Lincoln Chafee Out, Obama Vetoes Defense Bill, Paul Strategist Acquitted of Corruption Charges: A.M. Links

- President Obama used his veto pen for the fifth time yesterday, dismissing a defense authorization bill.
- Facebook has improved its search feature to make current news—and your old public posts—easier to search for.
- Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leaving the Democratic presidential race.
- Former Rand Paul Super-PAC strategist Jesse Benton was acquitted of corruption charges.
- Meet China's best Obama impersonator.
- Brothels are legal in the the U.K., but politicians are considering a bill that would make it an offense "to publish, or distribute, an advertisement of a brothel" or prostitution in any way.
- The Marshall Project interviewed Obama about the death penalty and when he'll get to pardoning more people.
- The louder the monkey, the smaller its balls.
New at Reason:
Brickbat: If You Wanna Race, Then Get on a Racetrack —By Charles Oliver
Hillary Clinton Owns the War in Libya: And its horrible aftermath. —By David Harsanyi
Are Short-Term Rentals a Big Worry? There's always a cat-and-mouse game between innovators and regulators. —By Steven Greenhut
Movie Reviews: Rock the Kasbah and The Last Witch Hunter: Bill Murray's Afghan wig-out, Vin Diesel on a thrill-free demon quest. —By Kurt Loder
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Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leaving the Democratic presidential race.
For me this serves at news that he was even in it.
Who?
Remember that movie with Hugh Jackman and a South African police robot? It was worse than that.
No, I don't remember it.
Short Circuit III?
You're referring to X-Men 3, right? That movie was terrible.
Les Miserables?
You just broke the first 2 rules of robot fight club.
And the Three Laws of Robotics.
Batteries Not Included?
Amistad?
I don't serve at news - I serve at my pleasure
/Auda abu Tai
Thy mother was a scorpion.
May the fleas of a diseased camel infect your firstborn.
TE Lawrence costume for Halloween: workable? Or too un-PC?
At the very least you could claim to be Peter O'Toole.
"Hello. I'm a tool. Peter O'Toole...."
"You're a towel?"
Hello.
Quick - in an only semi-serious piece about lizard men invading Space Canada to have something to trade away during peace negotiations, I need something beyond Maple Reserves and Megafauna that they would be denying the other side by holding that particular ice cube.
TIM HORTON'S!!!!
I can't use real trademarks.
🙁
Poutine?
Ice Hockey?
I second using poutine.
I was following until the gravy went atop the cheese too.
Canadian bacon and Export A's.
Beaver pelts?
Peltless sells better.
*slow clap*
Doh! Stupid work made me comment before refreshing.
Good one CS.
Since it seems that most beavers have been shaved, are you supposed to keep calling them pelts?
We also accept your brand of bacon.
You mean ham?
Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leaving the Democratic presidential race.
How long did he last in metric units?
I think you mean "in people years." Multiply by seven.
One of his signature campaign issues was getting the US on the metric system.
Wow. I didn't realize there was a candidate worse than Hillary.
The amazing thing about the presidential race so far is that every candidate is worse than every other candidate. It doesn't seem like it should be possible, but we do live in a time of marvels.
The entire metric system? Or just 9mm and 7.62mm adoption?
Right move, wrong reason.
The louder the monkey, the smaller its balls.
Or vice versa.
Shouldn't that be 'the smaller HIS balls'?
Not all male monkeys have testicles, you cis-shitlord.
Somehow, this seems appropriate.
I first thought of this one
Here is a video of lemurs trying on Halloween masks.
As usual, I suspect peanut butter was used.
Go on...
Not the story about the dog that likes to lick peanut butter again.
I really thought that was going to link to a Trump story
So PB has balls smaller than a eunuch? Got it.
The louder the monkey, the smaller its balls.
Oh, so that's why I'm so soft-spoken.
I didn't realize it was your balls that were huge.
I am vast and contain multitudes.
Megasac Legion?!
Speak softly and carry a big sack.
I too lug around quite the hefty sac.
Huh. So does Santa.
Have you ever seen Crusty and Santa in the same place at the same time?
The only difference is that my sac does not bring joy to children. Yes, that means I have a red, velvety sac.
Antibiotics, dude.
I have showed my ample man-bag to countless medical professionals and not one of them suggested antibiotics.
Have you tried making an appointment first?
It's hard to write prescriptions when you're laughing hysterically, sobbing violently, and vomiting explosively all at the same time.
My glans, however, is a different story.
Getting that Hello Kitty tattoo on it turned out to be a wise investment, huh?
Facebook has improved its search feature to make current news?and your old public posts?easier to search for.
Facebook is building the perpetual anger machine, aren't they?
Great, now the world will never be rid of all these Occupy Democrats memes.
Well, someone's got to compete with the Twitter
Meet China's best Obama impersonator.
RACIST!
That's LACIST, you racist shitlord!
But, what will he do about his Jesse Benton problem
The fake libertarians who are really just conventional Beltway liberals are all having a big sad over the acquittal.
Brothels are legal in the the U.K., but politicians are considering a bill that would make it an offense "to publish, or distribute, an advertisement of a brothel" or prostitution in any way.
"Polish your knob, guvna?"
"Clean your clock?"
+1 "Winding Big Ben"?
"Th' louder th' munkey th' smaller his balls, aye?"
That's pipes.
"Have a sausage roll, do yer?"
Ich habe ein Handy
Sorry I just think it's funny that Germans call cellphones Handys
You do have to find your humor where you can, when it involves Teutons...
"So a Jew, a Pollack and a Gypsy walk into a gas chamber...."
Then the Jew says "Shut that door! are you trying to heat up the whole camp?"
A lot of folks shopping for spotted dick are going to get more than they bargained for.
+1...eleventyhundred STDs
Brothels are legal in the the U.K., but politicians are considering a bill that would make it an offense "to publish, or distribute, an advertisement of a brothel" or prostitution in any way.
I presume they're legal because no one wants to go to an English brothel.
Well, if all the women were Page 3 Girls they'd have lines around the block.
It costs triple for a woman with all her teeth.
Why would she need teeth?
Also triple with none of her teeth
An experience worth paying for, especially in the Philippines.
Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leaving the Democratic presidential race.
Damn. Up to that point he had been without scandal.
On the contrary, dropping out of the race may well have been the first honorable thing he's done.
It's hardly scandalous, although is career certainly is.
Too bad he couldn't find that pen when the defense authorization bill that legalized indefinite detention was passed.
Or when rescheduling pot. It's as simple as a pen stroke if you're the Chief Executive. Such cowardice from a former member of the Choom Gang.
Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leaving the Democratic presidential race
And, consequentially, his poll numbers went marginally higher, as people learned he was even running at all
Former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee is leaving the Democratic presidential race.
Instantly making him the most vote-worthy candidate.
After watching a few minutes of the side show yesterday, I've concluded that the stupid party wants another President Clinton.
Yeah, all that hullabaloo about Clinton forwarding advice from an employee of the Clinton Foundation pertaining to a country he had investment interests in after redacting his name was just silliness, amiright?
To the swing voters, yes.
If you've got pertinent evidence, get to the fucking point, grill her, and get the hell out. Eleven hours of watching congresscritters grandstand while Clinton sits there unperturbed and patient does not make for a compelling argument.
Who watches CSPAN for 11 hours? But as to your point, have you ever watched a congressional hearing? That's how they work. There is no "grilling session".
Nobody does. But they handed her a PR victory nonetheless.
If remaining calm while completely ignoring using the State Department as a tool to promote crony interests while ignoring your real job is a PR victory then the public deserves another Clinton
I disagree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFC2IZe04EY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFgrB2Wmh5s
Create your own Bayeux tapestry
Um, got a "Create your own Shroud of Turin"?
Naturally, Knapp warns against anthropomorphizing these findings, and she is completely right. There is a world of difference between howler monkeys and humans, especially with regard to sexual selection.
Citation needed.
STEVE SMITH NOT SURE OF DEFINITION OF "HUMAN"...INCLUDE RAPESQUATCH?
NEANDERTHALS INTO ROUGH SEX!
Technically, STEVE SMITH is a relict Gigantopithecus.
There is a world of difference between howler monkeys and humans
Politicians, on the other hand...
Remember how that one asshole bought an AIDS drug and jacked the price up sky-high and how that proved that capitalism was evil and Bernie should be made king immediately?
Well, drug with rage-inducing 5,000% price-hike now has $1/pill competitor. And this was accomplished in our current regulatory environment where the FDA strangles any and all innovation. Markets FTW.
YAY!
It's almost like markets are awesome.
I think this proves that the FDA is just not regulating hard enough.
You misspelled AMA.
More details here. Yea, woot, but apparently they are operating through a loophole that the FDA can close at will, depending on their discretion and political expediency. No so woot.
Market failure more regulation is needed.
/prog
Its funny, but check out Gawker:
http://gawker.com/heroic-uhhh-.....1738185665
If a company pursues LOGICAL market actions in the face of some giant dick trying to rip off sick people, THEY ARE HEROES!!!
(Just don't tell Gawker that they are also a pharmaceutical company trying to make a profit - AND getting good PR in the process!)
Shkreli paid $55 million in August for the rights to Daraprim before pulling his price-gouging stunt.
He paid all that money for the what now? "Rights"? What kind of rights? Oh, government granted monopoly rights. I see. Yes, HE'S the asshole.
Yeah, I remember many of us here pointing out that if the drug were decades old, a generic brand company could just manufacture it and sell from a more reasonable price. Someone Vox-splained to me why this wouldn't be the case (I don't recall the specifics, but I think it amount CAPITALISM IS TEH EVULZ).
Not quite ? The FDA has issued a regulation that drugs that were approved before the FDA began requiring drug trials for all drugs would require a full set of drug trials for each formulation and strength. Any company that had been manufacturing the drug continuously since before then was grandfathered in and allowed to continue without drug trials. All but one company had quit manufacturing pyrimethamine and that was the situation Martin Shkreli took advantage of.
This is what liberals call "unregulated capitalism".
Yesterday, in a FB post about the dangers resulting from weapons-grade nuclear material dumped in the Bridgeton and West Lake landfill, one of my FB FOAFs blamed unregulated capitalism.
Never mind it was dumped illegally by a government contractor during WWII.
Apparently bad results means it was unregulated and good results means it was regulated.
Brothels are legal in the the U.K., but politicians are considering a bill that would make it an offense "to publish, or distribute, an advertisement of a brothel" or prostitution in any way.
The bill makes it illegal to say if they hold it against you, though.
The first rule of Shag Club....
More news about the shooting of Corey Jones in Palm Beach County...
Meanwhile, a former judge telling truth in another article (this may be behind a paywall)
In which case I would think that Jones had just as much of a right to brandish a gun as the cop. In such a situation the cop should be obliged to be certain that he is under threat before using force (yeah, I know, fantasy land).
DEA Agents Received Bonuses During 'Sex Parties' Investigation
Hell, VA administrators received bonuses even after they killed a bunch of people.
Even after= because.
Well played sir, well played:
Khlo? may be on the hook for Lamar's $79K brothel bill
Where's this damn earthquake they kept teasing us about?
Need more fracking.
What BS, if the card were going to be declined, he would already know. What pimp waits a week or two to try to run your credit card?
Payment was probably stopped or revoked or something.
Kardashian decided to call off her divorce with Odom after he vowed to never do drugs again
"I can still slap you around, though, right, Baby?"
Respect.
ALPHA AS FUCK.
I imagine those guys end up having to pay for sex pretty frequently.
Every man pays for sex.
I know a guy who's wife makes a lot of money and doesn't want him work. Just wants him to stay home and be a house husband.
Every man pays for sex.
Hookers and blow do not usually save the marriage. Lamar has conquered history.
The louder the monkey, the smaller its balls.
Explains all the trolls that swarmed the Clinton-lied-her-twat-off thread last night.
Well, you can see it from space! Huge display of Stormtroopers assembled at the Great Wall of China to promote the new Star Wars movie
I liked the movies well enough when I was a kid, but goodness gracious nerds.
Yeah, the collective pants-creaming is ridiculous.
Meh, they could be Juggalos instead...
*shudder*
Midichloreans, how do they work?
Juggalos.... the lowest form of life.
"Family! Family!"
Except for LEO's.
Yep
I'm guessing the Stormtrooper assembly in Poland didn't go over as well...
Um, they do realize the Stormtroopers are the bad guys, right?
They are in China.
"You're awful short for a stormtrooper."
So, lured by the promises of bounce houses, hot dogs and cotton candy, my daughter (6) is insisting on going to one of those National Night Out events tonight (you know the kind, where the SWAT officers and K-9 dogs come out to show the kids how awesome they are). And my wife, unknown to me, agreed she could go.
I'm wavering between staying home, which would be safer, and going there in a PINAC shirt, which would probably be more fun but potentially result in my arrest or death.
Wearing a PINAC shirt would be a true educational experience for your daughter.
How about a "Mop Handle Free Since '93" T-shirt?
Actually I think you're now obligated to either get a divorce or turn in your libertarian card.
Is he also required to disown the daughter or is her age a mitigating factor?
It's not clear if she knows about more than just the bounce house. Or how old she is.
"my daughter (6)"
You're going to have to start reading the comments, Nicole.
But that would, like, suck.
It's ok if you were just distracted by the missing Oxford comma immediately before that part.
Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
Vampire Weekend sucks, but the Oxford comma is pretty important.
I like the song. It's the only one of theirs I care for, and the lyrics are garbage, and they're reaching for a pretentious Wes Anderson thing with the video, but it's upbeat and hummable.
Before i'd ever heard one of their songs, i saw an interview where Ezra Koenig described their sound as "upper West Side meets Soweto," and i realized they were the Platonic ideal of hipster garbage. And i used to be part hipster, so i should know.
Indeed:
"By train, plane and sedan chair, Peter Ustinov retraces a journey made by Mark Twain a century ago. The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."
Unless you had one of the more confrontational shirts, it would probably just confuse them.
I'd be tempted to hand out LEAP literature to all the cops.
You know, that's not a bad idea...
Facebook has improved its search feature to make current news?and your old public posts?easier to search for.
I barely understand what Facebook is, but it seems that Zucky Stardust didn't exactly take Angela Merkel's advice to purge.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave $2,466,482 to Daniel Resnic to develop three versions of the Origami condom, including the "first of its kind" anal condom. Resnic was later accused of wasting the money on full-body plastic surgery, trips to Costa Rica, parties at the Playboy mansion, and patents for inventions such as "rounded corners."
This was precipitated by committee-member Elijah Cummings's moaning yesterday about how the Benghazi committee is wasting so much taxpayer money.
Oops. Link
Disappointing link. I wanted to know more about this Origami condom.
Here.
Bu I wanted you to enact my labor for me.
I wanted to know more about the Origami penises it was designed for
Here.
Out.
Someone is going to get their head stuffed in the dunny.
You don't want to know.
OMGeezies.
I would appreciate further improvement in condom technology, but let Big Condom foot the bill.
Big Condom
Stay outta my bedside table, Crusty.
Fifth time in his whole presidency? Does he usually use the pocket veto? He didn't find 6 GOP sponsored bills to veto in 7ish years?
That just seems absurdly low.
His supplicants in the GoP leadership refused to advance bills they feared he might veto.
There was total gridlock in congress until the last election so it's possible nothing got through without bipartisan support.
^This. The House has voted to repeal the ACA around a dozen times. Never got to the Senate Floor.
Well how many laws did they pass in 2014? I read somewhere it was 297. They call that a "productive" congress, then adding all the federal laws passed in the other years of his presidency, 5 just seems like a low number of vetos for any president. Then again, I may be biased since if I were president, I'd veto basically everything.
Even a marijuana legalization bill? How about disbanding the IRS?
I did place a qualifier word in front of 'everything'. See if you can find it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....axies.html
ENOUGH with the Star Wars whoring!
Are you sure that you don't mean 6,000 years?
No, Let's Not Make Assaults on Cops a Hate Crime
Ban Minnesota.
Isn't assaulting an officer already a special crime in a lot of places?
Punishable by extrajudicial execution.
...and nothing else happened.
Yeah, I think this is more of a PR move to counter the BLM narrative. "See us cops are a victim class too."
It's already punishable by death. Fuck the FOP.
Makes sense - cops are without a doubt a "protected class".
I'll never buy their boots again.
But if you kill a black gay cripple cop, god help you.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....d-one.html
Will anything else happen?
Bonuses all around
Where have you been?
There will be some screeching about how if we were a libertarian society, rich people could pollute your lake without consequence. Fortunately, we have the EPA to do it for us on the taxpayer dime.
The screw ups on that even continued when the Navajo complained that the EPA had rendered their water supplies unusable for drinking and irrigation. The EPA shipped in tankers full of water - in tanks that had previously been used to store petroleum products and hadn't been properly cleaned first.
Stupid fucking white men.
Attention to detail, what does that mean? Nothing if you work for the Federal Government. It's all FEELZ.
Canadian cop runs over dog three times, shoots it, tries to claim he thought it was a coyote, then claims it was dangerous despite the fact that it was old and completely blind.
To be fair, the dog was black...
#BlackDogsLivesMatter
Jimmy Page agrees.
It must have been one of them dangerous assault dogs with the tail that goes up that I been hearing about
I've said it before and i'll say it again: the tragedy of Canada is that it could have had American technology, French food, and British culture, and instead it got French technology, British food, and American culture.
von Richthoven: You English and your sense of humour. During your brief stay I look forward to learning more of your wit, your punning and your amusing jokes about the breaking of the wind.
BA: Well, Baldrick's the expert there.
Baldrick: I certainly am, Sir.
[von Richthoven laughs.]
von Richthoven: How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing.
For us, it is a mundane and functional item. For you, the basis of an entire culture.
While I agree with the gist of your supposition, I posit that the real tragedy of Canada is that they produced Cytoloxic.
Yes, but more than anything else on earth, Cytotoxic loves American culture - specifically, the American exceptionalism world-policeman part of it. Much like the weeping sores that radiate outward from Episiarch's genitals, he is but a tragic symptom.
Mitigating this is clubbing of baby seals. And making orphans skin them. Win. win.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tra.....Apple.html
Those men "sunbathing" in the old picture looked to me more like they're sleeping off the bottle-flu.
What are those people doing getting into the water in the modern photograh - do they want to get mutated?
They are hoping for superpowers?
Facial Gun Piercings
Somewhere along the way, higher intelligence took a wrong turn.
There's *one* guy who won't be shooting his mouth off.
If this continues we might see a resurgence of the eugenics movement. People like that should not be allowed to breed.
The store, Party City, has some tricked out gags on isle 3 this Halloween. There's always the Steve Martin gag with an arrow through the head, but this stuff needs a second glance. I picked up a set of paste-on bullet holes for my wife.
+1 Lance B. Johnson
She's going as Reeva Steenkamp?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....sults.html
I larfed.
Canterbury, NH police chief indicted on sex assault charges
A suspended New Hampshire police chief has been indicted on accusations he sexually assaulted an underage girl.
A state grand jury indicted Canterbury police Chief John LaRoche Thursday on charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault, attempted aggravated assault and sexual assault at Merrimack Superior Court.
The 44-year-old LaRoche was accused in August of pressuring a teenager to perform a sex act on him during a ride-along in 1999 or 2000. He has pleaded not guilty.
He looks like he would have a heart attack while trying to tie his shoes.
That's why he's the chief. It's a job you grow into.
Woh. Sounds like this guy's real crime was not kissing the ass of the state prosecutor who owned that grand jury. That and uh rape.
Meet China's best Obama impersonator.
I'd love to hear it. Meanwhile on this side of the Atlantic, I was forcibly removed from a Vegas Casino because I said "Rearry?" at a Baccarat table.
***Pacific*** I'm so used to having that expression to this side of the other ocean. my penis for an edit button.
It is interesting to hear what people do for fake English. I find it is really difficult to imagine what it would be when you speak the language in question. Can't be any worse than what most English speakers do for fake Chinese.
How English sounds to non-English speakers
a stream of sounds that usually starts with "hello everybody" and devolves into "English-sounding" nonsense words. Crowds love it.
Wow, he really has Obama down pat!
He just needs to throw in "let me be clear" and "it's all Bush's fault" to be truly authentic.
Nailed it.
Manchester, NH police chief defends "hot spot" arrest
The comments follow the arrest Tuesday evening at Merrimack and Union streets, an area that police term a "predictive hot spot." Police data showed 24 recent complaints about prostitution and 10 people who have overdosed in their cars in the last 90 days.
According to a statement issued Wednesday, DeLeire was arrested after he grew agitated and eventually fought with police when they started to search him outside his parked car on Merrimack Street.
The arrest has drawn criticism online, with many bloggers focusing on a police statement that Deleire could give no legitimate reason for being in the area.
"You have to prove that you are in an area for a legitimate reason? Since when?" wrote Laura Levasseur on UnionLeader.com.
DeLeire's father said his son gave the police officer a legitimate reason for being in the area. His friend was picking up a niece who lived a block away, and Connor DeLeire was sitting in the car waiting for them.
DeLeire's father said the friend appeared as DeLeire's arrest concluded. He agreed to be searched and showed that the car was his.
"You have to prove that you are in an area for a legitimate reason? Since when?" wrote Laura Levasseur on UnionLeader.com.
Freedom means asking permission and obeying orders. Did he ask permission to be there? Was he following orders from authority? No? Then he had no legitimate reason to be there. Arrest him.
Isn't "it's a public street" a legitimate reason for being on any public street?
"It's the officer who's doing his job. He's doing what's expected of him," Willard said. "It's the individual who took it to a completely different level.
So police aren't individuals? What are they, the Borg? Police talk would be hilarious if they weren't justifying bashing some guys head in.
Isn't "it's a public street" a legitimate reason for being on any public street?
No. I've actually had Colorado cops tell me that public streets and sidewalks are for transportation. They are to go from one place to another. Not for wandering. That's not allowed. So if you're on a public road or sidewalk, you must be coming from someplace and going to another. Not only that, but you are (in Colorado anyway) required to tell the cops where you are going, where you are coming from, and why. If they don't like the answer they can arrest you. Land of the free to to as you are told.
So, taking a walk is illegal in CO? Not that it matters to the cops, but I wonder if there is any legal basis to all that.
I guess I was fortunate to have lived where I have. I used to walk home a lot late at night, often not entirely sober. Occasionally a cop would stop and talk to me, sometimes just to see if my car had broken down or something. If they asked me anything else it would usually go like:
COP: where are you going
Me: home
COP: what's your name
Me: Zeb
Remarkably, nothing else happened.
I used to get stopped by the cops all the time in CO. Every time they saw me walking they'd stop and question me.
What's your name? Where are you going? Where are you coming from? Do you have any warrants? Show me some ID. Where did you say you were going again? Why? Alright, I'm letting you go this time, but I've got my eye on you.
After a couple years of that I left the state. Haven't had any cop problems since.
I watched some of the Hillary hearings last night. It occurred to me that the Republicans problem is that they can't seem to understand that being angry does no good. Yes, Hillary is a horrible human being and her actions outrageous. It would piss me off to no end to have her sit there and bald face lie to me like that. But being mad just gives her supporters a reason to make her a victim and you look angry and unreasonable.
The Republicans made the classic first year law student mach trial mistake of thinking they could get the witness to admit the ultimate issue. Hillary was never going to admit the truth and it was pointless to confront her in hopes she would. Hillary is guilty of massive malfeasance and she took the only road open to her and claimed incompetence. She just didn't get those 600 emails. She still thinks that attack might have been in response to the video and so forth.
What the Republicans should have done is run with that an adopted a sympathetic tone. The Republican tone instead of being "how could you let those people die you evil bitch" should have been:
"Ms. Clinton you are a victim here too. You were clearly overwhelmed by the job of Secretary of State and the bureaucracy at State and your own staff did very little to help you. This is a terrible tragedy and we are very sorry that the President gave you a job you were not prepared for and a staff that set you up to fail. You would have made a great Secretary of Commerce or Education. The real tragedy here is that the President gave you a job that set you up to fail."
What is Hillary going to say to that? She admitted to gross incompetence. The only reason that admission hasn't harmed her is because the Republicans have set the goal posts at malfeasance not incompetence. By saying the above, the Republicans would have made the story about how poor Hillary was just overwhelmed by her job. That would have made her a victim and would have kept them from looking mean. It also would have completely destroyed any claim she has on being qualified to be President.
Can you imagine the outrage if Trey Gowdy actually said that to her?
The part about her being a great Secretary of Commerce or Education is probably a bridge too far. But the rest of it would have been perfect. Hillary would have been totally unprepared for that and walked right into it. She wants to claim she didn't know about the security requests, let her. She wants to claim she never received any of the 600 email requests and never gave Stevens her email address, let her do so. Don't dispute her.
This poor woman was put into one of the toughest jobs in the world and got no help from anyone below her. How was she to know that it was important to be in constant contact with Stevens? She had never been a diplomat. She had never worked in foreign policy. How was she to know it is the DOS's responsibility to ensure the safety of US Ambassadors? She had never worked at State. And once the attack started and the President went AWOL, Hillary was stuck holding the bag trying to sort out what to do. She had no experience dealing with the military, had never had to make split second decisions involving whether to commit US troops and was totally unprepared to make such decisions. So, she did the best she could and all of this happened and now she is getting the blame.
"When the 3 AM call came, you were totally unprepared to make the immediate call to protect 4 American lives."
Could you imagine a commercial with clips from the testimony with a voiceover like that?
But, as usual, the Heffalumps have no imagination and will make no use of her 100's of stupid statements. Remember the string of "I can't recall"s from one of her earlier crimes?
This. It was a pathetic showing on the GOP's part that will only serve to bolster Clinton's chances. Stupid Party strikes again.
This whole thing is mindboggling to me, and I can't decide what's worse. Clinton is some combination of utterly incompetent and narcissistic to the point of actually being evil. The Republicans, meanwhile, are demonstrating that they are incapable of anything beyond poorly staged political theatre. There are very serious issues at stake here and, as you point out, the take away from this is going to be that Hillbot kept her cool in front of the mean old Republicans.
They should have been nice to her. Hillary is not that bright. She had a rehearsed script and no amount of confronting her was going to get her off of it. But if they had agreed with her claims and seemed to take her side and been nice to her, she would have walked right into admitting she had no business being Secretary of State and no business being President.
Most politicians are failed lawyers. Hillary included. Judging by your line of reasoning here, you're too good of a lawyer to become a politician.
Thank you. And you are right. The only politician who was not a failed lawyer was Edwards. He was a total sleeze bag lawyer but you have to give the guy credit for being able to manipulate gullible juries.
And the reason why the guys grilling her didn't think of what you suggested is because they're shitty lawyers.
FWIW, Giuliani had more than a little skill when he was USA for SDNY. Cruz is also supposed to have had some chops doing appellate work.
But yeah, 1st year mock trial students are supposed to know that the witness isn't going to admit to lying or doing anything else wrong. The point of the examination is to get whatever statement the witness makes, set in concrete, in front of the factfinder. Then you, as the advocate, later use those statements during your argument to tell your story, and show that the witness was full of shit.
Of course, if you have prior statements from the witness, and you can get the witness to contradict those during your examination, game on. Impeaching is fun.
I'm still trying to figure out what the committee thought they were trying to accomplish. Of course, if Hil made statements that later evidence will show were out and out whoppers, then that should be perjury. Hopefully that will happen.
john? Misspell a word to authenticate.
LOL. Look closer. "Mock Trial" is not correct.
I thought you were just trying to enliven a very boring subject.
Beautiful.
SEXISM!!!11!1one!!
I didn't see it, but from what I hear the common wisdom is that she did great. Apparently doing great has nothing to do with being honest or sincere or helping with the investigation. It means you give a decent performance on TV and avoid getting mad or losing face. I guess that's what matters in a candidate, not honesty, intelligence, ideas or actual ability.
Common wisdom is that this is old news. No one cares except some partisan Republicans who are only using this to make the leading Democrat candidate for president look bad. It's a circus. A kangaroo court. Not an investigation. So she did great by not giving them any ammunition to use against her on the campaign. Investigation? Ha! It's a campaign stunt!
The Daily 202: Eight reasons why Hillary Clinton won the Benghazi hearing
Forgot to add my summary for you lazypants who do not want to click a link: she did not make any gaffes, and she looked good testifying. Facts be damned, it is all about the optics.
Facts be damned, it is all about the optics
Pretty much. The media isn't going to bother analyzing the many contradictions in what she said yesterday (or over the past three years). She kept her cool (while committing perjury), therefore, she "won."
She "won" because she managed the expectations. Perception is all about expectations. If something doesn't live up to expectations, it is a failure regardless of the objective facts. Hillary and her court media set the expectations so high that they could never be met. Anything short of Hillary admitting her own personal culpability and criminal conduct, which was never going to happen, was going to be viewed as her winning.
Hillary got up there and admitted that she was totally overwhelmed and incompetent at her job and a US Ambassador and three other Americans died as a result. That fact is lost because the Hillary and her media allies framed the debate to be about malfeasance not the facts. And the Republicans fell for it.
Well, the most recent email release showed that Hillary spent her time as Secretary of State micromanaging how she is portrayed in the media, while passing off the actual duties of the job to her marginally more competent underlings.
I just don't understand the public sometimes. My expectation was that she would freely admit to terrible, scandalous things, and act like a bitch while doing it. And that's exactly what happened.
I just don't know what other people were watching.
Mine too. And I don't think the public is quite as stupid as the media thinks they are. The media thinks she "won" because she got up there and said fuck you that is why to the Republicans and didn't crack up and give them what they wanted. That is true as far as it goes. She acted exactly as you describe. While that makes her media supporters happy, it just reinforces everything negative thing the public already thinks of her. Sure, not many people are going to change their vote because of Bengazi. So she did win in that sense. But in doing so she further cemented her image as a nasty, dislikable bitch. The media loves that because they love seeing her be a bitch to the Republicans. I don't see where that gets her anywhere with the public, however.
You give the public far too much credit. She delayed for long enough that the impact of anything useful was mitigated by the amount of time spent on the investigation. When she managed to not say "what difference at this point does it make" she won. The majority of the media coverage is already on her side, and she will emerge unscathed unless the F.B.I charges her with anything serious, which I doubt will happen.
She "won" only in the sense that this isn't going to end her career. Her problem is that in doing that she reinforced all of her negatives with the public. If she wants to win the election, she has to make herself likable and seem trustworthy. I don't care how much the media loves her, the public won't vote for a Presidential Candidate who isn't likable and whom they don't trust.
If she wants to win the election, she has to make herself likable and seem trustworthy.more likable than the Republican nominee.
That is all it will take to win over the swing voters and, unfortunately, why she will win. You are projecting your reasoned analysis of the issues and how they affect your vote onto the rest of the voting public. I see no reason to think that that will be the case.
That is a good point Woodchipper. But other than Trump, any of the GOP candidates are more likable than her. And even Trump has his moments. She has a very tough challenge. I am not saying the media can't drag her sorry ass over the line, but it is not going to be easy and if they do, they won't do it by much.
Hillary is not going to win. Most Americans are not crazy old cat ladies and salon writers.
And even Trump has his moments.
Personally I don't think Trump is likable at all. Neither do most Republicans. But I think he'd trounce her. Republicans hate Hillary that much.
Gowdy read an email where Blumenthal basically called Obama and his staff a bunch of twits and her face didn't even twitch. "I can't help it if my friends say bad things"
Obama doesn't care about anything but Obama. If Hillary lost this election and the Democratic Party ended up in the wilderness, Obama wouldn't lose a moment of sleep. Obama is also incredibly thin skinned. That kind of stuff must piss him off to know end. You know Obama loathes that woman. And he increasingly seems to loath the Democratic Party and views them as a bunch of ingrates who let him down. It would not surprise me at all if Obama has the FBI shove a knife in her back before all of this is over.
How did the democrats let him down?
They lost Congress. And forced him to use executive power to do anything instead of getting the lasting legislative changes he wanted.
But didnt they lose congress because he and the dems were complete shit?
Obama will only drop the hammer on Hillary when it becomes apparent that she won't be president. He hates Hillary but, as you said, Obama caresonly about Obama. He doesn't care about the Democratic Party (as evidenced by the party's complete collapse during his presidency), but he knows it will hurt his "legacy" if he isn't succeeded by a Democrat. Right now, no Democrat stands a chance of winning, barring a (all too possible) Republican meltdown. Hillary is their best shot, but he'd love the chance to shove the knife in.
See, I hear that a lot, and I don't see the logic. We are agreed that the economy has enough structural problems, and foreign policy might should explode in our faces, that whoever gets the next term is going to have gigantic problems, yes? If that's so, should a GOP candidate win, can't Obama just point at their fuckups over the following term as proof that he did a better job than the GOP.
After all, the train didn't wreck while he was in charge (even if the SOB cranked the throttle to max, ignored the tearing sounds coming from the boiler, and didn't see the "Bridge Out" sign ahead)
I think he hasn't shanked Hil yet because Hil has dirt on him that would throw even his Teflon-coated ass in jail. And vice versa. He has to have something that would knock Hil out of office, otherwise how could he feel secure with someone in the Oval Office who, by all accounts, hates his guts?
Nikki, you realize that because you are a woman, you HAVE to vote for her, right?
Libertarian = not a "real" woman
Same rule applies to black people
It's kind of disgusting that all of the analysis of the hearing seems to be focused on how she performed, not on whether she was honest or helpful in getting a better picture of what really happened.
That is Washington journalism. It is pathetic. The narrative was written, and orders were received and followed. I am sure there are Fox Newsians who are outraged (Megyn Kelly did a big segment on her program), and I am sure the Breitbart folks are outraged, but those outlets are full of right-wing crazies, so we move on.
.org
I disdainfully approve.
We need common sense carrot control
The straw I filled with multiple pieces of wadded up paper would be considered an automatic assault weapon today.
I remember in third grade making water-weenies. If a kid did that today they'd probably be charged with domestic terrorism and use of a chemical weapon.
I knew a kid who drew a picture of Bart Simpson with a gun. He confessed that he wanted to give it to me as a gift. The school called the cops and then suspended us because we weren't remorseful enough about "our" "transgression".
I'm glad I was done with school before Columbine happened.
This all transpired about 2 weeks after Columbine actually.
Real Man of Genius
Antanas Mockus, a mathematics professor who became the mayor of Bogota
He was fired from his teaching job after he mooned a bunch of unruly students. "Innovative behavior can be useful when you run out of words", he explained. The incident made him famous so he ran for mayor and won. Among his many innovative policies was to hire 420 mimes to make fun of bad drivers. He reasoned that Colombians fear being mocked more than being fined. Traffic deaths fell by half during his tenure.
That is fucking awesome.
And a great name, besides.
I think she's stupid yes, but she didn't manage to kill anyone and was apparently shooting for the tires. Yet if it were a cop, simply not obeying his order to stop is grounds for a death a sentence and no one thinks anything of it.
I'm pretty sure that police commit irresponsible shootings far more often than non-police with gun permits do. Maybe worry about that first.
The proportion of permit holders who actually commit any gun crimes, administrative or otherwise, is exceedlingly low. Something like a tenth of one percent of all offenders. I reckon it'd be even lower if people weren't convicted of a gun crime for having a bag of weed in the vicinity of a gun.
Meanwhile cops gun crime rate is even lower, albeit because cops can kill, maim, steal and rape with near impunity.
Cops shoot wildly at a suspect in a crowded public place, injuring some bystanders: well, they had no choice, were just doing their jobs.
CCW permit holder does the same sort of thing but injures no one: Panic! How can we trust people with guns?!!
This doesn't detract from the fact that the woman is still a fucking moron that did nothing but give aid to the gun grabbers.
Absolutely. And so are the cops who do the same.
Imagine if during the Dorner manhunt, CCW permit holders in pursuit of Dorner went around shooting Asian women they mistook for a 6'5" black guy. Those women getting shot might have made the news and statists would be saying "there oughta be a law". But since cops did exactly that, it's already in the deepest cavern of the memory hole.
A member of the U.S. military died in Iraq during a non-combat gunfight.
Obviously, what Iraq needs is some common-sense gun control.
THERE ARE NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND! TEH LIGHTWORKER ENDED THE WAR!!!!
Indeed, they gave the combat soldiers sandals.
Muhammad Ali calls to unite Louisville, backs Rick Pitino
The balls on the people that are using that man to further their own desires must be enormous.
Huh. I didn't know he was still living.
He's kept a very low profile since losing the ability to speak clearly.
"I don't give a crap that the president lied to me about some dead Americans, because he's cool and I worship him."
-Millions of Americans, apparently
They also enjoy seeing the Republicans not get her head. That abstract concepts like justice or fairness or even just basic accountability are being thrown by the wayside is meaningless. That Nixon had to resign in shame and be pardoned to avoid prosecution over similar offenses is meaningless. We are watching 4-year-olds run the country.
Meet China's best Obama impersonator.
I guess he kinda looks like Obama if you squint.