Oh Hillary!

I keep saying that I won’t blog about Hillary because I’d rather spend time on consequential matters – and since she’s not going to be the Democrat nominee, why waste my time? But the HRC meltdown continues in epic fashion – or as Fox News’ Jason Riley says, “she’s stumbles quite regularly.”

Let’s face it – there is some entertainment value to all this.

So – on Special Report, tonight Kirsten Powers expressed her opinion that since Democrats really like Hillary Clinton, she’ll likely be the nominee. By “Democrats”, it wasn’t clear if she was referring to rank and file Democrats or Dems who hold public office. I assumed she meant Dems in office – because I don’t sense a groundswell of excitement about Hillary Clinton among the nation’s Democrats. I think the grassroots would really like to see a fresh face. Again, that MSNBC poll – just wow.

Krauthammer said that after she tried to redefine herself after the Clinton years,  her self-inflicted wounds defined her right back as the person everyone thought she was.

Later on, he quipped, “the Clinton team says, ‘there’s not a shred of evidence’ – well that’s because all the evidence was shredded.”

If you were following the 2008 election campaign online, you had to have noticed that Drudge wasn’t linking to the plethora of deadly stories about Obama (reported almost exclusively in conservative media.) But he linked (and still links) like crazy to anti-Hillary stories. Why is that?

This is a very interesting read by John Ziegler at Mediaite: Biggest Media Difference in Obama’s and Hillary’s Path to Presidency Is Matt Drudge:

Most conservatives would be shocked to know just how helpful Drudge was to Obama’s election in 2008. It is my very strong view (based on close observation and extensive contemporaneous communication with the late, great Andrew Breitbart, who was Drudge’s right-hand man at the time) that the news aggregator purposely took a dive on Obama during the Democratic primary and played a key role in how “The One” was able to swipe the nomination away from Clinton.

I have written about this incredibly under-discussed reality before (almost no one reported on it because crossing Drudge is considered career death on the right, and the left had no ability to either comprehend or even care about the story), and you can find several links proving my case here. I am also not the only commentator to report Breitbart’s take on this, as author John Lott begrudgingly admitted having had similar discussions with him.

For the record, I have saved numerous chat sessions with Breitbart about this subject, but they are not in a format that would meet the proper standard of “evidence.” However, I would gladly take a lie detector test on this subject and bet anyone foolish enough to question my veracity on the results of such a test.

As for why Drudge took a pass on several stories which could have torpedoed Obama’s 2008 campaign (most notably, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright fiasco), Breitbart and I differed on that. It was my opinion that his obvious animus towards the Clintons, combined with his (very accurate) view that an Obama candidacy and presidency would be great for his business, were the primary factors which led him to give the future president a giant pass.

SEE ALSO:

Twitchy: Not a drill: Media Matters declares Code Red over ‘Clinton Cash’ allegations

AoSHQ: Hillary, the Super Moderate: To Secure Abortion Rights, We’re Just Going to Have Change “Deep-Seated,” Fundamental Religious Beliefs

AoSHQ: Seth Meyers, The Unfunny MSNBC Hack Who For Some Reason Was Accidentally Employed as a Comic on NBC, Decries the Bias of Peter Schweitzer, Defends Hillary

The Daily Caller: Romney: ‘Every Appearance’ Is That ‘Hillary Clinton Was Bribed’ [VIDEO]

 Hot Air: The NY Times editorial board’s vote of no confidence in Hillary Clinton

The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The Tea Party represents stakeholders in the American system; people who were never involved in politics or thought they had to be, yet realized that political corruption and incompetence threatened not only their families, but the future of the nation itself.” – Tammy Bruce

“Politics, n: [Poly “many” + tics “blood-sucking parasites”]-Ambrose Bierce

“All Animals Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others” -New law posted by the pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm

“If you hires you a thief, don’t holler if they steals.” -old black American saying in the Mississippi Delta

This week’s winning essay,Joshuapundit’s –How To Make Millions Off ‘Public Service’ -The Corrupt Clinton Cash Machine was occasioned by the furor surrounding the release of an important new book about the Clinton Foundation scandal. Here’s a slice:

My old editor at Breitbart Peter Schweizer has a new book coming out May 5 entitled “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.”

My review copy will be arriving shortly, so I haven’t read it yet. But the New York Times has, and it’s good enough that even Pravda-on-the Hudson had to pay it grudging attention,admitting, “He writes mainly in the voice of a neutral journalist and meticulously documents his sources, including tax records and government documents, while leaving little doubt about his view of the Clintons.”

That’s no news to anyone who has read Peter’s other books on crony capitalism, which target pigs at the trough in both parties.

The subject of this particular book is a detailed 186 page investigation of how the U.S State Department would grant favors to foreign entities in exchange for high-dollar speaking fees and donations paid directly to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.

As I pointed out previously, foundations are one of the most egregious scams to hide and shelter income and avoid taxation for the super rich:

Now, foundations are interesting creatures. As Jane Fonda shows us , if the foundation has 501(c) status (and the Clinton Foundation certainly does), they can be used as a place to park income so it isn’t taxed and can be used for various ‘expenses’..or even invested, tax free. Why else do you think that most of the super-wealthy in America like the Clintons have such foundations?

Another thing about foundations that’s interesting is that according to the IRS rules, they’re allowed to pay salaries and ‘administrative costs’ (pretty much anything you can think of) with any portion of the donor money, something that has attracted a lot of prominent politicians. Ex-president Jimmy Carter’s Peace Foundation, for example provides a very nice income for him courtesy of his anti-Israel Arab friends. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is another prime example of how ‘foundations’ , ‘libraries’ and ‘centers’ can be used as cash cows by their ‘owners’.

And here’s the kicker about Hillary’s ‘charitable donation’. Anything the wealthy ‘donor’ to such a foundation donates likewise becomes a deduction against whatever taxes they might owe the IRS. So if Hillary Rodham Clinton actually did ‘donate’ all that money to the Clinton Foundation, she got paid two ways..first by reducing her taxable income significantly to lower her taxes and second by acquiring a huge deduction to leverage against the taxes on her other income. And since her husband ‘owns’ the Clinton Foundation, the money stayed in the family.

Both The New York Times, of all people, and The New York Post had some disturbing things to say about where the huge sums of money the Clinton Foundation collects were spent…and the Clinton Foundation’s infrequent audits.

The Clinton Foundation’s mission statement ought to be a tipoff:

“We convene businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change.”

Or as I would translate it, ‘We actively pursue fundraising from governments, private enterprise and our well connected friends for various nebulous causes. Yeah, we got a few good things going on, a few programs we can point to, some conferences and some meetings so we have the slideshow as a marketing tool, but essentially, our real object is fundraising and covering our substantial expenses.’

Don’t be surprised if some those ‘expenses’ end up being in kind, cash contributions to Hillary’s 2016 campaign that not only evade McCain-Feingold but allow ‘donors to get a nice tax deduction to a 501 C in the bargain. It’s a dodge, just like the huge $14 million advance Democrat donor-owned Simon & Schuster ponied up for Hillary’s failed book. Hillary will pocket the cash and Sumner Redstone and his friends will recoup it courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers after they deduct it as a loss against their other income.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was David French in the National Review with a gripping piece, Wisconsin’s Shame: ‘I Thought It Was a Home Invasion submitted by Nice Deb .

This is the story of Wisconsin’s ‘John Doe’ investigations where a rabidly Democrat prosecutor found a judge to sign off on targeting what the Left in Wisconsin saw as their political enemies and their families using methods more resembling the Gestapo or the NKVD than what we would think of as a free country. This story has to be read to be believed, and the court case that resulted is now headed to the Supreme Court.

Here are this week’s full results. Only Ask Marion was unable to vote this week but was not subject to the normal 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes!–Joshuapundit–How To Make Millions Off ‘Public Service’ -The Corrupt Clinton Cash Machine
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes –The Noisy Room – ISIS In Mexico, Means ISIS Is Here In The United States
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes –Bookworm Room – Yeah, yeah! I went AWOL again, but I still have energy to insult Hillary voters
• Fourth place with 1 vote –The Right Planet – Looking Under the Hood of an Article V Convention, Part I
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – Rush Limbaugh Names And Shames Perps In Wisconsin John Doe Scandal (Audio)
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! – All Republican Hanover BOS Unlikely After November 2015 Election
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Rhymes With Right – What Is The Purpose Of Free Speech?
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye –The End Of The Dream
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Razor – What My Taxes Could Buy
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Don Surber – Thomas Jennings, invented dry cleaning
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Doolittle Raid
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Ask Marion – Earth Day 2015 – 45th Anniversary… Looking Back

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 1/3 votes! –David French/National Review – Wisconsin’s Shame: ‘I Thought It Was a Home Invasion submitted by Nice Deb
• Second place with 2 votes –Myron Magnet/City Journal – Free Speech In Peril submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes –Tablet/Lee Smith–Inside Obama’s Meeting With Jewish Leaders submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes –According To Hoyt – Take Your Nose Off My Fist submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Fifth place with 1 vote –IHS Janes 360 – Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State’s attempts at cutting Damascus-Homs highway would threaten Assad’s control of Syria submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Patti Davis –John Hinckley submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Frontpage Mag –Obama Accomplishment: Africans Being Doused w/Gasoline and Set on Fire in Libya submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote –Publius-Huldah’s Blog – Article V submitted by The Right Planet
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote –wolf Howling – Wolf Bytes – The Hillary Follies submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote – The Hollywood Reporter – The Introspective Roger Ailes (Interview) submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote –Breitbart – Scott Walker Lays Out Pro American Worker Stance on Immigration submitted by Joshuapundit

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every  Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks’ nominees for Weasel of the Week!

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

Wis. Retired Cop: Hyper-Partisan DA Said It Was His Responsibility To Stop Scott Walker and Republicans (Video)

On Thursday night’s Kelly File, Megyn Kelly interviewed two individuals who are connected to the infamous John Doe Raids in Wisconsin, in which private citizens were persecuted by a vindictive, hyper-partisan DA for “nothing more than exercising their right to support conservative causes.”

Head of Wisconsin Club For Growth Eric O’Keefe, told Kelly that his friends were attacked for their “virtue” and “effectiveness.”

“Because the left was tired of losing election after election after election – they correctly identified some of the most important communicators of political messages in Wisconsin, and they raided their family homes with kids at home. They knew the kids were home – they knew the schedules – they came in the dark…”

Michael Lutz, a decorated former police officer who knew District Attorney John Chisholm,  stated that Chisholm admitted to him that the investigation was entirely political.

“In a personal conversation in his office, he had stated that he believed that it was his personal responsibility to stop Governor Walker and all Republicans from continuing to support ACT 10,” Lutz said.

O’Keefe was speaking out in defiance of the “secrecy order” which he noted was unconstitutional. He declared that he has sued Johm Chisholm because “he’s not fit to serve in public office.”

When Kelly pointed out that Chisholm has denied any wrongdoing, Lutz replied, “this is why I came forward in the first place because through the conversations and through what I witnessed in the district attorney’s office, John Chisholm had become so hyper-political and hyper partisan, he had weaponized his district attorney’s office to go after and prosecute and persecute all those who had a different ideology than him.”

He added, “it’s just so unAmerican and disgusting what’s going on, here.”

Kelly covered the story for the first time on Wednsday’s Kelly File, interviewing the author of the NRO piece, David French. She said she would be staying on the story, and invited DA John Chisholm to come on her show and defend himself.

SEE ALSO:

David French, NRO: Wisconsin’s Shame: Sheriff Clarke Weighs In

Wisconsin Watchdog: U.S. Supreme Court to consider hearing John Doe-related case