Hillary's Thirty Five Years of Lies and Coverups

No family in American politics have told more lies than Clintons, including the Bushs and Kennedys. This article comes from Blogcritics:

More and more evidence is coming to light that not only is Hillary Clinton a chronic liar, but that her lies and ethical breaches are so frequent and often so unnecessary that her urge to lie may be an uncontrollable pathological condition.

The history of Hillary Clinton's lies and unethical conduct has been well documented over the years, from covering for her priapic husband to the Whitewater, Travelgate and Rose law firm scandals. More recently a lot of attention has been paid to her lies about being under fire in Bosnia and even about what Chelsea was doing on 9/11. But the most recent revelation may be the most troubling because it shows that her pattern of unethical conduct and lying to cover it up goes back farther and is a more basic element of her character than anyone had realized.

The story of her time on the staff of the Judiciary Committee during Watergate has not been getting coverage in the mainstream media, but the story has been getting out through the work of columnists like Dan Calabrese who have picked up and looked into comments by former Chief Democratic Counsel for the Judiciary Committee Jerry Zeifman which reveal some very troubling aspects of Hillary Clinton's history.

Zeifman goes into detail on Clinton's history at the Judiciary Committee on his website and in a recently released book, where he relates the story of how she abused her authority, engaged in a coverup and an attempt to violate President Nixon's civil rights under the Constitution, expressly disobeyed the instructions of her superiors and was ultimately fired for cause without receiving a recommendation by Zeifman himself. Clinton may have conveniently forgotten this bit of history, but Zeifman has all the details because he kept detailed notes in a personal diary at the time.

The basic story is that Clinton (then Rodham) was assigned the job at the Judiciary Committee of "establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment." Zeifman ultimately fired her because "a number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed" and because "she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons." Beyond that, she also engaged in personally unethical behavior by obscuring her activities by removing files without permission so they would no longer be available to the public.

[...]The picture of Clinton which emerges from Zeifman 's first-hand accounts of why she was ultimately fired after Nixon's resignation show her as a vicious partisan activist, willing to bend and break the law, discard the Constitution, distort the truth, conceal evidence and commit almost any crime to bring down Nixon and claim as much of the credit as possible for herself. This picture of Clinton, coming as it does from a fellow Democratic insider, carries the weight of authenticity and shows the early genesis of the character flaws of which she still displays today. She is vindictive, unethical and a chronic liar, so twisted and egomaniacal that she ought to be automatically disqualified from any serious consideration for the presidency or any other public office.

Greatest Threat to America: An Overstretched Military

This is a transcript of a Lou Dobbs report on how we are facing a serious problem of an overstretched military. We might not be able to stop our enemies. The root of the problem is a war in Iraq that is bleeding America dry:

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the end of the NATO summit in Bucharest, President Bush committed a new round of U.S. troops to the war in Afghanistan. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Mr. Bush told other heads of state that in 2009, the United States would make a significant, additional contribution of forces to fight the Taliban. U.S. commanders want another 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, so why not send them now to join the 31,000 U.S. troops already there -- the answer, Iraq.

ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: There are force requirements there that we can't currently meet, so having forces in Iraq don't -- at the level they're at don't allow us to fill the need that we have in Afghanistan.

STARR: Finding enough troops for Afghanistan and Iraq is proving to be increasingly difficult. A new classified national intelligence estimate on Iraq, which Congress requested before General David Petraeus testifies next Tuesday is now on Capitol Hill. It reportedly says the surge is working, but analysts say the recent fighting in Basra may have changed everything.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I would say that any report done before Basra is already obsolete, at least to an extent. And so in that regard it's not going to be a definitive word anyway.

STARR: The latest fighting in Basra could temper Petraeus' view that the surge has worked. The U.S. now has more than 500 troops in the south helping Iraqi security forces, but U.S. officials note 1,000 Iraqi troops deserted their post during the fighting.

In September the first post surge brigade is due to come home. Petraeus has to decide within the next several weeks if he still wants replacement troops or if he is going to begin a new draw down.

(END VIDEOTAPE) STARR: The need for more troops in Afghanistan is going to put pressure on the administration to begin a further troop draw down in Iraq because after all, Kitty, there really are only so many boots you can put on the ground in either country.

PILGRIM: Well that's exactly right, Barbara, so where in the world is the Pentagon going to find all these extra troops to fight in Afghanistan next year?

STARR: That's going to be a fairly significant problem for a couple of reasons. First, when troops come home from Iraq, the Pentagon has made an absolute pledge to give them at least 12 months with their families to rest and recuperate before they go off to a war zone again. So that's going to put some pressure on it.

Iraq is not exactly getting better anytime soon as we've seen with the fighting in Basra. And finally what Admiral Mullen said was absolutely vital. Look at it this way. They need the troops in Afghanistan now; they're not sending them until next year because they don't have them to send.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Barbara Starr. Thanks Barbara.

A B-1 bomber supporting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan today caught fire today in Qatar. The bomber caught fire after it landed at a U.S. air base. Now all the airmen onboard escaped without injury. Meanwhile, an airman has been killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad. The airman is the first U.S. fatality in Iraq this month. Thirty-eight of our troops were killed in Iraq last month; 4,013 of our troops have been killed since this war began; 29,628 troops wounded; 13,264 seriously.

Voters are very pessimistic about the direction this country is taking. A "New York Times"/CBS poll says 81 percent of voters believe this nation is on the wrong track. One major reason is the economic downturn. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll says 42 percent of voters believe the economy is the number one issue. That's double the number of voters who think the war in Iraq is the top issue.

New evidence today of the magnitude of the economic crisis facing this nation, employers slashed 80,000 jobs last month. That's the most in five years. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent. That's the highest level in nearly three years.

Chinese Repression of Tibetan Monks Worsens

The questions is will the butchers of China get away with it as they always have. It really is up to you:

New violence has broken out in a volatile Tibetan region of western China, leaving eight people dead, an overseas Tibet activist group said Friday. China's official Xinhua News Agency said a government official was seriously injured.

The London-based Free Tibet Campaign said police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who had marched on local government offices to demand the release of two monks detained for possessing photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader.

[...]The report indicates continuing unrest in Tibetan areas despite a massive security presence imposed after sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations broke out last month in Tibet's capital Lhasa and neighboring provinces.

There are some showing leadership by not participating in China's Olympic propaganda:

India's soccer captain has refused to carry the Olympic torch during its passage through India to protest the recent Chinese crackdown on anti-government protests by Buddhist monks in Tibet. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, Tibetan activists have welcomed the decision.

[...]President of the New Delhi-based Tibetan Youth Congress, Tsewang Rigzin, welcomed the Indian soccer captain's decision.

"It sends out a strong signal to the rest of the world that when it comes to principle[s], people should abide by their principles, and that they should stand up for what they truly believe in," he said.

Bhutia is the second person to refuse to take part in the Olympic torch relay. Last month, a Thai environmentalist, Narisa Chakrabongse, also withdrew from the relay to protest human-rights violations in Tibet.

...Including the President of France:

French President Nicholas Sarkozy stepped up the pressure on China Saturday over its handling of the Tibet crisis by warning he may boycott the Olympic opening, following fresh violence.

If Sarkozy can do it, why not you Mr.President:

Hundreds of protesters and members of the Tibetan-American diaspora gathered Monday in rain-soaked Lafayette Park in front of the White House to appeal to President Bush to speak out on behalf of Tibet and to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in August. Leaders of Tibetan advocacy groups and a congressman also joined the rally.

[...]Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) attended the rally and told the crowd that he has begun to work with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to press for an American boycott of the Olympics opening ceremony. Abercrombie told Cybercast News Service that he hopes to create a subcommittee, possibly under the Human Rights Caucus, to explore the idea.

Passport Official Quits Amid Probes

More from that passport scandal involving Obama, Clinton, and McCain:

The State Department official in charge of U.S. passport services stepped down yesterday amid investigations into security breaches in the document records and overcharges for blank passports.

In the latest blow against the agency, court documents show a State Department employee provided personal information from passport applications for use in a credit-card fraud scheme.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services Ann Barrett left her post yesterday, a move that State Department Spokesman Tom Casey attributed to management changes.

The personnel move comes after The Washington Times first reported last month that three State Department contract employees were being investigated for improperly accessing the passport data of three presidential candidates. The Times also has reported on overcharges for blank passports produced by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Asked whether the move of Ms. Barrett is linked to the improper file searches and other reports, Mr. Casey said: "I wouldn't ascribe it to any individual incident."

"There are management changes that go on in this bureau and consular affairs and others all the time," he said but declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, a State Department employee who was not identified in documents filed in U.S. District Court, was implicated in a credit-card fraud scheme after 24-year-old Lieutenant Quarles Harris Jr. told federal authorities he obtained "passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State."

The investigation began after Metropolitan Police on March 25 pulled over Mr. Harris in Southeast on suspicion that the windows of his vehicle were tinted too darkly.

Our government does not exist to serve the people but to facilitate profits for big business:

The annals of incompetent federal empire-building have a new entry: the Government Printing Office's e-Passport program. As a three-part series by Bill Gertz of The Washington Times shows, this little-known near-monopoly of U.S. government printing earned tidy "profits" by charging the State Department 85 percent over production costs of U.S. passports. In the meantime, it made a fine mess of passport security with the help of its friends at Foggy Bottom. (See today's front page for the last installment of "Outsourcing Passports.")

The pricing shell game is contrary to the spirit and possibly the letter of the laws that govern GPO operations. "Profit" is prohibited: This is taxpayer money, whether it is coming or going. Price-gaming distorts incentives and fuels empire-building. This, of course, is just what the GPO did under a guise of purported "private sector" management techniques. It enabled bonuses for budding agency entrepreneurs, funded a new production facility and yielded a $100 million bonanza over 16 months for which the GPO has not fully accounted.