On Voting Republicans Out Of Office

And now he owns it. When he campaigned on it, it became his. He took the credit so he also gets the blame now that things have gone wrong.

It doesn't matter what the source is. Our soldiers were murdered by Israeli terrorists. Which is probably why you support them so much, as you Republicans hate the UK. You hate the fact we don't kill children with a holocaust style healthcare system, we don't let lunatics shoot up our schools with automatic weapons. But you'll never forgive us for standing up to the Nazis in 1939.

Bingo!

So Obama owns shamefully what you praised Bush for. Explain how that works. Whats so different about Obama? You should be very happy. What is it about Obama that makes him so different in your book?

Coldfart celebrates this event every year with folk dancing and much cheer:

'The USS Liberty': America's Most Shameful Secret

by Eric S. Margolis

NEW YORK – On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the intelligence ship 'USS Liberty' was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli armored forces were racing deep into Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army.

'Liberty,' a World War II freighter, had been converted into an intelligence vessel by the top-secret US National Security Agency, and packed with the latest signals and electronic interception equipment. The ship bristled with antennas and electronic 'ears' including TRSSCOMM, a system that delivered real-time intercepts to Washington by bouncing a stream of microwaves off the moon.

'Liberty' had been rushed to Sinai to monitor communications of the belligerents in the Third Arab Israeli War: Israel and her foes, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

At 0800 hrs, 8 June, 1967, eight Israeli recon flights flew over 'Liberty,' which was flying a large American flag. At 1400 hrs, waves of low-flying Israeli Mystere and Mirage-III fighter-bombers repeatedly attacked the American vessel with rockets, napalm, and cannon. The air attacks lasted 20 minutes, concentrating on the ship's electronic antennas and dishes. The 'Liberty' was left afire, listing sharply. Eight of her crew lay dead, a hundred seriously wounded, including the captain, Commander William McGonagle.

At 1424 hrs, three Israeli torpedo boats attacked, raking the burning 'Liberty' with 20mm and 40mm shells. At 1431hrs an Israeli torpedo hit the 'Liberty' midship, precisely where the signals intelligence systems were located. Twenty-five more Americans died.

Israeli gunboats circled the wounded 'Liberty,' firing at crewmen trying to fight the fires. At 1515, the crew were ordered to abandon ship. The Israeli warships closed and poured machine gun fire into the crowded life rafts, sinking two. As American sailors were being massacred in cold blood, a rescue mission by US Sixth Fleet carrier aircraft was mysteriously aborted on orders from the White House.

An hour after the attack, Israeli warships and planes returned. Commander McGonagle gave the order. 'prepare to repel borders.' But the Israelis, probably fearful of intervention by the US Sixth Fleet, departed. 'Liberty' was left shattered but still defiant, her flag flying.

The Israeli attacks killed 34 US seamen and wounded 171 out of a crew of 297, the worst loss of American naval personnel from hostile action since World War II.

Less than an hour after the attack, Israel told Washington its forces had committed a 'tragic error.' Later, Israel claimed it had mistaken 'Liberty' for an ancient Egyptian horse transport. US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Thomas Moorer, insisted the Israeli attack was deliberate and designed to sink 'Liberty.' So did three CIA reports; one asserted Israel's Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, had personally ordered the attack.

In contrast to American outrage over North Korea's assault on the intelligence ship 'Pueblo,' Iraq's mistaken missile strike on the USS 'Stark,' last fall's bombing of the USS 'Cole' in Aden, and the recent US-China air incident, the savaging of 'Liberty' was quickly hushed up by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

The White House and Congress immediately accepted Israel's explanation and let the matter drop. Israel later paid a token reparation of US $6 million. There were reports two Israeli pilots who had refused to attack 'Liberty' were jailed for 18 years.

Surviving 'Liberty' crew members would not be silenced. They kept demanding an open inquiry and tried to tell their story of deliberate attack to the media. Israel's government worked behind the scenes to thwart these efforts, going so far as having American pro-Israel groups accuse 'Liberty's' survivors of being 'anti-Semites' and 'Israel-haters.' Major TV networks cancelled interviews with the crew. A book about the 'Liberty' by crewman James Ennes' was dropped from distribution. The Israel lobby branded him 'an Arab propagandist.'

The attack on 'Liberty' was fading into obscurity until last week, when intelligence expert James Bamford came out with Body of Secrets, his latest book about the National Security Agency. In a stunning revelation, Bamford writes that unknown to Israel, a US Navy EC-121 intelligence aircraft was flying high overhead the 'Liberty,' electronically recorded the attack. The US aircraft crew provides evidence that the Israeli pilots knew full well that they were attacking a US Navy ship flying the American flag.

Why did Israel try to sink a naval vessel of its benefactor and ally? Most likely because 'Liberty's' intercepts flatly contradicted Israel's claim, made at the war's beginning on 5 June, that Egypt had attacked Israel, and that Israel's massive air assault on three Arab nations was in retaliation. In fact, Israel began the war by a devastating, Pearl-Harbor style surprise attack that caught the Arabs in bed and destroyed their entire air forces.

Israel was also preparing to attack Syria to seize its strategic Golan Heights. Washington warned Israel not to invade Syria, which had remained inactive while Israel fought Egypt. Bamford says Israel's offensive against Syria was abruptly postponed when 'Liberty' appeared off Sinai, then launched once it was knocked out of action. Israel's claim that Syria had attacked it could have been disproved by 'Liberty.'

Most significant, 'Liberty's' intercepts may have shown that Israel seized upon sharply rising Arab-Israeli tensions in May-June 1967 to launch a long-planned war to invade and annex the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan and Sinai.

Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: 'Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident.' Why?

Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this 'third rail' issue.

Commander McGonagle was quietly awarded the Medal of Honor for his and his men's heroism – not in the White House, as is usual, but in an obscure ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard. Crew member's graves were inscribed, 'died in the Eastern Mediterranean..' as if they had be killed by disease, rather than hostile action.

A member of President Johnson's staff believed there was a more complex reason for the cover-up: Johnson offered Jewish liberals unconditional backing of Israel, and a cover-up of the 'Liberty' attack, in exchange for the liberal toning down their strident criticism of his policies in the then raging Vietnam War.

Israel, which claims it fought a war of self defense in 1967 and had no prior territorial ambitions, will be much displeased by Bamford's revelations. Those who believe Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Golan will be emboldened.

Much more important, the US government's long, disgraceful cover-up of the premeditated attack on 'Liberty' has now burst into the open and demands full-scale investigation. After 34 years, the voices of 'Liberty's' dead and wounded seamen must finally be heard.

May 2, 2001

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2001

Eric Margolis [send him mail] is foreign correspondent for the Toronto Sun.

People like Coldfart have always been more concerned about exterminating Moslems than protecting the lives of American servicemen.

Couldn't agree more. Its what happens when hate shapes one's world view. He's sort of a Gollum of hate. Twisted by his precious hatred for "others".

When the cold war ended people like him were at a loose end, not having a bogeyman to hate. So they allowed the arms industry to spread the myth of a disproportionate Islamic threat. This has two effects, healthy profits for death merchants and no complaints from lickspittles like Coldfart, because they were grateful to hate someone else rather than address their own (rather substantial) shortcomings.

It was twin attack, he also believes that criminals are everywhere in spite of the fact that crime has been falling steadily for THIRTY years in the US. He uses this myth of increasing criminality to cloak his racism.

Coldfart also believes in the meme of 'US Christian foundation.

So just for coldfart:

Beheading Believers in the Name of Sodomy? A Look Back at the Craziest Christians of 2014

The Duggars, Kirk Cameron—it was a banner year for right-wing Christian lunacy.

While Pope Francis continued his progressive streak in 2014, other Christian leaders seemed determined to prove to the world just how regressive they could be. Here’s a look back at some of the craziest of the crazies:

Gordon Klingenschmitt

Disgraced Navy chaplain turned Republican lawmaker Gordon Klingenschmitt is one of the nuttier crazy Christians of 2014. In August, he warned that Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), an openly gay U.S. congressman, would soon start beheading Christians in the name of sodomy.

“The open persecution of Christians is underway. Democrats like Polis want to bankrupt Christians who refuse to worship and endorse his sodomy. Next he’ll join ISIS in beheading Christians, but not just in Syria, right here in America,” he warned.

His outrageous remarks got him denounced by his own party, but he still managed to win a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives in November. After being elected, Klingenschmitt continued his craziness,warning that the “demon of rape” was granting bathroom rights to transgender people so that they could “violate your daughters.”

Earl Carter

Doesn't this describe coldfart?

Some anti-gay bigots have an unusually keen interest in men’s buttholes. One of these bigots is Pastor Earl Carter, who likes to deliver sermons about letting a “man to have his penis in the butt of another man where the dung come out.”

The Missouri pastor said this year that God should punish gay men with menstrual bleeding, hot flashes and pregnancy because they enjoy anal sex. He also hoped would they would “bleed from their butts.”

God provided you with a butt “so you can get rid of waste and bacteria.” Carter explained. “You saying it’s all right for a man to stick his penis in a cesspool? Are you crazy?”

The Duggar Family

Crazy Christians even have their own reality TV show. TLC’s 19 Kids and Countingfeatures the Duggar family, followers of the patriarchal Quiverfull ideology.

The family’s matriarch, Michelle Duggar, pushed Arkansas voters to overturn a local ordinance outlawing discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. She warned the ordinance would make it legal for transgender child predators to invade girl’s bathrooms.

As head of the Family Research Council’s Action outreach group, her son Josh has frequently attacked LGBT rights — but only because he loves them.

Jessa Duggar also made news in 2014 for blaming the Holocaust on the theory of evolution.

“I walked through the Holocaust Museum again today,” she wrote in a post on Instagram, “very sobering. Millions of innocents denied the most basic and fundamental of all rights–their right to life. One human destroying the life of another deemed ‘less than human.’ Racism, stemming from the evolutionary idea that man came from something less than human; that some people groups are ‘more evolved’ and others ‘less evolved.’ A denying that our Creator–GOD–made us human from the beginning, all of ONE BLOOD and ONE RACE, descendants of Adam. The belief that some human beings are ‘not fit to live.’”

Ray Comfort

Creationist Ray Comfort believes that the Bible is the literal word of God, and is best known for his belief that that atheists have scary dreams about bananas — but the evangelist showed in 2014 that he also has an inkling for attacking astrophysicists and cosmologists.

Not only has he claimed that the Bible says Stephen Hawking is a fool, but he thinks that Lawrence Krauss sounds like Adolf Hitler. Comfort also insists that Neil deGrasse Tyson is wrong to claim that the Bible isn’t scientific.

“(The Bible) gives us the basis for all creation, and it passes the scientific method,” he explained. “It’s observable – Genesis – and testable. Evolution is not. You can’t observe something 60 million years old, but you can observe what Genesis says.”
Kirk Cameron

Ray Comfort’s pal Kirk Cameron, the former teen heartthrob from “Growing Pains,” is another religious wackadoodle. This year, Cameron decided to defend Halloween and Christmas from the banana-fearing atheists and similar ilk who were determined to corrupt both holidays.

He insisted that Halloween’s origins were purely Christian, and that pagans were trying to steal it by creating a false history. Cameron said Halloween was clearly a Godly celebration, because mocking President Barack Obama with a Halloween mask was similar to when “Christians would dress up in costumes as the devil, ghosts, goblins and witches precisely to make the point that those things were defeated and overthrown by the resurrected Jesus Christ.”

His efforts ended up getting him denounced by other religious nutjobs as a “papist”

Cameron went even further in his quest to protect Christmas, releasing a film with a unambiguous title: Saving Christmas. Despite begging fans to help boost his movie’s putrid rating on Rotten Tomatoes, critics hated the movie. It ended up being IMDB’s worst film of all time.

As MLive’s John Serba explained, “Cameron’s preferred tool of engagement is a prybar, applied to your eyelids with an indelicate hand.”

Ken Ham

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis received a heaping dose of fame/infamy this year when he debated Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” and declared he didn’t need evolution or cosmological theories because he had a book.

Since then, this book has told him that human intelligence is declining because of sin, and that climate change is Earth “settling down” after God punished humanity by flooding the Earth. The Good Book also told Ham that comedian Bill Maher is going to face eternal torment in Hell because “God is a God of grace and mercy” — a fate Maher apparently shares with all of the extraterrestrial beings in the universe.

“You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation,” he explained. “Jesus did not become the ‘GodKlingon’ or the ‘GodMartian’! Only descendants of Adam can be saved. God’s Son remains the ‘Godman’ as our Savior.”

Ham is so far down the rabbit-hole that he thinks televangelist Pat Robertson is a “pagan” — which brings us to our next nutjob.

Pat Robertson

Though Pat Robertson thinks that creationists like Comfort, Cameron, and Ham are all silly people, his own brain is home to a swarm of silly thoughts. In 2014 alone, the televangelist has claimed that homosexual people are going to go extinct because they don’t reproduce, warned that towels can give you AIDS, called same-sex marriage “deadly,” urged and prayed for a revolution to overthrow Obama, told his co-host that she owes her husband sex for doing the dishes, and explained how demons get “permission” to wreck your car when you watch scary movies or pornography.

Robertson also explained that Jesus wouldn’t bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, because they would have been stoned to death in the anti-gay Roman Empire.

“I think you’ve got to remember from the Bible, you look carefully at the Bible, what would have happened in Jesus’ time if two men decided they wanted to cohabitate together, they would have been stoned to death,” he remarked. “So, Jesus would not have baked them a wedding cake, nor would he he have made them a bed to sleep in because they wouldn’t have been there.”

Logan Robertson

New Zealand has a crazy Robertson of its own. Pastor Logan Robertson of the Westcity Bible Baptist Church was a complete nobody until December, when he wrote an email to Jim Marjoram that said, “I pray that you will commit suicide.” Robertson was cranky that Marjoram had authored a book advocating a gay-friendly version Christianity.

“We are not interested in your filthy lifestyle or book. The Bible says you are vile, strange (queer), reprobate, filth, sodomite, natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed. I pray that you will commit suicide, you filthy child molesting fag,” Robertson wrote in his email.

When an openly gay reporter tried to interview Robertson, he called the reporter a “filthy faggot” and said he hoped the reporter would commit suicide, too.

Steven Anderson

Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church is another pastor who would be a complete nobody if it were not for the fact that he is a vile human being. This year, the pastor implored his female congregants to keep their mouths shut — and to not to even say “amen” — during “learning time” in church. He also warned these women not to become one of the birth control-using “whores” who were destroying America.

“It used to be a young women, she gets married, she has children, and that’s her job,” he lamented.

All of his Jesus-driven craziness came to a head in December, when he called for the mass extermination of LGBT people so Americans could enjoy an “AIDS-free Christmas.”

“It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.”

It should come as no surprise that his protege, Pastor Donnie Romero, brags about harassing lesbians.

James David Manning

This Cliven Bundy-loving pastor in New York is hard to distinguish from a parody of a crazy right-wing pastor. In fact, he can’t even distinguish his real self from a parody of himself. This year, Pastor James David Manning accidentally promoted a video that portrayed him admitting to being a “homosexual sodomite” who loved the taste of semen.

In another example of blurring the line between parody and reality, the pastor alsouploaded video of himself explaining that the NASA Voyager spacecraft proved homosexuality was unnatural and perverted.

“No life can come out of the rectum!” he ranted during his explanation. “The rectum is designed to get rid of death and waste! It’s designed for that one purpose, and the Sodomites are cheering on and praising the rectum!”

Robert Jeffress

Most crazy Christians don’t have the privilege of being invited to appear on Fox News, but that is not the case for Robert Jeffress. This year, the Texas megachurch pastor told Fox viewers that Jesus wanted the United States to build a giant fence across the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The United States was “enticing children and mothers” into dangerous situations by not blocking off the entire border, Jeffress said.

He also explained to Fox viewers how President Barack Obama is paving the way for the anti-Christ.

“He’s going to do it without any opposition, and my question was, how is he going to be able to pull that off?” Jeffress told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. “My thesis is, people will have been conditioned long before the anti-Christ comes to accept governmental overreach, and that’s what you’re seeing with President Obama.”



Eric W. Dolan has been an editor for Raw Story since August 2010. He is also the publisher and editor of PsyPost. Follow him on Twitter @ewdolan.

Leading the charge for the pullout in Iraq was your claim. Changing what you said after the fact doesn't make your original statement historically accurate. You are free to blame Obama all you want for the fallout but don't blame him for leading the charge to pull out when the agreement was signed before he became President.

You and your intellectual honesty thing. Its a standard he never heardof let alone understand or comment under.

Koch brothers freak out in response to Rolling Stone expose

Tim Dickinson's fantastic expose of the Koch brothers in the latest issue of Rolling Stone has gotten plenty of attention. For very good reason: it's a well-sourced, deep dive into the very toxic—literally toxic—business that earned the Kochs enough money to buy up an entire political party. That and the wrongful death judgement, six felony and numerous misdemeanor convictions, the tens of millions of dollars in fines, and the trading with Iran are all included in the story, well worth your time.

No one has given it more attention, it seems, than the notoriously thin-skinned Kochs. In typical Koch fashion, they don't argue the facts of Dickinson's story. They attack Dickinson, who responds here. Here's the nut of his detailed response.

The requests to speak to Charles Koch and Bouchouev were simply ignored. Ultimately, only Holden responded on the record, only via e-mail and only after Holden baselessly insinuated that I had been given an "opposition research" document dump from the liberal activist David Brock. (This is false.) From my perspective as a reporter, Koch Industries is the most hostile and paranoid organization I've ever engaged with—and I've reported on Fox News. In a breach of ethics, Koch has also chosen to publish email correspondence characterizing the content of a telephone conversation that was, by Koch's own insistence, strictly off the record. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/30/1333457/-Kochs-brothers-freak-out-in-response-to-Rolling-Stone-expose?detail=email

Nothing to do with todays Christianity.

And do not ever presume to tell me what I believe, you deluded sycophant.

And Byrd was a confirmed KKK member.

Read more: http://therightscoop.com/confirmed-steve-scalise-did-not-attend-white-supremacist-meeting/#ixzz3NbPqnUh9

http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/branco-cartoon-the-end-is-near/

www.therightscoop.com

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

The GOP sure thinks he did! So does David Duke, who was there with him!


GOP leaders look for Scalise flap to blow over


By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republican leaders have been supportive of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise since the revelation that he appeared before a white supremacist organization 12 years ago, suggesting they think the flare-up will fade, while some Democrats have been critical without calling for him to resign.

Scalise, the Republican whip in the House, said Tuesday that he regrets making the speech in 2002 and condemns the views of such groups. He said that as a state legislator he spoke to many groups at that time about a major tax issue.

"One of the many groups that I spoke to regarding this critical legislation was a group whose views I wholeheartedly condemn," the Louisiana congressman said in a statement. "It was a mistake I regret, and I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold."

Republican leaders defended Scalise within minutes of his statement. The new Congress, in which the GOP will control both the House and the Senate, convenes next week.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Scalise "made an error in judgment, and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate." Boehner said Scalise "has my full confidence as our whip."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said Scalise "acknowledged he made a mistake and has condemned the views that organization espouses. I've known him as a friend for many years and I know that he does not share the beliefs of that organization."

Scalise won a key endorsement Monday from Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will be Louisiana's only Democrat and only black in Congress when the new Congress convenes. Richmond told NOLA.com: "I don't think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body." He said he has worked closely with Scalise and "I am not going to let them use Steve as a scapegoat to score political points when I know him and know his family."

Louisiana's Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, also defended the congressman.

Scalise acknowledged speaking at a 2002 Louisiana convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, which called itself EURO. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke founded the group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a hate group.

In an interview Monday with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and NOLA.com, Scalise said he had little staffing as a state legislator and didn't always know details of groups he was invited to address. "I didn't know who all of these groups were, and I detest any kind of hate group," Scalise told the newspaper.

His statement Tuesday did not deal with the issue of weak staffing or sketchy knowledge of his audiences in 2002. Scalise, who is Catholic, said "these groups hold views that are vehemently opposed to my own personal faith, and I reject that kind of hateful bigotry."

Louisiana Republicans say Duke, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1991, did not attend the 2002 EURO convention, but addressed it at one point by phone.

In his NOLA.com interview, Scalise said he knew about Duke, but indicated he didn't recognize Duke's connection to the group.

"Everyone knew who he was," Scalise told NOLA.com. "I would not go to any group that he was a part of."

Democrats were measured in their criticisms. For instance, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's office issued a statement not from her but from her spokesman, Drew Hammill. It said Scalise's "involvement with a group classified by the Anti-Defamation League as anti-Semitic and the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group is deeply troubling for a top Republican leader in the House. "

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee criticized Scalise in an earlier statement on Tuesday, saying he "chose to cheerlead for a group of KKK members and neo-Nazis at a white supremacist rally." The statement questioned why the GOP leadership had remained silent.

Scalise, 49, ascended to his leadership post in June in the chain of events that followed then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor's surprise defeat in a Republican primary.

Scalise won the whip race with the solid backing of House conservatives, particularly Southerners who wanted a greater leadership voice considering the region's role in giving Republicans their largest House majority since President Herbert Hoover's administration at the start of the Great Depression.

___

Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Don't you EVER get tired of being WRONG?



Who took more vacation -- George W. Bush or Barack Obama?

By Louis Jacobson on Saturday, August 23rd, 2014 at 9:20 a.m.

President Barack Obama golfs at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on the island of Martha's Vineyard, on Aug. 9, 2014.
President Barack Obama golfs at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on the island of Martha's Vineyard, on Aug. 9, 2014.

Even a year later, our fact-check on which president took more vacation -- George W. Bush or Barack Obama -- remains one of our most popular fact-checks with readers. Given the Obama’s family’s summer vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., we thought it was time to look at the numbers again.

The question is drawing special attention this year because the Obamas’ time away came during a period that included unrest in Ferguson, Mo., the launch of U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group ISIS, the beheading of American journalist James Foley by ISIS, and the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa.
Mostly False
Mostly True
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The blizzard of challenges at a time when the president was on vacation -- and often on the golf course -- was not lost on many of his critics, as well as some of his supporters.

"As a general rule, I think that he’s right that you can’t be held hostage to the news cycle — the man deserves a bit of downtime," Jim Manley, a veteran Democratic strategist, told the New York Times. "But in this particular instance, I think a lot of Democrats flinched a little bit.

We’ll leave aside the political judgements and look strictly at the numbers.

Vacation days

CBS White House reporter Mark Knoller is the unofficial but widely trusted chronicler of data on presidential travels and other day-to-day White House goings-on, so we turned to his calculations.

On Aug. 8, 2014, Knoller tweeted that Obama had taken 19 vacations totaling 125 days so far while in office. Those numbers have risen a bit due to the Martha’s Vineyard vacation, but that’s still many fewer than George W. Bush’s 65 combined trips to his Texas ranch and his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine, which totaled 407 days at the same point in his presidency.

Not included in this data are trips to the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland, which Knoller doesn’t count as "vacation." Knoller told Yahoo! News that, through Aug. 12, 2014, Obama had made 33 visits to Camp David for all or part of 84 days, while Bush had been there 108 times for all or part of 341 days.

As we’ve noted previously, the unique security concerns for the president mean that he and his family can’t simply head out on the road and plop down at a Motel 6. And all presidents have to be accessible for consultation and decision-making even if they’re on vacation. As Knoller tweeted, a president "is never really on ‘vacation.’ The job and responsibilities go with him wherever he is."

Golf rounds

By Knoller’s count, Obama played 186 rounds of golf during his presidency through Aug. 12, according to Yahoo! News. That number that has gone up a bit since then due to additional rounds on Martha’s Vineyard.

Bush played many fewer rounds as president -- 24, mainly because he stopped in 2003, since it sent the wrong message when troops were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Still, Obama is hardly the all-time champion in presidential golf rounds. Golf has been so popular among presidents that several golf publications have had no problem filling up the spots on 10-best lists of presidential golfers, with many worthy presidents failing to make the cut. A frequent No. 1 on those lists is John F. Kennedy, despite his debilitating case of Addison’s disease.

As for which president has played the most rounds of golf, it’s definitely not Obama. For instance, Dwight Eisenhower played almost 800 rounds during his eight-year presidency, according to a study of his daily itinerary cited in Golf Digest -- many times what Obama has played.

And Eisenhower is not even the No. 1 golf-playing president. Woodrow Wilson played nearly 1,200 rounds during his two terms. Wilson "played more rounds of golf than any president in history," said Wilson’s biographer, A. Scott Berg.

typical liberal lack of fidelity to the truth....when Obama is on vacation he is on vacation, doing as little work as possible. When Bush was at the ranch he was sometimes on vacation, but more often he was working in the Western White House, his ranch. Now maybe he did not work 10 hour days, but he he went to his office TO WORK every day with many members of his staff two minutes walk away in their shabby offices....WORKING.

Hawkeye, I live in Texas and parents of a friend of mine actually sold the Crawford acerage to him. W DID not do the nations business there. He cut weeds and crashed his bicycle there. W was a delegator. Thats how Cheney got the huge portfolio he almost took over with.

W hung around Austin snorting coke and ******* secretaries before he became governor and while Laura straightened his **** up he never gained a work ethic worth spit.

You're talking whistfully, but everybody down here including his supporters know what lazy man he is.