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THE capital is in the throes of déjà vu and preview as it plunges back into Clinton Rules, defined by a presidential aide on the hit ABC show “Scandal” as damage control that goes like this: “It’s not true, it’s not true, it’s not true, it’s old news.” The conservatives appearing on Benghazi-obsessed Fox News are a damage patrol with an approach that goes like this: “Lies, paranoia, subpoena, impeach, Watergate, Iran-contra.” (Though now that the I.R.S. has confessed to targeting Tea Party groups, maybe some of the paranoia is justified.) Welcome to a glorious spring weekend of accusation and...

So my vacation plans to Cyprus have been canceled. Something about the government there seizing everybody's wallet because the country is bankrupt. Another nanny state bites the dust. When will they ever learn? Never. Here in the good old USA, there are 76 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus -- folks such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Rep. Charles Rangel, California Rep. Maxine Waters and Florida Rep. Alan Grayson. Sanders is the only honest one in the bunch. He comes right out and admits he's a socialist. He'll take all your stuff while telling you tales of Ethan...

There were two extraordinary disclosures in Thursday's testimony of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey before the Senate Armed Services Committee. One is that there was no communication between them and Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the seven hours of Sept. 11, 2012, when Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were attacked and murdered in Benghazi. This is a vivid contrast with those photos we've seen of the president and his leading advisers watching the video of the attack on Osama bin Laden. At a 5 p.m. meeting, when...

A new administration policy? Barack Obama disarmed the US Marines at the Inaugural parade this year. Dishonored and disarmed: Bolts are clearly missing from these Marine rifles during President Obama’s inauguration parade. This is an unmistakable insult to the honor of the Marine Corps ... It’s not the first time the Obama Administration disarmed US Marines at an event. In March 2012, US Marines were told to leave their weapons outside the tent during Leon Panetta’s speech in Afghanistan.

LANSDOWNE, Va. — Former President Bill Clinton came to the House Democratic retreat here armed with a warning: The Republicans won’t make it as easy for Democrats to win in 2014. “I think that we should assume going forward that the people who disagree with us, honestly in our approach, will not make it quite as easy to draw the contrast on the things they do and say [as] they did last time,” Clinton told House Democrats in a wide-ranging and largely informal talk that lasted nearly 45 minutes. Clinton noted he held 133 campaign events for Democrats in 2012,...

Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped down from her lofty position amidst a sycophantic outpouring of hot air as journalists and fellow politicians abandoned their roles and assumed positions as Hillary courtiers, duly attending to the bidding of their lord and mistress. This would include, but was not limited to singing praiseful odes to her ladyship, ignoring her errors, helping to cover up her mistakes, and attempting to damage the reputations of any person who refused to play along with the charade. At the center of the love-fest was the former Secretary herself, appearing before a Senate panel...

President Barack Obama was nowhere to be found the long and fatal night of September 11, 2012 when Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were assassinated in an attack on the U.S. Mission Outpost in Benghazi, Libya.  Finally, five months after the terrorist assault, the American people and the families of those brave slain Americans find out that even though live video was being streamed back to Washington, even though requests for backup had been sent, the President left it to others to deal with the issue. "He (Obama) knew generally what was deployed out there but as to...

Today is Saturday, February 9, 2013. As this is written, police in California are hunting former officer Christopher Dorner who has gone on a murderous rampage. He left behind a long “manifesto” setting out a list of perceived insults, indignities and slights going back to his childhood and threatening to kill those his disturbed mind feels to be responsible. While watching FNN this morning, a psychiatrist declared that all the evidence points to this fellow being a NARCISSIST. He offered that one of the major symptoms of narcissism is an unwarranted elevated sense of great self-worth/self-esteem. He then predicted that...

**SNIP** But Clinton’s testimony before House and Senate panels is likely to be mostly forward looking, said National security expert Rudy deLeon. “What we are expecting to hear, in the secretary’s own voice, is the plan she has to reinvigorate and enhance diplomatic security services," he said. "What we are reminded of is how delicate the security situation is, and how attentively we need to stay focused.” Will the Benghazi attack be a permanent and defining stain on Clinton’s tenure at the State Department? Former U.S. NATO Ambassador Robert Hunter does not think so. “I do not think her image...

Cable from Chris Stevens was chock full of reports on regional violence, concerns about local security capabilitiesJust hours before he died in a terrorist attack at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Ambassador Chris Stevens sent a cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton painting a chaotic, violent portrait of the eastern Libya city and warning that local militias were threatening to pull the security they afforded U.S. officials.... [snip] Militia leaders told U.S. officials just two days before the attack that they were angered by U.S. support of a particular candidate for Libyan prime minister and warned “they would not...

(CNSNews.com) - Retired Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin—who is the former commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command, the former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and who worked with the CIA—told CNSNews.com in a video interview last week that he believes it is a reasonable supposition that the U.S. was supporting or planning to support the Syrian rebels via Benghazi, Libya. The CIA, however, says Boykin’s supposition is erroneous and that the U.S. was not conducting or planning covert action to support Syrian rebels through Benghazi. “These assertions are both baseless and flat wrong,” a CIA spokesperson told...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to testify on the Benghazi debacle before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, January 23, two days after President Obama is inaugurated. I doubt that very many journalists and citizens will closely follow the hearing held so soon after the inauguration. But even so, I have some questions that a member of the Committee may want to ask. (Of course, these questions are the tip of the iceberg.) 1. On October 15, 2012, did you take responsibility for the lapses in Benghazi security that resulted in the 9/11/12...

Several Egyptian members of the squad of militants that lay bloody siege to an Algerian gas complex last week also took part in the deadly attack on the United States Mission in Libya in September, a senior Algerian official said Tuesday. The Egyptians involved in both attacks were killed by Algerian forces during the four-day ordeal that ended in the deaths of at least 38 hostages and 29 kidnappers, the official said. But three of the militants were captured alive, and one of them described the Egyptians’ role in both assaults under interrogation by the Algerian security services, the official...

CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson has been one of the few members of the media willing to hold the Obama Administration’s feet to the fire over Benghazigate. Despite Obama et al.’s toxic mixture of silence, prevarication, and obfuscation, Attkisson has doggedly pursued the truth about the September 2012 attacks that left four Americans dead. Today, she spotlighted the list of questions that the Obama Administration has yet to answer:

Senate hearing: 9:00a.m. EST. House hearing: 2:00 p.m. ESTWatch live here. Also on C-SPAN 3. In her first testimony since the Benghazi attack, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will participate in a full day of hearings Wednesday about U.S. diplomatic security and the American mission in Libya. Sec. Clinton will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the morning followed by an afternoon testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In December, the State Department's highest ranking foreign service officers, William Burns and Thomas Nides, testified before Congressional lawmakers in the Secretary's place. They discussed a new report by...

hillary testifying live right now.

Never has one live television event held the potential to enrage a nation, destroy a sitting president, disqualify an aspiring President and delegitimize a malignant, corrupted media industry than the testimony of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before Congress, today. Prior to this public hearing, Good Morning America will have spent more time interviewing Honey Boo-Boo during one show, than all network news stations, combined (excluding Fox News) have spent discussing the details surrounding the murder of a U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012. The last murder of a U.S. Ambassador occurred in...

U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies on the September attack on U.S. diplomatic sites in Benghazi, Libya during a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington January 23, 2013. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) hugs Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as she arrives to testify on the September attack on U.S. diplomatic sites in Benghazi, Libya during a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington January 23, 2013.

The secretary of State testifies this week, but because of years of taking hits and careful damage control she'll leave unscathed.

As the Congressional hearings on the fiasco in Benghazi gear back up, and as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to testify all manner of questions are floating around about who knew what and when ... Therefore, the question that is simply asked and objectively answered, without placing any of the SF or CIA operatives at mortal risk is a simple one. You see, the Kalashnikov rifle chambers a 7.62 mm round. The US M-4 rifle chambers a 5.56 mm round. What is widely reported and accepted is that at least two of the TDY Green Berets who were assigned...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the misinformation that came out about the Benghazi attacks in their immediate aftermath no longer mattered, saying that the important thing was to find the persons responsible. Clinton had a heated exchange with Sen. Ron Johnson during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he questioned her about the initial reports on the motives behind the attacks on the U.S. Embassy that left four Americans dead. Initially, UN Ambassador Susan Rice blamed the attacks on protests over an anti-Muslim video when she appeared on the Sunday shows, apparently speaking...

I'm sure the Obama administration wishes questions about the Benghazi attack and subsequent murder of our ambassador and 3 others would just go away. They successfully stonewalled the issue until after the election and then some ill-timed health issues afflicting Secretary Clinton prevented her from testifying last year. But today, the House and Senate foreign affairs committees will each get their shot at question Mrs. Clinton about what happened, why the investigation has been botched, and why the perpetrators are still at large thumbing their nose at the US government. From THE HILL: ________________________ Republicans have been clamoring for her...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted on Wednesday that the department is moving swiftly and aggressively to strengthen security at U.S. missions worldwide after the deadly Sept. 11 raid on the consulate in Libya. In probably her last appearance on Capitol Hill as America’s top diplomat, Clinton once again took full responsibility for the department’s missteps leading up to assault at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. … Clinton’s testimony was focusing on the Libya attack after more than three months of Republican charges that the Obama administration ignored signs...

Wrapping up a report on Wednesday's NBC Today about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming congressional testimony on the Benghazi terrorist attack, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell sympathetically observed: "It will be a grueling day, first in the Senate, then in the House. Not how the Secretary of State had planned to wind up what is widely viewed as a stellar term as the nation's top diplomat." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] At the top of the segment, Mitchell seemed to lament that Clinton would have to endure such questioning after recent health...

At Hillary Clinton's Benghazi hearing at the House this afternoon, Democratic congressman Eliot Engel said: "Barack Obama was not responsible for the Benghazi attack any more than George W. Bush was responsible for the 9/11 attacks"

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about ascertaining whether the Benghazi terror attack was the result of a protest by Senator Ron Johnson. "What difference would it make?" Clinton shouted, seemingly losing her cool. "With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?"

"What difference does it make?" an angry Hillary Clinton retorted when Senator Ron Johnson pressed her on why the administration pushed the false narrative on Benghazi. I've already responded, but in case that's not enough, CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson has a thought on that question: It makes a difference.— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) January 23, 2013 The Washington Post's Erik Wemple explains why: No matter your view of the media’s role in Benghazi; no matter your take on whether U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice leveled with the country on the Sept. 16 talk shows; no matter your view...

"With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd they go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi, Libya, which left U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty dead. "It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent...

During her congressional testimony today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly defended her failure to see key cables dealing with Benghazi by noting how many cables the State Department receives. She explained there are 1.4 million cables to the department a year, all addressed to her as secretary. That’s wrong — and this poor excuse is worth examining. In fact, every cable sent from the department is signed “Clinton” as long as she is in Washington. If not, each cable bears the name of the acting secretary — usually deputy secretary Bill Burns. But it’s obvious that these cables are...

(CNSNews.com) - In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, five State Department Diplomatic Security agents who were in Benghazi that day and survived the attack were evacuated from the country and taken to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. All five had suffered from smoke inhalation, and one was seriously wounded. Under questioning from Sen. Ron Johnson (R.-Wis.) in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed that she has spoken to only one of the American survivors who was evacuated from Libya after the...

(Reuters) - Britain urged its nationals to leave the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday, citing a "specific and imminent" threat to Westerners days after a deadly attack by Islamist militants in neighbouring Algeria. Britain's Foreign Office declined to give details of the nature of the threat, but has warned in the past of the long reach of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African wing of al Qaeda. At least 38 hostages were killed in an attack on the remote In Amenas gas complex in Algeria, about 100 kms (60 miles) from the Libyan border. French...

During a long day of testifying before House and Senate panels, outgoing Secretary of State - and presumptive Democratic Party candidate for the presidency in 2016 - Hillary Clinton batted away contentious questions from Republicans like Ted Williams at a Little League game. She also soaked up extreme adulation from Democrats (including a a not-so-coded call to run for president by Sen. Barbara Boxer, who said, "You will be missed, but I for one hope for not too long").The scene reminded me of nothing so much as Oliver North's appearance before a joint Congressional committee investigating Iran-Contra back in the...

Chris Matthews on Hillary Clinton's "performance" yesterday during the Benghazi hearing: “Venturing forth in unprotected waters today, she showed how not to be defensive, how not to sweat [and] also how to exhibit humanity and yes, compassion. Even when the witnesses are looking desperately — those people around her — to target her weaknesses. Again, it was a magnificent display of smarts, I think, guts definitely and caring. She looked every bit like a person who could run for president, run well, win big and serve confidently. What a day it’s been for the progressive side of American politics. What...

“There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity...You can smell it. It smells like death.”                                       Big Daddy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof “What difference does it make!!” (snip)Hillary has always been a good student. This was evidenced again yesterday as she maneuvered the Benghazi obstacle course with legendary Clintonian skill; managing to take 100% responsibility with 0% blame. She was a master of the parsed phrase; the queen of evasion,   prevarication, scout’s honor misrepresentation, so help me God and deflection. How dare you suggest… In short: a monument of mendacity. Peace in our time, I...

The State Department has only ´advised´ Americans against traveling to the Libyan city of Benghazi even after Britain, Germany and the Netherlands today urged their citizens to immediately leave the in response to what was described as an imminent threat against Westerners. The US pointed to a travel advisory issued earlier this month and did not strengthen its warning even after the European countries issued statements variously describing the threat as specific and imminent but none gave details as to its exact nature. The warnings come a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testified to Congress about

Secretary of State Clinton came under fire in her congressional testimony on the Benghazigate scandal, but GOP lawmakers got few answers to their questions. Clinton Testimony on Benghazi Leaves Real Questions Unanswered The New American 24 January 2013 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came under fire during and after her Jan. 23 congressional testimony on the scandal that has become known as Benghazigate, with Republican lawmakers asking some tough questions but getting little in the way of real answers. Indeed, the most serious concerns about the deadly attack on U.S. personnel in Libya remain as unaddressed today as they...

After four years of pretending there is no jihad against the free world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blurted out the truth during her testimony on the Benghazi jihad massacre Wednesday: “We now face a spreading jihadist threat,” she said, adding: “We have to recognize this is a global movement.” We do? Yet the Obama administration has for years steadfastly and repeatedly denied both that there was a jihadist threat at all and that it was a global movement. So far has the Obama administration been from acknowledging that there was a jihad threat that less than two months into...

I think the most gut-wrenching part of former First Lady, former Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton’s testimony on Benghazi was when she related to other club members in the US Senate how she had “stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters.” It’s a wonder some of the mothers didn’t kick her. On one and the same day that we had to endure Hillary choking up over the dead she helped kill in Libya, we then watched her...

A lot of people in Washington apparently forgot how good Hillary Clinton is at not telling the truth. Wednesday, in her testimony before the Senate and, later, the House, Clinton brilliantly fudged, dodged, and filibustered. Of course, she’s a pro. Clinton was slow-walking depositions, lawyering up, and shifting blame when many of her questioners were still civilians down on the farm. Aided by a ridiculous format, she outfoxed most of the Republicans with ease. Meanwhile, the Democrats, almost uniformly, seemed singularly interested in celebrating Mrs. Clinton as a global diva who somehow manages to carry the burden of her awesomeness...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is changing the guard. Minutes after the president retook the oath of office, he formally submitted nominations for his new secretary of state, secretary of defense and CIA director. Two days later, remnants of red, white and blue inaugural bunting, bleachers and security fences were still up at the U.S. Capitol and along Pennsylvania Avenue when Congress came back to "work." Temporary barricades, snow fence, partially disassembled Jumbotrons and hundreds of miles of cables and wires — the detritus of "the longest inaugural parade in history" — didn't deter our elected representatives from "investigating" the...

In the throes of her faux outrage Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s made this phrase famous. She uttered it while being questioned about the lies this administration told after four Americans were killed in Benghazi. She acted like a child who was caught in a lie trying to find a way out of any consequences. Whether she realizes it or not, this will register with the low information voter and thus will become her legacy. If you don’t think of this being her legacy what is the first thing you think when someone mentions her husband Bill? Why does it...

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) stormed out of the Senate Hearing into the deaths of the US Ambassador to Libya and others. The spark that ignited her fury was Senator Rand Paul's (R-Ken) questioning of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “Rather than let her retire from her post with dignity, Paul insists on poking around into performance issues that have no relevance at this late date,” Boxer complained. “Maybe Secretary Clinton should have taken a greater interest in security for the Ambassador and his staff, but as she so artfully asked, what difference does that make now? Isn't it just 'Monday...

January 27, 2013 Durbin: Benghazi hearings one of Clinton’s ‘finer moments’ Ben Wolfgang A top Senate Democrat believes Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s duel appearances last week on Capitol Hill, in which she clashed with Republicans over the Obama administration’s handling of the Sept. 11 Benghazi terrorist attacks, will go down in history as one of the secretary of state’s “finer moments.” “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has done an extraordinary job for this country. It’ll be recognized by history. This was one of her finer moments,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign...

This week, the administration that rode to a second term decrying a fictitious war on women by the opposition, opened real fronts on the war on women, perpetuating feminism's worst inconsistencies through its contradictory programs and in the words and deeds of the avatar of these inconsistencies, Hillary Clinton, the "Athena" of low information women voters. Only CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson by her persistence and competence keeps me from burying my head in shame. As the Weekly Standard's Daniel Halper noticed, there was a serious disconnect this week in the administration's approach to women. On the one hand, the president's...

After four months of playing hide and seek with the American people, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored the Congress with her presence long enough to duck and deceive the American people regarding the worst incident of terrorism against Americans since 9/11. Those who are fans of Mrs. Clinton must have been delighted with her tap dancing around questions addressed to her by House and Senate Committee members. Those fans consider all this as just stagecraft created by political hacks that have no right to question “his eminence” --the President -- or his esteemed Secretary of State. Yet there are...

Obama (in response to Steve Croft question about Benghazi, Libya): You know, I remember Bob Gates, you know, first thing he said to me, I think maybe first week or two that I was there and we were meeting in the Oval Office and he, obviously, been through seven presidents or something. And he says, "Mr. President, one thing I can guarantee you is that at this moment, somewhere, somehow, somebody in the federal government is screwing up." (Laughter)

An old-time trial lawyer once said, "When your case is weak, shout louder!" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shouted louder when asked about the Obama administration's story last fall that the September 11th attack on the U.S. ambassador's quarters in Benghazi was due to an anti-Islamic video that someone in the United States had put on the Internet, and thereby provoked a protest that escalated into violence. She shouted: "We had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked Tuesday to name her most lasting regret from her time as secretary of state, referred to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. "My biggest question to you was, firstly, are you planning on writing your memoirs already? And if you are, following in the footsteps of Madeleine Albright in hers -- where she says that her lasting regret was in Rwanda -- what would you say was your lasting regret?," Clinton was asked by a British Pakistani student during her Tuesday morning "Townterview," one of a number of farewell...