Could Hillary Clinton’s personal emails reveal a pay-to-play scheme at the Clinton Foundation?
Shortly before news broke that Hillary Clinton used a personal email account to conduct all State Department business it was reported that the Clinton Foundation was accepting donations from foreign governments. This report seems to have been backed up by Bill Clinton himself in an interview over the weekend.
There is nothing illegal about this, however is it possible that Hillary Clinton’s hidden emails might reveal a dirty little secret about the Clinton Foundation? Namely that the foundation was involved in a pay to play scheme. That is what this article wants to know and their seems to be some justification for the inquiry.
Here is more:
Open thread for Sunday, March 8th: The Beaten Generation
Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 8th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
After several slow weeks this week was more in line with my expectations with 11 posts, still not as many as I would like but did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. I understand that all of you are busy and cannot always find the time to check the blog for updates so why not subscribe to America’s Watchtower and receive email updates whenever I write a new post? That is the easiest way to follow the blog to ensure you never miss another post.
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This week’s musical selection is a song by the band The The, yes The The, entitled “The Beaten Generation”
I do not agree with all of the lyrics contained in this song but there is an overall message I do agree with and if nothing else this song will make you think.
When you cast your eyes upon the skylines
Of this once proud nation
Can you sense the fear and the hatred
Growing in the hearts of its population
And our youth, oh youth, are being seduced
By the greedy hands of politics and half truths
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination
We’re being sedated by the gasoline fumes
And hypnotized by the satellites
Into believing what is good and what is right
You may be worshiping the temples of mammon
Or lost in the prisons of religion
But can you still walk back to happiness
When you’ve nowhere left to run?
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination
And if they send in the special police
To deliver us from liberty and keep us from peace
Then won’t the words sit ill upon their tongues
When they tell us justice is being done
And that freedom lives in the barrels of a warm gun
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination
Harry Reid has endorsed Chris Van Hollen in the Maryland Senate race and for this he has come under attack by a major Democratic donor for endorsing a white guy.
Here is part of the statement Harry Reid made in endorsing Chris Van Hollen:
“not only would Chris Van Hollen be the best and most effective person for the job, I have no doubt that he is in the best and strongest position to make sure that this Senate seat remains in Democratic hands in a state that just elected a Republican governor.”
But simply being the “best and most effective person for the job” and being the person who is in the “best and strongest position to make sure the Senate seat remains in Democratic hands” is not a good enough reason for Harry Reid to endorse Chris Van Hollen according to Democratic donor Steve Phillips–in fact he claims it is “insulting.”
Here is more on this:
Has AR-15 ammunition already been banned?
Last week it was reported that Barack Obama was preparing to ban the most common round of ammunition in the United States through Executive Action and that this piece of his anti-second amendment agenda was placed on the fast-track.
Now we are finding out what Barack Obama means by “fast-track” because according to this story AR-15 ammunition might already be banned. Here is more:
On Friday February 13 at 4:00 pm, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms released a proposal to ban commonly used M855 “green tip” AR-15 ammunition under the guise of law enforcement safety. The same day the proposal was released, on a Friday of a three day holiday weekend, ATF opened up a shortened 30-day period for the public to submit comments about the new regulation.
But it turns out, ATF has been working on a ban of AR-15 “green-tip” ammunition for quite some time and has already issued the ban in its new, 2014 Regulation Guide. For reference, ATF Regulation Guides come out approximately every ten years.
When you take a look at the 2005 ATF Regulation Guide, you’ll see an exemption for AR-15 “green-tip” ammunition, which means it exempted from the definition of “armor piercing” and therefore is legal on the federal level.
When you look at the last page of the new, most recent ATF 2014 Regulation Guide, which was published in January, there is no longer an exemption for AR-15 “green-tip” ammunition.
So if this is true it would appear as if the fix is an and the decision has already been made but we just do not know it yet. We can expect the official announcement sometime in the near future.
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The Department of Justice is preparing to file criminal charges against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez
According to this story the Department of Injustice is preparing to file criminal corruption charges against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and Eric Holder has already signed off on it.
Here is more:
The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal corruption charges against New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, alleging he used his Senate office to push the business interests of a Democratic donor and friend in exchange for gifts.
People briefed on the case say Attorney General Eric Holder has signed off on prosecutors’ request to proceed with charges, CNN has learned exclusively. An announcement could come within weeks.
The White House knew Hillary Clinton was using her personal email account to conduct State Department business last August
According to this story the White House knew that Hillary Clinton was using her personal email account to conduct State Department business as early as last August but the decision was made to keep it quiet.
Here is more:
The White House, State Department and Hillary Clinton’s personal office knew in August that House Republicans had received information showing that the former secretary of state conducted official government business through her private email account — and Clinton’s staff made the decision to keep quiet.
Sources familiar with the discussions say key people in the Obama administration and on Clinton’s staff were aware that the revelation could be explosive for the all-but-announced candidate for president. But those involved deferred to Clinton’s aides, and they decided not to respond.
There is still some question as to whether or not Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal email account violated the Federal Records Act but if this story is true it seems all but certain she was in violation of State Department rules.
Here is more:
The State Department has had a policy in place since 2005 to warn officials against routine use of personal email accounts for government work, a regulation in force during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state that appears to be at odds with her reliance on a private email for agency business, POLITICO has learned.
The policy, detailed in a manual for agency employees, adds clarity to an issue at the center of a growing controversy over Clinton’s reliance on a private email account. Aides to Clinton, as well as State Department officials, have suggested that she did nothing inappropriate because of fuzzy guidelines and lack of specific rules on when and how official documents had to be preserved during her years as secretary.
But the 2005 policy was described as one of several “clear cut” directives the agency’s own inspector general relied on to criticize the conduct of a U.S. ambassador who in 2012 was faulted for using email outside of the department’s official system.
“It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized [Automated Information System], which has the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information,” the Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual states.
So the question is, was this an authorized account?
If it was authorized don’t you think we already would have been told it was? This controversy would have been easily put to bed if somebody came out and stated this account was authorized by the State Department but to date nobody has so one has to believe it was not.
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Then vs Now: Hillary Clinton on secret email accounts
Hillary Clinton has been caught using a personal email account which was allegedly set up under an alias to conduct all official business during her tenure as Secretary of State.
But it turns out Mrs. Clinton did not always support the use of private emails to conduct government business. See, back in 2007 the former first lady had an entirely different position; using a private email account to conduct government business was then part of the Bush regime’s shredding of the Constitution.
Now I guess it is move along, nothing to see here…
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Yesterday The New York Times revealed that while she was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her personal email account to conduct all State Department correspondence, and in fact she never had an official State Department email account. This allowed her, in effect, to “hide” official State Department business from public scrutiny and the investigation into the Benghazi scandal and ensuing cover up.
But the news got worse for the wannabe 2016 Presidential candidate with the news that she actually had her own private server set up from her home registered in the name of some mysterious, unknown man with connections to the Clintons.
Needless to say, Trey Gowdy found this news to be quite troubling and threatened to subpoena Hillary Clinton’s personal emails and today he made good on that promise. Here is more:
Hillary Clinton used personal email to conduct ALL State Department business…but that just might be the beginning
Yesterday The New York Times broke the story that Hillary Clinton used her personal email to conduct ALL State Department business, possibly in violation of Federal regulations, and in fact she never had an official government email account. (Personally I am surprised all government employees and so-called public servants are not automatically given a government email account but I suppose I should not be surprised for when has the government ever used such common sense?)
In case you somehow missed this story here is more:
Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.
Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.
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