SIMONE RANTS ABOUT TOM COTTON

For sending a letter to Iran making clear the GOP won't put up with the autocracy's nuclear warfare program, Gail Simone's written some very unfunny tweets about a politician who served in Iraq while he was in the army:

Oh, man, I was going to get some cocoa, but @SenTomCotton sent a stern letter to Starbucks saying I had no authority to order hot drinks.
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) March 10, 2015

Correction: you have no qualification for commenting on serious issues, and no business making jokes out of them. She's one of a very small portion who want to demonize Cotton for standing up to despots. Cotton served in the army, and with dignity. Simone probably never did.

Dear Smaug, We, the undersigned, don't know if you truly understand about negotiating with dirty cup thieves. Signed, @SenTomCotton
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) March 10, 2015

Dear King George, we totally don't think you should pay attention to that George Washington dude, he's mean. Signed, @SenTomCotton
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) March 10, 2015

I don't see why she need pay attention to Cotton if she doesn't like him.

I think @SenTomCotton is the guy who pulled the school fire alarm when he didn't get to play in Little League.
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) March 10, 2015

I think Simone is an ostrich who puts her head in the sand. I guess Russia's own weaponry development during the Cold War was no big deal either, eh?

Right now, @SenTomCotton is giving an IHOP waitress a bad lecture on the Bill of Rights instead of a tip.
— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) March 10, 2015

I think Simone's the bad lecturer here. She makes a very bad comedian too at this point.

"I WILL PROTECT A UNITED NETANYAHU"

Isaac Herzog pretty much got the debate he wanted with Benjamin Netanyahu, and during the Channel 2 interviews, he made quite a gaffe:

Herzog was so excited to be debating Netanyahu, without co-Captain Tzipi Livni that he apparently didn't realize when he mixed up Jerusalem with Netanyahu (time: 2:05) in his statement on who he would be protecting. That gave Netanyahu a chuckle.

While Netanyahu was clearly not expecting to be ambushed this way, he definitely came out on top, even when Channel 2 (time 3:20) lowered the volume on Netanyahu and raised the volume for Herzog's interruption.

Surprisingly, the host rather rudely then cut off Herzog in mid-counterattack (time: 3:30) telling him his time in the studio was up, at which point, a clearly annoyed Herzog walked off the set. Netanyahu then continued the interview and also responded to Herzog's question.

Video available at the paper's page. It'll make a good laugh for you too. Some politician Herzog is. He should really be a comedian.

SENATE PANEL WILL PROBE POTENTIAL OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FUNDING OF EFFORTS TO UNSEAT NETANYAHU

An investigation is underway at Capitol Hill to see if Obama's been funding efforts to get rid of Netanyahu as prime minister:

A US Senate investigatory committee has launched a probe into an American nonprofit’s funding of efforts to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the State Department of US President Barack Obama gave the nonprofit taxpayer-funded grants, Fox News reported on Saturday.

According to the news outlet, a source with knowledge of the panel's activities told it that the probe was underway and was bipartisan in nature.

According to the source, the probe is looking into “funding” by the OneVoice Movement – a Washington-based group that has received $350,000 in recent State Department grants, Fox News reported.

[...] One expert told Fox earlier this month that the State Department grants constituted "indirect Obama administration funding of the anti-Netanyahu campaign by providing OneVoice with the $350,000 – even though State Department officials said the funding stopped in November, ahead of the announcement of the Israeli election."

OneVoice is barred from directly targeting Netanyahu by US law regulating its tax-exempt status, and doing so would threaten that status, Fox News wrote in the report.

About time this was looked into. Such non-profits surely must be misusing the public's tax dollars too. Very bad business.

Update: here's similar news about the New Israel Fund, another leftist outfit.

HONOR MURDERER DISGUISED HIMSELF WITH BURKA IN TORONTO

An honor murder took place in Toronto, with the murderer disguising himself using a burka (Hat tip: Pamela Geller):

When her baby got a heart transplant at Toronto's Sick Children’s Hospital, Bano Shahdady threw away her burqa.

At twenty years old, after years of religious training, she also decided to return to public high school. With help from her son’s doctors and a social worker, she arranged to rent an apartment to leave her parents and husband.

It was there, two weeks after she moved in, that police found her strangled to death, her son left alone with the body for 15 hours, murdered by a man hiding his identity behind a burqa.

On Wednesday, the husband Abdul Malik Rustam was sentenced to life in prison for the murder with no chance of parole for 17 years.

“A woman has an absolute right to end any relationship,” Judge John McMahon of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice told the court. He said that Rustam planned the attack, disguised himself in a burqa to gain access to the apartment, and justified his actions to police. The judge also said that the victim’s father forgave Rustam and pleaded for mercy in court on his behalf, without once mentioning the loss of his daughter.

The facts, as the judge outlined them, pointed to an “honour killing,” a crime distinct from other murders because its motive is to cleanse perceived family dishonour caused by a wife’s or daughter’s behaviour. “Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate… ‘honour killings,’” says the federal Discover Canada guide issued to new immigrants.

But the judge never said the two key words.

“Man gets life sentence for murdering wife,” read the Toronto Star’s headline, relegating the crime to a domestic abuse case.

The Toronto Sun went with, “Man who wore ‘burka’ sentenced in estranged wife’s killing.” Not a single other Canadian news outlet reported the story.

Bano Shahdady deserves better.

Truly disgusting, as is the rest of the Canadian media's refusal to mention the key details.

WAR AGAINST A SANCTION-WEAKENED, NON-NUCLEAR IRAN IS BETTER THAN WAR AGAINST A NUCLEAR IRAN

COLD, HARD,  COURAGEOUS LOGIC HERE:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/war-with-iran-is-probably-our-best-option/2015/03/13/fb112eb0-c725-11e4-a199-6cb5e63819d2_story.html

POLL: WHO WOULD BE THE BEST VEEP FOR WALKER?

BAD TREATIES

THE VERSAILLES TREATY WAS A BAD ONE AND LED IN PART TO THE NATIONALIST SURGE IN GERMANY WHICH THE NATIONAL SOCIALISTS EXPLOITED TO TAKE POWER.

ONCE IN POWER, THE NAZIS, AND THE COWARDLY APPEASERS WHO HAD BEEN THE VICTORS IN WW1, IGNORED MANY OF THE TREATIES PROVISIONS.

THE VICTORS WERE SIMPLY UNWILLING TO ENFORCE THEM BECAUSE THEY HAD GROWN TIRED OF WAR AND COWARDLY.

THE IDEA THAT A TREATY ALONE CAN PROTECT ANYONE IS SILLY.

TREATIES MUST BE ENFORCEABLE AND THEY MUST BE ENFORCED.

AND MAKING TREATIES WITH NATIONS THAT HAVE PROVEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN THAT THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED IS JUST DAMN STUPID.

THAT'S WHY ANY TREATY WITH IRAN CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED: THE IRANIAN REGIME IS NT TRUSTWORTHY.

AND THOSE WHO NEGOTIATE THESE TREATIES - APPEASERS WHO ARE UNWILLING TO EVEN MAINTAIN SANCTIONS - ARE CERTAINLY TOO COWARDLY TO ENFORCE THEM.

THE BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF THE "NEGOTIATIONS" BETWEEN IRAN AND THE 5+1 IS THAT THEY FAIL, AND THAT WE RAMP UP OUR SANCTIONS.

DID HILLARY USE DC-MATIC EMAIL SERVICES???

SHIMON PERES SUPPORTS YITZCHAK HERZOG

Predictably, the former Israeli president and architect of the Oslo agreements has endorsed the left wing candidate for prime minister. That's just more reason why not to support Labor, because an architect of the worst ideas to damage Israel is now supporting someone who in turn embodies many of the same beliefs.

MORE REASONS WHY TO AVOID LABOR PARTY

Here's some blog posts on Times of Israel explaining why nobody should support the part now deceptively calling itself "Zionist Camp". For example, there's the social demagoguery the Labor party goes by. There's also their dhimmitude and their pro-PLO sentiments to consider. And, there's how both Herzog and Livni are both corrupt opportunists. In fact, doesn't the latter's jumpings from one party to another also confirm just how lacking in talent she really is?

NHS FAILING TO MEET RIDICULOUSLY AWFUL TARGETS

bbc:

Pressures in the NHS are so great that even the best hospitals in England are seeing patients wait longer for key services, an analysis shows. The Nuffield Trust report looked at performance in this Parliament against six targets, covering A&E, operations, cancer and diagnostic tests. It found most patients were still being seen within the target times at the 156 hospital trusts. But it said even the top sites were seeing their performance decline. 

The six targets analysed were the: 

• four-hour A&E wait to be treated, discharged or admitted, following arrival
• 18-week wait for routine operations, such as knee and hip replacements
• 18-week wait for appointments, such as a clinic with a consultant
• six-week wait for a diagnostic test, following GP referral
• two-week wait to be seen, following an urgent cancer referral
• 31-day wait for cancer treatment, after a diagnosis 

The review said the poorest performing hospitals had been getting worse on most measures for a while.

... There are 2.9 million people currently waiting for routine hospital treatment 

The target to give diagnostic tests to 99% of patients within six weeks of referral has not been met since the last quarter of 2013

THE BRITISH - FAMOUSLY THE GREATEST BUREAUCRATS ON EARTH -  INVENTED NATIONALIZED HEALTH, AND IT'S FAILING THERE.

THEY CAN'T EVEN MEET THEIR RIDICULOUS WAIT-TIME TARGETS.

IF IT CAN'T WORK THERE, THEN IT WON'T EVER WORK HERE.

AS IF TAKEN FROM THE HEADLINES: PSALM 83

Psalm 83 - A song. A psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, do not remain silent;
    do not turn a deaf ear,
    do not stand aloof, O God.
2 See how your enemies growl,
    how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they conspire against your people;
    they plot against those you cherish.
4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation,
    so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”
5 With one mind they plot together;
    they form an alliance against you—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    of Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Byblos, Ammon and Amalek,
    Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
8 Even Assyria has joined them
    to reinforce Lot’s descendants.[b]
9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
    as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
10 who perished at Endor
    and became like dung on the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take possession
    of the pasturelands of God.”
13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
    like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest
    or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
    and terrify them with your storm.
16 Cover their faces with shame, Lord,
    so that they will seek your name.
17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
    may they perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—
    that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

AMEN.

LABOR'S PLATFORM STILL CONTAINS EFFORT TO CLOSE ISRAEL HAYOM

According to this report, their platform still contains the same support for a bill to shut down or cripple the free newspaper, and Tzipi Livni is one of the backers of it. That's one more reason why no sane person should support the party.

More about this case over here.

THE DECEPTION OF A THIRD PARTY

Daniel Greenfield tells how the Israeli left is technically fooling people with the aid of a phony third party:

The left has done well with fake third parties. It’s a testament to its basic unpopularity that it needs to trot out a fake third party.

The fake third party this time is Kulanu, a media manufactured party headed by Moshe Kahlon a hack from Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party who is looking for his 15 minutes of fame and the goodies that come with it. Technically Kulanu is actually a fake fourth party considering that its role was filled last time around by Yesh Atid, which is still in the running.

These fake third parties are typically focused on equality and reform, they play at being non-partisan and consisting of smart people who just want to fix a broken system. And there are idiots who fall for it every time.

Currently the conservative parties are losing seats to Kulanu, because the party (obviously) targets their base. That is its whole purpose. It’s not so much that the left is gaining as that a stalking horse party for the left is gaining.

The majority of Israelis do want Netanyahu by 48 to 34. But the left is really good at gaming a parliamentary system and voters are often unwilling to understand how they play into the hands of the left.

Even if Labor doesn't manage so well, Kulanu is still a valid concern if it takes away votes from the right and gives them to the left. Speaking of which, Kulanu does have some members who qualify as fairly leftist. Similarly, Yesh Atid is also a worry, to the point even Labor is worried about them, and is attacking them in some of their ads now the week before the election. Kulanu is too, but they're still not exactly a party whose potentially bad influence should be taken lightly.

SLOTT THINKS GOP SENATORS WORSE THAN IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Dan Slott launched a faux-outrage over GOP senators who sent a special letter to Iran making clear they won't stand for their nuclear missile construction:

Can you imagine what #FoxNews would be saying if 47 Democrats in the Senate had written a letter like that to Iran during Bush's term?
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) March 10, 2015

Umm, I think Fox would be very stupid if they condemned Dem senators for indicating they wouldn't stand for an autocracy building nuclear bombs. USA Today says Nixon's sabotaging Vietnam peace talks in 1968 is far worse than some mere letter making clear nuclear terror is unacceptable. I'd also suggest Slott take note of this important reminder about what a Dem senator did several years ago:

According to Pajamas Media columnist Michael Ledeen, in 2008, a Democratic senator sent a personal emissary to Tehran encouraging the mullahs not to sign an agreement with the outgoing Bush Administration as negotiations would take on a much friendlier tone following President Bush’s departure from office.

That senator was a presidential candidate at the time. His name was Barack Obama.

And Slott thinks the GOP's letter condemning Iran for their totalitarianism is worse? Tsk tsk. He should read what Ruthie Blum says:

On Monday, a group of 47 Republican senators released an "Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The letter, initiated by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, was notably addressed to the Islamist regime in Tehran rather than to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. And rightly so.

It is not Rouhani, after all, who has the final say about anything that goes on in the would-be global caliphate where he was elected as a "moderate," or with regard to the nuclear program whose contours Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been dictating to the United States and the other members of the P5+1.

No, the person who pulls the strings -- and will push the nuclear button -- is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. So it is to him that the Republican politicians were actually sending their message. At the same time, they were conveying a similar sentiment to President Barack Obama -- about the invalidity of a deal cooked up by the administration in Washington to please the palates of the mullahs in Tehran behind the back of Congress and without its consent.

So why is Slott apologizing for an autocratic guru who promotes destruction by jihad? Why does he want to support a real life variation on Doctor Doom? Slott also won't admit that Bush accepted a lot more blame than Obama has:

.@inmatemd @DRBCH Bush took "blame for everything?!" I'm sorry, bu milk just shot out my nose. A Hurricane Katrina's worth of milk.
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) March 10, 2015

Oh, and that's just another declaration he sits squarely in the Blame-Bush camp, condemning Dubya for all the wrong reasons. What about ex-New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who abandoned the city at the time, and is now facing a decade in prison for fraud and laundering? How doesn't he count?

And why is Slott using milk as an example instead of fizzy soda? That causes nostril flares more easily than dairy products.

IS PUTIN DEAD? DID HE HAVE A STROKE? WAS IT AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT?

EXCEPT FOR A RUMOR ABOUT HIM BEING SEEN IN A HOSPITAL, PUTIN IS OUT OF SIGHT. RUSSIANS ARE BEGINNING TO WONDER....

UPDATE: THE KREMLIN ISSUES A TERSE DENIAL, BUT POOTY-TOOT STILL AIN'T NO WHERE TO BE FOUND....

FORMER DOJ FOI EXPERT OF 26 YEARS SAYS HILLARY IS TOTALLY IN THE WRONG

Hillary Clinton email excuses 'laughable,' says top freedom-of-information official

News conference 'grossly misleading' 

Hillary Clinton's defenders say she's sufficiently explained why she set up a do-it-yourself home email system when she was secretary of state, insist there's nothing to see here, and it's time to move on. 

You know who disagrees? 

The senior-most freedom-of-information official in the executive branch of the United States government for over a quarter-century, whose job it was to help four administrations — including the Clinton White House — interpret the Freedom of Information Act, offer advice, and testify before Congress on their behalf. 

Daniel Metcalfe doesn't buy her explanation. In fact, he calls it laughable. 

"What she did was contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the law," says Metcalfe, the founding director of the Justice Department's Office of Information and Privacy, which advised the rest of the administration on how to comply with the law. Metcalfe ran the office from 1981 to 2007. 

"There is no doubt that the scheme she established was a blatant circumvention of the Freedom of Information Act, atop the Federal Records Act." 

Metcalfe says he doesn't have any partisan axe to grind. He's a registered Democrat, through steadfastly non-partisan. He says he was embarrassed to work for George W. Bush and his attorney general, and left government for American University, where he now teaches government information law and policy.

IF WE WERE STILL TRULY A NATION OF LAWS, THEN HILLARY WOULD BE CHARGED, TRIED, CONVICTED AND JAILED.

SORRY LEFTSTS, TREASON IS NOT DISLOYALTY TO OBAMA; IT IS DISLOYALTY TO THE USA AND OUR CONSTITUTION

SENATORS DO NOT SWEAR AN OATH OF LOYALTY TO THE PRESIDENT.

THEY SWEAR AN OATH TO UPHOLD AND DEFEND THE USA AND OUR CONSTITUTION.

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE US SENATORS WHO WROTE TEHRAN WERE DOING;

DEFENDING THE USA AND THE US CONSTITUTION.

CRITICS OF THE 47 BRAVE AND LOYAL SENATORS WHO CALL THEM TREASONOUS ARE CONFLATING LOYALTY TO OBAMA WITH LOYALTY TO THE USA.

THIS IS SOMETHING LEFTISTS HAVE PERENNIALLY DONE - IT'S A THE ROOT OF THEIR CULT OF PERSONALITY.

AND ANOTHER THING:

THERE ARE COUNTLESS COUNTER-EXAMPLES OF DEMOCRAT SENATORS GETTING DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN A WAY THAT WAS DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO THE PRESIDENT'S POLICIES.

THERE IS ONE GLARING DIFFERENCE:

THIS TIME, THE SENATORS GETTING DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS ARE DOING SO IN DEFENSE OF OUR CONSTITUTION AND OUR NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE SECURITY OF OUR ALLIES.

WHEN THE LIBERALS DID IT -

(AS WHEN KERRY APPEASED ORTEGA IN NICARAGUA OR WHEN PELOSI APPEASED ASSAD IN DAMASCUS OR WHEN TEDDY JO KENNEDY APPEASED ANDROPOV IN THE KREMLIN) -

THEY ACTED IN WAYS THAT AIDED OUR SWORN ENEMIES - LIKE THE USSR AND THE SANDINISTAS AND CASTRO.

THE REAL DIFFERENCE NOW IS THAT THE SENATORS ARE BEING TOUGHER ON OUR ENEMIES THAN OBAMA.

THE REAL DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE TRAITORS ARE IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE PATRIOTS ARE IN THE SENATE.

THE LEFT HAS ALWAYS BEEN TRAITOROUS.

BUT NEVER MORE SO THAN NOW...

I HOPE WE LAST UNTIL 2017 AND KICK THE TRAITORS OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE.......

BY DELETING EMAILS FROM HER PRIVATE SERVER, HILLARY HAS TACITLY ADMITTED THEY WOULD HAVE HARMED HER

1 - HILLARY MAINTAINED AT HER PRESSER THAT THE SERVER IS HERS AND WILL NEVER BE GIVEN TO INVESTIGATORS:

"The server contains personal communications from my husband and me, and I believe I have met all of my responsibilities and the server will remain private..."

IF THE SERVER WAS - IN HER MIND - TO REMAIN PRIVATE, THEN WHY THE NEED TO DELETE ANYTHING???????

IT PROVES THE OE SHE DELETED WERE VERY INCRIMINATING - AND TO A HIGH DEGREE.

ALSO, FTA, SHE SAID THIS:

We went through a thorough process to identify all of my work- related emails and deliver them to the State Department. 

WHO IS THE "WE" SHE IS REFERRING TO? WHERE AND WHEN WAS THIS DONE?

AND THEN THERE'S THIS, FTA:

In going through the e-mails, there were over 60,000 in total, sent and received. About half were work-related and went to the State Department and about half were personal that were not in any way related to my work.

THERE WERE 30,000 JOB-RELATED EMAILS AND HEY CAME TO ONLY 55,000 PAGES?

NOT CREDIBLE: EMAILS TO EXECUTIVES USUALLY HAVE LONG CHAINS AND THREADS.

MY EMAILS OFTEN RUN A DOZEN PAGES WITH ALL THE THREADS AND BACK AND FORTH.

YET HILLARY'S ACCOUNTING REQUIRES US TO BELIEVE THAT HER EMAILS AVERAGED LESS THAN TWO PAGES EACH?

NOT CREDIBLE.

AND THEN THERE'S THE FACT THAT SHE HANDED OVER PRINTED PAGES INSTEAD OF THE ELECTRONIC FILES.

I THINK THIS ALSO PROVES SHE IS HIDING SOMETHING.

IMAGINE IF SCOOTER LIBBY HAD DONE THIS?

THE REAL REASON HILLARY OPTED FOR ONE PERSONAL EMAIL: BAD HEARING

Here's how it all began:

When Hillary walked into her new office as Secretary of State, they asked her if "she preferred just one personal email?"

She thought they said "one personal female" and replied "Yes!".

Hilary Says, "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material." --- I Don't Think That is Even Possible

I think pretty much everyone agrees that Hilary's statement sounds like a bald-faced lie.

However, not only does it sound like a lie, I don't think it is even possible

I mean, like, literally, I do not think it is possible for the Secretary of State to NEVER send emails that are not classified.

First, what is the Secretary of State?

The Secretary of State is a senior official of the federal government of the United States of America heading the U.S. Department of State, principally concerned with foreign affairs and is considered to be the U.S. government's equivalent of a Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is a member of the President's Cabinet, the National Security Council, and is the highest-ranking appointed executive branch official both in the presidential line of succession and the order of precedence.

Additionally:

The specific duties of the Secretary of State include: 

Organizes and supervises the entire United States Department of State and the United States Foreign Service. 

Advises the President on matters relating to U.S. foreign policy, including the appointment of diplomatic representatives to other nations, and on the acceptance or dismissal of representatives from other nations. 

Participates in high-level negotiations with other countries, either bilaterally or as part of an international conference or organization, or appoints representatives to do so. This includes the negotiation of international treaties and other agreements. 

Responsible for overall direction, coordination, and supervision of interdepartmental activities of the U.S. Government overseas. 

Providing information and services to U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad, including providing credentials in the form of passports and visas. 

Supervises the United States immigration policy abroad. Communicates issues relating the United States foreign policy to Congress and to U.S. citizens.

Sorry to be pedantic here. I'm sure we all know this, but here's something we might never think about, unless we were working at such a level ourselves:

The reason information is classified is, almost always, because we want to hide it from our enemies. For the most part our enemies are overseas.

This means the Secretary of State's playing field is literally among our enemies. Sure we put on a show of getting along with them. The Secretary of State is the Executive over all diplomatic relations, so her job is to put a polite face on difficult discussions of International Policy.

But in order to do that, the Secretary of State needs to know what the President's goals are, and how to achieve them while not giving away too much information, or any other valuable asset.

In the planning stages, such strategic planning/thinking has to be done through the application of Game Theory and inventive Dialectic. It must be creative and unburdened by concern for leaks of information. Such thinking requires a wide latitude for what might, in other circumstances, be considered mispeaks or mistakes.

The job of the Secretary of State is quite literally to trade in obfuscation in the pursuit of negotiating for the achievement of the interests of the United States abroad.

Hiding information is the essence of negotiation.

The process of choosing what to hide and what to reveal requires Classified discussion.

As such, it would seem only reasonable that every single communication from the Secretary of State to anyone in a high position within the Administration, or over seas, whether that person would be a diplomat, or a foreign Head of State, would necessarily be considered CLASSIFIED, until it was deemed to be not classified.

The process of De-Classifying such communications would require a thoughtful assessment of the information in the email by a person who had a keen understanding of all the factors at play. In some cases, there may be dozens of factors, or even hundreds. Therefore, the process of De-Classifying, or redacting a document takes a lot of time.

It is not possible to be strategic and creative at the same time as one is busy redacting/censoring themselves.

The only exception to this might be notes of Congratulations of Sympathy, which might be expressed via email, and simultaneously released to the Press.

The Secretary must communicate with the President. The President's emails, if they are at all spontaneous, likewise, could not be considered anything other Classified, until they were De-Classified.

Tell me. Am I off here? Is it possible that the whole batch of email communications from the Secretary of State could, even possibly, be considered Unclassified, even as they are being sent out?

---

Another thought: So, let's assume it's true Hilary never sent a single email containing Classified Information. Well, ok. BUT DID ANYONE EVER SEND HILARY ANY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION?

If so, then that is on her server.

ILLEGAL ARABIC STRUCTURE FUNDED BY EU DEMOLISHED

In a positive step, authorities tore down an illegal Arab structure in Jerusalem funded by the EU:

Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished an EU-funded illegal Arab settlement in Jerusalem, the European Union said, attacking the move.

"We condemn today's demolition of temporary shelters funded by the European Union... as part of its response to the needs of the affected communities," an EU statement said.

Well too bad, because that was criminal activity, and just proves what a disgrace they are, abusing taxes by the European public.

An expose by the Regavim NGO - first published last year by Arutz Sheva but later picked up by major UK outlet the Daily Mail in February of this year - revealed how EU funds have helped to pay for some 200 illegal buildings for Bedouin settlers in Judea and Samaria, just outside Jerusalem.

The EU funding, aimed at creating "facts on the ground", was denounced by an Israeli group as "European colonialism."

The structures demolished on Tuesday were small metal constructions put up on the outskirts of Arab neighborhood Issawiya, an AFP correspondent said.

The area was empty of residents following the demolition by bulldozer.

Sure doesn't sound like they really cared about the building to start with. And that's actually good.

OVADIA YOSEF'S DAUGHTER CLARIFIES SHAS IS LEFT-WING

The daughter of the late Shas guru has not only confirmed all worries about the party's standings, she's even gone as far as blaming Jews for causing problems for Arabs:

Rabbanit Adina Bar-Shalom, Israel Prize winner and daughter of the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual founder of the haredi Shas party, took part on Monday in a meeting in Tel Aviv held by the Geneva Initiative in which 30 political activists from different parties were featured.

In the meeting, Bar-Shalom spoke about peace deals, saying "I'm afraid of the ramifications that will be from a radical right government. We don't want a binational state. If we continue in the current situation - we'll reach that."

"A lot of blood was spilled here and every couple of years there's another war. The only alternative is two states to two peoples. As more time passes we'll only reach a worse (peace) deal," opined the rabbanit.

Ironically while Rabbi Yosef initially issued an opinion supporting the concept of giving up land for peace, after the 1993 Oslo Accords erupted in terrorist wars he famously reversed his position, realizing that such deals and concessions on the land of Israel only cause more bloodshed.

[...] Contrary to Bar-Shalom's words claiming Rabbi Yosef supported a peace deal, recordings have shown that it was Deri who was behind Shas's position on Oslo, and not Rabbi Yosef as Deri later claimed. Likewise the records show Rabbi Yosef called Yishai "my favorite," giving him permission to form his own party, and on the other hand condemned "evil" Deri for his corruption that had him jailed in 1999.

Speaking about Rabbi Yosef, Bar-Shalom continued, claiming "father loved Eli Yishai, but didn't love the right-wing path. Yishai joined with those who ascend the Temple Mount, something that father completely forbid. Those who ascend the Temple Mount cause bloodshed."

The rabbanit, who has been working in recent months to save Shas which has been slipping in polls, presented Arab citizens of Israel as suffering and essentially blamed Israeli Jews for causing Arab terrorism.

Until now, her own standings weren't clear. Now, they are. This woman is definitely unlike her father, who wasn't great but probably not as bad as she and Aryeh Deri are. If Yitzhak Herzog is elected prime minister, there's every chance Shas will join with him. So we must hope Yishai manages to reach a threshold and to get more votes than Shas does next week. This is clearly a very scary situation.

UH OH: ZOABI'S CHANGING DIRECTION

It appears that while the Arab party list wouldn't participate in vote-sharing, Hanin Zoabi's now willing to recommend Yitzhak Herzog as premier to the president, Reuven Rivlin:

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog’s chances of becoming prime minister may have risen considerably Monday when Balad MK Haneen Zoabi said for the first time she could recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that Herzog form the next government.

[...] Joint List sources who spoke to Zoabi at length on Sunday and Monday revealed that she had been persuaded to back Herzog to Rivlin and would recommend doing so when their party meets with the president after the March 17 election. The sources said that after standing tough against the vote-sharing agreement, Balad would feel more comfortable giving in on the Herzog issue and backing him instead of the initial plan not to support anyone.
“The Joint List will do everything possible to ensure that Netanyahu will fall,” a Joint List source said. “At the right time the wise decision will be made.”

What are the chances Obama and/or the shady V15 group are behind her sudden change in position? I'd say they're very possible. Netanyahu himself said there's a worldwide effort being made to topple him, and this could easily be part of it. One more reason why I'm voting for the Likud and not for smaller parties in this election.

YEDIOT ACHRONOT AND NONI MOZES ARE A DISGRACE TO JOURNALISM

The Likud's spoken out against the leftist newspaper and its publisher for all the problems they've gone out of their way to cause:

Senior Likud members lashed out against the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth and its publisher Arnon (Noni) Mozes on Sunday for having published what has come to be known as the "concessions document" over the weekend.

The document in question appeared to be a draft submitted during U.S.-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in 2013, suggesting that Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was willing to negotiate on the basis of 1967 borders, divide Jerusalem and afford Palestinian refugees a right of return.

Shortly after the document was made public, former American diplomat Dennis Ross, who mediated the talks, explained that at no stage of the talks did Netanyahu agree to any of the clauses included in the document.

On Sunday, the top echelon of the Likud convened a press conference to criticize Yedioth Ahronoth's decision to publish the document, in an obvious attempt to dissuade Likud voters from supporting the incumbent leader less than two weeks before the election.

"Lies always come out, and yet they have many fathers. One father of this lie is the journalist who lied, Nahum Barnea," said former Likud minister Benny Begin, referring to the Yedioth Ahronoth reporter who broke the story on Friday. "He invented a concessions document that had never existed and constructed a libelous story around it implicating the prime minister. The second father of this lie is the publisher -- Yedioth Ahronoth -- that put a contemptible headline on the story. This libelous publication is a disgrace to Israeli journalism."

I fully agree. And here's commentary on Mozes himself, the man who wants to be a backstage autocrat, and more about all the other so-called journalists who went out of their way to repeat all the propaganda Yediot was pushing. Anybody subscribing to the print edition of Yediot Achronot would do well to cancel their subscription immediately, and not prop up a paper that's just an embarrassment.

NETANYAHU'S CONGRESS SPEECH MAY HAVE HAD INFLUENCE

It looks like Netanyahu's speech had a positive effect after all, and that's what counts:

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his speech to Congress may have influenced world powers seeking to sign a political framework deal with Iran by the end of the month to refrain from rushing into an agreement at any cost.

Last Tuesday, the Israeli premier warned a joint session of Congress that President Obama’s current strategy with Tehran could create a “nuclear nightmare” with a deal that would pave the way for a nuclear-armed Iran.

“After my speech to Congress, we heard over the weekend from the Foreign Ministers of a number of world powers that they are not compelled to reach a deal as soon as possible,” he said before his weekly cabinet meeting. "I hope these comments will be reflected in their actions.”

Netanyahu claimed victory after remarks made by U Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday. Kerry admitted after talks with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius that he had no urgency on an Iran bargain given the U.S. “had to get the right deal.”

The only good deal would be one that collapses Iran's autocracy and brings back freedom for all, after all the awful results of the Ayatollah's takeover in 1979. That's the only way safety can be ensured in the region. It's good if the speech had some effect. No doubt, even in Europe, there's people who tuned in to listen, and they paid attention too, with good reason.

EXPLAINING THE VISION OF ISLAM

Jerusalem Once a Day (via Naomi Ragen) gives some interesting explanations for the dark vision of Islam, and how it differs from what Judeo-Christianity believes in.

BARNEY & CLYDE ARTISTS STAND UP FOR CHARLIE HEBDO VICTIMS

The Washington Post spoke with the artists for the Barney & Clyde comic strip, who decided to stand up for the victims of the jihadists who attacked Charlie Hebdo's office, and drew an interesting satirical strip:

“The idea: We’d draw a figure that was possibly Muhammad, but label it ‘Not Muhammad,’ and he’d be walking to what was definitely a mountain, but it would be labeled, ‘Not a mountain,’ ” Weingarten the Elder tells The Post’s Comic Riffs. “And the painting would be signed, “Not by Rene Magritte” — which was definitely true — it was either by Cynthia Pillsbury [the strip's 11-year-old girl], or by David Clark, depending on how you looked at it.

“So we had deliberately combined a truth, a lie and a maybe,” Weingarten continues. “And over it all was the epistemological question asked by Magritte in his famous ‘This is not a pipe [Ceci n'est pas une pipe]‘ painting: Is a representation of a pipe actually a pipe? Who is to define truth? The artist? The viewer? Who is in charge of reality?” [...]

Today’s “Barney & Clyde” also seems to signal a shift in the editorial winds since 2010, when Wiley Miller drew his syndicated “Non Sequitur” strip in an interactive picture-book style similar to “Where’s Waldo?” The strip, captioned “…Where’s Muhammad?,” was pulled from some newspapers, including the print edition of The Post. What was clever about that strip, then-Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander wrote, was “that the prophet does not appear in it”; Post editors at the time said the comic “seemed a deliberate provocation without a clear message.”

Compare that to today’s “Barney & Clyde,” in which a caricature said to represent Muhammad, according to Charlie Hebdo, actually appears in the strip. It is that very set-up panel, in fact, that carries so much of the deeper message of the cartoon.

It looks and sounds pretty clever. Above all, I'm glad if some press sources are beginning to come around and face reality, and to show they're unafraid of Islamofascism.

HANIN ZOABI HASN'T FORGIVEN LABOR

The "Zionist Union" tried to make a vote-sharing deal with the united Arab party list, but not only did they refuse, they wouldn't even make one on Meretz's behalf:

A deal that could have prevented tens of thousands of left-wing votes from being wasted and as many as two mandates from being thrown away was blocked Friday by the Balad party in a major blow to Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog.

Herzog’s Labor Party signed a vote-sharing agreement at the start of the campaign with Meretz to give spare votes beyond the mandates they won to whichever party was closer to an additional seat in the Knesset. Without such a deal, the spare votes are thrown away. [...]

Joint List head Ayman Odeh was in favor of signing the deal with Meretz, but Balad ruled it out because it did not want to cooperate with a Zionist party in any way. Zehalka even threatened to remove Balad from the Joint List, a threat that at this stage is not permitted by law. [...]

Balad MK Haneen Zoabi responded by pointing out that the Zionist Union supported banning her from running for Knesset “There is no Left in the Knesset, only a Center that is patronizing and racist,” she told Channel 2’s Meet the Press program.

I'm sure she had influence on the decision not to deal with Labor too. The name Labor now takes obviously has some negative ring to them, and so does Labor's support for banning her from the Knesset.

ARE JEWS IN EUROPE THREATENED BY THE RIGHT-WING OR BY JIHADISTS?

For years the left and the mass media they dominate have warned Europeans about the potential threat of fascism and right-wingers.

But who are European cops protecting Jews from, neo-nazis, the National Front, the Northern League and PEGIDA or MUSLIMS?

The truth is that islamists are the real threat to Europeans and Jews there,  not the people on the right who have been warning about the islamizaion of Europe.

FROM GEORGE IGLER; MORE HERE:

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2015/03/08/europe-you-have-been-warned-the-dark-future-of-europe-by-an-expert-on-islamic-radicalization/

LIKUD TIED; BIBI AHEAD - BUT THE OBAMANISTAS MAY STILL SUCCEED...

Polls show a tie between Likud and Zionist Union.

http://knessetjeremy.com/2015/03/07/knesset-jeremy-poll-of-polls-weekly-average-14-zionist-union-23-50-likud-22-83-the-joint-arab-list-12-58-yesh-atid-12-30-bayit-yehudi-11-91-koolanu-8-25/

The polls also show Likud would be able to form a coalition and ZU would not.

And they show Bibi is 3x more admired as a leader on IRAN than Herzog or Livni who lead ZU and more admired than Obama.

http://matzav.com/poll-israelis-trust-netanyahu-on-iran-far-more-than-herzog-obama

THIS LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THE LATE-BREAKERS WILL VOTE LIKUD AND THAT LIKUD WILL WIN.

THERE WAS A HUGE ANTI-LIKUD RALLY IN TEL AVIV; IT WAS ORGANIZED BY AN NGO RUN BY OBAMANISTAS, AND THE NEW ISRAEL FUND - A BUNCH OF DELUDED COMMIES WHO SUPPORT ISRAEL'S ENEMIES.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.640692

OBAMA WANTS TO INSTALL HERZOG IN ISRAEL AS KUCH AS HE WANTED TO INSTALL MORSI IN EGYPT.

AS ROME INSTALLED HEROD.

IF OBAMA DOES THIS, THEN ISRAEL MAY VERY WELL VANISH. YES: THE FATE OF ISRAEL HANGS IN THE BALANCE....

OBAMA HAS DEMOLISHED THE RULE OF LAW  AND THE US CONSTITUTION,  AND DECIMATED OUR DEFENSES AND ADVANCED THE CAUSE OF OUR ENEMIES AND THE ENEMIES OF THE FREE WORLD, SO TOO WILL HERZOG DO TO ISRAEL.... IF ISRAELIS ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE DUPED AS AMERICANS DID.

DENNIS ROSS DEBUNKS LATEST YEDIOT ACHRONOT ATTEMPT TO SMEAR NETANYAHU

The awful leftist paper Yediot Achronot is now trying to claim Netanyahu made a secret concession agreement to the PLO. But former US envoy Dennis Ross has refuted that whole smear:

Dennis Ross, the man allegedly behind the "concessions document" published by Yedioth Ahronoth over the weekend, told Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "never agreed to Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders, dividing Jerusalem or the right of return."

The document, which the Likud party claims is part of an orchestrated campaign to topple the current leadership, purports to have been presented in August 2013 and appears to detail the framework for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, suggesting a willingness by the Netanyahu-led government to make dramatic concessions.

According to Ross, the American diplomat who mediated the talks between Israeli negotiator Isaac Molho and Palestinian negotiator Hussein Agha, which included the document in question, "I always felt the best way to [negotiate] would be in a brainstorming set of discussions that could be informal. To that end, starting before I left the administration and continuing after I left, I worked with two long-time friends of mine, Isaac Molho and Hussein Agha, with the aim of coming up with a U.S. proposal for a framework. The idea was that both sides would agree to negotiate using the U.S. proposal, while making clear that they had reservations about provisions that ran counter to their positions."

"Over the years of our discussions, we came up with many drafts both before and after August 2013 but there was not an August 2013 draft. In any event, to my regret the exercise did not succeed," Ross added.

On that note, I think it's good such exercises in futility didn't succeed. If Ross is hinting he wanted concessions, then it's good there weren't any. As Dr. Haim Shine notes, it's just an attempt by Yediot Achronot to divide the right:

Yedioth began realizing that the "Anyone but Bibi" campaign was not very convincing, given the tumult taking place in the Middle East these days. A wise nation understands that the leader of the most complex country in the world must have real skill, such as macro-political vision, an ability to delve into details, a determined mindset, the power to persuade and, above all, a true vision for the future of the Jewish state.

In its distress, Yedioth has been attempting, as it did in the previous elections, to divide the Right and drive a wedge between its components. Under the bold title "Expose," Yedioth reporter Nahum Barnea revealed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's supposed "concessions document." This is a baseless document, and the best proof of this is the Netanyahu's continued insistence over the years on saying no to a return to the 1967 borders, no land swaps and no to ceding control of the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians.

Yedioth, with blatant cynicism, is attacking Netanyahu from the right to give Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett ammunition against the prime minister, hoping Bennett will use the story to draw some votes away from Likud.

And Bennett, to be honest, just isn't as impressive as he could be, so I think most votes would best be cast for Likud.

Mati Tuchfeld also says there's several signs Barnea's propaganda is just phony spinning, and explains well why the paper isn't worth reading.