Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/595536
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Fresh fromtheir triumphant deep dive into Benghazi, House Republicans have announced Friday they've created anoth- er Special committee, this time to — of course — Planned Parenthood. I kid you not. And since the 2016 elec- tion is so clearly on their minds, perhaps they'll sum- mon their favorite star wit- ness. Just imagine... "Secretary Clinton, when did you first contemplate parenthood?" "I believe it was some time in the early winter of 1979." "Was it planned?" "If memory serves, yes it was." "Ah! So it was a Planned Parenthood, was it not?" "You got me there, Con- gressman. Ha ha." "Madame Secretary, I fail to see the humor. Were you home in 1979 when this par- enthood was planned, at the moment of conception?" "By definition, yes." "Home all night?" "Yes I was." "Home all night — alone?" "Clearly not. Ha ha." "Let the record show — and let the fair and balanced media take note — that the Secretary is exhibiting dis- respect for this august com- mittee." "Congressman, I am merely making a humorous gesture, in light of our long day and this late hour." "Secretary Clinton, I fail to understand why you would define 11 p.m. as 'late,' given your record in Beng- hazi, and the fact that Am- bassador Stevens died at roughly this Eastern Time hour. A brave American who you failed to host in your home due to your criminal negligence —" [Coughing fit.] "Excuse me, Congressman, but may I unwrap a lozenge?" "You may do so, and I shall then wait patiently for answers to my next crucial line of inquiry: Did you ever discuss Planned Parenthood in private with Sidney Blu- menthal?" "Not to my recollection." "So you deny it?" "I can only repeat what I just told you, Congressman — even though it is theoret- ically possible that in the three decades I've known Mr. Blumenthal, as a friend and aide, the organization's name might've conceivably come up in occasional con- versation." "Ah. So you're confirm- ing it?" [Consults briefing book.] "There is not a single word about Planned Parenthood in my crosstabs." "Madame Secretary, it's a simple question: To what extent, and for what pol- icy ends, did you discuss Planned Parenthood with Mr. Blumenthal?" "As I said, I have no docu- mentation that we ever did." "But what happened to the Mr. Blumenthal dossiers that prove that you did, and why have you not documented the Mr. Blumenthal dossiers for this committee?" "I have no such dossier documentation." "Which proves that we do not yet possess the non-ex- culpatory evidence. Where are the disappeared dos- siers that document how fer- vently you and Mr. Blumen- thal discussed public fund- ing for Planned Parenthood, and how often you may have spoken in jest about its sys- tematic murder of fetuses for profit? Are there compromis- ing emails? At what points in time did you and Mr. Blu- menthal exchange such emails?" "Congressman, during my term as secretary of state, I was focused on women's rights around the world. To the best of my knowl- edge I had no time or occa- sion to focus my energies on Planned Parenthood." "So you're telling this committee that not once, in all your years of 'service,' did you ever sit up late at night in your house — alone, as you say — and perform a data parameter search of your email threads for the phrase Planned Parent- hood?" "I would have had no rea- son to do that." "Are you also telling this committee that not once did you ever perform data pa- rameter searches for the word planned and the word parenthood — searching them separately as opposed to in conjunction with each other? Don't consult your crosstabs, Madame Secre- tary. Look at me when you answer." "There's nothing to con- sult, Congressman. I recall doing no such searches. But you and I both know that, taken separately, those are very common words." "Ah! So you are conced- ing that it's indeed possi- ble that, in league with Mr. Blumenthal, you may have aided and abetted that orga- nization? That perhaps there were plans to help Planned Parenthood open an office in Benghazi? I also wish to re- mind the committee at this time that the Secretary is re- fusing to maintain eye con- tact." "That's because I'm nod- ding off, Congressman." "Fortuitously so, Madame Secretary, because my time is up. I thank you for your evasions, and look forward to questioning you further, in the 1 a.m. hour." "Congressman, I'll have nothing new to tell you." "So tell me this: Did Mr. Blumenthal purloin your loz- enge?" DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman A new Planned Parenthood committee Cartoonist's take There is, and will remain, a troubling aspect to Hillary Clinton's "modus operandi," if you will, for deal- ing with contro- versies, scandals and evidence of corruption. It was revealed in a pulling-back-the- curtain moment after her Con- gressional tes- timony over the Benghazi at- tacks, in an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. A friendly media sycophant like Maddow can be counted on to provide the soothing con- firmation of victimhood that someone subjected to a mar- athon hearing—Clinton en- dured grueling questions over 11 hours—would like to re- ceive. S. E. Cupp: "The conversa- tion started, naturally, with a little flattery. 'You're the only human being I know of on Earth that has done 11 straight hours,' Maddow gushed. 'What did you do after?' A beaming Clinton replied, 'Well, I had my whole team come over to my house and we sat around eating Indian food and drink- ing wine and beer. That's what we did. It was great.' "Message received. She won't let the Republicans—her enemies, as she calls them— ruin her night, let alone her campaign for President. Spik- ing the football no doubt pleased Clinton's supporters, but for the folks who are still deeply disturbed about the se- curity failures in Benghazi and Clinton's role in either creating or concealing them, her tone seemed maybe a lit- tle too glib. "Blame that characteriza- tion on partisan politics if you'd like. But Clinton's habit- ual dismissal of patently trou- bling issues—from question- able business dealings at the Clinton Foundation to her use of a private server—has got- ten her into trouble more than once. The blasé 'there's noth- ing to see here' defense, espe- cially when there's inarguably plenty to see, makes her look smug, unaccountable and en- titled." Comments later in the in- terview proved that Clinton "still has very serious prob- lems on her hands." Maddow, asking about the systemic fail- ures, scandals and tragedies at the Department of Veter- ans Affairs, elicited a remark- able and astounding response: "You know, I don't understand why we have such a prob- lem, because there have been a number of surveys of veter- ans and, overall, veterans who do get treated are satisfied with their treatment." Clinton didn't name the surveys and certainly never referred to vet- erans she has talked to. Perhaps Maddow was think- ing of the widely reported fig- ure of 300,000 veterans who died while waiting for treat- ment (over what I assume is a long period of years), rather than the ones who have been seen and treated in a timely manner. It is indisputable that the VA's laxity, incompetence and systemic failures in de- livering health care to Amer- ica's veterans have been doc- umented, reported on and ac- knowledged throughout the political and media world. The problems didn't start with Obama's tenure but Bush's people not only responded to problems but also handed an unvarnished report of the VA's failures to incoming Obama officials. Then, just like Hillary's at- tempts to blame the security lapses in Libya on inadequate funding by Republicans—a contention utterly disproved when it was shown that secu- rity decisions at America's em- bassies were arbitrarily deter- mined by Clinton's State De- partment—she lapsed into knee jerk partisan attacks. Defending what she sees as the VA's many untold suc- cesses, she continued: "Now, nobody would believe that from the coverage that you see, and the constant berat- ing of the VA that comes from Republicans in part in pur- suit of this ideological agenda that they have. It's not been as widespread as it has been made out to be." Look up "Clinton shrugs off the deaths of 300,000 veter- ans," and "After Clinton Mini- mizes VA Troubles, Three Re- ports Expose Shortfalls Across Country." The inarguable fact that many veterans receive ad- equate or better care, at VA hospitals, does nothing to erase reported shortfalls from Alaska to California, Arizona and across America. Republi- cans and sincere reformers ad- vocate allowing veterans free access to the wider private health care system if the VA delays timely treatment—days can be the life-saving differ- ence to a suicidal veteran. It is a shamelessly false as- sertion that Republicans are "in pursuit of this ideologi- cal agenda" to privatize the VA system, or that Republi- cans are failing to properly fund the VA. As is often the case, governmental agencies cry that they are under funded on the one hand, while on the other hand they provide evi- dence of mismanagement of the funds they already receive. "The VA itself reported more than $2 billion in waste and fraud in fiscal year 2012, including $7.2 million it spent in FY 2010 on unneeded com- puters. Since 2010, the VA has carried over annual surpluses from as little as $500 million all the way up to $1.5 billion. The night before the 2013 gov- ernment shutdown, it bought $3.5 million in furniture so as not to lose that money in the next year's budget." The left may have an ide- ological blind spot as shown by Democratic/Socialist can- didate Bernie Sanders, who called it a tragedy but likewise minimized the problem: "the VA sees six and a half million people a year. Are some people going to be treated badly? Are some people going to die be- cause of poor treatment in the VA? Yes." Hey, Bernie, they're "veterans." Moreover, this is the inevitable attitude of gov- ernment hacks towards recipi- ents of their health care. Hillary's mouthpieces walked back her comments, changing nothing. Nonparti- san vets advocates in Stand Watch: "This is absurd. One needs to acknowledge the enormity of the problem be- fore it can be fixed." John Mc- Cain: "If Hillary Clinton really believes the comments that she made, I don't see how any veteran who cares about their fellow veterans…could sup- port her quest for being com- mander in chief." Well said, Senator McCain. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com. The way I see it Vets deserve better from Hillary Are you also telling this committee that not once did you ever perform data parameter searches for the word planned and the word parenthood — searching them separately as opposed to in conjunction with each other? Don't consult your crosstabs, Madame Secretary. Look at me when you answer. Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http:// ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 For- est Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@ senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Fran- cisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, November 3, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6