The fault, in the faux comparison between the Watergate investigation and the Benghazi  “investigation”   was the target of Dionne’s laser-beam tonight. Using few words, E.J. managed to illustrate why there can be no comparison between the real scandal of the Watergate cover-up and the in-construction of a Benghazigate cover-up.

Eminence-grise that he is, E.J. hearkened back to a bi-partisan effort to find facts via hearings.  Having gathered the evidence,  the special committee on Watergate  arrived at a conclusion of  a  cover-up conspiracy.  E.J. then  contrasted the partisan effort of Darryl Issa, Jason Chaffetz, & Co. on Benghazi  that, having decided on a conclusion of a cover-up,  now attempts,  by way of cherry-picked hearings, to construct a web of evidence.

Thomas Pickering, co-chair of the Accountability Review Board appointed by then Secretary of State Clinton, and other officials from the State Department and the Department of Defense,  volunteered to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today to balance the information and testimony offered by the “Whistleblowers.”   Those offers were declined.

Clearly there is an agenda here, and E.J. spotlighted it like a professor with a laser light.  The two sets of hearings work from two opposing constructs.

The Watergate hearings, having listened to a wide variety of  testimonies arrived at a specific proposition: there was a cover-up.   Deduction, my dear Watson.

The Darryl Issa war on Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is an inductive effort.  Let’s find enough testimony to point to a cover-up conspiracy – just in case she runs.  Find evidence for this proposition.

N.B. This is not pure induction.  It is, having decided on a conclusion, cherry-picking the evidence, not a true investigation.  If Issa really wanted a pure conclusion, he would have invited all who were willing to testify, including Ambassador Pickering.

The marathon bombings were tragic and reprehensible, but so is this kind of visceral scapegoating.

Heba Abolaban, Muslim Woman, Says She Was Attacked Over Boston Bombings (PHOTO)

The Huffington Post  |  By Hunter Stuart Posted: 04/18/2013 7:46 pm EDT

A Muslim woman wearing a hijab said she was attacked in the Boston area by a man who shouted that Muslims had perpetrated the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded about 170 Monday.

Heba Abolaban, a Palestinian doctor who immigrated to the United States from Syria, says she was punched in the shoulder in Malden, Mass., on Wednesday by a man who shouted “F*** you Muslims!” and “You are involved in the Boston explosions,” according to the Malden Patch.

The man, described as a white male in his 30s, allegedly shouted at Abolaban for about two minutes before continuing on his way, Patch reports.

Read more >>>>

Boston Bombing Suspects’ Identity Sparks Fear Of Backlash For American Muslims, Sikhs

Posted: 04/19/2013 6:17 pm EDT  |  Updated: 04/19/2013 9:14 pm EDT

WASHINGTON — For Arab-Americans — and people who are mistaken to be Arab — there’s an extra layer of fear that rides along with the frightening news of a possible terror attack: the very real possibility that they will be blamed.

Linda Sarsour, the national advocacy director for the National Network for Arab American Communities, knows it happens. But when the bombs exploded Monday at the Boston Marathon, it was her 13-year-old son who brought that reality home with startling and personal impact.

He did it with a simple text message about an hour after the news broke that asked: “Mom, who did it?”

For Sarsour, it showed just how deeply the fear of guilt by bogus association is embedded in the Arab-American community, even in children born and raised in the United States whose prime obsessions tend to be video games, not race relations.

Read more >>>>

How sad that a 13-year-old American boy might now be as at-risk going to school for fear of retribution for something he had nothing to do with as Malala Yousafzai was in Pakistan. Americans wrongly assigning blame and encouraging vigilante justice are no better than the Taliban.

Background checks on potential purchasers of firearms went down in flames today.   The bill that was defeated by a 54-46 vote in the U.S. Senate was already badly hobbled when both an assault weapons ban and a ban on high capacity magazines were removed.  Polls have indicated that 90% of Americans agree with legislation that would keep military-style weapons and the accoutrements out of the hands of individuals who might use them to unleash more  Newtown, Columbine,  Tucson, Aurora, and Virginia Tech mass shootings and serial murders like the D.C. area sniper attacks.

Gun control loses: No expanded background checks

By ALAN FRAM

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON —

Senate Republicans backed by a small band of rural-state Democrats scuttled the most far-reaching gun control legislation in two decades Wednesday, rejecting tighter background checks for buyers and a ban on assault weapons as they spurned pleas from families of victims of last winter’s school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Read more >>>>

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has let forth with a stinging op-ed in today’s New York Times.

Op-Ed Contributor

A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip

By GABRIELLE GIFFORDS

Published: April 17, 2013

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Read more >>>>

What these senators faced was not fear.  Those killed in these massacres knew fear.  Parents who send their children off to inner city schools know fear.  Those cheering at the finish line at the Boston marathon faced fear, and before you think I am confounding things,  Lawrence O’Donnell reported tonight that the defeat of this legislation effectively blocked the FBI from obtaining evidence related to “taggants” in the gunpowder in the home-made  bombs used there.

Senators Manchin and Toomey, who co-authored the legislation,  are both gun owners and NRA members with A ratings from the organization.  Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, are also gun owners and members of the NRA.  Yet these 46 senators voted against this legislation for “fear” of the gun lobby. These senators are cowards.

So, what is it going to take?  What do these senators need in order to hear 90% of the American public?  Do they have the woodman’s tin ear – and no heart?

Or would giving them a medal help?

Maybe they just need this.  Ba-Bye!

These are the reasons.

Regularly seen on Bashir Live, where she has also filled in for Martin occasionally, as well as on Weekends with Alex Whitt,  Now with Alex Wagner, and Lawrence O’Donnell’s prime time hour among other MSNBC offerings,  Karen’s pleasant humor,  incisive intellect, and ability to put issues in an historical perspective have made her an ideal guest.

Her ability to get ahead of the pack on back stories and bring in fresh perspectives will make her a stand-out host as  seen when she filled in for Martin Bashir and exposed ALEC as the organization behind “stand your ground” laws in many states.  Thus it was most welcome news when we learned today that Ms. Karen Finney has been given a spot to call her own at MSNBC.

02 Apr 2013 1:37 PM

KAREN FINNEY NAMED MSNBC WEEKEND HOST

KAREN FINNEY NAMED MSNBC WEEKEND HOST

Finney to Host Weekends 4p-5p ET

NEW YORK –April 2, 2013 – Karen Finney has been named host of a new MSNBC program to air on weekends from 4-5 p.m. ET. More details about the program, including the launch date, will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Karen’s rich background in both education policy and politics will add a unique point of view to our expanding live weekend programming,” said Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC.

Finney has been an MSNBC political analyst and guest host on the network since 2009.

Read more >>>>>

We will all be watching, Karen! We know you will do a terrific job and are looking forward to your debut. Congratulations! It’s about time!

Friends logging on at Facebook saw this wonderful announcement.  Congratulations, Jennifer, for making history during Women’s History Month!   We are all proud of you!

 

My film won Best of the Festival for Documentary! I am delighted to have launched my film at the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival 2013. This is a picture of me and the festival director Diana Means http://lawomensfest.com/about.html

Often, gay couples have adopted children who are considered unadoptable – older children, siblings, children with special needs.  What our society has accomplished, thus far, is to have given those children loving homes they might otherwise not have had, but minus the full protections and advantages that children of straight married couples enjoy, most importantly happily married parents with all of the rights and privileges granted straight married pairs.

The argument that children need to grow up in a home with a mother and a father doesn’t wash.  In addition to completely normal children raised by gay couples,  there are many straight and gay single parents of both sexes who have successfully raised happy, healthy children.   Denying gays the right to marry based on an argument that marriage is meant for procreation is equally baseless.  Many straight unions cannot produce children or do not.

Given the fact that there already are families with gay parents, it seems high time parents so committed be permitted the right to marry should they want to.

There may be some women who carry and know how to use a gun for self-protection.  As long as they are trained and competent and keep the weapons away from irresponsible hands, that is fine.  Not every woman wants to go that route.  We should not have to and should not be made to feel we ought to.

Not having a handy weapon to fend off an attacker (or multiple attackers)  is not what generates rape.  Thinking that the penis you were born with was meant to be used as a weapon is.

Telling women to get a gun is not rape prevention

By zerlina | Published: March 7, 2013

On Tuesday night, I appeared on Hannity in a segment framed around the idea that giving women guns is the solution to ending rape.  I was on with Independent Women’s Forum’s Gayle Trotter who recently made the point that women need guns for self defense from rape and gun violence prevention is infringing on their second Amendment rights, as well as, putting them at greater risk for domestic violence and rape.

Obviously, I disagreed.  Giving every woman a gun is not rape prevention.  If a woman chooses to go out and buy a legal gun for self-defense, that’s fine.  But that shouldn’t be confused with actual prevention, which is really about stopping rapes before they happen and focusing on the sole party responsible: the rapist.

Since Tuesday, I’ve been bombarded by conservatives on Facebook and Twitter purposefully misquoting and misunderstanding my point in order to call me dumb, bitch, idiot, and at worst threaten to gang rape common sense into me.  Charming.

Read more >>>>

I shared the post in the usual places on Facebook and Twitter and also specifically directed the tweet to  Vote_Hillary which had been touting it as genuinely Hillary Clinton’s official Twitter account.  I was immediately blocked after being told in no uncertain terms that it was really Hillary.

In the ensuing weeks, my homegirls and I kept an eye on the bogus account.   Tuesday morning, “Verified” was advertising a Q & A with Hillary herself.  Since the account was not Hillary, and this was fraud, I did a little detective work and called him on it.  You can see the process here.  Pay special attention to the comments thread.  That is where the mystery was solved.    Hillary Clinton’s Twitter Impersonator @VerifiedClinton is a Man – See His Picture Here.

Here is what happened next.  Note To Potential Hillary Clinton Impersonators: Don’t Even THINK About It!

The VerifiedClinton account is down.  So I moseyed over to Twitter a little while ago to see how the VerifiedClinton takedown was going and saw this tweet.

VOTE HILLARY ‏@VOTE_HILLARY

FYI Hillary Tweeters — @VerifiedClinton is a FAKE TWITTER and Twitter FINALLY Shut it Down Today After 3 Months. #HillaryClinton

Thing is,  Vote_Hillary, which is associated with GlobalYouthJustice,  still has me blocked for saying VerifiedClinton was fake.    Where is the justice in that?

This blog began in order to wage, and has largely been devoted to,  defense – defense of Hillary and other women.  Occasionally,  we have celebrated women in the trenches fighting the good fight like the Nuns on the Bus and Karen Finney outing ALEC.   It never occurred to me that I would need to defend myself, however, I feel I have been treated unfairly by Vote_Hillary when my sisters and I were proven correct.   It is especially ironic that I was summarily blocked by a fellow Hillary supporter who ignored the very valid reasons I gave for my argument.

So I  wanted Vote_Hillary‘s followers to know exactly how just GlobalYouthJustice is.    I was not even given the courtesy of a hearing.  I was slammed and blocked – as I remain tonight.   I was right.  VerifiedClinton was neither verified nor genuine, but by all means, Vote_Hillary, shoot first and aim later.  Perfect way to win and gather Hillary supporters.

The Seattle Times ran an op-ed by syndicated columnist Froma Harrop that made my blood boil.

Can Hillary Clinton pace herself?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton works hard, writes Froma Harrop, but doesn’t working smart mean pacing oneself so that you don’t fall apart in the last mile of the marathon? Clinton was asking for it.

OK, let’s start there.  What originally felled the Secretary of State was a norovirus, very contagious, and no amount of “pacing” guards one against it.   She was “asking for it?”  Really?  Yes, let’s blame the victim.  For Ms. Harrop’s information there is a serious outbreak of norovirus in the northeast right now competing with the near-epidemic flu outbreak that is filling hospitals in 47 states.  Were these victims asking for it?

During one famous 48-hour period, she met with Palestinian officials in Abu Dhabi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and, after doing an all-nighter in Morocco, a group of Arab leaders.

Of course, she got sick. Who wouldn’t?

Completely ignoring the fact that she did not fall ill on the heels of this particular trip,  Ms. Harrop also betrays her ignorance of the effect of the all-nighter which resulted in a brilliant speech delivered the next day to Arab elders that foreshadowed events that began unfolding in Tunisia a year later.  In her Forum for the Future speech on November 3, 2009, Secretary Clinton demonstrated a familiarity with Arab populations, borne of her insistence on meeting with civil society at every stop in her travels.  She conveyed to the elders the need for changes,  economic, political, and even cultural, which she outlined, without which regimes would fall.  Indeed, her message unheeded (perhaps resented), in December 2010 the dominoes began to topple.

Lots of otherwise healthy Americans come down with a nasty bug after just one transatlantic fight to London. Add to that constant time-zone changes, rich banquets, minimal exercise, lack of sleep and stress-filled meetings. Clinton wasn’t there to stroll around museums. What’s not cute about all this is the underlying — shall we say? — irresponsibility of so overstuffing the agenda.

Yes, as I said above, the overstuffing, which typically consisted of Town Halls, “Townterviews,” meetings with civil and business groups, opposition parties,  women’s organizations, in addition to the routine formalities in the ministerial halls, that “irresponsible” packing of her schedule is how she knew what those Arab elders did not – the grievances among their own populations – the young, the women.   Very irresponsible, Mme. Secretary.  For shame!  Sacrificing yourself for the voiceless that way!  Tsk – tsk – tsk!

All that racing around Mideast capitals sometimes took on the air of a personal endurance test rather than effective management of foreign policy. (You’ll note that the Arab-Israeli conflict remains unresolved.)

Why this charge is leveled mystifies me, and it is not Harrop alone who has brought it up.  Every Secretary of State since the creation of the State of Israel has been called upon to deal with this conflict.  It is part of the job.

Make no mistake: Clinton has been a fine secretary of state. Few would argue otherwise. Still, we’re kind of lucky there wasn’t a major new international crisis in December.

Telegram: She was working from home the whole time. She was on the phone with her counterparts in other countries, with her staff, and she both read the ARB Report and wrote an extensive cover letter to accompany the report to Congress while she was home.  The letter is unmistakeably Hillary Clinton’s work – if you know her work.  It is not clear that Ms. Harrop knows anything much about her at all.

It pains me to bring up the woman angle here, but you wonder whether a man would have overscheduled to the point of collapse.

Yes, well, it pains me that you brought this up, too, Ms. Harrop.  The collapse was due to dehydration from a virus that is attacking many right now and against which there is no defense.  You make it sound like she collapsed from exhaustion.  Not the case. As to men performing in this role, your chance is coming up! I trust you will be observing Secretary Kerry with the same care and detail  you have afforded Secretary Clinton (my tongue deeply in my cheek).

It’s no small irony that Clinton’s recent illness has led some Democrats eager for a strong female presidential candidate in 2016 to start looking beyond Hillary.

*Sigh* As if she owes this country or the Democratic Party another minute of service.  The irony is that so many of those calling her name are the Super Delegates from 2008 that either supported Obama over her or, worse, switched allegiances early in the 2008 primaries.   What, exactly, does Hillary Clinton owe any of them?

While she will never embody the cool and outward serenity of Barack Obama, Clinton didn’t have to become the spinning top that put her in a sick bed.  Even there, she noted — not without pride — her difficulty in becoming a “compliant patient.” If Clinton does run for president, she must show more dedication to self-preservation. Martyrs don’t necessarily make great managers.

This is way outside the foul line.  Hillary’s work ethic was one of the reasons  President Obama cited for nominating her in the first place.  Hillary Clinton has given many brilliant speeches as Secretary of State, but what her loyalists know about her is that she is a supremely well-organized woman of action.  “Spinning top” indeed!  And “martyr?”  Seriously?  Last I saw she was back on the job with her bright, sunny smile.

As for great management, she has completely transformed the State Department, streamlined operations among agencies,  and brought it into the 21st century with her QDDR and 21st Century Statecraft, but then I would not expect such a dabbler in things Hillary Clinton to be aware of that.

Finally, the hideous sketch that accompanies the op-ed, gaunt, wrinkled,  exhausted,  bears no resemblance to the actual Hillary Clinton who returned to her office this week looking like this.

She looks lovely.  We’ve got your back, Hillary, and we always will.

Cross-posted at Still 4 Hill.

While those of us here were worried sick about our Hillary this week,  FOX News* continued, in fact worsened, their outrageous attacks on our girl saying she would go to any length, including developing a life-threatening blood clot, to avoid testifying about the attack on the consulate in Benghazi.

Since we were all preoccupied with her condition,  I left those attacks on the sidelines earlier this week.  We just wanted her safe and healthy, so my attitude (and probably yours) was “Screw them!”   We simply wanted not to lose her!  God, I was worried!  Now that her condition has improved and she is looking forward to returning to work (an understatement according to Victoria Nuland who said today, “…she is raring to go… “), we can take a step back to the atrocious remarks that echoed all over FOX News about the genesis of Mme. Secretary’s health crisis.

The malicious and cold-hearted comments did not sit well with those who know our Hillary.  James Carville rose like a cottonmouth from the bayou, as Politico reports.

James Carville: Hillary Clinton haters ‘inhumane’

By KEVIN CIRILLI | 1/4/13 5:57 PM EST

James Carville slammed the “inhumane, idiotic” critics who questioned the legitimacy of Hillary Clinton’s recent head injury and said it was “duly noted” inside Clinton-land.

“What kind of human being is going to think like that with everything going on with concussions, head injuries? The fact the woman was dehydrated from the fact that she’d been overseas so much — I just don’t know, and some of these people I know and I get along with,” Carville said Friday in a CNN interview.

Read more >>>>

With Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word,  the goddess, Karen Finney,   let loose with a torrent of well-aimed lightening bolts to insta-burn to a crisp each and every opprobrious sound bite, and she was glorious!

Wasn’t she magnificent?

Having realized that by polishing my second floor furniture (a rare occurrence) two days earlier,  I may well have caused Sandy to blow through that area, breaking windows and walls, and that by moving the shovels we used to scoop the plaster up back to their rightful place in the cellar I probably caused last week’s snow dump, I think I just might be a witch and  Hillary attackers should beware of me too (as soon as I can fine-tune my powers not to backfire on me).  You just don’t want Hillary’s people (especially Hillary’s women) mad at you.  Anything can happen.

Cross-posted at Still4Hill.

*Exception: Greta van Susteren