The Old Guard stays at Tomb of Unknowns while Hurricane Sandy raged on

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
― George Orwell

Thank God for our servicemen and women.  Guarding their resting place at Arlington National Cemetery is a solemn and honorable privilege. 

Old Guard stays at Tomb of Unknowns in superstorm

Associated Press – Mon, Oct 29, 2012

 

Enlarge Photo

Associated Press/Sgt. Jose A. Torres Jr.,/U.S. Army Photo - This handout photo provided by the us Army shows Spc. Brett Hyde, Tomb Sentinel, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), keeping guard over the …more Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during Hurricane Sandy, at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. Just like the Sentinel's Creed says "Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability." (AP Photo/Sgt. Jose A. Torres Jr.,/U.S. Army Photo) less

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — In the face of Hurricane Sandy, the Army continued to guard the Tomb of the Unknowns on Monday but not with the familiar, choreographed 21 paces that the public typically sees.

 

A photo that went viral on social media of three soldiers from the Army's Third U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard, keeping watch over the tomb was actually taken during a September rainstorm. The Army became aware of the photo and said on its Twitter account and to media that it was from September.

The Army handed out a photo that was taken Monday morning before Arlington National Cemetery closed because of the storm. Afterward, when morning funerals were completed, the Old Guard soldiers were still on duty but had moved into an enclosure covered by a green awning known as "the box," about 20 feet away from the tomb, according to regiment spokesman Maj. John Miller.

He said if the weather becomes intolerable, the tomb can also be guarded from a room inside a nearby amphitheater. But no such order was given on Monday afternoon

Sunrise - Kandahar, Afghanistan

Sunrise this morning in Kandhar, Afghanistan...we got rain overnight which is odd here as we get rarely get rain.  Winter here is the only rainy season.

I send this picture with thoughts and prayers for all back home in harm's way.  The residents of the East Coast, especially NYC, NJ, Philly, The Virginias and Delware are in our thoughts and prayers.

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has overwhelmed all and it will be sometime before life resembles normal back home.

Hurricane Sandy, Politics and How the President acted yesterday

The news over the last 24 hours has been grim.  75 million affected by Hurricane Sandy in an area from North Carolina to Maine.  By all accounts NJ, NYC, MD and Delaware took the worst of it.  Philly too.

It will take weeks to asses the totals.  The number of people lost will be the grim statistic of the storm as 60+ were lost in the tropics and more will be added to that total in areas of the East Coast effected.

Meanwhile, the political grandstanding goes on.  The President made sure to make himself highly visible yesterday, in a manner he did not do a year ago when Irene hit the East Coast or more importantly, when 4 Americans died in Benghazi.  That night instead of manning the Situation Room, he went back to bed and then after a small news conference, he went to Vegas.

Charles Krauthammer made a point of outlining his feelings about it last night:

“Well, he says he’s not concerned about the impact on the elections. I’m sure he’s very sincere on that. But it is a little odd that he shows up in the Briefing Room where he hasn’t shown up in the Briefing Room for what, a month-and-a-half? 

For Libya or for anything else for that matter. Then you get the photo-ops of him in the Situation Room deploying I guess the utility crews who restore power all over America. 

Where you would think he might want to use the Situation Room to convene high level people during the night hours when our people were under attack in Benghazi. 

It’s hard to look at this, playing the president, playing the Commander in Chief in what’s a natural disaster that really doesn’t require a lot of from the White House. It’s up to the governors mostly. The White House and the government release money. That’s all they do and he’s really good at releasing money.”

8 more days until we can send a message to the White House that it is time for ADULT LEADERSHIP and not this immature pol who has been a utter failure.

Gov. Deval Patrick - Obama's BFF and "Mini Me" - A pair of Failed POLS

Benghazi will be remembered as when good men died due to an ineffective and failed President who lied his way into the highest office in the land.  People who voted for him who were more interested in electing the "cool" factor than a good leader.  Ugh.

What could be possibly worse than more of Obama, a feckless politician who has been proven to be a liar, fraud and failed charlatan??

How about his BEST FRIEND FOREVER ( BFF ) Governor Deval Patrick - another failed lefty looney liberal moonbat who has proven to be, as my Dad would say, as
" shallow as piss on a flat rock ".  He has made Massachusetts a laughing stock as we are recognized as having one of the more corrupt state governments in the land.  An Afghan writer said that MASSACHUSETTS politics was more corrupt than KABUL and he made some pretty good points.

Giving licenses to illegal immigrants ?  More EBT cards with cash benefits that can be spent at casinos, cruise ships and tattoo parlors?  More patronage jobs and lifetime EVERYTHING for lazy state workers who don't even know what the meaning of real work is???  A public transit system ( MBTA ) that is a sinkhole for $$$ ???? 

IF you like all these things, than DEVAL is your man -

A empty suit cut from the same unethical and morally bankrupt cloth as his buddy Obama.

What a pair of clowns and worse yet are those who voted for these two putzes.

Howie Carr gives us a write up that needs to be remembered as Deval wants to follow his best buddy's path to national politics - Heavens protect us, please.

We need more of these two failed fools like we all need kick in the b*lls.

Gusts of hot air forecast for gov

By Howie Carr
Sunday, October 28, 2012 -  Boston Herald

Boston Herald Columnist

Thanks to Sandy, we’ll be seeing a lot of Gov. Deval Patrick over the next few days, live from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency bunker in Framingham, all 67 inches of him.

He’ll be wearing that boss leather jacket, talking tough to the utilities like he did the other day. Some reporter asked him if the utilities will be ready for Frankenstorm, and he replied in that squeaky little voice of his, “They’d better be.”

Ooooooh, I’ll bet they were petrified. If they don’t keep the lights on next week, the utilities can count on a scorching ... invitation to his next fundraiser.

 

Deval’s governorship is winding down, like T.S. Eliot’s world, not with a bang but a whimper. Deval’s favorite Roman emperor? Nero, because he, too, fiddled while Rome burned.

Beyond this pending temporary return to the limelight, Deval has become Dukakis Redux. His governorship consists of little more than rounding up the usual suspects. Almost daily he is shocked to learn that there is gambling going on in the casino.

His cops raid the compounding pharmacy in Framingham ... after 23 people are dead. He sets up a “war room” to deal with the Annie Dookhan scandal at the forensic laboratory — surrender room would be more like it, as they cut loose drug dealer after drug dealer. And Deval claims it’s only going to cost the state $50 million?

What happens when the freed drug dealers start shooting civilians, or providing them with hot shots? How about all those second-generation lawsuits? Then there’s his new MBTA boss, who fled Atlanta leaving Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority in shambles, with out-of-control absenteeism and pension costs and an unsustainable economic model. Sound familiar?

“She is exactly what we need,” Deval said with a straight face.

Deval has long served as Mini-Me to Obama’s Dr. Evil. So how come he’s not a campaign surrogate anymore? During the last presidential debate in Boca, Deval spent the evening in Ashland, trying to save a moonbat rep who votes with the speaker 99.4 percent of the time. (His one vote against the speaker was to oppose any EBT reform — no wonder Deval loves the guy.)

Now Sandy’s rolling north, just in time for the first anniversary of the freak Halloween storm. We all remember what happened back then — Lt. Gov. Tim Murray achieved liftoff at 108 mph in his state-issued Crown Vic. And Deval is still stonewalling on release of embattled Murray’s cellphone records.

And next year, will Murray be a witness at any possible trials of his dear friend, Mike McLaughlin, the $360,000-a-year Chelsea Housing Authority director?

Deval can forget the U.S. Supreme Court. That sketchy background of his will kill him. Remember Ameriquest? He can likewise forget about anything that requires Senate confirmation. As Bill Weld found out, it only takes one senator to deep-six your nomination.

And anyway, does Deval want any of that stuff? Ambassadorships are for the likes of Ray Flynn and Brian Donnelly. Secretary of, say, transportation? That’s for the Andy Cards of the world.

Pre-governorship, Deval had a pretty good racket going. He learned it from his mentor, Jesse Jackson. King had a dream, Jesse had a scheme. Jesse called his Operation Push. Deval’s was Operation Grab.

Deval would go to some corporation that needed some racial cover — “steam control,” as Tom Wolfe put it. After a few months, Deval would get all huffy and then walk away with a few million and a non-disclosure agreement. Wash, rinse, repeat. It worked with Coke, it worked with Texaco, but by 2005 Deval had worn out the grift.

What’s next? One thing we know it won’t be — another $1.35 million advance for a “book” that sells 6,000 copies.

Performance Evaluation

As a HR professional, I have handled many performance evaluations and counseled managers on the finer points of how to fairly evaluate the performance of a staff member.

In this case, this person would be in line with the kind of evaluation you give a CEO.  The Board and shareholders would hold the CEO accountable for performance and making sure that things were done right.

In the case of this employee, he would have been let go years ago if it were possible.  He has failed on every level.  The only successes he can claim are soley due to the actions of others.

I agree with this write up.  Time to put an end to this person being in charge and get ADULT LEADERSHIP in place ASAP.

Presidential Performance Review

Mr. Obama, your performance has been unsatisfactory.

By Kevin D. Williamson

Memo From: Performance Review Committee

Employee: Barack Obama
Employee Code: USAPOTUS0044\
Contract Term: 4 Years

Recommendation: Do Not Renew (“Shoebox”)

Dear Mr. Obama:

It is with a measure of regret that I must recommend to the review committee that our firm decline to renew your contract, based on non-performance of the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1: National Security. This is the key deliverable for your role in our organization. Failure here is critical, and, while there will be inevitable setbacks and unforeseen developments, your performance here has been substandard. While I have frequently recommended to the management a more restrained policy on overseas matters — a position you endorsed during your interview process — you have managed to combine the worst aspects of your predecessor with the worst aspects of the opposing view. For example, you used the firm’s military and diplomatic pressure in service to what I think we can agree turned out to be the wrong side in Egypt and Libya, and your deployment of military assets to Uganda and the Congo is, in my view, a proposition with zero profit opportunities for the firm, horrific as that conflict is.

On the other hand, an attack on the firm’s representatives in Libya is an attack on the firm itself, i.e., precisely the time for using military force, and, more important, for taking proactive steps to prevent it in the first place — especially when such steps have been specifically requested. You don’t sit around in the executive suite and watch it happen while doing nothing — and you don’t run off to Vegas on the company jet afterward, either.
Worse, you compounded your mistakes in Benghazi by spending two weeks offering our shareholders misleading information about the nature of the episode, a firing offense. If your record were otherwise immaculate, I would still be recommending your termination to the committee for this mistake.

Deliverable 2: Public Safety. Under your management, violent crime is up 18 percent — the first such increase in 20 years. Your “Fast and Furious” project has caused serious damage to the balance sheet: one dead federal officer, more than a hundred dead civilians, a seriously cheesed-off next-door business partner, and zero cartel convictions — the lattermost being, if I understand your business strategy, the whole point of this mess. Your performance reports here have been remarkably obstructive, which is why you should have on our advice terminated Eric Holder.

Deliverable 3: Energy. When interviewing for this position, you said, and I quote, “We could have headed off $4-a-gallon gas.” We’ve seen gas prices above or near $4 for most of your term, and above $5 in some parts of the country under the management of your associates. Energy production on the firm’s lands is down substantially year-over-year.

Deliverable 4: Balance Sheet. During your interview, you proposed cutting the firm’s current operating deficit in half. In fact, the firm has acquired trillions of dollars of new debt under your management, along with new unfunded liabilities that our accountants are still trying to work out. When you were presented recommendations from a committee named by you and your management team, you refused even to consider implementing them. You are on track to add another $1 trillion in debt this year.

Deliverable 5: Growth. The first and second quarters of this year saw 1.2 percent and 2 percent growth, respectively, well under the firm’s historic average and less than half of your own team’s assumptions.

Deliverable 6: Human-Capital Deployment. We lose money when our people aren’t working. On the day you were hired, we had 65.7 percent of them on the job; today we have only 63.6 percent. We understand that the recession presented challenges, but if you had kept pace with prior post-recession human-capital deployment, we’d have 6 million more workers on the job today.

Deliverable 7: Retained Shareholder Earnings by Unit. Household incomes are down in real terms by $3,002.96 since you’ve been on the job. In case you haven’t been informed, we were hoping to get them moving in the other direction. Losing money for our shareholders is not our business model.

Deliverable 8: Cost Control. Welfare expenditures are up 32 percent since we hired you and your team. Instead of paying our people to work, we’re paying them not to work. As you might say, this is “not optimal.”

On a personal note, I’d like to say that the first time I ever had to fire anybody, I felt really bad about it. She was a nice young woman in her first real job, courteous, well-liked, always on time, and eager to do a good job. She had, unfortunately, been hired for a position that required more than her talents and experience enabled her to deliver. This is also true of you, with the exception of being courteous, likable, and punctual. If I could, I would fire you twice.

Alice from personnel will provide you with a shoebox in which to put your Nobel medal and other personal items; I’m told you won’t need a bigger box for that Churchill bust. Fortunately for you, we have a generous severance package and benefits, even in cases of gross nonperformance of duties. Please see to it that Mr. Biden gets the message — he hasn’t been answering his phone for two weeks now, and, frankly, we’re a little worried about him.

I’m also issuing a reprimand for the committee that screens our applications and hired you in the first place.

Time to go. Now.

Hurricane Sandy heading to East Coast as " Frankenstorm"

A late season storm will look to make a mess of things over the next week.  This is almost a carbon copy of what was called " The Perfect Storm " that happened in October 1991. Due to it arriving at Halloween, they have dubbed it " Frankenstorm " based on that it is a mix of winter cooler air and the subtropical storm coming from the south.

 

 

No matter where this makes landfall, this storm will make a mess of things for the East Coast.

 

Hybrid of Sandy, winter storm threatens East Coast

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Government forecasters say a big storm that they're calling "Frankenstorm" is likely to blast most of the U.S. East Coast next week.

 

The storm is an unusual mix of a hurricane and a winter storm. The worst of it could be focused around New York City and New Jersey.

 

Forecasters on Thursday said there's a 90 percent chance that the East will get steady gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe snow starting Sunday and stretching past Wednesday.

The hurricane part of the storm is likely to come ashore somewhere in New Jersey on Tuesday morning.

NOAA forecaster Jim Cisco said the storm is so massive that the effects will be felt along the entire coast from Florida to Maine and inland to Ohio.

Thomas Edison-invented phonograph played - Recorded in St. Louis in 1878

This antique is as far from digital recordings of today as the Model T is from the Space Shuttle.

Cool stuff - voice recordings from 1878 - wow.

Oldest known voice, music recording restored

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. It's scratchy, lasts only 78 seconds and features the world's first recorded blooper.

The modern masses can now listen to what experts say is the oldest playable recording of an American voice and the first-ever capturing of a musical performance, thanks to digital advances that allowed the sound to be transferred from flimsy tinfoil to computer.

The recording was originally made on a Thomas Edison-invented phonograph in St. Louis in 1878.

At a time when music lovers can carry thousands of digital songs on a player the size of a pack of gum, Edison's tinfoil playback seems prehistoric. But that dinosaur opens a key window into the development of recorded sound.

"In the history of recorded sound that's still playable, this is about as far back as we can go," said John Schneiter, a trustee at the Museum of Innovation and Science, where it will be played Thursday night in the city where Edison helped found the General Electric Co.

The recording opens with a 23-second cornet solo of an unidentified song, followed by a man's voice reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Old Mother Hubbard." The man laughs at two spots during the recording, including at the end, when he recites the wrong words in the second nursery rhyme.

"Look at me; I don't know the song," he says.

When the recording is played using modern technology during a presentation Thursday at a nearby theater, it likely will be the first time it has been played at a public event since it was created during an Edison phonograph demonstration held June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, museum officials said.

The recording was made on a sheet of tinfoil, 5 inches wide by 15 inches long, and placed on the cylinder of the phonograph Edison invented in 1877 and began selling the following year.

A hand crank turned the cylinder under a stylus that would move up and down over the foil, recording the sound waves created by the operator's voice. The stylus would eventually tear the foil after just a few playbacks, and the person demonstrating the technology would typically tear up the tinfoil and hand the pieces out as souvenirs, according to museum curator Chris Hunter.

Popping noises heard on this recording are likely from scars left from where the foil was folded up for more than a century.

"Realistically, once you played it a couple of times, the stylus would tear through it and destroy it," he said.

Only a handful of the tinfoil recording sheets are known to known to survive, and of those, only two are playable: the Schenectady museum's and an 1880 recording owned by The Henry Ford museum in Michigan.

Hunter said he was able to determine just this week that the man's voice on the museum's 1878 tinfoil recording is believed to be that of Thomas Mason, a St. Louis newspaper political writer who also went by the pen name I.X. Peck.

Edison company records show that one of his newly invented tinfoil phonographs, serial No. 8, was sold to Mason for $95.50 in April 1878, and a search of old newspapers revealed a listing for a public phonograph program being offered by Peck on June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, the curator said.

A woman's voice says the words "Old Mother Hubbard," but her identity remains a mystery, he said. Three weeks after making the recording, Mason died of sunstroke, Hunter said.

A Connecticut woman donated the tinfoil to the Schenectady museum in 1978 for an exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Edison company that later merged with another to form GE. The woman's father had been an antiques dealer in the Midwest and counted the item among his favorites, Hunter said.

In July, Hunter brought the Edison tinfoil recording to California's Berkeley Lab, where researchers such as Carl Haber have had success in recent years restoring some of the earliest audio recordings.

Haber's projects include recovering a snippet of a folk song recorded a capella in 1860 on paper by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, a French printer credited with inventing the earliest known sound recording device.

Haber and his team used optical scanning technology to replicate the action of the phonograph's stylus, reading the grooves in the foil and creating a 3D image, which was then analyzed by a computer program that recovered the original recorded sound.

The achievement restores a vital link in the evolution of recorded sound, Haber said. The artifact represents Edison's first step in his efforts to record sound and have the capability to play it back, even if it was just once or twice, he said.

"It really completes a technology story," Haber said. "He was on the right track from the get-go to record and play it back."

© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack

Many knew that this was truth - The White House put out LIES, LIES and more damned LIES. The White House was aware from the very start that the Benghazi attack was the work of Terrorists.

Obama needs to go as he has failed as our President.  The Benghazi Cover-up is more serious than Watergate as 4 good men died and their deaths were preventable.  If we had Adult Leadership in place, they would have made sure our Ambassador in Libya had sufficient security.

Protecting our people and country is the first duty of the President.  Obama has failed.

REUTERS: White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: email

The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames during a protest by an armed group said to have been protesting a film being produced in the United States September 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Esam Al-Fetori

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:11pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.

The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Benghazi assault, which President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials ultimately acknowledged was a "terrorist" attack carried out by militants with suspected links to al Qaeda affiliates or sympathizers.

Administration spokesmen, including White House spokesman Jay Carney, citing an unclassified assessment prepared by the CIA, maintained for days that the attacks likely were a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film.

While officials did mention the possible involvement of "extremists," they did not lay blame on any specific militant groups or possible links to al Qaeda or its affiliates until intelligence officials publicly alleged that on September 28.

There were indications that extremists with possible al Qaeda connections were involved, but also evidence that the attacks could have erupted spontaneously, they said, adding that government experts wanted to be cautious about pointing fingers prematurely.

U.S. intelligence officials have emphasized since shortly after the attack that early intelligence reporting about the attack was mixed.

Spokesmen for the White House and State Department had no immediate response to requests for comments on the emails.

MISSIVES FROM LIBYA

The records obtained by Reuters consist of three emails dispatched by the State Department's Operations Center to multiple government offices, including addresses at the White House, Pentagon, intelligence community and FBI, on the afternoon of September 11.

The first email, timed at 4:05 p.m. Washington time - or 10:05 p.m. Benghazi time, 20-30 minutes after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission allegedly began - carried the subject line "U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack" and the notation "SBU", meaning "Sensitive But Unclassified."

The text said the State Department's regional security office had reported that the diplomatic mission in Benghazi was "under attack. Embassy in Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well."

The message continued: "Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four ... personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support."

A second email, headed "Update 1: U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi" and timed 4:54 p.m. Washington time, said that the Embassy in Tripoli had reported that "the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi had stopped and the compound had been cleared." It said a "response team" was at the site attempting to locate missing personnel.

A third email, also marked SBU and sent at 6:07 p.m. Washington time, carried the subject line: "Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack."

The message reported: "Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli."

While some information identifying recipients of this message was redacted from copies of the messages obtained by Reuters, a government source said that one of the addresses to which the message was sent was the White House Situation Room, the president's secure command post.
Other addressees included intelligence and military units as well as one used by the FBI command center, the source said.

It was not known what other messages were received by agencies in Washington from Libya that day about who might have been behind the attacks.

Intelligence experts caution that initial reports from the scene of any attack or disaster are often inaccurate.

By the morning of September 12, the day after the Benghazi attack, Reuters reported that there were indications that members of both Ansar al-Sharia, a militia based in the Benghazi area, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African affiliate of al Qaeda's faltering central command, may have been involved in organizing the attacks.

One U.S. intelligence official said that during the first classified briefing about Benghazi given to members of Congress, officials "carefully laid out the full range of sparsely available information, relying on the best analysis available at the time."

The official added, however, that the initial analysis of the attack that was presented to legislators was mixed.

"Briefers said extremists were involved in attacks that appeared spontaneous, there may have been a variety of motivating factors, and possible links to groups such as (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar al-Sharia) were being looked at closely," the official said.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Mary Milliken and Jim Loney

Bayonets & Horses?? Oh yeah, they are part of our military DNA

Well we heard and have seen how much POTUS cares about the military and our Veterans.  That is why he directed that Veterans must pay more for the benefits and healthcare they deserve.  He is not fooling anyone as he hates and holds distain for all military.

We deserve better than the failed fool who we have suffered under for the last 4 years.

Bayonets & Horses??  Oh yeah, they are part of our military DNA, not that Obama would know that.

If you need a reminder, please see the enclosed picture I took in Sept. 2010 when I attended the funeral of a fallen Marine at Arlington National Cemetery who was a shipmate of mine.

 

Obama line about horses, bayonets fails - www.dailycaller.com

 

In a debate exchange Monday night that set Twitter on fire, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney crossed swords over the kinds of equipment and materials the U.S. military uses for modern warfare.

In a response to Romney’s barb that Obama has allowed the U.S. Navy’s inventory of battleships to approach a historic low mark, Obama snarked that “we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.”

But horses and bayonets both remain vital parts of the U.S arsenal.

The Daily Caller won a prestigious Edward R. Murrow award this year for a war report about the American soldiers who — riding on horseback — were the first U.S. forces to fight in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attacks.

And bayonets remain a fixture in Army infantry training and deployment. On August 6 a blogger at the Gizmodo technology website reported that the military was trading in bayonets for a “tomahawk”-like hand-to-hand combat weapon, but it later emerged that the source of that erroneous report was Duffelblog — a military spoof website modeled on The Onion.

“I think Gov. Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works,” Obama claimed Monday night.

“You — you mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”

Deny, Deny, Deny - The strategy of a Failed Administration

The WSJ lays it out bare - The last 4 years have been a fiasco and the Village Idiot from Chicago needs to go.  Read the whole thing....

Dorothy Rabinowitz: The Unreality of the Past Four Years

The Benghazi fiasco is a brutally illuminating portrait of the Obama White House in crisis mode.

By DOROTHY RABINOWITZ

In the 1967 film "A Guide for the Married Man," a husband, played by a peerless Walter Matthau, is given lessons in ways to cheat on his wife safely. The most essential rule: "Deny! Deny! Deny!"—no matter what. In an instructive scene, he's shown a wife undone by shock, and screaming, with reason: She has just walked in on her husband making love to a glamorous stranger.

"What are you doing," she wails, "who is that woman?"

"What woman, where?" the husband serenely counters, as he and the tart in question get out of bed and calmly dress.

So the scene proceeds, with the distraught wife pointing to the woman she clearly sees before her, while her husband, unruffled, continues to look blankly at her, asking, "What woman?" Confused by her spouse's unblinking assurance, she gives up. Two minutes later she's asking him what he'd like for dinner.

For much of the past four years, the Obama administration's propensity for asserting views of reality wildly at odds with those evident to most rational citizens has looked increasingly like a page from that film script.

All administrations conceal, falsify and tell lies—this is understood—but there's no missing the distinctive quality of the prevaricating issuing from the White House in these four years.

It's a quality on vivid display now in the administration's mesmerizing narrative of the assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya. Here's a memorable picture, its detail brutally illuminating, of Obama and company in crisis mode over their conflicting stories about who knew what when. The resulting costs to truth-telling and sanity, or even the appearance thereof, are clear. Nor can we forget the strong element of farce—think U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on those five Sunday talk shows, reciting with unflagging fervor that official talking point regarding mob violence and a YouTube video. Farce, but no one is laughing.

Team Obama clung to its original story—the attack had come spontaneously at the hands of a mob enraged by that now famous video insulting to the Prophet—long after it was clear that it had been an organized terrorist assault by an al Qaeda affiliate. By Tuesday's debate, we saw a Barack Obama in high dudgeon over suggestions that his office might have deliberately misrepresented the facts. It was, he fumed, an intolerable insult that such charges could have been made about him, the president who had had to receive the bodies of the slain Americans—and who then had to set about getting to the bottom of this murderous terror assault.

Profound and urgent concerns indeed—which, the president neglected to say, had not prevented him from jetting off to his fundraiser in Las Vegas the day after the murders. His administration was not given to politicizing serious matters, the president sternly informed the nation in that second debate:

 "That's not what we do."

 

Good to know. Americans might otherwise have gotten the wrong impression in the past four years, not least from Attorney General Eric Holder, who heads the most openly politicized Justice Department in the nation's history. Among his more recent noteworthy pronouncements, this one relevant to the coming election, Mr. Holder declared that photo ID requirements intended to prevent voting fraud were nothing less than a "poll tax." He was referring to an infamous institution from the days of Jim Crow, whose aim was to suppress black voting. Mr. Holder—so famously fastidious about group sensibilities that he has never been able to bring himself to utter any description identifying a terrorist as Muslim—has apparently had no inhibitions about smearing whole segments of the population as racists.

Mr. Obama's outrage notwithstanding, the administration's prolonged efforts to muddle the picture of the Benghazi attack raised proper suspicions. The Obama team's instant response—that Republicans were attempting to politicize a tragedy—was entirely characteristic. If ever a story screamed its politicized nature, it was the administration's Scheherazade-like tale, now five weeks old and rolling on, about that Sept. 11 assault. A tale that left little doubt of its motivation: fear of the impact, so close to the election, of a successful terrorist attack—the clear indication that al Qaeda was not, as claimed, on the run.

It didn't hurt, of course, that a crude video like the one insulting to Islam is exactly the kind of fodder to which the Obama ministry is partial: Here was an opportunity for right-minded condemnation of bigotry, and if that bigotry was directed at Muslims, all the more opportune. It would be hard to say which member of the Obama administration most invoked the power and influence of that bit of film, officially to be known, now and forever, as the disgusting and reprehensible video.

More and more clearly, the Obama administration has put its faith in the view that the governed, who must be told what is best for their lives, whether they want it or not (see ObamaCare), can also be told that they have not seen what they've seen, have not heard what their ears clearly told them. When the "if you've got a business, you didn't build that" speech proved to be a political land mine, team Obama instantly charged malicious, out-of-context distortion. The president was only talking about—infrastructure! About government-built roads vital for businesses, transportation, etc.

It isn't likely that Americans who had heard the Obama address failed to understand, rightly, its sneering tone directed at those who believed they had a right to think they were responsible for their own success. Not likely that they didn't notice the icy thrust of those words, "I'm always struck by people who feel, 'Well, it must be because I'm just so smart.'" The president had revealed, with unforgettable clarity, his contempt for faith in individual enterprise—a value Americans of every station hold dear. So clear was this contempt, the Republicans knew enough to make it the Day One theme of their convention—the only good day. Democratic Party representatives meanwhile went forward en masse to charge the Republicans with dishonesty.

In the books yet to be written about this presidency, the Obama administration's exceptional readings of reality will deserve an honored place, and a large one. One that should also acknowledge the fact that, in the end, the American people inevitably recognize the difference between lies and truth, illusion and the real thing.

The most telling example of this capacity—the October surprise that shouldn't have been surprising—came with the first presidential debate. The nation saw a superbly cogent Mitt Romney, speaking to them in terms instantly recognizable, words without artifice that addressed their real lives. Viewers saw the life in him, the play of mind, felt the sense of powerful will—that of a leader. It didn't matter all that much that the president looked most unpresidential, a man lost. What mattered was the other man before them, who had brought home to Americans what they had been missing the past four years.

Not surprisingly, when the debate's effects were clear, Obama squads were again deployed to cry fraud. Mr. Romney, we were told, had done nothing but lie. This would now be the official story. It would have no effect. People had seen what they had seen and that would not be changed, not by an improved, fighting Obama as he was last Tuesday, or by a heroically transformed one on Monday night.

Ms. Rabinowitz is a member of the Journal's editorial board

18 Days to go - Time for America to elect ADULT LEADERSHIP

18 Days to go on one what has been one of the longest Presidential Campaigns known to our country.

Based on the way things are now with the 24 hours a day news cycles and such, the campaign has been ongoing since back in 2010 when the Congressional Mid Term elections concluded.  The way things are going, as soon as the results are in for the election on November 6th, we will start to hear news idjits commenting on the 2016 Presidential race.

I have already voted and it was one of the important tasks I need to complete while stateside.  I was glad to be able to cast my vote back home as I am seriously concerned on whether a vote cast here in AFGHN would find its way back to the homefront in a timely fashion.  I remember that there were many issues with votes cast by servicemen and women overseas back in the 2008 election.

In the meantime, we will have to endure another 18 days of the BS spewed at us by the media and look to what the people say when they cast there ballots.

I pray and hope that we get a new President out of the process as I cannot see the present occupant of the office being there for another 4 years.  the last 4 years under his stewardship have been marked with utter failure to handle the responsibilities which he has been given charge of and his utter inability to perform the job in a manner that provides the US with Leadership.

I have said it before and I will say it again - Obama is not the most qualified person for the job and he has shown that electing someone based on " Hope and Change " is NOT how we need to elect Leaders in our country.

His election to the highest office in the land has been a major setback for our country and an demonstrated failure by those who placed him there.

It is time for our country to get back to having ADULT Leadership in our highest office, something that has been absent for the past 4 years.

VW Bus Style Trailer is very very cool

This is a very cool way to trailer and camp....I will have to look into this type of trailer as hauling one of these behind my 1970 VW Bus would be awesome for road trips

 

Now this is how to hitch a ride in a VW.

The Dub Box is a faux Volkswagen Microbus that has been reimagined as a travel trailer.

The 12-foot-long fiberglass creation can be outfitted in a variety of configurations, including a double bed sleeper or food truck.

It weighs about 1,300 pounds and comes with integrated trailer brakes, gas stove, sink, retro refrigerator and an audio system for a starting price of $17,990, but optional extras include heating, a pop top roof and even hinged safari windows. A do-it-yourself rolling shell is available for $8,990.

First developed in the U.K., the Dub Box is manufactured in Oregon and, as the company points out, no real VWs are hurt in the process.

Hooking up one of these to an original Type 2 may be the formula for the freakiest road trip of all time

It's a small world after all

On my recent return home for vacation, the United flight that I was scheduled on out of Dubai to the USA was cancelled due to mechanical issues.  That meant 320 passengers had to scramble for new flights.

While I was in line waiting to get rebooked, I spoke to the Gentleman behind me who was traveling home due to the death of his Father.  I was unhappy due to the delay of the cancelled flight, but this guy's pain was worse.  When you are far from home and learn about the loss of a parent, every second's delay is an eternity.

We both got new tickets and went our separate ways.  I got home and hoped that he had done the same in time for the funeral.

On the way back, I wound up staying in Dubai for a day as you fly into Dubai one day, and fly back out to AFGHN the next morning.  I am sitting outside the hotel waiting for the hotel bus when who walks out of the hotel but my fellow traveler who I last saw on the way home.

Talk about your small world....we discussed our trips home and all the issues of what occurred during the last two weeks.  It was a strange coincidence that two travelers would be on the exact same schedule twice w/o knowing it, especially traveling this far from the US.

It really is a small world even though it seems a lot farther when you are delayed from traveling as scheduled.

State Department in formal negotiations for U.S. troops to remain in AFGHN past 2014

This is not a shocker....Most who know anything about things in Afghanistan expected this development.  The info put out by Biden last week is also as expected as the POLS in charge are incapable of being honest with the American people about what is planned for Afghanistan.

The road ahead is hard and will be difficult....sorry to be a buzzkill but our enemies are not going to make things easy anytime soon.

State Department official: Negotiations to extend U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan starting soon

Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, October 16, 2012http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/16/state_department_official_negotiations_to_extend_us_troop_presence_in_afghanistan_s

Despite statements by Vice President Joe Biden, the State Department is about to begin formal negotiations over the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, a top State Department official said Tuesday.
 
Last week, U.S. and Afghan negotiators met in Kabul to talk about the Bilateral Security Agreement that will govern the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, when President Barack Obama said the combat mission in Afghanistan will end and the U.S. will complete the transition of the entire country to Afghan government control.

Also last week, Biden told Americans during his Oct. 11 debate with Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan that U.S. troops were leaving Afghanistan by 2014.

"We are leaving in 2014, period, and in the process, we're going to be saving over the next 10 years another $800 billion," Biden said. "We've been in this war for over a decade. The primary objective is almost completed. Now all we're doing is putting the Kabul government in a position to be able to maintain their own security. It's their responsibility, not America's."

Marc Grossman, the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, explained today that's not the whole story.

Grossman said Tuesday that the point of the upcoming negotiations is to agree on an extension of the U.S. troop presence well past 2014, for the purposes of conducting counterterrorism operations and training and advising the Afghan security forces

Winter is coming and $ 4 a gallon heating oil is a major economic issue

If you live in the Northeast US or anywhere north of Florida, the news for this winter is not good.  Heating Oil costs $4 Gallon and the price of natural gas is going up at least 20%.

So what is the response from those in charge of our country to this critical issue???

Well the President and the Congress are giving it a " What do you expect us to do??" response that means many people will be freezing in their own homes as filling the oil tank with 250 gallons of heating oil costs $ 1000, and that is not something that most people can spare right now.

Read what the WSJ had to say about what our President has done to make us more energy independent - Those clueless enough to vote for the President might want to rethink their vote.

President Obama is campaigning as a champion of the oil and gas boom he’s had nothing to do with, and even as his regulators try to stifle it. The latest example is the Interior Department’s little-noticed August decision to close off from drilling nearly half of the 23.5 million acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

The area is called the National Petroleum Reserve because in 1976 Congress designated it as a strategic oil and natural gas stockpile to meet the “energy needs of the nation.” Alaska favors exploration in nearly the entire reserve. The feds had been reviewing four potential development plans, and the state of Alaska had strongly objected to the most restrictive of the four. Sure enough, that was the plan Interior chose.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says his plan “will help the industry bring energy safely to market from this remote location, while also protecting wildlife and subsistence rights of Alaska Natives.” He added that the proposal will expand “safe and responsible oil and gas development, and builds on our efforts to help companies develop the infrastructure that’s needed to bring supplies online.”

The problem is almost no one in the energy industry and few in Alaska agree with him. In an August 22 letter to Mr. Salazar, the entire Alaska delegation in Congress—Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski and Representative Don Young—call it “the largest wholesale land withdrawal and blocking of access to an energy resource by the federal government in decades.” This decision, they add, “will cause serious harm to the economy and energy security of the United States, as well as to the state of Alaska.” Mr. Begich is a Democrat.

The letter also says the ruling “will significantly limit options for a pipeline” through the reserve.

So we have anabundent supply but the FEDS have decided they would rather import oil from overseas.  In the meantime, people will freeze in their homes while the pols dither.  We deserve better.

Mother of American killed in Benghazi to President Obama, " you screwed up, you didn't do a good job, I lost my son."

Please read the enclosed transcript from a CNN interview with Fran Smith, Mother of one of the men slain in Benghazi.  She deserves answers about what happened there as do the American people.

Read the whole thing.....  She lays it out bare to those responsible for the deaths of 4 fine US citizens -  The Administration and State Department is more worried about the re-election campaign than telling the Mother of Sean Smith the truth about how they failed to protect the US Ambassador and his staff. 

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Erin, thanks. Good evening, everyone. We begin tonight "Keeping Them Honest," with a mother who is now asking the toughest question any mom ever can. Why is my son dead? 

That is all Pat Smith wants to know. Her son, Sean Smith, was one of the four Americans killed on September 11th in that terror attack on American facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Sean Smith, who is one of the computer specialists at the American consulate there. A month later -- a month after she watched her son's casket come off a cargo plane, a month after she says everyone promised her answers, everyone all the way up to the president of the United States. She says she is still waiting to hear. Still waiting for answers. Waiting for a call. 

Congress held hearings today. We'll talk about that shortly, but first, my conversation with Sean Smith's mom, Pat. 

 

COOPER: Pat, I appreciate you being with us. And I'm just so sorry for your loss. What do you want people to know about your son, about Sean? 

PAT SMITH, SON KILLED IN BENGHAZI ATTACK: Well, god. He was my only child. And he was good, he was good at what he did, he'd loved it. 

COOPER: He loved working with computers? 

SMITH: Computers, radios. He was good at what he did. 

COOPER: Was that something he had done as a kid? I mean how did -- did he always -- was he always good with computer? 

SMITH: Well, when he was a kid, computers weren't out yet. And -- 

(LAUGHTER)

And then they were out and he -- I got a computer and he started playing with them and he started showing me how you could build a flame thrower and -- by just watching a computer and then told you how to do it. So that's how it started. 

COOPER: He lived in the Netherlands. Were you able to communicate a lot? I mean he'd served in a lot of very dangerous places. Did you always know where he was? 

SMITH: I always knew where he was when he told me. For example, this time he was in the Hague and that is where he was stationed. He was supposed to be there for about two years. And then he would transfer some place else. I did not know he was going to be in Libya. 

COOPER: Did he ever talk about the dangers that came along with his job? I mean he -- he serve d in Iraq as well. 

SMITH: Yes, in fact, he sent me -- I still have it on my computer where he sent me this thing. He was in working in the palace over there. 

COOPER: In Baghdad. 

SMITH: And they -- yes, in Baghdad, and he says, got to go, and suddenly he just disappeared and I said, well, what's happening over there. And he said listen. And I was listening, and suddenly I heard boom. Where they were shooting at him. 

COOPER: You must have worried a lot. 

SMITH: When that was over. I can't spend my life worrying about it. I accepted what he wanted to do. 

COOPER: I want to play for our viewers some of what President Obama said about your son when he returned home. Let's watch. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sean Smith, it seems, lived to serve. First in the Air Force, then with you at the State Department. He knew the perils of this calling, from his time in Baghdad. There in Benghazi, far from home, he surely thought of Heather and Samantha and Nathan, and he laid down his life in service to us all. 

Today, Sean is home. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He's mentioning his wife and his children. When you heard the president say that, what did you think? 

SMITH: This is the first time I heard the president say that. 

COOPER: It is really? 

SMITH: Yes, he never told -- didn't tell me that. Sean knew he was in a bunch of scary places. I knew he was in security places. I didn't expect him to get blown up. I didn't expect him to die. COOPER: Do you feel that you know what happened or are you still searching for answers? Have you been in contact with the State Department? Have they reached out to you and given you details of what happened? 

SMITH: That's a funny subject. I begged them to tell me what was -- what happened. I said I want to know all the details, all of the details no matter what it is, and I'll make up my own mind on it. And everyone of them, all the big shots over there told me that -- they promised me, they promised me that they would tell me what happened. As soon as they figure it out. 

No one, not one person has ever, ever gotten back to me other than media people and the gaming people. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Her son was a big video gamer. 

We are going to have more of my conversation with Pat Smith after a quick break. She has some very tough words for this administration who she says has forgotten the promises they made to her the day Sean's body was returned. 

Also tonight, the latest on today's congressional hearings into the attacks. Jill Dougherty and Fran Townsend join us next. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We're talking tonight with Pat Smith whose son Sean Smith was killed in the Libya terror attack. Former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty was also killed. Today his mother Barbara asked Mitt Romney to stop invoking her son's name on the campaign stump, quote, "I don't trust Romney," she says. "He shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda." 

Pat Smith did not speak about anyone's political agenda tonight. She is, however, bitterly, bitterly disappointed with the State Department, the Defense Department and the White House tonight. You're going to hear shortly about how the State Department is going to respond to her charges. 

But first, though, more of my conversation with Pat Smith starting with her as yet unfulfilled search for answers. 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Who told you that they would give you information? 

SMITH: You'll love this. Obama told me. Hillary promised me. Joe Biden -- Joe Biden is a pressure. He was a real sweetheart. But he also told -- they all told me that -- they promised me. And I told them please, tell me what happened. Just tell me what happened. 

COOPER: So you're still waiting to hear from somebody about what happened to your son? About what they know? Or even what they don't know. 

SMITH: Right. Right. Officially yes. I told them, please don't give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff. I don't want political stuff. You can keep your political, just tell me the truth. What happened. And I still don't know. In fact, today I just heard something more that he died of smoke inhalation. 

COOPER: So you don't even know the cause of death? 

SMITH: I don't even know if that's true or not. No, I don't. I don't know where. I look at TV and I see bloody hand prints on walls, thinking, my god, is that my son's? I don't know if he was shot. I don't know -- I don't know. They haven't told me anything. They are still studying it. And the things that they are telling me are just outright lies. 

That Susan Rise, what -- she talked to me personally and she said, she said, this is the way it was. It was -- it was because of this film that came out. 

COOPER: So she told you personally that she thought it was a result of that video of the protest? 

SMITH: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. In fact all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this and he said, trust me. I will tell you what happened. And so far, he's told me nothing. Nothing at all. And I want to know. 

COOPER: It's important for you to know all the details no matter how horrible. 

SMITH: Yes. 

COOPER: Or no matter how tough they are to hear. 

SMITH: Exactly. I told him, if it's such a secret thing, fine, take me in another room, whisper in my ear what happened so that I know, and we'll go from there. But no. No, they -- you know, they treat me like -- at first I was so proud because they were treating me so nice when I went to that reception. They all came up to me and talked to me and everything. I cried on Obama's shoulder. And he -- then he'd kind of looked off into the distance. 

So that was worthless to me. I want to know, for god's sakes. Or for Allah's sake or whoever's sake is there. 

COOPER: You deserve -- you deserve answers. 

SMITH: I think so. I believe I do. I believe it. It's my son. I had him for the first -- I told Obama personally, I said, look, I had him for his first 17 years and then he went into the service, then you got him. And -- I won't say it the way I said it. But I said you screwed up, you didn't do a good job, I lost my son. And they said, we'll get back to you. We -- I promise, I promise you. I will get back to you. COOPER: Some of the administration have said well, you know, we're investigating, we're still trying to find out answers. But you just want -- 

SMITH: They still are. 

COOPER: You would still want them to contact you and at least keep you apprised of the investigation, of where things are. You would think that they would at least do that. 

SMITH: That would be so nice. That would at least acknowledge that I have a right to know something, something other than, we're checking up on it, or trust me. I like that one the best of all. Trust me. I will let you know. 

Well, I don't trust you anymore. I don't trust you anymore. You -- I'm not going to say lied to me, but you didn't tell me and you knew. 

COOPER: Pat Smith, thank you. 

SMITH: OK. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A grieving mother. We are joined now by two women who broke the news on the story right from the start. Former Bush homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, and foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty. 

We should mention, Fran, as always -- as we always mention, serves on the CIA's external advisory committee. She recently traveled to Libya with her employer MacAndrews & Forbes. That was before the attack and actually had met with Ambassador Stevens. 

Obviously Mrs. Smith is very upset and we -- you know, it's very understandable why she would be. What is the procedure, though, for keeping a family informed? I mean she says, they said we will let you know what happened. Is it -- do they wait until the investigation is over? Or you would think somebody would be in contact with her. 

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Right. So there's actually an office in the Justice Department because this is now obviously a criminal investigation, that's responsible. The Office of Victim Witness Assistance. They are supposed to be the advocates inside the apparatus of the U.S. government to get updates, to make sure that the families are kept apprised. But you would -- you also expect and every department has this. If it's an employee that's lost, or it's a member of one of our law enforcement or intelligence services that agency takes ownership of making sure to shepherd the person through the system and around the system to get information. 

So in many respects, Anderson, it's sort of incomprehensible to me these are people, the family members were identified, they met with senior officials, including the president of the United States and the secretary of state. It's not as though they don't know where she is. She's got -- 

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Right. Initially I thought, well, maybe it's -- you know, it's -- maybe they're in contact with Sean Smith's wife who is I guess in the Netherlands. But she was at this reception. They clearly talked to her. 

TOWNSEND: No, that's right. And the fact oftentimes, Anderson, with a family that's lost someone, there's more than one person, right? So you'll have the parents of the victim. 

COOPER: Right. 

TOWNSEND: You may have a spouse or an extended family. And it becomes the government's responsibility to care for that family and keep them informed. 

COOPER: Well, Jill, I know you reached out to the State Department tonight about the allegations that Pat Smith has made. What are they saying? 

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's three things they said to me. They're saying they, since the beginning, have made it a priority to be in touched with the families, maintain regular contact, as they say. They say that in the last 24 hours before the congressional hearing they've reached out by phone to at least one member of the family and told them what would be reported at that -- at that congressional hearing. 

And then they also said we're going to make sure that the mother of Sean is contacted by us. So, they won't get into a lot of specifics but they maintain that they have been in contact with the families in some way or another since the beginning. 

COOPER: So you're saying that they are now saying that they will contact Mrs. Smith? 

DOUGHERTY: They'll make sure. Yes, they said, they will make sure that they are. 

COOPER: At this point, though, I mean, a family member, who's -- who are they supposed to believe? I mean there have been so many different stories out there, Fran, and so many different -- and others, you know, lots of political allegations. We had this hearing today and, you know, some saw it as a political hearing. And politics motivating it. 

What do you -- 

TOWNSEND: You know, look, this is really hard. In the first 48 to 72 hours, the first facts are often wrong. 

COOPER: Right. 

TOWNSEND: And so I think the media and the American people understand that and sort of allowed for that. The problem is, tomorrow is a month since the attack. It is hard to imagine that no one has talked to this woman. The autopsy in which -- was done at Dover Air Force base for all of the victims with FBI agents present is a well known fact. The results of that are understood by investigators and there is no excuse for not sharing that information with this victim's mother. 

COOPER: Right. Jill, the hearing -- let's talk about the hearing that happened today. Which the State Department defended the administration's handling the attack. You say it was highly political. Did it accomplish anything? Did it resolve anything? There's certainly a lot of allegations about the political -- 

(CROSSTALK)

DOUGHERTY: Anderson, you know, I didn't hear a lot of really new information at all. I mean I think, I and some others who were watching it at the time were really struck by the fact that it really turned into his sparring, and it was very, very personal between, you know, the Republicans and the Democrats. 

And so it -- I don't think that it accomplished very much when you get down to the nuts and bolts of what was learned. 

COOPER: One of the most contentious moments, Jill, was, I mean, the State Department said that they had -- I don't have the exact phrasing but basically the appropriate number of people on the ground, and there was -- there was a sharp rebuke from the panel saying, how can you say that when -- given four Americans are dead. 

DOUGHERTY: Right. And that's the essential thing. But I think what -- and not to explain away what the State Department is doing, but their view would be based on the information that they had at that particular point which -- was coming from intelligence agencies and others on the ground. They believe that they had the adequate amount of staffing. 

Now they also say that event was so extraordinary that basically nothing a few more people, a few more, let's say, protective measures could not have protected from something that they are describing, really, as combat -- military combat attack. 

COOPER: There is an investigation underway. I mean, a -- at this point, Fran, who is responsible for giving the definitive account of what happened and what cables were sent in doing this investigation? 

TOWNSEND: Well, as we've said and reported, Anderson, there are a number of -- there's accountability review board, there are these congressional hearings. In the end, the definitive version of the facts will come from the FBI who are responsible for putting together the investigation and a potential prosecution. They will be -- they will be the keepers of the evidence. But I must tell you ,you know, the answer on its face if we had adequate security kind of fails the common sense test. I mean, honestly, if you step back from the partisan politics of Washington, and you talk to average Americans who've got no dog in this fight, they sort of say, look, it's obvious we didn't have adequate security. This isn't -- if we're looking to assign blame, the terrorists are to blame for the death. But if we need -- we want accountability because we want to understand how can we make sure the State Department are working in dangerous places, we want to make sure, how do we assess threats, assign security, and -- 

COOPER: What the State Department has said today in this hearing was that no amount of sort of the usual security would have been able to deal with a -- dozens of attackers. They're saying, there were dozens of attackers who are heavily armed. You say? 

TOWNSEND: I say we have forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan during the height of the war. And we protected -- 

COOPER: And certainly -- and the facility itself was not very secured in terms of the actual technological security devices over there. 

TOWNSEND: That's right. But if it's -- so if you're at a facility that you cannot protect, that it is not possible to protect from the threat that is present, then you shouldn't be there. If you are there and you believe you can protect, then you've got to give it adequate resources. It's -- this is less about to me about blame than it is about accountability. What we ought to care about is accountability to protect other diplomats. 

COOPER: Sure. Because you don't want this to happen again. 

TOWNSEND: Right. 

COOPER: And there are other facilities that we have that are like this consulate. That's the bottom line here. 

TOWNSEND: Right. 

COOPER: And also getting answers for the families. 

Jill Dougherty, I appreciate your reporting. Fran Townsend, as well