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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Afternoon Open Thread

Afternoon Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  March 10, 20152:35 pm| 160 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics

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Here’s a live feed of HRC’s upcoming EmailGhaziGate presser at the UN, but don’t feel obligated to discuss that.

[PRESSER CONCLUDED]

Open thread!

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Previous Post: « 47 Republican Senators Can Be Wrong
Next Post: Hill’s Presser »

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  1. 1.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 2:38 pm

    Look who’s in bed with treasonous GOP Senate #47Traitors

    Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald

    It’s 1000% within the right of a member of Congress – or any citizen – to criticize a prospective deal they think is bad.

    Glenn Greenwald ‏@ggreenwald 6h6 hours ago

    Ever since 1/20/2009, Harry Reid has read faithfully from the Dick Cheney book of political rhetoric

    I’m Shocked! I’m Shocked!

  2. 2.

    BethanyAnne

    March 10, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    Back during the Superb Owl thread, I remembered this article on living with owls. Couldn’t find the link then, here it is now. http://www.internationalowlcenter.org/owls-humans/owlsaspets

  3. 3.

    geg6

    March 10, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    @David Koch:

    I saw that this morning. He’s really losing it, isn’t he? Not that he had all that far to go, but…seriously?

  4. 4.

    Germy Shoemangler

    March 10, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    ALBANY — Prosecutors from Connecticut, Indiana and Puerto Rico are joining New York’s attorney general in an investigation of the herbal supplement industry.

    The new coalition announced Tuesday follows allegations by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that DNA tests on certain store-brand supplements found contaminants but none of the herbs listed on the label. Schneiderman ordered the supplements off the shelves last month and has requested detailed quality control information from four supplement manufacturers.

    Supplement makers aren’t required to disclose to the federal Food and Drug Administration or consumers the information they have about the safety or purported benefits of their products.

    Schneiderman says lax oversight of supplements can have serious public health consequences, noting a 2013 hepatitis outbreak traced to a tainted diet supplement.

  5. 5.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    Charles Johnson ‏@Green_Footballs 4h4 hours ago

    This is really kind of amazing even for Greenwald. He’s supporting the Netanyahu contingent in the Senate who want war w/ Iran!.

    Milt Shook ‏@MiltShook 4h4 hours ago

    He’s a lawyer. He has to be smarter than this. There are so many ways this is wrong…

    SaturNine ‏@Satur9 4h4 hours ago

    Bit weird though, seeing the Israeli government and GG on the same side.

    chris beck ‏@SubBeck 2h2 hours ago

    it’s not the result he cares about. Always about his personal axes to grind.

  6. 6.

    chopper

    March 10, 2015 at 2:43 pm

    standing around the corner from my house hoping to see the president. he’s at the local watering hole Manuel’s.

  7. 7.

    Arclite

    March 10, 2015 at 2:43 pm

    “Cue 1000 Drudge sirens”

    That cracked me up.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    March 10, 2015 at 2:44 pm

    @David Koch: I’ve managed, so far, to avoid forming a definite opinion about Greenwald– but this is just weird.

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    LOL re that bright yellow backdrop that every cable news channel is showing. As they await, breathlessly, on this day with no other important news.

    From early morning movie today, Everything Must Go: characters are discussing colors. One has studied them, for marketing purposes.

    Expectant mother, discussing nursery color choices: “I kind of like yellow.”

    Marketer: “Makes people anxious.”

  10. 10.

    Germy Shoemangler

    March 10, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    A RW Troll on another blog was quoting Pat Caddell. His point in quoting him was to say “look at what this democrat says about you!”

    And when I read some of the stuff that comes out of Caddell’s mouth, I wonder if he’s either (A) suffering from dementia or (B) an undercover republican operative from way, way back.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    March 10, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    IIRC, that’s why they paint fast food restaurants yellow — the anxiety makes people buy and eat more.

  12. 12.

    BethanyAnne

    March 10, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    @Elizabelle: bright yellow? I see blue.

  13. 13.

    Hal

    March 10, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    GG is being disingenuous. No one is suggesting a senator has no right to criticise. It’s the lengths and level of interference we are seeing from republicans that is being criticized.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    @MattF: Haven’t followed Greenwald! much, but my sense is (1) attention hound and (2) someone who may have had a good point about one issue, but is hardly the oracle he or his acolytes believe.

    It is complicated to be President of the U.S., especially if you want to be a good one. It’s not so hard to be a controversy-seeking lawyer/journalist.

  15. 15.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    #47Traitors — trending worldwide for the last 12 hours, number one topic.

    The entire world sees them as traitors.

    HA!

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 2:49 pm

    @BethanyAnne: Dang it. It’s that dress issue, all over again!

  17. 17.

    Mike J

    March 10, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    @David Koch:

    The entire world sees them as traitors.

    The entire world doesn’t vote in senate races.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 2:51 pm

    @David Koch: But the no-sleeves wearing MSNBC ladybot just told me we have both #47traitors and #47patriots.

    The “patriots” are, natch, saying they have a responsibility to speak out against tyrannical government.

  19. 19.

    chopper

    March 10, 2015 at 2:51 pm

    god damn every police motorcycle in Atlanta has to be here.

  20. 20.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 10, 2015 at 2:52 pm

    @David Koch: Yeah–but so what? It isn’t as though these bozos are going to suffer any consequences for their treachery, right?

  21. 21.

    Germy Shoemangler

    March 10, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    She’s speaking in front of a Picasso?

  22. 22.

    Alex S.

    March 10, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    OMG, the planets of Glenn Greenwald and Hillary collide!

  23. 23.

    azlib

    March 10, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    @David Koch:
    It is one thing to be critical, but it is quite another thing to send a letter to the party we have enaged in negotiations calling into question the good faith of the President.

  24. 24.

    muddy

    March 10, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    @Elizabelle: Just like the founding fathers!! ugh

  25. 25.

    Mary G

    March 10, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    I love that song! I always said that if hell froze over and I got married again, I would play it.

    While I was writing and formatting my comment on the thread below, you put up this new one, so I’m going to repost it:

    Paul Waldman wrote a great column at American Prospect yesterday that sums up my feelings exactly:

    Why Liberals Don’t Trust Hillary Clinton

    Here are the last couple of paragraphs, but the whole thing is worth a read:

    So when you come to liberals asking for their help, it will not be enough to say, “Look how awful my enemies are.” It will not be enough to say, “Think of the Supreme Court.” It will not be enough to say, “Imagine how historic this presidency would be.” Yes, those enemies are awful, and yes, the Court’s future is ample reason to vote for any Democrat, and yes, a woman president is long overdue. But that isn’t enough, not nearly.

    No one asks for or expects perfection, but liberals need to know that you grasp the full depth of the responsibility you now carry. The fact that you have little primary opposition may seem like a relief, but it confers upon you a profound burden. You have to be better—not just better than the other side, but better than you’ve been before. The stakes are impossibly high. Liberals want to put their faith in you, but they still have reasons to doubt.

  26. 26.

    MattF

    March 10, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    @Mike J: I guess Rs simply assumed they’d be applauded for dissing Obama. And when it turns out that some Ds are not pleased, the Rs are just… taken aback.

  27. 27.

    Face

    March 10, 2015 at 2:55 pm

    The entire world sees them as traitors.

    My guess is that there’s at least 27% that thinks otherwise.

  28. 28.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    @BethanyAnne: And then Cole complains about dogs…

    Karla should get the All-Time Good Sport Award!

  29. 29.

    Tenar Darell

    March 10, 2015 at 2:57 pm

    Instead of watching Gotham re-runs, I watched the documentary Miss Representation yesterday. Anyone else seen it? Thoughts?

  30. 30.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 2:57 pm

    @chopper: Why, what’s happening?

  31. 31.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 2:58 pm

    And away we go.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 2:59 pm

    Yeah, the backdrop is blue. No Q.

  33. 33.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 2:59 pm

    @geg6: When do you get the puppies? And aren’t you glad they aren’t owls?

  34. 34.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 2:59 pm

    @chopper: I was coming home from Tech the day that day trader shot all them people in Buckhead, talk about cops!!

  35. 35.

    Citizen_X

    March 10, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    But the no-sleeves wearing MSNBC ladybot just told me we have both #47traitors and #47patriots.

    The 47 Ronin would like a word with both groups.

  36. 36.

    Cacti

    March 10, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    @Mary G:

    Yes, those enemies are awful, and yes, the Court’s future is ample reason to vote for any Democrat, and yes, a woman president is long overdue. But that isn’t enough, not nearly

    We must also have ponies, and lots of them.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    Good! Talk about the traitors! Second, after a plug for better opportunities for women and girls. Yeah!

  38. 38.

    BethanyAnne

    March 10, 2015 at 3:01 pm

    @Pogonip: Expecting her human to stay up with her and hoot for a mate during mating season was the part that still makes me giggle.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:01 pm

    Either trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the President of the United States, their Commander in Chief.

    Zing. I liked that.

  40. 40.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:01 pm

    Hillary just strangled a puppy on stage.

    Wow, I wasn’t expect that.. She’s really hardcore.

  41. 41.

    Cacti

    March 10, 2015 at 3:02 pm

    @David Koch:

    GG coming full circle and getting back onboard with the neocons.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:02 pm

    @David Koch:

    It’s 1000% within the right of a member of Congress – or any citizen – to criticize a prospective deal they think is bad.

    As I understand, this statement is true as far as it goes — aside from the “1000%” part, that is. The letter itself is all kinds of stupid, as the Iranian Foreign Minister has pointed out, but that doesn’t mean the 47 Senators had no right to send it.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:02 pm

    Since sent to government employees, emails captured and preserved immediately on DOS server.

  44. 44.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    News flash, you can only use one email account per device!!!!!

    that’ll fly

  45. 45.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 10, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    @MattF: and @David Koch:
    Greenwald is a libertarian. Not a ‘civil libertarian’, whatever that is. He hates whoever’s in charge, doesn’t give a fuck about actual civil rights like minority oppression, but is passionate about simplistic, grandiose, magical thinking political issues.

    @Elizabelle:
    3) and most important, he’s dishonest as Hell. He warps stories almost into unrecognizability, leaves out facts he must know as a lawyer that disprove his points, is the king of half-truths and implying-by-denying, and deals with counterarguments by making exaggerated straw men out of his opponents.

  46. 46.

    eemom

    March 10, 2015 at 3:04 pm

    @Mary G:

    Thanks for linking that excellent Waldman piece.

    Basically saying the same thing Cole was last night, for which he got tons of undeserved shit from people with shit for reading comprehension.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:04 pm

    OK, I am liking Hillary Clinton in this one. No nonsense.

    On a day when the GOP #47traitors helpfully served up nonsense of their own.

  48. 48.

    Narcissus

    March 10, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    …yeah, no tech person in D.C. could figure out how to access two accounts from one device. Right.

    Would have been better for her to just come out and direct all the press attention onto that letter.

  49. 49.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    @Narcissus: That’s some thin shit right there and she keeps saying it.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:06 pm

    @geg6: One puppy, or two?

    I can see giving Lovey her own little kingdom, free from always being second dog to Thurston.** Although 2 puppies could be cool too.

    ** albeit, any puppy will be junior member of the geg pets cotillion.

  51. 51.

    FlipYrWhig

    March 10, 2015 at 3:07 pm

    @Mary G:

    Why Liberals Don’t Trust Hillary Clinton

    How about Waldman makes that “Why I, Paul Waldman, don’t trust Hillary Clinton,” and stops trying to make the claim that all liberals think like Paul Waldman does about Hillary Clinton, or would/should, if not for something something sucking out the oxygen under the bus corporatists DNC. Let’s see some polling numbers about liberals and Hillary Clinton. Because as much as the blogosphere has moaned and sulked about Obama’s many egregious and illiberal acts, the polling keeps find that the people who like him best are… people who call themselves liberals.

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 10, 2015 at 3:07 pm

    @Elizabelle: Well, he’s not Commander in Chief of the US Senate. He is Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

    This is a distinction often elided by the right, when civilians referred to, say, W as “my commander in chief.” A civilian does not have a commander in chief.

  53. 53.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    March 10, 2015 at 3:08 pm

    @muddy: Yeah, about those Founding Fathers, the guys who defined seditious writings as:

    To write, print, utter or publish, or cause it to be done, or assist in it, any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame, or bring either into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against either the hatred of the people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or to excite unlawful combinations against the government, or to resist it, or to aid or encourage hostile designs of foreign nations.

    and sedition as:

    unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the United States, from undertaking, performing, or executing his trust or duty

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:08 pm

    @Elizabelle:
    I think John Cole mentioned that he and geg6 agreed the puppies should be separated, so she’d only be taking Lovey.

  55. 55.

    Cacti

    March 10, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Now you’ve done it. Get ready for a lecture on who are the “true Scotsmen”.

  56. 56.

    Belafon

    March 10, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: From a WSJ poll mentioned on Daily Kos: 86 percent of Democrats say they will support Hillary Clinton if she runs.

  57. 57.

    Alex S.

    March 10, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    Somebody should ask her if she deleted a single email during her time at the State Dept. (and right now somebody does that).

  58. 58.

    Calouste

    March 10, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    He’s a lawyer. He has to be smarter than this.

    Said by someone who either is a lawyer or someone who’s only seen lawyers on TV.

  59. 59.

    Mandalay

    March 10, 2015 at 3:12 pm

    @Narcissus:

    no tech person in D.C. could figure out how to access two accounts from one device.

    She keeps going on about needing “two devices” for two accounts. Surely she can’t believe that?

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:12 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Yeah, I kind of thought so too.

    Hope Thurston goes to someone who will keep us posted on his puppy pictures and antics.

  61. 61.

    max

    March 10, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    @David Koch: Hillary just strangled a puppy on stage.
    Wow, I wasn’t expect that.. She’s really hardcore.

    Was she wearing a 18 caret gold Apple Watch? Appearance is important when you’re strangling a puppy.

    @Cacti: GG coming full circle and getting back onboard with the neocons.

    We’re going to invade Iran and liberate it from the NSA!

    max
    [‘Has she declared the gynarchy yet?’]

  62. 62.

    Germy Shoemangler

    March 10, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    @Mandalay: I’m guessing she means “accounts” when she says “devices” but I’m probably wrong.

  63. 63.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    @Mandalay: Someone here is sure to chime in and tells us how silly we are being.

  64. 64.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 10, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    @Elizabelle: a peeve. POTUS is the commander in chief of the military, not civilians, and definitely not the Congress. But the intended audience will eat it up.

  65. 65.

    muddy

    March 10, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I thought they were going the Alien and Sedition Act route during the Bush presidency.

  66. 66.

    Cervantes

    March 10, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    As I understand, this statement is true as far as it goes

    Wait — you actually read the words?

    That’s just … inefficient.

  67. 67.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:16 pm

    Bombshell! Hillary just slipped up and admitted to deflating balls for the New England Patriots.

    Holy Smoke!

    Goodell will have no choice but to come down hard on her.

  68. 68.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    March 10, 2015 at 3:16 pm

    @raven: I’ve never had a Blackberry, but a quick google suggests that people were having problems convincing them to check multiple email addresses circa 2008.

  69. 69.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: That seems somewhat plausible.

  70. 70.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 10, 2015 at 3:18 pm

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: yeah, Jefferson was kind of an authoritarian asshole and doesn’t deserve his reputation as a great libertarian.

  71. 71.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:18 pm

    Hillary just slapped one of the whinny reporters and screamed, “you can’t handle the truth!”

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    She never wanted to take the chance of sending emails from ClintonAvengerDomanatrix44. So she stuck to the one device … account …

    And it’s over. Wish someone had asked a followup on the #47traitors.

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    March 10, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    What, no one asked if the server was powered by Vince Foster’s brain?

  74. 74.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    And like that… poof… she’s gone

  75. 75.

    Hal

    March 10, 2015 at 3:21 pm

    I thinking part of what is keeping this “scandal” going are dems who hoped this would either slow Hillary’s roll or even derail her running.

  76. 76.

    Belafon

    March 10, 2015 at 3:21 pm

    @raven: Who here, considering what we know about our governments tech infrastructure level, would have trouble believing that the interpretation of a required government email would be that it had to be on its own device?

    In part, I could kind of see it in the case that you wouldn’t want to accidentally send a government email on a personal account. Having worked with confidential information, a single email on your private account immediately makes it a government account, and everything is now subject to government inspection.

  77. 77.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 10, 2015 at 3:21 pm

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: keerect. As a BB user from that era, that’s plausible. The problem is, why that account? Or why not two devices? I carried two devices for years.

    Still a lot of nothing, though.

  78. 78.

    socraticsilence

    March 10, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    Ugh…This is a minor snafu, how can she be so bad at handling it- this “one device per account” stuff is only going to fly with people who don’t actually have multiple accounts on a device– so you know no one who uses a smart phone.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:23 pm

    Oh, God, Dana Milbank’s on talking about the Rose Law Office billing records and how the National Archives can’t come in because some emails have already been deleted.

    And this is MSNBC.

    This was MSNBC. Click goes the remote.

  80. 80.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:23 pm

    Hillary to media: “who’s gonna comb through the emails, you, Lieutenant Weinberg!?”

  81. 81.

    Mandalay

    March 10, 2015 at 3:23 pm

    I’m not keen on Clinton in general, and she didn’t really address the issues, but I love the way she treated the Villagers – with the contempt they deserve.

    She looked like a mom looking having to stand around and kill time while she waited for the parents to pick up their dumb kids.

  82. 82.

    socraticsilence

    March 10, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Well its not like she had anyone who could have carried an extra device for her.

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    March 10, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    @David Koch

    And like that… poof… she’s gone

    From your fingertips to the FSM’s shell-like ears.

  84. 84.

    Patrick

    March 10, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    @David Koch:

    It’s 1000% within the right of a member of Congress – or any citizen – to criticize a prospective deal they think is bad.

    Yup. But you don’t have the right to send a letter to the foreign leader without consulting our President first. That’s when you earn yourself derogatory terms such as traitor. And rightly so.

  85. 85.

    Alex S.

    March 10, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    Maybe she wanted to use just one device because it would minimize the danger of being spied on by the NSA.

  86. 86.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    I watched just a brief part of this press conference, but it doesn’t seem to me like there’s anything Hillary is unable to answer. My impression is that, unless there’s something troubling in those emails, she’s handling this well enough not to cause herself any future problems.

  87. 87.

    Iowa Old Lady

    March 10, 2015 at 3:27 pm

    I’m going to be really honest here and say I don’t care about this. Compared to crap like Terry Schiavo or union busting or voter suppression, it feels like it doesn’t affect me. You can go ahead and fault me for that, but I’ll bet I represent how most voters react.

  88. 88.

    Cacti

    March 10, 2015 at 3:27 pm

    @socraticsilence:

    Ugh…This is a minor snafu, how can she be so bad at handling it- this “one device per account” stuff is only going to fly with people who don’t actually have multiple accounts on a device– so you know no one who uses a smart phone.

    And further into the weeds we go.

    Yes, I’m sure an average voter is going to care deeply about the above.

  89. 89.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 3:27 pm

    @socraticsilence: She could have carried it in her shirt pocket and it would have deflected all those rounds fired at her in Kosovo.

  90. 90.

    Tom Q

    March 10, 2015 at 3:28 pm

    @Amir Khalid: You obviously haven’t lived through previous Clinton scandals. For the members of the press or GOP, there’s an infinity of “it raises questions” things they can pretend to reference. They’ll still talk about Vince Foster as some great unsolved mystery.

  91. 91.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    March 10, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    @raven: I’m trying to remember when it was that I was told to avoid Blackberries because they were too closely tied into RIM’s servers. Instead of contacting the server directly, everything had to be relayed through RIM. Or so certain privacy-obsessed tech people told me.

  92. 92.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    @David Koch: I hope it wasn’t Thurston or Lovey.

  93. 93.

    Belafon

    March 10, 2015 at 3:30 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    The letter itself is all kinds of stupid, as the Iranian Foreign Minister has pointed out, but that doesn’t mean the 47 Senators had no right to send it

    It’s a number of things together. The fact that they are senators sending it in their official capacity is one strike.

    The second is the wording. The letter wasn’t a criticism of the talks. It stated that Obama couldn’t guarantee that the US would abide by what he negotiated. They were doing it to undermine the talks, which Cotton admitted was his goal back in January. It is entirely the job of the Executive to negotiate with foreign governments, and the job of the Senate or disapprove. We just go lucky that the Iranian foreign minister knows our constitution better than the 47 do.

    There was a third thing, but I can’t remember right now.

  94. 94.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    @BethanyAnne: Yes, that was a hoot!

  95. 95.

    geg6

    March 10, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    @Pogonip:

    Probably only Lovey (but that’s still a bit up in the air), but I’m told at 12 weeks, which should be about 3-4 weeks.

  96. 96.

    The Dangerman

    March 10, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    WTF? One device per account? That’s the best they could do?

    Her damage control team will be working overtime.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    Let’s leave aside the press careerists of today, and read about the late Claude Sitton, NYTimes reporter who covered the civil rights struggle from 1958 to 1964. Died this week, aged 89.

    One of his articles, in 1962, caught the attention of Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general at the time. It described a south Georgia sheriff and his deputies intruding on a voting rights meeting at a church in Terrell County and menacing the citizens there. One officer repeatedly struck his palm with a large flashlight as if it were a club; another ran his hand over his revolver and cartridge belt.

    Mr. Sitton began by quoting the sheriff: “We want our colored people to go on living like they have for the last 100 years.”

    Kennedy sent a Justice Department team to Terrell County to sue the sheriff two weeks later.

  98. 98.

    raven

    March 10, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    @Belafon: The EPA?

  99. 99.

    Belafon

    March 10, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Or why not two devices? I carried two devices for years.

    She answered that question. She said that, looking back, she should have carried two, but it was convenient to use one (and it was not required).

  100. 100.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    Hillary’s presser was going well, until the end, when she went “Gone Girl” and pulled a knife from her boot and slit andrea mitchell’s throat.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it distracts the media from her main message.

  101. 101.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    @geg6: But if you don’t save Thurston, Hilary will strangle him!

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    @Tom Q:
    Oh, I did — well, as much as one can from my side of the planet, anyway. What I remember is that the ongoing whispering campaign against the Clintons back then, however successful it was at keeping the Republican base fired up, didn’t do all that much to keep Bill from Presidenting or Hillary from getting elected to the US Senate.

  103. 103.

    geg6

    March 10, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I have a friend who may be interested in Thurston. If she goes for it, I’ll make sure she updates us all.

  104. 104.

    Doug r

    March 10, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: don’t forget he was for w until the Democrats got a majority. He didn’t care about warrantless surveillance until the Democrats started restricting it

  105. 105.

    Josie

    March 10, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    @Amir Khalid: There you go again, being all logical and stuff.

  106. 106.

    SatanicPanic

    March 10, 2015 at 3:38 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: I’m a liberal and I trust her enough to vote for her

  107. 107.

    PurpleGirl

    March 10, 2015 at 3:38 pm

    @David Koch: GG may not realize it but I believe there is huge difference between criticizing a politician and sending a letter DIRECTLY to another government telling them that the Congress of our government will in the future reverse an executive agreement entered into by the current Administration.

    GG is an ass.

  108. 108.

    trollhattan

    March 10, 2015 at 3:39 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:
    That would be great, but they have to get past the mighty Orin Hatch to do much to the supplement industry.

  109. 109.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:39 pm

    If nothing else, it was ballsy when Hillary looked straight into the camera and coldly stated, “catch me if you can, bitches.”

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    March 10, 2015 at 3:39 pm

    Amir, if you’re still around, her putting out the term “deleted” will keep this alive and bubbling past the end of the week.

  111. 111.

    Doug r

    March 10, 2015 at 3:39 pm

    @Mandalay: if you link a secure device like a blackberry to an insecure account what’s the frigging point? Better to have one account per device

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:40 pm

    More about and from Claude Sitton, late NYTimes reporter and editor; left that paper to become editor of the Raleigh, NC News & Observer. His grandfather was a slave owner and tax collector for the Confederacy.

    From the Times obit:

    Mr. Sitton would sometimes report what he observed and interpret it plainly without qualifiers or the filter of a quoted voice. In Oxford in 1963, he wrote, “Racists here, as elsewhere, have underscored this principle: The rights of dissent and freedom of association — which they so frequently invoke for themselves — do not extend to those who disagree with them.”

    He could be evocative in his writing, as he was in a dispatch from 1963, datelined Greenwood, Miss.

    “The night of Feb. 28 was mild with a hint of early spring as the black sedan rolled westward along U.S. Route 82 across the Mississippi Delta,” he began.

    “One of its three Negro occupants recalled later that as a string of traffic faded to the rear near Itta Bena, a car that had trailed them from Greenwood pulled alongside. Two white men sat in front, one in back.

    “Bursts of gunfire rang out. Thirteen .45 caliber bullets stitched a ragged seam of finger-sized holes along the sedan’s left side and a copper-jacketed slug burned into the driver’s shoulder to within an inch of his spine.”

    and

    He came back to New York in the fall of 1964, after Freedom Summer, having been named national editor of The Times. He soon instituted a rule that a staff reporter must cover Dr. King wherever he went.

    He died of congestive heart failure in an Atlanta hospice on Tuesday. I hope he was conscious and aware of the Selma/Pettus Bridge events of the weekend.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:41 pm

    @geg6: Could the sibling puppies meet from time to time? That would be beyond good.

  114. 114.

    max

    March 10, 2015 at 3:43 pm

    @Belafon: There was a third thing, but I can’t remember right now.

    They didn’t use their official email accounts.

    max
    [‘And also fear. And surprise.’]

  115. 115.

    Belafon

    March 10, 2015 at 3:43 pm

    @NotMax: Only here. I’m not even hearing about it from my job, which is mainly conservatives.

  116. 116.

    Mr.Twister

    March 10, 2015 at 3:45 pm

    @Mandalay: Supreme Court aside, I’d say contempt for the Villagers is a great reason to vote for Hillary.

  117. 117.

    Tom Q

    March 10, 2015 at 3:45 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I agree there, but I also remember it spooked Al Gore into running away from a president with a high-50s approval rating, and it’s apparently spooked some here into thinking we desperately need somebody else to run — you know: someone who DOESN’T trounce every GOP opponent.

    Of course it’s likely Dems who don’t like Hillary are only pretending this “scandal” alarms them, because it suits their somebody-else goal. Like Bradley Dems in 2000 were happy to fan the Love Story/Gore’s a liar stories.

  118. 118.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:46 pm

    @max:
    “I’ll come in again.”

  119. 119.

    FlipYrWhig

    March 10, 2015 at 3:46 pm

    @PurpleGirl: Freedom of speech is absolute for Greenwald, specifically including the Citizens United case, Nazis on parade, and probably including shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater. Why? Because he has one mode, Braveheart Rhetorical Cosplay.

    Also, the more people wank on about Hillary Clinton’s smart phone settings, the more the world is going to say, what the ever-fucking fuck is wrong with you that you pretend to care about this?

  120. 120.

    FlipYrWhig

    March 10, 2015 at 3:47 pm

    @Tom Q:

    it’s likely Dems who don’t like Hillary are only pretending this “scandal” alarms them, because it suits their somebody-else goal

    I see you’ve met “askew.”

  121. 121.

    Tom Q

    March 10, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: He (or she) has made me long for a scroll-by button.

  122. 122.

    Patrick

    March 10, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    The letter itself is all kinds of stupid, as the Iranian Foreign Minister has pointed out, but that doesn’t mean the 47 Senators had no right to send it.

    Yes, they had a right to send it. Just like the rest of us have the right to call them traitors for sending it.

  123. 123.

    Doug r

    March 10, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    All this fuss about blackberry. You’d swear they were giving away RIM jobs.

  124. 124.

    eemom

    March 10, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    @Calouste:

    He’s a lawyer. He has to be smarter than this.

    Said by someone who either is a lawyer or someone who’s only seen lawyers on TV.

    Or, has never read a Burnsie comment. [snicker]

  125. 125.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:51 pm

    Hillary’s presser was pretty provocative, especially when she said “Pete Carroll should have gave the ball to BeastMode.”

    That’s bound to spark a congressional investigation.

  126. 126.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    Hillary made news when she said “Obama would win a 3rd term if he wanted, not only because he’s been the greatest President in my lifetime, but once you go black, you don’t go back”.

  127. 127.

    Mike in NC

    March 10, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: Remember when the ACA website was first rolled out and it had bugs? The Republicans acted like it was the biggest crime since the Holocaust.

  128. 128.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    @NotMax:
    Only if this thing grows legs and keeps on running, which doesn’t seem all that likely to me now.

    @Tom Q: I count that damage as self-inflicted by Al Gore. Gore could have stood by Bill’s creditable performance as president while condemning his actions as a husband. There would have been no contradiction in that.

  129. 129.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    I think our journalists, too many, have become slack and addled. Put up the item about Mr. Sitton, because he recognized evil when he saw it, having been weaned in the American South.

    Some of them are consciously or unconsciously rooting for war, because it can be an exciting and career-enhancing thing to cover.

    When there is so much in this country to cover, exhaustively, like how there has been an economic war and the middle class and below lost. Decisively. And might not have had to, with different policies. Other countries do this better. We are exceptional in not learning from history. Older countries are wiser, perhaps.

    And how half of the Supreme Court is straight out of the 1870s. We used to know better.

    And they have to write about it, again and again and again.

    Instead of frothing over fake scandals like Hillary and her deleted emails.

  130. 130.

    max

    March 10, 2015 at 3:56 pm

    @Amir Khalid: “I’ll come in again.”

    “…as soon as I find my Blackberry.”

    max
    [‘I’ll bet that Clinton’s email scandal was the best publicity Blackberry has had all year.’]

  131. 131.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 10, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    @David Koch: Writing a letter to a foreign dignitary in order to undermine your President’s foreign policy is not the same thing as criticizing a prospective deal. Never cared for Greenwald so this is not shocking. Funny how he supports the same GOP which is anti-gay in so many ways. Ditto his praise of Putin.

  132. 132.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    @Mike in NC: How much coverage has there been on ACA’s projected costs coming in significantly lower than expected?

    I know it’s been covered on “progressive” blogs, but is it out there on the network news, and on cable in heavy rotation?

    This kind of shit drowns out good news. Well done, GOP and cable news/legacy corporate-owned network news purveyors/enablers.

  133. 133.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    @Patrick:
    It’s been pointed out again and again, by people here more expert (and more American) than I, that sending that letter doesn’t fit the US Constitution’s definition of treason.

  134. 134.

    Pogonip

    March 10, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    @David Koch: She switched to puppies because the last time she tried to strangle a kitten the critter darn near clawed her eyeballs out.

  135. 135.

    cahuenga

    March 10, 2015 at 3:59 pm

    “it was convenient and not against the law at the time”

    blech

    Again, she was a Senator during the Bush Email Fiasco. She knew what was expected and knew it was a liability should it become public. She was also fully aware of the advantages as a future candidate for higher office – Namely, sanitizing rights to her official record… if needed.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 3:59 pm

    JCole has put up a fresh thread about the Hillary presser.

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    March 10, 2015 at 4:00 pm

    @cahuenga: Are media reporting whether all or most of the Bush White House emails were ever recovered?

    Haven’t heard any follow up reporting on that in ages. It might be my error that the Bush WH emails never saw the light of public scrutiny ….

  138. 138.

    cahuenga

    March 10, 2015 at 4:02 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    No doubt this will blow over like that event did.. Further encouraging the practice.

  139. 139.

    Patrick

    March 10, 2015 at 4:02 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    You know as well as well as I do that there’s a legal term and then there is a term used in popular language. If you don’t, I can give you hundreds of examples of when Republicans referred to Dems as traitors in the run-up to the Iraq war. Last time I checked, they didn’t fit the legal term either.

    Maybe you should write to NY Daily News and complain about their headline today.

  140. 140.

    sidhra

    March 10, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    @Tom Q: Wait – isn’t Vince Foster hanging with Bebe Rebozo somewhere in Costa Rica?

  141. 141.

    Bobby Thomson

    March 10, 2015 at 4:11 pm

    @Doug r: RIM shot.

  142. 142.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 10, 2015 at 4:11 pm

    @Amir Khalid: and @Patrick:
    He has a point, Amir. Their actions may not have been technically illegal, but they were a deliberate and undisguised attempt to sabotage foreign policy. They acted against the interests of the United States and violated the spirit of their role in government. They did so well outside even the bounds of shockingly partisan discourse that has become normalized since Obama’s election. ‘Treason’ is not correct as a legal description, but it is the accepted vulgar description of such behavior, particularly since English is short on words to describe their actions that lack legal implications.

  143. 143.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 4:11 pm

    Hillary did make a big fashion mistake by wearing a gold “Original Gangsta” medallion with blue pinstripe hightop sneakers..

    Thank goodness Joan Rivers wasn’t alive to see that.

  144. 144.

    Cacti

    March 10, 2015 at 4:12 pm

    @Patrick:

    You know as well as well as I do that there’s a legal term and then there is a term used in popular language. If you don’t, I can give you hundreds of examples of when Republicans referred to Dems as traitors in the run-up to the Iraq war. Last time I checked, they didn’t fit the legal term either.

    Maybe you should write to NY Daily News and complain about their headline today.

    Greenwald’s doing his usual strawman/trial lawyer routine. Misstating someone else position, then attacking them for a position that they don’t actually have.

    GG is no great legal mind, but he has enough legal education to know that negotiating foreign policy is not an ennumerated power of the legislature. It is up to the executive to negotiate, while the senate votes to approve or disapprove. Writing letters to foreign heads of state in attempt to alter the outcome of ongoing negotiations runs up against, and possibly afoul of the Logan Act.

  145. 145.

    muddy

    March 10, 2015 at 4:14 pm

    @David Koch: Hilary Anger Translater?

  146. 146.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 4:14 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    Fair enough.

  147. 147.

    Patrick

    March 10, 2015 at 4:16 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Amir,

    I forgot that English is probably not your native language. So I apologize for making assumptions about knowledge of language. Did not mean to.

  148. 148.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 10, 2015 at 4:21 pm

    @Patrick: I’ve found that Amir oftentimes does better in English than purportedly native speakers.

  149. 149.

    Patrick

    March 10, 2015 at 4:32 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    You and me both.

  150. 150.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    March 10, 2015 at 4:37 pm

    @Tom Q: Pie filter. Or Troll-B-Gone.

  151. 151.

    David Koch

    March 10, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    –

  152. 152.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    March 10, 2015 at 4:41 pm

    Well, that’s a new one. I just got a robocall offering “student loan forgiveness”. I’m currently on hold, waiting to let the (video of) babies talk to the nice scammer.

  153. 153.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 10, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Indeed I’ve noticed that as well.

  154. 154.

    Amir Khalid

    March 10, 2015 at 4:50 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    I thought that the proper AmEnglish term was “dick move”.

  155. 155.

    Tree With Water

    March 10, 2015 at 6:23 pm

    I really enjoy the NFL. I also like to think that Titans QB Jake Locker is pointing the way by retiring today. He is retiring after a few short years as a millionaire, who is moreover still in seemingly good physical shape. Patrick Willis hung it up today at age 30, too, rather than endure more surgeries so that the 49ers might better rock. Their decisions may even point the way to combatting brain traumas, i.e., by the NFL limiting the number of seasons/games a player is eligible to perform. Guys like Peyton Manning would have to sign a waiver assuming all responsibility for future health issues in order to continue playing… Anyway, those two made the smart call, and more power to them for having made it.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    March 10, 2015 at 6:41 pm

    @raven: I know. I thought the very same thing. This must be “everything I know is wrong” day.

  157. 157.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    March 10, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    On poking into the history of smartphones a little more, I find that in 2009, the Blackberry was the only device with strong enough encryption to be used by the Federal government. I can’t find a date for Android, but the iPhone didn’t catch up until after 2010.

    Things have changed so rapidly. There’s a shared-world alt history series that has a tech limiting date of 2000. It’s getting harder and harder to limit “what they know” to that distant past date. The editors are constantly having to say “But that wasn’t invented/discovered yet!”

  158. 158.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    March 10, 2015 at 7:24 pm

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:

    That’s part of what’s driving me a little nuts with this story — a LOT of people seem to be looking at 2015 technology and assuming it’s exactly the same as 2009 technology. It’s not.

  159. 159.

    grandpa john

    March 10, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    @Elizabelle: It drowns it only because the media wants to drown it. They get to pick what they cover and we all see what they select.

  160. 160.

    grandpa john

    March 10, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    @Amir Khalid: But it raises questions about bordering on sedition.

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