Hillary Clinton
President Obama, no; Bill and Hillary Clinton, okay
By now you’ve heard that Democrat candidates in key races don’t want the president campaigning for them. But Bill and Hillary Clinton are okay.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll never forget how Bill Clinton sullied the White House, our house, while carrying on an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
As the media gave its obligatory “ho hum” after Lewinsky’s reappearance last week, “Good ole Bill” is out speaking for candidates, where the president is persona non grata.… read more
And she wants to be president, Part 7
When you think she couldn’t dig a deeper hole for herself as someone who desperately wants to be president, Hillary Clinton just keeps on digging and giving.
“And don’t let anybody, don’t let anybody tell you, that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” she told her liberal followers at a campaign rally for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley last week.… read more
Know when it’s time to resign
“He (Panetta) is a guy who has had a long and storied career in Washington and has really served his country well. And it is kind of sad that in its twilight he’s done such a dishonorable thing by – at a time – by going after the president that he served at a time of a lot of different instabilities around the world.”
Former Obama spokesman Bill Burton was called upon to put down Leon Panetta. (Reuters.com)
One would think the Obama administration could have provided someone with a bit of gravitas to appear on CNN to support the president amidst the latest attacks in Leon Panetta’s new book. The quote above, however, comes from Bill Burton, a former Obama spokesman, who left the West Wing more than three years ago. Some say he left because he wasn’t picked to replaced former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
While I am certainly not an admirer of Burton and his usual “shoot from the hip” remarks about Republicans, I must admit I agree with the first part of his statement about Panetta’s service. As I have previously written, however, I believe cabinet members, staffers and military officers, who disagree with their commander-in-chief’s positions, should do the honorable thing and resign.
The individual need not hang out all the dirty laundry in his resignation statement, but it shouldn’t be an “I’m retiring to spend more time with my family” cop-out either. It should be a clear statement that he/she opposes the president’s position on – subject – and, as a matter of integrity, I believe the president deserves to fill my position with someone who fully supports him.
I’ve been following the political scene long enough to realize that most administration appointees simply hold down their desks until the next administration, hoping they’ll be selected for the next plum position. And, there are those generals in the Pentagon looking for that next star, next chief-of-staff job, or joint chief slot. Continue reading
It can all be traced back to President Obama
You may be shocked by the current revelations of security screw ups by the Secret Service, but you shouldn’t be surprised, because it can easily be traced back to the culture in the White House.
Evidence of a culture of “whatever” in the Obama White House continues to mount. (abcnews.go.com)
We have a president who regularly flouts the rule-of-law. He has made changes and waivers to existing law; he was found guilty by the Supreme Court for making illegal recess appointments; he traded five Guantanamo prisoners for Sergeant Bergdahl without Congressional approval; and he’s set to implement a broad amnesty on his own following the mid-terms.
On the morally unethical side, President Obama flew to a fundraiser in Las Vegas after our ambassador and three other Americans were killed in the Benghazi attack and, he was on the golf course just minutes after “grieving” with the parents of James Foley, who was beheaded by ISIS.
What kind of respect can government employees in our various departments and agencies have for a president who laughs off inefficiencies and in some cases criminal activities, as “phony scandals.” Continue reading
Leoni no Clinton in “Madame Secretary” role
I have generally avoided television and big screen depictions of political Washington D.C. in the past like “West Wing” and the recent addition, “Scandal,” but tease footage of an attack on our embassy in Yemen promoting the last segment of “Madame Secretary,” piqued my curiosity. I confess. I watched it.
Tea Leoni does a credible job as secretary of state in the new CBS series, Madame Secretary. She’s shown here with Zeljko Ivanek, who is perfectly cast as the President’s chief of staff. (zp2it.com)
I have been reading how it was part of Hollywood’s plan to pump up Hillary Clinton’s role as secretary of state, but the Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz gave it a pretty good review.
The show’s Executive Producer Lori McCreary said the inspiration for the show came from Morgan Freeman, who after watching Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi hearings, called McCreary saying, “What does she (Hillary) go home to, what does she talk about?”
I would have suggested that he might want to read Edward Klein’s book, Blood Fued, to get a pretty accurate picture. Continue reading
An unusual request for help at the UN
“In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided.”
Unbelievably, those were the words of President Obama as he brought to a close his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday intended to seek support for the war against – my words – Islamic extremists.
“So yes, we have our own racial tensions,” he went on to say, “And like every country, we have our racial and ethnic tensions.”
Can you believe it? Comparing the Ferguson shooting to the beheading and mass killings by ISIL, al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist spin-offs?
(Poster courtesy elektroka)
Nine paragraphs into his speech, he finally gets to the point. “There is much to be done to meet the tests of this moment. But today I’d like to focus on two defining questions at the root of many our challenges – whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the UN’s founding (he’s dreaming); and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of extremism (not likely).” He left them with this less than memorable quote, “For America, the choice is clear. We choose hope over fear.” “Hope,” where have we heard that before?
We are facing the most barbaric, evil terrorists we could have imagined, and our president is talking “hope?”
I was also taken aback by an earlier statement in his speech. “I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe havens they rely upon.” Then he said, “At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.” Really, Mr. President? How do you think Americans would respond to a poll on that? Continue reading
And she wants to be president, Part 6
Just four days ago I stated that the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty can be attributed to Hillary Clinton’s decision to cut back security at the Benghazi mission compound. (See my post Lack of security in Benghazi points to Clinton, 9/13/14.) Two more events tend to support my contention that confidants aided in the cover-up.
An after-hours document scrubbing at State
Sharyl Attkisson interviewed former state department official Raymond Maxwell about an after-hours document scrubbing. (realclearpolitics.com)
Former state department official Raymond Maxwell told Sharyl Attkisson about an after-hours document scrubbing. (whatamimissisnghere.com)
Two days after that post, Sharyl Attkisson broke a story of a Sunday after-hours document scrubbing in the basement operations center at the State Department. Her source was former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, who was a leader in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, charged with collecting e-mails and documents relevant to the Benghazi probe. He was a 21-year Foreign Service veteran at State.
Hearing about the document scrubbing effort, he decided to look into it. Upon arrival he observed boxes and stacks of documents and the presence of one of Clinton’s top advisors. She told Maxwell, “We are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the front office or the seventh floor in a bad light.” The seventh floor was where Clinton and her principal advisors were located. Continue reading
Lack of security in Benghazi points to Clinton
On March 28, 2012, U. S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz sent a cable to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting additional security assets. The response, bearing Clinton’s signature, while acknowledging his request, instead articulates a plan to scale back security for the U. S. Mission in Libya, including the Benghazi Mission. – Source: INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT for the Members of the Republican Conference on the Events Surrounding the September 11, 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, Libya
Rep. Trey Gowdy will chair the House select committee on Benghazi that gets underway on Wednesday. (LibertyNews.com)
In the two years following the attack, Congressional hearings and media reports have, for the most part, concentrated on the night of the attack. They questioned whether we could have dispatched air assets in time, if there was a stand-down ordered and if so who ordered it?
While answers to those questions are important, my effort since that fateful night has focused on the failure to provide proper security despite five months of warnings. I firmly believe Hillary Clinton is clearly responsible for placing Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in jeopardy not only that night but in the preceding months. Continue reading
Yes, Bin Laden is dead, but …
Dr. Shakil Afridi was imprisoned for helping the United States identify the location of Osama Bin Laden. Three years of quiet diplomacy has not helped to secure his release. (Mohammed Rauf photo/AFP/Getty images)
“Bin Laden is dead”…. “we took out Bin Laden” How often have we heard those words over the past three years in speeches by President Obama, Vice President Biden and members of the national security team?
But what about Dr. Shakil Afridi? “Who’s he?” would likely be the response from most Americans. Using the cover of a door-to-door vaccination program, Doctor Afridi, was the key to our locating Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The doctor was first tried for “conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason;” charges that carry the death penalty. He was later sentenced to 33 years in prison for lesser trumped up charges. Continue reading