Act For America: Benghazi Hearings Part 2.

FYI - From Act For America and YouTube.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Act For America: Benghazi Whistleblower Hearnings.

FYI - From Act For America/YouTube.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Senator Rand Paul to President: "Where The Hell Where The Marines?"

FYI - From The Washington Times and Senator Rand Paul.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

PAUL: Where were the Marines?

Buck stops with Obama in Benghazi security breach

By Sen. Rand Paul

Monday’s foreign policy debate between President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney was designed to help voters better understand each man’s vision for America’s role abroad. While I have publicly taken issue with both candidates on aspects of their foreign policies, there is no question that Mr. Romney remains the right choice for Americans on Nov. 6.

However, it is also clear neither candidate adequately addressed the gross intelligence failure in Libya that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. Too many important questions remain unanswered concerning Mr. Obama’s entire mishandling of the recent siege of Benghazi.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask the questions Americans want answered.

The first and most pressing question for Mr. Obama remains: Where the hell were the Marines?

Two of the most potentially vulnerable or dangerous American embassies are in Iraq and Libya. In Iraq, we have roughly 17,000 people guarding our ambassador. Not all of them are Marines, but some several hundred are, and they guard our ambassador behind a 10-foot-high walled fortress. In Iraq, we cannot afford to take any unnecessary risks with our diplomats and go to great lengths to ensure that there are plenty of armed personnel between our representatives and any potential threats.

In Libya, there were no uniformed Marines guarding our ambassador. Originally, there was a 16-person security team led by Col. Andrew Wood, who had requested to stay in Libya. In July, Stevens sent memos to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requesting an “extension of tour of duty (TDY) personnel.” Stevens was referring to Col. Wood’s 16-man team, which was scheduled to leave in August.Stevens requested on Aug. 2 — just six weeks before his murder — to keep security personnel in Libya “through mid-September,” calling the conditions there “unpredictable, volatile and violent.”

Col. Woods has also said that he repeatedly requested to remain in Libya because he felt both the environment and the ambassador were unsafe. Now, after the tragic fact, no one knows what happened to Stevens‘ original request.

Why was the security team that both Stevens and Col. Woods requested sent home? Who made this decision?

What happened to the plane, Mr. President? There was supposed to be a DC-3 available to help people get out of Libya or to travel around the country as needed. But that plane was taken away on May 4. On May 8, just four days later, the State Department spent $108,000 on a new electrical charging station to “green up” our embassy in Vienna.

You have to ask: Was this “green” initiative more important than the security of our embassy in Libya? We spent about $1 million on electric cars to make a political statement in Vienna, but we somehow couldn’t find the time or resources to have just one Marine guarding our Libyan embassy, much less a much-needed 16-man personnel team. We spent $100,000 on an electric car-charging station to show Vienna how green we are, but did not keep a plane in Libya that could have been instrumental in transporting our own diplomats to safety.

The president now says the buck stops with him. Fair enough. So, President Obama, again: Where the hell were the Marines? Where was the plane? Saying the buck stops with you sounds good, but you have to follow through.

We’ve seen this kind of government incompetence before.

Once the initial shock and horror of Sept. 11, 2001, began to subside, the finger pointing commenced. Everyone agreed that our intelligence had failed — massively — but no one would claim responsibility for this failure. Reports of possible terrorist attacks had been repeatedly ignored, including the FBI turning down search warrants from their Minnesota branch that could have potentially provided us valuable information.

Still, after the worst terrorist attack in American history, no one was held accountable.

In 2001, 3,000 innocent people lost their lives — but not one government bureaucrat lost his job.

The siege of our embassy and the murder of our diplomats in Benghazi should never have happened. But these events did happen, and this administration continues to be reluctant to give us answers and provide accountability.

As a member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, I am calling for hearings and a full investigation into what really happened in Benghazi, how our intelligence failed and how, ultimately, we failed to protect our own people.

What happened in Libya was inexcusable. I’m tired of hearing too many government officials make too many excuses. Those responsible must be held accountable and those at fault should be fired.

The president now says, “The buck stops here.” It’s time for him to prove it, and if he won’t, it is time for Congress to do its job and get to the bottom of it.

Sen. Rand Paul is a Kentucky Republican.

Read more: PAUL: Where were the Marines? - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/24/where-were-the-marines/#ixzz2AMSdgv7N 

The Buck Stops Here! - President Obama MUST Take Responsibility For Libya!

FYI - From Tim Shoemaker/CampaignForLiberty.org.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

“The Buck Stops Here”

by Tim Shoemaker 

The tragedy in Libya on September 11, 2012 with the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens has the makings of a political firestorm this fall. The event has resulted in a spirited House Oversight hearing(while the rest of Congress is out campaigning), generated accusations of a cover-up, exposed questionable “intelligence,” and spawned a myriad of unanswered questions regarding embassy/consulate security, and the State Department’s prioritization of funding (the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria received funding to “go green” while the consulate in Benghazi was denied requests for additional security personnel).

From the beginning, the administration’s response was muddled – first blaming a poorly made YouTube video negatively depicting the prophet Muhammad for inciting riots, before eventually admitting it was an act of terrorism.

Now, in an effort to deflect blame from President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN that she takes responsibility for what happened in Benghazi.

Perhaps that’s honorable; but what about Truman’s famous motto: “The Buck Stops Here”?

In Truman’s farewell address, he stated poignantly, ”The President–whoever he is–has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”

Others will probably remember Bush’s less eloquent way of putting it, “I’m the decider…”

The President has to be held accountable for the decisions and actions of his subordinates, particularly when he was citing bad intelligence about the YouTube video inciting anti-American violence at the United Nations. It’s bad enough the nation’s chief diplomat, Susan Rice (U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.) took to the Sunday talk shows blaming the YouTube video nearly a week after the tragedy, but when the President does it? That’s on a whole new scale.

National-security correspondent Eli Lake wrote on September 21 – ten days after the attack – that the official story was falling apart. By the 26th, he published a story citing anonymous intelligence officials who told him evidence showed within 24-hours that these were terrorist attacks organized by an al-Qaeda affiliated organization. Last Monday he wrote about a cable sent from Chris Stevens on the day he died. Most notably, it did not contain any mention of the YouTube video, or any planned protests at the consulate — as Lake points out, two key points of the official story.

At some point, the Obama Administration must be held accountable for what happened in Libya, come clean, and tell the American people the truth.

In the end, President Obama must take responsibility for the actions of his administration. The buck stops at his desk.

UPDATE: This afternoon, Obama’s campaign spokeswoman told Fox News that President Obama “takes responsibility for the safety and security of all diplomats serving overseas.” It’s one thing to have your campaign staff take responsibility for you… I’d still prefer to hear it from the President himself.

Interestingly enough, the President had that opportunity this morning, but walked away from reporters in silence.

TN Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander vote to give your money to America's enemies!

FYI - From the Tennessee Republican Liberty Caucus and the Tennessee Campaign For Liberty.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Can you believe TN Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander just voted to give your money to America's enemies!?

That's right! 

Believe it or not Tennessee Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander voted last week to continue giving American tax dollars to the governments of Egypt, Pakistan, and Libya (among others). Senator Rand Paul introduced an amendment to stop foreign aid and international welfare to unfriendly governments and forced a vote on the issue. 

This aid of course goes to the Libyan rebels, which are terrorists, therefore it is not a stretch to say that Corker and Alexander just voted to fund terrorism! What's worse is that they are stealing our money through taxation and inflation in order to fund the terrorists.


Here is a detailed writeup with video:
http://tncampaignforliberty.org/wordpress/2012/10/corker-and-alexander-give-your-money-to-americas-enemies/


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www.TNCampaignForLiberty.org

Our mission is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, limited government, sound money, free markets, and a Constitutional foreign policy, by means of education, issue advocacy, and grassroots mobilization.

Rand Paul: Our System of Foreign Aid is Broken!

FYI - From RandPACUSA.com/Senator Rand Paul.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Rand Paul: Bring OUR Tax Dollars Home & END Foreign Aid!

FYI - From RandPACUSA.com/Senator Rand Paul.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Dear Friends,

Before voting to defeat my bill to stop U.S. taxpayer handouts to Egypt, Libya, and Pakistan, one of my colleagues had the audacity to say he didn't care if my bill was backed by 90% of the American people. 

Well, some of my colleagues might not care what you think. 

But they DO care about their own re-elections. 

So with your support, my hope is TV ads like the one I've included for you below will show my colleagues there's a REAL price to be paid for ignoring the wishes of the American people. 

 

In fact, today I'm happy to announce that - through next Friday - RANDPAC is holding a massive Bring OUR Tax Dollars Home Money Bomb to help run TV ads just like this in up to six critical U.S. Senate races. 

So won't you agree to a generous contribution of $100, $50, $25 - or $10 - TODAY? 

I hope you will. 

After all, if you're like most Americans, you're tired of out-of-touch politicians. 

You're fed up with being talked down to by the very men and women who've sunk our nation in over $16 TRILLION in debt. 

And for good reason! 

Congress can't even bring itself to cut four billion dollars in taxpayer handouts to countries who: 

* Look the other way while violent mobs burn our flag and chant "Death to America;" 

* Hardly lift a finger to bring to justice those who murdered four American citizens - including our ambassador; 

* Refuse to protect our embassies, and torture and imprison citizens for acting like the U.S. allies these countries claim to be. 

I know some of my colleagues brush all that aside, not caring what you think. 

But the one sure way to get politicians to start paying attention to the wishes of folks like you is to PROVE there are very real and painful political consequences if they don't. 

And after seeing politicians consistently ignore the wishes of the American people in their mad rush to ram through bailouts and Big Government schemes like ObamaCare during these past few years, I can't think of anything more important. 

So won't you please agree to help RANDPAC run hard-hitting TV ads just like the one I've shown you with your most generous contribution to the Bring OUR Tax Dollars Home Money Bomb? 

Right now, there are six big spending Democrat incumbents embroiled in tough reelection races who voted to keep sending OUR taxpayer dollars to Egypt, Libya, and Pakistan. 

And it's up to you and me to ensure that Bill Nelson (D-FL), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jon Tester (D-MT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Bob Casey (D-PA) don't get off scot-free. 

If even one or two politicians go down in defeat at the polls, it will put Congress on notice - and literally DOZENS of other Senators could end up switching their votes next time. 

And so I'm counting on your support. 

So please, agree to your most generous contribution to RANDPAC'S Bring OUR Tax Dollars Home Money Bomb TODAY! 

For liberty, 

Rand Paul 

P.S. RANDPAC just launched a massive Bring OUR Tax Dollars Home Money Bomb to pay for hard-hitting TV ads just like this to ensure six Democrat incumbents who voted to keep our taxpayer dollars flowing to Egypt, Libya, and Pakistan pay the price. 

So please, take a moment to watch the ad, and make your most generous contribution of $100, $50, $25 - or $10 to the Bring OUR Tax Dollars Home Money Bomb at once! 

Gov. Gary Johnson: Obama & Romney Are Both Wrong On Foreign Policy.

FYI - From the Huffington Post and Gov. Gary Johnson.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Libya, Afghanistan and the Middle East -- Why Obama and Romney are Both Wrong.

Foreign policy is supposed to make us safer, not get Americans killed and bankrupt us. Yet, even as we mourn the loss of four Americans in Libya and watch the Middle East ignite with anti-American fervor, our leaders don't get it.

In one corner, we have the U.S. apologists warning that -- after the murders in Libya and the attack on our embassy in Cairo -- we must be careful not to say or do anything that might hurt someone's feelings. In the other corner, we have the chest-thumpers demanding that we find somebody to shoot -- and shoot them.

I have a better idea: Stop trying to manipulate and manage history on the other side of the globe and then being shocked when things don't turn out the way we wanted. As far as what we do right now in response to the tragic events of this week, it's actually pretty simple. Get our folks out of places they don't need to be -- and out of harm's way -- and cut off every dime of U.S. tax dollars we are sending to clearly ungrateful regimes.

Let's review American foreign policy during the Bush-Obama years. Just imagine for a minute that, in 2002, President Bush granted Iran's Ayatollah one wish above all others. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Supreme Leader would have said, "Can you please kill Saddam Hussein and make sure our mortal enemy Iraq can no longer threaten us. Then, we can get about our goals of destroying Israel, building a nuke and becoming a legitimate thorn in the side of the Western infidels."

Well...

And then there are Afghanistan and Pakistan. After 9/11, going after Bin Laden and al Qaeda was exactly the right thing to do. We were attacked and we attacked back. We must defend ourselves, and we absolutely must have a strong defense. But within a few months, our troops had scattered al Qaeda like ants from a kicked anthill, and Bin Laden had set up housekeeping in Pakistan. Al Qaeda left, but we stayed -- and kept fighting a war that was, in terms of our immediate interests, over. And we're still fighting it today, ignoring the lessons learned at great cost by the Soviet Union and the British Empire.

While we're fighting a war we don't need to fight in Afghanistan, we're pumping billions of dollars into the coffers of our new best friend Pakistan -- making them the second largest recipient of our borrowed and printed dollars on the globe. When we finally found and killed Bin Laden, was anyone surprised that we found him -- you got it -- in Pakistan? And our new best U.S.-financed friends are treating the good Pakistanis who helped us find him like criminals.

Fast forward to Libya. Make no mistake, Muammar Gaddafi was a despicable human being and no reasonable person mourns his demise. But toppling dictators we don't like has not worked out very well for us. We launched hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of missiles to kill the guy, and what do we get? A Libya that cannot even keep its benefactors safe -- and may not even be trying very hard. Somebody needs to ask, and I will be that somebody: As despicable as he was, would our ambassador and three other dedicated public servants have been killed in a Gaddafi-controlled Libya? Are we safer today after launching all those missiles and killing Gaddafi? Clearly not.

In Egypt and the other blossoms of the Arab Spring, is America any safer or our interests any better served as the result of the billions of dollars we are giving away? Again, clearly not.

Oh, and there is one other matter. We're broke. We are borrowing or printing 43 cents of every one of the more than $4 billion a year we are sending to Pakistan, Libya and Egypt. And all those missiles we launched, and the war in Afghanistan are likewise being put on the national credit card. Why are we building roads, bridges, hospitals and schools half a world away on borrowed money? Don't we have those same needs here at home?

It's time to tell and face the truth: The Bush-Obama-and-now-Romney interventionist approach to foreign policy is getting Americans killed and contributing to the bankruptcy of our nation without clear sight of our national interests. By what measure is that good policy?

Gov. Gary Johnson Statement Regarding Libya Embassy Attack.

FYI - From GaryJohnson2012.com.

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Gov. Gary Johnson Releases Statement Regarding Libya Attack.

Governor Gary Johnson released the following statement regarding the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya:

It is tragic when Americans serving their country are murdered, and we both mourn their loss and honor their service.

Part of honoring that service is to ask the obvious question: What U.S. interest is being served by putting our people – and our money – in places where U.S. personnel can be killed by extremists over a video? We launched millions of dollars worth of missiles to bring down Gaddafi, and this is what we get. We hail and encourage the outbreak of an Arab Spring in Egypt, send them billions of dollars we can’t afford, — and our embassy is breached and our flag desecrated.

In Afghanistan, we continue to put our troops in harm’s way 10 years after our post-9/11 mission was complete. Why?

The airwaves are filled today with political chest-pounding and calls for decisive action. The most decisive and prudent action we can take today is to stop trying to manage governments and peoples on the other side of the globe who don’t want to be managed, get our people out of impossible situations that have no direct U.S. interest, and immediately stop sending money to regimes who clearly cannot or will not control their own countries.

Protecting America with a strong national defense and a rational foreign policy is our leaders’ most basic responsibility. But let us not confuse national security with senseless intervention where our interests are clearly not being served.