Let me ask you a question: How much is your favorite basketball player/football player/rock star/movie star paid for an appearance like that? Plenty. I will repeat, just because you don't like her does not make her any less of a high profile person. The people paying her for the speech were not the people listening to her, it was the ORGANIZERS. There is no pay to play. That is a bunch of right wing/left wing nonsense espoused by people who don't know how these things works.
Comey was not put in an untenable position. They have had this information for weeks, and only NOW are they conveniently looking at it. In fact, it was only today that they actually got a warrant to look at it, which means they have no clue what is there. You are also forgetting that Comey is a long time Republican who only gave up his registration when he became director. But he is still a Republican, he still sent this letter of his only to Republican members of congress. It is pretty clearly an attempt to sway the election on partisan grounds.
These emails are not Clinton's emails, they are Abedins. And she was apparently unaware that they were on Weiner's computer, which means that he most likely surreptitiously got hold of her e-mail password and set it up on his computer. My guess is so that he could keep tabs on what was going on with Clinton in order to use that information to further his own political career. I am pretty sure that is what is going to turn out to be the case, and is probably going to result in Weiner going to jail.
The deleted emails would have been private ones. She ran her personal emails through the same server, and the numbers involved are consistent with personal use. Remember - emails are recorded on both ends, so if there emails on the other end that were not on her server, it would be obvious that official e-mails had been deleted. Clearly no evidence of this has been found, so the probability that any official emails were deleted is low. The reason the Republicans want her private e-mails is so that they can fish about for private information that could be used against her politically. Such as her relationship with her husband and other functionaries in the party.
I am not a US citizen, but if I were my voting record would have been Bush Snr, Bush Snr, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, McCain, Romney in the previous elections. So, 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats, because IMO those were the best candidates in those election years. So I am not tied to a particular party. I would not vote for a right wing nut like Cruz, nor would I vote for a pie in the sky socialist like Bernie Sanders. And I definitely would not vote for a fascist like Trump. In this election cycle my preferred candidate was Bush, with Kasich or Biden as second choices. That said, I find the behavior of Comey outrageous, and attack on the integrity of the elections. If he is going to intrude at such a late stage like this he had better damned well have facts to support it, and that he apparently does not have. He is basically throwing a hand grenade into the election and claiming he doesn't know it is a hand grenade. He has to go.
You are choosing to be intentionally obtuse. That's ok. We get it. There are people that don't care.
I work for a construction general contractor as a project manager. If I receive a bottle of wine or a couple of tickets to the hockey game from a subcontractor, a consultant, an associate, a bank or whoever, what do you think I am supposed to do? Yeah...that's right. I am not allowed to keep it, and if I say nothing and the principles find out I would be fired on the spot. Without blinking. And I wouldn't even contest it because I know the rules and I understand how the game can be paid. Yeah...for even just a bottle of wine.
I worked with PM's and quantity surveyors who come from all over the world. They tell me stories like in Ireland or the UAE where they would receive packages in a plain wrapped box and were told not to open them until they get home. There were times that these boxes would have $10 or $20k or a set of car keys and a thank you note for all your hard work. There was no discussion had. There were no instructions and there were no expectations communicated. But they knew at some point there was going to be a contract tender and if they didn't pick the correct contractor that they were going to have to answer to someone. And yes, they thought about car bombs alot.
Tugela, the point that goes completely over your head (except that I don't think it is - I think you're arguing just because you don't want to lose) is that it is the ORGANIZERS who are paying for the influence, not the individual guests. The organizers couldn't give two shits about what these nimrods have to say to the guests attending and the Clintons couldn't give two shits about what the nobodies sitting in the dining room have to say - what the principles care about is that THEY, THE ORGANZERS - IE. THE ONE'S WRITING THE CHEQUES -have the ear of the politician. Is this really too hard for you to understand?
And of course Comey was put in an untenable situation - he was going to be fucked any way he went. And it makes no difference if he made his announcement now or two weeks ago - nothing changes and it makes no difference but of course he was going to need a little time to discuss this with his superiors and to the Justice Department to before making his decision. And clearly there was opposition and debate going back and forth so this decision clearly took some time. But he definitely needed to announce it before the election otherwise the appearance of impropriety on his part would look horrific considering that he already cleared Hillary despite the fact that she withheld and destroyed evidence.
She is the one at fault for the position she finds herself in now. If she turns over all emails this doesn't happen - she fucked herself. Comey may have been a long time Republican but he was APPOINTED BY OBAMA in his current position. So again, stop it with the red herrings. He is employed by Obama. Loretta Lynch, his superior who shut the initial investigation down after meeting with Bill Clinton at the airport, is employed by Obama. Just fucking stop it.
And stop saying that these emails are irrelevant because they are Abedin's. Of course they're relevant because Abedin was Hillary's top aide and turnover of her emails were part of the subpoena. There is speculation that she could be facing a prison term if it turns out that she should have turned these emails over and neglected to do so. And of course emails have "two sides" - but you can't know who the second side of that email belongs to if you don't have access to the original email, can you? That's the fucking point. But you can go ahead and keep ignoring the obvious.
And as we are now hearing the entire FBI organization is about to revolt against Comey for not launching an investigation against Clinton at the outset, and apparently he has a pile of resignations on his desk reaching up to the ceiling in his office. The backlash is so bad that no one in that organization - even those closest to him - are even speaking to him. People walking by him in the hallway won't even return a "hello" back to him, and apparently even his own wife is telling him he made the wrong decision not to prosecute. The speculation is that Comey reopened the investigation because he is being forced to right the wrong and these new emails were the excuse to do it.
She's going fucking down and anyone with half a brain can see it. This is as obvious as the Iraq war/weapons of mass destruction debate - anyone with any critical thinking at all could see what was going down then - but if all you cared about was to see that your guy wins his argument then you weren't capable of comprehending the reality that was staring at you right in your face. And the same thing is happening now
But then again I see that you supported both the Bushes so I won't count myself as being surprised by your view on things.
