On September 11, 2001, nearly 3000 innocent Americans died due to the greatest attack on American soil ever seen. Later, over 60 others were killed at various embassies.
So what does Dick Cheney, who was Vice President during these attacks, have to say is the “worst disaster in his lifetime”?
Why, Benghazi, of course.
There’s no comparison!
I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit there.
My favorite is when Republicans say this is worse than the Iran/Contra scandal, yet saw nothing wrong at the time the Iran/Contra scandal happened.
Let me if I can figure this out from the information currently available…
After the Citizen’s United decision, a huge amount of new political groups popped up and claimed tax exempt status. The large chunk of these were inspired by Karl Rove and carried names like “Tea Party Against Taxes” and other such things.
The head of the IRS is a non-political position that is appointed by the President for a 6 year term. It is fairly independent of the Presidency after that. George W. Bush, in one of his last actions before leaving, appointed Douglas Shulman to be Chair, and Obama was stuck with him for his entire first administration.
When Shulman saw the doubling of applications for tax exempt status, he opened an office in Cleveland with the responsibility of reviewing them. This office then decided “Hey, you know, groups that are anti-tax probably are the ones most likely to file false claims for tax exemption.” While that is probably true, what they did next was wrong: They targeted any group with the words “Tea Party” or similar right-wing key words, looking for applications that should be denied. (And, as an aside, they did find some.)
Still, targeting groups based on the position they hold clearly violates the 1st Amendment and was absolutely wrong.
Everyone agrees on that point, including Obama, who has called the action “outrageous.”
This has not appeased the right-wing conspiracy buffs who are sure that this was an edict from Obama in the first place — as if the President decided to order the head of the IRS — a Bush appointee — to stupidly target groups and the Bush appointee went along with it without a word. And people are buying it. They’re actually believing that happened.
As we all know from the Benghazi hearings, the lack of evidence has never stood in the way of a good witch hunt.
It’s really easy. Some of our best Tea Party politicians are experts at it. If you can say these things with a straight face, you may be a Tea Partier:
“The government should respect my right to be left alone to make my own decisions! Also, abortion should be completely illegal.”
“The 10th Amendment allows for state’s rights so states can pass their own laws without federal interference, so the feds should not be telling us what our local gun laws should be. And the feds should stop states from allowing gay marriage and should prohibit New York city from enacting laws limiting drink sizes or smoking!”
“The 2nd amendment is absolute and there can be no exceptions! And we should ignore the 4th amendment’s clear prohibition against people being arrested without probable cause or the 5th’s against self-incrimination when it applies to people we don’t like, because those exceptions are perfectly allowable.”
“The government should not be telling us that we can’t have our religion in their schools. And they should do everything they can to stop this creeping Sharia law infringing upon us!”
“We have to cut the budget to save money no matter how much it may hurt. But not if it means my plane is late or that we have to stop building tanks in my district that the army doesn’t need.”
“We can’t give money to poor people, because that would kill their incentive. We need to give money to rich corporations to give them an incentive to expand and build the economy.”
I’ll stop there, but I’m sure you can think of other great examples…
COMPROMISE IS NOT A DIRTY WORD
I used to be an Angry Young Man, who believed that any sort of compromise with my core principles could not be tolerated.
Actually, I still believe that — except I’ve decided to redefine “core principles.” My core principles that will not be compromised have to do with ethics — I will not tolerate dishonesty, hypocrisy, and cheating.
But politics? Law? My marriage? Life in general? Sure, let’s work together to solve our problems.
I’ve learned, as I’ve aged and become wiser, that I’d rather work with the other side and get 50% of what I want than be stubborn and get 0%.
There are gray areas in the world. Not everything is black and white. Compromise is needed to get things done.
A lot of the arguments I get into with people over politics seem to do with this refusal to compromise; with people who see things only in black and white. (And this includes many on the left as well.)
In some ways, it is like those who strongly believe their religion to the point where there can be no compromise because that means you’re helping evil prevail. Abortion is the best example I can think of there. I am more than willing to compromise on this issue — I agree that there should be restrictions based on medical science. Those who see no gray areas will not budge.
There are also political believers who have similar ideas. They see the world also in absolutes that allow no compromise.
And, of course, you all know what’s coming. The issue that falls into that category these days is gun control. The extremists think that it is impossible to have any compromise because it’s a violation of their civil liberties as guaranteed by the Constitution. They feel that any attempt to prevent felons, terrorists or the insane from having guns is as much of a violation of their rights as throwing someone in jail without giving them a hearing.
As I’ve stated before, all rights have reasonable limitations. The 1st amendment is written about as clear as it could be (and much clearer than the 2nd) and there are many reasonable restrictions on the 1st. I agree with these reasonable restrictions, as does just about every other American, including the 2nd amendment extremists.
There are reasonable restrictions on the 4th amendment concerning search and seizure laws. There are reasonable restrictions on the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th. And just about every American agrees with those, too.
Yet when I talk about reasonable restrictions on the 2nd, suddenly people are calling me “anti-civil rights”. This despite my entire career being dedicated to the exact opposite.
Seriously, how do you deal with these people? Well, you can’t. You can lead someone to compromise, but you can’t make them think.
Some people never grow out of the “Angry Young Man” phase of their life.
South Carolina proved how much they love the Bible and Christianity last night by electing Mark Sanford, the adulturing liar, whose slogan was “He’s still got 8 Commandments left he ain’t violated!”
You may remember him as the fellow who used to be governor, cheated on his wife, went “hiking on the Appalachian Trail” to be with his lover in Argentina, and used taxpayer money to do it all.
Upon being elected, he said “I thank the people of South Carolina for their trust.” He then wrung his hands, threw back his head, and emitted an evil laugh.
But you know, his opponent was a Democrat. A clean, honest, decent Democrat but that’s not enough for South Carolina. If Jesus himself came back as a Democrat, he’d lose in South Carolina.
This is the state, just to remind everyone, who also kept re-electing Strom Thurmond, a man who was once a member of the KKK and who fathered an out-of-wedlock child with a black woman and then never told anyone until the child was grown. Ten Commandments? Who cares, his opponent was a Democrat!
It wouldn’t be quite as ironic if they were equally forgiving, but when Bill Clinton had an affair, these same people voted to have him impeached and removed from office. So apparently the Bible only applies to the people they don’t like, and not to them personally.
“Do as I say, not as I do” is now the 11th Commandment in South Carolina.
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