Top Five Things Congress Should Investigate Instead of Benghazi

It's been quite dull around ATS over the last couple of months. Interesting content and discussion (?) has been missing.

Benghazi have been a favorite topic among members and though I don't comment or know much about the event, I do agree that there are more vital and important issues concerning the health of the republic to 'investigate'. Well someone put them into a short list and I'd only add, at this moment, one issue.

The article:

www.commondreams.org...

If the Bengahzi mess was Hilary Clintons personal faulth then by the same reasoning 9/11 was solely Bush II's. Seems fair, don't ya think.

If you can get past the last sentence; here are some items that DO REQUIRE INVESTIGATION according to Juan Cole:

. We still don’t know why Bush-Cheney launched a groundless war of aggression on Iraq in 2003 and tore up the United Nations Charter that post-Nazi diplomats hoped would forestall further such wars of mere aggrandizement.

There is every reason to believe that Exxon-Mobil understood the dangers of climate change from the burning of the fuels they provided to the world as early as the 1970s. The corporation clearly waged a propaganda campaign attempting to keep their profits high and to convince the public that climate change is a myth.

How much was the 2008 economic meltdown foreseen by the firms engaged in risky lending practices? Were financiers deliberately playing blackjack with the equity in our mortgages and the value of our stock investments? Unlike in Iceland, where culpable bankers were actually jailed or fined, the US Justice Department let a lot of criminal activity just go unpunished.

Are the Koch brothers and their ALEC lobbying organization engaged in criminal conspiracies against American consumers and against the environment? Is there a deliberate effort to pass irrational laws punishing, e.g., Floridians for putting solar panels on their roofs? Are politicians accepting money for the explicit purpose of harming the public weal? Maybe Congress might peek into that one.

Is there a Republican National Council, coordinated effort at voter suppression? Maybe Congress should establish a committee with subpoena power and examine some private documents of GOP legislators and governors in this regard. Deliberately depriving Americans of the vote is still illegal.

And my own:

In the wake of Senator Clinton's Email scandal - how many other PUBLIC servants are subverting the Freedom of Information laws in like fashion. How many others are violating government secrecy laws and putting intelligence at risk? My complaint isn't really even so much in those areas as I am with the contempt for the separation of personal vs public that this activity shows. The very idea of doing THE PUBLIC's business on a PERSONAL SERVER is wrong. When doing the public's work, it MUST be done in a manner that allows PUBLIC oversight. My concern - she is not the only PUBLIC SERVANT doing our business though PRIVATE avenues.

Well, I'll be curious to hear from you. What do you think Congress (our supposed Public Servants) should investigate? Is it possible in this polarized day and age to have a FAIR hearing, allowing all sides of an issue or concern to be aired in PUBLIC?

Is Bengazhi really the most important subject of our last couple of years? Who benefits from this circus? Who loses? Is it all just a show to divert public attention and energy away from The Trans Pacific PartnerShip and other destuctive trade trade packs, the abismal failure of 'austerity' economics (Raygun Economics), the miliarization of - well - everything, endless war for profit?

So only investigate republicans,,,, got it.

nm.

Someone beat me to it.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
So only investigate republicans,,,, got it.

Oh, you mean I'm not the only one who noticed that?

Weird.

originally posted by: Shamrock6

originally posted by: Bluntone22
So only investigate republicans,,,, got it.

Oh, you mean I'm not the only one who noticed that?

Weird.

Should we let em know that there are some republicans in congress?

Thank you for the non-constructive and polarized responses. Had you bothered to read the entire post you would see that it is in no way reflecting any "only investigate repuplican person", in fact it doesn't promote investigating PEOPLE at all but ISSUES of concern.

This is precicely the childish thinking and behavior that is destroying this forum. Ignorate, knee-jerk reactions in the hope of attention getting are not helpful to anyone anywhere.

a reply to: FyreByrd


You put a list from a progressive website that has five points. Three of those points name republicans and the other two name the usual progressive targets.
Yeah, that's a fair and balanced approach.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Partisan kettle meet partisan pot.

The targets of your list are either blatantly republican or obliquely republican. You're seriously going to pretend otherwise? And then stamp your foot and talk about knee-jerk reactions?

We can certainly agree that blatant partisanship (such as this OP) are what's ruining ATS, at least.

Divide and Rule focus here, blaming sides…

Officials, elected even, are just announcers and errand boys/girls. They fly around the world meeting with other officials, delivering messages in person to their counterparts who then pass them along.

The real power isn't Republican Democrats, or the whole any Party system.

If the Bengahzi mess was Hilary Clintons personal fault then by the same reasoning 9/11 was solely Bush II's. Seems fair, don't ya think.

Sirens call… OP, you asked for it.

As a nation, we have arrived at a point where we judge our fellow Americans by their political views.

The last time this happened, we ended up in a civil war.
I hope this never happens again but... due to our beloved indoctrination, it becomes more and more possible, if not even likely, with each passing day.

It needs to

Two of the five are not partisan.

Two may appear so but are not either.

So that leaves one that might be. Might be.

But interesting to see how some (I'm assuming Republicans) are so defensive about it.

And how no one seems to see how the top headline-getting things they are investigating are not a waste of time, are not trivial in proportion to other things they are not looking into, and are not pure political theatrics is beyond me.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Ever since Reagan sent my husband down the economic scale with killing union jobs, raised my taxes, took the deductions I could qualify for, gave our construction jobs to illegal mexicans, then the same party rewards us by sending our children and grandchildren into the ME quagmire of pedophilia and perpetual war.....yeah I'm partisan and hate the conservative platform. Nothing to argue about anymore.

a reply to: FyreByrd

This is precicely the childish thinking and behavior that is destroying this forum. Ignorate, knee-jerk reactions in the hope of attention getting are not helpful to anyone anywhere.

But useful to pull the conversation away from the issues you highlighted.

The closer to the real mark we get the more smoke there is. Thats why the system is set up the way it is.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
It's been quite dull around ATS over the last couple of months. Interesting content and discussion (?) has been missing.

Bah. I take exception to this.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
So only investigate republicans,,,, got it.

That is not what the OP said, but let's assume for a minute that the source is biased and the Op's intent was to point at republicans.

So what?

What we have to look at is whether or not the issues listed should be investigated. The entire reason we have had hearings on Benghazi and Clinton emails is to find the truth, correct? To dig in to the facts and educate the American people on what has been done by Clinton and the administration that may have been illegal or damaging to the national security of the people. That's what we are told anyway.

Well, why shouldn't we investigate the issues listed above for the very same reasons? You would agree with that, right? You're interested in truth and holding people accountable, right?

I agree that the things listed are more important than Benghazi and Clinton emails because the Republicans have investigated both and have nothing to show for it. Benghazi and emails are non-issues. But these other issues are very important and not one republican is calling for them to be investigated.

Why is that? It's because they don't care about truth or educating the American people. They only care about political witch hunts that either benefit them or break-down their political opponents.

Then you have Right-Wing fanboys that on one hand root for investigations to find truth, yet complain about partisanship when someone says that there are things that really need to be investigated that the Republicans are part of.

In the end, it is a partisan issue, people need to be consistent in their application of calls for investigations and so far the Republicans have created a nice hole for themselves on this very issue.

a reply to: FyreByrd

"Things that congress should investigate instead of Benghazi." stands alone as a democrat rally cry, not to mention the content of the post. To act as if anyone but you started this particular left/right debate is dishonest, to say the least. All of our....leaders be they Dem or Rep are in cohorts to rule over us cattle and to serve their masters. Yes indeed, there are plenty of things congress has failed to investigate and the more important questions, regarding Benghazi, were never asked. I'm guessing you must be a fan of flying saucers. Why else would you be on this forum, since your political views are so simple and mainstream?

So only investigate republicans,,,, got it

Well, since they're mostly evil that makes sense.

originally posted by: CB328

So only investigate republicans,,,, got it

Well, since they're mostly evil that makes sense.

Bleh. Democrats and republicans are evil. It makes no sense to focus on one. They are in cahoots together. If you investigate only republicans, then you miss 50% of the evil facts.

Besides, the OP said she didn't intend her post to be partisan.

originally posted by: CB328

So only investigate republicans,,,, got it

Well, since they're mostly evil that makes sense.

Oh Jesus, looks like we're going to go to this level of ignorant today on ats

instead of:

"" Top Five Things Congress Should Investigate Instead of Benghazi ""

it should be:

"" Top Five Things Congress Should HAVE Investigate(d) Instead of Benghazi ""

..... anywhere from 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 when Democrats (Bush haters) had the Congressional Committee power.

But then again, many Democrats were in favor of Bush's policies.