Scientific Breakthrough: Barbara Boxer Manages to Fart With Her Mouth

This crusty old hen claims the rightwing is going after Hillary Clinton only because, get this, Hillary Clinton is "exciting the public."

The only thing she's exciting is the bartender at Bennigan's.

Yes, she's "exciting the country" with her new ideas and her charisma.

Hi, young minority members of the Coalition of the Ascendant! Here is a Rich Old White Lady Who Travels and Drinks a Lot for you to relate to.

Oh, and if you don't like that Rich Old White Lady, we have something completely different as a back-up: Elizabeth Warren.

She played an Indian in her Harvard application papers, you know.

On to more Hillary Email analysis. Andrew McCarthy wrote an article worth reading in full, but I'll just tease it with a few of the best parts.

This also clears up a misconception you may have had, and by "you may have had," I of course mean "I had."

Classified Documents versus Classified Information

Mrs. Clinton stressed that she never stored classified documents on her private e-mail system. To the uninitiated, this sounded like the strongest point in her defense. Mostly, however, it is a red herring, exploiting the public’s unfamiliarity with how classified information works -- and fueling no small amount of irresponsible speculation over the last few days about how the nature of her responsibilities meant classified material must have been stored on her private system. In the government, classified documents are maintained on separate, super-highly secured systems. Yes, if security gets lax or you have a determined Ed Snowden type with sufficient expertise, the protections can be defeated. But in general, Mrs. Clinton would not have been able to access classified documents even from a .gov account, much less from her private account --she'd need to use the classified system. In fact, many government officials with security clearances read "hard copies" of classified documents in facilities designed for that purpose rather than accessing them on computers.

Okay, so she would not in fact have documents on her servers.

However, discussing classified information -- and you really can't do much with a classified document without discussing it at some point -- would result in sentences which are themselves classified:

That said, there are two pertinent caveats. First, since we’re dealing with Clintonian parsing here, we must consider the distinction between classified documents and classified information -- the latter being what is laid out in the former. It is not enough for a government official with a top-secret clearance to refrain from storing classified documents on private e-mail; the official is also forbidden to discuss the information contained in those documents. The fact that Mrs. Clinton says she did not store classified documents on her private server, which is very likely true, does not discount the distinct possibility that she discussed classified matters in private e-mails. We would not be able to judge that absent reviewing the e-mails. If any of the 31,830 withheld e-mails from the private, non-secure system --involving America’s top diplomat who was in constant discussions with other important diplomats, top military and national-security officials, her trusted advisers, and even the president of the United States -- touched on classified matters, that could land Mrs. Clinton in very hot legal water. It would be a powerful incentive to hit the "delete" key.

This security matter is the one she cannot escape. She cannot claim that security is a partisan issue. Oh, ultimately, she will claim that, of course-- that is always the last bastion of a Clinton scorched-earth defense-in-depth -- but it will not avail her.

What is left of her media-vaunted "Secretary of State experience" when most if that consists of earning frequent flyer miles and exposing the nation's secrets to hostile foreign governments?

What will she run on then? Her charm?

Update: Time's new cover:

Or even:

posted by Ace at 03:43 PM

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