You Got Your Benghazi Hearing,Now What?

I’m delighted that Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson, and Eric Nordstrom were given a chance to give their version of  the Benghazi September 11,2012 attacks. They were all career diplomats, who seemed to shy away from the polarization of the hearing by sticking to the facts, as they knew them.  I think  that their testimony was truthful, but they didn't offer any new facts.

I’m glad that every rock has been upturned, but the issue will not go away because the GOP will hang on to it for dear life. Wing nut Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said this issue is ten times worse than Watergate, and Iran Contra put together. I  wonder if Mike Huckabee still thinks President Obama will get impeached over Benghazi? Then again, any president can be impeached; it's the removal part that’s difficult.

This morning, I was surprised that Joe Scarborough quoted the New York Times because he usually calls it a liberal rag that always quotes the democratic talking points.  He held up the front page of the paper to show the headline, " Diplomat says Questions Over Benghazi Led to Demotion "and then went on to say that the administration would suffer dearly for that. Gregory Hicks said he was given a scathing review over his management style and yelled at by Sec. Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills for talking to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) without a State Department lawyer being present. Richard Wolffee, MSNBC contributor, called out Joe, reminding him that Cheryl Mills was known for screaming at people she was in command of, so that wasn’t a big deal to which Joe Scarborough told him that he was quoting democratic talking points and resorted to his bullying tactics of trying to shout over an opposing view . Joe Scarborough omitted the part in the article where a State Dept.spokesman,Patrick Ventrell said that the department had not and will not retaliate against Mr. Hicks. He also said Hicks had requested to shorten his assignment in Libya(understandable) and that he is on a temporary assignment with the same pay and has submitted his next job preference. Joe Scarborough still thinks the White House didn’t  immediately call the attacks "terrorism" because it somehow would weaken the president’s foreign policy credentials in a presidential race. I disagree,mistakes were obviously made in informing the American public in their initial response but I think it was more about being cautious about overstating some facts that were not yet clear. 

I watched the hearings on my iPad (without commercials) and followed my Twitter feed to get comments. Those on the right were highly upset that CNN, MSNBC and the other three networks were not covering the hearing gavel –to- gavel. Those on the left were questioning the necessity of the hearning;calling it a “witch hunt.” I can only image what went on Facebook. 

I still don’t know why the three diplomats were called whistle blowers because they didn’t reveal anything damaging. At one point, it became the talking points Susan Rice gave but that’s been litigated, so we just heard about Gregory Hicks emotions when he heard Susan Rice say that the attacks were motivated by a video. The  22- year diplomat said more could have been done but the military says it was unaware of possible second and third forthcoming attacks and didn’t have the resources which could respond in a timely fashion anyway. We certainly had a security failure, and intelligence was lacking but that’s not what the hearing was about.

Feeling Some Satisfaction

If you're anything like me, you feel like you have both hands tied behind your back when you complain to your utility company about service.  Just this year alone we've lost our Internet connection three times; we did the old disconnect everything and reboot routine to restore our service but that's not what I paid for.

When we lost our WIFI  Saturday night,I didn't complain  because I  switched over to my unlimited data plan  4G speed on my iPhone and iPad and went about about my business. I wasn't even aware that my wife was in the next room calling Suddenlink to schedule an appointment.I’m glad she did because I’m now getting what I paid for.

I paid for the 15 Mbbs bandwidth knowing that I needed a high-speed connection to be able to view live and prerecorded television programs on my iPad. I bought a high speed router to support the seven devices we have on our home WIFI network.  It worked so-so at the lower bandwidth, but it’s not a feature I used very much because of that reason. A faster WIFI connection helps you navigate the VA on line forum which has a lot of page loads embedded in their startup screen.

Yesterday, the SuddenLink technician showed up, but we didn't get off on a good start because as soon as he entered the front door, he said that our trouble might be our router. It was as though he was laying out his excuse beforehand.  This upset my wife and got her into the arguing mood, so I sent her to the store, so I could play the good cop. I convinced the tech that I couldn’t be hoodwinked, so he agreed to check the outside wiring and then I suggested that he check the Internet speed up to my modem using a the website Speedest.net. He then insisted on replacing the old cable, tighten up connections before testing and that’s just what I observed because I have a sneaky suspicion that he boosted the signal. He then tested my connection showing that I was receiving a download signal of 20 Mbbs which was more than what I was paying for.

There are some advantages of playing a good cop sometimes because after engaging in a conversation with him; I found out that Suddenlink is upgrading 2400 new homes in Victoria, so WIFI and cable TV is being disrupted without the customer's knowledge.  This technician was from Houston because Victoria’s technicians are overwhelmed. He was surprised my order was tended to so fast.

I’m now a happy camper thinking I finally won one over the man, but I’m also keeping my fingers crossed. How bad was my connection? My iPhone is seven times faster now, and I’m now getting a true HD quality picture from a prerecorded television show on my iPad. Put that in the plus side column of being retired because if I was working I would have worked around the issue until I found time for a resolution. I’m retired, so the time is now;I have the time.

I'm not done Suddenlink because if the connection speed doesn't hold ,the technician told me that I might need an updated coaxial cable ,one that has the dual routing purposes of an internet connection..You know the kind ,the download and upload capability that a television connection doesn't need.