Monday, November 18, 2019
Blogs With Rule 5 Links
These Blogs Provide Links To Rule 5 Sites:
What is Rule 5?
The Other McCain has: Rule Five Sunday: Black Widow
Proof Positive has: Best Of Web Link Around
The Woodsterman has: Rule 5 Woodsterman Style
EBL has: Rule 5 And FMJRA
The Right Way has: Rule 5 Saturday LinkORama
The Pirate's Cove has: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup
Schiff Goes Full Stalin
These questions ask, essentially, if the witnesses believe President Trump is guilty of pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on the Bidens in exchange for military aid. The GOP, it seems, will not be allowed to call witnesses who have testimony or evidence to the contrary, that there was no pressure and no quid pro quo. Nor will the GOP be allowed to present witnesses or evidence that confirms that the “dirt” is accurate, that the crime of threatening to withhold aid for a personal and political favor, a crime Biden has already confessed to, was committed by Biden, not Trump, on behalf of Biden’s son Hunter. Nor will the GOP be allowed to make the case that any Trump inquiry of the Ukrainians was mandated by a treaty signed by President Bill Clinton. This is, dare I use the term Democrats used during the impeachment of Bill Clinton for a real crime, a phrase used by Joe Biden himself, a political lynching. As reported by the New York Post:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Thursday released a tightened set of guidelines over what potential witnesses can be called in the impeachment hearings, saying Republicans must justify their relevance according to a three-point criteria…Republicans must justify the relevance of their witnesses in an impeachment hearing triggered by a so-called whistleblower with no firsthand knowledge of the phone call. The whistleblower’s relevance was never justified. This is a...
The narrowed-scope of the questions, first obtained by Politico, are:
• Did the president request that a foreign leader and government initiate investigations to benefit the president’s personal political interests in the United States, including an investigation related to the president’s political rival and potential opponent in the 2020 US presidential election?
• Did the president -- directly or through agents -- seek to use the power of the Office of the President and other instruments of the federal government in other ways to apply pressure on the head of state and government of Ukraine to advance the president’s personal political interests, including by leveraging an Oval Office meeting desired by the president of Ukraine or by withholding US military assistance to Ukraine?
• Did the president and his administration seek to obstruct, suppress or cover up information to conceal from the Congress and the American people evidence about the president’s actions and conduct?
Flashback: Obama Fired All Bush Appointed Ambassadors In 2008
The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified Friday about President Donald Trump firing her amid an alleged “smear campaign.” Firing politically-appointed ambassadors appointed by former presidents is commonplace.
Former President Barack Obama notified all of President George W. Bush’s politically-appointed ambassadors in 2008 that they must vacate their positions, The Washington Post previously reported. Yovanovitch, who was part of the Foreign Service, testified Friday that the Trump administration, including the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, “kneecapped” her. She said State Department leaders did not support her after being recalled in May.
“Political ambassadors sometimes are permitted to stay on briefly during a new administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in retaining any of Bush’s ambassadorial appointees,” WaPo’s 2008 article about Obama’s decision to fire all political ambassadors reads.
Yovanovitch was appointed by Obama in 2016. Newly elected presidents typically re-vamp the positions with their own choices once taking office. Yovanovitch stayed on for three years after Trump took office, but has testified that senior officials “declined to acknowledge” the “smear campaign” against her leading up to...
'A new Republican Star is born': Trump praises Elise Stefanik amid 'trashy' attacks
President Trump praised Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik after former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified before the House Intelligence Committee, of which Stefanik is a member.
Stefanik made headlines Friday after several contentious exchanges with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff during the Yovanovitch testimony. Stefanik insisted to Schiff that she was being dismissed and denied time to question the witness, a choice Schiff defended as his constitutional right as chairman of the committee.
"Will you be prohibiting witnesses from answering members' questions as you have in the closed-door depositions?" Stefanik questioned after being gavelled down during the testimony. Stefanik later expressed her concern on Twitter, noting the number of times she was passed over for questioning. "How many times can Adam Schiff say 'the Gentlewoman is NOT recognized'?" Stefanik questioned. "He clearly has NO interest in letting Republicans have any say in the impeachment hearings. Watch him interrupt us multiple times and refuse to yield for our parliamentary questions."
How many times can Adam Schiff say “the Gentlewoman is NOT recognized”? He clearly has NO interest in letting Republicans have any say in the impeachment hearings. Watch him interrupt us multiple times and refuse to yield for our parliamentary questions👇👇 pic.twitter.com/DnudgOe5Ed— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) November 15, 2019
After the hearing, many prominent Trump dissenters criticized Stefanik for her speaking time and insisted that she was in the wrong. Attorney George Conway referred to Stefanik, a 35-year-old three-term congresswoman, as "lying trash." Conway's sentiments were echoed by many liberal lawmakers and celebrities across social media, and #trashystefanik trended over the weekend.
Trump came to her defense, saying...
Trump came to her defense, saying...
Why the Pelosi-Schiff Impeachment Is Playing Out Unsuccessfully
The Republicans tried to replicate that effort with their impeachment of Bill Clinton, but that campaign never quite impacted the same way. Everyone knew by then about Paula Corbin Jones and the zipper, Kathleen Willey and the pawing, Monica Lewinsky and the cigar … and the dress … and the stain. Yet the Clinton affair was marked by the unexpected drama that came when an honest politician in Washington arose on the Senate floor, Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and spoke truth to power, giving voice to the shame of a nation. That was it, but it was something.
The Senate never was going to convict Clinton. Those in the House who instigated the impeachment all paid a steep price, and the Republicans lost their momentum. Yes, Clinton had lied under oath, and he even had to be disbarred in Arkansas — but, at the end of the day, the revelation that a married man had denied having an extramarital affair just did not measure up to, say, a standard that had been set previously when a sitting President appeared to have covered up a felony and paranoiacally had wiretapped his own White House to record his own private conversations with most everyone. Nixon had microphones installed in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, the Lincoln Sitting Room, his Executive Office Building office, and even in the Aspen Lodge at Camp David.
The Nixon Impeachment was supposed to happen again that same way this time with Nancy Pelosi reliving the historicity of her youth and with Adam Schiff taking down the high and mighty in the manner of Edward R. Murrow. But it has fizzled. There is no John Dean. There is no high crime or misdemeanor. Perhaps a moment we all remember from the Nixon hearings was when Presidential aide Alexander Butterfield was asked whether the President had recordings. Butterfield responded: “I’m sorry you asked. But, yes, there was a taping system that taped all...
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