Academic Bombshell: Study Vindicates McCain’s Choice of Sarah Palin as VP

[noonwitch]

Well, I can certainly understand how you'd prefer an unskilled, manipulative demagogue and a semi-senile idiot to any Republican offering in the last two elections, then.

Considering the GOP offered a candidate that many of it's own members consider a "semi-senile idiot" at the top of the ticket in 2008, well, I'll take the skilled former Senator and Secretary of State over the half-term quitter any day.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Considering the GOP offered a candidate that many of it's own members consider a "semi-senile idiot" at the top of the ticket in 2008, well, I'll take the skilled former Senator and Secretary of State over the half-term quitter any day.

"What difference does it make now?" Maybe she can cut you in on a beef futures deal. And if that 'Skilled' is based on actual positive achievements as Secretary of State, I'm at a loss to think of what they might be. Benghazi? The State coordination with the Mexican government on Fast and Furious? The 'Re-set' with Russia? Backing a would-be dictator in Honduras over their Supreme Court and military's attempt to restore Constitutional rule? Clandestine backing of the Arab Spring and subsequent ascendance of Al Q'aeda in North Africa?

Well, she is a biological female, a Liberal, and wasn't impeached or fired, so maybe that is enough to count as 'Skilled' in the Affirmative Action Administration.

[noonwitch]

"What difference does it make now?" Maybe she can cut you in on a beef futures deal. And if that 'Skilled' is based on actual positive achievements as Secretary of State, I'm at a loss to think of what they might be. Benghazi? The State coordination with the Mexican government on Fast and Furious? The 'Re-set' with Russia? Backing a would-be dictator in Honduras over their Supreme Court and military's attempt to restore Constitutional rule? Clandestine backing of the Arab Spring and subsequent ascendance of Al Q'aeda in North Africa?

Well, she is a biological female, a Liberal, and wasn't impeached or fired, so maybe that is enough to count as 'Skilled' in the Affirmative Action Administration.

How many people died in attacks on US Embassies from 2001-2009? I'll bet it was more than 4.

[txradioguy]

How many people died in attacks on US Embassies from 2001-2009? I'll bet it was more than 4.

And that proves what exactly? Assuming this is actually true...I don't recall Bush trying to blame the attacks on a stupid video.

It's really amazing how you leftists are so callus and uncaring about the loss of human life when one of your idols is in office...but one life lost when a Republican is in office is some kind of fucking national tragedy that requires impeachment.

Hypocrite.

[DumbAss Tanker]

How many people died in attacks on US Embassies from 2001-2009? I'll bet it was more than 4.

I don't recall any, actually, though I don't exclude the possibility that I simply don't remember any...the two embassy attacks that killed over a hundred in Africa were in the "highly-skilled and effective" Clinton administration.

[noonwitch]

I don't recall any, actually, though I don't exclude the possibility that I simply don't remember any...the two embassy attacks that killed over a hundred in Africa were in the "highly-skilled and effective" Clinton administration.

1-22-02 Calcutta, India. 3 dead.
6-4-02 Kariachi, Pakistan. 12 dead.
2-28-03 Islamabad, Pakistan. 2 killed.
5-12-03 Ridyah, Saudia Arabia. 36 people killed.
7-30-04 Tashkent, Uzebekistan. 2 dead.
12-6-04 Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. 9 dead.
3-2-06 Karaichi, Pakistan. 4 dead.
9-10-06 Damascus, Syria. 4 dead.
7-4-08 Istanbul, Turkey. 6 dead.
9-17-08 Yemen. 16 dead.

That comes out to just under 100 people who died in attacks on US embassies during the Bush years. I don't recall any of those attacks leading to Congressional hearings.

[DumbAss Tanker]

1-22-02 Calcutta, India. 3 dead.
6-4-02 Kariachi, Pakistan. 12 dead.
2-28-03 Islamabad, Pakistan. 2 killed.
5-12-03 Ridyah, Saudia Arabia. 36 people killed.
7-30-04 Tashkent, Uzebekistan. 2 dead.
12-6-04 Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. 9 dead.
3-2-06 Karaichi, Pakistan. 4 dead.
9-10-06 Damascus, Syria. 4 dead.
7-4-08 Istanbul, Turkey. 6 dead.
9-17-08 Yemen. 16 dead.

That comes out to just under 100 people who died in attacks on US embassies during the Bush years. I don't recall any of those attacks leading to Congressional hearings.

You may find this list of interest, which is limited to attacks on embassy and consular buildings and casualties among the actual diplomatic mission personnel (If you chase the incident links down to actually find out how many of the deaths really were such) -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...matic_missions

The Wiki list you seem to have taken that from includes a lot more than embassies, including consular offices and attacks 'Near' either one (Which apparently includes commuting to and from), and perhaps not surprisingly for Wiki articles does not treat incidents under Obama with quite the same scrutiny. Even the better of the two Wiki lists, for instance, lists only the four American dead in Benghazi 2012, and no other casuaties, unlike the attacks listed for earlier administrations, although other estimates place a pretty substantial number, as many as 60, on the number of Libyan attackers killed or wounded.

It shows a much lower total and because of more precise criteria excludes about half of the attacks you list. Also, even the vast majority of the deaths the shorter list does show are the attackers, local civilian bystanders, local security forces, and local national personnel employed by the embassy, usually as contract security guards, not US citizen embassy or consular personnel, and generally attacks that were either one-shot bombings or of less than an hour's duration. The better Wiki list above does provide links to the attacks listed, though, unlike the one I think you used, and generally the casualty breakdowns are given at the links. Just by way of example, for instance, the '19 dead' in a 2008 Yemeni attack did not include any U.S. citizen embassy personnel (One woman, a citizen or US resident totally unaffiliated with the embassy who by chance was in the area to fill out immigration paperwork for her spouse, was killed along with another half-dozen civilian bystanders, and 6 attackers who were included in that total of 19).

Most importantly, it may have escaped your notice, but none of the other attacks you list involved a US ambassador being killed, a 'Stand-down' order to US military reaction forces within reach, and a track record of seemingly-egregious snubbing of persistent concerns and requests for security help to the State Department from the US diplomatic mission concerned. THOSE are the reasons it merited Congressional hearings, to include the matter of the competence of State Department leadership involved.

Want to try again on the number of US ambassadors and US citizen diplomatic mission personnel killed under similar circumstances in the Bush administration?

[txradioguy]

You may find this list of interest, which is limited to attacks on embassy and consular buildings and casualties among the actual diplomatic mission personnel (If you chase the incident links down to actually find out how many of the deaths really were such) -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...matic_missions

Want to try again on the number of US ambassadors and US citizen diplomatic mission personnel killed under similar circumstances in the Bush administration?

She can't because her source was the DailyKos which seems to have cribbed their info from the Wiki page you linked to.

Hence the reason she won't post a link.

[Zathras]

1-22-02 Calcutta, India. 3 dead.
6-4-02 Kariachi, Pakistan. 12 dead.
2-28-03 Islamabad, Pakistan. 2 killed.
5-12-03 Ridyah, Saudia Arabia. 36 people killed.
7-30-04 Tashkent, Uzebekistan. 2 dead.
12-6-04 Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. 9 dead.
3-2-06 Karaichi, Pakistan. 4 dead.
9-10-06 Damascus, Syria. 4 dead.
7-4-08 Istanbul, Turkey. 6 dead.
9-17-08 Yemen. 16 dead.

That comes out to just under 100 people who died in attacks on US embassies during the Bush years. I don't recall any of those attacks leading to Congressional hearings.

That's because there wasn't a question of the administration refusing to send help to those embassies to rescue the people in trouble.....or blaming a video on YouTube when they knew it wasn't the cause and continue to do so even after the facts came out.....or the firing of three flag officers of the US military for attempting to do their duty and send personnel to rescue our people in trouble.

[DumbAss Tanker]

She can't because her source was the DailyKos which seems to have cribbed their info from the Wiki page you linked to.

Hence the reason she won't post a link.

I probably wasn't clear enough, the link I posted was the BETTER of two Wiki listings I found, I think she used the WORSE of the two (Or a blog post derived from it), and I didn't include a link to that one.

The one I linked to had significantly fewer incidents and casualties than her list, plus links to the actual background info on each listed attack, which the other did not. Hers corresponded pretty closely to the worse one, which pulled in all sorts of incidents that did not actually occur at a US embassy or consular office during the Bush years but not so much for the Obama years (Apparently treating some of the latter as 'crimes' rather than 'attacks' as far as I can tell, particularly if they were in the Western Hemisphere).

The post was getting pretty long already, so I didn't want to bog it down any more on those fine points than it had already become.