Two divas recognized around the world by first name only appeared in Washington this week. Both stirred up questions about truth and transparency.
During her performance at President Obama’s inauguration, Beyonce Knowles likely lip-synched the national anthem. The US Marine Corps band first confirmed it, then backed away.
Comments
I wrote this yesterday, but there is just something incredible about watching a group of crotchedy, out-of-touch, old, white men ganging up on The Most Admired Women in America. Is the GOP conceding the 2016 Presidential election already?
When John McCain ran for President he admitted that he had never logged on once: he had never been on line, ever. How could this person in this day and age possibly have led the country? How was it even imaginable?
There is also something incredible about watching a crotchedy old white woman banging her first on the table.
What I thought was really incredible is how out of touch she is with reality, neverminid McCain and being "on line". Definition of reality: when terrorists have blown a hole through the wall of an embassy, heaved an IED over the wall., And she was still not reading the requests for more security?
White men "ganging up", gee, what should congress do? Just forget about the whole event? It is called a HEARING, not a "ganging up", save the redefinitions for the incredibly stupid.
Who cares ?
Those Republican senators did not enhance their images yesterday, but gave Clinton the opportunity to show how tough she can be. I'm sure their intention was to help derail her possible candidacy in 2016 but it had the opposite effect.
Rand Paul, despite his barely hidden dreams, looked anything BUT presidential. McCain and others came across as cranky. None of them looked like they were searching for the truth.
Yup, she looked tough alright, sort of like the soles on a pair of my old worn out hunting boots, and about as useful too.
Actually, she looked like she was on the run. Can you imagine if she did not get a breather every other questioner? She would have imploded, then gone super nova.
I think the EPA needs to begin a thorough study of the drinking water in Kentuckey. Clearly, something is being added to the water supply, the good folks there have somehow been brainwashed into voting for Rand Paul as their United States Senator. No other explanation is plausible.
So Hillary's story is "What difference does it matter what happened ... our job is to find out what happened".
She's a Clinton alright.
One's character is primarily developed during childhood, not marriage. You would be more accurate to impugn her for being a Rodham, but then you don't get a joint attack on the former President when you do that, and, of course, no one would really get it, since Hugh Rodham was a businessman, not a politician.
Misquote much? She was clear: she doesn't care about who or what happened regarding the talking points (what the Republicans are upset about), but she does care about what happened that left her State Department colleagues vulnerable. Republicans tried to make political hay during the election campaign out of a tragic consequence of very complicated political situation in a foreign country. All they have to complain about is what was said during some Sunday morning talk shows. The truth in complicated situations is apt to come out only after the passage of a great deal of time, if ever. It might have been better had Rice equivocated a bit more strongly and said "It seems to us right now that..." However, that is water under the bridge. Talking points are a minor issue. Embassy security, as Mrs. Clinton indicated, is the thing we need to fix.
Her claim that she did not see the cable from Mr. Stevens who was pleading for more security in one of the most dangerous places on earth is pure BS!
I admire Mrs. Clinton very much, but I don't think comparing her with Beyonce Knowles on this occasion makes very much sense. I don't see how this column describes risk taking. Answering these questions is her job.
Clinton's tantrum shows that she's a bully.
What do you want from someone who grew up in Park Ridge, IL? Very schmoozy burb of Chigcao. How DARE any question her about ANYTHING! Besides which, everyone is supposed to dance around and gild every question very carefully so as not to be politically incorrect. Only tough old skirts like Hilly get to bully people, after all, it is for the commoners good.
Nope. She showed us how to stand up to bullies. Hillary 2016!
As we all know, there are two definitions for "Diva", one is a popular female singer, the other is in the Urban Dictionary: "a [deleted] woman that must have her way exactly, often rude and belittles people, believes that everyone is beneath her...." Well, I do not know for a fact if Hilly is rude or not, never met her, but I would guess she could have her moments from her performance yesterday.
What I did notice is how she kicked the US Marine Corps in the shins. They are assigned to embassies to "burn secret documents, historically"? That is like saying someone has a Doberman Pinscher to chew up their sundary newspaper for recycling. Then she went on to say how "young" the marines are assigned to embassies (implying that they are too young to be able to handle themselves properly). And like a rascist will often do, she then went on to tell us all how she has her picture taken with them, WOW! (Some of my best friends are Marines says Hilly)
Here is the real scoop, US Marines assigned to Embassy duty are not there to "burn classified documents", that is just something they do when the stuffed suits and skirts like Hilly finally screw it up beyond all recognition. Embassy personnel have personal security assigned to them (non Marine, and I think, not sure, it may be FBI or SS), the facilities have typically been secured by US Marines. The Marines used to be the "public face" of security at an embassy. It is like having a nice friendly Doberman sitting on your front porch. Everyone gets the message. But Hilly and Billy did not like that image, they wanted the US to portray a different image. The result? Read about it in the Globe, it starts with "Terrorist Attack on US Embassy in...."
With Hilly, one has to listen for the adverbs, like "historically", just how far back, Hilly? I have seen several Embassies Hilly, back in the day, they all had US Marines standing post.
As for her popularity? Who cares, the dems like young candidates, not old crotchedy (as another poster below referred to Reps who "ganged up" on her) ones. By the time 2016 rolls around, they will be viewing her as practially senile.
Come on "History" with all due respect to the dead this is a lot of noise about absolutely nothing. In the grand scheme of things the loss of four in the embassy attack is no different than the loss of four in the Afghan. What we have is a political show and nothing more. The fact of the matter is if the host country does not defend an embassy an embassy will be overrun. Just as when the Shah the fell the US embassy was overrun when Iranians did not defend it.
The Congressional Repubs know this to be the fact as do the Dems. What we had here is a photo op and nothing more. One hates to sound callous at the loss of lifebut these are facts of life. Everything else is political posturing.
Of course, Mr. Turk. However, to write an article that tries to turn this into a "learning experience"? Give me a break!
As I said, some of this goes to policies that the Clintons wanted to project around the world, ie., Marine presence at embassies. They are definitely against that image. It has had consequences.
Just a note of interest, during the Clintons reign in the WH, Hilary demanded that most of the warbirds in the Air and Space Museum be removed, she did not like them. Missiles that NASA used were less "offensive".
While comparing them to dogs, "History" is touchy about the Marines. I wonder about his outrage when President Reagan packed more than 200 of them into a hotel in Beirut and let them get blown up. Some Commander in Chief! When Secretary Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State she immediately downgraded Mr. Clinton's counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, after being warned by him that alQaeda was a clear and present danger. Not that important, said Rice. Then 9/11 happened and 3,000 Americans died. President Clinton has tried to kill Osama ben Laden. President Bush ignored him, to our peril, and then allowed him to escape from Bora Bora. The real scandal here is the way Fox News and their allies continue to take a tragic situation where four people died and make it into an absurdist play. And "History" anticipates senility for Mrs. Clinton. No one is perfect, but having listened to Sens. Johnson and Rand Paul attack her yesterday with their allies in the House, I thought she was brilliant.
Your timeline is inaccurate on one point. Colin Powell was Sec. of State for Pres. Bush's first term (when 9/11 happened). Ms. Rice was National Security Adviser for Pres. Bush's first term. While Clarke reported his concerns to Ms. Rice directly, she would not have been alone in evaluating it. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and Bush were all obsessed with Saddam Hussein at the time. Cheney especially excels at character assassination, and he was the most active in attempting to discredit Clarke prior to and after his testimony to the commission that investigated the attack.
Nahant: So exactly what did all that reminiscing have to do with what Hilary has done? It is immaterial. If you do not understand my analogy re: Marines and Dobermans, I cannot help you.
Of course she was "brilliant" yesterday, no doubt about it. That is the way it always goes at congressional investigations. A bunch of people who are not versed in a particular subject attempt to question someone is extremely well versed. Then to top it off, instead of actually questioning, they grandstand. So it becomes political theater. Hilary is a master of that. What she is not a master of is protecting embassies, which goes to the heart of her job.
Beyonce and Hillary Clinton? Lame, opportunistic, lazy comparison.
Beyonce did not lip-synch. That report was wrong:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/beyonce_lip_syncing_at_the_inauguration_musician_mike_doughty_says_she_was.html
...and pigs can fly!
"President Paul" ... "President Huckabee" .... "President Bachmann" - I do love those alternate universes. Fortunately, in my world it's President Obama, who may very well give way to "President Clinton, II" in a few years.
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Well that's a disgusting comment, though I see someone appreciated it.
Yes, Ms. Vennochi _ Hillary was certainly singing her version of, "O Fortuna."
With all the fawning over Hillary Clinton by the democrats she didn't have to tell anything about what really happen during the 7 hrs of the attack. Like who toldl any help to stand down.
And any subordinate did not show their boss Hillary Clinton the memo's and e-mails from a ambassador begging for more security should be immediately fired along with the boss who should have told them...something as important as that to be notified. She fell down on the job. This was not a sudden attack...this attack had previous situations, the Red Cross pulled out, the english pulled out either the state dept is clueless or just incompetent and she is the one running it.
As Truman Capote said, "that's not writing, it's typing!" Except it's not even that.
Honest: Have you proclaimed yourself to be the typing/english/composition teacher of the comments section?
If so, YOU ARE FIRED! (by popular vote, held in secret at the clubhouse)
This Republican performance was originally supposed to be the "October surprise", trying to derail Obama's re-election down to the wire. The Republicans were working in concert with Fox News with an unrelenting attack on what happened in Benghazi. It didn't work. Now it's act two. Time to humiliate and discredit Hillary Clinton's future prospects in running for president. It's a Republican soap opera on the stage, trying to survive as a political party. Beyonce? The Globe and Joan Venocchi nearly sound like Republicans. The only Republican thing they omitted was "my taxes are paying for this performance!"
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Let's see if we have the facts, the one's that liberal apologists hate. First hillary is saying, what difference does it make what happened? Then in the next sentence we need to find out what happened! So certainly not one liberal apologist will dare admit that the two statements, shall we say are contradictory? Also, the facts about saying she wasn't aware of messages going up to her, well if she is in charge, should not have those messages gotten to her? If they didn't, why didn't and who was responsible! An obvious failure in communication!! We all know 4 Americans are dead! The issue is that 4 Americans SHOULDN"T BE DEAD, THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE Hillary!!!! Whether it is Clinton, Obama or Patrick, you can lie all you want, as long as you are liberal, nothing to see here folks, move along!!!
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I'm not a liberal but actually she said< "at this point what difference does it make. Now we need to find out how to prevent it in the future." If one wishes to distort facts try to get them right first.
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Joan vennochi says "
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton again took responsibility for the security breakdown in Benghazi ...ACTUALLY, Joan, Clinton SAID that she took responsibility, but then she refused to accept blame for anything. Therefore, Hillary Clinton did NOT accept responsibility for the security breakdown...And as noted in today's WSJ, Clinton also said "We cannot afford to retreat now, when America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremeism takes root; our interests suffer; our security at home is threatened"..The ESJ editorial then notes :" TOO BAD her statemernt bears no resemblance to the ACTUAL Clinton and Obama Middle eastern foreign policy: The Obama policy was to be "absent" from Libya after the fall of Khadafy, which led to the inattention to Benghazi security, which led to extrremism taking root, which led to the deaths of four Americans". For that she IS responsible"
Does one than assume you support boots on the ground? Because if you don't your options are limited. But then it is so easy to talk about the projection of American power without considering the lives and monetary costs involved.
"History" wrote, "during the Clintons reign in the WH, Hilary demanded that most of the warbirds in the Air and Space Museum be removed, she did not like them. Missiles that NASA used were less "offensive"."
What does that say to you, she's a "dove", a pacifist. I don't get the point. I see people write opinions regarding her and the Benghazi event asking these Oliver Stone questions that are answered by the ARB which is onlin for anyone to look at, but no instead let us just throw out bs statements because we don't like Hillary.
It is the biggest problem I have with the comments section there are folks like yourself or Kitch that I don't necessarily agree with but you write interesting comments and often have reference to articles I haven't read or seen. But when we get into something like this 90% of the comments are by folks who are clueless as to how a govt. works or how a Department works.
It's just foolishness and politics. As I have often said politics is fun but lord when they start talking stupid it's a waste of time.
Um, care to cite something to show this is not just an urban legend? Don't think the WH has much say over that the Smithsonian does.
"kate" I didn't say it was true, I was quoting "Historyisjustthat", personally I've never heard of it. My question is even if it is true, what's his point?
"Bamdad118"
You misquoted the Secretary and took the ocmments out of context. That is a distortion of the facts. Now you may have a personal beef or personally dislkie the Secretary and that is fine by me, I'm not a big fan either. However, this Benghazie presentation is a joke.
Again if you are interested in the actual facts and not the FOX news version or the, "hey what a great photo-op" show put on by both Dems. and Repubs. the actual ARB is online.
Now I for one do not refer people to "FOX" news or "MSNBC" to obtain facts I prefer the actual reports. While Ms. Clinton has her faults the events in Benghzi were tragic but only made more so by the politicization of the event by all parties involved. Now if you are interested in actual facts I refer you to the report. Or you can wait until the next Olver Stone conspiracy movie comes out.
/http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf
I'm sure the voices tell you that!!! Those are the facts, I heard her comments. Sort of when Barmey Frank said Fannie Mae and Freddie MAc were in good fiscal order, then he said he never said it and it was taken out of context!!!
I guess it is all in what your definition of is, is! The next truth that comes out of Hillary's mouth will be the first one!!
Well I watched the hearings, but hey you can go to the transcripts they'll be out in a couple of days. It really doesn't add to your point to attempt to insult the person you are having a discussion with. I generally find that folks who don't want the facts don't want to look it up. But hey that's up to you.
Finally, the report blamed two major State Department bureaus — Diplomatic Security and Near Eastern Affairs — for failing to coordinate and plan adequate security.
“Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus,” the report said, resulted in security “that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/politics/inquiry-into-libya-attack-is-sharply-critical-of-state-department.html
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lev - Sorry you don't like the conclusion of the bi-partisan (by the panel appointed by Hillary) that her leadership was a major failure.
"Bamdad118"
Actually they did say they screwed up. The report says they screwed up. You did in fact misquote out of context in order to make an argument. In fact in order to make an argument regarding something that both ARB, the Secretary and the involved Departments have admitted, They screwed up. It seems to me all you were looking to do was to take a swipe at a Democrat you don't like. Not one of my favorites either, but I'm not going to create an argument against her that doesn't exist. Intellectually dishonest and lazy, someting I don't think I've ever been accused of. As I said the transcripts will be available shortly we can settle it then.
Equating one of the most important people in the world, with a completely trivial aspect of a pop star's performance is beyond absurd.
Beyonce is very accomplished, but I'm not sure I'd call her one of the most important people in the world.
I believe "IndB" is referring to Hillary as "one of the most important people in the world" and NOT Beyonce.
Mrs. Clinton asked an astonishing question about the reports on what caused the attacks: "What does it matter now?"
Republicans failed to explain to her that the credibility of our government was what mattered.
What shocked me was that she even asked the question, rehearsed as it certainly was.