Republicans hoping to ride their Benghazi Horse to a November election sweep

 Republicans hoping to ride their Benghazi investigation to a November election sweep have entrusted a seven-member team with "getting to the truth," in the words of House Speaker John Boehner, about whether the Obama administration misled Americans about the deadly attack in Libya.
They insist the investigation isn't political.
But several GOP members of the new House Select Committee on Benghazi have made claims about administration wrongdoing. Some have participated in previous investigations into how the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed on Sept. 11, 2012, and how the administration responded.

Democrats have yet to say if they'll participate in what will be the eighth investigation since the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in the eastern Libyan city.
Republicans say they need to find out why security was insufficient, what the president did the night of the attack, why the U.S. military didn't intervene, why initial explanations focused on a protest over a YouTube video and whether the administration deliberately sought to hide evidence about its conduct.
Some of the more contentious arguments made by the GOP members:

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CHAIRMAN TREY GOWDY:
The second-term tea partyer and former prosecutor from South Carolina said two weeks ago there is evidence of a "cover-up." He cited a recently released email by White House national security communications aide Ben Rhodes.
He said the email "probably was the straw that broke the camel's back because that memo made it really clear we're going to blame an Internet video and not a broader policy failure in Libya." The White House has said Rhodes was referring to attacks across the Muslim world, not Benghazi specifically.
Gowdy has said former CIA Director Michael Morell "sanitized" a series of talking points used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the violence, substituting the term "extremist" for all references to "terrorist," and "demonstration" for "attack." Republicans say this was part of an effort by President Barack Obama's team to play down a major terrorist attack in the final weeks of his re-election campaign.
In April, Morell testified that he made no changes to provide political benefit to Obama or then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is considering running for president in 2016. He said the CIA considers extremist and terrorist as synonyms, and that references to al-Qaida in the talking points were avoided to protect classified sources.
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REP. MARTHA ROBY:
The 37-year-old Alabama congresswoman, attorney and daughter of a federal judge led the House Armed Services Committee's investigation. That panel rejected claims by conservatives that the military failed to respond the night of the attack — putting her at odds with other Republicans.
Her investigative panel concluded in a report in February that there was no "stand down" order issued to military personnel in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, who wanted to aid Americans in Benghazi. Select committee colleagues Gowdy and Rep. Jim Jordan have suggested otherwise.
"We simply were not postured to respond in time," Roby said seven months ago.
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REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND:
The Georgia congressman also is a veteran of a Benghazi investigation, one conducted by the House Intelligence Committee. In April 2013, he issued a news release describing his "two conclusions": that Clinton personally denied much-needed additional security for U.S. diplomats in Libya and that White House officials perpetuated a "lie" about the anti-Muslim film "to protect their own backsides."
Westmoreland pointed to a department cable declining security requests "signed" by Clinton. The conclusion has been widely challenged. The secretary of state's name is routinely attached to State Department correspondence from Washington, most of which he or she never sees or is consulted on. Lower-level department officials have said they were responsible for specific security decisions related to Benghazi.
In recent days, Democrats have targeted Westmoreland for "politicizing" Benghazi because he serves as deputy chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has begun an election-year fundraising drive linked to the attack.
Westmoreland, 64, has been criticized before as being overly partisan. Democrats disparaged him during the 2008 presidential election for describing candidate Barack Obama and wife Michelle as "uppity" — a derogatory term for blacks who sought equal treatment in the segregated South.
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REP. JIM JORDAN:
The hard-charging conservative and occasional GOP leadership thorn has repeatedly pressed witnesses on Benghazi as a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Jordan has accused Clinton personally of trying to obstruct Congress' investigation of Benghazi after a top aide asked for a department lawyer to be present when members of Congress spoke with U.S. diplomats in Tripoli after the attack.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio Republican said at a Heritage Foundation event this month that the State Department rejected more than 200 requests for additional security. And when the attack happened, he said there was little effort to fight back. "Why weren't we running to the sound of the guns?" Jordan reportedly asked.
Jordan, 50, said he wanted to know who started the narrative that Benghazi wasn't a terrorist attack and has said in the past Republicans would like to have Rice testify about the matter.
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REP. MIKE POMPEO:
The 50-year-old Kansas congressman similarly has focused on the talking points. In May 2013, he said the State Department and White House produced a document that "didn't reflect the reality on the ground as they knew it at the time." He accused "political" actors of withholding intelligence from the public.
"Were we misled?" Pompeo asked Morell at the hearing. "No," Morell responded. "I have a different view," Pompeo shot back.
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REP. PETER ROSKAM
A confidant of Boehner, the congressman from Illinois has been less vocal about Benghazi than many of his colleagues. He may have less motivation to criticize the administration for the wording of its unclassified Benghazi talking points. Two days before the talking points were drafted, Roskam issued his own statement condemning the attacks. Roskam, 52, blamed "violent extremists" and not "terrorists" for the anti-American unrest in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere.
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REP. SUSAN BROOKS:
The Indiana freshman also has been among the more reserved on Benghazi. The 53-year-old former Bush administration appointee who served six years as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana has said of the attack: "Until we have all the facts, we don't believe that justice has really been served."

Month-long traffic study for Fort Lee

Through interviews and in newly released documents, MSNBC has learned previously unknown information about the George Washington Bridge access lane closures in Fort Lee, New Jersey orchestrated by Governor Chris Christie’s aides and appointees – including the intended duration of the town’s traffic nightmare.

UP WITH STEVE KORNACKI, 2/22/14, 11:02 AM ET

Major NJ document dump provides new clues

Handwritten notes released Wednesday by the borough of Fort Lee show that on the first morning of the lane closures, Port Authority Police Lt. Thomas “Chip” Michaels told Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul that toll lane changes had been ordered by Port Authority executives as a “test” to “relieve” congestion on the Interstate-95 approaches to the bridge at the expense of Fort Lee and surrounding towns. The exercise was to last for a month, Bendul’s notes about his conversation with Michaels show. In telephone interviews with MSNBC last week, Bendul clarified and confirmed this interaction with Michaels.

MSNBC reported Sunday that Michaels drove David Wildstein, a Christie-appointed Port Authority official who has since resigned, on a survey of the crippling gridlock on the first morning of the lane closures and continued to trade text messages with him into the second day.

Bendul further revealed to MSNBC that Michaels was the first Port Authority official he contacted about the lane closures.

Also among the documents released Wednesday was an exchange of text messages between Michaels and Bendul on the first day of the lane closures, in which Michaels suggested sending cars toward the area affected by the lane closures. The text came less than an hour after Michaels texted to Wildstein he had an idea to “make this better.”

A review of additional documents indicates that Michaels may have known about the planned month-long duration of the lane closures sooner than other high-ranking Port Authority officials.

Emails subpoenaed by the N.J. Legislature show that Robert Durando, manager of the George Washington Bridge, learned that the lane closures would be continued into the following day “at a minimum” almost six hours after Michaels told Fort Lee officials that the changes would be in place for a month.

And while Michaels told Bendul that Port Authority executives in Jersey City were behind the lane closures, Cedrick Fulton, director for Tunnels, Bridges, and Terminals at the Port Authority’s Jersey City offices, actually learned of their day-to-day duration from Durando.

Although the lanes were closed for four mornings from September 9 to 12 before being re-opened by Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye, a New York appointee, it has never been made clear how long Wildstein and Bill Baroni, Christie’s top appointee at the agency, planned to restrict access to the bridge from Fort Lee. Thus far, only the notes and our interviews with Bendul about his conversation with Michaels show that the lane closures were planned to last for a month.

Multiple attempts to reach Michaels and Durando were unsuccessful. A Port Authority spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Bendul’s notes were released Wednesday by the Fort Lee borough clerk among thousands of other pages of telephone logs, police and ambulance records, and other documents in response to a public records request filed by Randy Mastro, an attorney with the firm of Gibson, Dunn, Crutcher, who has been hired by the governor’s office at state expense to conduct an internal investigation into the still-festering scandal.

On February 10, Mastro filed an Open Public Records Act request with Fort Lee seeking records dating back to January 2013 regarding Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich’s contacts with the Christie Administration and the governor’s re-election campaign, as well as contact with the Port Authority regarding toll lane allocations.

Mastro also sought and received copies of all written queries filed by the media about the lane closures from September to the present. It’s unclear why the media queries were relevant to Mastro’s investigation, since they shed no light on the conduct of the Christie administration officials who directed the closures. 

Are social conservatives ready to revolt?

Are social conservatives ready to revolt?

The Guardian’s Ana-Marie Cox, Republican strategist Joe Watkins, and Salon’s Joan Walsh look at various 2014 races and the possible revolt among social conservatives and the tea party against the GOP establishment.

Tell the EPA: Save our bees and crops! Ban toxic pesticides!

A quarter of everything we eat -- from apples to onions -- depends on pollination. But now beekeepers from around the world are reporting a pandemic of the worst bee population collapses ever recorded.  While you and I know chemical-giant Bayer for its aspirin and alka seltzer, unfortunately, their toxic agricultural pesticides are linked to this unprecedented bee die-off. The EPA has the power to ban the pesticides, but so far has bowed to pressure from Bayer. Our nation's food supply is at risk. Over 1 million people have stood up for the health of our bees and our food -- will you join them? Let's send 50,000 more letters by Tuesday, demanding they ban Bayer's toxic pesticide!  Click on the link below Personalize your message if you wish. Click the Send Your Message button to send your message to:  Tell the EPA: Save our bees and crops! Ban toxic pesticides! A quarter of everything we eat -- from apples to onions -- depends on pollination. But now beekeepers from around the world are reporting a...

GOP Pollster: Republicans Will Soften Their Tone On Obamacare

Well, the jig is up: A GOP pollster predicted Friday that Republican rhetoric on Obamacare will change once they have cleared their primaries.
The New York Times reported on the comments made by Bill McInturff, a partner in Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm, at a conference for the American Association for Public Opinion Research in California.

“After the primaries, expect a shift in Republican candidates’ rhetoric against Obamacare,” McInturff said.
“Only few want to repeal the law; most want to fix and keep it," he continued, likely referencing the consistent polling that has shown Americans would rather improve the law than repeal it.
He added that the law could still be a net negative for Democrats in 2014, but predicted the Republican shift because its approval numbers have improved in recent months.

American Spring Misses Projected Attendance By About 9,999,850

There were supposed to be “millions” of God-fearing, freedom-loving, gun-hugging American militia crackpots in Washington DC today, taking back America while dodging Obama’s drones.

But somewhere along the way, “millions” became “dozens.” May have to put that “overthrowing America” thing on hold.

Today is the day when the Obama administration will answer for their actions and America will be restored. At least, that's what the participants of "Operation American Spring" were hoping to do.

The rally, organized by retired Army Col. Harry Riley, aims to "[restore] Constitutional government, rule of law, freedom, liberty 'of the people, by the people, for the people' from despotic and tyrannical federal leadership." Col. Riley predicted about 10 million people who descend upon the White House and the U.S. Capitol to stage a peaceful occupation of the city until their demands were met.

150 mostly white dudes were stationed in the middle of the National Mall.  The other 9,999,850 must have got stuck in traffic from the rain, or something. Here are some more pics that aptly sum up Operation American Spring.

Raw Story, which has been following the movement closely, reported Friday that a live-stream of the day's events was posted online, but that for at least part of the day the feed showed only a call-in show hosted by conservative broadcaster Mark Connors, "who said he was broadcasting from a tour bus about 10 miles away from the National Mall because he could not park any closer."

Attendees took turns speaking to the crowd, including one man from New Hampshire who said it was a “disgrace” that “only “four or five hundred people showed up” (by our count, just over one hundred people were present).

After recounting a story about how he was purportedly persecuted by the Capitol Police, he told the crowd: “This is the America that you all live in today, and it has to end. I’m telling you right now, it’s going to take — in my view — a little blood, it’s going to happen, this day is coming and you better be willing to pay for it.”

Another speaker spent her time criticizing Michelle Obama, the “murderer” Eric Holder, and “Killary Clinton” over Benghazi.

Despite claims that the rally would be packed with militia members, the atmosphere of the event was more like a picnic.

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/guarantee-10-million-operation-american-spring-protesters-just-under-10-million#sthash.1ubgMnUP.dpuf

Florida Democrats Hand GOP A House Seat Ahead Of November

After former Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (D) narrowly lost a special election to now-Rep. David Jolly (R, FL-13), Democrats vowed to compete against Jolly in the fall. After all, President Obama narrowly won this district in 2012. After Sink passed on running  again, an African-American minister was angling to run, but local and national Democrats unceremoniously forced him out of the race. They eventually settled on backing veteran Ed Jany, a former Republican who would appear on the ballot with no party affiliation. (Jany had switched parties too recently to be eligible to be a “Democrat.”)

Jany quickly showed he wasn’t ready for primetime — the Tampa Bay Times found holes in his educational background — and he abandoned the race on Tuesday.

So Democrats don’t have a candidate here, moving a potentially competitive district from Leans Republican to Safe Republican.

 House ratings change Larry Sabato's Crystalball

President at 9/11 Museum Dedication

THE PRESIDENT:  Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Cuomo, honored guests, families of the fallen.

In those awful moments after the South Tower was hit, some of the injured huddled in the wreckage of the 78th floor.  The fires were spreading.  The air was filled with smoke.  It was dark, and they could barely see.  It seemed as if there was no way out.

 

And then there came a voice -- clear, calm, saying he had found the stairs.  A young man in his 20s, strong, emerged from the smoke, and over his nose and his mouth he wore a red handkerchief. 

He called for fire extinguishers to fight back the flames.  He tended to the wounded.  He led those survivors down the stairs to safety, and carried a woman on his shoulders down 17 flights. Then he went back.  Back up all those flights.  Then back down again, bringing more wounded to safety.  Until that moment when the tower fell.

They didn’t know his name.  They didn’t know where he came from.  But they knew their lives had been saved by the man in the red bandana.             

Again, Mayor Bloomberg; distinguished guests; Mayor de Blasio; Governors Christie and Cuomo; to the families and survivors of that day; to all those who responded with such courage -- on behalf of Michelle and myself and the American people, it is an honor for us to join in your memories.  To remember and to reflect.  But above all, to reaffirm the true spirit of 9/11 -- love, compassion, sacrifice -- and to enshrine it forever in the heart of our nation.

Michelle and I just had the opportunity to join with others on a visit with some of the survivors and families -- men and women who inspire us all.  And we had a chance to visit some of the exhibits.  And I think all who come here will find it to be a profound and moving experience.  

I want to express our deep gratitude to everybody who was involved in this great undertaking -- for bringing us to this day, for giving us this sacred place of healing and of hope.

Here, at this memorial, this museum, we come together.  We stand in the footprints of two mighty towers, graced by the rush of eternal waters.  We look into the faces of nearly 3,000 innocent souls -- men and women and children of every race, every creed, and every corner of the world.  We can touch their names and hear their voices and glimpse the small items that speak to the beauty of their lives.  A wedding ring.  A dusty helmet.  A shining badge.       

Here we tell their story, so that generations yet unborn will never forget.  Of coworkers who led others to safety.  Passengers who stormed a cockpit.  Our men and women in uniform who rushed into an inferno.  Our first responders who charged up those stairs.  A generation of servicemembers -- our 9/11 Generation -- who have served with honor in more than a decade of war.  A nation that stands tall and united and unafraid -- because no act of terror can match the strength or the character of our country.  Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us; nothing can change who we are as Americans.

On that September morning, Alison Crowther lost her son Welles.  Months later, she was reading the newspaper -- an article about those final minutes in the towers.  Survivors recounted how a young man wearing a red handkerchief had led them to safety.  And in that moment, Alison knew.  Ever since he was a boy, her son had always carried a red handkerchief.  Her son Welles was the man in the red bandana. 

Welles was just 24 years old, with a broad smile and a bright future.  He worked in the South Tower, on the 104th floor. He had a big laugh, a joy of life, and dreams of seeing the world.  He worked in finance, but he had also been a volunteer firefighter.  And after the planes hit, he put on that bandana and spent his final moments saving others.

Three years ago this month, after our SEALs made sure that justice was done, I came to Ground Zero.  And among the families here that day was Alison Crowther.  And she told me about Welles and his fearless spirit, and she showed me a handkerchief like the one he wore that morning. 

And today, as we saw on our tour, one of his red handkerchiefs is on display in this museum.  And from this day forward, all those who come here will have a chance to know the sacrifice of a young man who -- like so many -- gave his life so others might live.

Those we lost live on in us.  In the families who love them still.  In the friends who remember them always.  And in a nation that will honor them, now and forever. 

And today it is my honor to introduce two women forever bound by that day, united in their determination to keep alive the true spirit of 9/11 -- Welles Crowther’s mother Alison, and one of those he saved, Ling Young.  (Applause.)

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON BUILDING A 21ST CENTURY INFRASTRUCTURE

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON BUILDING A 21ST CENTURY INFRASTRUCTURE

Washington Irving Boat Club

Tarrytown, New York

3:37 P.M. EDT

     THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, New York!  (Applause.)  It turned out to be a beautiful day.  Well, it’s wonderful to be here with all of you.  Take a seat, take a seat.  Relax. 

     First of all, I want to thank Governor Cuomo for that great introduction and the great job he’s doing.  I want to thank Mayor Fixell for having me in Tarrytown.  (Applause.)  Where’s the Mayor?  Where’d he go?  There he is, right there.  This is a gorgeous part of the world and I am lucky to be here, and I’m going to be coming back soon; in two weeks, I’ve got the honor of delivering the commencement at West Point just a little bit further up. 

     But today, I’m here, along with our Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx -- (applause) -- to talk about one of the best ways to create new jobs and spur our economy, and that is to rebuild America’s infrastructure.

     It’s been about five and a half years since the financial crisis that rocked Wall Street and then ultimately spread to Main Street.  Thanks to the grit, the determination of the American people, we’ve been steadily fighting our way back.  In just four years, our businesses have now created 9.2 million new jobs.  Auto industry that was flatlining is now booming.  A manufacturing sector that had lost a third of its jobs back in the ‘90s is adding jobs for the first time.  Troops that were fighting two wars, they’re either home or coming home.  Rather than creating jobs in other countries, more and more companies are recognizing it makes good business sense to locate right here in the United States of America with outstanding American workers.  (Applause.)

     So we’ve made progress, but here’s the thing:  We could be doing a lot more.  We could make the decision easier for businesses to locate here in the United States, here in New York state, if we do a better job rebuilding our roads, rebuilding our bridges, upgrading our ports, unclogging commute times.  The alternative is to do nothing and watch businesses go to places that have outstanding infrastructure.

     And behind me is the old Tappan Zee Bridge, the longest bridge in New York and one of the busiest bridges around.  As any commuter will tell you, it is crowded.  (Laughter.)  It carries a lot more traffic than when it was built back in 1955.  At times, you can see the river through the cracks in the pavement.  Now, I’m not an engineer, but I figure that’s not good.  (Laughter.)

But right now, thanks to the efforts of Governor Cuomo, thanks to your outstanding congressional delegation led by Nita Lowey and including Eliot Engel, and Sean Patrick Maloney, and Jerry Nadler, all of whom are here today -- stand up, congressional delegation.  We’re proud of you.  (Applause.)  Thanks to their outstanding efforts, workers are building a replacement -- the first new bridge in New York in 50 years.  It’s called The “New” New York Bridge -- which is fine as a name, but for your next bridge you should come up with something a little more fresh.  (Laughter.) 

     Now, here’s the thing -- this never happens -- you are building this bridge ahead of schedule.  Three years ago, after Republicans in Congress refused to pass multiple bills that would have put construction workers back to work, I took action on my own to fast-track the permitting process for major projects like this one.  Normally, it would have taken three to five years to permit this bridge; we did it in a year and a half -- in a year and a half.  (Applause.)  That meant we were creating thousands of jobs faster while doing right by workers and tending to the environment.  And the Vice President is in Cleveland today at another project that we fast-tracked -- a rapid-transit station that will make life easier for a lot of residents there. 

     So today, we’re releasing a new plan to apply the same strategy to other major projects all across America.  We’re announcing 11 more projects to accelerate, to get moving faster -- from Boston’s South Station, to Pensacola Bay Bridge, to new light-rail projects north and south of Seattle.  We’re cutting bureaucratic red tape that stalls good projects from breaking ground.  We’re launching a new national permitting center to implement these reforms.  We are aiming to put every major infrastructure project on a public dashboard so everybody can go online; track our progress; hold us accountable; make sure things are coming in on time, on budget; make sure your taxpayer money is being used well, but also make sure that we’re putting folks back to work rebuilding America.  That’s our goal.  (Applause.) 

     Now, all these steps we can do without Congress.  And all these steps mean more good jobs -- because nobody was hurt worse than construction workers by the financial crisis.  The housing market plummeted, and a lot of guys in hard hats and a lot of gals in hard hats, suddenly they were off the job.  And that’s why the Recovery Act back in 2009, 2010 included the most important public works jobs program since the New Deal, jumpstarting more than 15,000 construction projects around the country.

     Over the past five years, American workers have repaired or replaced more than 20,000 bridges, improved more than 350,000 miles of American roads.  Four years ago, when we were just starting to clear away the damage from the financial crisis, the unemployment rate for construction workers stood at 20 percent -- in fact, it was over 20 percent.  Today, we’ve cut it by more than half. 

     But we can do better.  We can build better -- and we have to.  We’ve got ports that aren’t ready for the next generation of cargo ships.  We’ve got more than 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for Medicare.  (Laughter.)  We’ve got leaky pipes that lose billions of gallons of drinking water every single day, even as we’ve got a severe drought in much of the West.  Nearly half our people don’t have access to transit at all.  And I don’t have to tell you what some of our airports look like. 

     Building a world-class transportation system is one of the reasons America became an economic superpower in the first place.  But over the past 50 years, as a share of our economy, our investment in transportation has shrunk by 50 percent.  Think about that.  Our investment in transportation has been cut by half. 

     You know what other countries are doing?  European countries now invest twice as much as we do.  China invests four times as much as we do in transportation.  One study recently found that over time, we’ve fallen to 19th place when it comes to the quality of our infrastructure -- 19th place.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like America being 19th.  I don’t like America being second.  I want us to be first when it comes to infrastructure around the world, because businesses are going to come where there’s good infrastructure to move businesses, move people, move services.  (Applause.) 

     We shouldn’t watch the top-rated airports and seaports or the fastest rail lines or fastest Internet networks get built somewhere else -- they need to be built right here in New York, right here in the United States.  First-class infrastructure attracts first-class jobs.  Business owners don’t want a crumbling road or a bridge because then they can’t move out their stuff, and their workers aren’t as productive because it’s harder for them to get to work.  They want to set up shop where there’s high-speed rail and high-speed broadband, high-tech schools, self-healing power grids, new ports, tunnels.  That allows them, when they make goods here in America, to move those goods out and sell them all around the world. 

     Now, unfortunately, helping states and cities fund infrastructure is one of Congress’s chief responsibilities.  And you’ve got some outstanding members here, but let me just talk a little bit about Congress right now.  If they don’t act by the end of the summer, federal funding for transportation projects will run out -- will run out.  There will be no money.  The cupboard will be bare.  And all told, nearly 700,000 jobs would be at risk over the next year -- that’s like the population of Tampa and St. Louis combined. 

     Right now, there are more than 100,000 active projects paving roads and rebuilding bridges, modernizing our transit systems.  States might have to choose which ones to put the brake on.  Some states are already starting to slow down work because they’re worried Congress won’t untangle the gridlock on time.  And that’s something you should remember every time you see a story about a construction project stopped, or machines idled, or workers laid off their jobs.

     And that’s why, earlier this year, in addition to fast-tracking projects, working with Secretary Foxx, I put forward a plan to rebuild our transportation infrastructure in a more responsible way.  It would support millions of jobs across America.  It would give cities and states and private investors the certainty they need to plan ahead and invest.  And it wouldn’t add to our deficits because we’d pay for it in part by closing wasteful tax loopholes for companies that are shipping jobs overseas that are in the tax code right now and that we could clean out and help pay to put folks back to work rebuilding America.  (Applause.)

     Now, so far, at least, Republicans who run this Congress seem to have a different priority.  Not only have they prevented so far efforts to make sure funding is still in place for what we’ve already got, but their proposal would actually cut job-creating grant programs that have funded high-priority transportation projects in all 50 states.  They’d cut them by about 80 percent.  And they can’t say it’s to save money, because at the very same time, they voted for trillions of dollars in new tax cuts, weighted towards folks at the very top. 

     So think about that for a second.  Instead of putting more workers back on the job, they’d put those workers’ jobs at risk.  Instead of breaking ground on new projects that would improve the quality of life for millions of people, they voted to give a massive tax cut to households making more than $1 million a year.  Instead of making investments that grow our economy by growing the middle class, they’re still convinced that prosperity trickles down from the very top. 

     If you want to tell them what you think about that, don’t worry, because usually they show up at ribbon-cuttings -- (laughter) -- for projects that they refused to fund.  

     And here is the sad part:  Rebuilding America, that shouldn’t be a partisan issue.  My favorite President happens to have been a Republican -- a guy named Abraham Lincoln in my home state of Illinois.  And it was Lincoln who committed to a railroad connecting East to West, even while he was struggling mightily to hold together North and South.  It was a Republican, Dwight Eisenhower, who built the Interstate Highway System.  It was Ronald Reagan who said that rebuilding our infrastructure is “an investment in tomorrow that we must make today.”  Since when are the Republicans in Congress against Ronald Reagan?  (Laughter.)

     But that’s part of the problem -- we’ve gotten so partisan, everything is becoming political.  They’re more interested in saying no because they’re worried that maybe they’d have to be at a bill signing with me than they are at actually doing the job that they know would be good for America.  It’s time for folks to stop running around saying what’s wrong with America; roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work and help America rebuild.  That’s what we should be doing.  (Applause.)

     We don’t need a “can’t do” spirit; we need a “can do” spirit.  That’s what Governor Cuomo has, and it sounds like the state legislature was willing to work with him on this.  Well, we need Congress to work with us on these issues.  It doesn’t mean they’re going to agree with us on everything.  I guarantee you they will have more than enough to disagree with me about, but let’s not fight on something we all know makes sense.  After all, we’re the people who, in the depths of the Depression, lifted a great bridge in California, and laid a great dam down in the Southwest, and lifted up rural America.  We shrank a sprawling continent when we pounded in that final railroad spike, connected up this amazing country of ours; stretched a network of highways all across America from coast to coast.  And then we connected the world with our imaginations and the Internet.

     A great nation does these things.  A great nation doesn’t say “no, we can’t,” it says “yes, we can.”  (Applause.) 

     So the bottom line, Tarrytown, is America doesn’t stand still.  There is work to be done.  There are workers ready to do it, and some of them are here and they’re already on the job doing the work.  We’re proud of them.  (Applause.)  There are people all across this country that are ready and eager to move this country forward. 

     So I’m going to keep on fighting alongside all of you to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to rebuild America -- not just rebuild one bridge, but I want us to rebuild every bridge.  I don’t want us to just rebuild one school, I want us to rebuild every school that needs help.  (Applause.)  I want us to most of all, most importantly, rebuild an economy where hard work is valued and responsibility is respected and rewarded, and where opportunity is available not just to some, but to every single hardworking American.  That’s what I’m fighting for, and I know that’s what you care about. 

     Thank you very much, everybody.  Good job, workers.  I look forward to seeing this bridge.  Thank you very much.  God bless you.  God bless America.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

Peter Dinklage's amazing, intense speech in 'Game of Thrones' has a much more fun alternate ending.

So, there were a few outtakes from Sunday's Game of Thrones. In particular, there was this shot of Peter Dinklage strutting up to the dais for his trial like he's about to lead the entire room in a rousing musical number. Naturally, the urge to edit this lighthearted moment into Tyrion's very not-lighthearted, probably award-winning speech to the judges and audience at his trial proved impossible to resist for YouTuber xerograde, and thank goodness. I only regret that the showrunners at HBO didn't realize they had pure gold on their hands and didn't do a full music video in front of the Iron Throne.