I have to say, I have the same feeling about you, Neo — I like you and I think you’re sincerely attempting to be objective and reasoned, which is actually a large reason why I come to read your blog from time to time (plus, I never tire of the lovely attacks I get from your commenters…) But I often think that the fact that you buy into something like the right-wing outrage over Benghazi is quite surprising, in light of that. Yes, Rice promulgated an incorrect story, there was apparently some pushback from some officials to shape those talking points, but all of this was corrected within days. Of course, if you’re predisposed to thinking there must always be some sort of conspiracy, then fine, but come on — the error was corrected relatively quickly, everyone knew the truth soon enough, and that was always going to happen regardless of what Rice said on the Sunday shows afterwards.

But more importantly, the entire incident, from top to bottom, doesn’t have any large-scale significance from a military or strategic standpoint. I don’t see how it shows any sort of major systemic problem, other than some bureaucratic fuckups and a wrong security assessment about this one diplomatic outpost. I mean, even Dick Cheney has praised Obama for continuing a lot of things the Bush Administration started — people on the left, while generally supportive of Obama, have been upset with him about many of his tactics (most especially drone strikes). If anything Obama has been more than aggressive in the war on terror, he’s no shrinking violet when it comes to that.

Sorry to say this, because I think you’re a decent person, but your ignorance and/or denial is truly astounding.

I think mostly denial.

My understanding is the CIA was on the scene 25 minutes after the attack began:

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/operations/265503-us-officials-cia-wasnt-delayed-in-benghazi-rescue-attempts

As for the video being “the cause”, this has been rehashed over and over again — you think it was a purposeful “lie” (what possible advantage would there be to purposefully spreading a mistake like this, particularly one which would eventually be refuted?) whereas my interpretation is that this was just a mistaken assessment passed along by Rice, that didn’t have any political motive.

Granted, the lack of adequate security at the embassy is a fuck-up, but as I mentioned to you back at the time, in the scale of fuckups in American security and military affairs, it pales in comparison to the incredible levels of massive fuckups that happened in the run-up to and the execution of the Iraq War. One simple example: disbanding the Iraqi Army (something which I knew would create massive instability at that time, yet something that the Bush Administration did clearly with no clue about how military operations work). Or the lack of sufficient ground troops to secure the country. Or the near-total lack of planning for the aftermath, and on and on. These fuckups are about 10,000x larger in scope than the fuckup around this one embassy in one country. So yes, I do believe the Benghazi incident is, in all fairness, trivial by comparison to other security fuckups we’ve had in the past.

>the IRS also targeted left-wing groups

Regarding that link, that’s good additional information, though I question the implication that many tea party groups had their applications denied. Every other news report I have read says none of these applications were denied, they were just delayed. But yes, the entire existence of the BOLO list is an outrage and should never have happened, whether they targeted only right-wing groups or some left-wing groups as well. Apparently, one left-wing group did have its application outright rejected, however:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html

Note that Jon Stewart also covered the IRS scandal, similarly caustically to his coverage of the healthcare.gov fuckup:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-may-13-2013/barack-trek–into-darkness

How then, does a brain in a jar know it is a brain in a jar, eh?

Benghazi, trivial? Failure to guard properly in the first place, then failure to even attempt a rescue, failure to pay attention that evening (going to bed and then to a fundraiser), then telling lie after lie after lie about a video as the cause when it was apparent that was a lie, and meanwhile we have four people in the service of our country dead? No, I’m not of the Hillary “what difference does it make” camp. And yes, you and I have very different standards for what is a significant and outrageous scandal.

Funny thing, though—the Obamacare website mess is not a scandal to me, it’s an incredibly incompetent screw-up but not primarily a scandal. It’s a scandal, I suppose, in that it involves an enormous waste of taxpayer money, but that’s commonplace. Otherwise, in the website rollout itself (not Obamacare): no restraint on liberty, no illegal shenanigans (that we know of, anyway), and the only lies told about the website itself was the lie that it would be easy to use.

As for the rest of it, the idea that liberals are objective is sort of funny to me—and I am quite familiar with liberals.
Actually, very few people period are what I’d call objective, really objective. It’s a rare commodity.

Re one of your points towards the end of your comment, that the IRS also targeted left-wing groups, please see this.

A Leftist cog and tool has no right to feel anything about it, unless told to by their Master.

has Obama given you his permission to be pissed off, eh?

Another authentic Mitsu sauce, which we will see regurgitated here come the Left’s slave Empire in 2025.

Then, just as now, he’ll pretend none of that ever happened, he never said such things.

Mitsu’s sauce has been recorded here since at least 2008.