Here's the deal with Hillary Clinton's email

A couple of deals.  Okay, a few deals.

Chris Cillizza:

The problem for Clinton (or at least the problem I see) is that we won't ever be able to check whether the judgment used by her lawyers was the right judgment. I'm not suggesting that she should have been required to publicly release every e-mail -- professional or personal -- she sent during her time at State. There's plenty of private things that she has every right to keep private. But the decision to destroy all of those e-mails means that the possibility of having an independent review of them by some trusted figure (or figures) is entirely impossible.

The "just trust me" approach is tough in any part of life but especially when it comes to a person running (or about to be running) for the nation's highest office. That goes double when at issue is primary source documentation of the most recent position Clinton held before the one she plans to seek. I don't think Clinton is lying about the nature of the e-mails that were withheld from the State department and then destroyed. But I do think that the line between personal and professional communications -- especially via e-mail -- is a very fine one. And simply saying that you drew that line yourself and expecting everyone to nod their heads and move on is decidedly far-fetched.

Gadfly.

Talking Points Memo has Hillary Clinton's nine-page press release, which has more lies. One? That she emailed all government employees on ".gov" accounts, when we know that Huma Abedin had an account on the Clinton server.

It also notes she is turning over 55,000 pages of emails, not 55,000 emails. She's actually turning over only half of the emails of the account, claiming a full one-half are private.

As for why Clintonistas cite Colin Powell for using a private email account but don't cite Condoleezza Rice, who followed him? A 2005 State Department policy manual update said private email accounts could be used only if those emails were turned over to the government, and specified narrow exceptions for private use. That's probably why Condi used a government account.

Meanwhile, ignore the fact that your chief female political fixer had an email on the same private domain and that your JP Morgan moneybags for your $25 million of investments runs the domain server.

My step-sister.

Ed Snowden, please undelete Hillary's emails, and send them out for review. She said she never put any classified information in her emails, so no worry about national secrets. Isn't it funny that she feels very secure that her deleted emails are deleted. Is there even such a thing as deleted emails? I think they live forever -- like on the other party's server, at the Google headquarters, in cyberspace somewhere. She used her iPad. Did she use it in foreign countries? Does she not know that the Koreans, Chinese, Russians, and many others tap everything in their countries and in ours if they really want to know, just like we do -- at the NSA?

That's bingo.  I still don't understand why Trey Gowdy or Darrell Issa or whoever's turn it is to drive the House Scandal Bus this week doesn't just ask NSA for whatever they need.  Seems like the easiest way to find out if there is actually something scandalous or not.

This is hopefully -- VERY hopefully -- the last thing I need to blog about this topic.

What the BLEEP Happened to Hip Hop? (Updated, this weekend)

I promise that I don't fix current events around my blog posts.  So let's stop blaming white racism on black rappers, mmkay?  Because when you do that, you expose yourselves as ridiculous fools.

David Cobb, the 2004 US Green Party presidential nominee and now one of the leaders of Move to Amend, makes an appearance with Shamako Noble and everybody else in Houston who isn't going to the rodeo Saturday and Sunday.  You should check it out.

“They mine metals for the phones killing trees for the loose leaf
I write raps on both to tell you what it do, g”

-- Mike Wird, Soul Pros, Regenerative Lifestyles and Hip Hop Congress

Do you know what the 1996 Telecommunications Act and how has it influenced culture in the United States?

Have you ever heard of Lyric Committees, and the story of how record labels try to control artists money?

Why haven't artists truly been successful in organizing as a labor force when so many of them are working in our schools, youth centers, prisons and organizations?

And most importantly, what the (bleep) happened to Hip Hop?

Hip Hop Congress and Move to Amend and are partnering to present “What the Bleep Happened to Hip Hop?”, a public education campaign seeking to raise awareness of the dangerous power corporations currently wield over the hip hop industry specifically, and over our society in general.

We invite you to join us on March 14 and 15, 2015 when this unique collaboration arrives in Houston. On Saturday, we will have educational panels and participatory conversations, with an artists showcase that evening. We will close with a People's Movement Assembly on Sunday afternoon that connects to the United States Social Forum.

The cultural terrain of society is a crucial battlefront in the struggle for social justice. Culture retains its dynamism by reflecting and creating consciousness. Exploitation and oppression have always been synonymous with popular culture, from D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation to the struggle of the media justice movement in the late 90's. The United States of America, long heralded as a melting pot, has also been acknowledged as virtual factory for the commodification of culture and the production of a facsimile of culture that greatly resembles the McDonald's of thought, art, music, and humanity.

Hip Hop Congress is an international grassroots organization dedicated to evolving hip hop culture by inspiring social action and creativity within the community. Move to Amend is a national campaign to amend the US Constitution to abolish the court-created legal doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and the legal premise that money equals speech. Both organizations are explicitly committed to anti-racist and feminist organizing principles, and challenge us to organize, create and assert our humanity.

For more information on the agenda, locations, times, or to RSVP for the Educational Forum or the PMA, go to the Facebook event page and register via e-mail contacts there.

Musical artists include Don Claude, Mic Crenshaw, Shamako Noble, Faithful Five, and others.  Open mic and cypher.

#WhatTheBleep Happened to Hip Hop? is brought to you by Hip Hop Congress, Move to Amend, Global Fam.org, Houston Peace & Justice Center, Healthy Habitz, S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, Multi-Media Center, Harris County Green Party, For Our House at Project Row Houses, Civil Rights Law Society, Thurgood Marshall School of Law and The US Social Forum.