[excon]

Hello:

First off, why don't we shut that guy up down in Florida? Maybe our First Amendment is causing the Middle East to melt down...

But, on to my post... Did Romney shoot himself in the foot? Should he have mouthed off before he knew the facts? Didn't he know that when American is attacked, it's NOT time to attack the president? Did he score points with you? Is the election over? Did the fat lady sing?

RIP Ambassador Stevens.

excon

PS> There's another thread about the Mid East violence itself, waiting to break out. Who wants to start that one? I nominate Steve. It's up his alley. He can call it, Obama policies cause Mid East Meltdown...

[speechlesstx]

You left out the part that led to Mitt's comment, and he was spot on. The U.S. embassy in Cairo apologized for "abuse" of free speech. That was a stupid, irresponsible thing to say. Even the administration thought so, but you wouldn't know it from the media's CYA job for their hero.

But Obama's remarks belie the enormous frustration of top officials at the State Department and White House with the actions of the man behind the statement, Cairo senior public affairs officer Larry Schwartz, who wrote the release and oversees the embassy's Twitter feed, according to a detailed account of the Tuesday's events.

The official noted that the statement was posted at exactly 12:18 p.m. Cairo time -- 6:18 a.m. Washington time -- well before the protests began. Romney has said, wrongly, that the statement was the administration's first response to the protests, but the official said that the demonstrations did not begin until 4 p.m. Cairo time and protesters breached the wall about 2 hours later.

After the breach, as public criticism of the statement grew, the Cairo Embassy Twitter account continued to send out tweets defending it, some of which were later deleted. One deleted tweet, originally posted at 12:30 a.m. Cairo time, said, "This morning's condemnation (issued before protests began) still stands. As does condemnation of unjustified breach of the Embassy."

Before issuing the press release, Schwartz cleared it with just one person senior to himself, Deputy Chief of Mission Marc Sievers, who was the charge d'affaires at the embassy on Tuesday because Ambassador Anne Patterson was in Washington at the time, the official said.

Schwartz sent the statement to the State Department in Washington before publishing and the State Department directed him not to post it without changes, but Schwartz posted it anyway.

"The statement was not cleared with anyone in Washington. It was sent as ‘This is what we are putting out,'" the official said. "We replied and said this was not a good statement and that it needed major revisions. The next email we received from Embassy Cairo was ‘We just put this out.'"

Mitt was right, we don't apologize for American values.

[paraclete]

You don't have far to look for a dill over there do you?

[speechlesstx]

P.S. I wish the idiot in Florida would shut up, too, but it's his right to be an idiot. Oh, and Jones had nothing to do with the Islamist eruption, he's just along for the ride with a compliant media.

The surprise for Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute is how the media lets Jones get away with it.

"The media apparently are biting on this without asking some critical questions,” she said.

“Specifically, how did Terry Jones have anything to do with the violence? And the answer is, he didn’t!”

The riots started after segments were shown on Egyptian television of a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad. And they learned about it from a blog post by Coptic-American Morris Sadek.

As riots flared across Egypt and Libya, Jones told the media that he supported the controversial film. Later, media outlets reported that Jones “promoted” the film.

Soon, the national and international media were flocking to his tiny church in Gainesville.

It was a well-worn path they had trod two years earlier, when Jones set off riots by threatening to burn the Koran. He later followed through on the threat and posted the video to YouTube.

But McBride says there’s little evidence Jones had anything to do with the latest film, "Innocence of Muslims," which was made by an Israeli named Sam Bacile.

The riots were going on long before Jones spoke out in favor of it.

“I think Jones is directly contributing to a distortion, and a lot of journalists are not calling him on it,” she said.

“A lot of journalists, it seems so plausible that he was part of this, they’re not slowing down and asking critical questions,” McBride said.

Of course they aren't asking questions, and meanwhile the Israeli guy that did make the film is in hiding.

[excon]

Mitt was right, we don't apologize for American values.

Hello again, Steve:

Then we ought to see a bump in his numbers. Let's see how it plays..

excon

[tomder55]

Romney was right on and it was the best moment of his campaign to date. What we needed yesterday was a Commander in Chief ;not someone who skips security briefings daily and flys off to campaign fundraisers in the middle of a crisis. The fact that there was a statement from the Cairo Embassy that the White House disavowed ;the statement was withdrawn ,and then reinstated ,not only proves his charge of mixed signals is correct;but also shows deep divisions between the President and his Sec State .

No I'm not finished . I think it was disgracefull the coward Republic leaders of Congress did not stand up for Romney. Shame on McConnell ,Cantor and Bonehead !

[paraclete]

Mixed signals. When will you invade Libya to avenge this insult, no you will settle for drone assassinations. You don't get it do you, you have no friends in the middle east. You just have enemies, some who will tell you so and some who will plot against you. Keep you enemies close and your friends closer

[tomder55]

Attacks on embassies are acts of war . Nothing more need be said.

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

That's the way Limprod see's it too... But, I think it ain't going to play..

The Commander in Chief in a landslide.

excon

[speechlesstx]

you don't have far to look for a dill over there do you?

And you do? What exactly is your problem with us Clete? I'm quite certain you have more than your share of dills, too, but no one cares about what happens in Australia.

[excon]

Attacks on embassies are acts of war . Nothing more need be said.

Hello again, tom:

The embassy in Cairo was attacked by a mob... They had their fun. They pulled down the flag. But, they didn't KILL anybody. I don't think we should declare war on Egypt because of it...

The attack in Libya, however, was an intentional terrorist attack. But, we're not going to declare war on Libya either.. We ARE going to go after the terrorists who did this. What? You think Obama doesn't know how to use drones?

excon

PS> Air Force One DOES have telephones..

[paraclete]

Let's put it this way speech, no one cares what happens in america either, you can choose dill #1 or dill #2 I don't really care because either way you are screwed. As to the general distribution of dills, yes, we have imported more than our fair share. Mostly we find they come from some place else.

As Tom said, someone perpetrated an act of war, why are they still standing? If it was good enough to bomb Saddam, who was just blustering, surely it is good enough to wipe Cairo and Tripoli off the map. If GWB was still in the saddle he would have taken action, he would have bombed the crap out of something. Even Clinton retaliated

What I don't get is Al Qaeda could have plotted a strike on an embassy and you have no inkling of where they came from and where they went, could this be another intelligence failure?

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

Let me add to my post above...

In terms of Egypt, Obama gave them a severe warning.. After years of being our ally, they're now in the let's wait and see category. The Muslim Brotherhood is either going to ACT like a country, and PROTECT our embassy's, or they'll be closed and the money stops flowing...

I don't know which way they'll go.

excon

[speechlesstx]

Hello again, tom:

Let me add to my post above...

In terms of Egypt, Obama gave them a severe warning.. After years of being our ally, they're now in the let's wait and see category. The Muslim Brotherhood is either gonna ACT like a country, and PROTECT our embassy's, or they'll be closed and the money stops flowing...

I dunno which way they'll go.

excon

Obama just spurned Bibi again and said he doesn't consider Egypt an ally so who knows where Obama stands? Wait I know where he stands, with whatever helps him get reelected. If this keeps going though he's going to be Carter in 1979 all over again.

[Wondergirl]

Obama just spurned Bibi again and said he doesn't consider Egypt an ally

There you go with that context thing again.

I watched the interview. President Obama said the U.S. would not consider Egypt an ally, "but we don’t consider them an enemy." He continued with the explanation that Egypt is a "new government that is trying to find its way."

[tomder55]

Hello again, tom:

The embassy in Cairo was attacked by a mob... They had their fun. They pulled down the flag. But, they didn't KILL anybody. I don't think we should declare war on Egypt because of it...

The attack in Libya, however, was an intentional terrorist attack. But, we're not gonna declare war on Libya either.. We ARE gonna go after the terrorists who did this. What? You think Obama doesn't know how to use drones??

excon

PS>..

The President is NOW beefing up security for the embassies. Why didn't he knowing that :
1. it was 9-11
2. the US was boasting that we had wacked the AQ 2nd in command
3. the Dems spent 3 days crowing about wacking OBL .

And yes I know Air Force One has telephones. But have you not heard that the President RARELY ever attends a security briefing ?I don't know... maybe national security bores him.

[speechlesstx]

There ya go with that context thing again.

And there you go assuming it's just me trying to spin it. Don't blame me, blame this dude with NBC News and his Twitter feed. We live in a world of communicating in 140 characters or less now, you know.

[NeedKarma]

And there you go assuming it's just me trying to spin it. Don't blame me, blame this dude with NBC News and We live in a world of communicating in 140 characters or less now, you know.

You believe everything someone else tells you on social media? Always best to go get the original content, not someone's digested source.

[Wondergirl]

And there you go assuming it's just me trying to spin it.

I was, like, *cough* quoting the man who actually said the words.

[speechlesstx]

I was, like, *cough* quoting the man who actually said the words.

What I said was still correct, the last half of the quote was irrelevant as I never implied he considered them an enemy. If you want to nitpick, feel free to talk amongst yourself because I'm not going to play these silly games.