Phony, Phact or Phairy Tale? Part One

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will start by saying my political persuasion tends to run center right. Some would claim that is an understatement. I’m certainly not an anarchist or even a libertarian. I am however a social conservative and when I’m forced to give my hard earned money to someone else to spend for me, well I’d like that person to be a fiscal conservative. I also expect he or she will be a good steward of all aspects of the government.  I suppose that really would be a Fairy Tale.

Having said all that, I’d like to discuss President Obama’s comments about all the “Phony” scandals distracting his administration. Unfortunately unless one is a wonk like me some may not even be familiar with all the “Phony” scandals.  Yet each passing day seems to bring another scandal.  I’m also going to describe this in chronological order not necessarily in order of seriousness. Finally because I respect your time I will only give a brief synopsis of each “Phony” scandal due to the extensive material available. My desire is to whet your appetite to do your own research so you may come to your own conclusions.

FAST AND FURIOUS: a gun running program that was allowing the Border States to sell guns to known drug cartels with the intent of tagging the guns with a GPS. This would allow agents to follow the guns and break-up the cartels. There is only one problem; the guns never got tagged, only sold. Over 2000 high powered guns were quickly lost and as a result on December 15, 2010, Border Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed. I’m sure his family doesn’t find anything “Phony” about his death. The Terry’s still don’t know exactly what happened only that he was killed with one of the guns from Fast and Furious. “Phony?” Nope. Fast? Ah no. Furious? Oh yeah!

NAVY SEAL TEAM 6: the team that took out Usama Bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Pryor to this the team was mostly unknown, the reason? They are the stealth fighters. Seal Team 6 is one of the most elite Special Ops teams in the military, stealth being the operative word. Until the raid on the Bin Laden compound most people had never heard of Seal Team 6. During the President and Vice President’s victory lap, it somehow slipped out that it was Seal Team 6 that killed Bin Laden, this put a target on the backs of the Seals.

I recently heard one of the Seals mothers talking about her son. She said that as soon as the Seals heard that their name had been released, they knew they would become a target. She said before her son left to go back to Afghanistan he created a will. Something he had never worried about before. On Saturday August 6, 2011 a CH-47 Chinook Helicopter was shot down over eastern Afghanistan during some “enemy activity in the area”. This mother’s son was on board. In total 30 Americans, 7 Afghans and one interpreter were killed. It was originally reported that of the 30 Americans, 25 were Navy Seals, several from Seal Team 6. This is the most deadly day for the military since the war started in 2001. Once again, the families are trying to find out exactly what happened to their loved ones. The mother I mentioned earlier said she had been told by military friends that the Afghans on the Chopper were not on the original roster and had been replaced at the last minute.  Coincidence? I don’t think so, a distraction? Maybe. “Phony”? Absolutely not!

BENGHAZI: On September 11, 2012 the American Diplomatic mission at Benghazi in Libya was attached by a group of insurgents. Before the long night was over, four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens were murdered. The other three Americans were Sean Smith, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer and former Navy Seals, Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty.

This story has been festering for over 10 months and yet once again, no one seems to know what happened. The administration actually had the temerity to declare this attack was a response to a low budget, poorly made video that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad. On the day of the attack only a few hundred people had seen the movie trailer on youtube. This narrative was pushed so hard that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told one of the parents at Andrews Air Base during the body receiving ceremony that she would be sure to find the film maker and lock him up, so much for the first Amendment. Then on September 16, 2012 the Administration sent the U.S. Ambassador to the U. N., Susan Rice to appear on all of the Sunday morning news shows to reiterate these murders occurred do to a really bad movie that no one had seen. Four Americans are dead and the President and Secretary of State are talking about a move? I don’t think so.

One of the saddest things I’ve heard about this “Phony” scandal? Someone in the news asked the mother of Sean Smith if she had been contacted by anyone in the Administration or State Department since the bodies came home. She said yes she had, they sent her an email stating that since she was not an immediate relative of Sean Smith she was not entitled to any of the personal information. If the victims mother is not an immediate relative than who is? Now that sounds like a “Phony” scandal to me.

The number of “Phony” scandals is so numerous that I will need to complete this next week. By-the-way, I know since only enlightened readers are following this blog, some of you may have noticed that my title symbol doesn’t seem to fit the content, well maybe it does maybe not, but now you will have to wait until next week for me to explain. It may not be what you think. Now that’s a “Phony” tease if I’ve ever heard one.  I guess it’s not fair, but you know what that means.  After all, don’t forget, ‘Fair is for Fairy Tales’!