Despite suggestions from such conservatives as Charles Krauthammer and Newt Gingrich to temper their rhetoric, more than a few Republicans these days are claiming that the so-called scandals that currently beset the Obama administration are the worst in American history.
Let’s knock down that nonsense with just two examples of past scandals, shall we?
For starters, the notion that Obama’s problems are worse than Watergate hardly merits discussion. Richard Nixon, after all, needed a presidential pardon from his successor, Gerald Ford, to keep him safe from criminal prosecution.
There is no evidence that Obama has committed any crimes, much less ...
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When U.S. Marines were shown providing umbrella coverage for President Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a Rose Garden news conference the other day (see top photo above), the right-wing noise machine went into high gear.
The prevailing opinion among the Obamaphobes was that it was disrespectful of the president to have uniformed members of the U.S. military hold his umbrella.
But, of course, Obama’s not the first president to so utilize our military men, as the photo above of George H.W. Bush will attest.
Sarah Palin’s snarky comment on Umbrella-gate (“Mr. President, when it rains it ...
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Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, whose skillful way with words usually exceeds her grasp of the facts, waxed indignant the other day over four cases in which conservative activists were targeted for tax audits.
It’s a scandal, Noonan averred.
Well, piffle!
Nate Silver, one of the best numbers-crunchers extant, rebuts Noonan’s column HERE:
Ms. Noonan is surely correct that many conservative taxpayers were audited. In fact, based on some simple math that I’ll present in a moment, it’s likely that hundreds of thousands of Mitt Romney voters were selected for an audit in 2012.
However, it’s also likely ...
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A Facebook friend of mine has dug up THIS WONDERFUL STORY from four years ago:
Bill Nye [above], the harmless children’s edu-tainer known as “The Science Guy,” managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun.
As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own.
But don’t tell that to the good people of Waco, who were “visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence,” ...
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One morning back in 1977, I was having coffee with a certain prominent public official (an appointee, not a politician) whose judgment in most matters I usually respected.
Our conversation eventually turned to an upcoming local election, and this guy said he was pretty sure that Candidate A would easily defeat Candidate B. He based this prediction, he said, on the opinions he had heard from virtually all of his friends.
My own sense of the situation was that the election likely would be closer than this other guy thought, but I didn’t say so. This was an older gentleman, ...
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Most Americans are not following the controversies regarding the Internal Revenue Service and the Benghazi tragedy with especially intense interest, as we see HERE:
A majority of Americans are following both the controversy over the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi and the brewing IRS scandal – but at levels below historic averages, according to a new poll.
Fifty-four percent said they are closely following the story of how the IRS unfairly targeted conservative groups, according to the Gallup survey on Thursday, and 53 percent are closely following Benghazi. For both stories, 22 percent were following “not too ...
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Ordinarily, I like to know what’s going on in the world. But I’m glad I didn’t know about THIS:
During 10 days in November 1983, the United States and the Soviet Union nearly started a nuclear war. Newly declassified documents from the CIA, NSA, KGB, and senior officials in both countries reveal just how close we came to mutually assured destruction — over a military exercise.
That exercise, Able Archer 83, simulated the transition by NATO from a conventional war to a nuclear war, culminating in the simulated release of warheads against the Soviet Union. NATO changed its readiness ...
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The right-wing noise machine has strongly implied, and falsely so, that the Obama administration doctored government emails concerning the Benghazi tragedy.
In truth, however, it was the Republicans themselves who doctored the emails. And a gullible reporter at ABC News peddled the falsifications to the public, as we see HERE:
Last week, ABC News’ Jon Karl [above] reported on emails that he said he’d obtained, that purported to show the process involved in developing the talking points on the September 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Once CNN’s Jake Tapper actually did obtain a real email, and the White House ...
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It’s probably safe to say that many Americans think the current “scandal” at the Internal Revenue Service is about who has to pay how much in taxes.
But that’s not the case, as Steven Rattner MAKES CLEAR:
One of the bigger ironies about the I.R.S. imbroglio is that it had nothing to do with taxes. These newly formed entities didn’t seek 501(c)(4) status to avoid taxes — these groups don’t earn profits and therefore don’t pay any taxes, regardless of their status. The important benefit that came from achieving 501(c)(4) status was freedom from having to disclose the names ...
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The image above, which I ran across on Facebook this morning, is based on an INTERVIEW of three months ago with actor Bruce Willis.
And, of course, it’s pure bunk.
Willis clearly doesn’t understand what the Second Amendment really means. It means what the Supreme Court says it means, not what the firearms industry and its mouthpieces at the National Rifle Association say it means.
As I’ve pointed out here on numerous occasions, Justice Antonin Scalia, the most conservative member of the Supreme Court, put it well when he wrote the majority opinion in a case of four years ago ...
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