Iraqi WMDs?

Sen Durbin just threw Iraqi WMDs on the table like a old piece of dog poop to hide the odor of the horse $h!+ the Sec State has been shovelling.

And sequestration. The House Republicans are to blame for the malfeasance that led to the death of Amb Chris Stevens post hoc.

Senate Republicans getting schooled

Sitting here listening to the Senate hearing on the  Benghazi attack.

Sec State Clinton is man-handling the Republican senators. Occassionally, she lets them talk before patiently explaining to them that who attacked and why isn't important right now - preventing it from happening again is what's important.

Seems like a reasonable person might conclude that understanding the who, what, where, when and why of an event might inform efforts to prevent it from happening again.

The fact that Benghazi participants were present at the Algeria attack using Libyan weapons and led by an AQIM subsidiary who was reacting to AQIM engagements in Mali might be of some interest to the U.S. Secretary of State.

Meanwhile the Democrat Senators are helping her to run out the clock and change the subject.

One Loose Thread of Many

A lot of loose threads are blowing around in the wake of the Inauguration.


The Zombie Girls of Brooklyn by Heather Wilhelm critiques the cultural bubble foisting nihilism to us through popular entertainment in the form of the HBO slime, "Girls." I haven't seen the show, and probably never will. In the course of delivering a withering critique of the show, Ms. Wilhelm makes the larger point about how it is a vivid example of the way bad ideas are foisted upon the culture whether we want them or not. The 2nd season premier of the show garnered 1/10th the audience of Downton Abby. Nevertheless, "Girls" received 2 Golden Globes and a raft of buzz from the New York media. "It’s about how the national media and chattering classes slowly, effectively shape American culture, transmitting social mores and nihilism from a bubble that doesn’t represent most of the real world -- yet."

And so it goes.
Ms. Wilhelm's explication of Lena Dunham and the context of the show's production reminded me of FDR's Four Freedoms and Brave New World. The thread is there. Freedom from Fear, Want, etc. begets freedom from personal responsibility and loss of individual freedom entirely. We are free to do whatever we want, except think for ourselves and determine our own destiny which leaves us very little worth doing.

"This is why “Girls,” a showcase of vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake, is praised as “bold,” and why a solipsistic life, unmoored from morals or meaning, is presented as “normal” and “representative.” Unfortunately, many young people might buy it.


"With its self-referential feedback loop, casual nihilism, and refusal to take anything of value seriously, the show perfectly packages and delivers the secular, “no rules” worldview that many in the media want to sell."
Hi Ho.

"No Easy Day" for "Zero Dark Thirty"

Reuters reports, "Senate panel to examine CIA contacts with "Zero Dark Thirty" filmmakers."

"After the Senate Intelligence Committee's chairwoman expressed outrage over scenes that imply "enhanced interrogations" of CIA detainees produced a breakthrough in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the panel has begun a review of contacts between the makers of the film "Zero Dark Thirty" and CIA officials."

Dianne Feinstein is using the power of the Senate to harrass a private business because she does not approve of the content of one of its films. Apparently, the story doesn't comport with the official version of History, and so someone must pay.

That's very worrisome.

She is also pursuing the CIA and DoD executives who provided special access to classified information to the film makers... now. When Conservative legal group, Judicial Watch used FOIA requests to bring the Administration's propaganda effort to light, Feinstein didn't see any problem.

That's also worrisome, that the Central Government would secretly collude with a media company to shape public perceptions of Government actions in ways favorable to the Government and that the media company would be a willing accomplice to the propaganda effort.

 Leni Riefenstahl, you may have a job waiting for you at Sony Pictures. The film's director Kathryn Bigelow, has failed to accurately present the Official Truth.

The bright spot in all this is that they are eating their own. Bigelow is a slavish acolyte. Sony is a Corporate Crony. Dianne Feinstein demonstrates once again what a hypocrite she is and that she values her vision of Truth Justice and the American Way higher than Freedom of Speech, Constitutional limits on Government AND National Security. Michael Morell, acting CIA chief, no doubt estimated that his obedience in putting the president's appetite for adulation above his duty to National Security would make him a lock on the top job at CIA after Petreus took his fall. Now Feinstein will most likely make him the fall guy in this. Maybe she'll pull Bradley Manning out of prison to take the job.

I should be worried that our National Leaders are this venal and incompetent. But I think that is the only guarantor of our freedoms we have left.