Consult your local JAG

One must lead by example.

A leader should be held to a higher standard than their subordinates.

I am making the assumption that a plurality of my readers now have, or have in the past, held a security clearance. Many of us, read in to programs, etc. Ahem.

As such, no further comment is really needed.

Your "Nation of Laws" moment for the day;

18 USC 793:
(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

... and ...

18 USC 1924:

(a) Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.

(b) For purposes of this section, the provision of documents and materials to the Congress shall not constitute an offense under subsection (a).

(c) In this section, the term “classified information of the United States” means information originated, owned, or possessed by the United States Government concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States that has been determined pursuant to law or Executive order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure in the interests of national security.

Bill Clinton and the burdens of leadership

The higher up the food chain you go, the more people who will second guess every move you make. Everyone will Monday morning quarterback every decision you make. Unlike the leader, the ankle biters (you know, like bloggers) will have the benefit of hindsight.

A leader holds the lives of others in his direct and indirect control. The second and third order effects of every decision he makes, right or wrong, will effect hundreds to millions of lives and can steer the course of history.

In the end of the day, that burden in on one head; the leader.

I thought this little aspect of leadership was rolled up quite well in Alliser Thorne's speech on the Wall in Game of Thrones:



In that light, everyone should hold themselves when acknowledging something that I cannot believe is only now coming to light, but here is it. 

Allah puts it well;

A time capsule from Australia via MSNBC, captured for posterity at what would have been around 11 p.m. New York time. The hijackers may have been ritually shaving themselves as he said it. Previewing the audio, the host says Clinton “almost brags” about his decision. Of course he does; at the time, it would have been a no-brainer for a politician to congratulate himself for sparing a terrorist in the name of also sparing dozens (or, if you believe Clinton, hundreds) of civilians, even if that terrorist was responsible for the U.S.S. Cole attack. Twenty-four hours later, I guarantee you he wasn’t bragging anymore. In fact, you can draw a straight line from this audio to America’s drone policy today. These 20 seconds or so are precisely why Obama ended up pulling the trigger on Anwar al-Awlaki and why he continues to pull the trigger on Al Qaeda’s bigger fish even if it means incinerating civilians in Waziristan or Yemen in the process. He’s never going to let a statement like this come back to haunt him. Post-9/11, when you’ve got a big fish on the hook, you reel him in come what may. A presidency can survive anger from doves and civil libertarians that the White House was overly aggressive in targeting jihadis. It can’t survive having skyscrapers knocked over by someone who, you’re sheepishly forced to admit, you had a clear shot at killing years before. By the same token, if the FBI had announced on the morning of 9/11 that they’d busted a spectacular Al Qaeda plot to fly planes into the Twin Towers, plenty of people would have chortled that that’s the most ludicrous, Michael Bay-ish nonsense yet cooked up by a government eager to find pretexts to roll back civil liberties. There’s a reason why the term “September 10th mentality” exists, and Bill Clinton’s not the only one who was guilty of it.

Listen to the video here. Go to the 5:30 mark for the audio in question.

Ahhh, the smell of the Clinton Administration in the AM

I sent this out on twitter earlier today - now time to blog it.

Remember one of the low points of the Clinton Administration when it came to the long term national security and keeping our military edge?

Two American aerospace companies damaged U.S. national security when they provided Chinese space engineers with technical rocketry data that could have assisted Beijing's ballistic missile program, a House committee concluded yesterday in a classified 700-page report.

The panel's report is the most comprehensive review so far of evidence that Hughes Electronics Corp. and Loral Space & Communications Ltd. shared sensitive U.S. technologies as they pursued commercial relations in China. The committee's findings appeared to include detailed criticism of the Clinton administration's policy of loosening high-tech export restrictions as a way to promote trade.

In a rare show of bipartisanship on what for months has been a divisive issue, the special panel chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) voted 9-0 yesterday to endorse the secret five-volume study and send it to congressional leaders and the Clinton administration.

That was all about helping out political cash machines.

Funny - selling out national defense in order to get re-election money. Do we spot a trend?

The four-star Air Force general who oversees U.S. Space Command walked into a highly secured room on Capitol Hill a week ago to give a classified briefing to lawmakers and staff, and dropped a surprise. Pressed by members, Gen. William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to a large Democratic donor.

The episode—confirmed by The Daily Beast in interviews with administration officials and the chairman of a congressional oversight committee—is the latest in a string of incidents that have given Republicans sudden fodder for questions about whether the Obama administration is politically interfering in routine government matters that affect donors or fundraisers. Already, the FBI and a House committee are investigating a federal loan guarantee to a now failed solar firm called Solyndra that is tied to a large Obama fundraiser.

Now the Pentagon has been raising concerns about a new wireless project by a satellite broadband company in Virginia called LightSquared, whose majority owner is an investment fund run by Democratic donor Philip Falcone. Gen. Shelton was originally scheduled to testify Aug. 3 to a House committee that the project would interfere with the military’s sensitive Global Positioning Satellite capabilities, which control automated driving directions and missile targeting, among other things.

According to officials familiar with the situation, Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to the company. And the White House asked the general to alter the testimony to add two points: that the general supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use; and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared with testing in just 90 days. Shelton chafed at the intervention, which seemed to soften the Pentagon’s position and might be viewed as helping the company as it tries to get the project launched, the officials said.

“There was an attempt to influence the text of the testimony and to engage LightSquared in the process in order to bias his testimony,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said in an interview.

BTW - if you need to brush up on your history on the subject - read Bill Gertz's Betrayal: How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security.

Dee Dee - overwrought

To prepare the battlefield for tomorrow's DivThu - Dee Dee still doesn't get that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar - but perhaps that is a bad analogy considering her past.

He isn’t putting his hand on her “chest,” as most of the articles and conversations about the picture have euphemistically referred to it. Rather, his hand—cupped just so—is clearly intended to signal that he’s groping her breast. And why? Surely, not to signal he finds her attractive. Au contraire. It’s an act of deliberate humiliation. Of disempowerment. Of denigration.

As Skippy might say, someone needs to get _____.

Caption Contest

Oh, my! I am at a loss for words that won't make Kristin get mad at me.

Palin and Clinton

In case you missed it Saturday.



I told Mrs. Salamander Tina would get the gig ...

Oh, and a FLIRJ is...

MSNBC's 1120s

Salamander quote of the week. See the bold.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me ask you Mike: are we to, to place the credibility of you as a pundit on your belief, that you've just asserted, that the Clintons will vote for John McCain?

MURPHY: Absolutely. I really believe Hillary Clinton will vote for McCain. Look, they're friends. [Crowd boos]. Ah, come on, don't shout me down: let me talk. I mean come on, this is, you guys are so in the tank we ought to be filming this on a submarine. The fact is, Barack Obama, to his credit, has moved closer to Hillary Clinton and John McCain on foreign policy, Hillary and John McCain have worked --

Read it all over at NewsBusters, or just watch the zoo below.




Having your credibility called into question by "tingle leg" Chris Matthews. At least, as usual, Harold Ford has class.

What is a PUMA?

Gee, in college I knew what a POOMA was, - but this just seems to be a gaggle of gals the likes of which give Skippy migraines. More here and here. ..... and of course, they are raaacissst.

Caption Contest

A Clinton. A Bikini. Come on; cut me some slack - like you would have passed it by.

This requires two entries, BTW, one on the left, and one all the guys know, on the right.

Meanwhile, back at Clinton HQ

I think I can hear it now...


Click here is you need an explanation.

Caption Contest

Ed Rendell. Chelsea Clinton. 'Nuff said.

Hat tip K-Lo.

10 vs. 28 vs. 130

The GOFO (General Officer - Flag Officer) roll call please.

Senator Obama (D-IL) = 10.

Senator Clinton (D-NY) = 28.

Senator McCain (R-AZ) = 130.

Some can be found on the right side of the blog in the Wall of Shame - you can figure out who they support.

Nothing to see here; move along, move along.

It's 3am.....

Hat tip Michelle.

McCain - Obama - Obama - McCain

Someone, anyone, please relieve us of the Clintons.

The spring before his wife began her White House campaign, former President Bill Clinton earned $700,000 for his foundation by selling stock that he had been given from an Internet search company that was co-founded by a convicted felon and backed by the Chinese government, public records show.

Mr. Clinton had gotten the nonpublicly traded stock from Accoona Corp. back in 2004 as a gift for giving a speech at a company event. He landed the windfall by selling the 200,000 shares to an undisclosed buyer in May 2006, commanding $3.50 a share at a time when the company was reporting millions of dollars of losses, according to interviews.

A spokesman for the William J. Clinton Foundation declined to identify the buyer who was willing to pay so much for a struggling company's stock, saying only that the transaction was handled by a securities broker.

China - always China....

Sunday Funnies

About last night....

I think Hillary finally has figured out what many already saw over the last month.

First of all, the fact that right of center run screaming for the Holy Water whenever she comes on the TV is well known. What is not well known, and on one had the stones to brief Hillary on this - is that on the left of center she was not liked either; but supported due mostly to fear, respect for her ability to wield power a against those who didn't support her, and mostly a desire for a return to Executive power by the Left both in the Democrat Party and the fellow travelers in the Press.

Last night you saw that the left of center and the media now know that they have a chance to do exactly what the right of center wants to do; move beyond the Era of Clinton. In Sen. Obama they see a chance to do exactly that, and perhaps get the Executive Power they once thought only Hillary could deliver.

My support for McCain is well known. My beef with Obama is all policy. From the War to guns and most everything in between, we are on opposite ends. My beef with Clinton is much deeper and best only discussed on a STU.

All that is left for Hillary is the voting in OH and TX. Never count a Clinton out - but I think she is way past "stick a fork in her." The below videos, especially the first one, via NRO should make that clear.

Obama is a dog

Ah, German precision. Snicker.

A float featuring effigies of US Democratic presidential candidates, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama makes its way through the streets during the "Rose Monday" carnival parade in the western German city of Duesseldorf.

Yep, they about got it right.

Uniform ID help

Drudge has this on his front page. What uniform is that next to former President Clinton? That guy is about my age or a bit younger. I think I see some Boy Scout stuff WRT the kerchief and the sash, but what is the deal with the Army like jacket and the "only people who consider a Toyota truck a infantry fighting vehicle wear a beret like this" cover? Has some Scout organization changed their leader uniform, because that doesn't look like any Scout uniform, police uniform or US military outfit ever created? I don't want to insult anyone, but ... someone help me out there. What is that uniform - and who do you call to offer suggestions....?

Just as a snarky comment; SC has some of the highest military service per capita ratios in the nation - couldn't they find some VFW type instead?

Hillary done?

No crying in fight club. Check this from ABC. Me, me, I, I, choak, sniffle, pause - your're done.

Watch that at the link, and then watch Bill below. I don't see how Hillary wins the Dem nom unless Obama is found in bed with a dead girl or live boy.

---

UPDATE: I don't think this helps either.

Political shark jumping

The more I see this video, the more I think we might be done with Clintons. On so many angles, this just points her out for what she is. Obama's ideas might be the best 1977 has to offer, but he sure put Hillary back on her broom.