigid Humbult Current that comes north from the Antarctic region along the west coast of South America (the mirror image of the current that drops down from the Arctic along the west coast of North America) could not be warmed so drastically in such a short time by sun and air alone. This is due to the physics of ocean currents and the massive amount of heat required to warm tons of cold water moving northward per second

…

Higher volcanic activity in these areas clearly cause more warm water to rise and heat the surface, creating the conditions for El Niño. Lower activity allows the cooler currents to dominate, bringing on La Niña.

Long time scientists researching the phenomena claim the Trade Wind changes are the driver. I still think the fact is ocean temperature and currents would influence the winds more than the reverse. But I there is combined model that could work too.  All systems have stability points.  Under one set of conditions the system stabilizes to one condition, under others it stabilizes to a different one.  All things equal (solar energy, water temp, wind and wave action) it is not implausible to see how adding a lot of under water heat energy (that rises and mixes with the surface waters at ever increasing surface area) could effect cloud formation, pressures and then winds. And then another year with less energy poured into the seas reverses the winds.

It still seems more likely to me that the enormous thermal energy source under our thin crust would drive climate stronger than small changes in solar energy or CO2 levels. We are talking about thousands of kilometers of molten rock and iron, covered by a crustal boundary 100 or so kilometers thick. A boundary which has cracks and mission ocean ridges that vent a lot of energy into the oceans.  A phenomena we know extremely little about.

I have to laugh that Obama & Holder both just got nailed for snooping on the News Media by the very same conspiracy crap the liberal left tried to nail President George W Bush on!

Back in Bush’s first term, the NY Times tried to concoct a scandal for George W Bush on the FISA court and how its process had been changed after the attacks on 9-11. I spent years writing on this subject, and I concluded (with others) that the FISA process was never bypassed, but it was also not allowed to get in the way of promulgating evidence to the FBI related to terrorists who made it into the country.  Back in the bad old days, if the terrorists we were monitoring overseas got inside our borders, we could not pass the evidence onto the FBI to take over monitoring and stepping in if things looked to be heading towards mass death. Thus 9-11 and 3000 dead Americans.

This barrier between overseas intelligence and the FBI  was the result of a bureaucratic processes building up over years without anyone considering the danger that process  was exposing us to.

Fast forward to today, and you find the Obama administration was faced with a really bad leak of intelligence to the news media. And to plug this leak, the Obama administration used the post 9-11 processes established by President Bush to do what the liberal left used to whine Bush was or would do himself!

But a different picture emerges if you look past the AP’s spin. DOJ is investigating a leak of national security information to AP reporters that culminated in a May 7, 2012 story that disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped a terrorist plot in early 2012. The story had the byline of five AP reporters. DOJ opened an investigation into the leak to the AP, and pursuant to its published special rules on investigations involving the media investigations, issued subpoenas to find out what numbers were dialed from the relevant AP reporters during the months of April and May 2012. Presumably the thinking is that AP reporters called their sources, and the investigators want to trace the phone numbers

As I said many times back during the FISA faux pas scandal, the only way the News Media could get in the FISA cross-hairs was to communicate to terrorists. Apparently I was wrong: they found another way by leaking sensitive information. Information which put Americans and allies providing the intelligence at risk, and of course could result in victims of attacks arising from losing this insight into the plans of terrorists.

The AP probably deserves to be investigated. And they probably realized they were about to get legally screwed, so they pulled the alarm bell and their media brethren jumped in. And of course the GOP took advantage of the mess to destroy Obama’s political base. But that looks to be all smoke screen to the core issue, which is a very serious leak of classified data.

In the end, the Bush-era fixes to FISA after 9-11 demand two things happen to get to this point. One is that only the Attorney General can make the case to the FISA court for these kinds of actions. And the second aspect of this is the AG is working as the voice and authority of the POTUS. And it is obvious no AG would go after the Press without POTUS authorization (since the AG cannot ac without POTUS concurrence).

So Obama and Holder cannot push this one off on anyone else (like they will try on Benghazi and the IRS scandal fronts). Worse yet, apparently Holder has ‘no recollection’ on what he did….

Yeah, right. You targeted the News Media with the power of the Department of Justice and you don’t remember much about it????

Live by the sword, die by the sword in DC.

Major Update: Roberto Gonzales, an AG under President George W Bush, came out and just knee capped Obama and Holder:

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday that the Bush administration once considered issuing the type of subpoena that the Justice Department issued against the Associated Press, but ultimately opted against it.

“There was at least one occasion in which we were engaged in a very serious leak investigation and we had to make some very difficult choices about whether or not to move forward, going after the reporters in order to try to figure out where the source of the leak is,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe. “And sometimes, the department finds itself in a situation where they have exhausted all means and they have to make a very hard determination as to whether or not they want to subpoena the reporter, if they want to subpoena the reporter’s notes. So yes, I’ve had that situation. In the instance that I have in mind, we ultimately decided not to move forward.”

This is all truly ironic. Holder and Obama are getting roasted for doing what Bush never did, but the liberal left claimed Bush did all the time.

Tags: AP, FISA, Holder, Obama, Phone Taps

I almost wrote the title of this post as “Using The IRS Against Political Enemies“, but realized using the word ‘enemies’ would only give credence to the paranoid and power hungry delusions of Team Obama. The victims here are simply American citizens participating in our political process.

One theory is Team Obama is trying to deflect Bengahzi with another lesser scandal that will suck all the oxygen out of the media cycle. Or it could be the wheels are falling of this bus faster than anyone feared.

Either way, using the IRS as a political weapon will enhance the standing of Libertarian and Tea Party movements, and energize the electorate going into 2014. What better example of an out of control, oppressive government run amok than this story?

“This is truly outrageous. And it contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government. It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review. And I think that it’s very disappointing that the president hasn’t personally condemned this and spoken out,” Collins told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.”

Those who have faith in government based solutions fail to see the irony of this story. It is proof positive Sarah Palin and other Tea Party, Libertarian, small-government voices are right. How would you like to answer these kinds of questions to the one government organization able to drag you through audits so deep they make a colonoscopy look like fun:

That is just one example out of 10, all of which would scare off most sane people interested in getting involved in government advocacy. If voter suppression is wrong, how is suppressing this form of political speech right? How is targeting someone who uses the word “Patriot”  going to make all those who feel patriotic about this country feel?

Senator Collins is correct, this kind of abuse is going to fire up the small-government voters. As it should.

Update: Wow.  The abuse of power goes back to 2010 (when the Democrats were facing a election debacle). And the venerable Washington Post sees a huge political firestorm over this for Dems.

Tags: Abuse, IRS, Patriot, Tea Party

When four people are horribly murdered, it is incumbent upon society to resolve why, and bring those to justice who were at fault. It does not matter if those at fault pulled the trigger, or where simply responsible to protect the dead and were derelict in their duty (which some are paid huge sums of money to perform). The dead deserve justice when their life is taken brutally from them.

If we do not bring justice to the murdered, we are not civilized, we are not progressive.  We are simply brutish thugs playing the age old game of the powerful living high on the toils, pain and suffering of the masses. If we do not resolve what happened in Benghazi and why four Americans died, then they died for nothing. And we – America – threw all they were away.

That is why what ABC News has discovered is not just about memos that were edited. It was about people who knew they screwed up, people who put those 4 Americans in an impossible situation – ordered them to go – and then tried to hide their tracks when their directions got those 4 Americans killed.

If someone in the State Dept had told these four people to drive a car know to have a safety issue, and they were killed because the car failed in the very way everyone knew the car was unsafe (pick bald tires as an example), that State Department person would be heading to court and likely jail. Now mix in that State Department person trying to hide the reports on those bald tires, and claiming it was something else that caused the accident and killed those people. Then what do you think would happen?

Changing the records to cover up clear wrong doing is not simply editing a memo:

This is really damning stuff. There is now absolutely clear evidence that Hillary’s team directed the truth  to be removed from the talking points. And the reason for the deletion is just incredible:

In an email to officials at the White House and the intelligence agencies, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland took issue with including that information because it “could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either?

Four Americans, one the US Ambassador to Libya, are dead and these idiots are worried their careers are over because they ignored the warnings! Damn straight you are going to get beat up for it! You ordered people into an area that was dangerous, and stripped down their security before doing it!  Only Hillary can order someone to do something this dangerous (and stupid).

Which explains her emotional outburst about the matter in front of Congress

What difference does it make? People died and your Department’s incompetence was the reason they were exposed and killed. The difference is to bring justice to the dead, vs cover the political ambitions of some DC pol and her minions.

Listen to the end, because Hillary explains to everyone why this needs to be run to ground. She herself says we need to find out what happened so it does not happen again.  And in her case, let the chips fall. If her team covered it up, she and her team are responsible.

More by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air

Tags: Ambassador Stevens, Benghazi, Hillary Clinton, Talking Points

Some of the dumbest excuses I have heard about what went wrong in Benghazi was help could not make it in time to save our 4 brave Americans under attack.

That is pure BS.

We are  talking a battle that raged for hours and moved from one location to another. We are talking about tee-shirt wearing terrorist thugs with small arms.  We are talking about what a terrorist on the ground could do against the air power of America.

Would any sane person keep attacking in the open when a few of these arrived on the scene?

This is an F-22 Raptor, capable of extended hypersonic cruise. In other words it can get on the scene quick.  Shockingly quick. And its machines guns and bird’s eye view would be enough to disperse 500 ‘men’ on the ground with assault rifles.

Or how about if one or two of these showed up?

These puppies have taken out numerous Jihadis from incredible heights. Those 50 caliber Gatling guns would have sent the attackers in Benghazi running for the hills.

I am not alone in this view – by a long shot:

“I believe if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced, I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split,” he said. “They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them.”

We did not need a huge show of force, just a rapid show if overwhelming force.  Either of these would have bought time for ground/security forces to arrive. Check out this video:

Of course, if the security was at the proper level in the first place….

This why whoever delayed taking action pretty much damned those Americans to death.  They were fighting back waiting for the cavalry they knew we had, and someone held the cavalry back.

Tags: Benghazi, C130 Gunship, F-22 Raptor