Republicans are harmful to America.

                    Republicans have gone out of their way over the last 5 years to make President Obama look bad. In the process they have hurt the American people and the way the rest of the world views us. It is a party of whiners who throw pity parties when they lose and do not accept anything unless it agrees 100% with their party agenda.

They are against Immigration Reform. They subscribe to the theory that all of them should be deported. In fact Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney believed in self deportation. They do not agree with a Path to Citizenship, saying it is amnesty. Didnt Ronald Reagan do Immigration Reform somewhat like this?

Republicans have obviously declared war on women. They refused to vote for VAWA, because it protected Native Americans, among other things. State after state governed by Republicans have declared war on Reproductive Rights. One restrictive Abortion ban after another, yet there has been a grand total of ZERO jobs created by the Republican majority in the House.

Supporting banks that hurting homeowners through illegal practices. Siding with the NRA on the Gun Control issue. Railing against the Supreme Court DOMA decision, voting to repeal the ACA 37 times. Cutting funding for embassy guards then blaming the Benghazi incident on Hillary Clinton. This list of offenses against the people of the United States goes on and on.

Democrats, while not anywhere near perfect, have done a lot more for the people than Republicans. Republicans conservative agenda hurts America and every state they are in the majority. If women’s uteruses were jobs women would be safe from Republicans and their lobbyist masters.

Republicans deliberately misquote Benghazi emails to manufacture a smoking gun.

                     Last weeks leaks that misquoted the Benghazi emails came directly from Republicans. Republicans had seen copies if these emails 2 months ago and did nothing with them. Obvious to most was that the emails showed interagency haggling. Someone in the Republican party, really trying to cash in on the Benghazi tragedy, got the bright idea of leaking 2 isolated tidbits and mischaracterizing them in an effort to make the State Department, more importantly Hillary Clinton, look bad.

               But Republicans went a little to far, causing the White House, much to Republicans surprise , to release the entire email chain. It made it abundantly clear that the press had been duped and now reporters are letting the world know who was behind it. The Republican party has never been good at determining when enough was enough. When it became obvious that Benghazi wasn’t the Watergate they wanted, they desperately tried to invent something.

                On the IRS scandal, their problem is that Democrats are just as angry and are looking for answers. This has forced Republicans to dig deeper and look for more accusations in order to draw a contrast between them and Democrats. On the AP phone records, they have to dance around the fact that they not only approve of such subpoenas but voted down a bill to prevent them. The sane part of the Republican party, or the not so insane part, cannot seem to reel in the extremist parts of the party. Just listen to resident nut job Michele Bachman suggesting that its time to start impeachment precedings.

              CNN originally introduced the contradiction betweened what was revealed in the White House Benghazi email version versus what was reported in media outlets. Mother Jones noted that the Republican interim report included the correct version of the emails, signalling that more malice and less incompetence may have been at play with the alleged alterations. Simply put, Republicans did this on purpose, not by mistake.

          GOP version of Rhodes comment “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.”
           The actual White House email “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.” Quite a bit different.
            The GOP version “The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about the previous warnings provided by the agency (CIA) about Al Qeada’s presence and activities of Al Qaeda. ”
             The actual White House email “The penultimate point could very abuses by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency (CIA) warnings.” Another one quite different, apparently the original emails didn’t serve the Republican purpose.

              My concern is that the media us not reporting this. Chuck Todd took about 10 minutes yesterday to run President Obama over the coals, yet did not mention this once. My fear is that Republicans will stop at nothing to harm Democrats, President Obama, and Hillary Clinton no matter the cost. Republicans need to face the fact, the majority if people aren’t biting your brand of crazy. Despite shining it up, putting new names on it and having different people delivering, your message is the same bucket of hate. You have been left behind, instead of attacking our voting rights and gerrymandering, work with the people and make the 2 party system relevant again.

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Republicans hate for President Obama makes them look petty.

                The Republican party, the Tea Party and conservatives have been trying to find a reason to impeach President Obama since 7 weeks into his first term. When they first brought up impeachment they didn’t even have a reason, they just thought it was a good idea. If you disagree with Republicans they will try to oust you, rather than help the country and beat you in an election.

              Republican ideology is fundamentally flawed, or favors the wealthy, the white, corporations, lobbyists and the almighty dollar. People fail to matter to then, they are so focused on hurting Obama and Democrats that people are hurt by them everyday. The Republican party cannot handle a Democrat in office. Their only response is to inflame hate and work to remove them from office. It is another flaw in their ideology, if you are not with them, you are against him.

                 Now anything that might not fit into Republican thinking, needs Congressional hearings to ferret out the problem. For them the problem is always President Obama and the Democrat party. Obama made the IRS check our Tea Party groups looking for tax exempt status, I guess the IRS should not investigate organizations seeking that status. Benghazi is President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s.fault, although Republicans refuse requests for more security personnel.

              From day 1 Republicans and their talking heads have tried to hurt the President. They made making him a one term president their top priority. That doesn’t really leave room for negotiations or compromise. Nor does it show a clear thinking party.

             They have taken the side of the NRA on Gun Control, Banks on Banking Reform, Corporations on raising the minimum wage and so on and so forth. Anything to hurt the President. Now they are saying he was in the wrong because a Marine held an umbrella over his head when it was raining.

            2 important points, the Marine Corps is the Presidents standing army, he can use them however necessary. It is a honor for a Marine to do anything for the President, that is who we are there to serve. The President outranks the Commandant of the Marine Corps. There are pictures of three previous Republican Presidents having umbrellas held over their heads, one was by a Marine.

            This is proof of the pettyness and the lack of anything to truly attack him on. They have been trying for over 4 years to get to him. Nothing has, because manufacturing a crisis doesn’t work. Republicans need to work for the people and rely on effort to return them to office.

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Karl Rove launches Benghazi themed attack ad aimed at Hillary Clinton, but Benghazi is not a political stunt.

               Less than 5 months into President Obama’s second term, Karl Rove kicked off the 2016 presidential campaign with a Benghazi themed attack ad that directly takes aim at Hillary Clinton. The web ad was launched by the Karl Rove funded American Crossroads. They spent more than $21 million during the last election. It is the freshest evidence that hyperpartisan SUPER-PAC slush funds are now a core part of the permanent campaign.

             The American Crossroads ad matters because it is a preemptive strike against Hillary Clinton and her possible 2016 presidential campaign run. The days of Clinton being Obama’s favorite cabinet member with Republicans are apparently over. According to polls Hillary Clinton easily bears Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. Chris Christie is closest in the polls.

                The Rove ad never mentions President Obama by name and only shows him briefly standing beside Clinton. They were standing together at Andrews Airforce Base when Ambassador Stevens and his aides bodies arrived back in the U.S. Tie clip of Clinton speaking is important because it uses the most credible criticism of the Obama administration in the wake of the Benghazi attack. It shows her incorrectly blaming the awful internet video that the we had nothing to do with.

                  Roves video portrays Clinton as the problem, showing a shift in no longer going after the Obama administration. The demotion of whistleblower Gregory Hicks after the attack us used as evidence, whether true or not. The ad goes on to ask ” Was she part of the cover-up?” The ad then answers in the affirmative, after airing her saying “What difference does it make?” Never mind that Republicans always omit the next sentence, which was “It is our job to find out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from happening again.” But that isn’t good material for an attack ad.

            The fact that American Crossroad is trying so hard to connect Benghazi to Clinton shows us the large role hyperpartisan shadow money groups okay in our politics. The IRS targeting Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status is completely wrong. But investigating the many shadow money groups playing politics while doling out tax breaks to donors is overdue. This is mist likely the earliest presidential attack ad in history.

             This shows the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans turned Benghazi into a political stunt to attack a “potential” Democrat candidate for president. Republicans say that Democrats used Sandy Hook that way. But there was a difference, it wasnt used as an attack ad, the parents of those children created their own lobbying group to confront the NRA. Benghazi was a tragedy, but the way Republicans are politicizing it is a travesty.

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President Obama’s second term has an inauspicious beginning.

             President Obama has a very aggressive second term agenda. He wants to get Gun Control, raise the minimum wage, equal pay for women, create more middle class jobs and get all kids into Pre-K education. The Sequester has hamstring his education efforts and Republicans have done their best on others. As well as the NRA and other lobbyist firms.

                 What is taking the headlines now is the DOJ getting phone records of the AP, Benghazi and its whistleblowers and the IRS targeting Tea Party groups. The DOJ taking the AP phone records is technically legal and Republicans are to blame for that. President Obama tried to put in a media shield but Republicans voted against it. That is not a large issue.

           Benghazi has turned into a political witch hunt. It is the Republicans way of damaging Hillary Clinton before the 2016 presidential election. Karl Rove released an attack ad, using Benghazi as his reason for Clinton not being a good candidate. All questions have been answered,  emails have been released and it is just Republicans playing defense. I don’t think I heard them mention Republicans voting to cut half a billion dollars from the State Department budget. That cost about 300 security personnel.

                The IRS may be the problem. I am a strong President Obama supporter, but if get was complicity with this he should be held responsible. I don’t think he did, but the fact that it happened links him to 43. Democrats need to find the truth because Republicans will pervert anything to take him down. As I said if he is complicit he should be held responsible.

               Shrouded in these “scandals” is some good things. Our economy is recovering, unemployment rate is down, the debt ceiling is improving as well as our shrinking deficit. Republicans stay away from these things, because they can’t use them against him. The President will move past these things like he always does, dignified and intelligently. Our nation is on the right track, look at the numbers.

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The Republicans will keep trying to tear down President Obama.

             They are trying to get a President Obama by going after Attorney General Eric Holder. They were questioning him about everything that happened over the last 4 years. Mr. Holder answered all he could and got a little testy at least once.

             They are trying to get to the “bottom” of the IRS scandal, the Boston Marathon bombing and any other thing they can. One Republican was going after Holder for the abortion Dr. in Pa. who would kill live babies. My answer to that, do not force women to go to clowns like that. Every Republican law that moves forward against abortion, puts women into a position where they will go anywhere for that form of care. Attorney General Holder stood his ground, but it seems as if he is being left out to dry.

             Republicans are fixated on the IRS scandal, although there were several liberal groups who went through the dame process as the Tea Party Groups. In 2004 the IRS illegally targeted the NAACP, and at other points in Bush’s tenure the IRS went after Planned Parenthood. I am not saying it is right, because it is not, but it us not unprecedented.

            Republicans are trying to stop President Obama and Democrats from going forward with his second term agenda. This party willingly lied us onto war, browbeat Democrats into giving out TARP funds without any rules and deregulated the banking industry so much it directly led to the Great Recession. But they do not have an agenda in any of their empty attacks. They already started attacking Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Presidential election. They care not for the people, only for the scratch.

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Did the IRS inappropriately flag Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status?

                   The IRS inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax exempt status, according to a top IRS official. According to Lois Kerned, head of the IRS division that oversees tax exempt groups, organizations were singled out with the words Tea Party or Patriot in their applications for tax exempt status. In some cases, groups were asked for a post of their donors. This is in direct violation of IRS policy in most cases.

                The ORS said that the reviews took place in Cincinnati, Ohio and covered 75 Tea Party groups. Although inappropriate action was taken, none of the groups had their tax exempt status revoked. Some did withdraw their applications. According to the IRS, high ranking officials did not know about the targeting. The IRS Commissioner at the time was Douglas Shulman, who had been appointed by George W. Bush. Conservatives are falling for an investigation of the IRS and they should get it.

              No group entitled to non-profit status should be denied for political reasons, regardless of ideology. But no scam artist should very allowed to rip off the American people. Those that pose as non-profit when they are just political con-artists cause these type of investigation. An investigation should get to the bottom of this and hopefully prevent it from happening again.

              Unfortunately for critics of President Obama the effort to paint the improper IRS activity as a White House directed political attack is weak, misdirected and paranoid. The problem does not include targeting groups for audits seeking evidence of failure to pay taxes. It, as I said, involved the IRS problem with reviewing applications filed by groups for tax exempt status. At the time, many newly formed political organizations were seeking IRS tax exempt status. Many, ignore all were Tea Party related groups. The IRS believed many groups filing were stretching the limits of qualification. Because of that lower level staffers a the Cincinnati office targeted any organization with Tea Party in the name for review. In their eyes it was to determine if the groups qualified for tax exempt status.

             The problem is that the agents were not randomly checking, because of the high inflow of Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status they then targeted them. That and asking for donors names were the improper activity and as I said before the IRS should be investigated. So the organization was wrong in the approach to the job, not that they were doing it. If they checked other organizations as well this might be a different story.

           If you think the Obama administration and Democrats were behind this, you are delusional. The head of the IRS at the time was a political appointee by George W. Bush. Not to mention the fact that he was leaving office at the end of 2012. Those 2 things alone make that a moot point. But irregardless of that, what the IRS did was wrong, as it is in many cases with normal people. But that doesn’t matter until it effects someone in the Republican party. People have been complaining of horrible treatment by the IRS for years and nothing happened until now. If President Obama did cause this, which is a slim to none possibility, he should face charges.

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Where were Benghazi whistle blowers during last hearings?

                 I am not accusing them of lying, I am curious where these people were in January. Why didn’t these whistle blowers come out earlier. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answered questions and jumped through Republican hoops. Apparently it took Republicans four and half months to realize they were unsatisfied.

            I, personally do not put much stock in a whistle blower who tells their story months after they should have. Republicans seem to forget several things. When you take a post overseas there is an element of risk that comes with it. That the same Republicans who required another set of hearings voted for a funding cut on the State Department budget. It was almost half a BILLION DOLLARS, they denied Secretary of State Clintons request for an increase in budget and their actions caused the loss of 300 embassy security personnel. They also signed an Amendment in 2009 cutting $1.2 billion from the State Department budget.

              They also neglect to mention 11 raids on embassies/consulats and almost 60 deaths in those raids during Bush’s tenure. Not one Republican called for Congressional hearings nor did a Democrat. This is a Republican full court press to make President Obama and Democrats look bad. They are attempting to make it even more difficult for the President to accomplish his second term agenda. As well as set Democrats up to fall in 2014 election.

                The Republican party’s hate for President Obama is causing them to act more childish then normal. Not to mention if Hillary Clinton decides to run in 2016, there’s is not a Republican who can beat her. Republicans are not confident enough in gerrymandering and voter purges to try to beat her. The shame of it is, if Republicans stopped being extremist they might garner more votes. But taking away true rights unites the people against you.

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If Republicans want answer for Benghazi, maybe they should look at their own voting record.

           House Republicans vote to reduce funds allocated to the state department for Embassy security since they won the majority in 2010. For the last several years Republicans have continued to deprioritize the security forces protecting State Department personnel worldwide. In the fiscal year 2011, Republican lawmakers shaved $128 million off the administrations request for Embassy security. They then cut back another $331 million in 201. Throw in the Sequester this yearand it is truly amazing we haven’t had similar occurrences.

                     Representative Steven Lynch ( D-MA) blasted the Republican effort to renew questions into the Benghazi Embassy attacks. Representative Lynch is a member of the committee that will hear testimony on the attacks. He dismissed the claim that the Obama administration did not provide adequate security at the Benghazi Embassy. During an exchange with FOX News Sunday host, Chris Wallace, Lynch reminded Wallace that Republicans voted to cut finding for Embassy security when then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for it. All Republicans voted NO. They complain about lack of security at Embassies after they voted against funding for security at Embassies.

               Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), a primary driver of these new hearings, was one of the lawmakers who voted to cut a total of almost $500 million from the Embassy security budget. Chaffetz ignorantly said that funding had nothing to do with security. Chaffetz has defended hos NO vote by saying Embassy security was not a priority. Republicans who voted against funding claim that the Department of Defense was responsible for security, not the State Department. Then why hold Hillary Clinton, the Secratary of State responsible? However a State Department review emphasized the need for more funding to prevent new security threats. Clinton repeated her call for more funding during Benghazi hearings in January.

                    Then Secretary of State Clinton warned Republicans that proposed cuts would create security risks. Paul Ryan, Darryl Issa and the House Republicans voted for an Amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations. This included funds for 300 diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s proposed budget, non-defense discretionary spending,  which includes State Department funding, would be slashed by an additional 20% in 2014. Which translates to more than $400 million in additional cuts to Embassy security. But of course they want to blame President Obama, they cabling hide their guilt from right wing nut jobs.

                 This is just a witch hunt to tarnish Hillary Clintin’s name. Republicans know that if she decides to run for President they cannot compete. I believe the closest poll was 6 percentage points. This just makes the Tea Party look petty and childish. But I guess the Republicans do not know how to act.

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The good, the bad, the Republicans.

          There have been many bleak moments in the wake of the Great Recession. These are moments when you wonder if Republicans have a soul left. As a whole their morals have been compromised and right and wrong seem to mean little to them. Not just Republican lawmakers but their supporters as well. You cannot disagree or debate without them calling you names and veering from fact into supposition to blatant lies.

                   Republicans attacked then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the Benghazi tragedy. But while attacking and blaming her they neglected to mention that they cut close to a half billion dollars out of the amount the Obama administration asked for to guard embassies. They say it was not a pressing issue. But it is when they have a chance to tarnish her image. Paul Ryans budgets and their blatant attacks on the poor, while cutting taxes for the rich. His budget repeals Obamacare yet keeps the money it saves to balance his budget, seriously.

               The blatantly lie to the American people. Republicans voted against VAWA yet tell people they voted for it, we can look these things up. They have tried to block, through the filibuster, anything Obama has tried to do. Yet they claim that they don’t abuse the filibuster, they have used it more with him in office than at any other time in history. They forced the Sequester, blamed Obama, yet said that it was what they wanted. Voted against raising the minimum wage, equal pay for women, and Obamas Jobs Bill. In the 2 years they held the majority in the House they created zero jobs, in fact they caused more job losses.

           But the absolute kicker is the Manchin/Toomey Gun Bill. This basically gave them everything they wanted, 90% of the American people wanted it, yet Republicans and 5 Democrats voted to filibuster it. These would have appeased the public. Yet they say they didn’t like it because it might create a gun registry. That us a LIE! OUTRIGHT BLATANT LIE! It explicitely said that anyone, federal agents included, caught creating a gun registry would get 15 years in prison.

           Universal Background Checks, Assault Weapon Bans and High Capacity Magazines were all shot down. This after 20 kids were shot at Sandy Hook. The parents of the children spoke to Senators and the Senators still voted along corporate lines. Now many are not even speaking with the parents now. What does that say about the morals of our esteemed leaders. They know they are wrong yet continue to do it. The indifference of good men creates greater evil.

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