A Bad Piece of Work

The more the news leaks out, the worse the story of the Benghazi cover-up gets. The shocking chain of events leading up to the death of four Americans on September 11, 2012, is uncoiling like a basket full of poisonous snakes.

There are several facts that can't be avoided. The first is that one of President Obama's stories is a lie--the attack can't be a pre-planned terrorist act and a spontaneous mob reaction to a video. The second is that no Commander in Chief worthy of the title hops on his plane and jaunts off to a Las Vegas fundraiser the same day that Americans are murdered by terrorists.

A third fact, most disturbing of all, is that the president had to have known what was happening, as it happened. As the bin Laden raid proved, this is the technological era of "live feed." Yet no help was authorized for our people in Benghazi, even as they begged for it during their prolonged battle. Why not? When directly asked that question by an interviewer, the president refused to answer--twice.

Tyrone Woods, one of two former Navy SEALs who died in the attack, was disobeying orders to "stand down" when he was murdered. He wasn't going to sit on his hands while the U.S. Ambassador he was assigned to protect was slaughtered. It cost him his life, but Woods was a man of courage and integrity, and he made the right decision. Too bad his "superiors" are so inferior to him.

This president is a bad piece of work. How fortunate for the nation that the presidential election is a mere nine days away. If by some chance Barack Obama is re-elected, he faces questions that will not go away and answers that will haunt a second term--not to mention a "legacy."

Ten Reasons to Hope for Change

Last month, Hugh Hewitt devoted an entire show to “100 Reasons to Vote Against Obama/For Mitt Romney.” I downloaded the podcast and listened again, writing out the complete list.

Hugh said he came up with 100 reasons in less than an hour. The indictment includes such nasty items as the jam-down of Obamacare, the Solyndra financial debacle, and the drastic cuts to our military.

 

Choosing only ten reasons took some doing. I highlighted my “favorites” and found myself with 25 reasons. Combing through the 25 reasons, I whittled my personal list down to ten:

 

Ten Reasons Not to Vote for Obama

 

1.      The HHS attack on the Catholic Church and religious freedom

2.      The Benghazi 9/11 cover-up

3.      23 million Americans still unemployed

4.      The unelected bureaucratic IPAB of Obamacare deciding our health care

5.      The $700 billion cut to Medicare

6.      The growing deficit and debt

7.      Refusal to do a budget in three years

8.      Calling Fort Hood’s jihadist massacre “workplace violence.”

9.      Refusal to honor his Oath of Office and enforce marriage and immigration laws.

10.  The cover-up of the “Fast and Furious” Federal gun running scandal

 

All 100 reasons are valid. But there is one that resonates throughout all the other 99 reasons—“character counts.” Here’s hoping for change on November 6.

A One-Word Answer

So, Mr. President, which was it--an "act of terror" or "spontaneous response" to a YouTube video?

You can't have it both ways. The murders of our ambassador and three other Americans in the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, demand one answer. There is only one answer, and you have to choose one: terrorism or video.

Don't start rambling off-topic about how much "our diplomats" mean to you. Just answer the question. For once in your presidency, man up. It's not a hard question, and it has a one-word answer. Was the attack: a) terrorism, or b) video?

You claimed in the October 16 debate that misleading charges about Benghazi are "offensive" to you. Well, I find it offensive that you've done nothing but throw a load of baloney about this brutal and deliberate attack on America at the U.S. voters in a sorry attempt to drag yourself across the Election Day finish line.

But the timeline speaks for itself. If you won't answer the question, the facts will answer for you. Come November 6, it might be time for you to hit your own "reset" button. Not a moment too soon for the country.

An Easy Read

The only easy day was yesterday.
~ Navy SEALs motto

No Easy Day by Mark Owen (a pen name) is a first-person account told by one of the Navy SEALs who executed the Osama bin Laden mission on May 1, 2011. Although the book is close to 300 pages long, the story flies by.

Without disclosing sensitive information, Owen describes the unfolding of the mission in riveting detail. There are also many absorbing details about the daily life and inner workings of these elite warriors, their camaraderie, their professionalism, and their dedication.  

No Easy Day is a glimpse into the operations of the special warfare teams that set themselves between America and her enemies. Reading this book reminded me to be grateful yet again that we have such men standing in the breach for us during such perilous times.

A Clear Voice

Lara Logan gives a brutally honest evaluation of current U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis the Taliban and the existential threat it represents to the U.S. It's close to 20 minutes of viewing, but worth every minute. I recommend making time to watch and listen.

I think Logan merits a very rare title in the twisted world of today's media: Journalist.

Steyn on Sesame Street

If you need a chuckle this weekend, read Mark Steyn's Big Bird takedown, "Sesame Nation."


But fair warning, gentle readers: wait until you've finished drinking your morning coffee before reading it, unless you enjoy nasal irrigations.

Remembering the Guardians

"How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it." - Saint Jerome

On the Church calendar, October 2 is the Feast of Guardian Angels. Amidst the violence and hatred boiling over in the Middle East today, the angels assigned to guard our troops on the battlefield are working overtime.

Today would be a good day to pause and remember them--our troops and the angels, both.



Photo & Video: Eric Horner Ministries

The Power of Prayer

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

~ 2 Chronicles 7:14

There are 36 days to Election Day 2012. This election is worth praying about. Quite a few other people think so, too, among them Eric Metaxas, author of the best-selling book Bonhoeffer. He has suggested the idea of 40 days of prayer prior to Election Day, commencing on September 27, 2012.

It's not too late to join in. Each of us is still free to choose his or her own way of praying for our country. But I think that all believers would agree that, if ever there was a time to pray for the United States, it is now.

Conservative Celebrities

No, Clint Eastwood isn't the only one. Here's a link to the identities of 30 conservative Hollywood celebrities. Some of them are quite surprising (50 Cent? Really? Who knew?).

I would add at least two other luminaries: actor Jon Voight and producer Gerald R. Molen (whose latest movie is the unexpected hit, 2016: Obama's America).

Thief in the Night

It looks like we've arrived at the threshold. Tyranny always begins with one knock on the door at midnight. After the door is opened, the knocks grow ever more frequent until suddenly, the jackboots rule.

Read Instapundit's excellent analysis, linked here. While on the subject, ask yourself why the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is calling an obscure pastor in Florida to recommend that he rethink his inclinations to promote the infamous video supposedly causing all the chaos in the Middle East.

By the way, anyone who thinks the meltdown in the Mid-East is due to a trashy video and not to a coordinated effort by our enemies to attack the United States on the anniversary of September 11 is naive in the extreme. Naive, ill-informed, willfully blind, or all three. Check with the president of Libya if you don't believe me. The scapegoat video is serving the purpose of propping up President Obama's disastrous foreign policy. If the widespread death and destruction is all due to bad video, well then Obama's "Kumbaya" foreign policy must still be working.

But back to the unfortunate, not to mention untalented, filmmaker being hauled off for questioning in the dark of night. Ask yourself how a U.S. president sworn to protect the Constitution could so flagrantly violate his oath of office when an individual's actions are causing him inconvenience?

Perhaps a better question: Under a President Obama who never needs to face the voters again, will the exceptions to the First Amendment ever end? An even more chilling question: What evidence do we have that the exceptions would stop at the First Amendment?