I have maintained Hillarious has been her own worst enemy all along.
Her arrogance, her many lies, her paranoia, evidenced by her belief in the Right's conspiracy against her, are not endearing qualities. They do help to define her character because she is a cold fish and comes across as such. Everything about her is calculated and contrived. Can you imagine being stranded on an island with her?
She, like Obama, believe everyone is wrong. They both need to look in the mirror and take full measure of themselves but when you drink your own bath water and find it refreshing that is asking one to change beyond their capability.
Biden is no threat to Hillary. He too is old, has seldom been right but is, at least, likable.
As for Gore, even his former wife finally could not stand his self-righteousness and left their huge house while Al was gallivanting around talking to Greens about energy consumption. What a hypocrite. He has become a zillionaire by engaging in self dealing.
Bernie Sanders is a threat to Hillary because he is an original. The problem is Bernie's nutty ideas are a threat to our nation but at least he is honest about being an avowed and proud Socialist. Better he go to France and run over there.
No Hillarious, your biggest enemy is your pitiful self and now that Demwits are frightened at the prospect of losing the presidency they will soon let you know what they really think.
Politics is a nasty business and when you threaten the sanctimoniousness of others and their power, truth bubbles to the surface. As long as Hillarious was rising in the polls she was the chosen one who could do no wrong, though most everything she has done is questionable. However, when you began to sink you became an albatross and the row boats will soon be oaring away as ship "Lollipop" takes on water.
The best I can come up, by way of Suthren Comfort is: "Bless her heart."
===
Has Europe gone mad? (See 1 below.)
===
Judicial Watch scores points through the courts. (See 2 below.)
===
In my review of John Agresto he made frequent reference to James Madison. Now there is a book review about James Madison. (See 3 below.)
===
Should America's fall it would be attributed to these five mistakes. (See 4 below.)
===
Rich Benjamin on Whitopia: http://www.ted.com/talks/rich_
===
Dick
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1)'Preferring Iran over Israel? Has the world gone mad?'
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid leveled harsh criticism at Europe over the weekend, stating in opinion pieces in two major European newspapers that the EU's policy of preferring Iran over Israel was “scandalous.”
In the articles, carried by Italian daily Corriere della Sera and German newspaper Die Welt, Lapid admonished the European community, saying, “You rush to sign contracts with the Iranians but you threaten to boycott Israel?!?”
Lapid lambasted world powers for reaching what he called “a terrible deal,” saying the agreement “sends the Middle East the message that the West is weak; that everyone who is lying cunningly enough will be rewarded.”
The former finance minister noted that since the agreement was signed on July 14th, and despite its clear stipulation that the economic sanctions imposed on Iran would be lifted gradually, “Since the closing ceremony in Vienna, the sanctions have not been gradually eliminated — they have been thrown out the window, and [European] countries have begun a frantic race for the Iranian market.”
Iran, Lapid wrote, no longer even attempts to disguise its involvement in the Syrian civil war, or its arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It has a deplorable human rights record, its regime denies the Holocaust, and has repeatedly stated it seeks Israel's annihilation.
Still, rather than demanding that Iran comply with the West's demand that Iran cease sponsoring international terrorism before pursuing trade ties with it, the European nations lecture Israel about violence and human rights, he wrote.
“Under normal circumstances, countries like Germany and Italy would boycott Iran. Instead, the international community threatens to boycott Israel, while lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran. Has the world gone mad?” Lapid concluded.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Judicial Watch: Defense, State Department Documents Reveal Obama Administration Knew that al Qaeda Terrorists Had Planned Benghazi Attack 10 Days in Advance
Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained more than 100 pages of previously classified “Secret” documents from the Department of Defense (DOD)and the Department of State revealing that DOD almost immediately reported that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was committed by the al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood-linked “Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman” (BCOAR), and had been planned at least 10 days in advance. Rahman is known as the Blind Sheikh, and is serving life in prison for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist acts. The new documents also provide the first official confirmation that shows the U.S. government was aware of arms shipments from Benghazi to Syria. The documents also include an August 2012 analysis warning of the rise of ISIS and the predicted failure of the Obama policy of regime change in Syria.
The documents were released in response to a court order in accordance with a May 15, 2014, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against both the DOD and State Department seeking communications between the two agencies and congressional leaders “on matters related to the activities of any agency or department of the U.S. government at the Special Mission Compound and/or classified annex in Benghazi.”
Spelling and punctuation is duplicated in this release without corrections.
A Defense Department document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), dated September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, details that the attack on the compound had been carefully planned by the BOCAR terrorist group “to kill as many Americans as possible.” The document was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Obama White House National Security Council. The heavily redacted Defense Department “information report” says that the attack on the Benghazi facility “was planned and executed by The Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR).” The group subscribes to “AQ ideologies:”
The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 atacks on the World Trade Center buildings.
“A violent radical,” the DIA report says, is “the leader of BCOAR is Abdul Baset ((AZUZ)), AZUZ was sent by ((ZAWARI)) to set up Al Qaeda (AQ) bases in Libya.” The group’s headquarters was set up with the approval of a “member of the Muslim brother hood movement…where they have large caches of weapons. Some of these caches are disguised by feeding troughs for livestock. They have SA-7 and SA-23/4 MANPADS…they train almost every day focusing on religious lessons and scriptures including three lessons a day of jihadist ideology.”
The Defense Department reported the group maintained written documents, in “a small rectangular room, approximately 12 meters by 6 meters…that contain information on all of the AQ activity in Libya.”
(Azuz is again blamed for the Benghazi attack in an October 2012 DIA document.)
The DOD documents also contain the first official documentation that the Obama administration knew that weapons were being shipped from the Port of Benghazi to rebel troops in Syria. An October 2012 report confirms:
Weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s, and 125 mm and 155mm howitzers missiles.
During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the ((Qaddafi)) regime in October 2011 and up until early September of 2012, weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The Syrian ports were chosen due to the small amount of cargo traffic transiting these two ports. The ships used to transport the weapons were medium-sized and able to hold 10 or less shipping containers of cargo.
The DIA document further details:
The weapons shipped from Syria during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s and 125mm and 155mm howitzers missiles. The numbers for each weapon were estimated to be: 500 Sniper rifles, 100 RPG launchers with 300 total rounds, and approximately 400 howitzers missiles [200 ea – 125mm and 200ea – 155 mm.]
The heavily redacted document does not disclose who was shipping the weapons.
Another DIA report, written in August 2012 (the same time period the U.S. was monitoring weapons flows from Libya to Syria), said that the opposition in Syria was driven by al Qaeda and other extremist Muslim groups: “the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria.” The growing sectarian direction of the war was predicted to have dire consequences for Iraq, which included the “grave danger” of the rise of ISIS:
The deterioration of the situation has dire consequences on the Iraqi situation and are as follows:
This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI [al Qaeda Iraq] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters. ISI could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.
Some of the “dire consequences” are blacked out but the DIA presciently warned one such consequence would be the “renewing facilitation of terrorist elements from all over the Arab world entering into Iraqi Arena.”
From a separate lawsuit, the State Department produced a document created the morning after the Benghazi attack by Hillary Clinton’s offices, and the Operations Center in the Office of the Executive Secretariat that was sent widely through the agency, including to Joseph McManus (then-Hillary Clinton’s executive assistant). At 6:00 am, a few hours after the attack, the top office of the State Department sent a “spot report” on the “Attack on U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi” that makes no mention of videos or demonstrations:
Four COM personnel were killed and three were wounded in an attack by dozens of fighters on the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi beginning approximately 1550 Eastern Time….
The State Department has yet to turn over any documents from the secret email accounts of Hillary Clinton and other top State Department officials.
“These documents are jaw-dropping. No wonder we had to file more FOIA lawsuits and wait over two years for them. If the American people had known the truth – that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other top administration officials knew that the Benghazi attack was an al-Qaeda terrorist attack from the get-go – and yet lied and covered this fact up – Mitt Romney might very well be president. And why would the Obama administration continue to support the Muslim Brotherhood even after it knew it was tied to the Benghazi terrorist attack and to al Qaeda? These documents also point to connection between the collapse in Libya and the ISIS war – and confirm that the U.S. knew remarkable details about the transfer of arms from Benghazi to Syrian jihadists,” stated Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president. “These documents show that the Benghazi cover-up has continued for years and is only unraveling through our independent lawsuits. The Benghazi scandal just got a whole lot worse for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
The professional lives of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson first intersected in 1779, when 28-year-old Madison sat on the Council of the State of Virginia and Jefferson served as governor. For the next 47 years they enjoyed what Madison biographer Irving Bryant once called a “perfectly balanced friendship.”
3)
The Genius of James Madison
By John WatersThe professional lives of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson first intersected in 1779, when 28-year-old Madison sat on the Council of the State of Virginia and Jefferson served as governor. For the next 47 years they enjoyed what Madison biographer Irving Bryant once called a “perfectly balanced friendship.”
Yet the contemporary legacies of Madison and Jefferson could not be more divergent. Jefferson the polymath is widely remembered for achievements before, during and after his presidency, to include the following: principal author of the Declaration of Independence; visionary expansionist who purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; founder of the University of Virginia; champion of classical architecture; guiding light of republicanism, and so on. Located high atop a hill in the Virginia Piedmont, Jefferson’s majestic, neoclassical-inspired plantation, Monticello, continues to remind tourists of its owner’s imposing brilliance.
Thirty miles down the road in Orange County, a sign at the entrance gate to Montpelier informs visitors that James Madison was the “Father of the Constitution.” America’s fifth president was much more. Historian Lynne Cheney’s 2014 biography, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered (Viking, 2014), offers a layered re-evaluation of the man too often remembered as shy, sickly and “hardly suited for the demands of daily life, much less the rough-and-tumble world of politicking.”
Yes, Madison was a two-term president, and he was indispensable in the 1787 drafting of the Constitution. He was also an influential member of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State during Jefferson’s presidency. Even more so than his good friend Jefferson, Madison is credited with founding the Democratic-Republican Party. Mrs. Cheney’s biography successfully conveys the full depth of her subject’s character and his many accomplishments. Historian Gordon S. Wood, writing in the New York Times, called the book “lucidly written” and among the best Madison biographies. Below is a transcript of RealClearBooks’ recent conversation with Lynne Cheney.
Q: You write in the book’s prologue, “It is a promising time to clear away misconceptions about Madison.” What are these misconceptions, and why do you think they have seeped into the collective consciousness of a nation still governed by ideals James Madison helped formalize?
LC: I think he has faded in national memory in part because he was reserved. His contemporaries came to understand that although he wasn’t the kind to push toward the front of the room, they had better pay attention to him—and so should we. An early historian wrote, “No mind has stamped more of its impressions on American institutions than Madison’s.”
Q: You remark that as James Madison entered the Philadelphia convention in 1787 (also known as the Constitutional Convention), he was the “political equivalent of Mozart in the late 1770s” or “Einstein [when] he would establish the basis of the theory of relativity and quantum physics.” What led you to place Madison’s political genius in the same category as two men whose creative brilliance is so universally celebrated?
LC: A genius is someone who breaks through conventional thinking and takes whatever field he or she is in to a new level. Mozart did this in music, Einstein in physics, and Madison in politics. It was widely believed that a large republic was impossible, that it would break into pieces, or factions. Madison saw that the tendency of free people to have many different interests could be the underlying strength of a great republic. No one faction would come to dominate and turn the republic into a tyranny.
The extended republic established at the Constitutional Convention was the result of breakthrough thinking. It was new under the sun, which for Anti-federalists became a point of criticism. Madison responded in The Federalist, no. 14, asking, “Is it not the glory of the people of America that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience?”
Q: Historians have long believed that Madison suffered an illness resembling epilepsy. Do you believe he was epileptic, and how did his infirmity affect him as a writer, statesman and leader?
LC: When I began to study Madison, I was struck by the way that truly distinguished biographers dismissed what he called “sudden attacks, somewhat resembling epilepsy, and suspending the intellectual functions” as hypochondria. I made charts of when these attacks might have occurred and immersed myself in eighteenth-century medical books as well as more modern ones. I consulted with experts, in particular Dr. Orin Devinsky, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center of New York University’s Langone Medical Center, and concluded there was a pattern suggesting that Madison suffered from complex partial seizures, a form of temporal lobe epilepsy.
These seizures leave the person conscious, but with comprehension and ability to communicate impaired—the “intellectual functions” suspended, as Madison wrote. He may have described his attacks as “resembling epilepsy” because in his time epilepsy was known as the “falling disease.” The term was reserved for convulsive seizures. That he saw a relationship between what happened to him and attacks in which people fell to the ground and convulsed is, I think, one more indication of how remarkably perceptive he was.
Q: A niece of the Madison family once wrote that Dolley was James’s “solace and comfort […] He could not bear her to leave his presence, and she gratified him by being absent only when duty required.” What more can you tell us about the relationship between James and Dolley Madison?
LC: Dolley and James loved one another and complemented one another. While he was reserved, she was outgoing. While he didn’t stand out in a crowd, she certainly did. Descriptions of her clothes are wonderful. One of my favorites of her outfits is a pink gown with a lot of gold chains around the waist. Her hat was a white velvet turban with feathers on top.
Dolley knew how to entertain and make people comfortable. This was a great help to James when he was running for president. She welcomed members of Congress to their house on F Street in Washington, where they could get to know James and come to like him personally as well as respect his intellect. Since congressional caucuses chose nominees for president in those days, Dolley, as contemporaries acknowledged, really made a difference.
Q: Madison once commented that “the belief in a God all powerful […] is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources.” Yet Madison’s religious beliefs are unclear. How do you characterize his faith life?
LC: The important thing to Madison wasn’t to discuss his religious beliefs, but to be certain that everyone was free to believe as he or she chose. In my book, I speculate that his “sudden attacks” may have been part of the reason he was so fervent in his defense of religious freedom. In the eighteenth century, epilepsy was regarded as a sign that the sufferer was possessed by the devil. Madison had personal reason to know that wasn’t the case and to realize there was no cause for imposing such a notion or any other religious belief on another person.
There are many aspects to Madison’s thought and character—which is how I justify having spent five years writing "James Madison: A Life Reconsidered."
No comments:
Post a Comment