Hillary Clinton is ‘sorry’ her email scandal is ‘confusing to people’
Hillary Clinton took to friendly territory when she visited with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in an attempt to smooth over her email scandal after a disastrous week. Andrea Mitchell asked her several times if she was sorry for using a personal homebrew email server to conduct all State Department business and finally Hillary Clinton apologized.
Well, sort of…
She did not apologize for setting up a homebrew computer and again doubled down on her claim that everything was done “above board,” however she did apologize for confusing the American people.
Here is more:
Hillary Clinton used taxpayer money to set up her personal email server
This is an interesting little twist, if it is true, in Hillary Clinton’s email saga: she actually used taxpayer money to pay the person (who is now going to plead the Fifth) to set up her PERSONAL email server. If this was a State Department email server it would be expected and understandable.
However, the use of a personal email server to conduct ALL State Department business allowed the former Secretary of State to avoid Congressional oversight and any FOIA requests, which basically means she was above the scrutiny of the taxpayers and the law.
And now to add insult to injury we find out that we actually paid for her malfeasance.
The hubris and the arrogance is astounding! What more need to be said about this news?! I am beyond words at this point…
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Former State Department staffer will plead the fifth to the Congress over Hillary Clinton’s email scandal
Bryan Pagliano is a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clinton’s home-brew email server and the Congress would like to have a word or two with him about the scandal, however he does not wish to have a word or two with the Congress and so he will not.
Bryan Pagliano’s attorney has informed the Congress that if and when he is issued a subpoena he will plead the fifth and will not talk.
Here is more:
A former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private e-mail server tried this week to fend off a subpoena to testify before Congress, saying he would assert his constitutional right not to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself.
The move by Bryan Pagliano, who had worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009, came in a Monday letter from his lawyer to the House panel investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The letter cited the ongoing FBI inquiry into the security of Clinton’s e-mail system, and it quoted a Supreme Court ruling in which justices described the Fifth Amendment as protecting “innocent men . . . ‘who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’ ”
“While we understand that Mr. Pagliano’s response to this subpoena may be controversial in the current political environment, we hope that the members of the Select Committee will respect our client’s right to invoke the protections of the Constitution,” his attorney, Mark MacDougall, wrote.
Then vs now: Hillary Clinton on limiting debates
It would seem as though the Democratic party is trying to protect Hillary Clinton by limiting the number of debates during the Democratic primary season heading into the Iowa caucuses. This is not just right-wing propaganda as Martin O’Malley has been vocal on this issue, claiming that the DNC is trying to rig the system in order to protect the presumed front-runner, and Bernie Sanders has gone so far as to say the Democratic party is “dead wrong” for limiting debates while claiming “democracy benefits when we have debates.” (Of course democracy is a code word for socialism, but let that go.)
For her part, most likely because she is the front-runner and presumably stands to benefit from a limited debate schedule, Hillary Clinton has been silent on this issue. But apparently she did not always feel this way: Back in 2008, after Barack Obama became the front-runner, Hillary Clinton released a campaign ad calling out Barack Obama for not agreeing to more debates–claiming he would apparently rather give speeches than debate policy.
Here is more:
Funny how that works, isn’t it…
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The State Department changed the classification of Hillary Clinton’s emails in order to hide them from the Congress
I think most reasonable people at this point in time understand the reason that Hillary Clinton used a personal email server to conduct ALL State Department business is simple: she was trying to avoid FOIA requests and the Oversight Committee.
However, if this story is true, this is not all that was done in an effort to hide Hillary Clinton’s emails for it is now being alleged that the State Department actually changed the classification of at least four emails in an attempt to hide them from the Congress.
Here is more:
Hillary Clinton sent classified emails to Sidney Blumenthal
The right-wing blogosphere is ablaze with the news today that the State Department’s recent release of 7,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails reveal that the former Secretary of State sent classified information to Sidney Blumenthal, so I am probably not going to write anything here that most of you have not read elsewhere but I would be remiss not to mention it.
If you follow this link you will be able to view a heavily redacted email correspondence between Hillary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal in which “Merkel” and “Blair” are mentioned. This is a major problem whether Hillary Clinton wants to admit it or not.
The bulk of Hillary Clinton’s message to Blumenthal was redacted, under codes 1.4(D) and 1.4(B) because classification authorities determined it contained classified information “which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security[.]”
A new Iowa poll shows Ben Carson tied with Donald Trump
Regardless of what the national polls show it seems as if the race for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 2016 is still in a state of flux–at least in Iowa.
Yesterday a poll was released which showed Ben Carson surging to within striking distance of Donald Trump and today a new poll, by a different polling agency, shows the former brain surgeon tied with the business mogul.
Here is more:
The State Department finds another 150 classified emails on Hillary Clinton’s server
Tonight the State Department will release another 7,000 or so pages of Hillary Clinton emails–roughly double the amount of emails already released–and the agency is already admitting there are 150 classified emails contained within.
However the agency is stressing the fact that these emails were “upgraded” to classified and were not “marked” classified at the time she either sent or received them. Here is more:
The State Department said Monday afternoon that when it releases the latest tranche of Hillary Clinton’s emails tonight, ‘somewhere around 150’ of them will have been ‘upgraded to classified’ status.
Agency spokesman Mark Toner briefed reporters in advance of the periodic release, which was rescheduled twice during the day and is now expected at 9:00 p.m. EDT.
Under intense questioning, Toner conceded that the review of about 7,000 pages of emails in the latest batch has uncovered the 150 communications ‘that have been subsequently upgraded classified.’
He emphasized that ‘the information we’ve upgraded was not marked classified at the time the emails were sent.’ But Toner seemed to hedge his bets against future decision-making inside the U.S. Intelligence Community.
There are a couple of new Iowa polls out there and they seem to show that both the Republican and Democratic elections are in a state of flux. First up is the Republican poll which shows that Ben Carson is surging and is now within striking distance of Donald Trump.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has emerged as a leading Republican presidential candidate in Iowa and is closing in on frontrunner Donald Trump in the state that hosts the first 2016 nomination balloting contest.
The latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows billionaire Trump with the support of 23 percent of likely Republican caucus participants, followed by Carson at 18 percent. When first and second choices are combined, Carson is tied with Trump.
Although the poll does apparently find Trump in a better position likeability-wise than he was when the last Iowa poll was taken.
On Friday a judge, Amy Berman Jackson, ruled that the IRS must turn over all, if any, requests the White House made for confidential taxpayer information. Of course this all dates back to the IRS targeting scandal, if not before. Here is more:
The Internal Revenue Service must turn over any White House requests for taxpayers’ private information, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The IRS cannot cite taxpayer confidentiality laws to avoid turning over the information requested by Cause of Action, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled. Cause of Action has waged a two-year battle to discover whether Obama administration officials had any hand in the IRS’ targeting of conservative non-profits.
The IRS cannot cite privacy protection “to shield the very misconduct it was enacted to prohibit,” the judge said Friday, according to the Washington Times.
“This court questions whether section 6103 [of the tax code] should or would shield records that indicate confidential taxpayer information was misused, or that government officials made an improper attempt to access that information,” wrote Jackson.
We do not know if the White House has made any such requests, however the fact that the IRS has been unwilling to cooperate makes one think they are trying to hide something.
Cause of Action sued in 2013 to get a look at whatever requests the White House, or other federal agencies, had made.
The IRS refused, saying even the existence of those requests would be protected by confidentiality laws and couldn’t be released, so there was no reason to make the search.
The judge said Friday, however, that the agency couldn’t use the privacy protection “to shield the very misconduct it was enacted to prohibit.”
Suddenly the IRS is concerned with confidentiality, only it is not the taxpayers’ confidentiality the agency is worried about but rather the White House’s.
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
America's Watchtower 