Hillary Clinton is an American hero, quite possibly one of the most heroic of all time. Her extreme honor and devotion to duty showcase the highest standards of the office, and are an example for others to follow. It's truly tragic that we're here discussing old news because of partisan politics instead of using this time to better understand her many suggestions and advice on how to better run the State Department. We should be heralding her initial campaign for President of the United States in 2016, because no less a position would be reward for her faithful service.

But since we're here, forced to address the misguided accusations of a vocal few, let it be known that Ms. Clinton is at no fault whatsoever for the events of last September 11. She was let down by her staff, the media, and by an intelligence community that completely failed to forward any intelligence regarding the highest priority incident of that day. There was no live feed, no video of what occurred that evening, and no workable intelligence upon which a decision could be made until weeks after, when the intelligence community finally got around to forwarding it, presumably via carrier pigeon.

She did not ever suggest that this tragic incident was the result of an Internet video, but rather stated from the very beginning that this was the work of terrorists. She also did not give any attention to "talking points" that might suggest so, and did not send Susan Rice on a talk show circuit to say as much. Ms. Rice acted on her own, and without knowledge of any of what was truly going on during this event.

Ms. Clinton also did not fail to provide adequate protection for the embassy in Benghazi, and in fact, it was the Republicans who stifled any funds from going there. If anything, Ms. Clinton, by not sending additional troops there, actually saved American lives, as sending more troops would have only caused more casualties. She has actually had countless pieces of advice and warnings which should have been heeded, but which were all stymied at the hands of Republicans.

Actually, it doesn't really matter why this incident happened, and the details are pointless and irrelevant to the discussion at hand. It's over with already. Americans died, and we're horribly saddened and frustrated that something so bad could happen without any chance for us to do anything about it at all. Our hands have been tied, and our foreign policy stance crippled because of the actions of the previous administration. We don't need to investigate to find out why this happened; we simply need to move on because that is in our best interests as a nation.

And finally, this whole incident is really America's fault, beginning years ago, with then President Bush's aggression and invasion of the Middle East. Since that unwarranted aggression, we as a government have seen America's message become diluted and altered. We've allowed dissenting voices, including the voices of terrorism, speak louder than our own message of peace and love because we have abdicated that message to commercial channels such as Fox and NBC and ABC. If we are to win this war, we need to take back that voice from those who twist our words, and let the world know in our own, unadulterated words what our message is. Until the government controls the message being broadcast, there is still the danger that something like this will happen again.

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Whew...I'm glad we got to the truth here. Thankfully she set the record straight.

I'm kinda surprised that you would say that it doesn't matter why this happened Sailor. Personally, I think that is the most important thing to be clear on. If you don't know why the militants did what they did, how can you avoid it in the future? People don't usually do something without an actual reason. Saying they "hate Americans" isn't a reason, its just another blanket statement that doesn't get down to the root of the problem. They "hate Americans" because quite a few people in the middle east are tired of Americans always having a hand in their politics. (let alone all of the wars and drone strikes)

The government has been speaking pretty clearly as to what message is being broadcast. War on Iraq, war on Afghanistan, Drone strikes throughout the middle east ignoring those countries sovereignty, Promoting certain leader's while detracting from others, billions of dollars in aid to the Israelis and allowing them to get nuclear power and weapons while preventing other middle eastern countries from getting equal footing, embargo's on Iran from the US and NATO. Our message has been very clear, our actions speak quite a bit clearer than our words.

Hillary Clinton isn't a hero just because she has good excuses as to why she couldn't evacuate the ambassador prior to the attack. The bureaucracy of our government is just insane. The Republicans refusing to allow the Democrats to act, allowing the Democrats to do things unconstitutionally if they want to get anything done. They are all payed by the same people, (and corporations) you'd think they could work together on SOMETHING.

I didn't write his post, but I'd wager that post by Sailor was teeming with sarcasm

Doh!

I've always been horrible at picking up on sarcasm over the internet.

The entire post was a sarcastic take on what I saw watching the live footage of it. And that's what Hillary Clinton said, not what I think. The whole thing was a carefully constructed - and scripted - farce.

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Of course it was carefully constructed and scripted...why else would it take her over 19 weeks to testify to Congress?

So carefully that even the color she wore was important:



That forest green of safety, innocence, and hope.

A concussion my ass. I don't care if you were shot, when a debacle like this happens you speak to congress as soon as your bandaged up.

You know, the scariest thing I saw during this isn't something that's widely talked about or shared around the Internet. People are too wrapped up with how she cried when she talked about the victims' families, or how Rand Paul was such a meanie when he said he'd have fired her if he were president. But the part that scared me the most, I can't even find - video or transcript - anywhere, and that's the very last paragraph of my original post. She essentially said that, almost verbatim, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I really wish I could find it. If someone else does, please link/post it here. It was essentially this:

"We are allowing the terrorist narrative to out-shout our own narrative. We have abdicated our voice to television channels like Fox, NBC and ABC. We need to take back that voice if we're going to let the world know what we are really trying to say."

Sounds innocuous at first blush, but holy shit is that some scary rhetoric! She's essentially saying that the government should no longer allow private channels to speak for the government, but rather the government take over so they can speak for themselves. Where's George Orwell when ya need him?

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First, everyone in this thread comes off as a whiny political loser. Much likes Dems did during the Bush II era. You can view McCain and Rand Paul as political heroes for standing up to Clinton, but their goal was to embarrass Clinton and make her look like a fool. They failed miserably, and politically speaking, she kicked their F'ing butts.

As for what she said about the media, the Orwellian thing is a total stretch. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and ABC (I guess) do control the national conversation. The problem is the media sensalization of stories. A tragedy occurs and we all care until the next tragedy strikes and everyone forgets. Investigative reporting is dying. News channels are like sharks, they get a scent of blood and everyone strikes, no time to fact check, all that matters is who broke the story first. Ratings, baby, ratings.

I would say the best source for level headed, actual news (BORING ) is NPR, which is partially government funded. Scott Simon does not seem like an Orwell character.

Not surprised at this post at all. You have shown before that you really don't hold this as much of an issue of importance anyway.

So, would you say you agree with the sentiment expressed in the above bolded part? Just curious to see where you stand on going from a media that is already mostly in the bag for the government to one that is more controlled by the government, because that's what she said. Her words, not mine.

And of course, we all know what a hero she is, putting up with the bullying abuse and terror tactics from Republicans. How dare they question her competence regarding this? It's already happened, so what does it matter anyway?

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Its funny, if the media didn't have the attention span of an ADHD spaz on a sugar high, this story may have had more legs. If there was a controversy it has long been buried, so you all are kicking a dead horse.

Just looking this up, suspects from Benghazi are being arrested in other countries. Nowhere have I seen you guys post this. For having your fingers on the pulse of this story, I'm surprised. Unless you're all politically motivated and just don't like Obama/Clinton. Alex Ortiz blew himself up in Tunisia and Muhammad Jamal al Kashef (a.k.a. Abu Ahmed) was arrested in Egypt. Again, Libya wasn't complying with us, and this wasn't worth starting another war over. The best course of action was try to prevent further attacks and bide our time and get justice for those that lost their lives. The waiting is the hardest part, right?

And for everyone that thinks Mark Basseley Youssef was a patsy, I will again ask does it matter how a criminal is caught. He violated probabation and lied to his PO. He got busted for it. There were riots, injury and death caused by this man, his legal arrest was used as propaganda to stop further violence. That card was played right, I don't care what anyone says.

Nope, doesn't matter at all! I'm all for enacting laws that allow police, instead of pulling folks over for traffic violations, to come door to door and search everyone's house, computers, etc., for signs of wrongdoing. If there is illegal activity happening, this will make it much easier for them to catch and prosecute them for it. They can confiscate all weapons and other items of questionable use while they're at it, because taking them off the streets will save countless lives.

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Touche! I agree with you, well I agree with your sarcastic statement that poked obvious holes in my question.

Youssef was arrested for violating his probation, which prevented him from internet access without his PO's approval. He then made national headlines for making an online video. It was an open and close case.

One day the repubs will actually find something with Benghazi that is actually a cover-up [keep looking Sailor!] and there will be actual news!

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

Nah, you're right, while Obama is in office, we should feel no need to investigate the death of Americans by terrorists. That is only the proper thing to do when someone like Bush is in office.

Seriously people, what's up with not wanting to get to the truth behind how Americans got killed doing their jobs?

Everyone on the left calls for more government involvement and more regulations and rules, until it involves one of their own, then they do an about face and say that investigations into things is a waste of time.

Way to twist my words. I'm just as angry as you about someone running into our embassy and killing someone for no reason besides hate. Those involved should be brought to justice and receive twice the punishment.

And what the fuck does government involvement, regulations and rules have to do with anyfuckingthing?

Christ man, not everything is the biggest story ever.

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RIP ROAD WOES 12/2/2012

Only person saying anything about biggest story ever is you. It is important for us to get to the bottom of it though, and with the fact that multiple stories came from officials in the administration early in this story, this type of investigation is warranted.

The fact that Clinton took so long to even come in front of a committee hearing should be a story in itself, but nobody is trying to make it the story of the century.

No, it's not. There has been only one story, and that was it was a terrorist attack from the beginning. There were no talking points blaming it on a video, and nobody said it was because of the video anyway. You are remembering it all wrong. This is all just a witch-hunt. It's time to move on because it's over, and why it happened doesn't really matter anyway.

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