simple

Update, 2:30pmPDT: Mother Jones has obtained a memorandum from the Marine Corps' congressional liaison confirming that the Marine guards at the embassy in Egypt were in fact armed with live ammunition, contrary to the anti-Obama conspiracy theory du jour: The Ambassador did not impose restrictions on weapons or weapons status on the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group (MCESG) detachment. The MCESG Marines in Cairo were allowed to have live ammunition in their weapons. The Ambassador and Regional Security Officer have been completely and appropriately engaged with the security situation. Reports of Marines not being able to have their weapons loaded per direction from the Ambassador are not accurate. - The Marine Corps does not establish Rules of Engagement (ROE). Nonetheless, ROE is classified and release of that information would jeopardize the Marines and U.S. interests.

Although it was a bailout, the FDIC does not get it's money from tax payers. So the tax payers were not technically on the line. This information basically shows Romney as a shrew business man. That's perfectly fine, the question is: is that what this country needs? Who will fall on the short side and who will fall on the beneficial side?

Demonstrators hold a message during a rally to condemn the killers of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and the attack on the U.S. consulate, in Benghazi on Wednesday. By NBC News staff and wire reports Libyan authorities have made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed, the deputy interior minister said on Thursday. "Four men are in custody and we are interrogating them because they are suspected of helping instigate the events at the U.S. Consulate," Wanis Sharif told Reuters. He gave no more details. The United States and Libya has agreed to cooperate to find out who was responsible for the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador to the North African state and three other Americans died. President Barack Obama and Libyan President Mohamed Magarief spoke on Wednesday evening and decided "to work closely over the course of this investigation," the White House said in a statement. Magarief "expressed appreciation for the cooperation we have received from the Libyan government and people in responding to this outrageous attack, and said that the Libyan government must continue to work with us to assure the security of our personnel going forward," the White House statement said. "The President made it clear that we must work together to do whatever is necessary to identify the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice," it added. In Yemen, protesters breach the of the U.S. Embassy compound in the capital, Sanaa, as a wave of anti-American demonstrations sweeps across several Middle East nations. NBC's Richard Engel reports from Cairo. U.S. and Libyan officials, independent analysts and postings on Islamist websites from known militant activists suggested that the attack — which officials had previously suggested was retaliation for release of a movie critical of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad — may have been a pre-planned, orchestrated assault. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith — a Foreign Service information management officer — and two other Americans, who have not yet been formally identified, were killed. A deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya was staged by militants who set the building on fire. NBC's Richard Engel reports. Destroyers sent to Libya coast A U.S. official told Reuters that the U.S. military was moving two destroyers toward the Libyan coast, giving the Obama administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets. Timeline: Political fallout from the attack on diplomats in Libya The military is also dispatching a Marine Corps anti-terrorist security team to boost security in Libya, and Washington has ordered the evacuation of all U.S. personnel from Benghazi to Tripoli. An unnamed senior U.S. official told the AFP news agency that U.S. officials suspected the attack on the consulate was a well-planned assault by militants rather than a rampaging mob.

Mitt Romney and Bain & Company A bail-out for Romney? Aug 31st 2012, 17:57 by R.L.G. | NEW YORK DID Mitt Romney extort the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation into taking a $10m loss in a bail-out of Bain & Company, the consulting firm he once worked for? That's the case that Tim Dickinson makes in a Rolling Stone article that should give the Romney campaign jitters. Bain & Company is a consulting firm, which in the 1980s spun off a private-equity firm, the similarly named Bain Capital. Mitt Romney became the head of the new private-equity company. Many of the founders of the original consulting firm (including Bill Bain, pictured with Mitt) cashed out some of their stock in Bain & Company to put it into Bain Capital. But a series of unlucky shocks (a scandal, and the 1989 recession) put the original Bain & Company (cash-poorer, since its stock had been depleted) on the financial ropes. Mr Romney was called in to revive the consulting firm. Which he did in successful fashion, according to the story known publicly so far. But Mr Dickinson, through a Freedom of Information Act request, got documents showing how Mr Romney forced Bain & Company's creditors to accept painful "haircuts" on their loans to the consulting firm. The federal government was involved, because one creditor bank had been taken over by the FDIC, an arm of the federal government that assures depositors aren't devastated when banks go bust. Somehow, a strange clause had been inserted into the banks' agreements with Bain & Company: "Bain had inserted a poison pill in its loan agreement with the banks: Instead of being required to use its cash to pay back the firm's creditors, the money could be pocketed by Bain executives in the form of fat bonuses—starting with VPs making $200,000 and up. "The company can deplete its cash balances by making officer-bonus payments," the FDIC lamented, "and still be in compliance with the loan documents."What's more, the bonus loophole gave Romney a perverse form of leverage: If the banks and the FDIC didn't give in to his demands and forgive much of Bain's debts, Romney would raid the firm's coffers, pushing it into the very bankruptcy that the loan agreement had been intended to avert." According to the article, the FDIC-run bank was due $30.6m from Bain & Co. If the consulting firm went into bankruptcy, the bank could expect as little as $3m, since consulting firms have few tangible assets (office equipment and the like) to sell in a bankruptcy. Because Bain & Company's odd agreements with the bank would allow the firm to pay out bonuses before creditors could grab its assets, the Bain people (led by Mr Romney) were holding all the cards. Indeed, Mr Romney made good on his threat: senior executives at Bain & Company did start getting big bonuses as the negotiations were ongoing in the early 1990s. In the end, says Mr Dickinson, "The FDIC agreed to accept nearly $5 million in cash to retire $15 million in Bain's debt—an immediate government bailout of $10 million." At the heart of this story is a strange fact: that banks lent Bain & Company money with a provision that would allow Bain's top people to raid the cash-kitty before any liquidation forced by bankruptcy. But the FDIC document (see image) seems to confirm that this is the case. If the story is not fatally undercut by subsequent reporting or the Romney campaign's explanations, it should harm the Romney campaign. The fact that the taxpayer was not directly on the hook (the FDIC is funded by member banks) softens the story's sting—and probably makes the word "bailout" a stretch. But the FDIC's job is shoring up banks, not consulting firms. Mr Romney thought that Detroit carmakers should be allowed to go bust rather than getting federal help. Paul Ryan said this week "We will not spend four years blaming others; we will take responsibility." The tea-party movement began in 2009 when Rick Santelli, a financial reporter, decried "losers" getting money from hard-working Americans because those losers had overextended themselves on their home purchases. If Bain & Company was just such a "loser" with too big an appetite, and got a handout to keep its loans above water, Mr Romney has some awkward explaining to do. And "it was perfectly legal" will not do the trick. "Legal but stomach-turning" is all too common in American finance these days. Mitt Romney can ill afford to be more closely associated with dealings like that. Update: The Romney campaign has responded to say that Mitt Romney rescued Bain and Co without a single taxpayer dollar, by bringing everyone - the founders and the creditors - together to take tough steps to save the firm. A campaign source notes that Mr Romney had nothing to do with writing the original loan covenants that allowed paying staff before creditors. Mr Romney was at Bain Capital when the agreements were made, before he returned to Bain & Company. It's also worth noting that Bain & Company remains a prestigious and successful consulting firm to this day. In other words, running into a cash crunch didn't necessarily make Bain a "loser". This leaves the political question of how to distinguish (beforehand, with imperfect knowledge) a loser from a troubled entity worth saving. Had Bain & Company gone into bankruptcy, it's unclear whether it would have re-emerged. Mr Romney's hard bargaining kept Bain from having to face that question. And perhaps only time will tell whether the Making Home Affordable programme or the GM bail-out were more like the Bain example (keeping worthy but troubled borrowers alive), or were cases of temporarily resuscitating terminal cases that should better have been left to the bankruptcy system. Entire Story Rolling Stones

Certainly no attempt to rundown, just posting news reports from 9/11 commission.

These are things you want to believe Dive... Romney said kin to apology for political reasons.

He doubled-down when he could have just released another intelligent statement. He's desperate to make a difference in the election.

"Kept us safe"....... after 9/11? Something wrong with this picture? What are you thinking to simply follow along without processing information within your own mind? He, Bush, ignored reports that Bin Laden had imminent terrorists intentions within the United States. Kept us safe, thats too desperate of a party stretch don't you think? Obama have incapacitated more terrorists without casualties than any other president, including W. Doesn't sound apologetic. Apologetic is a unilateral statement and that's what Romney's campaign is riding on. Buzzwords: Kept us safe

I don't think you will see any Liberal deny Obama caused the incident.

Dogz, what did Obama say, what are you speaking of?

There's NO criticism in the article.

Romney stands by criticism of Obama over Cairo attack response Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/12/romney-stands-by-criticism-obama-over-cairo-attack-response/#ixzz26GzcJBzZ Mitt Romney on Wednesday stood by his criticism of the Obama administration for its early response to the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, even as he and President Obama mourned the murder of four Americans including the U.S. ambassador in a separate attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Romney said the administration's initial response to the attack in Cairo was "akin to apology" and a "severe miscalculation." Both assaults were linked to a video being promoted in the U.S. that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo at first issued a statement saying, in part, that it condemns "the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims -- as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions." The Romney campaign issued a statement overnight calling that response "disgraceful," prompting criticism from the president's campaign. The Obama campaign accused Romney of launching a "political attack" as reports were first surfacing that one American had been killed. By Wednesday morning, the death count was at four. Romney, as he condemned the "outrageous" Libya attack during a stop Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla., did not back down from his criticism of Obama. "I think it's a terrible course for America to (issue) an apology for our values," Romney said. "An apology for America's values is never the right course." The Obama administration reportedly disavowed the Cairo Embassy statement, but Romney said Wednesday that "the embassy is the administration." He said the disavowal "reflects the mixed signals they're sending in the world." Romney went on to critique Obama's overall foreign policy, calling it a "hit-or-miss approach." Romney and his surrogates have been stressing foreign policy after the president, in his nomination address last week in Charlotte, called Romney and running mate Paul Ryan "new" to the issue. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/12/romney-stands-by-criticism-obama-over-cairo-attack-response/#ixzz26Gz2gSmC

All the reports including testimonies, from Condoleezza Rice and others, regarding PDBs reporting a potential strike and sleeper cells in the U.S. during 2001 and that's all you have to say? Read the actual 9/11 Commission Report.

Buzzword: Work What We Learned and When We Learned It By Andy Borowitz Published: April 18, 2004 In the summer of 2001 the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, was running around with his hair on fire. When told that Mr. Tenet's hair was on fire, President Bush replied, ''I'm tired of swatting flies.'' The president added that the only thing worse than swatting flies was shaking trees. ''You can swat all the flies and shake all the trees you want, but it still won't be a silver bullet,'' the president said. As August wore on Mr. Tenet's hair blazed out of control. Mr. Bush received a President's Daily Brief, or P.D.B., entitled, ''Fire in Tenet's Hair May Spread to His Eyebrow.'' Unfortunately, the P.D.B. gave no precise information about when the fire might spread, or to which eyebrow. It was a ''historical document,'' written on yellowing parchment in fancy, ''Old English'' lettering. Besides, as the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, pointed out, Mr. Tenet's hair had been on fire since the early 1990's. ''Our policy toward the fire raging on George Tenet's head was by and large the one we inherited from the Clinton administration,'' Dr. Rice said. ''It was a policy of containment.'' By mid-August Mr. Tenet complained that having his entire head engulfed in flames was making it difficult for him to connect the dots. President Bush said that connecting the dots was a waste of time, right up there with swatting flies and shaking trees. The president asked Mr. Tenet to investigate whether there was a link between his burning hair and Saddam Hussein. Specifically, Mr. Bush asked if Saddam Hussein might have ''snuck up'' behind Mr. Tenet's head at some point with a book of matches or a Bic lighter. Mr. Tenet said that, to the best of his knowledge, Saddam Hussein had been nowhere near his head. ''Wrong answer,'' said Mr. Bush, leaving for his ranch in Crawford, Tex. Entire Story... WASHINGTON— DURING her appearance last week before the 9/11 commission, Condoleezza Rice and her questioners dipped into the peculiar lexicon of national security circles. For those who don't eat P.D.B.'s for breakfast, here are a few terms and their debatable meanings: SWATTING FLIES -- Acting against the minor players, without inflicting damage on their base or leadership. Ms. Rice said President Bush wanted a comprehensive strategy against Al Qaeda, because he did not want to respond to each individual attack. ''He told me he was 'tired of swatting flies,''' she said. One commission member, former Senator Bob Kerrey, retorted: ''Can you tell me one example where the president swatted a fly when it came to Al Qaeda prior to 9/11?'' ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE -- In the debate over whether the administration had enough early warning to prevent the attacks, Ms. Rice expressed her distress over reports that ''something very, very big is going to happen'' when the lack of specifics made action virtually impossible. Entire Story... Lot of information on warnings of an attack in May leading up to September.

What does that relate to in new spending (trillions) since elected?

Okay, now that's blind humor. Don't be so naive to think these are Liberal charts. They are gathered from different sources and only show how federal dollars have been spent and under which administration. Also show where spending originated if you can follow charts instead of rhetoric the charts will help only if you're TRULY interested. Citing a quick search for rhetoric oppose to diving in for facts is oppressive to the mind.

Rico, Chart may show you how spending crossover into other administrations. The expenses are grouped under the new President as spending but they are not actually "New ordered spending" but already committed spending.

Look, although we're talking others are included as well. My statement is for those for who it applies. Quote good enough for you, EXCELLENT as I stated earlier.

No bud, I think it may have been associated with Ron Paul delegate. Don't remember.

Snots, what kind of fragmented comments are these? Hear you loud and clear with the NeoCon views. November 6th.

We didn't see the meeting in action. We saw the voting process. We didn't see the change of verbiage or if there were different versions of the verbiage offered. So I stood on the ground that there may have been more to the voting than I have seen. Nevertheless, speaker had no choice, Democrats was changing the verbiage regardless and I don't see a problem with that. Who created the platform verbiage? I don't think this was the original group of delegates. GP statements are correct. I also heard there was a voting at the RNC as well that had the same results. BTW: First saw Obama in 2004, read both books and followed his career. Don't always agree with his decisions but I must be aware he has more details than I do. You guys talk about the cowardliness of fly-by negs without leaving a comment; I'll take this pounding above.

Yes, I've seen a few states like so.

Referring to the article, title and Uncirculd comment. Keep it real. +1

Your educated choice Uncirculd. Read a small article, make a big decision. Way to go!

What an idiot - Oh, not you Cris, justsan . Although you don't holdback your unripe expressions and respect to the White House. I'm not sure why I even replied. November 6th little guy.