Judge Jeanine Pirro on Hillary Clinton Skirting the Law

Brent Bozell on Media Coverup of Likely Clinton Email Indictments

Andrew McCarthy on Clinton E-Mail Investigation

Bono on America and Donald Trump

Bono, the front man of the rock super band U-2, was interviewed by Charlie Rose and offered polemic perspectives on America and Donald Trump.

Bono was in New York to speak before the Clinton Global Initiative, sponsored by the Clinton Foundation, and to hobnob with dignitaries at the United Nations General Assembly.

Hillary Clinton's Rich Imagination About a National Infrastructure Bank

During a private fundraiser in  Greenwich Village New York City,  Democrat Presidential hopeful First Lady Senator Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) raised the prospect of establishing a national infrastructure bank modeled after the Clinton Foundation.




So it seems that Mrs. Clinton has more ideas than just "Vote for Me, I'm a Woman who married Bill". The trouble is that using the Clinton Foundation as a model raises all sorts of questions about crony capitalism, influence peddling, governmental waste and eviscerating the proper budgetary role of the legislative branch.

According to the Hillary 2016 campaign, such an infrastructure bank would “leverage public and private capital to invest in critically important infrastructure projects, including energy infrastructure projects.”  But hasn't this been tried already, like the $534 million given to Solyndra as part of President Obama's 2009 Porkulous? A lot of good that "shovel ready" pork barrel project did. 

Then there is the favoritism problem. What entities are allowed to draw from such a hypothetical infrastructure pot?  Conservatives railed against the Export-Import Bank as being crony capitalism which favors select international big businesses.  Why should the government be picking winners and losers and funding some of them?

Of course, there is the thorny issue about where the money comes from.  With the Clinton Foundation, people betting on getting access to a future power broker like Mrs. Clinton were happy to contribute millions of dollars.  Where would this pot of gold come from?  

But at least Hillary Clinton's rich imagination about a National Infrastructure Bank temporarily took away the public's focus on Hillary's E-mail irregularies. 

h/t: Washington Free Beacon 

Ed Klein on Hillary Clinton and Adversity

The Hillary! 2016 campaign brushed off the excerpts from Ed Klein's book Unlikable (2015) with Nick Merrill's brash bluster:

“Another book? Someone should do a book about Ed. They could call it ‘Bulls–t: The Problem with Anything Ed Klein Writes.’"

But the problem with this locker room language is that it does not reflect reality.  In March, 2015, Ed Klein predicted that the Hillary E-mails would be one of six shoes to drop. 

With the drip, drip, drip surrounding the Hillary Emails, it would be damaging if the Hillary! 2016  campaign had other controversies to evade.  They might do well to sing the Baha Men's hit "Who Let the Dogs Out?" 

Why the Red Card on the F.I.F.A. World Cup of Corruption?

In the wake of Attorney General Loretta Lynch pulling out a red card on 14 F.I.F.A officials for an alleged World Cup of Corruption, Russian President Vladimir Putin opined that the Americans were offsides. 

It is bizarre that Putin purports that the United States is culminating a three year investigation in order to interfere with the F.I.F.A. election of Joseph Sepp  Blatter, but that sort of agiprop distracts from the Russians continuing to mass heavy firepower on the Ukrainian border. But then again, Putin's Russia used the Sochi Winter Olympics as cover for initially invading Crimea in 2014.

To answer why the Department of Justice issued a 47 count indictment over F.I.F.A. corruption, it is worth noting that the plots were hatched in the United States and utilized the U.S. banking system.  It is wrong to think that the F.I.F.A. case does not affect American politics either.  The United States missed out on winning the 2018 World Cup to the Russian Federation's Sochi bid and the out of the box award to Qatar in 2022.  The U.S. would be a natural backup in case either the Russian or Qatari bids fall through.

Moreover,  the Clinton Foundation received between  $50,000 and $100,000 and partnered with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association.  President Bill Clinton was said to have been so upset at the US losing the 2022 World Cup bid to Qatar that he smashed a mirror.  But the Qatar 2022 tried to make it up by giving the Clinton Foundation  $250,000 and $500,000 as well as the Qatari government pitching in between $1 million and $5 million.

This may only be the beginning of the F.I.F.A. fallout. Suddenly the business of soccer has become very exiting.  Goooooooooooool!

h/t: Steve Bell

Countenancing Clinton Charity?

In the wake of the publicity over Peter Schweizer's blockbuster book "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Made Bill and Hillary Rich" (2015), there has been increased scrutiny over Clinton finances.  Instead of just mocking the irony of the Clintons claiming that they were dead broke leaving the White House, yet now are personally worth over $55 million.   However, the Clinton Foundation complicates this calculation.

When Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) became Secretary of State, there was a memorandum of understanding that the Clinton Foundation would not take contributions from foreign governments as it would appear like a conflict of interest with Mrs. Clinton's official responsibilities.  Yet the Clinton Foundation continued to take large contributions from individuals who have close ties with foreign governments.  Shortly thereafter, there seemed to be access or action that seemed favorable to such interests.  This can be characterized as pay for play, although Clinton sources claim that there is not a shred of evidence (sic) to prove those allegations.

Another sticking point about the Clinton Foundation is how the founders of the Clinton Foundation use their charity.  The Clinton Foundation only gives 10% of its take to actual charitable grants.  In fact, according to 2013 tax filings, $8.5 million or 10% of the total went to travel.

To address these issues, former President Bill Clinton granted media access to NBC News while he was traveling in Africa on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.



It is interesting to note that President Clinton believes that it is virtuous to donate to his own charity, which leverages Clinton prominence to effectuate global change through lots of international travel for the principal. How convenient.

Should this be charity that the American polity countenance, particularly considering how Mrs. Clinton aspires to again be in the Oval Office?

Hillary Clinton: "My relations with the press has been at times, shall we say, complicated..."

Hillary Clinton was playing for laughs with her  quip about new relations with the press when keynoting the Robin Toner Journalism award from Syracuse University.



However, it will be interesting to see how her ironic rhetoric meets reality.

Last summer, for a Clinton Global Intiative function, New York Times reporter Amy Chozick complained how reporters had handlers and were separated from the event which they were trying to cover. So that's how the Clinton's treat presstitutes, even friendly faces. 

When Hillary chose to address the State Department email controversy, the former Secretary of State made a brief press appearance in a controlled situation at the United Nations.  Even during the 15 minute close encounter with the UN credentialed press, Mrs. Clinton was reading off prepared answers and was shooed away by staff when questions got tough.  But that makes sense if the presser was just about damage control. Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris distilled the UN event in three words "Go to hell."

Even for the Toner Prize Celebration, Mrs. Clinton originally indicated  that she would not be taking any questions. So perhaps Hillary's self effacing script was meant to make nice with journalists and generate news pegs without saying anything substantial. If so, that is a wise use of smart power on the hustings, but say little about leadership.  It may also have been meant to counter the widespread perception the Hillary Clinton is a joyless politician.

So, assuming the Mrs. Clinton's charm offensive is not a total joke, her vow to be more transparent can quickly be tested by turning over the "Clintonemail" domain server to inquiring Congressional committees  such as Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-SC 4th) House Select Committee on Benghazi or designated third parties.  Since Dick Morris asserts that neither Hillary nor Bill Clinton knows how to type, this search should also include emails from key aides like Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills who also had email accounts at Clintonemail while working at the State Department. 

How is that for an even more complicated relation with the press?

h/t: Daryl Cagle

How the Clintons' Treat Presstitutes

The First Amendment of the US Constitution is in part intended to ensure Americans of a the Freedom of the Press.  But that fundamental freedom does not ensure access when progressive politicians want to manage the message by rounding up reporters and controlling access.

New York Times reporter Amy Chozick revealed how the Clinton Global Initiative separates reporters from an event which they are supposed to cover.  Of course, the special treatment is attributed to "security".  

This monitoring went to the extend of a 20 something year old aide following Ms. Chozick into the bathroom.  Kind of sounds like North Korea, but with electricity.

Perhaps the New York Times reporter earned some extra special treatment considering the critical pieces which the "Old Grey Lady" published in 2013 about the disarray with the Clinton Foundation:

“For all of its successes, the Clinton Foundation had become a sprawling concern, supervised by a rotating board of old Clinton hands, vulnerable to distraction and threatened by conflicts of interest. It ran multimillion-dollar deficits for several years, despite vast amounts of money flowing in.”

Control access and effectively manage the message.  So much for "All the news that's fit to print".

The Obama Administration brags that it is "absolutely" the most transparent Administration ever.  But just because White House Spokesman Josh Earnest uttered the phrase, it ain't necessarily so. In July 2014, 38 press organizations and transparency groups sent a letter to the White House calling for  the Obama administration to end “politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies".    The plea from the press noted:

“Over the past two decades, public agencies have increasingly prohibited staff from communicating with journalists unless they go through public affairs offices or through political appointees. This trend has been especially pronounced in the federal government. We consider these restrictions a form of censorship—an attempt to control what the public is allowed to see and hear.”

Confining journalists is not just a Clinton trick. Reporters have recently been sequestered in a bedroom during an Obama fundraiser.

One unlucky journalist was made to wait in a maintenance  shed while the Golfer in Chief hit the links at the tony Robert Trent Jones Golf Course in Gainesville, Virginia.  While Houston Chronicle reporter Kevin Diaz could not see any of the drives on the golf course, he could report a motorist on I-66 give the Presidential motorcade a "lone eagle salute" to the motorcade.  And in 2011, Vice President Joe Biden's aides locked a reporter in storage closet during a fundraiser.

While these shoddy treatments of the press can be chronicled through jocund journalistic jibes on social media or short comedic reports on television morning news, this is because the perpetrators were liberals with whom the reporters generally agree.  If a Republican treated the press in such a high handed manner, no doubt the Fourth Estate would be clamoring for impeachment.

Controlling access and projecting positive optics as an easy story for prospective presstitutes.  Former Senator Hillary Rodman Clinton has been touted as one of the smartest and most accomplished women in America thus she should become President.  When I queried a die hard Hillary! supporter, I asked her to cite one concrete accomplishment from her four year tenure in the Obama Administration's Secretary of State.   This Hillary fan did not not even try to claim that Hillary's extensive travels counted as an accomplishment. When pressed, the Hillary supporter resorted to retorting that Hillary earned it by standing by her man through thick and thin.

So to reach low information voters predisposed to support a leading female candidate, it may be enough to feed presstitutes with positive stories and manage messages by controlling unfiltered access.

This might explain why the Lamestream Media ate up the Clintons' photo op at the 39th annual Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) Steak Fry but criticized President George W. Bush for posing with a fake turkey when visiting troops in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving.

[L] Ex-Sen.  Hillary Clinton (D-NY) [C] Ex- President Bill Clinton [R] Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) at Steak Fry 

Whereas, National Review's Jim Geraghty, who certainly would not get a press credential on a Hillary! campaign, presented more piquant coverage of the Iowa photo op.

“How perfectly Clintonian: ‘While a crowd of several thousand Democrats waited on a sloping, grassy field below, Mrs Clinton, her husband and Senator Harkin staged a mini-grilling of steaks for the press at a single barbecue grill in a fenced-off enclosure, framed by a handsome tree and a picnic table filled with some patient Iowans. Mrs Clinton gamely posed, pretending to grill a steak that had been pre-cooked for her"