WTH, he didn’t have a catch last night and only has 12 all year in 6 games. I put an Amber alert out for him last night, no word if they found him yet!!

The problem(s) with the GOP blaming Biden for the crisis in Israel​

As Republicans scramble to blame the White House for Hamas' attack on Israel, there are all kinds of errors of fact and judgment to keep in mind.


Oct. 9, 2023, 7:00 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel appeared on Fox News midday Saturday to comment on Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel. That, in and of itself, might not seem especially notable, though the RNC chair described the crisis as “a great opportunity“ for her party’s presidential candidates to draw contrasts with President Joe Biden.

Evidently, McDaniel’s fellow partisans were thinking very much along the same lines. NBC News reported on Saturday afternoon:

Republican 2024 presidential candidates blamed the Biden administration for the attacks Hamas terrorists launched against Israel on Saturday, pointing to the deadly developments as evidence of U.S. weakness on the world stage and claiming that the administration is partly responsible.

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It was difficult to keep up with the prominent GOP voices scurrying to blame their own country’s leadership for Hamas’ attack. For example, Sen. Tim Scott, who somehow cultivated a reputation for being the nice guy in his party's 2024 field, insisted that “the truth” is that the Democratic president “funded these attacks on Israel.”

That wasn’t even close to being “the truth,” as the South Carolinian — a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — really ought to know, but Scott was hardly alone. Donald Trump spent much of the weekend lashing out wildly at his presidential successor, at one point even issuing a clumsily worded statement that suggested the Biden administration attacked Israel: “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration.”

On Capitol Hill, the rhetorical offensive was just as aggressive. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a leading contender for House speaker, also blamed Biden for the crisis in Israel, as did Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who falsely claimed that American tax dollars “funded” Hamas’ attack, adding that the militants bought weapons with “our money.”

Not to be outdone, Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida also falsely argued that the incumbent American president “funded this attack.” Media outlets aligned with the party followed suit.

Part of the problem with all of this is that the Republican line is rooted in misinformation. While it’s true that the United States recently reached an agreement with Iran over the release of several hostages, and as part of the deal Iran gained access to oil revenue that had been frozen, the details matter.

“All of the money held in restricted accounts in Doha as part of the arrangement to secure the release of 5 Americans in September remains in Doha. Not a penny has been spent,” Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson tweeted. “These restricted funds cannot go to Iran — it can only be used for future humanitarian-related purposes. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading.”

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson added, “I can’t comment on 2024 because of the Hatch Act.

But I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people. These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks.”

As for Vance’s assertion that American tax dollars were somehow involved, that’s plainly not a claim to be taken seriously, since it doesn’t even make sense within the GOP’s own framework, which is itself misleading.

But as important as the factual details are, there’s also a broader problem with the Republicans’ rhetorical tack.

In 1984, during the Republican National Convention, Jeane Kirkpatrick delivered a speech that included a catchphrase that she repeated five times during her remarks: “They always blame America first.” In reference to Democrats, she went on to condemn the “blame America first crowd.”

It was an ugly line of attack, but it caught on and became a favorite of the right, and it’s still embraced by prominent Republicans a generation later. In Nikki Haley’s 2020 remarks at the Republican National Convention, for example, the former ambassador quoted Kirkpatrick and again accused Democrats of “blaming America first.” Last year, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas pushed the same line, declaring on Fox News, “[Biden] and other Democrats like him always blame America first.”

There’s never been any real value in casually throwing around such obnoxious attacks on other Americans’ patriotism, though the line of rhetorical attack has certainly taken on a greater hypocritical dimension as Republicans rush — yet again — to blame their own country’s leadership for deadly violence for which the United States is obviously not responsible.

Nancy Mace keeps getting tripped up by details she ought to know​

Donald Trump has referred to Nancy Mace as a “grandstanding loser.” The congresswoman's latest on-air interviews probably won’t help in this regard.


Oct. 9, 2023, 8:34 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

As Rep. Nancy Mace continues to overhaul her political reputation on Capitol Hill, making the transition from a perceived “moderate” to a more reliably conservative partisan, the South Carolina Republican has been especially eager to target President Joe Biden with unfounded corruption allegations.

In late August, for example, Mace told Fox Business that she considers the Democratic incumbent “the most corrupt president in U.S. history,” adding that journalists are involved in an elaborate conspiracy to sweep damaging details “under the rug.” A month later, the congresswoman appeared on ABC News and insisted that she was aware of incriminating evidence against Biden, though she didn’t share any.

It was against this backdrop that Mace sat down with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo last weekend. The host asked, “Have you been able to identify specific policy decisions that Joe Biden made that he was paid for?” The South Carolina Republican responded, “I have not had the, uh, the ability to research that.”

Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York added soon after that at a recent House Oversight Committee hearing, Mace “accused Joe Biden of bribery, money laundering, and orchestrating a prostitution ring. Now she says she hasn’t ‘researched’ the evidence that would support these claims.”

This wasn’t a great moment for the GOP congresswoman, but she was nevertheless invited onto CBS News’ “Face the Nation” a week later, sharing her perspective on why she voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and throwing her support behind far-right Rep. Jim Jordan as McCarthy’s possible successor.

Host Margaret Brennan reminded her guest, “I know you’ve been outspoken about defending victims of sexual assault. Do the past allegations against Jim Jordan that he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse give you any reservations? How do you square that?” According to the network transcript, Mace responded:

“Yeah, I’m not familiar or aware with that. He’s not indicted on anything that I’m aware of. And so I don’t I don’t know anything and I can’t speak to that. ... I don’t know anything about that.”

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Brennan was, of course, referring to allegations that Jordan turned a blind eye to sexual abuses at Ohio State during his tenure as a coach at the university. The accusations include claims from former student-athletes who were at the university during Jordan’s tenure. (Jordan has denied the allegations.)

This wasn’t an obscure controversy from the distant past: The allegations were a national news story in 2018 and 2019. To hear Mace tell it, however, she’s never even heard of the story.

Meanwhile, in the same “Face the Nation” interview, the CBS host reminded her guest that McCarthy has said his ouster was a retaliatory scheme, launched by Rep. Matt Gaetz, because McCarthy supported an Ethics Committee investigation into the Florida Republican. Asked whether she has any concerns about this, Mace added, “Well, I don’t, again, he’s not indicted for anything. I don’t really, I don’t know much about it.”

The South Carolinian’s critics have suggested Mace cares more about being on camera than doing the real work of being a member of Congress. Even Donald Trump has called her a “grandstanding loser.”
Her latest on-air interviews probably won’t help in this regard

As Israel prepares a ground offensive in Gaza, the White House sends military aid and moves to prevent regional destabilization​

By Michael Birnbaum
,
John Hudson
and
Ellen Nakashima
Updated October 8, 2023 at 8:19 p.m. EDT| Published October 8, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. EDT

The Biden administration on Sunday scrambled to prevent Hamas’s assault on Israel from escalating into a multi-front, regional conflict, deploying a U.S. aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean and rushing arms to the Israeli military in a bid to deter the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and other actors from attacking.

The effort came amid close consultations between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday. U.S. officials expect Israel to unleash a broad-based ground assault against the militant group within the next 24 to 48 hours, following the sophisticated Hamas attack on Saturday that killed more than 700 Israelis. Israeli reprisals have killed more than 400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

American citizens are probably among the hostages that Hamas is holding inside Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. At least several Americans were killed in the attack, a senior administration official confirmed.

The toll ups the stakes for the Biden administration as it engages in a complicated multinational effort tamp down the possibility of more attacks on Israel. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group and Lebanon’s largest political party, has a history of attacking Israel when it is engaged in hostilities with Hamas.

“No one elsewhere should try to take advantage of this situation,” Blinken told CNN on Sunday. “It’s something we’re watching very carefully.”

The nascent war has dealt a blow to what would have been one of Biden’s signature foreign policy achievements, a bid to get Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel. The Saudis have predicated that deal on Israel making concessions to Palestinians — potentially pulling back settlements or increasing medical and financial assistance — but a broad-based Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip is unlikely to further that cause, policymakers said.

For now, the Biden administration has paused the Saudi initiative, concentrating its diplomatic outreach on getting Israel’s neighbors to stand aside as the government tries to dismantle Hamas.

Blinken and other top diplomats on Sunday worked the phones, calling officials across the region to pass messages to Hezbollah telling the group not to attack Israel. The deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean was also intended to send a deterrent message to the Lebanese militant and political force, according to a senior administration official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security calculations.

Asked whether Hamas may have acted in partnership with Iran to disrupt the effort to broker a Saudi deal, Blinken said “that could have been part of the motivation. Look, who opposes normalization? Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran.”

Pence slams Trump, GOP ‘voices of appeasement’ as Israel comes under attack​

The former vice president called out Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy by name.


Mike Pence’s comments represented the first ripple in the Republican primary from the violence that erupted on Saturday. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

By ADAM WREN, OLIVIA ALAFRIZ and NATALIE ALLISON
10/07/2023 10:44 AM EDT
Updated: 10/07/2023 01:13 PM EDT

GLENWOOD, I.A. — Former Vice President Mike Pence tore into Donald Trump and pointed to isolationism in the Republican Party as complicit in the sweeping Hamas attack on Israel, decrying American “retreat on the world stage.”

In a scathing rebuke, Pence faulted “voices of appeasement like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis that I believe have run contrary to the tradition in our party that America is the leader of the free world.”

Pence’s comments in Iowa represented the first ripple in the Republican primary from the violence that erupted on Saturday — and effectively threw down a challenge to Republicans he said have “embraced the language of isolationism and appeasement.”


The role of the United States in maintaining global security is one of the most important points of friction between the Republican presidential candidates — one that could now erupt in a new way because of the violence in Israel.

Pence’s criticism of Trump was uncharacteristically pointed. But it was even more remarkable for the break it represented in their previously lockstep approach to Israel. Once a signature priority of the Trump-Pence administration, the U.S.-Israel relationship Saturday was suddenly becoming a wedge issue between them.

Faulting President Joe Biden for “projecting weakness on the world stage,” Pence also pointed an accusatory finger rightward at an event here near the Nebraska border.

“This is also what happens when you have leaders in the Republican Party signaling retreat on the world stage,” Pence said.

When he added the Reaganesque line that “it’s time to get back to peace through strength,” the candidate polling in single digits nationally received an uncharacteristically sustained round of applause.

“Backing our allies and doing things in their neighborhood so it doesn’t come to the United States is important,” Larry Winum, a 59-year-old banker who had come to hear Pence at a local senior center, said.

Pence has made engagement with the world and backing Ukraine in the nation’s conflict with Russia a hallmark of his campaign, earlier this year becoming the first GOP presidential candidate to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It’s a message that’s not universally embraced in his own party: Even his own brother, Rep. Greg Pence of Indiana, voted recently against an appropriations bill aimed at providing further aid to Ukraine.

Several underdog candidates, including Pence and Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, have castigated factions on the right that want to pull back American involvement in overseas conflicts like the war in Ukraine.

Those more isolationist constituencies have found vocal champions in Trump and other candidates like the biotech entrepreneur Ramaswamy, who has taken a dismissive view of Ukraine and other traditional American priorities like the security of Taiwan.

Most Republican candidates, however, stuck to a narrow message on Saturday of support for Israel and criticism of the Biden administration. Trump, the dominant frontrunner in the race, spent part of the morning posting social-media messages on an entirely unrelated matter — his legal battle with New York Attorney General Tish James.

There is a history of foreign security crises shaping American presidential primaries. In 2007, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan helped refocus the Republican nominating contest on security issues in a way that helped John McCain resurrect his candidacy. Four years ago, the killing of the Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani by the Trump administration pushed Democratic candidates to address national security concerns in a campaign largely focused on domestic economic and cultural debates.

On Saturday, Trump praised his previous administration’s policies on Israel while bashing the current White House.

“These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force,” Trump said in a statement released by his campaign. “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration. We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again.”

Haley said that Hamas had “declared war on Israel” on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, calling the group a “bloodthirsty terrorist organization backed by Iran and determined to kill as many innocent lives as possible.”

DeSantis, the Florida governor, called for “a swift and lethal response” and said that “America must stand with Israel.”

“The dastardly terrorist attacks perpetrated against innocent Israeli civilians by Iran-backed terror group Hamas deserve a swift and lethal response,” the GOP presidential candidate — and longtime ally to Israel — said in a social media post, followed by a video of him speaking directly to camera.

A spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign, Tricia McLaughlin, issued a statement on his behalf.

“We stand with Israel and are appalled by these attacks,” McLaughlin said. “Shooting civilians and kidnapping children are war crimes. Israel’s right to exist and defend itself must never be doubted. Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists cannot be allowed to prevail.”

Chris Christie wrote in a social media post: “Biden’s appeasement of Israel’s enemies has invited this war against Israel. ... This terrorism is funded by Biden’s idiotic release of $6 billion to the Iranians.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott also blamed the Biden administration. “The truth is though, Joe Biden funded these attacks on Israel,” he said.

But NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson disputed those assertions in a social media post.

“I can’t comment on 2024 because of the Hatch Act. But I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” she wrote.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates further called the allegations “a shameful lie” in a post on X.

And State Dept. spokesperson Matthew Miller also hit back, writing: “Let’s be clear: the deal to bring U.S. citizens home from Iran has nothing to do with the horrific attack on Israel. Not a penny has been spent, and when it is, it can only go for humanitarian needs like food and medicine. Anything to the contrary is false.”

Chris Christie wrote in a social media post: “Biden’s appeasement of Israel’s enemies has invited this war against Israel. ... This terrorism is funded by Biden’s idiotic release of $6 billion to the Iranians.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott also blamed the Biden administration. “The truth is though, Joe Biden funded these attacks on Israel,” he said.

But NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson disputed those assertions in a social media post.

“I can’t comment on 2024 because of the Hatch Act. But I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” she wrote.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates further called the allegations “a shameful lie” in a post on X.

And State Dept. spokesperson Matthew Miller also hit back, writing: “Let’s be clear: the deal to bring U.S. citizens home from Iran has nothing to do with the horrific attack on Israel. Not a penny has been spent, and when it is, it can only go for humanitarian needs like food and medicine. Anything to the contrary is false.”

... and then only scores 11 pts for the rest of regulation, and their QB Fifita throws for under 100 yrds in the 2nd Half. Something tells me Caleb might have been right. It was the D that stepped up when down 0-17.

I still think the dumbest timeout of the season was in the 4th Qt after we stuffed Ariz twice inside the 1yd line. That timeout gave them time to regroup. We had them on their heels. We had the MO. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

Stop pointing figures. No one knows anything yet. Trying to score political points makes you look cheap.

Between us, UO and Miami. Not good company to keep in the NIL era, but fingers crossed. 6:45 PM

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He seems distracted.

So is CLR with Caleb just Helton with Sam Darnold?

I plan on interviewing Jontae Gilbert tomorrow but this was his immediate response to how the visit went:

“Best visit I ever had.”

More to come tomorrow.

1 loss Texas is #9....Oklahoma jumps us and goes to #5.
Notre Dame falls to #21.

Our running roster of who's here tonight ...

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History​

Further information: History of Gaza

Gaza was part of the Ottoman Empire before it was occupied by the United Kingdom (1918–1948), Egypt (1948–1967), and then Israel, which in 1993 granted the Palestinian Authority in Gaza limited self-governance through the Oslo Accords. Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been de facto governed by Hamas, which claims to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people.

The United Nations, international human rights organizations, and the majority of governments and legal commentators still consider the territory to be occupied by Israel despite the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza.[27] Israel maintains direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza:

• Israel controls Gaza's air and maritime space and six of Gaza's seven land crossings
• Israel reserves the right to enter Gaza at will with its military and maintains a no-go buffer zone within the Gaza territory
• Gaza is dependent on Israel for its water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities [27]

The Gaza Strip's northern and eastern boundaries were established at the cessation of fighting in the 1948 war, confirmed by the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement on 24 February 1949.[30] Article V of the Agreement declared that the demarcation line was not to be an international border. At first the Gaza Strip was officially administered by the All-Palestine Government, established by the Arab League in September 1948. All-Palestine in the Gaza Strip was managed under the military authority of Egypt, functioning as a puppet state, until it officially merged into the United Arab Republic and dissolved in 1959. From the time of the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government until 1967, the Gaza Strip was directly administered by an Egyptian military governor.

Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the Six-Day War in 1967. Pursuant to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993, the Palestinian Authority became the administrative body that governed Palestinian population centers while Israel maintained control of the airspace, territorial waters and border crossings with the exception of the land border with Egypt which is controlled by Egypt. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip under their unilateral disengagement plan.

In July 2007, after winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Hamas became the elected government.[31][32] In 2007, Hamas expelled the rival party Fatah from Gaza.[33] This broke the Unity Government between Gaza Strip and the West Bank, creating two separate governments for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In 2014, following reconciliation talks, Hamas and Fatah formed a Palestinian unity government within the West Bank and Gaza. Rami Hamdallah became the coalition's Prime Minister and has planned for elections in Gaza and the West Bank.[34] In July 2014, a set of lethal incidents between Hamas and Israel led to the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. The Unity Government dissolved on 17 June 2015 after President Abbas said it was unable to operate in the Gaza Strip.

Following the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, the territory has been subjected to a blockade, maintained by Israel and Egypt.[35] Israel maintains that this is necessary: to impede Hamas from rearming and to restrict Palestinian rocket attacks; Egypt maintains that it prevents Gaza residents from entering Egypt. The blockades by Israel and Egypt extended to drastic reductions in the availability of necessary construction materials, medical supplies, and foodstuffs following intensive airstrikes on Gaza City in December 2008. A leaked UN report in 2009 warned that the blockade was "devastating livelihoods" and causing gradual "de-development". It pointed out that glass was prohibited by the blockade.[36][37][38][39][40] Under the blockade, Gaza is viewed by some critics as an "open-air prison",[41] although the claim is contested.[42] In a report submitted to the UN in 2013, the chairperson of Al Athar Global Consulting in Gaza, Reham el Wehaidy, encouraged the repair of basic infrastructure by 2020, in the light of projected demographic increase of 500,000 by 2020 and intensified housing problems.[43]

I think this is the week Bama jumps us as well as Oklahoma and Louisville. I think we’re 12 or 13 at best

NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson disputed those assertions in a social media post.

“I can’t comment on 2024 because of the Hatch Act. But I can clarify the facts: Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” she wrote.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates further called the allegations “a shameful lie” in a post on X.

And State Dept. spokesperson Matthew Miller also hit back, writing: “Let’s be clear: the deal to bring U.S. citizens home from Iran has nothing to do with the horrific attack on Israel. Not a penny has been spent, and when it is, it can only go for humanitarian needs like food and medicine. Anything to the contrary is false.”

200+ rushing
300+ passing
500+ total

same story, every week, every opponent.
nice to be 6-0, but simply not a sustainable model to beat good football teams going forward…..

A comprehensive breakdown from last night:

USC's objective is to win football games. We are 5-0. The numerous Debbie Downers on this board cannot enjoy the fact that USC is undefeated with all of their hopes and dreams fully intact because they are worried that the team is going to lose a game(s) in the future. In other words, they cannot be happy at the present time because they are worried that they might be unhappy in the future. In my opinion, it is a sad way to live one's life -- and I refuse to join the Debbie Downer Brigade.

The fact that USC chose not to run the ball against ASU in order to win by more than 14 points is not a genuine problem -- it is a difference in strategic thinking between the coaching staff and the Debbie Downer Brigade. The fact that USC took their foot off the gas when they were up by 27 in the first half against Colorado is not a genuine problem, either, because it worked out fine. (There is always a risk that the other team will "catch fire" but it is what it is. With the exception of the thugs at Oregon, no PAC-12 team deserves to have the score run up on them. It's a classless thing to do to any team.)