WFB: By George: ABC’s Clinton Defender-in-Chief | SUPERcuts! #199:
ABC host and former Bill Clinton flack George Stephanopoulos has admitted he donated $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation and did not disclose it to the network or its viewers. Last month, he aggressively interviewed the author of a book criticizing the foundation and its influence over Hillary Clinton’s State Department tenure.
Bill O’Reilly: O’Reilly: Hillary’s Getting The Nomination, ‘Unless She’s In Jail’ Of Course:
Trey Gowdy Still Waiting On Benghazi Documents From State Department:
ISIS Edges Toward Palmyra, Syria, Raising Fears Over Ancient Ruins:
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants executed 26 civilians on Thursday after the group overran villages near Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Daesh executed 26 civilians, including at least 10 by beheading, after accusing them of collaborating with the Syrian regime,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Texas Man Arrested, Accused of Pledging Allegiance to ISIS:
The FBI claims they found evidence on Bilal Abood’s computer that he swore allegiance to the leader of ISIS.
Bill Whittle Stupid Liberal Question Stratosphere 37:
Colin Flaherty: Angry police chief:
Megyn Kelly Revisits the Time She and Janice Dean Slept Together:
GREELEY, Colo. – They don’t have much to remember their dad by, except photographs and memories.
Tanner was just 15, when his dad, Weld County Deputy Sam Brownlee, was killed in the line of duty after a police chase in 2010.
Nearly five years later, Tanner and his brother, Chase, were hoping to get one of their dad’s prized possessions from the Weld County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’d mean a lot to me and my brother. We’ve been through a lot,” said Tanner.
The Weld County Sheriff’s Office auctioned off their dad’s Dodge Charger on Wednesday night. The vehicle, with 147,000 miles, was being sold to raise money for C.O.P.S. — Concerns of Police Survivors, an organization that provides services for survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
As ISIS took over Ramadi, Friday, routing Iraqi troops, who fled for their lives along with thousands of civilians, Brig. Gen. Thomas D. Weidley, chief of staff for Combined Joint Task Force Operation, wants the American public to believe that Islamic State forces are on the defensive and that the situation is going just according to plan.
Leave it to Obama to produce a military spokesman as impressively mendacious as Iraq’s own Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf – aka Baghdad Bob.
The Islamic State on Friday took control of the provincial government center of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, and appeared to be in control of most of the city in a major defeat for the Iraqi government.
Islamic State forces also appeared to be closing in on government positions in two other key locations in Anbar province, the towns of Baghdadi and Karmah, in a broad offensive that if successful would end the government presence in any of the province’s major population centers. The capture of Baghdadi also would cut the supply lines to the Iraqi garrison protecting the strategic Haditha Dam.
The Associated Press appeared to call out General Weidley on his propaganda:
Weidley appeared to be pressing his own “information campaign” designed to counter the militants’ message of defiance. While conceding the militants’ were managing “episodic control” of certain terrain in Iraq, he insisted their advances were minor and unsustainable.
The State Department offered a similar assessment. “There will be good days and bad days in Iraq,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said. “ISIL is trying to make today a bad day in Ramadi. We’ve said all along we see this as a long-term fight.”
Weidley said IS fighters had launched a complex attack Friday on Ramadi as part of an effort to “feed their information and propaganda apparatus.” He called Ramadi a “critical city” but said he could not confirm how much of the city had been lost to IS on Friday or what percentage remains in Iraqi control. He said his command had seen Islamic State social media postings of photos that depict a successful Ramadi offensive.
How can this even be happening? Where’s the “broad coalition” Obama promised would “degrade, and ultimately destroy” ISIS?
Here’s White House Spokes-Goon Eric Schultz claiming that ISIS Momentum ‘Has Been Blunted’:
Obama’s “broad coalition” is kicking butt over there, you guys.
Never-mind the weaselly – “ultimately” destroy verbiage. We’re not even “ultimately” degrading them. Degraded armies don’t keep gaining ground.
This is a new low for the United States. For God only knows what reason – the leader of the free world is handing Iraq over to savages. And now we’ve got our own Baghdad Bob(s) telling us we’re not seeing what we’re seeing. The disaster playing out before our eyes, they tell us is really the enemy being “degraded” by our broad coalition.
But you’ll just have to take their word for it since the Regime won’t let the media embed in Iraq so they can report on what’s going on.
We’ve not even reached bottom, yet, folks. Obama still has over a year and a half of failing to do. It’s hard not to feel demoralized.
The Council has spoken,the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.
“If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern which shines only on the waves behind.” “ – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Those whom do not remember history are doomed to repeat it – George Santayana
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism.”– Franklin Delano Roosevelt
This week’s winning essay,The Right Planet’s –Which ‘Ism’ Will We Choose? is about creeping totalitarianism, witha comparison with how its taken over in the past to events today. Here’s a slice:
Godwin’s Law … it goes a little something like this:
“… [I]f an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism….”
Undoubtedly, there is a certain amount of truth in Godwin’s adage. Since World War II, there probably has not been a U.S. president who hasn’t been directly compared to Adolf Hitler, at some point or another. As a matter of fact, it didn’t take me very long to dig up Hitler memes and analogies for a number of U.S. president via a Google search.
Often times such direct comparisons of U.S. presidents to Hitler are grossly hyperbolic at best, and utterly unconscionable at worst. Despite the fact how one may feel about current and past presidents, equating them on the same level with one of the worst monsters in human history does indeed minimize the terrible suffering of those who fell under the tyrannical and brutal reign of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler and his henchmen have come to represent the epitome of evil, and rightly so. Nazism has become the benchmark used to measure all things evil. The question for me is not whether a current president is on equal par with Adolf Hitler. I don’t happen to believe any U.S. president, present or past, is as guilty of murderous and ruthless fanaticism as Adolf Hitler—on that point, let me be clear. My point is that Hitler and his notorious Third Reich provides the ultimate yardstick by which we can measure how far a government or nation is marching down the road toward total state control and merciless dictatorship. The mere act of using the Nazis as a measuring stick is not equating the thing being measured as being necessarily one and the same. Instead, the question for me is whether the U.S.A. is moving away from fascism or toward it. If we examine the rise and fall of Hitler’s Third Reich from a historical perspective, how does it compare to what we see going on today? This is a valid exercise—and a necessary one, in my opinion.
Perhaps someone who experienced the oppression and horrors of Nazism is better able to illustrate my points. I’ll just throw in a few of modern-day examples for consideration as well.
Kitty Werthmann, 87, survived World War II. She was an Austrian citizen and lived under Nazi rule throughout the war. A few years back she spoke to an American audience about her experiences during the war, and how the current political climate in this country greatly concerns her. She strongly feels the need to warn Americans about the horrors of socialism.
In her opening comments (see video above), Kitty Werthmann points out how Western media often times portrays Hitler’s annexation of Austria with Germany in 1938 (Anschluss) as an armed invasion, replete with troops and tanks. Without a doubt, German troops did indeed move into Austria at the time. But what is often overlooked, according to Werthmann, is the fact that the Austrian people overwhelmingly elected Adolf Hitler by ninety-eight percent of the vote—by means of the ballot box. How could this happen? What would lead Austria—a predominately Christian nation—to elect a monster like Adolf Hitler?
In the late 30s, Austria was in a very deep depression, with thirty percent unemployment, and twenty-five percent inflation. Austrian banks were charging twenty-five percent interest on loans. Businesses and farmers were going broke. Austrians could not afford to pay their taxes. Unions were calling for strikes; and factories were being closed down. Worse yet, the financial chaos was leading to riots in the cities. Entire blocks were burned down. Austrian police were ill-equipped to stop the ongoing destruction, according to Kitty Werthmann.
As Austria descended into despair, the Austrian people looked to their neighbor in the north, Germany, and saw full employment and a high-standard of living. As Kitty Werthmann puts it (emphasis added), “Hitler did not act like a monster; he did not speak like a monster; he spoke like an American politician.”
The Austrian people petitioned their government for a plebiscite (an election) to merge Nazi Germany with Austria. Besides—despite what Barack Obama might believe (cf. sarcasm)—the Austrians didn’t speak “Austrian”; they spoke German. The Austrians and Germans had a common heritage.
What is particularly chilling about Kitty Werthmann’s recollections, are the disturbing similarities of the policies implemented by the Nazis in Austria to the current policies and initiatives being instituted and promoted right here in the United States today.
For example, one of the first policies implemented by the Nazis in Austria was a National I.D. Austrians could not board a train or bus without showing their National I.D. card.
Following 9/11, the U.S. federal government “began to look at ways to increase security surrounding state identification cards and driver’s licenses,” allegedly “in an attempt to prevent further terrorism and/or unlawful entry into and out of the country.”
In our non-Council category, the winner was Mark Steyn’s pungent comments on the Garland, Texas terrorist attack and the reaction to it in certain quarters,Mark Steyn –Stay Quiet and You’ll Be Okay” submitted by The Noisy Room. It’s Mark Steyn at his best.
Here are this week’s full results. Both Ask Marion and The Independent Sentinel were unable to vote this week, but neither was affected by the usual 2/3 voe penalty for not voting:
Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Kirsten Powers/Daily Beast – How Liberals Ruined College submitted by The Watcher
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.
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Megyn Kelly led off her show Thursday night with the George Stephanopoulos bombshell that the Washington Free Beacon (not Politico) broke.
As you surely know by now, Steppie neglected to disclose his Clinton Foundation donations even as he reported on the Clintons and their foundation/slushfund – a particularly egregious oversight – considering a hard-hitting interviewhe had with Peter Schweizer, who he aggressively grilled over “Clinton Cash” – the book Schweizer wrote about the Clinton Foundation.
Kelly and Marc Thiessen remarked upon the irony of Stephanopoulos (a Clinton insider who worked in the Clinton White House) questioning the partisan motivations of former Bush speechwriter Peter Schweizer.
“George Stephanopoulos actually questioned whether Peter Schweixer had a partisan interest in his book because he had worked for four months in the Bush administration — when he was the communications director for the Clinton White House and the Communications Director for the 1992 Clinton Campaign, and is it fair to say maybe he has a partisan interest in defending Hillary Clinton?” Thiessen said.
Kelly cited Eric Wemple of the Washington Post media blog, who said; “A donation from Stephanopoulos to the Clinton Foundation in any amount constitutes a scandal and an immediate crisis for ABC News.”
Howard Kurtz remarked, “This blunder by Stephanopoulos is so severe that it really threatens to undo what he’s accomplished in his 18 years at ABC News.”
He added that for Steppie to given this money to the Clinton Foundation and not disclose the donations to his bosses or viewers is “unthinkable.”
Kelly asked why Stephanopoulos would be considered too partisan to moderate a debate, but not the entire 2016 campaign. ot so much conflict that he isn’t stepping out of 2016 coverage entirely.
Kurtz said he should have found “any other charity on earth to give it”
While the contributions were publicly available information, the host had not disclosed the conflict of interest to ABC viewers – until he was caught by Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon.
Stiles asked ABC for a comment, and while they were waiting for a reply, ABC leaked the story to Dylan Byers of Politico, who titled his story “George Stephanopoulos discloses $50,000 contribution to Clinton Foundation” (as if the idea to disclose was all Stephanopoulos’s).
A half an hour after Politico’s story ran, ABC News sent a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.
Nice Deb 