Thursday Reads: Benghazi and Violence in Israel
Posted: October 22, 2015 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Politics | Tags: Adolf Hitler, Benghazi, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hillary Clinton, lynching, open thread, the Holocaust, Trey Gowdy 163 Comments
Good Morning!!
Hillary Clinton will testify before Trey Gowdy’s Benghazi “special committee” today, beginning at 10AM. I’m going to watch as much of the testimony as I can. If you’re watching too, please post your reactions in the comment thread. Unfortunately for Gowdy and the other GOP mutants on the joke of a committee, even the corporate media isn’t taking them seriously anymore.
From US News and World Report: The Gowdy Doody Show. Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the Benghazi Committee recalls less Watergate than Whitewater, by James Warren.
Yes, boy[s] and girls, it’s Gowdy Doody Time.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, on Thursday gavels to likely disorder the long awaited House select committee hearing on Benghazi, the latest in the rich tradition of congressional spectacles that often go nowhere.
Indeed, America had far more positive anticipation when “Buffalo Bob” Smith led a cheering throng of kids in the theme song of “Howdy Doody,” a 1950s mega-TV hit named after a puppet with 48 freckles (yes, civics mavens, this was before Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union)….
The investigation started as a dissection of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks by Islamic militants on two U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died.
We’ve paid for nine different congressional and internal probes and Gowdy’s has morphed into a look at Clinton’s emails and her use of a private email server while secretary of state. Its work alone has cost about $4.6 million – if only such GOP ardor was exhibited in pursuing President George W. Bush’s weapons of mass destruction claims against Saddam Hussein – even though it hasn’t even interviewed most of the defense, intelligence and White House officials it promised.
Instead, it is primed to take testimony from a small army that includes Clinton, speechwriters and the guy who oversaw the server.
Gowdy and his Hillary-suspicious Republicans are so sensitive to the claim of political pandering that they have strategized privately about their own decorum and presenting themselves as sober legislators. It’s like my 6-year-old prior to his first-grade class going to a suburban Chicago pumpkin patch Monday: Everybody promised to be on their best behavior on the bus.
More at US News.
House Select Committee on Benghazi chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Yesterday commenter Sara posted a link to an excellent Newsweek opinion piece by Kurt Eichenwald: Benghazi Biopsy: A Comprehensive Guide to One of America’s Worst Political Outrages.
Moussa Koussa.
That is the name of the “classified source” in an old email from Hillary Clinton released last week by Republicans purportedly investigating the 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Under the instructions of the Benghazi committee’s chairman, Republican Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Koussa’s name was blacked-out on the publicly issued email, as Republicans proclaimed revealing his identity would compromise national security. The media ran with it, saying Clinton had sent classified information through her personal email account.
But the CIA never said the name was secret. Nor did the Defense Intelligence Agency or the FBI. No, Koussa’s role as an intelligence source is about as classified as this column. He is the former intelligence chief and foreign minister of Libya. In 2011, he fled that country for Great Britain, where he provided boodles of information to MI6 and the CIA. Documents released long ago show Koussa’s cooperation. Government officials have openly discussed it. His name appears in newspapers with casual discussions about his assistance. Sanctions by the British and the Americans against Koussa were lifted because of his help, and he moved to Qatar. All of that is publicly known.
But, as they have time and again, the Republicans on the Benghazi committee released deceitful information for what was undoubtedly part of a campaign—as Kevin McCarthy of the House Republican leadership has admitted—to drive down Clinton’s poll numbers. Republicans have implied—and some journalists have flatly stated—that Clinton was reckless and may have broken the law by sending an email that included thirdhand hearsay mentioning Koussa’s name. The reality is that the Republicans continue to be reckless with the truth.
Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa
And why is this such an outrage?
The historical significance of this moment can hardly be overstated, and it seems many Republicans, Democrats and members of the media don’t fully understand the magnitude of what is taking place. The awesome power of government—one that allows officials to pore through almost anything they demand and compel anyone to talk or suffer the shame of taking the Fifth Amendment—has been unleashed for purely political purposes. It is impossible to review what the Benghazi committee has done as anything other than taxpayer-funded political research of the opposing party’s leading candidate for president. Comparisons from America’s past are rare. Richard Nixon’s attempts to use the IRS to investigate his perceived enemies come to mind. So does Senator Joseph McCarthy’s red-baiting during the 1950s, with reckless accusations of treason leveled at members of the State Department, military generals and even the secretary of the Army. But the modern McCarthys of the Benghazi committee cannot perform this political theater on their own—they depend on reporters to aid in the attempts to use government for the purpose of destroying others with bogus “scoops” ladled out by members of Congress and their staffs. These journalists will almost certainly join the legions of shamed reporters of the McCarthy era as it becomes increasingly clear they are enablers of an obscene attempt to undermine the electoral process.
The consequences, however, are worse than the manipulation of the electoral process. By using Benghazi for political advantage, the Republicans have communicated to global militants that, through even limited attacks involving relatively few casualties, they can potentially influence the direction of American elections. The Republicans sent that same message after the Boston Marathon bombing, where they condemned Obama for failing to—illegally—send the American perpetrators to Guantánamo, among other things. They slammed the president because federal law enforcement agents read the failed underwear bomber his rights after they arrested him in 2009. Never mind that federal agents did the exact same thing under President George W. Bush when they arrested the failed shoe bomber years earlier. Republicans even lambasted Obama when he spoke about ISIS decapitating journalists, saying the president did not sound angry enough.
Please read the rest at Newsweek.
J.J. wanted me to call attention to another outrageous story that has been somewhat overshadowed by the political goings on in the U.S. this week.
Washington Post: Netanyahu says a Palestinian gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust.
Jerusalem – In a speech here Tuesday evening, Netanyahu sought to explain the surge in violence in Israel and the West Bank by reaching for historical antecedents. He said that Jews living in what was then British Palestine faced many attacks in 1920, 1921 and 1929 — all instigated by the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who allied himself with the Nazis during World War II.
Then Netanyahu dropped his bombshell. He said: “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time; he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said, ‘Burn them.’ ”
Netanyahu, the son of a historian, said the mufti played “a central role in fomenting the Final Solution,” as the Nazis termed their plan to exterminate the Jews.
The remarks were made in a speech to the World Zionist Congress about “the 10 big lies” told by Palestinians and their backers.
As supporters of the Israeli leader wondered what he was doing, his critics said that his claims were outrageous enough to give cover to Holocaust deniers.
The speech came on the eve of Netanyahu’s visit to Germany. After Netanyahu’s outrageous claim, Angela Merkel chided him, saying that Germans know that the “final solution” was a German plan. Time Magazine reports:
“All Germans know the history of the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to the break with civilization that was the Holocaust,” said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor, according to the Independent. “This is taught in German schools for good reason, it must never be forgotten and I see no reason to change our view of history in any way.”
From The Daily Beast: What Benjamin Netanyahu’s Insane Holocaust Claim Really Means.
It was factually wrong and morally outrageous for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say that a Palestinian mufti gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust. Almost the entire mainstream of historians, scholars, and politicians has now said so.
The question, though, is why he did it—and the answer is that it was an unintentional, Romney-47%-moment at which a commonplace partisan lie is suddenly revealed to the world. In Romney’s case, it was the Republican talking point that half of America depends on government welfare. In Netanyahu’s, it’s that the Israel/Palestine conflict is actually a result of Arab anti-Semitism.
Why did Netanyahu do it?
First, Netanyahu’s remarks were off the cuff. The transcript of his speech at the 37th Zionist Congress makes that clear. The entire speech was conversational in tone, with corrections and colloquialisms, and the particular reference to al-Husseini was an aside.
Its context was Netanyahu talking about the “big lie” that the Israeli government is seeking to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque—which is indeed a big lie spread widely on pro-Palestine social media. In that context, he mentioned that al-Husseini had told a similar lie in the 1920s, and by the way, al-Husseini supported the Holocaust too.
It was an aside within an aside. But precisely because it was off the cuff, it offers a valuable peek behind the curtain of Israeli nationalist ideology.
Like Romney’s comment about the 47%, comments like Netanyahu’s are made all the time on the Israeli Right. They’re meant for domestic consumption, to inspire the nationalist base. The Arabs hate us, anti-Zionism is just anti-Semitism, and most importantly, the Intifada is about Jew-hatred, not resistance to the occupation.
Haptom Zerhom, shot by police and then lynched.
Meanwhile, in Israel hatred of Palestinians is festering. From the World Socialist Website: Israel: Racist mob lynches migrant as violence intensifies.
An angry Jewish mob lynched an unarmed Eritrean migrant worker in the southern city of Beer Sheba after an Israeli security guard repeatedly shot him on Sunday. The crowd cursed and kicked him, chanting, “Death to Arabs!” “Arabs out!” and “Am Israel Hai!” (“The people of Israel still live”).
The murder underscores the noxious atmosphere of xenophobia, racism and fear that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has stoked up in a bid to deflect rising social discontent among Jewish Israelis, whose living conditions are in many cases only marginally better than those of the Palestinians. At the last elections, Netanyahu urged Jewish Israelis to vote, saying that “swarms of Arabs” were going to the polling stations.
Ultra-nationalist Jewish politicians have encouraged the mobilisation of vigilante groups and fascistic mobs that go on the rampage while the police stand and watch. Settler gangs that murder Palestinians and attack and destroy their property go unpunished. Now, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has openly encouraged Jewish Israelis to arm themselves and take vigilante action.
The Eritrean, 29-year-old Haptom Zerhom, had been working as a gardener in a plant nursery in a village near Beer Sheba for the last three years. He was on his way to collect his renewed work visa when 21-year-old Muhannad al-Okbi, a Bedouin Israeli, shot and killed an Israeli soldier and wounded 10 others, including four police officers, at Beer Sheba’s central bus station.
The police shot al-Okbi and then shot Zerhom, believing him to be al-Okbi’s accomplice. As Yedioth Ahronoth’s headline made clear, Zerhom was shot “Just because of his skin colour.”
As Zerhom came under attack from the mob, a bystander found his visa and held it up, shouting, “He’s Eritrean, he’s not a terrorist.”No one heard him above the melee and Zerhom died of his injuries.
Shades of the Old South.
Finally, from Black Agenda Report: Black Lives Don’t Matter in Israel.
If you want to observe a racist lynch mob, go to Israel, the “world’s worst apartheid state.” After being shot by police, an innocent Eritrean immigrant was pursued by an Israeli mob that “kicked him, threw chairs and benches at his head and shouted ‘son of a whore,’ ‘break his head’ and more to the point, ‘Kill him!’” But of course, no one will be punished, and the U.S. Black Misleadership Class will say nothing.
The United States does not have a monopoly on the lynch law murder of black people. Israel, both America’s client state and master, is awash in racist state-sponsored violence. Palestinians are usually the intended targets, but Africans are inevitably caught in this terrorism too. The mob murder of Mulu Habtom Zerhom reveals everything that the world needs to know about Israeli apartheid and the settler mentality which it exemplifies.
Zerhom was an Eritrean asylum seeker living in Israel, confined to one of the camps used to hold Africans. He was at a bus station where a Bedouin man shot an Israeli soldier. Zerhom was trying to flee but was himself shot by the police. Video footage shows him lying bleeding and incapacitated as a mob of Israelis kicked him, threw chairs and benches at his head and shouted “son of a whore,” “break his head” and more to the point, “Kill him!”
Unbelievable! Will the U.S. corporate media follow up on this story? Stay tuned.
This is an open thread. Please feel free to comment on any topic or post your comments on the Benghazi hearings.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I’m here! Still in my pajamas watching the future POTUS address this miserable committee.
I’m here too. Watching on MSNBC.
Bibi Netanyahu: Israel’s own Ted Cruz.
I’m glad you are here, Pat and Janicen. I missed the opening statement, but I’m going to watch now.
Gowdy’s opening statement was disgusting, Cummings’ was great in shooting down Gowdy and the committee and Clinton said she was there to honor the service and memory of the State Dept personnel who gave their lives in service to their country. She’s looking very presidential.
I missed that too. I’ve been watching Hillary answer questions and she is doing incredibly well. I don’t know how she stays so calm.
Elijah Cummings should get the Medal of Freedom.
Along with Cong. Schiff!
Here, Here!
I hope you got to hear Rep. Elijah Cummings in the beginnin BB – stellar labeling of this farce.
He had difficulty hiding his outrage. He gave a masterful opening.
I did hear most of that.
Rep Brooks (R) wants to talk about the size of piles.
They just keep digging in order to hide the fact they have nothing.
That was so funny. Why would they think Hillary would discuss State Department secrets on her personal email? She said she didn’t even have a computer in her office.
She’s making Brooks look like a fool.
Live link. 🙂
http://benghazi.house.gov/hearings
I’m watching on MSNBC. They’re running the whole thing live.
Likewise I am still in my pj’s………….Brooks wasn’t even in congress when Behazie happened, she’s only been in two years, from Indiana.
Let me listen to Tammy Duckworth.
Martha Roby, the good old girl from ALABAMA, been in office 4 years.
She is clueless as far as I could tell from her stumbling questions.
They won’t be satisfied unless she admits to “murdering” Amb. Stevens and tha she actually “ordered” it to happen.
This is so disgusting it is beyond words.
I know. This bullshit about “what about this email sent between two state dept employees?” is a ridiculous waste of time.
Scary how depraved, low, despicable this committee is. Shamelessly continuing this sham even after they have been exposed. They serve no human purpose. How awful their lives must be – so empty.
Or determined. The entire charade is to wound her and sabotage her candidacy. They will go whole hog in order to cast doubt about her.
Absurd.
Is it “surprising” that so far the only people from the GOP side are from southern states?
Or am I just biased?
Indiana and Kansas reps have spoken too. Also morons.
Yeah, we’re just a bunch of ignorant hayseeds down here Pat, but we try real hard. 😆
Is it me or does Westmoreland sound drunk?
Remember, people elected these ignoramuses to congress.
Here they are, coming in on the wave of the teaparty:
Susan Brooks, R (Ind) 2013
Trey Gowdy R (SC) 2011
Jim Jordan R (Oh) 2007
Mike Pompeo R (Kan) 2011
Martha Roby R (Ala ) 2011
Peter Roskam R (Ill) 2007
Lynn Westmorland R (Ga) 2007
OMG!
Kansas and Indiana still aren’t southern states.
They might as well be. Both teach creationism and both have governors that are Christian loons. Although Pence may be just be doing it to sit at the kewl kids table.
😆
The bottom line to this “investigation” is to portray her as a lying, indifferent, murderer.
It is simply outrageous.
We all knew they would just be ranting and raving, and not asking questions. They just want to be on t.v., show a few charts, and a few piles, and convince their party they are truly doing something to benefit them politically at the polls.
When the ashol from Arkansas went after the Americans protecting others on the ground, and said they didn’t do a good job. Thank God Hillary came back on the sob, and said how dare he put them down!
http://wonkette.com/595219/happy-benghazi-day-watch-hillary-clinton-admit-she-did-benghazi-for-the-lols?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
This guy is a total asshole!
This is totally about him getting soundbites. Despicable behavior.
He acts like he was there, and on the phone, and collected the dead bodies. He was not, and not one of them were on the tarmac when the bodies returned home. Not one republicans showed an ounce of respectability to those servants.
Jordan (R Ohio) I am going to tell you what happened Hillary!
Hillary: I am sorry it doesn’t fit your narrative congressman Jordan. THANK YOU HILLARY
Question: Which GOP POTUS candidate would act as gracious as Hillary if they were under this scrutiny? Starting with Trump…
She is Presidential!
Good good good for Rep. Schiff.
He’s calling them out over and over, with numbers and incidents and damn good speaking. So many of the factual points that Hillarymen, CorrectTheRecord, belatedly The Washington Post (never the New York Times) have published, he brings up, live, in front the vindictive, lying Republicans
Love the emphasis on “prosecuting attorneys”. Nails the Rethugs agenda in one term. Calling them out on their agenda in no uncertain terms.
I really like him too, carries himself well.
One point that seems relevant is that critical information and conversations would specifically -not- have been conveyed via emails.
The Rethugs keep saying “Why doesn’t this sensitive critical information show up in these emails?” If any of it had, they would have instantly tried to nail her on that.
They just keep ignoring her response that her involvement took place in accordance with required government security.
Dak…………you got to love the fact that Gowdy is digging his own GRAVE. This thing about the emails, has nothing to do with 9/11/12 in Benghazie.
There is no way the rethugs come out of this as anything less than ignorant bullies.
Gowdy, is making this whole damn thing about Sidney Blumenthal, and nothing about why they spent 4.6 million dollars on this investigation.
She looks as bored as I’m feeling.
Don’t mess with Cong. Cummings~
Gowdy proves that he is out to get her………..on national tv he lost his cool, and made a threat: “you ain’t seen nothing yet, wait till the next round”……….
He said that in the committee hearing?
He certainly did, just before they broke for lunch. That’s when I went on a long walk for some fresh air.
This is hard to watch but it underscores how we have to get these far right wing idiots out of any position of power.
I’m over here watching Brainless Williams do follow up and it’s almost as bad as watching the hearing itself.
Are you listening to Rachel and Nicole from SNOT in the morning? Rachel says this hearings are bringing down her rating. Nicole from snot Joe says that Chris Stevens must have been meaningless to Hillary, cause he didn’t have Hillary’s email. That bitch, has no right to speak about Hillary’s friend in that manner of being “meaningless”. My question is this, does the Staff Stg. have the Chief of Commander’s email, or the general’s email………..let’s ask Tammy Duckworth.
I hope Nicole (who worked for Bush) loses her job in the media, and I pray that Gowdy’s career is OVER.
Let’s face it Gowdy, he did a secret investigation, hasn’t called the witnesses who were on the phone, and will not release the disposition of Blumenthal, he’s looking bad.
Madam President did great,
Just like I knew she would. 😀
It seems that Netanyahu is completely going off the rails with his Hitler remarks, but it doesn’t change the fact that anti-Semitism IS the real cause of Arab-Israeli conflict. It is still an undisputed fact that there were mass murders of Jews in 1920’s and 1930’s, prior to the occupation. It is still a fact that Arabs did not recognize the partition in 1947 and several Arab armies attacked the Jewish state the moment it was established in 1940′, and then again in 1967, prior to Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza. It is still a fact that Palestinian Liberation Organization was created in 1964, 3 years before the lands they are supposedly liberating were even occupied. And it’s still a fact that Hamas teaches kids in schools to hate Jews.
Israel’s occupation of Gaza and West Bank escalated the conflict by its brutal treatment of Palestinians and by building settlements, and creates a feedback loop of oppression, anti-Semitism, terrorism, retaliation, but if you go back in time before the 1967 occupation and yet the conflict is already there, it’s clear that the occupation isn’t the cause for the conflict.
P.S. on unrelated note, I hope Hillary is kicking the asses on the Benghazi Witch Hunt Committee back to the fever swamps they came from.
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal advisor noted that Gowdy used to be a Prosecutor but he wasted his 10 minutes of questions to Hillary on Blumenthal….. that was a stupid thing to do as Blumenthal is not an important player. Cummings came though again while being interveiwed at the break. He is totally going for the total truth and only the truth. Watching this has made me sick to my stomach. Hillary is amazing.
At work and cna’t watch, how is our girl doing?
Very well. Holding her own without losing her cool.
She is the best…
I could not watch this fuck show. Just catching up…
I am laughing out loud over this blowhard, Pompeo. Did Chris Stevens have your email? Phone number? Fax number? Home address? Clinton: Uh, no.
AH HA!! Sid Blumenthal did!
GOTCHA!
Pretty unbelievable isn’t it?
The Saturday Night Live skit is writing itself.
I can see it now. One thing that SNL does well is political satire. Kate McKinnon is about to become a huge star.
He’s the worst. He even asked if Stevens ever stopped by her house. He’s the guy that Andrea Mitchell had to correct on Meet the Press.
I think that’s when I burst out laughing.
Yea, I thought he was going to cry, since he asked Hillary, has he visited your home? Did he get invited to your Christmas party?
Do you like him? Check yes/no.
*snort*
Awesome comment on Wonkette regarding this line of questioning:
“CLINTON: No, he did not not have my address, but in a little over a year, everyone will have my address congressman…1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…bitches.”
Oh hell, yeah!
Holy Ravioli! Republicans really how to soil themselves.
Boehner let them out to fry in the lights. It went bad for them
Did it? I hope it is over.
What I’ve learned from today’s hearings:
1.) I’m reminded that the two CIA operatives who died were killed at a different location from where Chris Stevens and Sean Smith were killed.
2.) The location in Libya where Christ Stevens died was a compound and not a consulate.
3.) All of this email bullshit is even more ridiculous when you consider that Clinton did not even have a computer in her office because she did not conduct State Dept business via email.
4.) This whole investigation is so lame that it makes the Whitewater investigation look like the goddamned Nuremberg trials.
WTF point is Roskam trying to make?
It was obvious that none of them on the committee had military experience. I think Tammy Duckworth brought it to the attention, as to what happens out there, and what should be happening (especially with low cost equipment contracts). The other thing that I keep going back to, is why she isn’t asked while she was serving did she have the General’s email, telephone number, or fax number, did she go to his house. Do our soldiers get that kind access when they enroll? No, there is a chain of command.
Now, I don’t what the hell they went to vote on.
Probably repealing Obamacare or defunding Planned Parenthood.
So far I have learned more detailed information from Hillary about building relationships, and working with the many agencies in coming to a decision. A lot of people don’t really know what was involved.
I have learned about those no bid contracts and Tammy Duckworth did a great job getting to the nitty gritty. Those Humvee’s didn’t have any more armour than my truck has Lot’s of people lost lives (including my cousin), and lots like Tammy who lost their legs. I really can’t help but blame Cheney, who headed up Halliburton before he became VP.
News…………….. Obama did what he said he was going to do, he vetoed the defense spending bill.
These breaks are good. I’m really struck by the pointlessness of these hearings. Yet one more set of good ol white boys beating up on a girl with a few women enablers. Only one with serious questions was Tammy Duckworth.
I’m convinced that the Republican game plan is to push her buttons to get her to lose her cool. She has not. She will not. Let’s go home, folks.
Who was that last guy before the break? The tone of his voice was so offensive, and he wouldn’t let Hillary finish any points.
That was Jordon of Ohio. He’s being paid well by somebody with lots of money, and he’s looking to get re-elected.
Thanks. I just went and looked it up. What a fucking jerk!
He’s been so focused on what he was going to say, and NOT what has already been said by Hillary. Over and over, and over again.
Imagine being married or having to work for this asshat.
He obviously wasn’t listening to her responses at all. He just has this obsession with the video.
Jordan is a member of House Freedom Caucus, and the only thing they know what to do is shut the government down. He doesn’t ask questions, all he has is a theory.
He is the biggest ashol, and you can help but think republicans must be ashamed of him.
Like Westmoreland, they refuse to accept her answers, and proceed with their theory.
All Raskam was doing was giving his re-election speech at this hearing.
None of them understood a damn thing Tammy Duckworth was saying.
CNN had him on this morning to talk about his great discovery that Hillary emailed Chelsea to tell her there had been a terrorist attack in Benghazi. She supposedly lied because she mentioned the anti-muslim video in some other emails.
Jim Jordan from Ohio. What an asshole!
tweety just said jim jordan is in the freedom caucus.
That figures. The other one who is driving me nuts is that guy who keep writing statements that Hillary should have made. The one who claimed she tore up the requests for security from Ambassador Stevens. I think his first name is Paul.
My eyes were rolling on this last round. That old girl from Alabama, Rody, came back for ten minutes, and gave her evil eye at Elijah Cummings, I don’t know about you, but I was reading her mind: How dare that uppity black man say what he said.
Wonkette on Roby: Hillary To Kappa Kappa Gamma On Benghazi Committee: WTF Are You Even Talking About?
http://wonkette.com/595226/hillary-to-kappa-kappa-gamma-on-benghazi-committee-wtf-are-you-even-talking-about
i’ve been flipping back and forth between the NYT, here, and wonkette all day. Hilarious!
Just got to check it out, fantastic.
Get the feeling that Jordan will be a POTUS candidate in 2020. He is going to have a hard time overcoming Kanye West!
They are trying to imply that she murdered those 4 diplomats.
He’s going for it Pat. Let’s look, they have 5 white men, 2 white women, and the dems have 2 white women, and 1 black man. They don’t have one person who has had military experience, and the dems do have Tammy Duckworth, and she’s super.
I am going to wait, and watch the rest, because I’ll take you Trey Gowdy’s going to come out swinging before this day ends.
This is a testament to Hillary’s ability to remain strong, and focus, and she has persuaded a lot of people, especially women to band together, because she truly operates as a woman with heart. She is a trustworthy and viable candidate for the White House in 2016.
Linda Sanchez has been good too.
yes indeed.
Webb out Biden out,
Chaffee out.
Pretty soon our girl, Will be the last Man standing. 😀
It’s driving me nuts. Does anyone recognize the guy over her left shoulder wearing the blue shirt and blue tie? I know I know him but I can’t think of who that is.
He looks familiar to me as well but I can’t place him.
He’s a lawyer, I’d bet a million dollars on that, but I can’t place his name.
That was Jake Sullivan, Hillary’s top foreign policy adviser. I loved the way he kept nodding approvingly when she was talking.
I don’t know either.
LA Times: Clinton maintains relentless calm as Benghazi hearing passes 8-hour mark.
He looks familiar to me as well but I can’t place him.
Her lawyer?
I have a feeling this “inquisition” just elected her all on their own.
I know. I’m picturing Trump calling their offices saying, “Tell these idiots to shut up. They’re making ME look bad!”
Rep.Jordan: on how to keep beating a dead horse. What a repulsive tool.
I see, they are going to keep this shit going, wear her down, and hope she makes a mistake, or cusses them out.
I have been glued to this all day and never got dressed!
One good thing is that I won’t have to get ready for bed since I am already there.
She has been magnificent. I think this committee without intending to has thrust her right into the Oval Office.
She is amazing.
Yep.
She was still smiling and shaking hands after 11 hours of ridiculous questioning!
Amazing. 🙂
This torturous, marathon hearing is timely with respect to the fact that the movie Suffragette is soon to be released because we must never ever forget that when women attempt to take their rightful place in this world, the response will be severe.
We must never forget and we must never give up. Just like Hillary. She is inspiring.
She was super, and so too was Elijah, Adam, and Tammy, and Mr. Smith, and Ms. Sanchez.
I had a couple of break down tears. Especially when they Rody and Brooks painted her as “uncaring”.
WTF!?! How is this still going on. The Repugs have shown their asses. This is blowing up in their faces.
Gowdy is literally melting, dripping sweat and the point on his head is getting higher. These people are discussing. They are digging their own grave and they think they are clever.
He did appear to be melting. He looked like he could be a Batman villain, “The Waxman” or maybe “The Candle.”
omgomgomgomgomg!!!! What a fricking clusterfuck.
Hubby and I watched that swamp of smegma sniffing planaria for the entire spectacle. How is anyone not retired able to know what is really happening?
The American people have to know now that the Repugs are full of shit!
Brava, Madam Secretary. Brava.
We are proud of Hillary.
Gowdy and company had their well kicked asses handed to them today/tonight. Even Rachel Maddow is gushing.
Hills proved that she can swim with the sharks while her enemies only proved that they are gonna need a bigger boat!!!!
http://www.hillarymen.com/latest/benghazi-bashfest-an-outrageous-spectacle
That was the worst thing I’ve seen since I Sat through history class in 8th grade and watched tapes of the McCarthy hearings. The Republicans are hateful no nothings.
Yeah, Hubby and I heard those baiting threads too.
I can’t stop thinking about Hillary, she was magnificent.
Talk about a profile in courage!
Amen.
Yes
I broke my word. I said I would never watch another second of Morning Joe, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to know what the haters weRe going to say about last night. a few comments that caught my notice. “TKO by Clinton”, “They never laid a glove on her”, “She made the committee Republicans look like fools” and they quoteD some Republican, I did not get a name, as saying, ” If it conintues like this they will have to inaugurate her after the hearing.” that is wh the Hillary haters had to say.
BAHAHAHAHA!
I turned it on too, but I guess I missed that. I saw Gen. Hayden attacking Hillary and then admitting he is working for Jeb Bush.
I heard Hayden, later in the car…he has always been a weasel!
He still couldn’t come up with anything specific that she did wrong.
That’s funny. I haven’t read a bad review of her performance. Some are trying to play it down a bit rather than applaud the magnificence of it but that’s the best or worst they can do.
It was unforgettable.
I wanted to, and thought about it, but didn’t.
Hillary is truly amazing. So good to see more people wake up and realize she is what we need as POTUS.
And thanks y’all for the commentary. I had to work yesterday. Then coming back I turned on the radio to NPR and some commentator was saying “We haven’t heard any big incriminating details yet, but this is the committee that discovered HRC was using a personal email server…” upon which I slammed off the radio and yelled “so did Colin Powell, you idiot! Go after him!” So I’m glad that some of the idiots have finally woken up and acknowledge that Hillary did nothing wrong and the Rs have a vendetta.
That was the most exhausting interrogation I’ve ever watched or heard and the biggest exhibition of Hillary hatred I’ve ever seen. I began watching it on MSNBC, then I listened to it on Sirius MSNBC as I went out to do some things for a granddaughter, then I finished by watching the last 4 hours on MSNBC. I can’t even imagine how Hillary felt because I was totally beaten by the end of the day. Afterward she milled around the crowd shaking hands and smiling. She’s a better woman than I a thousand times over and exactly the cool headed, even handed person we need for POTUS. Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing President Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And for the record, I’m no longer calling the Chairman of that Committee Trey Gowdy, I’m calling him Grease Face. You could have added a little salt and pepper and slid his face right into the skillet it was so greasy. The man needs to learn about face powder or find something to control his facial excretions.
I was fascinated by his head! I missed your presence yesterday. Your notable “snark” would have been much appreciated.
I wish I could have joined you, but one of my grand daughters was in a car accident and we spent yesterday driving her around getting her a rental car, salvaging what we could out of her automobile, suitcases, etc, and making plane reservations so she could fly back to the city where she lives. She was traveling near where I live to visit a friend and she was in a rollover accident. Her vehicle was completely totaled and she spent a night in the hospital with a concussion. While we were driving around yesterday she said “Grams, don’t you listen to music on the radio?” I said “Not today I don’t”. She is 29 and didn’t have a clue about what was going on with the committee, and had just minimal information on what led up to yesterdays testimony. After spending most of yesterday listening to testimony on Sirius and listening to me bitch about the GOP’ers on the Committee, she’s somewhat up to speed. 🙂
Glad to hear she is doing better. It must have been traumatizing for you all.
Thanks Pat! She’s fine, her oldest sister, my oldest grand daughter, helped more than I did. She stayed with her in the hospital, I just helped her to gather her belongings from the wrecked vehicle, to get a rental and make plans to return home. She wanted to drive the rental car home, but with the help of her mother who is in TX, her father who is in HI, and her sister who lives about 50 miles from me, we were able to talk her out of it. We convinced her to rest for a day or two, and to fly home instead.
Looks like he got slammed trying to get in an elevator, and not just once.
lol
I think the shine on Gowdy’s face was from flop sweat. He looked a lot more exhausted than Hillary after the hearing ended.
Flop sweat is right. He watched his big chance go up in smoke, right before his beady little eyes.
If the grilling would have gone on a couple of more hours, Grease Face would have slid right out of his chair, under the conference table and melted. He was a whipped man. The only thing missing was Hillary kicking back and lighting up a cigarette, if you know what I mean. 🙂
The GOP is screwed.
“After much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president,” Lincoln Chafee said.
Sighs of relief were heard from thousands of motel curtains saved from senseless DIY tie-making.
I just spit my coffee across the screen! Hilarious!
Damn! I’m going to have to return all of those metric tool sets I bought as christmas gifts.
BB, you were right, they all headed out to vote for the 61st time for their anti Obamacare, and planned parenthood.
Oh, and that was the 5th veto for our President too. He’s got the lowest record for a two term president on veto’s. But the way the republicans tell the story, you’d never know the truth.
I just re-read Hugh Hewitt’s “The Clinton Happy Dance Won’t Last” OP-ED on the CNN website. The one about “Just wait till Oct 22 and watch her collapse in front of the Benghazi Committee….”.
BAHAHAHAHA!
We should send him some cyber crying towels.