Thursday, March 12, 2015

Hillary Clinton’s deleted e-mails? Almost certainly.

Washington Post

. . . "But, we wondered, what are the odds any of those 31,000 deleted e-mails would be found if the server is turned over? So we called We Recover Data, a straightforwardly named outfit in New York City, and spoke to engineering supervisor Tom Hakim and director of digital forensics Scott Gibbs. We asked them to consider the setup, which appears to be a boxrunning Windows Server 2008 and using Microsoft Exchange as its e-mail system, neither of which is unusual, and both of which were probably in place at the outset.
"Gibbs felt confident that an examination would turn up something. "If I had to put a percentage of success on this, it would be anywhere from 90 to 95 percent successful typically," he said, referring to finding those e-mails. That is: "If no other steps were taken to go in and otherwise make the data inaccessible." . . .

The Federalism Fallacy in King v. Burwell

A new interpretation claims to protect the states, but would actually hurt them.

ocarecartoon

Politico  "Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The case centers on a provision of Obamacare that authorizes federal tax subsidies for individuals only if they purchase health insurance through an “Exchange established by the State.” If an individual purchases insurance through a federal-run exchange (in the event that the state opts out of setting up its own exchange), can she still qualify for Obamacare subsidies? The Obama administration says yes; the King plaintiffs say no.

"A great deal is at stake here. If the plaintiffs win, individuals in 34 states—the states that have opted not to operate a state insurance exchange—will still be subject to Obamacare’s individual mandate, but they won’t qualify for federal tax subsidies." . . . Read more...

Earlier this week, we ran a Q&A with Heritage experts Ed Haislmaier and Andrew Kloster about the King v. Burwell case, which was heard by the Supreme Court Wednesday:

FORMER DOJ FOI EXPERT OF 26 YEARS SAYS HILLARY IS TOTALLY IN THE WRONG

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS. Entire post quoted below:

News conference 'grossly misleading' 
Hillary Clinton's defenders say she's sufficiently explained why she set up a do-it-yourself home email system when she was secretary of state, insist there's nothing to see here, and it's time to move on. 
You know who disagrees? 
The senior-most freedom-of-information official in the executive branch of the United States government for over a quarter-century, whose job it was to help four administrations — including the Clinton White House — interpret the Freedom of Information Act, offer advice, and testify before Congress on their behalf. 
Daniel Metcalfe doesn't buy her explanation. In fact, he calls it laughable. 
"What she did was contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the law," says Metcalfe, the founding director of the Justice Department's Office of Information and Privacy, which advised the rest of the administration on how to comply with the law. Metcalfe ran the office from 1981 to 2007. 
"There is no doubt that the scheme she established was a blatant circumvention of the Freedom of Information Act, atop the Federal Records Act." 
Metcalfe says he doesn't have any partisan axe to grind. He's a registered Democrat, through steadfastly non-partisan. He says he was embarrassed to work for George W. Bush and his attorney general, and left government for American University, where he now teaches government information law and policy.
Clinton was required to sign document claiming she turned over emails in 2013

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

BARACK OBAMA: A MAN FOR THE AGES!

Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez

Ann Coulter  "Everyone says President Obama is a feckless commander, weak in statecraft, especially compared to the great leaders of the Western world, such as Reagan and Churchill. 

"I believe this does Obama a great injustice. It's so easy to react the way a great leader would. Sure, Obama could have left a small contingent of American troops in Iraq, preserved America's victory, and prevented the entire region from collapsing into chaos and terror. He could have refrained from issuing empty "red line" threats to Syria. He could call ISIS "Islamic." But anybody could do that -- even ISIS calls itself "Islamic." (Note for scholars: That's what the first "I" stands for.) 

"These are the obvious answers. Obama could do it, too. But let me hasten to add: Those guys -- unlike Obama -- never won a Nobel Peace Prize. The genius of Obama is that he takes a much more nuanced view of the world. 

"Rather than lament that Reagan, Churchill and other great men aren't our leaders in this increasingly dangerous world, we should really be lamenting that Obama wasn't in charge in their day. " . . .Read the full article


Peace our Time 600 LA

Let us not sell Chamberlain too short. In the end, and too late for millions, he saw the true nature  of his enemy and it was he who declared war on Germany after Hitler ignored the red line set by the British. However the judgement passed on him by Winston Churchill was biting and immortal:
 “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”
 "Churchill’s remark after Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler"

Iran Declares Pre-emptive Victory in Nuke Talks

Political Cartoons by Nate Beeler

Washington Free Beacon  "Iran’s foreign minister and chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the West declared victory for his country, stating that no matter how the negotiations end, Tehran has come out “the winner,” according to remarks made on Tuesday and presented in the country’s state-run press.
"Javad Zarif, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister, stated in remarks before the country’s powerful Assembly of Experts, which recently installed a hardline new cleric as its leader, that the nuclear negotiations have established Tehran as a global power broker." . 
Political Cartoons by Gary McCoy. .

How the Obama-Sharpton Alliance Began

NRO

"Near the end of 2007, Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett met with Al Sharpton in New York City and began to cement a relationship that would eventually make the inflammatory activist the president’s “go-to man” on race, according to multiple sources.

"The backdrop to the incipient Obama-Sharpton alliance was the then-senator’s 2008 presidential campaign, which still hadn’t locked away the black vote, and the political cross-currents created by two other controversial reverends, Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright.

"That tentative relationship has now grown into a full-blown partnership that has vastly increased the once-shunned Sharpton’s influence and prestige and elevated him into a key White House ally at a time of heightened tension over policing and race." . . . 

Al Sharpton Empowered   "Eric Holder’s legacy: Enabling Sharpton’s “I have a scheme” civil-rights agenda"

Teachers fear for their lives because of administration's hands-off-blacks guidelines

M Catharine Evans . . . "While POTUS’s own daughters attend a prestigious majority-white school where deportment and discipline prevail, Obama and his attorney general make sure teachers and principals in inner-city, predominantly black schools are held hostage by impulsive, lawless, and fatherless thugs.


"MLK Middle School is a disgrace – a “stain” on Obama and his progressive  ilk..
On the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the president  lectured us “to open our eyes, and ears, and hearts, to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us.”  Young people marched “for the protection of the law,” he said, and today “we can address unfair sentencing and stunted circumstances that rob too many boys of the chance to become men.”

"Obama needs to open his own eyes and ears to the long shadow of violence he and Eric Holder are casting over the nation’s black schoolchildren.  The nation’s top law enforcement official and his boss issued recommendations last year that encourage local, state, and federal education personnel to give black students a pass no matter how much they act out and make life a living hell in the classroom."


Don't worry; the Democrats and their president have American interests in mind

Obama In Denial

The Pentagon warned Friday if Iranian troops leading Iraqi troops in Iraq defeat ISIS, Iran will control Iraq. So now root for either the Iranians or ISIS. Perhaps the Obama Administration shouldn't spend so much time denouncing Missouri cops because now it appears they could really use one in Iraq. Comedian Argus Hamilton
US and Israeli intelligence at sharp odds on Iran’s breakout time to a bomb  . . ."The Americans say that Iran would need one year between a decision to go from nuclear threshold to nuclear bomb – enough time for preventive action – while the Israelis say the time is much shorter - six months at most. President Barack Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who leads the negotiations with Tehran, insist that America intelligence would detect an Iranian decision to go forward in time to step in and pre-empt it."

What do we make of this article? Obama’s Iranian-nuclear strategy brings dividend: Rev Guards lead military assault on Tikrit  . . . "Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed some of the Obama administration’s thinking on the subject.
He said Iran and its allies (Iraqi Shiite militias) had taken part in the Iraq war ever since 2004. “But the Tikrit campaign signals a new level of involvement,” he said. “This is the most overt conduct of Iranian support in the form of artillery and other things” and “…could turn out to be a positive thing.”

"These comments corroborated DEBKAfile’s disclosures on the US-led war on ISIS, which defined America as confining itself to air strikes over Iraq and Syria and assigning the brunt of the ground war to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards forces – a division of labor, which Israeli military chiefs watch with increasing concern as it brings the Iranian peril closer than ever to Israel, DEBKAfile’s military sources report."

Shameless




HillaryVictor Davis Hanson . . . "Her final message? It’s over; get over it; and the messages are destroyed even if you had wanted to have determined that I lied about the private/public divide. What are you going to do—hound the likely next president of the United States?  

"What’s next? We are back to 1998–99 where the law does not apply to the Clintons; and if it did, it pales in importance to their progressive efforts on our behalf; and if you doubt it, there are plenty of hirelings who can make  life miserable for you right-wing conspiracists and disbelievers."

Cartoon at right from damncoolpictures.com/

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

What's being said about Hillary's emails today

The FCC passed Net Neutrality rules last week, allowing the government to regulate the Internet like a utility. It's gotten very crazy lately. Hillary Clinton got in trouble for using private e-mail to do all her business while Bill Clinton got in trouble for doing all his business at Adult Dating and Massage.  Comedian Argus Hamilton
 Hillary speaks on email scandal  "Speaking before a microphone with the UN logo on it, Hillary Clinton staged a press conference in which she made a statement and took questions.  She may think she has put the controversy to rest, but for those not her dedicated fanboys and fangirls, she only made matters worse. Some quick reactions pending a transcript:" . . .  More here.
Political Cartoons by Dana Summers
Transcript of her lie detector test


President Obama’s claim that he only learned of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail account from the media was a lie that lasted only two days.

Hillary’s email explanation is self-contradictory – here’s how (#TurnOverTheServer)
"Hillary explained that she turned over all work-related emails to the State Department, and “chose not to keep” (i.e., deleted) the personal emails on the server."

. . . "So Hillary says there are no personal emails on the server but she will not turn it over because there are personal emails on it."


Clintons and controversy: The circus is back in town   . . . "Hillary Rodham Clinton has not yet even announced that she is running for president, but the spectacle of the Clinton years is unfolding again, touched off by the controversy over her practice of using a private email account, rather than an official one, while she was secretary of state.
. . . "On Fox News Sunday, former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis had attempted a clumsy, legalistic rationale on her behalf, only to be asked by moderator Chris Wallace, "Do you ever get tired of cleaning up after the Clintons?"


Political Cartoons by Ken Catalino

Are we ready for 10 more years of wrath from the eternal Woman Scorned?
. . . "At once a struggling fat person alternating between eating McDonald’s and jogging in too-short shorts. A trailer park dog in heat, yet a devoted dad and husband dancing on the beach. A global, silver-haired elder statesman — who jet sets around the world with a reputed pedophile pimp.
"Bill Clinton has always been a one-man traveling variety show where everybody laughs a little, gets their pockets picked and — if you are the right dimensions — a private soiree.
"Hillary, on the other hand, has but one note, one act, one trick. She is a legal automaton. A disemboweled scandal-disposal robot. She is Franken-Secretary, the unkillable Political Zombie!" . . .
Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez
From Lucianne:
Hillary said she emailed with Bill, but the thing is ...
. . . "But Hillary said during her press conference that her email server "contains personal communications from my husband and me."
"It appears at least one Clinton is not telling the whole truth." . . .

Ron Fournier: Hillary Clinton: A Pay-Phone Candidate in an iPhone World  . . . "Trust me, I'm a Clinton. This is part of a decades-old pattern: For all their strengths, Hillary and Bill Clinton have a weakness for victimization, entitlement, and their unbounded belief that the ends justify the means.
"Rules are for little people, not them.". . .
Political Cartoons by Nate Beeler

. . . "In fact, we know that she used multiple addresses on that single server/domain: 

hdr@clintonemail.com, hdr18@clintonemail.com, hdr19@clintonemail.com, hdr20@clintonemail.com, hdr21@clintonemail.com, h.clinton@clintonemail.com, Hillary@clintonemail.com, contact@clintonemail.com, mau_suit@clintonemail.com  

ERIC HOLDER’S UNPERSUASIVE ATTACK ON THE FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT, PART ONE

Something to Chew ON

PowerLine  "Last week, the Justice Department announced, with little fanfare, that Darren Wilson wasjustified in shooting Michael Brown. The Department found “no credible evidence” that Brown was attempting to surrender when Wilson shot him. So much for “Hands up, don’t shoot.” It made for good theater, but it was a lie.

"Also last week, the Justice Department, with much fanfare, announced that the Ferguson police department for which Darren Wilson used to work is guilty of racist policing and, indeed, is extracting money from African-American through its law enforcement practices. Relying on this claim, Eric Holder attempted to defend the violent and lawless response of Ferguson residents to the justified shooting of Michael Brown, characterizing it as an understandable reaction to the “highly toxic environment” created by the Ferguson police over the years.
"For leftists like Holder, violence and lawlessness by African-Americans are never the fault of the perpetrators." . . .

Flashback: Multiple College Newspapers Called Officer Darren Wilson a Murderer

Outraged Adams: Race Hustler Holder Can’t Just Shut Down Police Departments. Or Can He?   Video;  "On Tucker Carlson’s show, J. Christian Adams takes Attorney General Eric Holder to task for his unconstitutional and even downright dictatorial wish to shut down police departments that aren’t as politically correct as he wants. Although Adams explains Holder’s actions are illegal, he nevertheless believes the AG may get away with it. Can the Obama administration turn entire police departments into training camps for race hustlers?"


ERIC HOLDER’S UNPERSUASIVE ATTACK ON THE FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT, PART TWO

Political Cartoons by Robert Ariail

PowerLine  "The Department of Justice’s angry condemnation of the Ferguson police department asserts systemic racism in the enforcement of certain laws. I argued here that the DOJ’s report fails to show such racism, though it may exist.
. . .
"Eric Holder has a different remedial approach in mind. He says he’s “prepared to use all the powers” of the federal government against Ferguson. Asked if this includes “dismantling the police force,” Holder said, “If that’s what’s necessary, we’re prepared to do that.”
"But the DOJ’s report lays part of the blame for the ills it alleges on the municipal court system. Does Holder intend to dismantle Ferguson’s courts too?
"What the Justice Department really intends to do is coerce Ferguson into agreeing, in essence, to a less strict regime of law enforcement in certain respects. If Ferguson agrees, standards will be lowered and fewer fines will be handed out. If it doesn’t agree, Ferguson will be sued.
"Ironically, as Jim Scanlan has shown, reducing the number of fines will tend to increase the Black representation among those who are fined. In other words, it will increase disparate impact, the existence of which is the DOJ’s only hook for challenging Ferguson’s law enforcement practices.
"But so what? DOJ isn’t interested in reducing disparate impact. It simply wants Blacks to pay fewer and smaller fines." . . .