Age of Aquarius

Althouse: "It's all about the Republicans' political ambitions. That's the spin. That's what they have."
Minuteman: "Their gist - the White House won't be distracted by these distractions and neither will the Times."
Tweet of the Day: "When your job is to carry water for the administration, everything looks like a bucket."

Crafting the YouTube video lie

Here's Michael Barone with "Benghazi and IRS targeting: Politics by other means"

What actually happened in Benghazi was out of sync with the Obama campaign line. Osama bin Laden was dead. Al-Qaida was on the run. The global war on terror -- well, don't call it that anymore.
A deliberate effort to mislead the voters was launched. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, White House press secretary Jay Carney and the president himself talked about a spontaneous protest of an anti-Muslim video -- even though no evidence of that came from Benghazi.
The White House and the State Department altered the CIA's talking points -- not just in one minor particular, as Carney claimed, but through 12 separate versions. The Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, armed with the talking points, spoke sternly about a spontaneous protest and an anti-Muslim video on five Sunday interview shows.

Remember when this preposterous lie came to light?  Suddenly it was all "let's wait for the investigation" and "the situation is fluid."  But that Sunday, the spin couldn't wait.

And what was the Commander-in-Chief's involvement?  Andrew McCarthy suggests it was the sole purpose of "That 10 p.m. phone call":

We do not have a recording of this call, and neither Clinton nor the White House has described it beyond noting that it happened. But we do know that, just a few minutes after Obama called Clinton, the Washington press began reporting that the State Department had issued a statement by Clinton regarding the Benghazi attack. 

President Checkbox said "keep me apprised of the situation" and got his rest for Vegas.

Extra - Charles Krauthammer: "Redacted truth, subjunctive outrage."

More - Stephen Hayes on the email dump: "Despite the centrality of the YouTube video to the administration’s public discussion of Benghazi, it goes virtually unmentioned in the nearly 100 pages of emails between the nation’s top intelligence and Obama administration officials as they reshaped the talking points provided by the CIA."

Also - Daily Caller: "White House's Benghazi email dump shows critical two-day gap; CIA objection."  There's a reason we're not allowed to see the first 67 hours of emails and it's surely not a good one.

Thank you for that question so I can get ahead of the damning IG report - Legal Insurrection: "IRS planted question at ABA meeting."  We're being governed by the very best.

MP3 volume level 20 = My wife is watching either Joan Rivers or Gordon Ramsey on TV.

Can't a low-level blogger get some love and/or linkage?

Look, I know I'm a bodega in the world of WalMart blogs.  But I wrote this Wednesday and then today I see this post on the super-heavy Ace of Spades:

Kimberly Strassel: Obama Set the Tone, the IRS Executed It
"Who will rid me of this troublesome Tea Party?"

GMTA or downright plagiarism?  C'mon, throw me a bone here.

"Who will rid me of this meddlesome Tea Party?"

Here's Peter Wehner with "Obama is the ultimate ad hominem President"

The president can hardly go a day without impugning the motivations of his opponents. They never have honest differences with the president. Instead they are suffering from an illness (“fever”), cowardice (afraid of what Rush Limbaugh might say about them), and lack of patriotism (caring about elections rather than future generations). Mr. Obama is the ultimate ad hominem president.

This reflex to impugn those who would disagree with the One reached its disgusting apex during the gun control debate when Obama suggested that Republicans didn't want to give him "a win."  Because it there couldn't be any other reason for their opposition, the bastards.

So on the endless campaign trail that is the Obama Administration, is it any wonder that a handful of like-minded acolytes would take the hint and seek to punish conservative groups?  After all, those small-government types have hearts as black as coal.  Obama said as much.

Adjust your expectations - If you're an avid MSNBC viewer, this report may surprise you.  If you're a Fox News viewer, not so much.  Hit & Run: "The Treasury's Inspector General Just Released a Damning Report About the IRS Targeting Tea Party Groups."  Yawn.

Legend in their minds - Reason Online: "The myth of the scientific liberal."

Media becomes the story and must cover itself

Oh, that's a deft double-entendre.  This past weekend, I wondered if the trajectory of media coverage on Benghazi meant that even the most die-hard bastions of Obama-cheerleading would have to do some actual reporting or risk losing all credibility.  Now even the ombudsman for the NY Times has said "enough".  TimesWatch: "NY Times public editor: Soft IRS, Benghazi coverage, lends credence to conservative criticism":

Many on the right – as noted last week in my blog posts about Benghazi – do not think they can get a fair shake from The Times. This coverage won’t do anything to dispel that belief.

No....kidding, Sherlock.  I've pretty much stopped reading anything linked to the Times because their editorial page is indistinguishable from White House press releases.  Now that Associated Press reporters have been wire-tapped by the Justice Department, will they stop doodling "I heart Obama" in their notebooks?  Stay tuned to the Internet.

Extra - From Commentary and Q&O.

Hillary can't believe her best buddy "Chris" is gone

Mark Steyn unloads with "The Benghazi lie":

As Mr. Hicks testified, his superiors in Washington knew early that night that a well-executed terrorist attack with the possible participation of al-Qaeda elements was under way. Instead of responding, the most powerful figures in the government decided that an unseen YouTube video better served their political needs. And, in the most revealing glimpse of the administration’s depravity, the president and secretary of state peddled the lie even in their mawkish eulogies to their buddy “Chris” and three other dead Americans. They lied to the victims’ coffins and then strolled over to lie to the bereaved, Hillary telling the Woods family that “we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video.” And she did. The government dispatched more firepower to arrest Nakoula Basseley Nakoula in Los Angeles than it did to protect its mission in Benghazi. It was such a great act of misdirection Hillary should have worn spangled tights and sawn Stevens’s casket in half.

There's an image for you.  But then what difference does it make at this point?

Detroit's economy hoping that Dr. Cox buys some more Red Wings jerseys

Hot Air: "Detroit emergency manager: We're flat broke and can't borrow anymore."  Judging by this story, there's going to be some real pain and some very unhappy public workers.

Positively Nixonian - Coming on the heels of the IRS "enemies list" we have this new development: "Justice department secretly obtained AP phone records."

Not to worry: Obama knows whose fault it is that Americans are getting cynical about government.

This is the crew enforcing Obamacare - Doug Ross: "The IRS scandal and Obamacare: yes, your private health information will be used against you."

Extra - More IRS roundup at Legal Insurrection.

Betcha by YouTube, wow

In honor of the White House's "stylistic edits" of the Benghazi memo, here are the Stylistics:

The media stirs

I can't tell if the moribund American media is finally doing their job on Benghazi or if they're being dragged, kicking and screaming.  I do find this progression interesting:

Weekly Standard
National Journal
CBS News
ABC News
The New Yorker

No wonder the White House had to gather up their loyal subjects for a "deep background" review.  When it was a Fox News and Weekly Standard story, it could be marginalized by this White House; when you've lost the New Yorker can CNN and MSNBC be far behind?  OK, well, not MSNBC.

Update - They're resorting to extreme measures now: "Smoke forces evacuation of White House press room."

Banker bashing - Megan McArdle explains the silliness of Elizabeth Warren's proposal to hold student loan rates at the same level of banks.  In short, banks get very low loan rates because these loans are held for a very short time and the banks have significant collateral.  College students are taking loans out over a decade or more and the collateral is a promise to repay and nothing more.

But then, despite what most of the hardcore commenters over on TPM or Daily Kos believe, this turd of a bill isn't going anywhere.  Harry Reid won't even embarrass himself by bringing it up for a vote.

Extra - From Legal Insurrection.

More - Coyote Blog: "I  find it  a simply astounding sign of the bizarre times we live in that a leading anti-bank progressive is working on legislative strategies to get 18-year-olds further into debt."

Nice health care system you got here...be a shame if anything happened to it - AoSHQ: "HHS Secretary Sebilus Is Extorting Money From Health Care Industry To Promote ObamaCare."

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you - In a development that is surprising for how un-surprising it is, the IRS has apologized for targeting Tea Party and conservative groups.

Hit & Run wonders if the NY Times will similarly apologize for applauding IRS harassment.  Rhetorically, of course.

Dog bites man story - TTAC: "Another DOE backed auto makes bites the dust."  Oh, well, it's only taxpayer money.

Fauxahontas knows the solution for student loan debt: more cowbell

Student loan debt has hit a record high and now outpaces both credit card debt and car loans, driven in part due to the spread of for-profit schools which disproportionately account for a large share of loan defaults.  How to address this issue?  Elizabeth Warren says let's make student loans nearly free:

Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Warren said that as her first bill, she was introducing legislation that would set the interest rate on subsidized Stafford student loans at the same rate banks borrow from the Federal Reserve.
Calling the increasing amount of student debt a "quiet but growing crisis," Warren said her bill would bring some much-needed fairness to students, while highlighting the low rates banks enjoy from the federal government.

It's the old "fairness" and "damn banks/oil companies" one-two punch that is a Warren specialty.  If only there were a recent historical analogue where extremely low interest rates caused a cycle of borrowing, rapid devaluation and default.

Extra - Prof. Jacobson: "But the principal still needs to be paid back, so unless student loan forgiveness is the next step (probably), enabling students to borrow more money cheaply in order to subsidize tuition increases makes the bubble worse."

We don't need no stinkin' badges - Hit & Run: "Justice Department Sees No Need For a Warrant To Snoop Your Email."