Rudy Giuliani: There Is No More Time Left To Revive Our Great Country

I hope those folks who were interested in watching the first night of the RNC Convention from Cleveland did so without the filter of network or cable news channels.  I don’t need network news anchors’ to tell me what I’m seeing and hearing and I’m certainly not willing to listen to the foolish pundits on cable.  I opted to watch the convention on C-SPAN.

“Make America Safe Again” was the theme for the first night and one speaker chosen to touch on this theme was Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith who was one of four Americans killed in the hours-long embassy attack in Benghazi.  As the delegates listened to the pain in the grieving mother’s voice, the cameras panned the floor of the convention capturing the tears shed by so many as she angrily declared that she “personally” blamed Clinton for her son’s death.

"In an email to her daughter shortly after the attack, Hillary Clinton blamed it on terrorism," said Smith.  "But when I saw Hillary Clinton at Sean’s coffin ceremony, just days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible.  Since then, I have repeatedly asked Hillary Clinton to explain to me the real reason why my son is dead. I’m still waiting."

The Hill reported MSNBC's Chris Matthews was asked for his reaction to the speech:

"I don't understand why the Republicans would choose to put this on prime-time television when they have such wonderful stories of American heroism to speak to the American people.  I think it was wrong.” 

"I don't care what that woman up there, the mother, has felt," he continued. "Her emotions are her own. But for the country in choosing a leader, it's wrong to have someone get up there and tell a lie about Hillary Clinton. It's not true. It's logically not true. I think it's wrong that they ruined their evening with this." 

For me, the most powerful moment in the convention’s first night was the speech given by “America’s Mayor”, Rudy Giuliani.  I bear no shame in saying that I rose to my feet hearing his impassioned words.  Here are some excerpts from his speech.  (The video is embedded below in case you missed it.)

“In the last seven months, there have been five major Islamic extremist terrorists attacks on us and our allies. We must not be afraid to define our enemy.” 

“It is Islamic extremist terrorism. I did not say all of Islam. I said Islamic extremist terrorism.” 

“Failing to identify them properly maligns decent Muslims around the world. It also sets up a fear of being politically incorrect that can have serious consequences. And it has.” 

“This is why our enemies see us as weak and vulnerable.” 

“To defeat Islamic extremist terrorism we must put them on defense. If they are at war against us—which they have declared—we must commit ourselves to unconditional victory against them.” 

“This includes undoing one of the worst deals America ever made—Obama’s Nuclear Agreement with Iran that will eventually let them become a nuclear power and put billions of dollars back into a country that the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism.” 

“It was Hillary Clinton who advocated for the overthrow of Qaddafi in Libya. Now Libya is in chaos. Hillary Clinton is accountable for this and much more.” 

“Her dereliction of duty and failure to keep her people safe played a major role in the horrific Islamic terrorist murders on September 11-12, 2012 in Benghazi which claimed the lives of four brave Americans; our Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and CIA agents Tyrone S. Woods, and Glen Doherty.” 

“And Clinton, and the Obama administration, for political reasons lied about the purpose of the attacks including her lying directly to the families of those who were killed.” 

“Hillary Clinton’s answer to Congress about the death of these four brave Americans because of her failures as Secretary of State was ‘what difference at this point does it make?’” 

“Watch the video for yourself and see the arrogant disregard for American lives lost unnecessarily. Make up your own mind.” 

“Anyone who can say that it makes no difference how or why people serving America are killed, should not be entrusted with the awesome responsibility to protect them and us and should not be allowed to be our Commander-in-Chief.” 

“She is in favor of taking in Syrian refugees even though the Islamic state has told us they are going to put their operatives in these groups so they can carry out terrorist acts against us and our allies.” 

“We can’t afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.” 

“Hillary CIinton’s experience is the basis for her campaign. Well, Hillary Clinton’s experience is exactly the reason she should not be our president.” 

“There is no more time for us left to revive our great country. No more time to repeat our mistakes of the past.”

Hillary's Haunting Past

The Genius of '13 Hours' Is in the Stories It Doesn't Tell

Many critics of Michael Bay's new movie claim that the story is too simple.  And they're half right.  It is simple.  But its simplicity is also its genius.  For the politically charged Benghazi story, laying it all out would have been ruinous.   A far more artistic approach is to tell the heroic part of the story and let the scandalous parts be revealed by the characters who are only there in the background or not at all: the shadow characters.

And there are plenty of shadow characters in this story. If you don't want to know who they are, kindly avert your eyes. There be spoilers here.

Unlike countless Hollywood productions that preach endlessly about the heroism, goodness and great hair of Democrats and the evil of Republicans, the new Michael Bay film is subtle about its preaching.  Sure, it's unapologetic in its lionization of the men who protected the Benghazi diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in 2012.  But, you have to pay attention to see anything at all about politics or the identities of the real bad guys.

And, yes, that makes the film subtle, even though 'subtle' is the single most fought-over fighting word of all the reviews of the film.  Disapproving critics, like these monkeys here, here, here and here, fell all over themselves to snarl the word 'unsubtle' as their favorite pejorative.  That's not surprising at all from folks whose favorite Presidential administration prizes 'nuance' above anything else, even when they fail spectacularly at it.  But many, many others saw it pointedly otherwise: some even called it both "subtle and nuanced."

Like John Nolte, at Breitbart, I believe that Bay's subtle handling of the blame-storming is far more effective than outright mocking of the guilty parties.  The only thing that could be even more effective in validating everything in Mitchell Zuckoff's book (the basis for the movie), would be if the 20-something staff of Vox.com wrote a condemnatory review that revealed the 'truth', using their vast experience in North African warfare and firm grasp of history, and explained how the seasoned veterans who were actually there were all wrong about everything that happened.  Oh, wait.  They really did that.  Imbeciles.

There, Hillary! Fixed it For You!

Curmudgeonly Cartoon: Foggy Bottom’s “Emailghazi”

Liar, liar pantsuit on fire.

The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, impressive control over limiting access to her message archives. It also would distinguish Clinton's secretive email practices as far more sophisticated than some politicians, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were caught conducting official business using free email services operated by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

“it was a planned maneuver to give the Clintons more control over their electronic correspondence.”

Curmudgeonly Cartoon: New York Times Cooks Hillary’s Goose; Time To Circle The Wagons

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.

Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.

Read the rest of the story here.

This NYT -Hillary story is a testament how @TGowdySC is running the Benghazi committee -it's been a serious endeavor, credit where it's due
— Jackie Kucinich (@JFKucinich) March 3, 2015

CNN Cow Put Out To Pasture After 27 Years

Veteran newsfatso Candy Crowley is leaving CNN after 27 years.  "I've done a lot of politics," said Crowley, "and I still love it. Not who wins or who loses, but who they are."

Actually, she does care who wins.  The incident that most notably comes to mind is when she willfully ignored agreed upon presidential debate rules and ran interference for The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer when he claimed the Benghazi attack was an act of terror.  He did not.

A source with knowledge about the network’s thought process said CNN President Jeff Zucker had the behemoth “on the short list to be gone from the beginning,” according to Betsy Rothstein at The Daily Caller.

Rothstein notes that Crowley was “too old and fat” and didn’t “go along with the direction of going for a younger audience.”  Rothstein cited CNN insider gossip:  “Heard Jeff would rather split the cost and have a younger blonde cover politics to compete with Fox News.”

I think Zucker just got fed up (no pun intended) with her eating the network out of house and home.