College pigskin is back!

And tomorrow the inaugural game choices.

Expecting to return to my 60% hit rate!

A little taste tonight - Boise State (-12) over Washington

Mich State (-16) over Western Michigan

Over 71 in the Baylor-SMU game.

Open Thread.

Here is a new open thread. All topics welcome.

I have a list of 50 or so things to do before I move. I'm on number 3.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I dumped the spam from the last week. I'll try to check it every night.

Did anyone watch "Narcos?" I was not impressed. They should have named it "Narcs" -- it's the story of two U.S. drug agents helping Colombia nab Escobar. It's not the story of Esobar, it's the agents' story, and it's got some factual issues. If you want the real flavor of who these agents are, read some Congressional Hearing testimony from around 1993 or their description of their time in Colombia over at the DEA Museum where they gave a tour. [More...]

Sorry, doing lawyer things.

Open Thread.

College football just around the corner.

Open Thread.

A point I have tried to make a number of times on the "Eghazi: It's Classified!" "scandal" is that the originators of the "classified" e-mails were career State Department officials. Thus, I noted that the current US Ambassador to Bahrain William Roebuck originated a now "classified SECRET" e-mail that founds its way to Clinton's inbox after being forwarded by multiple careeer State officials.

Yesterday Josh Gerstein identified now "classified e-mails that were originated by 33 year State Department veteran William Burns.

Now today the AP reports what should have been obvious to any honest observer by now - State Department officials routinely sent subsequently classified information over unsecure e-mail:

I'm on a blogging break due to my impending move (September 10.) I'll put up open threads as I can so as not to leave readers high and dry, so to speak.

Blogging is a hobby but it's an expensive one. If you'd like to help out, donations are much appreciated. Paypal is very easy and takes credit cards, so you don't need a Paypal account. Or you can use snail-mail.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Former Gov. Bill Richardson, who supported Obama over Hillary in 2007 after his own bid ended, announced his support for Hillary today.

"I am pleased to announce I wholeheartedly support Secretary Clinton's candidacy for the Presidency. Her leadership on issues like foreign policy, immigration, climate change and economic populism are important to the future of the country."

He also said he might have set up the same email system as Hillary: [More...]

Our last one is full, here's a new open thread all topics welcome.

The New York Times is pumping Joe Biden again . Why do I say that? Because as I was reading this article today, "Joe Biden Gets Serious", I felt like I had read it before. I just searched for it. Here's last week's Joe Biden Wades Further Into 2016 Bid.. The articles share a co-author. Both talk about meetings with private donors, the revving up of a draft Biden campaign, his late son's hope he'd run, supportive quotes from long time cronies, and suggestions that Hillary's campaign is in trouble. [More...]

In December, 2014, the U.S. announced that airstrikes had killed senior ISIS member Hajii Mutazz, aka Fadel Ahmed Abdullah al-Hiyali aka Abu Muslim al Turkmani. He was described by the U.S. as the "right hand man" of leader al Baghdadi.

Today the U.S. announced he was killed in an airstrike this week on August 18.

Via Frontline: [More....]

One of the problems the Media and the GOP have with their attacks on the Clintons, and particularly now, Hillary clinton, is that the pileons generally end up getting Dems to rally around her.

This is just 1 data point, but Gallup reports:

Democrats' overall opinions of the major Democratic contenders for president have changed little despite six eventful weeks of campaigning. Hillary Clinton remains the best liked among her party faithful. She enjoys a net favorable score of +60, which is essentially where she stood in July. Bernie Sanders is still the next best-liked candidate in the field, with his net favorable stable at +29.

Clinton is plus 4 net favorable with Dems in the last months. Something to keep an eye on.

Reuters argues:

Since at least 2003, they have emphasized that information shared by a foreign government with an expectation or agreement of confidentiality is the only kind that is "presumed" classified. The State Department's own regulations, as laid out in the Foreign Affairs Manual, have been unequivocal since at least 1999: all department employees "must ... safeguard foreign government and NATO RESTRICTED information as U.S. Government Confidential" or higher[.] [My emphasis.

I think Reuters is misunderstanding the applicable rules. Reuters appears to be referring to 12 FAM 534.1(d):

The story that has captured the imagination of the Nation's Media - EGhazi! - has a new twist -- David Shuster of al Jazeera is reporting that:

FBI treating Clinton emails as a potential criminal investigation. @DavidShuster reports. https://t.co/RWaqXrcnrW

— Al Jazeera America (@ajam) August 20, 2015

This development could carry serious implications for William Roebuck, the career State Department official who was the Director of the Office of Maghreb Affairs at State and is now US Ambassador to Bahrain.

More on the flip.