Are There Dual Tracks for Mishandling Classified Information?

 During the Vice Presidential Debate, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) impeached his opponent Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) on how mishandling of classified information is administered.

Both of the VP nominees have sons on active duty serving in the Marines (as advertised by Sen. Kaine's lapel pin), so Pence's analogy of how the Pentagon would not suffer fools gladly should have hit home.  


However, as a good soldier to his boss Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Kaine reiterated that FBI Director Comey claimed that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against Clinton. Of course, that begs the question whether a prosecutor should reinterpret 18 US Code Sec. 1924 to require intentionality or if a Law Enforcement Officer ought to informally adjudicate a case in the first place.


During her first Presidential Debate, Hillary Clinton  kept urging viewers to fact check what her opponent says.  It would only be just if inquiring minds would apply the same principle to Sen. Kaine's   unequivocal denial that the military would decline to court marshal someone under their jurisdiction who handled classified information in what FBI Director Comey characterized as an "extremely careless" way.

One suspects that it would be more fruitful to wait for Tim Kaine to let Mike Pence finish a sentence. Of course, people could save time fact checking and just ask General Petraeus. 

DOJ Handed Out Clinton Email Immunity Like Candy

Representative Jason Chaffets (R-UT 3rd), the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, expressed exasperation at trying to bring justice to the Clinton Email case. The news that Hillary Clinton's 25 year aide-de-camp Cheryl Mills allowed access to her computers only if federal investigators gave her immunity.  Chaffets quipped that immunity was being handed out like candy. 

Bryan Pagliano, the IT "expert" who Hillary turned to in order to dispose of her unwanted State Department emails, was granted immunity but refused to testify before Congress despite being subpoenaed. Immunity deals were also proffered to Clinton aide Heather Samuelson and then State Department Information Resource Management Director John Bethel.

One nuance that came out during FBI Director Comey's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee was supposedly that the Department of Justice, not the FBI, gave proffers of immunity to Clinton email subjects.  But this came on the same day that Comey insisted that he should not be considered a weasel. 

Although it is little solace from those suffering from too many sweets, Uncle Sam ought to remember that too many candies rots the teeth, like the respect for the rule of law. 

Impeaching FBI Excuses of Non-Prosecution of Clinton Email Mess

For Hillary Clinton, What Does "C" Stand For?

The FBI's pre-Labor Day document drop of notes regarding Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) interview about the Clinton offical e-mails on a private server contained an incredible conceit.

The notes revealed that the former Secretary of State told her FBI interviewers that that she did not realize that a "C" marking of a paragraph in official messages indicated "Classified".  Wags wondered what Mrs. Clinton thought the "C" stood for.

Why Visit No Man's Land?

Cynics have long lamented that the system is rigged and that all politicians are liars.  Alas, some of the headlines in 2016 confirm this jaundiced world view.  

Mark Twain once quipped: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misniformed.“ With this in mind, why visit “No Man’s Land”?

• Nearly all polls showed that UK votes would reject Brexit, yet the referendum to leave the European Union won by a large margin.  Were the polls rigged? Was media coverage slanted? Or were there forces which tried to influence the outcome but failed in this instance?

• Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT)  kept beating Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in Democrat Presidential primaries but due to the allocation system and Super Delegates, the preordanined winner became ever closer to her coronation... uh that is nomination.  Were the Democrat primaries preordained?  How much was the winner helped by the Democrat National Committe headed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd)

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was investigated for a year and a half by the FBI over her private homebrew email server for official government business.  FBI Director Comey excoriates Hillary Clinton over the many irregularities associated with her email set up , then declines to suggest to the Department of Justice to press charges.  Are there special rules for Washington Establishment insiders? 

• The Main Stream Media seized upon every seemingly outrageous soundbyte from Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY), but rarely gives the full context or hyperbolizes the worst interpretation.  Is all of the press slanted?  Where can ordinary Americans find news?

While America still has vibrant First Amendment freedoms, people need not settle for the official story, especially if it seems sketchy. The Internet allows for corrections of the record, covering news which the Main Stream Media conveniently declines to cover and the sharing of opinion so one can better discern the truth of the matter.

Check your sources.  All reporting has a viewpoint.  Often it is shaped by opinion or emphasis. Once you recognize that fact, it helps you discern between facts and slanted perspectives.  

Challenge your news sources.  Sometimes, timely reportage requires unnamed sources (e.g. “Senior Government Officials”) who must remain shielded. But if news is based totally on anonymous sources or relies on one source, be confident that the “jo-whore-nalist” is intellectually seducing you. 

But on the other hand, don’t believe everything that is published on the Internet. If the news piece can substantiate itself through reference to other reliable sources, one might lend the report more credence.

Assess what is not reported.  This can be hard for someone who is not a news junkie. But an insidious power of the media is not only what they report but what they don’t report. When reporting on a political crime, one party is often immediately reveled whereas those in the other party rarely are immediately identified.  Many liberal Main Stream Media will give short shrift to some stories (such as possible pay-for-play connections between  Hillary’s State Department and the Clinton Foundation) whereas they are covered on other media can be telling.

It may not be convenient to avoid political minefields of corruption and deception but A No Man’s Land may provide a map avoiding the obstacles on our path.