General Cover-up
Posted by MichaelGroff on November 13, 2012 | Filed under Podcasts
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About the only thing more convoluted than the NFL’s overtime rules is the developing love rectangle involving General David Petraeus. At the risk of causing a neural shutdown I’ll try to keep it as simplistic as possible.
The decorated General stepped down from his position as head of the CIA last week citing an extramarital affair as the impetus for his resignation. The affair involved a biographer named Paula Broadwell who was at one point documenting a chronical on Petraeus. They would work closely together for many hours daily and over time their relationship turned intimate. Recently Broadwell reportedly felt that another woman was getting a bit too cozy with Petraus so she did what any normal person would do and allegedly wrote her thousands of threatening emails. This other woman, Jill Kelley, a volunteer “social ambassador” immediately reported these threats to the FBI.
An investigation was launched by the bureau, but the investigator tasked to uncover the details began emailing inappropriate pictures of himself to Jill Kelley. Now, it’s officially a mess. Questions arise as to how much information Broadwell has with regard to sensitive intelligence information due to her intimate relationship with Petraeus. Moreover, some speculate as to whether or not the threatening emails even occurred. All the while, more steamy details regarding the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell emerge. A few things are fairly certain in this chaotic scenario, one of which is that the only truly innocent person is David’s wife Holly Petraeus. Yes, the General has been married for more than three decades to Holly and to say the least she was extremely horrified at the recent affair and subsequent fallout.
On another front, General Petraeus will face an investigative panel regarding the September 11th attack on the Libyan consulate. He is scheduled to appear before the group on Friday but not before his credibility will be assailed some more by the media.
A great deal of criticism has been levied with regard to the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi and the attack that killed four people including Ambassador Christoper Stevens. As more intelligence information has been released, the State Department and the Obama administration appear to have made an attempt to cover up some of the details surrounding the incident. Obviously, this relates to General Petraeus as he had access to all of the information regarding the Libyan tragedy.
It seems oddly coincidental that the Petraeus affair was revealed the day after President Obama was re-elected. In an even more interesting twist, both Secretary of Defense Leon Penetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are resigning from their positions. Factor in the timing of the revolation regarding the Petraus affair and associated blitz and it looks like quite a distraction perhaps even a smoke screen to obfuscate the real issue… Benghazi.
“My candidate lost, so I’m taking my bat, ball and state and I’ll form my own damn union!”
Following the re-election of President Obama, a number of states have filed online petitions on the White House website to indicate that they would like to secede from the union. Naturally, the first state to file was Texas. According to the White House petition page any petition that receives 25,000 signatures will be forwarded to the appropriate policy makers and an official comment will be made regarding the issue. As of early morning Wednesday, more than 72,000 signatures were gathered regarding the Texas secession petition. In all 47 states have filed similar actions. Many of which cite similar reasons for their reasons to exit including the signing of the NDAA, the formation of the TSA and other broad reaching government entities and debt/deficit spending. On it’s own Texas is the 16th largest economy in the world, they claim that their budget is balanced and use that as just another reason to no longer be affiliated with the United States.
I’ll gladly save the White House the time and write their official response for them, “shut up, really just shut up!” Petulant baby syndrome appears to be in full effect. If your candidate loses an election it doesn’t mean that it’s time to secede. Imagine if a sports team loses a championship game, for instance the New England Patriots of last season. I could just see it now, Patriots owner Robert Kraft telling the NFL, “since we lost the Superbowl, we’re seceding from the NFL!”
If Texas really wants out that badly, I’ll hold the door open for them.
Speaking of the NFL…
Over the past 20 years there is little doubt that the NFL has been on the slide toward mediocrity. Free agency, the frequent rule changes including the aforementioned needlessly complex overtime structure and the stacking of one side of the ball; building only offensive or defensive teams are all good examples of where the league has gone wrong. Another nail in the coffin took place over the weekend when the St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers played to a 24-24 tie. In the NFL, after regulation play has concluded and a single overtime period has elapsed with neither team ahead on the scoreboard the result is a tie. Some people, including NFL players, are actually unaware of this.
While infrequent (occurring about once every four or five seasons on average), ties are just another slice of the degradation pie that the NFL serves up every season. The fact is, the NFL is the last of the ‘four major sports’ in the U.S. (NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL) to allow a regular season contest to end in a draw. Time to step into the 21st century, this isn’t soccer and we’re Americans, we like a winner and a loser, period.
As an aside, more key players were injured over the weekend including Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Rothlisberger, Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler, San Francisco 49ers QB Alex Smith, Philadelphia Eagles QB Michael Vick and several others. As is often the case by this point in the season many NFL rosters look like MASH units and this season is even moreso than previous years. Despite this, the NFL and many fans are looking forward to an even longer season in the future expanding from the current 16 game regular season schedule to an 18 game injuryfest. As long as the television contracts keep coming in and Las Vegas can make billions in gambling revenue these disturbing trends above will likely continue.
Also on This Episode…
– Five star, luxury accommodations for your pet? Sure we’ve heard of that before, but Brazil has taken the concept to a new level. The south American nation is opening a love motel for pets, featuring the standard luxury amenities with additional services including gourmet food, perfumes, plastic surgery (botox injections) and just incase your love meeting between pets is unsuccessful the facility even has artificial insemination procedures… I remind you, this is for your PET.
– Two seperate, but equally stunning parent of the year nominees from Great Britain. One is a very successful prostitute escort with two children and a third on the way. The other a touching story of the reunion between an estranged father and daughter. Yuck.
– A brand new feature on the show where we try to further incorporate social media. Gathering up all the great, random pearls of wisdom found on a celebrity’s twitter account.
– Just so you know, since the media won’t tell you, the victims of superstorm Sandy still need assistence, because God forbid they get any from the federal government. Thus far, the feds response has been embarrassing. Where is President Obama in all of this? On vacation… or a diplomatic mission… somewhere in Asia not really giving a damn about the northeast U.S. it would appear.
– Ever wonder what happens to some of those pop stars from the 80s? One of them is living the good life recording the jingle for an Alabama gun store. Poor Debbie Gibson. There’s quite a bit that’s not right about this story.