Bergen & Essex County – The New Jersey Choral Society concludes its 2012-13 season with “Mass,” a program of reflective and inspirational music on Friday, May 31 at 8:00 pm at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 30 North Fullerton Ave., Montclair. A second performance will be held on Saturday, June 1 at 8:00 pm at West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe St., Ridgewood.
The stirring and uplifting program, under the direction of conductor Eric Dale Knapp, features John Rutter’s “Mass of the Children,” a non-liturgical Missa brevis with traditional Latin Mass text interwoven with several English poems. Maurice Duruflé’s Gregorian chant hymn “Ubi Caritas,” “Antiphon” from “Five Mystical Songs” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the haunting “Gabriel’s Oboe” from the film “The Mission” will also be featured. Guest soloists include Megan Knapp (soprano) and Keith Harris (baritone) and a special appearance by the Junior Youth Choir from the North Jersey Home School Association. Linda Sweetman-Waters will accompany the chorus on the organ.
The New Jersey Choral Society is one of the state’s most prestigious choral groups. Well-known for presenting outstanding and unique programs, NJCS performs three major programs annually in Bergen and Essex Counties, and has performed in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, China, Australia and England.
Come one hour prior to concert time for The Inside Line, a complimentary lecture that provides an insightful and intimate discussion of the music for all ticket holders.
Tickets are $25.00 for general admission, $22.00 for students, seniors, and patrons with disabilities and $12 for children 12 and under (add $5.00 at the door). Group discounts are also available. For reservations or more information, visit https://www.njcs.org or call the New Jersey Choral Society at (201) 379-7719.
In support of the Center for Food Action, the New Jersey Choral Society will be collecting nonperishable food items at these concerts. The Church of the Immaculate Conception and West Side Presbyterian Church are wheelchair accessible. Funding has been made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pascack Valley hospital reopening with eye on expansion
Saturday May 18, 2013, 11:06 PM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Bergen County’s first for-profit hospital welcomed guests to tour its operating suites and patient rooms in Westwood on Saturday — a week before it was to admit patients — its executives said they were already thinking about future expansion.
They expect patients will be attracted to the new hospital by the single rooms offered at no extra charge, and physicians by the $80 million investment in renovations and new technology. More than 600 doctors have already applied for admitting privileges.
“If we truly have the volume here and the support we think, within the next three years we’ll be looking to add inpatient rooms,” said Chad Melton, chief executive of the hospital now known as Hackensack University Medical Center at Pascack Valley.
As he surveyed the open space along Old Hook Road from his office window, he said he believed there would be new buildings there, “hopefully sooner rather than later.”
The hospital, a joint venture of LHP Hospital Group and Hackensack University Medical Center, shows how an investor with enormous financial resources can change the competitive landscape. LHP, the majority owner, is capitalized by the Canadian Pension Plan and CCMP Capital Advisors, a former JPMorgan private-equity unit.
Its opening celebrations — complete with fireworks Friday night — come at a time of fierce competition among Bergen County’s hospitals. The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood has been struggling to win local approval for its plan to replace some of its existing buildings with new ones that will have single-patient rooms and more modern operating rooms. Englewood Hospital and Medical Center also is seeking approval to add three stories to one of its buildings, with no change in patient rooms.
STRONG AND RESILIENT
Prepared To Meet Any Challenge
Saturday, May 18, 2013
President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country.
On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days.
The single day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under the Department of Defense.
Superintendent salary caps can keep costs down but so would mergers
May 16, 2013
By Laura Waters, of New Jersey Left Behind
New Jersey Left Behind
This is part of a series from education blogger Laura Waters of NJ Left Behind.
Today at its annual Delegate Assembly, New Jersey School Boards Association will most likely adopt a resolution that attacks Gov. Christie’s mandated state superintendent salary caps as intrusive and untenable.
According to the draft resolution, proposed by the Ridgewood Board of Education (Bergen), local boards of education should have “the flexibility to adjust the CSA’s [Chief School Administrator or Superintendent’s] compensation commensurate with his or her experience knowing the current employment market conditions and other factors that may influence the ability to recruit, hire, and retain a competent and highly qualified CSA.”
Local control, right? Very Jersey. School board members resent state intrusion into the local business of setting superintendent salaries, especially in North Jersey, a stone’s throw away from New York State’s greener, uncapped pastures. And NJSBA data shows that superintendent turnover has spiked sharply since the salary cap was enacted: in 2011-2012, 31.4% of N.J. school districts lost their superintendents (a boon for the burgeoning interim superintendent industry).
Some board members see benefits in a superintendent salary cap, a fact duly noted in the Ridgewood Resolution. All eyes are trained on school budgets, especially with the legislatively-mandated 2% limit on school tax increases. But the impact of the superintendent salary cap goes way beyond the payout to chief school administrators. There’s a ripple effect, which will explicitly or implicitly inform the deliberations at the NJSBA Delegate Assembly.
In Ridgewood, Superintendent Daniel Fishbein will earn $232,872 this year. But when his contract expires on June 30, his salary will be ignobly bumped down to $167,500.
That’s because, according to new Accountability Regulations, salary caps are based on student enrollment:
Benghazi Emails Directly Contradict White House Claims
12:09 AM, May 16, 2013 • By STEPHEN F. HAYES
The White House on Wednesday released 94 pages of emails between top administration and intelligence officials who helped shape the talking points about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that the CIA would provide to policymakers in both the legislative and executive branches.
The documents, first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD in articles here and here, directly contradict claims by White House press secretary Jay Carney and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the revisions of those talking points were driven by the intelligence community and show heavy input from top Obama administration officials, particularly those at the State Department.
The emails provide further detail about the rewriting of the talking points during a 24-hour period from midday September 14 to midday September 15. As THE WEEKLY STANDARD previously reported, a briefing from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shows that the big changes came in three waves – internally at the CIA, after email feedback from top administration officials, and during or after a meeting of high-ranking intelligence and national security officials the following morning.
Shown (from left to right): Alex Zapolanski, M.D., Director of Cardiac Surgery, The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute; Charlie and Selma Milton; and Janet Strain, M.D., Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute.
Valve Replacement an Option for More Patients Thanks to New Minimally Invasive TAVR Procedure
April 29, 2013
Ridgewood NJ, In late March, Selma Milton became a trendsetter. The 86-year-old resident of Leonia became the first patient at The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute to receive a new aortic heart valve put into place using a new procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
TAVR is a minimally invasive procedure that is used to treat patients with the only FDA-approved transcatheter heart valve, the Edwards SAPIEN. The culmination of more than 50 years of continuous refinement in heart valve technology and treatment, TAVR provides an important new treatment option for patients with severe, symptomatic aortic valve stenosis, for whom traditional valve replacement surgery is not an option.
Janet Strain, M.D., director of Valley’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, who performed Mrs. Milton’s TAVR in collaboration with Valley’s Director of Cardiac Surgery, Alex Zapolanski, M.D., says patients with aortic stenosis often develop debilitating symptoms that may include difficulty walking or performing normal day-to-day activities. The disease occurs when calcification builds up in the valve, causing it to narrow. As a result, blood cannot flow through the valve efficiently, and the heart must work harder to compensate.
“Aortic stenosis may eventually become life-threatening,” explains Dr. Strain. “Without valve replacement, many of these patients do not survive more than an average of two years after the onset of symptoms.”
For patients who are considered high-risk or inoperable due to poor overall health, there have been few available alternatives to improve longevity and quality of life. TAVR has changed that.
TAVR is minimally invasive, requiring only a small incision in the groin, through which the Edwards SAPIEN aortic valve (loaded on a deflated balloon) is threaded from the groin artery up to the heart. The balloon is then inflated to position the new aortic valve into place in the heart, where it displaces the patient’s diseased aortic valve. The patient’s heart continues to beat during the procedure, thus eliminating the need for a heart-lung bypass machine.
“In clinical trials of more than 1,000 patients, those treated with the Edwards SAPIEN valve had improved survival and improved quality of life at one year, as compared to patients not treated with the valve,” notes Dr. Strain.
The Valley Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute’s highest recognition (three stars) by the Society for Thoracic Surgeons for aortic valve replacement – given to only 5.9 percent of cardiac programs nationwide – illustrates the quality and clinical excellence of Valley’s cardiac services.
“Our expertise and the number of complex cases we treat successfully enable us to understand and decide, better than cardiac teams at many other facilities, which high-risk patients would benefit from a minimally invasive approach, such as TAVR, and which patients should undergo classical aortic valve replacement surgery,” notes Dr. Zapolanski.
Before undergoing TAVR at Valley, Mrs. Milton was so weak that just making her bed left her breathless and exhausted. She was too ill to take a trip to Massachusetts to meet her newest great-grandson, who was born in November.
“Dr. Strain has been my husband’s cardiologist for many years and Valley is our family hospital, so even though I was nervous about being the first to have this procedure at Valley, I knew I was in good hands and trusted my doctors and nurses,” says Mrs. Milton.
After a three-day hospitalization, Mrs. Milton is now regaining strength with the assistance of her “very special man,” her husband of 67 years, Charlie Milton. She has been able to cook some meals and will meet her newest great-grandchild, her sixth, later this month when he arrives for a visit. Feeling better after her procedure, she and Charlie intend to return to visiting residents at the Van Dyke Nursing Home in Ridgewood, an activity they have enjoyed for the past 28 years.
The Valley Hospital recently received its 10th consecutive J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program award for providing an “outstanding inpatient experience” and has been recognized by HealthGrades as #1 in New Jersey for cardiac services, cardiac surgery, and coronary interventional procedures. Additionally, as a recipient of the prestigious Beacon Award for Excellence in critical care nursing, The Valley Hospital is uniquely qualified to provide the highest level of care and the most innovative treatment for severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis through a multidisciplinary approach by members of the Heart & Vascular Institute.
For more information about TAVR, please call Denise Goldstein, APN, or Mary C. Collins, APN, program co-coordinators, at 201-447-TAVR (8287).
Cutting the Red Tape: Scott Garrett’s SEC Accountability Act
Bill seeks to reign in regulation
Posted by Tom Fletcher and Katie McAuliffe on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 4:03 PM EDT
On Friday, the US House of Representatives will vote on the SEC Accountability Act, introduced by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ). This common sense piece of legislation seeks to reign in excessive regulations by mandating the SEC perform a cost benefit analysis of any new regulatory proposals. At a time when the regulatory burden on businesses and job creators in this country is at an all-time high, legislation is needed to help kick start business, not handcuff it. Regarding his legislation, Rep. Garrett said:
“I regularly hear from constituents, especially job creators, about how Washington red tape needs to be cut. The bill we debated today help address these concerns by reducing the sheer weight, volume, complexity and uncertainty of federal rules and regulations.”
Giving Congress a chance to roll back unnecessary regulations is a welcome change from the days of Dodd-Frank and other crippling regulatory legislation. In 2011, a Cost of Government report found, “the average American will have to work 77 days to pay for the cost of government regulation which is estimated to consume 21.2 percent of net national product.” Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) introduced the Reins Act in 2011, which would require Congress the power to affirm any major rule that would have an economic impact of more than $100 million.
The current administration has never met a regulation they didn’t like as long as it added another layer to our already bloated bureaucracy. Rep. Garrett’s SEC Accountability Act builds on previous efforts, like the Reins Act, that try to get government out of the way of businesses and restore America’s dynamic economy that has been under attack the last four and half years by overregulation. By making government accountable for the damaging regulations they seek to inflict on small business, perhaps they will see that regulation is not the answer.
While the economy continues to sputter along, the House of Representatives continues to pass sensible legislation designed to help get businesses across the country thriving again. All that stands in the way is a President wanting to do the same.
Obama fires acting IRS commissioner as pressure grows surrounding political targeting of conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status
Steven Miller is ousted but writes face-saving email announcing departure when his ‘assignment ends in early June.’ Obama: IRS ‘misconduct’ is ‘inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it.’ Jacob Lew, Obama’s trusted Treasury Secretary and former chief of staff, gave Miller his walking papers IRS reportedly targeted 300 right-wing groups while letting left-wing organizations slide through with far less scrutiny
By David Martosko In Washington
PUBLISHED: 17:42 EST, 15 May 2013 | UPDATED: 18:15 EST, 15 May 2013
President Barack Obama has thrown his acting IRS commissioner overboard, making Steven Miller the highest-ranking political casualty thus far in a series of scandals that have swept his administration in recent weeks.
In a hastily called press conference in the East Room of the White House, Obama told reporters that he had asked Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to find out who was responsible for a program that targeted tea party groups and other conservative organizations for a special level of intrusive questioning after they applied for tax-exempt charitable statuses.
‘Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting director of the IRS,’ Obama said.
‘It’s important,’ he added, ‘to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward.’
But in an email to IRS employees, Miller claimed he would only be leaving next month because his assignment would be over.
Walking initiative in Ridgewood to raise awareness
Tuesday May 14, 2013, 10:34 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The benefits of walking are backed by various studies that show it can lead to improvements in cardiovascular health, concentration and mental well-being. In addition, more walking can result in environmental benefits like improved air quality and diminished traffic.
But in a village where pedestrian safety has been an issue, a push for walking and biking to school in the month of May is being accompanied by an enhanced push for safety awareness.
This month, the Federated Home and School Association (HSA) is reinforcing its “Stop, Look, Wave: Be Safe Be Seen” initiative, which was launched last year following several pedestrian accidents.
Wednesday, May 15th, East bound Washington Avenue will be closed at Van Emburgh Avenue
Traffic Alert From Washington Township
Beginning Wednesday, May 15th, East bound Washington Avenue will be closed at Van Emburgh Avenue as J. Fletcher Creamer and Sons replaces a water meter and installs conduit for United Water on Washington Avenue at Van Emburgh Avenue. This work is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday with Friday being a possible third day. The work is scheduled to begin each day at 7:00AM and end at 5:00 PM.
During this time there will be no traffic permitted to go East bound on Washington Ave. from the intersection of Washington Avenue at Van Emburgh Avenue traveling towards the Garden State Parkway entrance ramp. North bound Van Emburgh Ave. will have to continue North into Hillsdale and South bound Van Emburgh Ave. will have to continue South heading towards Route 17.
West bound Washington Avenue traffic coming from Pascack Road and Garden State Parkway Exit 168 will be allowed to proceed to the intersection of Washington Avenue at Van Emburgh Avenue. Officers will be stationed at this intersection to assist West bound Washington Avenue traffic through the intersection.
Please plan an alternate route.
If you have any questions please call the Police desk at 201-664-1140.
Traffic Bureau – Township of Washington Police Department
Fifty-five Years of Free Summer Entertainment Under the Stars
8:30pm at the Band Shell,Veterans Field, Ridgewood New Jersey
Behind the Ridgewood Public Library N. Maple Ave. Between Franklin and Linwood Aves.
Please bring a chair or blanket, Please do not cross over the baseball
field if a game is in progress
JUNE
Thursday, June 6
*Tunes in June RHS Bands
Starts at 8pm (all other programs start at 8:30 pm)
Tuesday, June 11
Harmony Celebration C
horus “Sweet Adelines”
Sponsor : The Village of Ridgewood
Thursday, June 13
Richard Reiter Swing Band
Sponsors: Hudson City Savi
ngs Bank and Van Dyk
Health Care, Inc.
Tuesday, June 18
Ridgewood Choral – 85th Anniversary
Orpheus Club Men’s Chorus of Ridgewood
Sponsor: Valley Hospital
Thursday, June 20
Greg Caldarone Pop Standards
Sponsors: Boiling Springs Savings Bank and Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill
Tuesday, June 25
**Thunderhill Band Country & Western
Sponsors: Boiling
Springs Savings Bank and Tarvin Realtors
Thursday, June 27
Lou Gallo and the Very Hungry Band Children’s Evening
Sponsors: Clemente Orthodontics and Ridgewood Dentistry
– Warren Boardman D.M.D.
JULY
Tuesday, July 2
Island Breeze Calypso, Reggae & Latin Jazz
Sponsors: Ridgewood AM
Rotary Club and The Village of Ridgewood
Tuesday, July 9
The Bobby Byrne Show Broadway & More
Sponsor: TD Bank
Thursday, July 11
“The Kootz” Classic 60’ s through 90’s Rock, Pop & Blues
Sponsors: Wostbrock Home & Floors
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Corp.
Tuesday, July 16
McVey Family A Tribute to Marvin Hamlisch
Sponsors: Park West Tavern and Feeney Funeral Home
Thursday, July 18
“Bucky” Pizzarelli, Jazz
Sponsors: Valley
National Bank and Ulrich, Inc.
Tuesday July 23
Moonlighters Swing Orchestra with Shelli Latorre
Sponsor: Care One at th
e Cupola and Care One at Ridgewood Avenue
Thursday July 25
The Yester Daze “Doo Wop”
Sponsors: Columbia Bank
Care One at the Cupola and Care One at Ridgewood Avenue
Tuesday, July 30
Mack Brandon & The Connection Popular Gospel
Sponsors: Daily Treat Family
Tradition and The Village of Ridgewood
AUGUST
Thursday. August 1
Group Therapy “The Best of Rock & Soul”
Sponsor: Boiling Spring Savings Bank
Tuesday, August 6
Rio Clemente & Friends, Bishop of Jazz
Sponsors: Boiling Springs Savings Bank
The Village of Ridgewood
Rain site- Benjamin Franklin Middle School, N. Van Dien Ave. at Glen Ave.
*June 6 rain site – Campus Ctr. Ridgewood High School on E. Ridgewood Ave, **June 25 rain site – George Washington Middle School at
S. Monroe St at Washington Place Taped rain site information (June
– August) 201-444-1776 after 7:00pm
Justice has been served for a few infants and one mother whose lives were taken within the filthy walls of 3801 Lancaster Avenue.
Late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants who were born alive after botched abortions performed in his run-down West Philadelphia clinic. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old woman who died from an overdose of anesthetic drugs during an abortion procedure.
The jury’s deliberations came after six weeks of harrowing testimony detailing the brutal deaths of newborns and unthinkable mistreatment of women. The gruesome murder of moving, breathing infants after botched abortions allegedly became a regular occurrence at the filthy West Philadelphia facility, with one clinic worker estimating nearly 100 living babies were killed shortly after birth.
Many of those murders followed failed abortions performed after Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit. In addition to the four murder charges, Gosnell was also convicted of more than 200 other criminal counts including violating Pennsylvania’s informed consent law and performing illegal late-term abortions.
In wake of the trial’s disturbing revelations, many are left questioning how the oft-repeated slogan of “safe, legal, and rare” abortions can continue to encompass late-term procedures—especially of the kind that can produce live births.
There is broad consensus that abortions like those Gosnell performed should not take place, whether in a run-down Philadelphia clinic or the sterile facilities of other abortion providers. Nearly two-thirds of Americans generally oppose abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy, while 80 percent oppose abortions in the third trimester.
“The first degree murder conviction of Kermit Gosnell brings some closure to this horrific case, but we must act to address the broader problems highlighted by this tragedy,” remarked Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). “Congress should conduct a thorough investigation into the practices of late-term abortions in America with the goal of ensuring that these atrocities are never repeated in the future.…Life is precious at every stage, and America’s policies must reflect this fact at every turn.”
That policy work got underway last week, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee began investigations into current state efforts to monitor clinics and protect the rights of born-alive infants and their mothers.
Yet much more needs to be done, especially as current policy entangles taxpayer dollars in the abortion industry.
The leader in that industry, Planned Parenthood, performs roughly one out of every four abortions in the United States. The organization that holds the title of the nation’s largest abortion provider also allegedly turned a blind eye to the safety of women in Pennsylvania and Delaware, opposes legal protections for infants born after botched abortions, and faces repeated accusations of fraud.
This is the organization that President Obama vowed to support at its recent annual fundraising gala. This is the multibillion-dollar industry to which the government sends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year. And the abortion subsidization through taxpayer funding will only increase under Obamacare.
In light of the brutality that became commonplace at 3801 Lancaster Avenue and has appeared elsewhere, policymakers should rethink continued financial support for an industry that creates and supports the likes of Gosnell.
Americans must likewise reexamine the prevailing ethic of abortion-on-demand for any reason—even in late-term abortions.
“[I]n our justice system premeditating and exacting the demise of babies is only a crime if a child is fully outside the womb,” stated Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC). “We would do well as a society to consider what deciding murder based upon geographic technicalities reveals about our collective conscious.”
For over four decades since the Roe v. Wade decision, American medical practice, politics, and laws have separated the health of mothers from the well-being of the children they carry. Gosnell’s “house of horrors” should demonstrate that the severing of that connection does a disservice and risks the health and lives of both child and mother.
Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe
By MARK SHERMAN
May. 13 4:47 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.
The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.
In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
Ticket Blitz : Bike ordinance scrubbed
May 13, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Village Council voted down a proposed ordinance that would have given police the authority to remove bicycles blocking public rights-of-way.
Residents had expressed concern that commuters often leave their bicycles chained to sign posts and fences near the Ridgewood Train Station, blocking pedestrian right a ways.
After receiving heavy criticism from commuters, bike riders and environmentalist Mayor Paul Aronsohn recanted telling the Bergen Record that the ordinance was not meant to be “punitive,” but that after careful consideration, “there may not be such a compelling need” for new rules.https://www.northjersey.com/news/207152811_Bike_ordinance_scrubbed.html
Critics suggested a simple fix of adding a few more bike racks at the train station and that the Village needed to change its attitude toward alternative methods of transportation primary bycyles. Blog readers suggested the Village like the rest of the country should be encouraging bicycles not discouraging them . While other thought the Mayor had simply hoped to squeeze more ticket revenue from commuters .
The Village council decide to defer action until a better plan can be established with
Deputy Mayor Al Pucciarelli,telling the Record any change should “encourage the use of bicycles as something that’s in the public interest.”https://www.northjersey.com/news/207152811_Bike_ordinance_scrubbed.html
The fact of the matter is the whole village need to made more bike friendly and the first step would be to offer more bike racks .
Media and Obama administration on trial with Benghazi Cover-Up
Spinning Benghazi
May 10, 2013
Posted by Alex Koppelman
It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.
On Friday, ABC News’s Jonathan Karl revealed the details of the editing process for the C.I.A.’s talking points about the attack, including the edits themselves and some of the reasons a State Department spokeswoman gave for requesting those edits. It’s striking to see the twelve different iterations that the talking points went through before they were released to Congress and to United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who used them in Sunday show appearances that became a central focus of Republicans’ criticism of the Administration’s public response to the attacks. Over the course of about twenty-four hours, the remarks evolved from something specific and fairly detailed into a bland, vague mush.
