Rush Limbaugh wants all the Republican candidates for 2016 to stop admitting that the invasion of Iraq was a failure. Instead, the mouthpiece of the Republican party wants the other members of his party to blame Obama and Democrats for the war and everything else that went wrong with the Bush-led invasion.
His advice to Republicans is to say that Democrats “attempt[ed] to divide this country by sabotaging the war effort” and “these things we’re living with today… are the result of the Barack Obama presidency.”
In other words, the mouthpiece of the Republican party want Republicans to lie about the war and its outcome. And the so-called “Christian Conservatives” will gladly accept Limbaugh’s talking point.
According to his own kids, Bill O’ Reilly dragged his ex-wife – their mother – down the stairs, unaware that one of his daughter was watching. And according to the report, his apparent abuse to his wife did not play well in a Nassau courtroom and a judge gave custody of the kids to the his ex.
Three weeks ago, a Nassau County Supreme Court justice ended a bitter three-year custody dispute between Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly and his ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy, by granting custody of the couple’s two minor children to McPhilmy. Though nearly all documents pertaining to New York family court cases are sealed, Gawker has learned that the justice in the case heard testimony accusing O’Reilly of physically assaulting his wife in the couple’s Manhasset home.
According to a source familiar with the facts of the case, a court-appointed forensic examiner testified at a closed hearing that O’Reilly’s daughter claimed to have witnessed her father dragging McPhilmy down a staircase by her neck, apparently unaware that the daughter was watching. The precise date of the alleged incident is unclear, but appears to have occurred before the couple separated in 2010. The same source indicated that the daughter, who is 16 years old, told the forensic examiner about the incident within the past year.
According to the recording, the two police officers suspected two teenage girls of “pushing a button.” It wasn’t explained what button was pushed, but at some street corners here in New York, people are allowed to push a button when crossing busy intersections.
What pissed off members of this community is the way the cops detained the girls for questioning. “He had no right putting his hand on you”, one woman is heard saying. “Call a female officer” another person said.
After the girls continued insisting they did nothing wrong, one officer, clearly irate by what was happening, grabbed the 14 year old again and attempted to manhandle her into handcuffs, but the people were not having that as the shouted at the cop, some getting between the cop and the girl, grabbing her and eventually succeeded in pulling her away from the forceful cop.
He and his partner got into an unmarked car and drove off without their prize as the crowd continued shouting.
Now that Jeb Bush is totally ridiculed by both Democrats and Republicans for saying that, given what he knows now he would still invade Iraq, other Republican presidential pretenders are jumping on the bandwagon trying to distance themselves from Jeb Bush, George Bush and the whole Iraq invasion.
Enter presidential pretender, Donald Trump. Apparently, he and Preside Obama are in one accord when it comes to the Iraq invasion.
On “Fox and Friends,” co-host Steve Doocy asked Trump about reports that the Islamic State took control of Ramadi in Iraq and whether Trump would call for “boots on the ground” following ISIL’s latest attack.
“Well, I would have never been in Iraq,” Trump answered, according to a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck later asked Trump if he thinks the U.S. should have left Iraq, given what we know now.
“We shouldn’t have been there, and once we were there, we probably should have stayed,” Trump said. “The Middle East has been totally decapitated. It’s a mess. The balance has been lost between Iraq and Iran.”
Trump then referenced Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who on Sunday struggled to explain whether the decision to invade Iraq was a mistake.
“These characters, like Rubio made a total fool of himself on Chris Wallace’s program, talking about ‘We’re better off without Saddam Hussein.’ Give me a break,” Trump said. “Right now we have ISIS, which is worse than Saddam Hussein. At least Saddam Hussein did one thing: he killed terrorists. He was very good at killing terrorists.”
Trump noted that Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
“We had very bad intelligence. He had none,” he said.
Why is this important? Because 2016 is shaping up to be a foreign policy election. Yes, there will be talk about taxing the wealthy, cutting taxes to the wealthy, what to do about entitlements and the middle class, abortion, immigration and health care, but right now, the world seems to be blowing up and countries are looking to the United States to help fix what ails them.
President Obama has wisely not gotten us involved in a foreign adventure despite calls by the hawkish neocon crowd over on the right to send troops to Syria. And Lebanon. And Iraq. And other places. Which sounds like the good-old-fashioned response that George W. Bush followed and that was a terrible mistake. And it all sounds heroic and noble until the body bags start coming back and the soldiers return with severe damage to their bodies and minds.
What 2016 presents for the country is an opportunity to be creative with our foreign policy. The Cold War has been over for more than 20 years, but the mentality remains, this time with China as the Soviets and North Korea as the Cubans. ISIS is a tremendous threat to Middle East stability, but they are alienating other countries in the region, who are showing more of a propensity to fight on their own. We can support our friends, but right now there is little reason for us to get more soldiers involved.
It will be interesting to see where the debate goes from here. Rand Paul has been championing a more isolationist foreign policy as a basic belief. Hillary Clinton certainly has the experience, but she hasn’t enunciated a specific policy yet. Can Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Rick Perry, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders come up with credible ideas? Perhaps, but I’ve come to a conclusion that’s even more true now than it was in 2004.
We should have elected John Kerry as president when we had the chance.
The 22-year-old R&B singer of the hit, “No Love,” took to his Instagram account and posted the following pic explaining he was in surgery because he is blind in his left eye and almost blind in his right.
So I have this eye disease.. Blind in my left, and losing vision in my right. In order to prevent my eyesight from deteriorating ihad to do this surgery. This shit is beyond painful & Life be throwin’ a nigxa curve balls but what I’ve gained from it all is priceless… A lot of things that are so natural to us in life (like waking up and being able to see 👀) we can take it for granted. Thank God the OG for allowing me to see.. The good the bad the ugly, I’m just glad to see.
The First Lady made a very powerful speech at the 2015 Tuskegee Commencement speech. A speech that caused much headaches for Republican talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, and for that reason alone, you owe it to yourself to watch the speech in its entirety.
Another win for America. Another win for the president many Republicans say is “soft on terrorism.”
Islamic State senior commander, Abu Sayyaf, was killed and his wife captured in Syria during a raid by U.S. Special Forces, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.
The operation in eastern Syria was authorized by President Barack Obama, according to a statement from Carter. He said Abu Sayyaf helped direct Islamic State’s oil, gas and financial operations and that his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was suspected of involvement in the militant group’s activities.
The raid comes after Obama’s meeting at the presidential retreat at Camp David with leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which has expressed concerns about the president’s policies in Syria and Iraq.
“The operation represents another significant blow to ISIL, and it is a reminder that the United States will never waver in denying safe haven to terrorists who threaten our citizens, and those of our friends and allies,” Carter said, using an alternative term for Islamic State.
Abu Sayyaf was killed when he engaged U.S. forces, none of whom were killed or injured, according to the statements from Carter and Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House’s National Security Council. Umm Sayyaf is being held by the U.S. military in Iraq, Meehan said.
We lost another legend. BB King, the man most people think about when they think of blues, died on Thursday. He was 89 years old.
His daughter, Patty King, said he died in Las Vegas, where he announced two weeks ago that he was in home hospice care after suffering from dehydration.
The Mississippi native’s reign as “king of the blues” lasted more than six decades and straddled two centuries, influencing a generation of rock and blues musicians, from Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Sheryl Crow and John Mayer.
His life was the subject of the documentary “B.B. King: The Life of Riley” and the inspiration for the the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which opened in Mississippi in 2008.
King’s enduring legacy came from his refusal to slow down even after cementing his status as an American music icon.
Even with a long list of honors to his name — a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, a Presidential Medal of Freedom — he maintained a relentless touring schedule well into his 80s.
Throughout his career, King evolved with the times to incorporate contemporary trends and influences without straying from his Delta blues roots. Whether he was sharing the stage with U2 on “When Loves Comes to Town” — a scene memorialized in the 1988 concert film “Rattle and Hum” — or playing in the East Room of the White House with Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and others, King’s single-string guitar notes trilled with an unmistakable vibrato from his hollow-bodied Gibson affectionately known as Lucille.
Recently, President Obama called out Fox News for unfairly criticizing the poor and for classifying them as lazy people who leash off the government.
In response, Fox News proved the president right by classifying poor people – many of them watch Fox News by the way – as lazy and telling them to “get a job!”
I’m always amazed when rich folks look down on the poor folks who keep the rich folks rich.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie looks on while giving his State of the State address in the assembly chamber in Trenton, New Jersey, January 8, 2013. Christie renewed his calls to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to quickly pass the full $60.4 billion Superstorm Sandy relief package, saying victims in New Jersey had been short-changed. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3C83X
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS) – RTR3C83X
It’s one thing when you have something to run on. It’s quite another when you have to run away from your record. That’s the position Governor Christie finds himself in on the eve of his long-awaited announcement that he will run for president. Most candidates have a signature issue or can point to improving conditions in their state. What can Christie run on?
There’s no New Jersey economic miracle.
His attorneys argued in court that the one significant legislative achievement of his term, a state workers pension and benefits reform bill, was, in fact, unconstitutional, which will require another round of pension cuts and significantly higher health care premiums for state workers.
Property taxes continue to rise.
Funding for education has been cut.
Businesses and the very wealthy continue to enjoy the governor’s protection from tax hikes while middle class workers have seen their wages stagnate to erode further.
He created an atmosphere of fear and contempt in his administration and hired aides who shared his vengeful attitude, which resulted in the Bridgegate scandal that is still rocking the Statehouse.
But you know what? None of this Governor Christie’s fault. How do I know? Because he said so.
On the economy, Christie is taking credit for slowly improving conditions in the state, where unemployment still lags behind the national rate. What he isn’t saying is that job growth during his tenure is 48th nationally, ahead of only Mississippi and New Mexico. His reaction?
“We inherited a wrecked ship,” he said, “and we’ve now made it sea-worthy.”
Arguable, but the bigger issue is where the Governor is steering that ship. Right now it’s going in circles and is perilously close to the rocks. The truth is that after more than 5 years, Christie’s economic plan is dead in the water. The state budget chief said as much in 2013 and Christie mocked him as a fiscal Dr. Kevorkian. And thankfully, the Democratic Legislature killed his proposed tax cut. That really would have sunk the ship. Christie now wants to take his fiscal genius to a national level. For anybody making under $100,000, that would be real suicide.
His proposed national economic plan, just released, calls for the highest tax rate to be cut from 39.6% to 28%. That’s an enormous tax break for the wealthy that will redistribute more income to the upper class and require cuts to the programs that most Americans want and that many desperately need.
As for hiring the best and brightest for his administration, the governor is now saying that he can’t be held responsible for what his aides did on his behalf. Says he:
“I obviously spent time thinking about that, because it’s an obvious question,” the governor said. “But no, I really don’t think so. I think, unfortunately, there are going to be times when people that work for me do things that are completely out of character.”
“I’m accountable for what happened because I’m the governor,” he added. “But you can’t be responsible for the bad acts of some people who wind up in your employ.”
The buck, obviously, stops…there, but never here.
My Ouija Board just spelled out, “I am not a crook.”
Governor Christie has spent a good deal of time during his term in office criticizing people who don’t recognize that he’s telling us the truth on taxes, on pensions, on the role of government and, mostly, on being responsible for our future. His hypocrisy knows no bounds.
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