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Subscribe to RSSPresident Barack Obama calls the attacks on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice "politically motivated" and says they are unacceptable.
President Barack Obama on Sunday called security issues that led to the deaths of four Americans in the Benghazi consulate attack "a huge problem," although he continued to defend U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as a victim of political scapegoating by Republicans who have suggested an administration coverup of the situation.
"We're not going to be defensive about it," Obama said of the State Department review of the attacks during an exclusive interview on NBC's Meet the Press. "We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem. And we're going to implement every single recommendation that's been put forward."
Saying that some State Department officials "have been held accountable," Obama said that the review of the September 11 attack showed there was "sloppiness" in terms of security measures but that mistakes were not intentional.
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, President Barack Obama tells David Gregory he's optimistic the fiscal cliff can be averted, lays out the goals for his second term, and also discusses the Benghazi attack and how it was handled by the administration and those on Capitol Hill.
But he defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who withdrew from consideration to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after Republicans vigorously opposed her for her role in discussing the attacks after the raid.
"She appeared on a number of television shows reporting what she and we understood to be the best information at the time," Obama said. "This was a politically motivated attack on her. I mean, of all the people in my national security team, she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi."
Obama indicated that intelligence officials have "good leads" as to who carried out the attack.
"With respect to who carried it out, that's an ongoing investigation," he said. "The F.B.I. has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly. We have some very good leads, but this is not something that I'm going to be at liberty to talk about right now."
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Today we face a dependency on government largesse for
almost every need. Our liberties are restricted and government operates outside
the rule of law, protecting and rewarding those who buy or coerce government
into satisfying their demands. Here are a few examples:
entitlement.
distorted by a deeply flawed monetary system.
much debate have resulted in a steady erosion of our 4th
Amendment rights.
otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American
people.
destined to end badly for us as the hatred builds for innocent lives lost
and the international laws flaunted. Once we are financially weakened and
militarily challenged, there will be a lot resentment thrown our way.
arrest American citizens, hold them indefinitely, without charges or a
trial.
a large number in Washington.
WTO trade retaliation, call the true free traders “isolationists.”
follow our orders.
are routine.
regulations and legislative mandates has been an acceptable policy.
It was a "problem"??? More like a betrayal By the trio of Rice/Clinton/Obama. Too focused on re-election to care to lend support.
Questions
Excessive government has created such a mess it prompts
many questions:
prison?
drinking of raw milk?
as legal tender as mandated by the Constitution?
repatriating their gold held by the FED for her in New York? Is it that
the trust in the U.S. and dollar supremacy beginning to wane?
unnecessary to thoroughly audit our own gold?
they can buy?
American traveling by air?
life for crimes without victims—as our drug laws require?
regulate commodes in our homes?
AIPAC ?
an obvious failure and violates the people’s rights? Has nobody noticed
that the authorities can’t even keep drugs out of the prisons? How can
making our entire society a prison solve the problem?
involved in border disputes and civil strife around the world and ignore
the root cause of the most deadly border in the world-the one between
Mexico and the US?
to the Executive Branch?
policy? Could it be that the views of both parties are essentially the
same?
foreign banks and foreign central banks get bailed out in 2008 and the
middle class lost their jobs and their homes?
officials believe that creating money out of thin air creates wealth?
that government bureaucrats and politicians can protect us from ourselves
without totally destroying the principle of liberty?
wealth and liberty?
Order that gives the President authority to establish a “kill list,”
including American citizens, of those targeted for assassination?
government and the politicians who run it, rather than loyalty to the
principles of liberty and support for the people? Real patriotism is a
willingness to challenge the government when it’s wrong.
take care of their own needs, that people in government can do it for
them?
initiating violence against the people?
civil liberties?
free markets? Aren’t they the same?
personal liberty?
intellectually influence others to bring about positive changes than those
who seek power to force others to obey their commands?
gospel and preemptive wars, both of which requires authoritarians to use
violence, or the threat of violence, go unchallenged? Aggression and
forced redistribution of wealth has nothing to do with the teachings of
the world great religions.
Reserve to disseminate false information dealing with both economic and
foreign policy?
the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of
the majority?
credibility, since there’s such a disconnect between what politicians say
and what they do?
unhappiness, the fear of the future, the loss of confidence in our
leaders, the distrust, the anger and frustration? Yes there is, and
there’s a way to reverse these attitudes. The negative perceptions are
logical and a consequence of bad policies bringing about our problems.
Identification of the problems and recognizing the cause allow the proper
changes to come easy.
Too many people have for too long placed too much
confidence and trust in government and not enough in themselves. Fortunately,
many are now becoming aware of the seriousness of the gross mistakes of the
past several decades. The blame is shared by both political parties. Many
Americans now are demanding to hear the plain truth of things and want the demagoguing
to stop. Without this first step, solutions are impossible.
Seeking the truth and finding the answers in liberty and
self-reliance promotes the optimism necessary for restoring prosperity. The
task is not that difficult if politics doesn’t get in the way.
We have allowed ourselves to get into such a mess for
various reasons.
Politicians deceive themselves as to how wealth is
produced. Excessive confidence is placed in the judgment of politicians and
bureaucrats. This replaces the confidence in a free society. Too many in high
places of authority became convinced that only they, armed with arbitrary
government power, can bring about fairness, while facilitating wealth
production. This always proves to be a utopian dream and destroys wealth and
liberty. It impoverishes the people and rewards the special interests who end
up controlling both political parties.
It’s no surprise then that much of what goes on in
Washington is driven by aggressive partisanship and power seeking, with
philosophic differences being minor.
Most honest people know that Clinton does not want to testify on Benghazi. She had several weeks to testify or make a statement before she fell.
You hit the nail on the head. You'll never see these questions asked in the liberal media. Her testifying would ruin her 2016 ambitions.
She is a liar. There never was a concussion and she is trying to dupe all of us with not being able to be questioned. As with the cover up being perpetrated to drag it out until after the election, she's doing every dishonest thing possible to try and kick the can down the road so she will not face repurcussion when she announces her 2016 run for POTUS. At one time I supported her. Now I find her to be a despicable liar and just as corrupt as the one holding that office right now. I don't think she will have a snowballs chance in he11 now. Too many people have seen her true colors firsthand now, and most of us do not like having our intelligence insulted.
Economic ignorance is commonplace. Keynesianism continues
to thrive, although today it is facing healthy and enthusiastic rebuttals.
Believers in military Keynesianism and domestic Keynesianism continue to
desperately promote their failed policies, as the economy languishes in a deep
slumber.
Supporters of all government edicts use humanitarian
arguments to justify them.
Humanitarian arguments are always used to justify
government mandates related to the economy, monetary policy, foreign policy,
and personal liberty. This is on purpose to make it more difficult to
challenge. But, initiating violence for humanitarian reasons is still violence.
Good intentions are no excuse and are just as harmful as when people use force with
bad intentions. The results are always negative.
Bill Kristol and the Weekly Standard have posed a series of questions to President Obama. Obama has ducked every one:
The big missing pieces of the puzzle at this point are who denied permission for the CIA operators to rescue Ambassador Stevens when the attack started? Who denied the request for military support? Who grounded the Spectre Gunship? Who told the Special Operations Forces to “wait”?
al-CIADA COVER UP OF ROCKETS 20,000 OF THEM getting into al-Qaida hands in Syria via Libya.
The immoral use of force is the source of man’s political
problems. Sadly, many religious groups, secular organizations, and psychopathic
authoritarians endorse government initiated force to change the world. Even
when the desired goals are well-intentioned—or especially when
well-intentioned—the results are dismal. The good results sought never
materialize. The new problems created require even more government force as a
solution. The net result is institutionalizing government initiated violence
and morally justifying it on humanitarian grounds.
This is the same fundamental reason our government uses
force for invading other countries at will, central economic planning at home,
and the regulation of personal liberty and habits of our citizens.
Most honest people know that Clinton does not want to testify on Benghazi. She had several weeks to testify or make a statement before she fell.
Fell hit her head then the flu...
GUILTY AS GULF OF TONKIN
It is rather strange, that unless one has a criminal mind
and no respect for other people and their property, no one claims it’s
permissible to go into one’s neighbor’s house and tell them how to behave, what
they can eat, smoke and drink or how to spend their money.
Yet, rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that
a stranger with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and
order. Any resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests, and even
imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper search
warrant.
Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but
legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to
exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger and the breakdown of civil
society. Permitting such authority and expecting saintly behavior from the
bureaucrats and the politicians is a pipe dream. We now have a standing army of
armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of
Engineers, etc. numbering over 100,000. Citizens are guilty until proven
innocent in the unconstitutional administrative courts.
Government in a free society should have no authority to
meddle in social activities or the economic transactions of individuals. Nor
should government meddle in the affairs of other nations. All things peaceful,
even when controversial, should be permitted.
We must reject the notion of prior restraint in economic
activity just we do in the area of free speech and religious liberty. But even
in these areas government is starting to use a backdoor approach of political
correctness to regulate speech-a dangerous trend. Since 9/11 monitoring speech
on the internet is now a problem since warrants are no longer required.
The Constitution established four federal crimes. Today
the experts can’t even agree on how many federal crimes are now on the
books—they number into the thousands. No one person can comprehend the enormity
of the legal system—especially the tax code. Due to the ill-advised drug war
and the endless federal expansion of the criminal code we have over 6 million
people under correctional suspension, more than the Soviets ever had, and more
than any other nation today, including China. I don’t understand the
complacency of the Congress and the willingness to continue their obsession
with passing more Federal laws. Mandatory sentencing laws associated with drug
laws have compounded our prison problems.
The federal register is now 75,000 pages long and the tax
code has 72,000 pages, and expands every year. When will the people start
shouting, “enough is enough,” and demand Congress cease and desist.
Achieving Liberty
Liberty can only be achieved when government is denied
the aggressive use of force. If one seeks liberty, a precise type of government
is needed. To achieve it, more than lip service is required.
Two choices are available.
1. A government designed to protect liberty—a natural
right—as its sole objective. The people are expected to care for themselves and
reject the use of any force for interfering with another person’s liberty.
Government is given a strictly limited authority to enforce contracts, property
ownership, settle disputes, and defend against foreign aggression.
2. A government that pretends to protect liberty but is
granted power to arbitrarily use force over the people and foreign nations.
Though the grant of power many times is meant to be small and limited, it
inevitably metastasizes into an omnipotent political cancer. This is the
problem for which the world has suffered throughout the ages. Though meant to
be limited it nevertheless is a 100% sacrifice of a principle that would-be-tyrants
find irresistible. It is used vigorously—though incrementally and insidiously.
Granting power to government officials always proves the adage that: “power
corrupts.”
Once government gets a limited concession for the use of
force to mold people habits and plan the economy, it causes a steady move
toward tyrannical government. Only a revolutionary spirit can reverse the
process and deny to the government this arbitrary use of aggression. There’s no
in-between. Sacrificing a little liberty for imaginary safety always ends
badly.
Today’s mess is a result of Americans accepting option
#2, even though the Founders attempted to give us Option #1.
The results are not good. As our liberties have been
eroded our wealth has been consumed. The wealth we see today is based on debt
and a foolish willingness on the part of foreigners to take our dollars for
goods and services. They then loan them back to us to perpetuate our debt
system. It’s amazing that it has worked for this long but the impasse in
Washington, in solving our problems indicate that many are starting to
understand the seriousness of the world -wide debt crisis and the dangers we
face. The longer this process continues the harsher the outcome will be.
Many are now acknowledging that a financial crisis looms
but few understand it’s, in reality, a moral crisis. It’s the moral crisis that
has allowed our liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth
of illegal government power. Without a clear understanding of the nature of the
crisis it will be difficult to prevent a steady march toward tyranny and the
poverty that will accompany it.