Hey, I’m actually glad Justin Bieber gave a shout-out to our girl Hillary. It just signals to me that Hillary is finally breaking through to the younger generation, which she lacked in 2008. I’m only 23, but I feel as though this will help introduce Hillary to a lot of teens who will be eligible to vote in 2016. I’m sure tons of teens who had never really thought about Hillary decided to google her after Justin’s appearance on SNL. 

Who knows. Maybe a few more teenage girls are now inspired to change the world :)

Hillary. RODHAM. Clinton.

It just sounds powerful when you yell it. 

Historical context — Security overseas is NEVER 100%

2002- U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan attacked. 10 killed.
2004- U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan bombed. 2 killed, 9 injured.
2004- U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia stormed. 8 killed.
2006- U.S. Embassy in Syria attacked. 1 killed.
2007- U. S Embassy in Athens takes a grenade.
2008 - U.S Embassy in Serbia set fire.
2008- U.S. Embassy in Yemen bombed. 10 killed.

An independent panel she convened to look into the incident was scathing in its criticism of the State Department and singled out four officials for serious management and leadership failures. But it also determined that there was no guarantee that extra personnel could have prevented the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans. Clinton herself was not blamed, although she has said she accepted responsibility for the situation.

“I was so unhappy with the way that some people refused to accept the facts, refused to accept the findings of an independent Accountability Review Board, politicized everything about this terrible attack,” she said. “My job is to admit that we have to make improvements and we’re going to.” 

I’m SO sick of the character assassination of Hillary Clinton on Benghazi

All the comments on videos or articles discussing Benghazi or Hillary Clinton say things like, “Hillary caused Benghazi!” — “Hillary has blood on her hands!” — “Hillary is a murderer!” — “Hillary killed Americans!”

All of these statements are completely untrue. But the problem is, half of our country gets their news from the fact-free right-wing bubble. I have complete faith in Hillary and her ability to deflect these attacks, but it frustrates and disheartens me to see that so many Americans are this stupid. 

The Accountability Review Board (ARB) did NOT find Hillary Clinton responsible for what happened in Benghazi. There have been 20 ARBs since the 1980s because security overseas is NEVER 100%. 13 embassies were attacked under George Bush and over 50 Americans died from those attacks. Where was the outrage then? It seems Benghazi is a case of SELECTIVE outrage.

Currently, Hillary is implementing the 29 recommendations from the ARB to improve security overseas. But the fact remains: attacks on our embassies are nothing new, especially when you consider how many embassies were attacked under George Bush and how many Americans died under George Bush. And even after these 29 recommendations are implemented, security will still never be 100% overseas.  

All we can do it work towards improving our security overseas — but those who serve overseas know (more than anyone) that these jobs are inherently risky. Benghazi is not the first embassy attack, nor will it be the last. For people to consider Benghazi this huge deal, especially when you consider all the embassies that were attacked under George Bush and how many Americans died under George Bush from those attacks (plus 9/11 and the Iraq War), AND when you consider the inherent risky nature of these jobs, and the fact that we’ve had a total of 20 ARBs since the 1980s because security is never 100% overseas, it is obvious that the outrage is meant to score political points. 

If people actually searched for facts instead of listening to Fox News, they would discover that Hillary Clinton was NOT found responsible for Benghazi according to the nonpartisan ARB.

Hopefully Hillary explains all of this in her new memoir. 

The Accountability Review Board (ARB) did NOT find Hillary Clinton responsible for what happened in Benghazi

Here’s some historical context:

• 13 embassies were attacked and 53 Americans died under George Bush
• 9/11 occurred under George Bush even though he received a brief from the Central Intelligence agency titled, “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US”

The ARB specifically stated Hillary Clinton did not receive the cables from Ambassador Stevens (she receives over 1 million cables a year, all addressed to her). Yet, George Bush actually received the brief saying Bin Laden was determined to strike the United States.

Where was the outrage during the Bush Administration?

Oh yeah…most people understand that security is never 100%, especially overseas. Mistakes happen and then they are corrected. That is why we have had a total of 20 Accountability Review Boards — only two of which have been made public (Madeleine Albright’s & Hillary Clinton’s). The only two made public (ie: transparency) were done under Democratic Administrations. 

Those who take these jobs overseas understand the risks and decide to serve anyway. It is our job to minimize their potential risk, but we will never eliminate all risk.

I’m continually surprised by selective outrage, especially when you consider what happened under Bush (13 embassies attacked - 53 Americans dead, 9/11 - over 3,000 Americans dead, AND the completely unnecessary Iraq War that has resulted in the death of over 4,000 American troops).

The bottom line is: the ARB did not find Clinton responsible, and those who were responsible have been put on administrative leave. To try and politicize this tragedy is simply ridiculous, especially if you look at the historical context, the very nature of security, and the high-risk nature of these jobs. This is not the first ARB, nor will it be the last.  

So although we will never be able to prevent every single security failure from happening, we can work towards minimizing and limiting potential tragedies. And that is exactly what Secretary Clinton is doing by implementing the 29 recommendations the ARB has set forth.

PS: Why don’t House Republicans start FUNDING security requests if it is such a top concern for them?

Fabricated, “what difference, at this point, does it make” controversy

Instead of legitimate questions, Hillary was repeatedly faced with partisan questions meant to score political points. You can just see it now, “Republican Congressman XZY really took it to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today!” And, let’s be real, the Repubs are scared of the Clinton machine roaring back in 2016, so they’re trying to get a head start on their character assassination of Hillary’s nearly impeccable record as Secretary of State by trying to fabricate a controversy. 

But back to my original point — Hillary was repeatedly faced with completely irrelevant questions about why the Obama Administration originally said the deaths happened because of a protest. And although Hillary had already addressed this question earlier in her testimony by saying the talking-points were given to the Obama Administration by the intelligence community, and that there was already an investigation about how these talking points came about, the Republicans continued to say the Obama Administration purposely lied to and mislead the American people. 

So Hillary’s point was, what difference, at this point, does it make if the Obama administration gave out information (from the intelligence community) that they thought was correct at the time? At this point, that shouldn’t be the main focus. The focus should be on how we can improve security so this never happens again. 

And let’s be real — Republicans don’t really care how it happened. All they care about is trying to make the Obama Administration look as though they lied to the American people. If I were Hillary, I would have gotten angry too. And I’m glad she didn’t let Congressman Johnson get away with his witch hunt.

Anyway…I’d recommend that everyone look at the context and read the FULL quote. It paints a much different picture than what the right-wing fringe media is portraying it as meaning.