On yesterday's Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace aired an edited video of President Obama's September 12 remarks on the deaths of four Americans in Libya the day before. Wallace claimed the video was edited "to show that there was quite a gap between various things that he was discussing." In other words, it was edited with the express purpose of "showing" that President Obama was not referring to the Libya attacks when used the words "acts of terror." Yet, Wallace did not show the remarks in their actual context.
Here are President Obama's words immediately before and after he said, "acts of terror."
Of course, yesterday was already a painful day for our nation as we marked the solemn memory of the 9/11 attacks. We mourned with the families who were lost on that day. I visited the graves of troops who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hallowed grounds of Arlington Cemetery, and had the opportunity to say thank you and visit some of our wounded warriors at Walter Reed. And then last night, we learned the news of this attack in Benghazi.
As Americans, let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it, to stand up for it, and in some cases, lay down their lives for it. Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those both civilian and military who represent us around the globe.
No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.
But we also know that the lives these Americans led stand in stark contrast to those of their attackers. These four Americans stood up for freedom and human dignity. They should give every American great pride in the country that they served, and the hope that our flag represents to people around the globe who also yearn to live in freedom and with dignity.
Clearly, Obama was including the American deaths in Libya within the context of 9/11 and terrorism. But Fox edited the video in a way that deceptively conveyed the impression that when Obama used the phrase "acts of terror," he was only speaking generally about terrorism and not calling Libya a terrorist attack. Video below via Media Matters.
Of course, the only real reason Fox News cares about this is to bolster their dog whistle attacks on President Obama as soft on Muslims. And, maybe even more importantly, to help rehab their man Mitt's blunder in the last debate. Otherwise, who cares when President Obama said the Benghazi attacks were terror or not? The crucial question is how he handled the attacks and, even more importantly, what he's doing to keep our overseas personnel safer in the future. Despite all the foaming at the mouth, I haven't heard a peep of concern from those Fox "patriots" about the safety of any living Americans serving abroad.
That was a nice distraction… but I digress.
" . . . seeing the obvious sockpuppetry going on here lately, I see that âtheyâ are just as monotonous, zealous and uninformed as ever."
That they are — the only differences I can see from some of the past trolls are:
1. While they’re indeed monotonous, zealous, and uninformed, they don’t sound as ready to resort to violence — towards either progressives in general or this blog’s readers in particular — as trolls of the past; I attribute this to the new commenting system and monitoring.
2. Where the past trolls loudly and proudly proclaimed their allegiance to the right wing, Ronald Raygun, Dumbya, and Shooter Cheney, the latest ones are more apt to describe themselves as “political independents.”
3. The newer sockpuppets seem especially eager to chastise us for racism, name-calling and ad hominem attacks, all in the name of “elevating the political discourse,” even as we point out the same coming from Fox/hate radio.
In any case, you can expect sockpuppetry from the zealous and uninformed to increase, both in frequency and sockpuppet name, right on up ’til Nov. 6th . . .
.
Hi Clarence! thanks for dropping by!
1) – 2003, Dumbya starts unnecessary war in ME.
2) – Americans in ME suffer unnecessary loss of life that continues to this day because of 1).
Tom, I’ll ask you the same question I asked of your fellow sockpuppets, Keith Sparbanie and Jennifer Ostermiller:
Did the President calling the attacks “acts of terror” rather than “terrorist attacks” make the victims any LESS dead/injured, or their families any LESS affected?
.
Obama did indeed refer to it as an act of terror, and show me where he ruled out terrorism. The Administration (including Rice) said that terrorists were using the riots as cover to attack targets they couldn’t have hit otherwise.
But I guess not screaming “TERRORIST! JIHAD!” at every turn and a half equals a cover-up over at Fox World. By their logic, They should admit that thier “World Apology Tour” meme is a hate crime because I can’t find where Obama actually said he personally apologizes on behalf of the US.
He wants to cut taxesâfrom 38% top to 28%—eliminate the estate tax where one family has more wealth than 90% of familiesâkeep capital gains at 15%—where 25 Hedge Fund managers made 22 Billion in 2010âand paid little if any Payroll Taxâpaid a 15% individual income taxâoffset loss of revenue by closing loopholes—-Ha! Each loophole has a proponentâincrease military spendingâ800 bases worldwide-Infrastructure in shamblesâpursue free trade agreements to ship jobs overseasâ58,000 plants closed in last decadeâhow many opened in China—-we must demand better self serving policiesâTariff importsâHigh 1945-1980 type tax rates—-middle class has been hurt badlyâ60% of jobs once had pensions now it is 20%—protect safety nets which have served us so well—-
Mitt Romney is a rich mans candidate and will attempt to change safety nets to enrich the rich
who gained so much wealth since 1980. Since 1980, we borrowed $15,000 Billion instead of taxing to pay our way. Richest nation with a national income of $14,000 Billion will not tax to balance its budget but in 2011 borrowed 1100B while the rich just got much richer.
MITT SCARES ME TO TEARS
