TRUTHS IN SWIRLING TEMPESTS
Clouds hang over an already failed legislative branch of US government and they threaten further distraction.
The IRS targeting of political and anti Obama groups should be investigated and responsible parties should be fired or prosecuted. The federal tax man must be a neutral, even if not an always popular, bean counter and collector.
While tax law is the art of lawyers who influence the increasingly stupid members of congress to write legislation that favors those with money to hide, the IRS still should not target people because of politics. That is fascist, totalitarian, Stalinist thuggery and there should be no place for it in a Democratic Republic.
There should also be an inquiry into the Benghazi fiasco if for no other reasons than to shut up the political opportunists and more importantly figure how and why the vast intelligence and national security apparatus failed Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans who died in service to the US.
Mistakes, and miscommunication occurred and all members of the intelligence community, defense and national security apparatus need to be held accountable.
The problem of further study though is that it will only serve to excite the yapping Republican political operatives who see this as a way to damage Hillary Clinton's political chances in 2016 and cause defending Democrats to drag their feet. Mrs. Clinton already said she takes responsibility for the disaster, though an investigative panel found the mistakes were made below her level.
To date there is no evidence of a cover up, as the political wind bags allege, but there is plenty of evidence of confusion. CIA, NSC, State Department, DOD, the White House and others were horribly inefficient, poorly coordinated, and all probably have to share in the ignominy of the Benghazi incident and the follow-up reporting and communication. Was there any ass covering? Well if history is any indication, there was probably a significant amount, but covering your butt is different than a cover up.
Those who compare this to Watergate should have their tongues locked. Watergate was a political dirty tricks operation, part of a sabotage of the electoral process, that involved a failed burglary, and then blossomed to where pay-offs were shuttled, lies were told, Justice Department people were fired, and it was all run out of the White House. That was a cover up! Benghazi was a screw up.
Failed management, failed security, failed reaction, failed mission are all worthy of inquiry, but as noted, going down this road will no doubt create another side show in the embarrassing and deplorable environment that has become the US Congress. Both parties have much to be ashamed of, but don't you get a sense these fools are beyond embarrassment?
So now we have another circus or two to further delay
responsible action on fixing our national economic security, improving education, caring for a decaying infrastructure, getting out of idiot wars, strategizing for a clean energy future, truly regulating the untouched criminal class of investment bankers and financiers, and preventing what appears to be the entrenchment of a new gilded age. Gilded ages never end well.
The world, and our enemies have changed, but the fools on the hill continue to play the cheapest and pettiest of games, bought and sold by money politics instead of national interest. Our interests in Benghazi and the IRS flap should simply be the truth, not political gain.
Excuse me, I think I'll tune out and take a walk.
ALONE AT THE SHORE
Between Cambria and San Simeon
