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Thursday, July 7, 2016

Hillary Clinton avoids accountability for violating State Department security policy; where do we go from here?

For some time I have been dreading the obligation to address what should be the final chapter in Hillary Clinton's State Department email server/security violations.  For weeks I have been writing about the unlikelihood of an indictment; yesterday's announcement by FBI Director James Comey was expected.  What was unexpected was my personal, emotional reaction.  I feel more sad and disenchanted than angry.  If Comey had simply made the announcement, I probably would have put together an angry, three paragraph blog post, reviewing  for the umpteenth time Hillary Clinton's ability to escape any and all retribution.  Instead, before announcing that no charges were to be brought against HRC, Comey carefully and patiently detailed the reasons why Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted.  As if this weren't painful enough, Comey ended his comments by warning anyone who might be tempted to repeat Clinton's security violations, that the Justice Department would pursue criminal charges.  For the level-headed people that I know who watched the announcement, these few sentences in Comey's presentation were the most bizarre.  How can the Director of the FBI publicly announce that Clinton "had no criminal intent" and that "no prosecutor would take on this case", then clearly threaten anyone who takes the same actions with criminal prosecution?

No doubt I'm not the only United States citizen who feels as if with this ruling, Hillary Clinton has demonstrated to the cashier at a donut shop in Fresno, and to the Jiffy Lube grease monkey in St. Paul, Minnesota, that she lives under a different set of rules than ninety-nine percent of us.  To the teacher in Harlan, Kentucky, and the Police Officer in Miami, its time to accept the reality that Bill and Hillary Clinton are members of some very special, elite group of Americans who understand the importance of laws only as they apply to others.  This morning, while channel-surfing the various left-wing talk shows on my satellite radio, The Clinton talking points were clearer than ever.  The goal is to play up Comey's comment that Clinton had no criminal intent when instructing her staff to install a separate, personal email server.  I heard it this morning ad-nauseam.  Sandra Bernhard (yes, she lives) went so far as to describe Hillary's e-mails, the emails the FBI has been collecting, as being innocuous communications about the color of dresses.  Talking points or no, lets make this absolutely clear: Hillary Clinton transmitted classified emails on an uncleared, private server, not just six or seven times, but repeatedly.  She was warned on at least two occasions that her email server was operating in violation of State Department security protocols.  The real victims in this mess are the soldiers, airmen and sailors who were found guilty of very similar (or less-egregious) security violations and were kicked out of the military and in some cases, given a jail sentence.  In fact, Fox News has been repeating a story involving a young serviceman who obviously didn't intend to commit a security violation, who is currently being prosecuted by the Justice Department.  I will be watching Fox News Thursday morning to see just how serious the GOP Congress is on this issue when they interview FBI Director Comey.

For those in the Clinton Camp, getting past this headache without charges being levelled, was the last of the major obstacles Clinton had to overcome.  Today, President Obama put down his Golf Clubs long enough to attend a Clinton Rally.  The Clinton crowd was worked up into quite a frenzy, as they must also believe that any and all trap-doors have been removed from Clinton's path to the Presidency.  What do you think?  Interestingly enough, a handful of independent voters I know who were bound-and-determined to not vote for Donald Trump, have apparently changed their minds.  They realize that this election is more about getting this nation back on the right track than it is trying to decide which candidate is the lesser "evil".  Each and every voter should take a fair, serious look at the state of the nation; are we on the right track internationally?  Are we doing what is necessary to keep our families safe from terrorism?  Which candidate is more likely to increase the twenty-trillion dollar national debt?  I've answered these questions to my satisfaction; have you?

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