Explain this to me like I'm a second-grader

[YankeeFan]

Nothingburger:

 

[Baron Scicluna]

"You know, people often ask Trey Gowdy and myself, what did our investigations do?” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Boston Herald Radio on Friday morning. Gowdy currently chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, while Issa conducted his own investigation in 2012 when he served as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“Well what they did is that they opened up an opportunity for the American people to sort of smell what’s in the garbage can,” Issa said. “And I think that’s the reason that a devout socialist who wants to nationalize almost everything in America is close to and probably will beat Hillary here in New Hampshire. It’s not because they like Republicans. It’s because they don’t trust Hillary.”

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton, Those Emails And The Law

That's funny. I could have sworn they were holding those hearings because they were concerned over the deaths of 4 Americans.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Nothingburger:

Please tell me you read what he wrote.

"Again, all of these e-mails were marked classified ex post facto, and they were withheld at the behest of someone in the intelligence community and not at the behest of either HRC or her campaign. So, instead, we get the really great headline—Classified Information In The E-Mails!—to chew over all weekend, which may be the entire point. Right at this moment, at 5:31 EST on MSNBC, there's a very tiny live picture of HRC giving a speech while, on the full-screen, they're talking about what a political miracle He, Trump is. I dread the Sunday gob****ery with a dread that is fathomless."

 

[cranberry]

Nothingburger:

Sharp guy.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I wonder if Charles P. Pierce is voting.

 

[User 11148]

If I'm arguing against Charles Pierce, I probably need to rethink things. Way outta my league, I'm told.

 

[cranberry]

We're talking light years. It's laughable you would even post what you just posted.

 

[Starman]

"You know, people often ask Trey Gowdy and myself, what did our investigations do?” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Boston Herald Radio on Friday morning. Gowdy currently chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, while Issa conducted his own investigation in 2012 when he served as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“Well what they did is that they opened up an opportunity for the American people to sort of smell what’s in the garbage can,” Issa said. “And I think that’s the reason that a devout socialist who wants to nationalize almost everything in America is close to and probably will beat Hillary here in New Hampshire. It’s not because they like Republicans. It’s because they don’t trust Hillary.”

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton, Those Emails And The Law

That's funny. I could have sworn they were holding those hearings because they were concerned over the deaths of 4 Americans.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

That there is an election going on and news organizations are frustrated this boring story that nobody cares about hasn't turned up anything of significance despite all the months of effort.

After the Benghazi! investigations failed, this was the story they thought would bring HRC down.

I suspect they'll need to go all in on the Lena Dunham thing pretty soon.

Benghazi was investigated?

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Well, my second-grader, the Democrats are Mommy and the Republicans are Daddy ...

 

[Vombatus]

Well, my second-grader, the Democrats are Mommy and the Republicans are Daddy ...

...and Daddy has this thing called a penis, and if you ever hear Mommy moaning, it's the penis' fault.

 

[YankeeFan]

What a pair:

The State Department said Tuesday that John Kerry, when he was a senator, used a private email account to send information now deemed classified to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her personal server.

Spokesman John Kirby said then-Senator Kerry used a "non-official account" to send a May 19, 2011, message to Clinton and then-national security adviser Tom Donilon. Portions of the message were classified as "secret" last week and censored when it was released along with about another 1,000 of Clinton's emails on Friday. The non-redacted portions of the message in question refer to developments in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There was no indication that the information in Kerry's email was considered classified at any level at the time it was sent or if Kerry, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would have considered it particularly sensitive. Several hours after Kerry sent the email, Clinton forwarded it to a staffer with the instructions "pls print."

Kirby said the account that Kerry used to send the email from his iPad is no longer active.

Another email that Kerry sent to Clinton on his iPad, from Aug. 28, 2012, was released in full on Friday with no redactions. Another email from Feb. 4, 2012, apparently not sent from Kerry's iPad, was classified in full at the "confidential" or lowest level. Officials said both of those two messages were sent using non-official emails.

News from The Associated Press

 

[Baron Scicluna]

What a pair:

The State Department said Tuesday that John Kerry, when he was a senator, used a private email account to send information now deemed classified to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her personal server.

Spokesman John Kirby said then-Senator Kerry used a "non-official account" to send a May 19, 2011, message to Clinton and then-national security adviser Tom Donilon. Portions of the message were classified as "secret" last week and censored when it was released along with about another 1,000 of Clinton's emails on Friday. The non-redacted portions of the message in question refer to developments in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There was no indication that the information in Kerry's email was considered classified at any level at the time it was sent or if Kerry, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would have considered it particularly sensitive. Several hours after Kerry sent the email, Clinton forwarded it to a staffer with the instructions "pls print."

Kirby said the account that Kerry used to send the email from his iPad is no longer active.

Another email that Kerry sent to Clinton on his iPad, from Aug. 28, 2012, was released in full on Friday with no redactions. Another email from Feb. 4, 2012, apparently not sent from Kerry's iPad, was classified in full at the "confidential" or lowest level. Officials said both of those two messages were sent using non-official emails.

News from The Associated Press

"Now deemed classified."

As in, it wasn't classified in 2012. It was marked as secret last week.

You're back to the "she should be a mind-reader" stuff again.

 

[YankeeFan]

Baron, your work defending the undefendable is admirable.

But, let's explain it like we would to a second grader...

If someone -- say the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- takes classified information, and types up an email summarizing that information, the information remains classified.

Now, of course the actual email has no markings declaring it to be classified. How could it? It hasn't been submitted for review. That doesn't change the nature of the information. It's still classified.

And, surely the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should be expected to know and understand this.

I understand that this concept is more difficult for you to comprehend, but then it is geared to a second grader.

 

[Ace]

Baron, your work defending the undefendable is admirable.

But, let's explain it like we would to a second grader...

If someone -- say the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- takes classified information, and types up an email summarizing that information, the information remains classified.

Now, of course the actual email has no markings declaring it to be classified. How could it? It hasn't been submitted for review. That doesn't change the nature of the information. It's still classified.

And, surely the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should be expected to know and understand this.

I understand that this concept is more difficult for you to comprehend, but then it is geared to a second grader.

I believe the threshold of what constitues classified information is pretty low. Classified might be information you might see in a USA Today article. Top secrety might be something from the international desk of the New York Times.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I believe the threshold of what constitues classified information is pretty low.

I'm having a hard time figuring out why this matters.

 

[YankeeFan]

I believe the threshold of what constitues classified information is pretty low. Classified might be information you might see in a USA Today article. Top secrety might be something from the international desk of the New York Times.

Information remains classified, even if it's reported in the press. People who handle classified information understand this. It's why you'll see someone decline to discuss something like the CIA drone program, despite that fact that it's been revealed in the press.

And, some of that likely accounts for a fraction of what's been deemed classified among Hillary's emails. It doesn't account for all of it, and it doesn't excuse it.

What folks like Baron need to understand is that "information" is classified. If you put that information in a document, that document is classified the instant it is created. It doesn't need markings.

Senator Kerry, Secretary Clinton, and her top staff all knew, and understood this. They would have been trained on this. They would have been informed of their obligations, and the punishment, including criminal prosecution, for mishandling classified information.

 

[Ace]

Information remains classified, even if it's reported in the press. People who handle classified information understand this. It's why you'll see someone decline to discuss something like the CIA drone program, despite that fact that it's been revealed in the press.

And, some of that likely accounts for a fraction of what's been deemed classified among Hillary's emails. It doesn't account for all of it, and it doesn't excuse it.

What folks like Baron need to understand is that "information" is classified. If you put that information in a document, that document is classified the instant it is created. It doesn't need markings.

Senator Kerry, Secretary Clinton, and her top staff all knew, and understood this. They would have been trained on this. They would have been informed of their obligations, and the punishment, including criminal prosecution, for mishandling classified information.

I doubt there is very much information that is deemed classified that would raise an eyebrow, much less constitute a threat, if it were released.

 

[YankeeFan]

I doubt there is very much information that is deemed classified that would raise an eyebrow, much less constitute a threat, if it were released.

That's irrelevant to the discussion.

But, the 22 emails, in seven threads, that the State Department says can never be released because they would be too damaging to national security seem to make a counter argument to yours.

 

[Ace]

That's irrelevant to the discussion.

But, the 22 emails, in seven threads, that the State Department says can never be released because they would be too damaging to national security seem to make a counter argument to yours.

I think they get the vapors way too much about releasing information to the public.

But, if we go stricly by the letter of the law you are touting, virtually every politician with access to a crumb of classified information has mishandled, misspoke or leaked information on purpose or by accident at some point.

So it would have to be some serious leakage for it to be something I would worry about, Dem or GOP.