The Republican led House Judiciary and Oversight committees have just announced the opening of a new investigation pertaining to Hillary Clinton's emails. No, I am not kidding.

Do you seriously have nothing better to do with your time?

Courtesy of The Hill: 

The chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees announced on Tuesday a joint investigation into how the FBI handled last year's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. 

"Decisions made by the Department of Justice in 2016 have led to a host of outstanding questions that must be answered," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said in a joint statement. 

The two Republican leaders said they have questions about the FBI's decision to openly declare the bureau's investigation into Clinton's handling of classified information, while quietly investigating Trump campaign associates. 

They are also interested to know why the FBI decided to formally notify Congress of the probe on two separate occasions; why the FBI — rather than the Justice Department — recommended that Clinton not be charged after the investigation concluded; and the reasoning behind their timeline for announcing such decisions. 

"The Committees will review these decisions and others to better understand the reasoning behind how certain conclusions were drawn. Congress has a constitutional duty to preserve the integrity of our justice system by ensuring transparency and accountability of actions taken," their statement continued.

Congress has a constitutional responsibility to make sure that taxpayer money is spent on important investigations that safeguard or benefit the American people.

These do nothing of the sort.

While those two probes are going on Devin Nunes of the House Intelligence Committee is also launching his own investigation:

The embattled chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced on Tuesday that he has opened an investigation into a deal struck between the US and a predominantly Russia-owned uranium company based in Canada, Uranium One, while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. 

Devin Nunes' announcement came one week after The Hill published a report on a "racketeering scheme ... designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow." 

The New York Times reported in 2015 that "as the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation." The Times' reporting built off of "Clinton Cash," a book by conservative author Peter Schweizer that the Clintons dismissed as partisan conspiracy-mongering.

So instead of investigating the actual and dangerous attempts by Russia to undermine our democracy, or the very real possibility that they were successfully in doing that while aided by members of the Trump campaign, THIS is how the Republicans in Congress believe their time is best spent.

I think this tweet more or less sums up my feelings on this.

Goddamnit, if we're getting a bunch of Clinton probes, can she at least be president? https://t.co/5OYqc13NxR

— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) October 24, 2017

Seems fair.

If you want to know more about what triggered this "new" investigation by Nunes, Politifact has an excellent summation.

Spoiler alert: It's essentially another nothing burger.

Lindsey Graham is glad they have appointed a special counsel to investigate that Russia thing, so that he can get back to investigating those pesky Clinton emails.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News on Thursday that now that special counsel has been appointed to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Congress should abandon their own investigations and go back to focusing on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails. 

“I don’t know what caused the appointment. I haven’t seen any evidence of a crime yet. The bottom line is I respect the decision, but this pretty much shuts Congress down,” Graham said. “Democrats, you got what you wanted. You got a special counsel. Now we’ll just move on. We’re not prosecutors.”

“There’s a new front opening here. I have reason to believe that there are emails between Clinton campaign officials, democratic operatives to the Department of Justice regarding the Clinton email investigation that happened on Obama’s watch. I have reason to believe those emails exist,” Graham said. “I’m on the Judiciary Committee. And I think it’s important that the Judiciary Committee be given any emails that were directed to the Department of Justice by Clinton campaign officials or operatives because we have jurisdiction over the Department of Justice.”

You know every time I start to think that maybe Lindsey Graham is not such a douchenozzle after all he does something like this to remind me that of course he is.

How many tax payer dollars have been wasted investigating Clinton emails so far now?

Somebody should alert Donald Trump to the fact that THIS is what an actual witch hunt looks like. 

In news conference Trump denies telling James Comey to back off Russia investigation.

Asked if he urged James Comey to end the investigation into Michael Flynn, @realDonaldTrump says: "No. No. Next question." pic.twitter.com/yRjUujXCEE

— POLITICO (@politico) May 18, 2017

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump on Thursday denied ever asking FBI Director James B. Comey to back off his agency’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and the role played by former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Asked whether he urged Comey to ease up on the Flynn investigation, Trump said at a news conference, “No, no," before ordering the media to move onto the “next question."

This of course directly contradicts reports of that Comey memo, which is dumb of Trump because he has to KNOW that the memo is going to be subpoenaed and show up in at least one of these investigations.

Trump also claimed that Comey was fired because of his poor performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

President Trump said James Comey had a “poor performance” at the Senate intel hearing https://t.co/kIBXcBVk1G

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 18, 2017

That was also when Comey said that he was made "mildly nauseous" by the idea that he might have helped to change the outcome of the election.

Also during this brief press conference Trump reiterated that the Russian investigation was a "witch hunt" and that it was hurting the country.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

President Trump insisted on Thursday that there was no collusion between his presidential campaign and Russian officials, though he added, “I can only speak for myself.” 

Mr. Trump, speaking in the East Room of the White House, said he respected the appointment of a special counsel to investigate ties with Russia. 

“The entire thing has been a witch hunt,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s no collusion between, certainly, myself and my campaign — but I can only speak for myself — and the Russians — zero.” 

The president said the questions surrounding his campaign and Russia were divisive. 

“I think it divides the country,” Mr. Trump said. “I think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things.”

Yes, the country is divided between those who still support the president that Vladimir Putin chose to undermine our democracy and damage our country's credibility, and those who do not.

Can you guess which camp I'm in?

Donald Trump claims that he is the subject of a witch hunt, while yet more evidence surfaces to prove that is not the fact.

This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017

With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel appointed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017

Jesus somebody call the Whambulance.

Unfortunately for Trump our great journalists, who are certainly NOT conducting a witch hunt, have discovered even more evidence which supports an investigation into the Trump campaign's interactions with Russian operatives.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters. 

The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia. 

Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said. 

Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.

Well THAT'S pretty damning.

But wait, there's more.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Michael T. Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, according to two people familiar with the case. 

Despite this warning, which came about a month after the Justice Department notified Mr. Flynn of the inquiry, Mr. Trump made Mr. Flynn his national security adviser. The job gave Mr. Flynn access to the president and nearly every secret held by American intelligence agencies.

So the Trump camp knew that Flynn was under federal investigation and they STILL gave him one of he most sensitive jobs in government.

 WTF?

And yet there is even more.

Courtesy of McClatchy: 

One of the Trump administration’s first decisions about the fight against the Islamic State was made by Michael Flynn weeks before he was fired – and it conformed to the wishes of Turkey, whose interests, unbeknownst to anyone in Washington, he’d been paid more than $500,000 to represent. 

The decision came 10 days before Donald Trump had been sworn in as president, in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, who had explained the Pentagon’s plan to retake the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Syrian Kurdish forces whom the Pentagon considered the U.S.’s most effective military partners. Obama’s national security team had decided to ask for Trump’s sign-off, since the plan would all but certainly be executed after Trump had become president. 

Flynn didn’t hesitate. According to timelines distributed by members of Congress in the weeks since, Flynn told Rice to hold off, a move that would delay the military operation for months.

So Michael Flynn helped to shape US policy toward Turkey, while being paid by Turkey to help shape US policy. 

Do I have that right?

You know during the Salem witch hunts the magistrates used manufactured "evidence" to convict, sentence, and execute innocent people of crimes they were not guilty of committing.

This, this, is the exact opposite of what happened back then.

Donald Trump blames the Democrats for the fact that everybody in his administration seems to be a Russian double agent. Update!

Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

...intentional. This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

...to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election, and now they have lost their grip on reality. The real story...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

...is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total "witch hunt!"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

Let's all just take a moment to savor the fact that the new leader of the Republican party is referring to ANYTHING as a "witch hunt."

Oh yes, that is delightful isn't it?

And then let's keep in mind that just about every time that we learn something new from this so-called "witch hunt" that it eventually leads to a member of the Trump administration having to admit wrong doing and either resigning, getting fired, or recusing themselves.

Trump followed up this series of tweets with this one.

It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

Geez, imagine that.

Personally I think that the Democrats would be more than happy to confirm some of Trump's cabinet picks if they can find one who does not have the Russian flag tattooed on their ass.

Update: Interesting to note that the Russian foreign minister used essentially Trump's exact words to describe the media pressure on Jeff Sessions right now.:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the pressure on Mr Sessions "strongly resembles a witch hunt or the times of McCarthyism, which we thought were long over in the United States as a civilised country." 

Wow looky there, yet another amazing coincidence!

Update 2: Check out this pathetic attempt to obfuscate.

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

Senator Schumer is having none of it.

Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team? https://t.co/yXgw3U8tmQ

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 3, 2017

Okay at this point Trump is just starting to look ridiculous.

Let's not lose focus on what is the MOST important story.

Courtesy of the Guardian: 

Narrative switching. That is what the Trump administration is desperately trying to do around Russia right now. The White House reportedly interfered with the FBI in the middle of an active investigation involving counter-intelligence. This was not only foolhardy but also suspicious, as it directly undermined their apparent objective: distracting us. 

On 14 February, the New York Times reported that advisers and associates of Donald Trump may have been in direct and continuous contact with officers of the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, during a tumultuous election campaign in which the American democracy itself was hacked. A major party – now in opposition – was the victim of an unprecedented cyber-attack. 

According to the Times, intercepted telephone calls and phone records indicated to American counter-intelligence officers direct contact with the Russians. 

The stakes are high. Most Democrats and more than a few Republicans believe this investigation could unearth details that could plunge the nation into a political and constitutional crisis not seen since the secession of the South in 1860 and 1861.

Yes, EXACTLY!

And every tweet from Donald Trump, or distraction shoved in front of us by the Republicans, is an attempt to obfuscate and shift attention away from perhaps the biggest scandal to ever happen in American political history.

And Trump knows it.

Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2017

Already some Republicans are attempting to downplay the importance of the investigations into this hacking of our election, outright blocking them, or even using one of THEIR own past scandals to ridicule them.

Courtesy of Politico:  

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, responding to calls for an independent investigation into contacts between Trump associates and Russia, said Saturday that the House would not engage in a “witch hunt” and that “at this point, there’s nothing there.” 

“This is almost like McCarthyism revisited,” the California Republican told reporters at the California Republican Party’s spring convention in Sacramento. “We’re going to go on a witch hunt against, against innocent Americans …?”

“At this point, there’s nothing there,” Nunes said. “Once we begin to look at all the evidence, and if we find any American that had any contact with Russian agents or anybody affiliated with the Russian government, then we’ll be glad to, at that point, you know, subpoena those people before the House and let the legislative branch do its oversight and then we would recommend it over to, you know, the appropriate people.” 

He added, “But at this point … we can’t go on a witch hunt against the American people, any American people who have not had any contact, just because they appeared in a news story.” 

Interesting phrase, "witch hunt." I wonder if he spoke out as passionate against the Benghazi witch hunt, or the private server witch hunt?

Never mind, I already know the answer.

No this is no witch hunt.

This is an investigation to determine the fate of a nation.

Update: By the way it is now an investigation that even George W. Bush supports:  

Former President George W. Bush said Monday “we all need answers” on the extent of contact between President Donald Trump’s team and the Russian government, and didn’t rule out the idea that a special prosecutor could be necessary to lead an investigation. 

The Republican also defended the media’s role in keeping world leaders in check, noting that “power can be addictive,” and warned against immigration policies that could alienate Muslims. 

“I am for an immigration policy that’s welcoming and upholds the law,” Bush told NBC’s “Today” show.

Okay well that is certainly going to complicate the Republicans attempts to stonewall this thing. 

Former presidents do not typically endorse investigations of current presidents from their own party.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz decides it is better to continue the Clinton witch hunt than to bother investigating Trump's ties with Russia.

Courtesy of the AP: 

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who has refused Democratic requests to investigate possible conflicts of interest involving President Donald Trump, is seeking criminal charges against a former State Department employee who helped set up Hillary Clinton's private email server. 

Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday asking him to convene a grand jury or charge Bryan Pagliano, the computer specialist who helped establish Clinton's server while she was secretary of state.

Pagliano did not comply with two subpoenas ordering him to appear before the oversight panel. The GOP-led committee later voted to hold him in contempt of Congress. 

Earlier this month, Chaffetz met with Trump at the White House and agreed not to discuss oversight. He has rebuffed calls for his panel to look into Trump's businesses and possible conflicts. 

Chaffetz said in a statement that allowing Pagliano's conduct "to go unaddressed would gravely harm Congress' ability to conduct oversight."

I am literally so disgusted by this that I cannot even come up with anything clever to say about it.

It is like these partisan pricks cannot even be bothered to PRETEND they are doing their actual jobs anymore. 

Did you hear? The Benghazi investigation is finally over.

Benghazi committee chairman Trey "Banjo Boy" Gowdy.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The special congressional investigation into the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi is officially over now that the panel filed its final report the day before the House adjourned for the year. 

The Select Committee on Benghazi initially released its findings in June but remained in place for months afterward trying to declassify supporting documents like emails and interview transcripts for public release. 

The final report, not including dissenting views from committee Democrats, clocks in at more than 322,000 words. It was added to the official House record without fanfare on Dec. 7 by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the panel’s chairman. 

The panel, which spent more than $7.8 million over two and a half years, disbanded at the end of the 114th Congress, before a new Congress begins in January.

This was of course the eighth investigation into the Benghazi attack and not one of them found anything significant.

So why did it take so long for this last committee to file its report?

Oh I think you know why.

Democrats contended all along that the committee was a political effort to taint Clinton, an allegation that got some traction when House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Fox News that because of the committee, "her numbers are dropping." 

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said Monday that the final report was a “desperate rehash.” 

“Republicans voted on this partisan report five months ago, but delayed filing it and completing the committee until after the election,” Cummings said. “Republicans promised a process that was fair and bipartisan, but the American people got exactly the opposite.”

Yes it, just like the Russian hacks and the Comey letter, existed only to destroy Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the presidency.

Filing the report before the election would have only helped Hillary, and of course Trey Gowdy and his fellow witch hunters could not allow that, now could they?

Jesse Jackson calls on President Obama to issue a blanket pardon to Hillary Clinton. Not because she is guilty but to keep the Republicans from hounding her.

Courtesy of the Detroit Free Press: 

Speaking at President Gerald Ford's alma mater, The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for President Obama to issue a blanket pardon to Hillary Clinton before he leaves office, just like Ford did for Richard Nixon. 

Stopping short of saying Clinton did anything wrong, Jackson told a large crowd of University of Michigan students, faculty and administrators gathered at daylong celebration of his career that Obama should short-circuit President-elect Donald Trump's promised attempt to prosecute Hillary Clinton for use of a private e-mail server.

"It would be a monumental moral mistake to pursue the indictment of Hillary Clinton," Jackson said.

"Hillary Clinton has not been tried, but there are those who want to drag her for the next three years. It will not stop until they find a reason to put her in jail. That would be a travesty."

Jackson used Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon as an example, but I left that out because Nixon was a fucking criminal and Hillary Clinton is not.

Which is why I think this would be a mistake, and that Obama will never do it.

I completely understand where Jackson is coming from, and that he really wants to protect Hillary, but it would instead destroy her legacy.

The conservatives are guaranteed to see this as the President admitting that Hillary Clinton was guilty, and that would give them cause for celebration and also provide political ammunition to use against the Democrats for decades to come.

Republican Rep. Jason Chavetz has already said that he is going to continue badgering Hillary so we know the Republicans will not end their vendetta against her.

But I also think that ultimately it will blow up in their faces.

I feel badly for Hillary, I really do. Nobody deserves this never ending barrage of false accusations.

But then again she is Hillary Clinton, and I have every confidence that perhaps more than anyone she will be able to weather this and in the end will be the one left standing.

Diving into why the FBI seems to have turned into "Trumpland."

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Current and former FBI officials, none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comey’s July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clinton’s maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited. 

“The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent. 

This atmosphere raises major questions about how Comey and the bureau he is slated to run for the next seven years can work with Clinton should she win the White House. 

The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.” 

The agent called the bureau “Trumplandia”, with some colleagues openly discussing voting for a GOP nominee who has garnered unprecedented condemnation from the party’s national security wing and who has pledged to jail Clinton if elected.

As if that were not terrifying enough, it also appears that the FBI is using information gleaned from an anti-Clinton book and Breitbart news as the foundation for an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

Courtesy of Vanity Fair: 

Throughout her campaign, Hillary Clinton has battled accusations of fostering a “pay for play” culture at the State Department, giving undue access to major Clinton Foundation donors. So far, Republicans have failed to find a smoking gun, but the narrative has served its purpose: tarnishing the public perception of the Democratic nominee and her family’s namesake charity. For this, no one deserves more credit than Peter Schweizer, Breitbart editor-at-large and the author of Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. The controversial, mostly discredited book has been held up by many as irrefutable proof of wrongdoing, or at least common venality, by the Clintons. It also found plenty of eager readers within the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times report, galvanizing a number of F.B.I. agents to launch an investigation into the Clinton Foundation, based mostly on assertions made by Schweizer in the book. 

On Thursday, the Journal reported that last summer, shortly after Clinton Cash was published, a number of F.B.I. agents began investigating claims made against the Clinton Foundation in the book, ultimately prompting an internal battle between the agents and F.B.I. and Justice Department officials. The agents secretly recorded conversations with two informants—both of whom were involved in separate public-corruption investigations—about the Clinton Foundation, and believed that they had enough evidence to build a case. Senior officials in the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, however, were skeptical of the evidence and the primary source, Schweizer’s book. Public-integrity prosecutors reportedly “weren’t impressed” and “thought the talk was hearsay and a weak basis to warrant aggressive tactics, like presenting evidence to a grand jury, because the person who was secretly recorded wasn’t inside the Clinton Foundation,” according to the Journal’s report.

Oh for fuck's sake, they're using the Clinton Cash book as a resource? Why don't they just have Alex Jones tell them what the voices in his head are saying about the Clintons?

That book has been thoroughly refuted by reputable sources, who are NOT paid by Right Wing agitators to attack Hillary and Bill.

And it is not only that the FBI seems to be using Right Wing conspiracy theories as the foundation for their investigation, they might in fact be working in collusion with members of Trump's campaign.

Such as Rudy Giuliani.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

CNN’s Don Lemon suspects that Donald Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani may have had inside information on FBI Director Comey’s announcement that he would be reexamining the Clinton emails. 

“I saw something, and when I saw it, it caught my attention,” Lemon said in an interview with filmmaker Michael Moore. “I didn’t think anything of it until two days later and this was two days before the Comey announcement. This was Rudy Giuliani, watch this,” he said before rolling a clip of Giuliani on Fox News. 

“I think he’s got a surprise or two you’re going to hear about in the next two days,” Giuliani said. “I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.” 

“I heard you say that this morning. What do you mean?” the Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asked. 

“You’ll see,” Giuliani replied. “We’re not going to go down and we’re certainly not going to stop fighting. We’ve got a couple things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around.” 

Lemon noted that two days later the Comey letter dropped to Congress. “Do you think he could have known about it?”

Seriously folks, WTF?

But hey that's not even all there is to shake your head at.

Get a load of this:

William J. Clinton Foundation: This initial release consists of material from the FBI's files related to the Will... https://t.co/Y4nz3aRSmG

— FBI Records Vault (@FBIRecordsVault) November 1, 2016

That is from an FBI Twitter account that has been dormant for a year, that suddenly sprung to life to attack the Clintons.

This has now resulted in the FBI investigating itself over this Twitter account. 

So to sum up, we now have not only the Republican party and the Trump campaign working to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. We also have Wikileaks, the Russians, and the FBI working together to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

Rep. Lieu's questioning of FBI Director Comey is something that those who still think that Hillary Clinton should have been indicted really need to see.

"The American people might be interested in knowing that all members of Congress receive security clearances just for being a member of Congress. We get to have private e-mail servers. We get to have private e-mail accounts. We can use multiple devices. We can take devices overseas."

So I guess people are right.

There really are a different set of rules for Hillary Clinton.

But that different set of rules does not do anything to protect her, instead it applies extra stringent guidelines to how she must conduct herself or risk being the subject of a witch hunt by the Republicans.

BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI!

So today the House Benghazi committee released its report on all of the things that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did to murder those four brave Americans.

At least that is what it sounds like over on the Right Wing crazy pages.

What did we actually learn after this ninth investigation?

Well let's see.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

Ending one of the longest, costliest and most bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history, the House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on Tuesday, finding no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead. 

The 800-page report, however, included some new details about the night of the attacks, and the context in which it occurred, and it delivered a broad rebuke of government agencies like the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department — and the officials who led them — for failing to grasp the acute security risks in the Libyan city, and especially for maintaining outposts in Benghazi that they could not protect.

So what we learned is that there were flaws in the intelligence and that the security situation in Benghazi was deteriorating.

Wait, didn't the other investigations already tell us that?

Yes, they did.

So was there anything else?

Courtesy of NPR: 

The 800-page report found that despite President Obama and then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's "clear orders," the military failed to immediately send a force to Benghazi and that nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed — almost eight hours after the attacks began. 

The report says none of the relevant military forces met their deployment timelines to respond to the attack and that a "Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST) sat on a plane in Rota, Spain for three hours, and changed in and out of their uniforms four times."

Oh, so the military screwed up?

Is this the same military that has been all but deified by the conservatives in this country?

(Update: By the way just to clarify, by all reports even if this military response HAD happened immediately they still would not have arrived in time to save Ambassador Stevens and his men.) 

Well come on, let's cut to the REAL reason that this investigation was launched in the first place.

What did report find about what Hillary Clinton did after the attacks which proves she is unfit to seek the Oval Office?

The report had harsh findings about the military but little new about the role of Hillary Clinton, whose response as secretary of state had been thrust into the spotlight by the committee's investigation.

So ultimately Hillary remains unscathed by the findings of this partisan investigation whose sole purpose was to discredit her. I see.

Remember the words of Republican House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy?

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.” 

Yeah well today her numbers are back on the rise, and this feeble attempt to damage them further is clearly an abject failure. 

Sure the conservative media will make huge mountains out of the Benghazi report molehills and scream at the top of their lungs that this proves Hillary is unfit to take up residence in the White House.

But it is the same old song we have all heard before.

It was an empty melody back then, and it is an empty melody today.

The Pentagon is getting a little fed up with the never ending Benghazi witch hunt.

Courtesy of Politico:

Assistant Secretary of Defense Stephen Hedger complained in a letter to the committee on Thursday about its continued demands for information, and implied that the panel is grasping to make assertions based on theory rather than facts. 

“[W]hile I understand your stated intent is to conduct the most comprehensive review of the attack and response, Congress has as much of an obligation as the executive branch to use federal resources and taxpayer dollars effectively and efficiently,” the letter reads. “The Department has spent millions of dollars on Benghazi-specific Congressional compliance, including reviews by four other committees, which have diligently reviewed the military’s response in particular.” 

Hedger also complained that Defense Department interviewees “have been asked repeatedly to speculate or engage in discussing on the record hypotheticals.” 

“This type of questioning poses the risk that your final report may be based on speculation rather than a fact-based analysis of what a military officer did do or could have done given his or her knowledge at the time of the attacks,” he wrote. 

"Yeah I realize you don't know anything factual, but what do you imagine Hillary Clinton MIGHT have been doing while those four brave Americans were being killed by obvious Islamic terrorists, instead of doing her job and protecting them?"

Always a good sign of a non-biased, fact based, totally non-political investigation.

So Hillary Clinton's testimony before the House Benghazi Committee is not yet over. What did we learn, if anything thus far?

Well I for one learned that I can watch cable news, tweet, blog, clean house, and workout all at the same time which makes me wonder why a renaissance man like myself is not dating more?

I also learned that the Republicans had really NOTHING to work with today.

I also learned that Hillary Clinton has absorbed a little of Obama's cool.

"Were you trying to trip me up? That's just adorable."

I was also reminded of this:

Which was backed up in the most blunt manner possible by Rep. Jason Chaffetz back in 2012: 

On Wednesday morning, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien asked the Utah Republican if he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security." 

"Absolutely," Chaffetz said. "Look we have to make priorities and choices in this country. We have…15,000 contractors in Iraq. We have more than 6,000 contractors, a private army there, for President Obama, in Baghdad. And we’re talking about can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things.”

Which kind of makes me wonder how these Republicans have the cojones to grill Hillary on why there was not adequate security to protect Ambassador Stephens.

"Look in the mirror assholes!"

"We're so much better than that!!" Elijah Cummings straight preaching fire. #BenghaziCommittee pic.twitter.com/uMksEJDDLY

— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) October 23, 2015

Another thing that I learned today is that while Rep. Elijah Cummings was clearly today's MVP, that Rep. Adam Schiff came in a close second.

Oh, that is like political soft core porn for a Democrat!

I also finally figured out who else Trey Gowdy keeps reminding me of:

Ahh. the House of Slytherin. That explains a lot!

The other thing that I learned is that if I NEVER hear the word "Benghazi" again that will still be too soon.

Hillary Clinton's appearance between this latest House Benghazi Committee is about to begin. Get your popcorn ready folks. Update!

Courtesy of ABC News:  

Democratic Presidential frontrunner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to spar this morning with Republican members of the House Select Committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. 

Washington observers and political junkies have been fixated on this testimony -- beginning at 10 a.m. -- for months, waiting in anticipation to see what impact it may have on her campaign. 

The pressure is on Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy to produce results or information that differs from Clinton's full day of Congressional testimony on the attack nearly 3 years ago. 

The lead-up to today's testimony has seen vicious political sniping from Democrats on the committee, who have seized on remarks in recent days from two Republican congressman and one former committee staffer, each of whom suggested publicly that the committee has disproportionately focused its attention on attacking Clinton.

The Hillary folks have said that this testimony is even more important than the last Democratic debate, and I would tend to agree with that.

If Hillary does well here this could effectively be the end of the Republican's ability to use Benghazi to damage her in the 2016 election, and it would essentially mean smooth sailing ahead for her nomination.

I am going to be working from home all day today so I will leave this as an open thread.

Here is my Twitter feed for those who are interested and here on IM I will be periodically updating as events unfold.

There is talk that this might last as long as six to eight hours, which means there will likely be a lot to talk today.

Update:

Hillary this morning at the House Select Committee on Benghazi. pic.twitter.com/ZxhcSJVAfI

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 22, 2015

Hillary started off strong.

Update: "Psst. The Benghazi committee's only interested in taking down Hillary Clinton."

Update: Thank god this thing is not political.

SIGN and stand with Trey Gowdy as he uncovers the truth about Hillary Clinton’s actions as Secretary of State. ---> https://t.co/MiI4cSYD1f

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 22, 2015

"Look at us making fools of ourselves while attempting to smear Hillary Clinton. And then give us money!"

House Democrats release report on Benghazi which destroys credibility of the Republican led "investigation."

Courtesy of CBS News: 

Ahead of Hillary Clinton's appearance before the Select Committee on Benghazi later this week, House Democrats released a report Monday concluding that interviews conducted by the panel discredit GOP claims about Clinton's actions during the 2012 attacks. 

"This report shows that no witnesses we interviewed substantiated these wild Republican conspiracy theories about Secretary Clinton and Benghazi. It's time to bring this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition to an end," Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, said in a statement accompanying the 146-page report. 

Based on 54 interviews, the Democrats said the committee found no evidence that Clinton ordered the military to stand down on the night of the attacks, no evidence she personally approved a reduction in security before the attacks and no evidence Clinton or her aides oversaw an operation to scrub or destroy documents related to Benghazi, among other findings. 

Documents obtained by the committee confirmed Clinton's earlier testimony about her actions that night, the report said, as did the interviews with Mills and Sullivan. 

After Clinton learned about the attack in the afternoon of Sep. 11, 2012, for example, the report said Clinton held a phone call with then-Libyan President Mohammed Magariaf, a conference call with her closest State Department aides and a secure video teleconference with the White House and agency officials about the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. 

Mills (Clinton's Deputy of Staff.) told the panel that she remembers during the video teleconference, Clinton "said we need to be taking whatever steps we can, to do whatever we can to secure our people" and said she remembered President Obama being 100 percent behind whatever needed to be done, the report said.

The report which you can read here, is actually pretty interesting, and it REALLY undermines the Republican talking points on Benghazi and Hillary Clinton's culpability.

Get a load of this portion here:

Chairman Gowdy has attempted to defend the Select Committee’s record by explaining that it has broken new ground in witness interviews. On October 7, 2015, he wrote: “The Committee has interviewed over 50 witnesses to date who have never before been interviewed.” However, this claim is inaccurate, and the Washington Post Fact Checker referred to it as an effort to “hype the numbers.” 

The Select Committee has conducted a total of 54 transcribed interviews and depositions to date. Previous congressional committees and the independent Accountability Review Board (ARB) had already spoken to 23 of these individuals. In other words, the actual number of “new” interviews is 31—significantly lower than the 50 interviews cited by the Chairman. 

Moreover, the majority of the Select Committee’s 31 new interviews have been with State Department employees, and they have included current and former campaign officials, IT employees, press officials, and others who had little or nothing to do with the attacks in Benghazi. 

The reputation of this House Select Committee is now so in tatters that Trey Gowdy is now attempting a little damage control: 

Benghazi committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is now returning $6,000 in political donations that are indirectly tied to a PAC that ran a nasty anti-Hillary Clinton ad showing the grave of the U.S. ambassador killed in the 2012 attacks, the Washington Post reported Monday. 

Gowdy is coughing up the money after the paper inquired about ties between Gowdy and Dan Backer, who used to serve as treasurer for Gowdy's now-defunct leadership PAC. Backer is now the treasurer of the The Stop Hillary PAC, which aired the ad that flashed images of all four Americans killed in the Benghazi attacks in addition to Ambassador Chris Stevens' grave, during the first Democratic presidential primary debate last week.

Hillary Clinton is going to walk into that committee hearing on Thursday with the wind at her back, and face a room full of nervous House Republicans who are going to be hyper aware of the cameras focused on them and second guessing every one of their questions.

It should be highly entertaining.

Second House Republican admits that Benghazi investigation is all about Hillary.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

A second House Republican has now conceded that the overarching purpose of the House Select Committee on Benghazi has been to attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

In September, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) argued that one of House Republicans’ successes has been using the Benghazi Committee to drive down Clinton’s poll numbers. Though McCarthy tried to walk back his controversial comments, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) argued on Wednesday that the Majority Leader had it right to begin with. 

“Sometimes the biggest sin you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth,” Hanna said in an interview on Keeler in the Morning, a radio show in upstate New York. The third-term congressman paused for a moment, perhaps recognizing the importance of what he was about to say, before going on to agree with McCarthy’s original statement. 

“This may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton,” Hanna said. 

He explained further why he believes the Benghazi Committee’s purpose has been in part to attack Clinton. “After what Kevin McCarthy said, it’s difficult to accept at least a part of it was not,” Hanna said. “I think that’s the way Washington works. But you’d like to expect more from a committee that’s spent millions of dollars and tons of time.”

Okay so I have changed my point of view slightly.

In the past as you know I have suggested that the Democrats remove themselves from this House Select Committee and that Hillary refuse to testify now that everybody knows for certain that it is nothing but a witch hunt.

But now I think perhaps Hillary SHOULD show up, as it demonstrates she has nothing to hide, and also because the committee members will literally be terrified to push too hard for fear of proving what we already know.

In the Democratic debate Hillary sounded almost anxious to start her testimony before the Benghazi Committee and I can understand why.

Currently she really holds all of the cards, and can use ANYTHING the Republicans do or say that seems partisan or unnecessarily aggressive to help her raise money for her campaign.

As a matter of fact at this point, if I were a Republican member of Congress, I would be telling everybody who would listen that it is time to abandon this investigation, count their losses, and move on to something else.

Of course considering the fact that these are the House Republicans that something else would probably be investigating Planned Parenthood some more.

Former Benghazi House Committee investigator charges Chairman Trey Gowdy with releasing confidential information. Dammit! Where's the butter for my popcorn?

Courtesy of MSNBC: 

The legal battle between the House Benghazi Committee and its former investigator, Todd Podliska, escalated Monday afternoon, when Podliska’s lawyers alleged that Chairman Trey Gowdy violated government confidentiality rules and federal law in responding to allegations made by Podliska. 

“Both Representative Gowdy and the committee have clearly violated terms of the confidentiality agreement and the Congressional Accountability Act,” said Peter Romer-Friedman, one of Podliska’s attorneys, to MSNBC on Monday afternoon. 

The lawyers allege that Gowdy and the committee improperly released confidential information regarding an employment dispute with Podliska, in an effort to discredit him. 

This is what Gowdy said that upset the investigator so much:

Shortly after Mr. Podliska appeared in an interview Sunday with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Gowdy released a statement denying what he described as “sensationalist and fabulist claims,” adding that Mr. Podliska has “demanded money” from the committee. 

“One month ago, this staffer had a chance to bare his soul, and raise his claim this Committee was focused on Secretary Clinton in a legal document, not an interview, and he did not do it,” said Mr. Gowdy, South Carolina Republican. “Nor did he mention Secretary Clinton at any time during his counseling for deficient performance, when he was terminated, or via his first lawyer who withdrew from representing him.” 

“In fact, throughout the pendency of an ongoing legal mediation, which is set to conclude October 13, this staffer has not mentioned Secretary Clinton,” Mr. Gowdy said in the statement. “But as this process prepares to wrap, he has demanded money from the Committee, the Committee has refused to pay him, and he has now run to the press with his new salacious allegations about Secretary Clinton.”

Yeah that kind of sounds like they are trying to discredit this guy with confidential information.

This is how a spokesperson for the Benghazi committee responded to the investigator's accusations:    
“The ludicrousness of a former employee who has spread himself across the news media over the weekend complaining about confidentiality ought to be obvious,” a Benghazi Committee spokesperson told NBC News’ Kristen Welker Monday. “The Committee will vigorously defend itself against these and any other false claims and has nothing further to add at this time.”

However a report from the New York Times seems to back up the investigator, and the earlier comments of Kevin McCarthy quite nicely:

Now, 17 months later — longer than the Watergate investigation lasted — interviews with current and former committee staff members as well as internal committee documents reviewed by The New York Times show the extent to which the focus of the committee’s work has shifted from the circumstances surrounding the Benghazi attack to the politically charged issue of Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. 

A committee with a stated initial goal of learning more about how four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed in Libya has created a political whirlwind in Washington, affecting not only Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, but now also the race for House speaker. Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to testify in front of the committee on Oct. 22. 

The committee has conducted only one of a dozen interviews that Mr. Gowdy said in February he planned to hold with prominent intelligence, Defense Department and White House officials, and it has held none of the nine public hearings — with titles such as “Why Were We in Libya?” — that internal documents show have been proposed. 

At the same time, the committee has added at least 18 current and former State Department officials to its roster of witnesses, including three speechwriters and an information technology specialist who maintained Mrs. Clinton’s private email server.  

It appears to me as if this whole committee is about to blow apart at the seams, and their partisan agenda has already been revealed for all to see.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, I see no need for Hillary Clinton to lend this witch hunt any credibility by showing up to testify this month.

If she refuses I think the whole thing will be disbanded before November.

Former investigator for the Benghazi House Select Committee admitted today that the aim all along was to discredit Hillary Clinton .

Courtesy of CNN:  

A former investigator with the House Select Committee on Benghazi is accusing the Republican-led panel of carrying out a politically motivated investigation targeting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead of the thorough and objective fact-finding mission it was set up to pursue. 

Major Bradley Podliska, an intelligence officer in the Air Force Reserve who describes himself as a conservative Republican, told CNN that the committee trained its sights almost exclusively on Clinton after the revelation last March that she used a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. That new focus flipped a broad-based probe of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, into what Podliska described as "a partisan investigation." 

Podliska, who was fired after nearly 10 months as an investigator for the Republican majority, is now preparing to file a lawsuit against the select committee next month, alleging that he lost his job in part because he resisted pressure to focus his investigative efforts solely on the State Department and Clinton's role surrounding the Benghazi attack. He also alleges he was fired because he took leave from the committee to fulfill his military service obligations, which would be an unlawful firing. 

"I knew that we needed to get to the truth to the victims' families. And the victims' families, they deserve the truth -- whether or not Hillary Clinton was involved, whether or not other individuals were involved," he told CNN in an exclusive TV interview that will air Sunday on "State of the Union." "The victims' families are not going to get the truth and that's the most unfortunate thing about this."

Okay I think that should be it. Adding this to what was admitted by Kevin McCarthy back in September seems to signal to me that it's game over for this charade.

In my opinion the Democrats involved with this fiasco should quit, and Hillary should ABSOLUTELY refuse to testify later this month.

At this point if you have any doubts about the legitimacy of this witch hunt you are either a dyed in the wool conservative, or you simply hate Hillary Clinton's guts.

And take a moment to consider this.

Currently the Republicans are spending in excess of 3 million dollars on this "investigation" and that is AFTER they have already spent multiple millions of dollars on past investigations and hearings.

And all of that is to stop ONE presidential candidate?

At this point you have to ask yourself, WHY are the Republicans so incredibly terrified of Hillary Clinton? I mean nobody is starting a House Select Committee to block the Bernie Sanders campaign, or the Martin O' Malley campaign, or the other guy whose name I can't remember's campaign.

And then the follow up question should be, if they are that afraid of Hillary then how can we NOT choose her as our nominee in 2016?

Just thought I'd put that out there.

New Hillary Clinton campaign ad takes full advantage of Kevin McCarthy's gaffe admitting that Benghazi hearings are a witch hunt.

Courtesy of Mashable:  

The ad, titled "Admit," draws from comments made last week by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is running for House Speaker, in which he credits the House committee investigating Benghazi with politically damaging Clinton. 

The ad opens saying, "The Republicans finally admit it" and includes footage of McCarthy’s remarks. Politico reports that the video will air on MSNBC and CNN in the run-up to the first Democratic debate next Tuesday. 

Since McCarthy made his initial comments in a Fox News interview last week, Clinton and other Democrats have seized on his remarks to validate their view that the GOP-run Benghazi investigation is nothing more than a political witch hunt.

In other news the Democrats on the Benghazi Special Committee released a letter containing testimony from Clinton staffer Cheryl Mills which the Republicans wanted to remain classified because it asserted that Hillary acted more than appropriately during and after the Benghazi attack.

When this is all over I think Hillary will have to, at the very least, send a basket of fruit to Kevin McCarthy. Because the guy dropped the biggest gift imaginable right in Hillary's lap.