Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Biden. Show all posts

Saturday, August 8, 2015

A "MAJOR CAMPAIGN ISSUE"?

The report in the Washington Post on Hilary Clinton's private email account, which she used when she was Secretary of State, seems to me a long story with little substance. What Clinton is supposed to have done wrong remains a mystery to me after having read a number of articles about the FBI investigation. The article includes the throwaway line:
The referral did not accuse Clinton of any wrongdoing, and the two officials said Tuesday that the FBI is not targeting her.
The FBI, investigates this, and the FBI investigates that, but no officials at the FBI are named, and a further quote in the article states in another throwaway line:
A lawyer for the Denver company, Platte River Networks, declined to comment, as did multiple Justice Department officials. (My emphasis) 
The information from the FBI seems to be leaks from sources who insist on anonymity, which, of course, does not mean that the information is untrue, but a close reading of the article provides no further clue about the specifics of what Clinton is supposed to have done wrong, except that she used a private email account while she was Secretary of State. Note: Colin Powell used a private email account while he was Secretary of State.

Which makes me wonder why the WP concludes that the private account is:
...a setup that has emerged as a major issue in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
What am I missing? The "major issue" looks very much like Whitewater, a scheme in which the Clintons lost money, but which triggered a major investigation by Ken Starr, costing $50 million that concluded that there was "insufficient evidence" of wrongdoing by the Clintons. Try as I might, I never understood Whitewater, and, thus far, I don't understand why the private email system is a "major issue", except that Republicans and the vast media conspiracy against the Clintons wish to make it so.

The article in the WP had nothing in the way of evidence of wrongdoing by Hilary Clinton, but the implication was there. The story follows on the heels of the New York Times story linking Clinton to a "criminal investigation", which was filled with inaccuracies, and which the NYT took its sweet time to correct until cries of outrage became impossible to ignore.

Also in the Washington Post, Dana Milbank opines on Clinton's private email system.
Clinton, lacking a sparring partner other than the socialist Bernie Sanders, has reverted to her instincts for secrecy and a distrust of the media that borders on paranoia. And the media, in the absence of the back-and-forth of a competitive primary, have taken on the role of opposition. Clinton’s insularity and the media’s prosecutorial zeal feed each other — as they have for nearly a quarter-century.

“It feels sometimes like the primary is Hillary against the media,” a top Clinton aide told me Tuesday, one of several in Clinton’s orbit who said the candidate would be better off with a viable primary opponent.
Whoa!  If a top Clinton aide, who remains anonymous, dismisses Bernie Sanders, then the Clinton campaign needs to rethink its strategy.  Does the fact that Sanders is a socialist make him the equivalent of a potted plant, with the result that Clinton has no sparring partner?  He's striking the right chord with a number of people, and, were I in charge of the Clinton campaign, I'd take Sanders more seriously.  In truth, I think the campaign leadership is somewhat alarmed by Sanders' candidacy, but they see attacking him head on as a strategy likely to do more harm than good and choose rather to pretend he's not a real challenge.  On the other hand, according to Milbank, if Joe Biden entered the race, he'd be a serious contender, and Clinton would be forced to pay attention, but Biden won't, thus it's Clinton against the media.  Make what you will of this logic, and count me dubious about the Clinton campaign's longing for "a viable  primary opponent".

Rather than label Hilary Clinton paranoid about the media, I'd call her realistic.  Even supposedly left-wing media sources have failed miserably in their reporting and writing about the "scandals" of Bill and Hilary Clinton for years.  Yes, there was a major scandal in the Monica Lewinsky affair, for which Bill Clinton was duly impeached, and which was widely reported and commented upon by the media.  But there were a number of trumped up scandals besides Whitewater, such as the suggestion that Hilary Clinton murdered or had Vince Foster murdered and covered up the murder with the suicide story, which, in itself is enough to make a person wary of the press. 

Why continue to bang the drums about Benghazi and the private email account?  I don't understand, unless the press wants to keep the stories alive, just in case there is a real story which has not yet surfaced.  Why not investigate further and report on a real story, if there is a story to report?
Do you see a trend here? Rather than have to walk back their email story, the writers of the article in the WP chose obfuscation by many words to make their points.  Milbank's column does pretty much the same, by dissing Bernie Sanders, pumping up Joe Biden, and taking at face value the words of an anonymous source in the Clinton campaign to arrive at the conclusion that Clinton is paranoid about the media.  And blah, blah, blah....  The article and the opinion column in the WP are both classic examples of the kind of bullshit Jon Stewart warns about in his final, splendid monologue on The Daily Show.


UPDATE: More from the AP. 
The two emails on Hillary Rodham Clinton's private server that an auditor deemed "top secret" include a discussion of a news article detailing a U.S. drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, U.S. officials who have reviewed the correspondence told The Associated Press. (My emphasis)
Bullshit again. The only persons named in the article are Inspector General Charles McCullough and Sen. Charles Grassley (whose commentary about Clinton should always be suspect), and their quoted words are quite brief and without context. Note the could in the paragraph above.  The other sources are anonymous "officials", "an auditor", and "the intelligence community"? Who in the intelligence community is leaking information and why? There is no there there, so far as I can see, and reporters should wait until they have real information to impart before they submit articles for publication, and the editor(s) should say, "This is bullshit. Give me a story I can publish." Of course, that does not happen in today's media. 
Still, the developments suggested that the security of Clinton's email setup and how she guarded the nation's secrets will remain relevant campaign topics. (My emphasis)
Why? Only because reporters continue to publish non-stories about Hillary Clinton "scandals", about what could be and what is suggested by sources who are not named, which is not news and which anyone with half a brain can see is more bullshit. 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

JOE BIDEN: "THEY TALK..."

 

The Republicans running for president and vice-president talk trash and lies, and from what I see of Republican politicians all around the country, there are few who are willing to stand up to Tea Party politics and call them for the trash and lies that they are.  The concept of the common good, that we are all in these tough times together and that we should bear each other's burdens and help those who are most in need is lost in the noise of cries for a balanced budget - a budget that will be balanced on the backs of those who have the least and not by those who are rich in the world's goods.

At least once or twice a week people I know whine to me about undeserving freeloaders who get food stamps and SSI checks.  No doubt there are cheaters amongst them, but what kind of high living can you do on food stamps and SSI checks?  I think of the rich, like the Republican candidate for president, who pays an average of 14% tax on his vast yearly income, while mid-income people pay a higher percentage.  I think of the banks and financial institutions bailed out by the feds that, in turn, gave millions in salaries and bonuses to their top people, and the cheaters for food stamps and SSI checks seem like very small potatoes.  Sure, stop the cheaters, but let's set our priorities aright and get the rich guys and the corporations off the dole first.

And why was the Romney tax returns story allowed to die?  What about his 2009 tax returns?  2009 was the year of the amnesty when people with secret bank accounts in Switzerland had to own the accounts before their names were revealed to the IRS, whereupon they may have been subject to criminal prosecution for tax avoidance.  Did Romney take the amnesty?  He made public two years of tax returns, 2010 and 2011, but he asked Ryan for five years of tax returns.  What is Romney hiding? 

H/T to the goddess at First Draft and others for the picture.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

VEEP JOE BIDEN FAVORS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE - GEAUX JOE!

Joe Biden comes out in favor of same-sex marriage on Meet the Press:
GREGORY: Have your views evolved?

BIDEN: The good news is that as more and more Americans come to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love? And that’s what people are finding out what all marriages at their root are about. Whether they are marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals. [...]

GREGORY: You’re comfortable with same-sex marriage now?

BIDEN: Look, I am Vice President of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that. [...] I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done so far. People fear that is different and now they’re beginning to understand.
Joe is probably right about the influence of the TV show Will & Grace.  Well, well.  Meet the Press is good for something besides giving cash and air time to tired, aging pundits with views left over from the 20th century.

Watch him.



H/T to Athenae at First Draft.