Guess because they couldn't get the bullshiat greened yesterday, they're gonna try again today.

EnviroDude: Considering he mulled the decision to pull the trigger for 10 months so he could "get it right", this is not a shock.

Considering Bush spent 8 years getting it wrong, I think ten months is pretty damn great.

Here's the memo:

"Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am."



First, how is this setting up McRaven as the fall guy? Seems like more a straight go ahead, with an (obvious) note that if anything changes before it happens, tell the big guy. Also, that's a "a highly lawyered memo'? Really? It's farking handwritten, for fark's sake. Looks like more of a note of a phone call than a "memo", anyways.

"Hooray!!!"

"Obama killed Bin-Laden!!!"

"That's right..."

"...and I did it for you kids!!!"

"but, but, but..."

Magnanimous_J: Most of us hated Bush when he was president, but the Tea Baggers just take it to a whole new level.

Yes, there was a lot of hatred for Bush. The difference being that the hatred for Bush was for things that he actually did.

FTA:

""One definition of a great leader," Mukasey added later in the interview, "is somebody who takes less credit than he should and takes more blame than he should. And that's not what we've got now."

Kinda like when Bush stood there and said if you criticize him then you're really criticizing the troops? Kinda like that cowardly act?

This is what we have to look forward to isn't it? Republicans trying to downplay Obama accomplishments. Even the one where he had Osama Bin Laden killed. Osama Bin Laden, the guy who planned and carried out the attacks on 9/11. Republicans are no longer allowed to call themselves Patriots. It is abundantly clear that they have put party way before country.

As an Aussie I find this whole issue quite bemusing.

It astonishes me that the US Right is attacking Obama because he killed Osama bin Laden. I can't put it any more simply than that.

The dude deserved to die, and your duly-elected President had him killed. Nobody mourned. And yet the same cretins who approved of attacking Iraq for no goddamned reason and want to elect another Republican who'll attack Iran for no goddamned reason apparently have a problem with this.

What the fark is wrong with you people?

Many of the same folks that talked about Bush Derangement Syndrome were apparently unaware of the symptoms of Obama Derangement Syndrome.

I get it. Sometimes your candidate loses. The Internet is chock full of derpy articles like this one, from all sides of the political (and psychological) spectrum, so you can sit all day and read how the other guy is an idiot super genius with a secret agenda to destroy America. It's fun, and has been a national pastime for decades. This isn't about finding fault with you.

I'm just saying that if this article/headline combo doesn't set off your derptector, it's time to take a walk outside for a while. Breathe in the fresh air. Don't worry. You can still think Obama sucks the whole time.

If you're still perseverating about the 'fall guy memo' and can't come up with better reasons to hate him by the time you get back... Seek help.

Mock26: And how exactly is this unique to President Obama?

Seriously, if you think that President Bush did not have a fall guy for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq then I have a bridge and a waterfall I would like to sell you.

Bush's fall guy is Obama. Who do you think is getting blamed for the hundreds of billions spent achieving nothing?

Look, I don't care much for Obama. I didn't vote for the man, won't vote for him in the upcoming election and feel (for a wide variety of reasons) that's he's not a good president, isn't competent for the job and whose decisions have actively hurt the United States. He seems like a nice man who's in way over his head at a time when the country can't afford a fumbling novice at the wheel.

All that being said, for all the reasons I don't care for Obama as president, making the call to go get Bin Laden isn't one of them. Unlike a great many people, I am and always will be an American before I'm anything else politically. On Osama's orders and according to his plan, Al Qaeda attacked the United States and killed thousands of people. For that he got a death warrant slapped on his head and rightfully so. When his location was finally discovered he needed to have his ticket punched and Obama gave the order to do just that. The memo is, obviously, an attempt at a little CYA should things go south but that's to be expected and, had things gone down sideways, does anyone believe that memo would have insulated Obama from the political fallout? Of course not.

Fact is: Osama was found hiding within spitting distance of a supposed ally's version of West Point. The inference is that they had to know he was there. Given that hairy bit of info, you have to give the commander in chief credit for saying "fark it and fark them...go get the bastard anyway". It's one of the few things the man has done that I can actually applaud. It doesn't outweigh the damage he's done to the country otherwise (like not knowing the difference between "division" and "multiplication" when it came to his boasts about what he'd do to the deficit) but I cannot find fault with this particular decision. His decision was, in effect, an overt act of war against Pakistan and he damn well knew it...and went ahead anyway. He also had to know just how badly it would backfire if he declined to go and it later was proven they had Osama, knew where he was and let him walk. No way in hell could Obama have survived THAT level of fark-up politically...so, to me, it wasn't even really a decision. He pretty much had no choice.

This memo is much ado about nothing and all it demonstrates is the administration's desire to not have another Jimmy Carter/Iran hostage rescue fark-up Part 2. Big hairy deal. For all the ways to evaluate Obama and be critical of his job performance, this isn't a subject that'll be worth much traction.

EnviroDude: Considering he mulled the decision to pull the trigger for 10 months so he could "get it right", this is not a shock.

Captain Obama - avenger at large!

Your miserable cockbag of a president was too busy strutting on aircraft carriers and massaging meaty German women to be bothered with pursuing the mass murderer who organized 9/11.

I, for one, would like to heartily encourage Republicans to keep reminding America that Osama Bin Laden was killed under Commander-In-Chief Obama's watch.

lordmoon: Am I the only one that watched the video? Unless I misheard, the memo stated that if you did anything other than the plan, you need to check with us first or take the blame. I don't see this as any different than the quarterback changing the game plan that was discussed with the coach and failing because of it.

It doesn't say "or you take the blame". It says "if anything changes, tell the President, period". Of course, this is obvious.

Why do Republicans love Osama Bin Laden?

Still?

By the way, they tell us Obama is completely responsible for the operation by "setting up a fall guy if it failed." If they want this victory to go away, they really need to stop saying Obama was in charge while trying to say he had nothing to do with it.

I see that those who harbor the conservative disease are milking The Big Lie for all it is worth.

Man, it really hurts the Republicans deep down in their soul to know that Osama was killed under a Dems watch. I actually didn't think they would downplay the death of the man that ordered the attack on 9/11. I guess they forgot.

WhoIsWillo: The My Little Pony Killer: MaudlinMutantMollusk: Same f*cking link is in the queue again, too

Aw hell no. I'm on my way to downvote.

That was me. I figure if they are going to keep on submitting it, we should have a headline that has a loose connection to reality out there somewhere.

And it's not even loosely connected to reality. So, you know, great farking job, that...

Conservatives? What do you think it says about your ideology when all you have are lies to support it? Do you think you are good and decent people? Say... The kind of person you'd let your kids hang out with?

Aigoo: You know, I didn't vote for President Obama. I wouldn't vote for him (or former Gov. Romney) if the election were today and you held a gun to my head.

That said, how in the HOLY fark does anyone with half a brain in their heads get the idiotic notion that this:

"The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration."

Is Panetta setting up Admiral McRaven as a "fall guy" if the op went bad?

Did you fail reading comprehension, is English not your native language, or are you just a farking idiot?

I don't even like President Obama, politically speaking, but that memo very clearly and very specifically places all responsibility for approving the op and giving the order (or rescinding the order due to new intel information) squarely on the President's shoulders. Subby, pull your head out of your ass.

Can't let facts and common sense get in the way of a smear campaign. People are so desperate to paint Obama in as bad a light as possible they'll say and do anything.

You know, I didn't vote for President Obama. I wouldn't vote for him (or former Gov. Romney) if the election were today and you held a gun to my head.

That said, how in the HOLY fark does anyone with half a brain in their heads get the idiotic notion that this:

"The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration."

Is Panetta setting up Admiral McRaven as a "fall guy" if the op went bad?

Did you fail reading comprehension, is English not your native language, or are you just a farking idiot?

I don't even like President Obama, politically speaking, but that memo very clearly and very specifically places all responsibility for approving the op and giving the order (or rescinding the order due to new intel information) squarely on the President's shoulders. Subby, pull your head out of your ass.

And if he DIDN'T delegate operational control to an actual officer, they'd ride his ass about "he thinks he knows better than real soldiers". He could have personally shot Bin Laden with an assault rifle painted like the American flag and Republicans would biatch that his outfit wasn't appropriate. They're going to criticize every thing he does no matter what, so I succinctly respond FARK OFF. I'm sorry, I've lost my patience with these morons.

"One definition of a great leader," Mukasey added later in the interview, "is somebody who takes less credit than he should and takes more blame than he shouldgives all credit for anything good that happened to republicans no matter how incompetent they are. And that's not what we've got now."

/accuracy

Lt. Cheese Weasel: Bush missed in Tora Bora, that was close....but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Bush didn't "miss" at Tora Bora. He "didn't even take a swing" at Tora Bora. That is what makes his ass (and those that apologize for him) such weak sauce.

Bubba Clinton *missed* and all clowns like you did was scream "Wag the dog!!!!!lolz!111" at the top of your lungs.

Two_Noodles: The whole "Obama did it wrong, because everything he does is wrong" line is getting awfully tired.

If Obama did it wrong, it is because he gave a "kill" order instead of "capture". Essentially this makes it a political assassination. OBL was the leader of a political movement (a violent, marginalized and illegitimate movement). He was killed in the middle of the night and without due process.

I 100% agree that OBL needed to be brought to justice and I have zero sympathy for he and his followers. It is a slippery slope for the USA though. Was the kill order given because it was operationally impossible to capture? Or was it given because it is politically expedient to dump the body in the ocean and not hold a trial?

Perhaps I am totally mistaken here and it was a "capture or kill" order all along.

Let's not kid ourselves though..if it was a kill order of a political figure in the middle of the night then the term is "assassination".

You cannot assassinate a terrorist. The term assassination is correctly applied to recognized leaders of duly recognized countries. And that does not apply. It was a seek and destroy mission of a duly noted terrorist/'criminal/enemy of the state, without a flag or an embassy. We 'assassinated' no one. We took out the garbage.

Two_Noodles: If Obama did it wrong, it is because he gave a "kill" order instead of "capture". Essentially this makes it a political assassination. OBL was the leader of a political movement (a violent, marginalized and illegitimate movement). He was killed in the middle of the night and without due process.

He was a valid military target under the 9/11 AUMF. We no more needed to go out of our way to capture him than we do any other valid military target.

I'm pretty conservative and even I can't read an article that mentions Hannity.

HotWingConspiracy: Oh no, I hope the right stops bringing up the fact that President Obama killed bin Laden.


THIS BEARS REPEATING

AverageAmericanGuy: Killing Osama sure put a lot of people back to work in a completely recovered economy.

Keep crowing, libs.

Yeah, because overthrowing Hussein was so great for our economy!

Whoa whoa whoa. What's this about Osama being killed? I listen to Rush Limbaugh three hours a day and this is the first I've heard of it. When did this happen? 2003? 2006? Early January 2009?

The writer of that article seems concerned.

As do most of the herpa-derpa-tastic commenters. Manufactured outrage over an event that not only did not occur, but in fact the opposite of said fantasy event occurred. Now THAT's delusion.

Keep bringing up how Obama fulfilled his campaign promise to bring Bin Laden to justice, even if it meant going into Pakistan.

Really, it'll eventually help you guys out. The American people are SO close to turning on him over this, just keep hammering away.

Republicans love to create alternate realities in their mind to be furious over what obama did in this fantasy land because what actually happened in reality just doesn't fit their agenda.

Oh no, I hope the right stops bringing up the fact that President Obama killed bin Laden.

And Ike had a backup memo in case D-Day failed.



And Nixon had a backup memo in case Apollo 11 failed.



Jesus H. Christ you rightards! You'd attack Obama even if someone's toast got burnt! Just accept the fact that all of your candidates are sociopaths and losers, give up on trying to retake the White House, and BUGGER OFF!

This is the shiat that makes it hard to be a RWNJ. I consider myself pretty right leaning, and did not vote for Obama, based solely on a few issues that are important to me, but the GOP focusing so much on religion and tearing into the Dems on issues that shouldn't be up for debate sure does make it hard.
I mean in reality, even I have to admit, that during the current administration, my life really has not changed for the worse. Sure maybe I lost a few tax benefits, but really, nothing, As of this moment, I can still cling to my guns, I still get a paycheck from my job, and he was at the helm when OBL was killed, and has not been a huge sack of Tripel Cre'me on foreign policy, so really nothing has changed for me and my family. I think things would possibly have turned out much worse if Rahm Emanuel had stayed as the right hand man, but that didn't happen, and so we have had a pretty uneventful (in the good sense) presidency.

The GOP just seems to be acting like the Troll at the bridge crossing playing guess what number I am thinking of and you can cross, all the while they are thinking of "Potato". Really makes it hard to be associated in the current climate.

You always line up your alibi's before a hit.
Thats the Chicago way!

/Bush gets credit if its good.
//Obama gets blame if its bad.
///Thats the Repub's way.

NeoCortex42: I agree that Fox News is probably not paid much attention by swing voters, but I still think it is very destructive. The Fox News faithful that watch it religiously believe every single narrative they air. It makes it impossible to have any sort of rational political discussion with the hardline conservatives I know. I don't mind someone not agreeing with me politically, so long as they work their opinion off of actual facts.

The e-mail forwards from extended family have been particularly numerous this year. Thank goodness for Snopes.

That's sort of my point. If everything somebody says is completely retarded, you tune them out completely, like you are doing from your family, so they have no influence with the mushy middle.

I keep praising Karl Rove lately (ewwww), because he knows this shiat is not how you win elections. You say five rational things and then stretch the truth on the sixth; you don't say six stupid things and expect anybody to listen to you. This is also not how he would play the "attack your opponent on his strength" game-you do it by attacking him on something tangentially related to his strength, not remind everybody of the actual strong thing. For example, a Rovian tactic here would attack Obama for not being tought enough on Iran, or attack him for proposing cuts to the military-not remind everybody that he ordered Bin Laden killed.

If Fox News was merely biased, but mostly sane, they would have more influence amoungst swing voters than being herpyderpydoo all the time. Right now, everybody knows they are the GOP's propganda arm and so everybody ignores them.

tenpoundsofcheese: Hype and Blame

Tripe.
Lame.

Funny you're taking you're talking points from an actual bumper sticker.
But not surprising.

He got lots of bites today, so I decided to do this:

When is a stupid thread about what ifs in an authorization memo for a successful op news?


Nevermore.

It's been a very Poe kind of day.

"And it was to proceed according to the risks, only according to the risks that had been outlined to the president. And if he encountered anything else, he had to check back..."


So he had to check back if they encountered anything that hadn't been briefed - they didn't just give him free reign to shoot from the hip?

ThisIsAnOutrage.jpg/

JerseyTim: "Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am."

Let me translate for the idiots out there:
"Tom Donilon called. The President said do the raid. Admiral McRaven is in charge of the raid. The President said OK based on what he was told. If anything changes, let him know. The plain is to get bin Laden. If he's not there, we're leaving. We told Admiral McRaven at 10:45 am."

"Also told McRaven it's his turn to bring the donuts."

AverageAmericanGuy: blah blah blah Killing Osama yap yap yap completely recovered economy derp derp

I laugh every time I see you in here, because I know how much it's going to kill you when Obama gets another four years where he doesn't have to worry about re-election. You think you're angry now? L O f#cking L.

GWLush: It is abundantly clear that they have put party way before country.

Republicanism is a religion.

cameroncrazy1984: Jackson Herring: You would, and I do not use this word lightly, LITERALLY have to be retarded to get this headline from that memo.

Read the comments section on the article, you'll understand you're right.

Those are some of the very finest derp I have ever read. The ferocity with which they hate Obama is as terrifying as it is hilarious.

Most of us hated Bush when he was president, but the Tea Baggers just take it to a whole new level.

Am I the only one that watched the video? Unless I misheard, the memo stated that if you did anything other than the plan, you need to check with us first or take the blame. I don't see this as any different than the quarterback changing the game plan that was discussed with the coach and failing because of it.

EnviroDude: Considering he mulled the decision to pull the trigger for 10 months so he could "get it right", this is not a shock.

Captain Obama - avenger at large!

You think Romney is better?!?!?!?

In 2007, Romney criticized (candidate) Barack Obama for stating that, as President, he would launch military strikes against "high-value terrorist targets" in Pakistan, even without the Pakistani government's approval. In 2011, after such a strike resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, Romney said that, if he had been President, he would have done "exactly the same thing."

gilgigamesh: EnviroDude: Considering he mulled the decision to pull the trigger for 10 months so he could "get it right", this is not a shock.

Captain Obama - avenger at large!

Wait, I thought he was overruled by his generals and didn't pull the trigger at all.

Or was that last week? I am losing track here, brother. Help me out.

* First Obama was mean and killed OBL when OBL should of been captured and given a trial even if it meant putting the lives of SEALs in danger.
* Then Bush actually had it all done and Obama just followed Bush's instructions he had laid out years later.
* Then Obama did nothing and his military decided it all and Obama was just a no back bone spectator to afraid of stopping things.
* Recently it has turned into "Well EVERYONE would of made that decision" even though Mitt Romney is on record for saying he was against making that exact decision.

I think these cover most of the GOP's butthurt about Obama actually getting OBL.

What, it would have been better had there been no backup plan at all?

Gotta love how people twist stuff.

Obama was the one who pulled the trigger now?? Is there no end to the demo's turning him into a hero?

Killing Osama sure put a lot of people back to work in a completely recovered economy.

Keep crowing, libs.

MaudlinMutantMollusk: Holding onto that much anger and frustration is really bad for your health, subby

/just take a deep breath and let it go
//because no one else cares

The GOP mantra "If we believe it, it's true.". And if they don't "farking liberal media".

/Just another Independent who wishes the GOP weren't so full of shiat.