This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • @natsecwonk canned

    This has been bothering me for a couple of days now. This fellow, Jofi Joseph, has been tweeting embarrassing stuff about the Obama Administration from inside the White House for years until this last week under the Twitter handle @natsecwonk. He was mean and no one was sacred (except the president, of course). So, according to the Washington Post, they planted false information to find Joseph. And then they fired him.

    Now, no one has been fired for the failures of Benghazi, no one but a whistle blower was fired for the Fast & Furious debacle, no one has been fired at the IRS for terrorizing conservative groups, but this guy gets fired for being mean on the internet.

    It is not clear whether the sting led directly to the unmasking last week of Jofi Joseph, 40, who was identified as the creative force behind @natsecwonk and was fired from his position on the administration’s Iran negotiations team. But the lengths to which White House officials went to find Joseph reveal how much of an embarrassment his Twitter feed had become inside the West Wing and across the street at the stately Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where Joseph worked alongside his NSC colleagues while secretly skewering them online.

    “It was like they were hunting for bin Laden in a cave and he was right in the belly of the beast all along ,” said a former NSC official who worked with Joseph, marveling that he was able to keep his identity secret for over two years.

    But, his only crime was that he was disloyal to the Obama Administration. The other things I mentioned, Fast & Furious and Benghazi, actually cost Americans their lives, but somehow what this guy did was worse.

  • Media mischaracterizes vets at rally

    This is the headline of Salon’s article about the rally yesterday;

    Salon banner

    Of course, it says “protesters”, but what they mean to say is that TWO protesters engaged in waving Confederate flags and shouting that Obama is a Muslim. But they make it sound as if the entire protest contingent was a bunch of right wing nuts. It was Larry Klayman who made the statement, according to CNN, and as near as I can tell, Larry Klayman isn’t even a veteran according to the biographies that are on the internet;

    “I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up,” said Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, a conservative political advocacy group.

    Here’s the URL to the CNN article and it’s original title;

    CNN URL

    Of course, what the media is trying to do is paint veterans as right wing crackpots instead of people who are trying to win back our dignity and our political voice. Of course, we must be partisan. Because we don’t like balancing the budget on our backs and because we don’t like our memorials shut down in our faces, we must be racist, too, especially if some dude off the street showed up with a confederate flag;

    Confed. flag at vet rally

    I guess none of the reporters could ask the dude with the flag which side he represented, or if he was a veteran or not before they splashed their broad brush on the entire crowd.

  • Senate votes for death benefit

    One of our ninjas send us a link to CNN which reports that the Senate has voted to approve the death benefit for troops’ families that need it;

    The move came at the insistence of Republican senators who said they wanted a legislative fix to fund the benefits despite a plan finalized by the Obama administration Wednesday to have a private charity–Fisher House–cover the cost of the benefits until the government shutdown is resolved.

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the push by Republicans was “unnecessary” because benefits were now flowing, but he said he would not block a unanimous consent agreement proposed by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican.

    “This issue is largely moot. It’s clear the action on this legislation is just for show,” Reid said.

    Yeah, it was moot earlier when Congress approved paying the entire Pays and Allowances Table, which included the death benefit, but the partisan Department of Defense decided not to pay it in order to make an issue that didn’t exist and then the White House could swoop in and save the day by making Fisher house pay the benefit. Of course, Fisher House wouldn’t be reimbursed unless Congress had authorized the payments – which they did in the original bill that was passed earlier this week.

    I guess everyone gets a chance to act like they’re doing something to fix a problem that didn’t really exist. But, at least, Hagel can’t hide now.

    In other stupid news, “Tears” Boehner has announced that he’s ready to cave in to the president on the debt ceiling;

    After meeting with his caucus, House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans want substantive talks with President Barack Obama and Democrats on reducing the nation’s chronic federal deficits and debt in return for removing the immediate threat of default.

    Sources said the House GOP measure would extend the debt ceiling until November 22.

    Boehner said the proposal that could be voted on by the House as soon as Friday would offer the temporary increase in the debt ceiling.

    So we can through all of this shit again over Thanksgiving. Yay!

  • US cuts aid to Egypt

    The Washington Times reports that the State Department has decided to temporarily cut some military aid to Egypt;

    Foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said Egypt would “not surrender to American pressure and is continuing on its path toward democracy,” in the BBC.

    His statements came as U.S. authorities announced they would not deliver promised Apache helicopters, Harpoon missiles or tank parts — or a $260 million cash transfer and $300 million loan guarantee.

    The State Department rushed to say the suspension was only that — temporary.

    While I agree that we should start cutting aid to a lot of countries, not just Egypt, but I’m just curious why the Obama Administration wouldn’t cut military aid to Morsi government while they presided over widespread violence in the country, too. In fact, they were adamant about continuing military equipment aid to the Muslim Brotherhood government. But now that the Muslim brotherhood has been removed from the government, the administration thinks it’ perfectly fine to cut off aid. It almost seems that the Obama Administration is trying to undermine the legitimacy of the new Egyptian government.

  • GOP claims that Pay Our Military Act of 2013 pays death benefit

    The Washington Times reports that members of Congress claim that their Pay Our Military Act of 2013 that they passed earlier this week does indeed cover payment of the death benefit for the military and that the Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel is the fellow withholding funds from bereaved families;

    Congressional Republicans say the Pay Our Military Act, passed by Congress and signed by Mr. Obama on Sept. 30, authorizes such payments. The act states that it is authorizing “such sums as are necessary to provide pay and allowances to members of the armed forces.”

    And the death gratuity is listed on the Pentagon’s official list — “Pays and Allowances Summary.”

    Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The letter contains the Pentagon’s official lists of pays and allowances, and asks the secretary what other benefits he plans to deny service members in addition to the death gratuity.

    Here’s the bill as it was signed if you’re interested. It does say that;

    There are hereby appropriated for fiscal year 2014, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for any period during which interim or full-year appropriations for fiscal year 2014 are not in effect–

    (1) such sums as are necessary to provide pay and allowances to members of the Armed Forces (as defined in section 101(a)(4) of title 10, United States Code), including reserve components thereof, who perform active service during such period;

    So if the death benefit appears on the DoD’s Pays and Allowances Summary (I can’t find it so I’m not sure), it appears that it’s one of those things that Hagel decided would bring pain to a small number of people and they thought they could get away with it.

    This from Fox News;

    The House voted Wednesday afternoon to restore the $100,000 payments. But in a rapid turn of events, the Pentagon announced minutes later that it had entered into an agreement with the non-profit Fisher House Foundation to keep the payments flowing to families — without the need for congressional action.

    So, the administration appears to have fixed a problem that they themselves created, and they hoodwinked Fisher House into funding it for them.

  • Troops’ death benefits delayed by shutdown bullies

    ROS and Parachute Cutie sent us a link to Defense One which reports that the Pentagon won’t be paying death benefits to the families of those four troops who were killed in Afghanistan this past weekend until the shutdown ends;

    “We’ve had a number of people die recently and we will be able to pay them, but not until the lapse of appropriation ends,” Pentagon Comptroller Bob Hale said in a phone briefing Friday to explain Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s interpretation of last week’s Pay Our Military Act. “We’re trying to be helpful through aid societies and others to the family members who are involved in these tragic circumstances. But unfortunately, we don’t have the legal authority to make those payments.”

    Lawmakers hastily assembled the bill to keep military paychecks coming despite Washington’s shutdown — and to show Congress and the White House’s commitment to America’s troops despite their mistrust of one another. But the measure’s vague language has sown widespread confusion among active duty military and their families as to what the law does and does not cover.

    And, of course, unwilling to let a good excuse to go unused, the Veterans Affairs Department is blaming the shutdown on the backlog of claims – even though that’s been going on for years. Chief Tango sends this link to Stars & Stripes;

    The number of veterans claims pending for more than 125 days rose by 239 in the first few days of the government shutdown, which began Oct.1. In the previous 10 days, the backlog had dropped by more than 16,000 cases.

    The backlog peaked in March at more than 608,000 overdue claims, and now sits just under 419,000.

    VA officials had warned last week that the government shutdown could “reverse progress” with the claims backlog, since a number of case processors were furloughed and mandatory overtime for others was halted as a result of the budget fight.

    “Due to the government shutdown, this clear progress for veterans and their families is at risk,” the department said in a statement, which also blamed Congress for a “failure to act” to prevent the problem.

    I hear the shutdown also caused 9-11 and the Vietnam War.

    Also from Chief Tango, a link from Army Times which reports that the VA bought a $562,000 piece of art in the days leading up to the shutdown. Of course, Shinseki hasn’t responded to Congress’ inquiries on that purchase.

    So, it’s beginning to look like the shutdown is being shouldered by veterans and the military as well as balancing the budget.

  • Park Service approves immigration rally on the Mall

    You know the Park Service closed the National Mall for the government shutdown, right? You heard that? Veterans had to sneak through the Park Service barricade around the World War II Memorial. Remember that a Park Service employee told veterans who called to inquire about the status of the memorial during their visit was told they’d be arrested? A group of veterans from Syracuse had to dismantle a barricade at the Marine Corps Monument on Saturday.

    One of our ninjas sent us this link from the Washington Examiner;

    Organizers for the “Camino Americano: March for Immigration Reform” were spotted Monday setting up a stage and equipment on the National Mall for the rally which will take place on Tuesday.

    A few scattered barriers around the park have signs informing visitors that the area is closed as a result of the government shutdown.

    Susana Flores, a spokesperson for the rally, confirmed for the Washington Examiner that the Park Service will allow the event to take place under the group’s rights granted by the First Amendment.

    Oh, yeah, Nancy Pelosi is expected to attend and the Service Employees International Union is sponsoring the rally. Maybe the veterans should have told the Park Service that their group were members of Gay Witches for Abortion. Or something funny.

  • The war? That old thing.

    The Stars & Stripes reports that, even though Americans have stopped paying attention, there’s still a war going on.

    More than a decade since the U.S. launched Operation Enduring Freedom on Oct. 7, 2001, there are still 54,000 American troops in Afghanistan. That is more, by far, than at any time during the first seven years of the war, yet these days, they garner scant news coverage. Most recently, Syria’s civil war and the use of chemical weapons as well as the federal government shutdown have buried Afghanistan news, even as Americans continue to die — four were killed within a week in so-called insider attacks just at the end of September.

    “There is a bloody war happening, and no one is talking about it,” said Ahmad Majidyar, an Afghanistan expert at the American Enterprise Institute and a frequent adviser to the U.S. Army.

    The U.S. role is diminishing and casualties among members of the U.S.-led international coalition are down as the Afghan security forces take over more of the fighting. But Americans are still fighting — and dying.

    Yeah, well, who can expect us to know all of that without Code Pink stomping their angry little feet in front of the White House daily? Code pink is more concerned with helping Iran build their nuclear program and wiping out Israel than any war their President is fighting. IVAW, the anti-war group who complained daily about the war in Iraq and then shifted focus to Afghanistan when they started being irrelevant when Iraq left the front page are now more worried about Syria and poor little traitor Chelsea Manning than the 102 soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan this year.

    Public ambivalence about Afghanistan stems in part from the failures of the past few years, which, despite the surge of foreign troops, saw a sharp rise in casualties; violence remained above the pre-surge levels after the additional forces left, Smith said.

    “The short attention span of the West is such that if the problem hasn’t been solved by now, maybe they figure it’s unsolvable, which is too bad because I think what Afghanistan needs right now is continued engagement,” [Graeme Smith] said. “In a lot of ways, a lot of Afghanistan’s future depends on whether Western nations feel guilty enough about the mess they made to stay involved.”

    Yeah, well, “the failures of the last few years” happened because before the surge in Afghanistan even began, this administration was making plans to withdraw. The President wouldn’t give the generals the number of troops they asked for, despite CIA and DoD predictions that what is happening would happen, and now because the president’s compromise staffing has failed the country, failed the troops who served in Afghanistan, he doesn’t want to talk about, the pliant media follows suit, and it all falls off the national radar.

    “The mess they made” can be laid at the feet of this Administration and it’s failure to make any commitment to destroying our enemies. A scant few months ago, we were told that al Qaeda has been “decimated”, yet we see evidence of the fact 13 years hasn’t even put a dent in their activities. We were told that the drone program has limited them, but the last few weekends have been full of news of al Qaeda.

    It’s war as a campaign platform, with a real cost in lives and national security that doesn’t seem to matter to anyone. It’s a serious lack of leadership.