Now it has been revealed that House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th) had sent a letter to the State Department on December 12, 2012 which specifically asked if the Secretary of State ever used a personal email account to conduct official business. Uh oh.
Well, Mrs. Clinton resigned from the State Department February 1, 2013. The State Department did not respond to the House Government Reform Committee until March 27, 2013 and their response merely was a copy of the policy that all State Department employees : “should make it clear that his or her personal email is not being used for official business.”.
While the Lamestream Media sought to create a frenzy for Hillary's Mystery Machine Listening Tour road trip to Iowa, Mrs. Clinton is slipping in the polls in key battleground states to Republican challengers. Quinnipiac Poll Assistant Director Peter Brown attributes this drop to the perception that Hillary Clinton is a dishonest politician, which can be attributed to the continuing email embarrassment.
If convicted, an official who obstructs or destroys federal documents could be barred from office. It is almost inconceivable that an Obama Department of Justice (under Attorney General Eric Holder or the stalled nominee Loretta Lynch) would ever prosecute or seek to convict such a high profile progressive politician. But there are no such strictures in the court of public opinion. Hillary for America intends to raise $2.5 billion for their campaign. But she who raises the most cash does not always win (sic). In 1980, Governor John Connally (D R-TX) was considered a great orator and had a distinct fundraising advantage. In the end, Connally spent $11 million and only garnered one delegate. How embarrassing. Actually, not as embarrassing as Hillary's continuing email embarrassments.
It is as rare as a rocking horses manure that a campus screening of a Hollywood major motion picture makes the news, much less the sports section, but we live in interesting times. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was scheduled to show "The American Sniper", the 2014 highest grossing motion picture about a Navy Seal who served four combat tours . But the "American Sniper" screening was cancelled because of an open letter published by some U of M Muslim students which claimed that the Chris Kyle biopic ab that the film about the decorated Navy Seal was about “a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians.” Aside from that blood liable, the letter worried that American Sniper "not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim … rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer.”
So what does the University of Michigan, an institute of higher learning which sports the motto: Artes, Scientia, Veritas, do in a civil clash of ideas. The first instinct of the U of M Administration was to censor the controversial. University officials canceled the showing and apologized for potentially making Muslim students feel unsafe. The University planned to show Paddington instead, no joke.
After the Ann Arbor University Administration suffered from widespread derision over the politically correct pusillanimous decision, U of M backpeddled and promised to eventually show "The American Sniper" but only in a "safe space".
So allow for protests and ideological indoctrination afterwards.
Even this University of Michigan equivocation did not score well with incoming Wolverine football coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh took to Twitter to unabashedly show support to Chris Kyle and "The American Sniper". Harbaugh played college football at "The Big House" of U of M before spending 14 seasons in the NFL then coaching in the NFL, including the San Francisco Giants. Haurbaugh's bold proclamation about Wolverine Football gives the impression that he will not countenance safe spaces on the football field.
An early scene from "The American Sniper" depicts a life lesson given to a young Chris Kyle about the three types of persons in the world.
It is clear that Coach Harbaugh emulates a sheepdog. What remains to be seen is if the team which he inherits, which went 5-7 in 2014 (including a Big Ten 3-5 record), are going to transmogrify into Wolverine Sheepdogs or remain collegiate sheep on the sports field?
A better question is what the University of Michigan learns from this episode.
Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) spoke on behalf of inchoate candidate Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press. Granholm's defense of Hillary's record included an oblique threat against prospective Democrat candidate Governor Martin O'Malley (D-MD)
Granholm may not have been the best surrogate for Mrs. Clinton considering her record governing the Great Lake state.
But Granholm's technique is characteristic of Hillary's presidential politicking.
Just like the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton is relying upon the inevitability argument for the nomination and the White House. Thus no one should stand in the way of the inevitable coronation, lest they be labeled "sexist".
The HRC Super Volunteers emailed a New York Times reporter warning the press not to use thirteen terms which are deemed "coded sexism" when applied to the former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State. These forbidden words include: "polarizing," "calculating,"
"disingenuous," "insincere," "ambitious," "inevitable," "entitled,"
"over-confident," "secretive," and "out of touch."
Many of these adjectives could easily be applied to many politicians. But somehow when referring to HRC they become coded sexism. Even a female panel on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews is skeptical that all of the banned words were coded sexism.
How convenient. Limit the lexicon of the press when referring to the chosen candidate, limit access of reporters covering the campaign and pull credentials of pesky press which are willing to publish "inconvenient truths".
As the Christian faithful commemorate the Triduum, when their blameless Lord was persecuted and crucified for their sins, we can contemplate contemporary crucifixions.
Sadly, we live in a world in which ISIS Islamists actually crucify and martyr "Nazarenes" for their faith. Yet we do not have to look abroad to see contemporary civil crucifixions.
Consider how masses have been riled up and incited to violence over lies emanating from the chief priest of liberal secular humanism in social justice circles and the media. Ferguson, Missouri brought forth the meme "Hands Up, Don't Shoot", which inspired rioting both in the Show Me State as well as civil intimidation in Brooklyn. Yet the Ferguson Grand Jury Decision showed that the "Hands Up Don't Shoot" manta was all based on lies.
Lately, the focus has been on Indiana, as the Hoosier State passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Progressives painted a rainbow smear claiming that RFRA would allow businesses to discriminate against homosexual customers. In reality, Indiana's RFRA was modeled after a 1993 Federal Law (which President Bill Clinton signed) and 19 other states (including Illinois which State Senator Barack Obama voted for), with updates to reflect the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling.
Rather than being a weapon for business owners to pursue discrimination, RFRA is a shield which allows those with a strongly held religious belief to simply have their day in court. The masses where whipped up into a frenzy under the rainbow banner to stop bigotry.
One enterprising jo-whore-nalist from ABC 57 in South Bend, sought out a pizzaria in Elkhorn, Indiana supposedly to get a small town perspective on the Hoosier RFRA law. ReporterAlyssa Marino "randomly" chose Memories Pizza, which just so happened to be a Christian establishment. They entertained a hypothetical of catering a same-sex wedding and concluded that participating in that ceremony would be against their religious beliefs.
This naive admission set off a firestorm of protest against the small town pizza parlor. Rush Limbaugh suspects this was a set up for a Christian business and was being magnified by a small group of progressive activists who spin a cyber chimera of being an internet army. How else could a UHF TV station in South Bend generate thousands of social media protests in less than ten minutes?
The hype over Memories Pizza got so severe that a high school teacher tweeted seeking comrades to help burn the place down. Memories Pizza was forced to close with all of the crank calls and calls to violence
After her suspension is lifted, she should stick to instructing girls' golf rather than teaching hatred and inciting violence on the internet.
Fortunately, like the miracle of the resurrection after the public crucifixion, there is a happy ending for Memories Pizza. BlazeTV personal Dana Loesch organized a crowdfunding effort to help the O'Connor family with their Memories Pizza business. In a couple of days, 30,000 people contributed over $850,000. This will allow Memories Pizza to weather the RFRA firestorm and to expand.
Yet progressives still sought to punish Memories Pizza. Some conspiracy minded liberals implied that the O'Connors intentionally created the media frenzy for online donations. These are the same type of people who obsess over Loose Change Another internet activist, who co-incidentally is a social media employee of WTVR-TV CBS6 in Richmond, Virginia, implied that the crowdfunding was fraudulent to discourage contributions.
While during Holy Week it is facile to focus on crowds being whipped into a frenzy to be the cat's paw for leaders. But it is also worth considering why the Romans resorted to crucifixions in their empire. These brutal crucifixions served as examples not to challenge the orthodoxy of the powers that be.
Crucifixion (even the civil kind)? No, I would rather choose religious freedom.
Dr. Ben Carson, the retired chief of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, has experienced a meteoric rise in conservative political circles since he upstaged President Barack Obama with a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013. Carson’s mild mannered delivery of critiques of the Obama-nation coming from a faith filled physician with a compelling personal story stole the show.
Just after the Exploratory Committee announcement, Dr. Carson was drawn into a debate on CNN’s “New Day” with Chris Cuomo on whether homosexuality is a choice. Carson commented that convicts "go into prison straight -- and when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question," This view syncs with Dr. Carson’s Seventh Day Adventist background and traditional marriage premises but did little to advance his candidacy.
Shortly afterwards, Carson backtracked on the statement saying "I realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues." Later, Carson declared that he would no longer speak about gay issues. But the damage had already been done. Glenn Beck called this quote “the dumbest thing I’ve every heard”, which led Beck to declare that Carson’s candidacy was over just as it begun. That may have been hyperbole, but it was unwise for Dr. Carson to touch today’s third rail of politics in a wonton way. Carson squandered his wider introduction to the public by allowing himself to be painted a bigot for a peripheral point.
As part of the media barnstorming effort, Dr. Carson engaged in a thoughtful radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, a politically center right Salem Radio host who prides himself on not conducting ambush interviews. Since the 2016 Presidential Campaign cycle may well pivot on foreign policy issues, Hewitt asked about Russian provocations and Western response. When asked how NATO should respond if Putin made a move on the Baltic States would we go to war, Dr. Carson responded: “Well, if we have them involved in NATO. We need to convince them to get involved in NATO and strengthen NATO”.
Hewitt later followed up on an inference that Carson did not seem aware that the Baltic States were part of NATO. Dr. Carson rejoined: “Well, when you were saying Baltic state, I thought you were continuing our conversation about the former components of the Soviet Union. Obviously, there’s only three Baltic states.” Unfortunately that clarification was as clear as mud as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were former components of the Soviet Union and have some ethnic Russian speaking communities still residing there (which was the pretext for Russia effectively seizing Crimea and try to take the Donbass). Hewitt is known for in-depth interviews and going into the proverbial weeds to explore military issues. Carson’s ignorant answers on defending our Baltic State NATO partners exposes a serious chink in his campaign armor and exhibited a lack a preparation.
Dr. Carson granted a long form interview with GQ magazine which was conducted at Armstrong Williams abode. The resulting piece from Jason Zengerle : “What if Sarah Palin were a brain surgeon?” frames Dr. Carson as the Tea Party’s great White House hope, while sliming him with the Alinsky inspired animus associated Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). The pull quote from Carson’s GQ interview involved Armstrong Williams egging on Ben Carson to opine on Obama’s optics. The soft spoken Dr. Carson pronounced: “Like most psychopaths--that’s why they’re successful. That’s the way they look. They all look great...he's trying to sell what he thinks is not true. He’s sitting there saying, ‘These Americans are so stupid, I can tell them anything.’”
Dr. Carson is a renowned neurosurgeon, not a psychiatrist, so taking a swipe at President Obama as a psychopath is off the mark. Such a distant diagnosis from Charles Krauthammer (who was trained as a psychiatrist) seems reasonable, but from Dr. Carson it seems like a harsh characterization. Part of Carson’s political charm is his mild mannered air of authority. Being bombastic by characterizing the Obama obsession with optics and fooling “idiotic” Americans sacrifices this strength. Moreover, this pugilistic “psychopath” trope was nothing new and unlikely to garner much new support.
Ben Carson has proudly declared: “I'm not a politician and that I never intend to become a politician. Even if I'm elected to office, I'm not going to be a politician because they tend to do things that are politically expedient. And I'm not trying to do things that are politically correct.” In this day and age, not being considered a Beltway Establishment politician is an advantage to base voters who tire of political lies and political correctness.
However Dr. Carson is making plenty of rookie mistakes in on the political field. Allowing a Draft movement to exploit donations which never really make it to the actual campaign may dismay donors. Opining on hot button issues like homosexuality without successfully connecting it to preserving traditional marriage, which should really be an ancillary campaign issue in the first place. Taking partisan pot shots like labeling the incumbent a psychopath which mars his soft spoken demeanor and popular appeal. Giving extensive access to media outlets like CNN and GQ on the proto campaign roll out which would play gotcha journalism. Then there is the sin of going on friendly media like Hugh Hewitt unprepared, exposing a key weakness of the candidacy, namely foreign policy chops.
That perspective may be provocative and perspicacious as a pundit, but it sounds like another thing altogether on the campaign trail, especially with spin coming from other campaigns' opposition research laundered through the compliant press.
As Dr. Carson continues to move closer to declaring his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, he has come out swinging for the fences. Unfortunately, he seems to be off balance for some of the pitches and creating lots of wind. To mix sports analogies, the off balance stance on the campaign hustings makes him prone for sucker punches from the Lamestream Media.
Dr. Carson could make great contributions to shaping the campaign conversation in the 2016 Cycle. His tremendous personal story shatters the liberal labeling of Republicans as the party for old white men. Dr. Carson’s faith history underscores a potential appeal to evangelical voters, which would be key to victory in the Iowa Caucuses. As a physician, he would be given great credence for critiquing Obamacare. So Dr. Carson should eschew some of his ardor against being a politician and get good advice which best represents his brand as a thoughtful outsider who will not abandon promises because it is politically expedient.
As Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was barnstorming the mainstream media before the presumed Republican presidential candidate makes his intentions official, he spoke about Climate Change on Late Night with Seth Myers.
The Lamestream Media would love to paint Senator Cruz as one who sets the world on fire, not just from misunderstood political metaphors but also due to partisan politics on the environment.
Ardent environmentalist Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) used his appearance on Meet the Press as a forum to besmirch Senator Cruz as being unfit for office due to a green global leadership test.
Although this is Jerry Brown's fourth term as Governor of California, long time political observers can recall how Governor Moonbeam hesitated in taking prevailing scientific wisdom in eradicating the Mediterranean fruit fly in 1981, which compounded problems. Lest anyone believe that Jerry Brown was virtuously standing up for green health concerns, when he ran for governor in 2010, Brown quipped: "If I see a Medfly, I'm going to spray that sucker. I'm not waiting this time."
Notwithstanding Governor Moonbeam's scientific shilly shallying on the Medfly, Brown backs his bluster against a Tea Party bete noir with the 90% scientific consensus statistic. Well, at least Brown did not use the Al Gore settled science canard. Wonder if how much of this consensus was based on the falsified East Anglia hockey stick model. Then there is the temptation for climate scientists can to claim "the sky is falling" for more money to study the issue.
Senator Cruz noted that satellite data over the last 17 years has not shown any increase in temperatures.
What have leading climate scientists had to say about this mercurial anomaly?
Governor Moonbeam's Green Global test seems little more than a progressive popularity contest and paint your political opponents as ignorant knuckle draggers. As Governor Brown admitted on Meet the Press, he would have run for President (again) if he were only 10 years younger. But he probably would have run as a watermelon candidate-- green on the outside and red on the inside.
At this point of the 2016 Presidential election cycle, most prospective Presidential nominees are playing coy about their intentions to run for the White House. Many media personalities will jocularly try to get a story by coaxing the candidate to declare his or her intentions on the air. Serious candidates need to sound interested to prospective supporters, yet not proverbially put the cart before the horse by declaring not at a time and place of their own choosing.
So Glenn Beck's exchange with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) at the end of a lengthy radio interview included the obligatory "ask". However, the junior senator from Texas gave a memorable deflection.
When some politicians claim quote their children, it sounds as if the kids were cued off of a teleprompter. An infamous example was President Jimmy Carter's alleged exchange with daughter Amy about the dangers of nuclear war during a 1980 debate with Ronald Reagan.
The quote from Caroline Cruz certainly sounds like a six year old's logic. While the quip intimated that the family blesses Senator Cruz intention to throw his hat in the ring, it also served as a light hearted feint to the question of declaring.
Running for President is a grueling effort to constantly travel, raise funds, react to opposition in real time and try to project a positive prospective policy. Many politicians refrain from continued combat in the political arena to supposedly spend more time with family. It is a twist to conventional logic to a family to encourage a campaign to gain a back yard for a dog.
Yes Caroline, there is more than a Snowflake's chance in Texas that Ted Cruz is running for the White House. But now was not the time to color in that picture and say it with surety.
During a forum held by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, Granite State professor Dr. David Pook offered that he helped craft the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts because of "white privilege".
Ironically, the Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire (which has a 91% Caucasian student body) where Pook serves as chair of the History Department, does not use those Common Core standards because they are inferior.
So why do some politicians continue to champion Common Core? Some have suggested crony capitalism.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) is a big backer of Common Core. Kathleen Jasper, a former Florida educator and founder of ConversationED.com, suggest that there may be pecuniary interests in pushing Common Core. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education is heavily tied to Pearson, a leading education publisher and test making company. So Pearsons publishes the k-12 books, they create the tests, they score the tests and coincidentally keep the data.
Per Jasper, Pearson garners between $15-$30 for each test administered. Due to No Child Left Behind and Race For the Top federal mandates, students have to retake the tests over and over again until they achieve an acceptable score. So kids keep constantly taking tests (without knowing why they failed) and businesses like Pearson profit from processing the perpetual paperwork.
Presuming this is an accurate assessment, it is ironic to see how Educrat's political correctness works well with crony capitalism in Common Core which imposes a regime which profits from failure to educate well.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC 4th), the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, responded to the Hillary E-Mail controversy on CBS's Face The Nation.
While a litigator in an Article III court wants all relevant information, such a broad request could be framed as a witch hunt or a fishing expedition in the political realm. So now that there is sufficient public pressure, the former Secretary of State may feel compelled (for continued electoral viability) to "step up" and completely surrender the cyber records and not just feign compliance.
Chairman Gowdy, who first came to office as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave elections, may distinguish himself between the bluster and the brashness of the District of Calamity by building a compelling case to discern what happened in the Benghazi bungle of September 11, 2012.
Former Secretary of State Clinton claimed that we should strive to figure out why the Benghazi bungle happened. Could it be due to insecure communications from hdr22@clintonemail.com (or mau-suit@clintonemail.com)? Or a pattern in the Obama Administration to use backdoor, off official communications, to convey inconvenient truths? It does not seem that it was just Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, as we should not forget the pseudonym Richard Windsor (a.k.a. EPA chief Lisa Jackson ). So much for the Obama Administration being the most transparent regime ever, as they took their anti-secrecy award in 2011 in a closed door presentation.
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