The Media, Politics, and Dead Americans

I was in Panera’s over this past weekend enjoying a cup of hazelnut coffee and a bear’s claw with a friend of mine. We were discussing the political topics of the day mostly focusing on Libya and the Benghazi debacle. My friend is a well informed individual, but mostly gets his news from NBC. That made the conversation difficult because as I made references to various things, he just looked at me like I didn’t know what I was talking about. He knew that something had happened there. He knew the ambassador plus three members of his support staff were killed. The immediate topic was that live streams from the drone flying above the event…watching…were being fed in the White House situation room along with real time emails from those poor souls directly involved in the attack. He didn’t know that. He also didn’t know that America had air bases in Italy with rapid response planes on stand-by which could have given support to the embattled Benghazi staff within an hour.

Sitting at the table across from our booth was a very nice almost senior lady drinking coffee solo. She looked over to us and said she couldn’t help overhearing some of our conversation and just had to speak up. The pain in her eyes was visible. She said she was in the navy when she was young, and then worked at Boeing on the west coast. She went on to say that the events in Libya had deeply disturbed her and repeated some of what I said and wondered aloud, tears swelling in her eyes, why America just sat by and let those folks die. My friend just looked at her with a blank expression. It wasn’t computing.

My friend and I joke around a lot about political issues, but lately I have come to the conclusion he is just plain uninformed and can’t draw conclusions because he doesn’t know the facts. I don’t joke around about dead Americans killed in the line of duty. He wouldn’t either, but he just doesn’t know the facts.  He gets his news from NBC and AOL online blurbs from the Huffington Post and cannot admit that Matt Lauer would tilt the news.

As the Benghazi story unfolds, it becomes more and more disturbing. The latest is downright chilling. As the Ambassador and staff were under attack, urgent requests, in real time, were sent to the CIA for assistance. CIA agents a mile from the initial attack were told to “stand down”. They ignored the order and went to the consulate and rescued survivors and retrieved the body of Sean Smith, a member of the diplomatic corps. They could not find the Ambassador. When they returned to the CIA annex, the wired Washington for military assistance as the CIA annex itself came under attack. It was also denied. They were then killed by a mortar hitting the CIA annex about 4:00 AM.  Those poor dead people requested assistance three times that night, and were denied.

While this was going on, the Situation Room in the White House was monitoring the attacks on live video from the drone, as well as the live correspondence between the folks under attack and their DC superiors. President Obama then went to Las Vegas for a fundraiser…and his staff for the next two weeks blamed an obscure video for the Benghazi attacks.

Barack Obama is who he is and will do as he pleases. It's the press that has provided cover for him in ways that are almost culpable. But for Fox News continuing to investigate the story, those watching any other news outlet would not know that anything had happened. The information was readily available to those who looked or asked. Instead, the main stream media lambasted Mitt Romney for speaking the truth right after the attacks occurred, and CNN in the form of Candy Crowley gave Obama cover in the second debate notwithstanding that we all heard the video excuse story from his UN Ambassador, his Secretary of State, his Press Secretary, and from himself both on the View and in his speech to the United Nations.

America should be outraged at the President and his tactics, but should be livid about a suppliant press that has abandoned its repsonsiblity to report the news in a fair fashion in favor of becoming a propoganda machine for an incumbant office holder.

The truth about what happened in Benghazi is ugly. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Obama decisions were political, and not in the best interests of this country or its overseas representatives. He is a liar.  In response to the latest revelations, he said the death of the those four Americans have nothing to do with this election, and he shut down a local TV interview. In the meantime, the headline on CNN’s online service this morning is a huge deified picture of Obama. The story: How the Presidency Change Obama’s Faith. Not even a major hurricane can pull CNN’s, and NBC, CBS and ABC’s noses out of his ass.

This makes Watergate look like a walk in the park. The question now, as then, is what did the President know, and when did he know it.

Vote Early! Vote Often!

So…here we are 23 days before the election. Except that here in Ohio the election has been on for over a week now. Early voting has been the hot button issue in our state this year. In addition to absentee ballot requests mailed out by our Secretary of State, you can go to the Board of Elections and vote just because. Early voting is supposed to end in Ohio on Friday, November 2nd, except if you are in the military in which case you can vote anytime as required by Federal mandate.

The Democratic Party sued Ohio in federal court claiming that the early shutdown to early voting violates the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution. The Democrats cherry picked a local Democrat appointed federal judge to pursue their endeavors and prevailed. Ohio is taking the case to the United States Supreme Court claiming that Ohio has some of the most liberal voting access laws in the Union, allowing folks to vote a full month before the election either by absentee or at the local Board of Elections. My money is Ohio will win, but who knows in this crazy world.

Early voting on its face sounds like a good idea. Who doesn’t want citizens to vote? But things aren’t always what they seem, and there are unintended consequences. Election day, by federal mandate, is the first Tuesday in November. Heretofore, campaigns were geared towards that particular day in which a collective snapshot of public opinion could be had, and our officials elected. You had to apply for absentee ballots, and needed a good reason NOT to be able to vote on Election Day.

With voting expanded out in excess of a month in certain states, including Ohio, it has complicated the process. I am familiar with both ends of the stick. For those running for office, it has expanded the need  for even larger sums of money to cover campaigns that have to be ready for voting at the beginning of October. It means lots and lots of more money. The cost of get out the vote efforts alone has jumped dramatically, particularly with the Democrats who literally hire buses to bring people to vote from their churches. The cost then expands to Republicans who intensify their efforts at nursing homes. It goes on and on.

But the bigger danger is to the country. With early voting out of control, there is no collective consensus. Those who voted on October 2nd in Ohio voted before the debates. How can these folks make an informed decision? In this election specifically, the whole problem with the Libyan raids was not even in the news in a meaningful manner on October 2nd. What if something happens and you want to change your mind? You are out of luck.

And let’s not even talk about voter fraud. In the northwest part of the country, they don’t even have Election Day voting. It is all done my mail in ballots. On its face, that is an invitation to fraud.

If for no other reason than the size of the population, I am not opposed to early voting, but not like it is being done now. For example, they could expand Election Day to two days. I would feel more comfortable if voting was not allowed at least until after the 2nd Presidential debate so folks can see what the candidates have to say. Absentee votes should be exactly what they are supposed to be. If you are sick or out of the area on election day, then by all means vote absentee…but not as a simple matter of convenience.

People can go pay their water bill and electric bill in person. People can go get their drivers license renewed. People can go out to eat. Why am I the only one that thinks people should be able to take a few minutes out of their lives over a seven day period to go vote?

Early voting is becoming a red hot button issue. Parameters need to be established at the Federal level for early voting nationwide…just so thing stay fair. Vote early and vote often is being raised to an art form.  It's time to step back just a tad.