Night Owl Chat – Guitar Gods

This is, quite simply, your guitar solo open thread.

Steve Vai

Night Owl Chatty Time

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Happy Birthday Meta!

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Newsie stuff in the morning.

The Last Play in the Playbook

You will have to have been under a rock for the past two weeks to have missed the feeding frenzy being engaged in by what passes as the other major political party and its enablers in the press. Between BENGHAZI!!! and IRS-gate, it seems that nothing at all of importance has been happening in the world.

The GOP and the press finally feel they have what they’ve been looking for: a political “mistake” by Barack Obama which they can use to cut him down to size. One has to admit, that the nation’s first black President has been quite scandal-free since his first Inauguration, in spite of the usual suspects’ best efforts. Obamacare was supposed to be his “Waterloo”; it now promises to cement a generation of Democratic dominance as citizens benefit from a new social program, one which will guarantee that they don’t have to choose between the rent and their health. Obama brought Osama Bin Laden to justice, something which the previous administration had no interest in doing. And of course, before he was even elected, he had the Reverend Wright “scandal”—a moment he used to give the nation a sorely needed lesson on race. The scandal-mongers have, quite frankly, lacked decent material with which to work.

Coming Up

President Obama leaves the White House for New York, May 13

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Tonight:

8:40: President Obama delivers remarks at a DCCC/DSCC event (The Waldorf Astoria Hotel)

Listed by CBS streaming for live coverage – but you know yourself, they might opt to cover a car chase in, say, Rabbit Hash, Kentucky instead

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President Obama arrives at the Wall Street heliport on Marine One in New York, May 13

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It exists:

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Chat away!

Chat Away

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The rest of the day:

3:05: President Obama arrives New York City

4:30: Delivers remarks at a DNC event (Private Residence)

6:05: Delivers remarks at a DNC event (Private Residence)

8:40: Delivers remarks at a DCCC/DSCC event (The Waldorf Astoria Hotel) (listed by CBS streaming for live coverage)

10:0: Departs New York City

11:05: Arrives the White House

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Chat away!

President Obama on Benghazi

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That ‘You know White House Press Corps, just because Drudge said it doesn’t actually meant it’s true’ look

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And on the IRS:

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I don’t get why the IRS targeted the Tea Party. I mean I don’t get why it wasn’t the Department of Homeland Security

— CJ Werleman (@rationalists) May 13, 2013

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Full press conference:

Rise and Shine

(London, May 2011)

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Today:

10:0: President Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Cameron

11:15: The President and PM Cameron hold a joint press conference

White House live * C-Span

1:55: The President departs the White House

3:05: Arrives New York City

4:30: Delivers remarks at a DNC event (Private Residence)

6:05: Delivers remarks at a DNC event (Private Residence)

8:40: Delivers remarks at a DCCC/DSCC event (The Waldorf Astoria Hotel)

10:0: Departs New York City

11:05: Arrives the White House

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Most ‘amusing’ headline of the morning ….. “may be asked” ….. may? He’ll be asked about nothing else – because, you know, nothing else matters 🙄

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The week ahead:

Tuesday: The President attends meetings at the White House

Wednesday: Delivers remarks at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service, an annual ceremony honoring law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty in the previous year

Thursday: Welcomes Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey to the White House for meetings and a working dinner

Friday: Travels to Baltimore, Maryland in his second Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour

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ThinkProgress: Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a Republican who was appointed to the position by George W. Bush, told CBS News on Saturday that he would have handled the situation in Benghazi the same way that the Obama administration did last September.

During an interview that aired on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday morning, Gates defended the administration’s reaction to the attacks in Libya and dismissed many of the criticisms leveled by his fellow Republicans as “cartoonish”….

More here – and see Steve Benen too

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Steve Benen: There were several oddities about the House Oversight Committee’s Benghazi hearing last week, but one of the unanswered questions related to Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) choice of witnesses. Yesterday, on “Meet the Press,” this grew even more problematic.

The hearing was supposed to be about the committee getting more answers about the attack, but Issa chose not to invite former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a veteran diplomat from the Reagan and Bush administrations, who helped oversee the independent investigation into the events in Benghazi. If the goal was to get more information, why not ask Pickering to appear?

More here

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Addicting Info: 10 Examples Of Why The Republican ‘Benghazi’ Talking Point Is Hypocritical

At this point it’s well-established there was no wrongdoing by President Barack Obama or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when it came to the response to the terror strike in Benghazi that Fox News and conservatives around the nation have been trying to use to score political points against the high-profile Democratic leaders.

Unfortunately for Republicans, the fact that they have pushed so hard when there was no “scandal” shows that they were only out to use Benghazi for the political ammunition. Here’s even more proof, with 10 examples of other things that Republicans didn’t seem nearly so upset about or interested in investigating….

More here

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In case you missed it: ‘Republicans raising money off Benghazi effort’ (Washington Post)

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Michael Cohen in The Guardian

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