| Yeah, Sure, It's Perfectly Normal for Foundation Staffers to Ask for Diplomatic Passports Where did the Clinton Foundation end and the State Department begin? Ordinarily there would be all kinds of clear indicators, such as they are getting paid by the taxpayers (whoops) or whether they have a diplomatic passport. Whoops, again. The Band-Abedin exchange went as follows. From: Doug Band To: Huma Abedin Sent: Jul 27, 2009 10:32 AM Subject: Need get me/ justy and jd dip passports We had them years ago but they lapsed and we didn't bother getting them From: Huma Abedin [Huma@clintonemail.com] Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 10:38:39 PM To: Doug Band Subject: Re: Ok will figure it out The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations strictly limits the granting of diplomatic passports to members of the Foreign Service, their family members, or those working on U.S. government contracts. According to 22 CFR 51.3: A diplomatic passport is issued to a Foreign Service officer or to a person having diplomatic status or comparable status because he or she is traveling abroad to carry out diplomatic duties on behalf of the U.S. Government. When authorized by the Department, spouses and family members of such persons may be issued diplomatic passports. When authorized by the Department, a diplomatic passport may be issued to a U.S. Government contractor if the contractor meets the eligibility requirements for a diplomatic passport and the diplomatic passport is necessary to complete his or her mission. The argument from the Hillary campaign is that this was a unique situation where Bill Clinton was going a not-quite-official, not-quite-unofficial envoy to North Korea to help get two Americans released. Officials on Thursday said the passports were tied to a humanitarian mission: former President Bill Clinton 's trip to North Korea later that summer to help free captive journalists. The passports were never granted. Instead, the North Koreans agreed not to stamp the passports of Mr. Clinton and the aides, including Mr. Band, who traveled with him to help free Euna Lee and Laura Ling. A person familiar with the matter cited concerns about having a North Korean stamp on individual passports. Of course, the lack of clarity about whether this was an official U.S. government envoy traveling to Pyongyang and meeting with Kim Jong-il was precisely the point. Kim-Jong-il wanted a summit and to be treated as a legitimate ruler by the United States, and was using the American hostages as leverage. The Obama administration, to its limited credit, wouldn't give the North Korean leader exactly what he wanted, but sent Bill Clinton as a consolation prize to secure their release. Bill Clinton and his Clinton Foundation staff represented this semi-official entity, not quite the American government but not quite a purely private organization with no government ties, either. Of course, a foreign government can't just write a check to the U.S. State Department to purchase a favor — "please approve this arms deal," or "please be leninent in your next assessment of our human rights record." But a foreign government can write a check for any amount to the Clinton Foundation, and hope that the donation brings them some goodwill with the Secretary of State. I haven't seen lines this blurred since the Robin Thicke video. The Strange Credulity of the Heartbroken 'Latinos for Trump' I know it's awful to be heartbroken, but . . . why were these people so convinced that Trump's previous statements on immigration were the fake position, and that what he said to them in the meeting was the real one? "There was so much hope," said Jacob Monty, a member of the Hispanic advisory council who was at the meeting with Mr. Trump. "He used us as props." Mr. Monty, a longtime Republican, said that Mr. Trump had appeared humble during the meeting, listened to their proposals, acknowledged the difficulty of deporting 11 million unauthorized immigrants and suggested that he was working on a new policy that included a path to legalization. Mr. Monty resigned from the council after Mr. Trump's speech. "That was not a Republican speech, that was populist propaganda," Mr. Monty said. "He must listen to whoever speaks to him last." Ramiro Pena, a pastor from Texas who was on Mr. Trump's advisory council, also abandoned the campaign. According to an email to the Trump campaign, obtained by Politico, Mr. Pena, who could not be reached for comment, said the group that Mr. Trump had formed was a "scam." Other conservative Hispanic leaders were also disappointed. Alfonso Aguilar, director of the American Principles Project's Latino Partnership, who backed Mr. Trump and offered advice on immigration policy to his campaign, withdrew his support on Thursday morning. Mr. Aguilar said that he and other conservative Hispanic leaders had gotten behind Mr. Trump because they thought he would be able to work with Congress to get something done on immigration reform. "A couple of weeks ago, it sounded as if there was going to be a pivot," said Mr. Aguilar, who predicted that other Republican Latinos would soon renounce their support for Mr. Trump. "If you heard the speech last night, it was either self-deport or be deported." Actually, Trump is vague on that; it doesn't appear that he's planning the mass roundup or the "deportation force" he once did. If you're an illegal immigrant working as a busboy somewhere, and avoid getting caught committing a crime, than it sounds like you can return to your home country at your own volition at some future date and apply for legal entry. What to Do in Disasters, for Presidents and Citizens Morning Jolt reader and NRO contributor Tevi Troy has a new book out, Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management From the Oval Office. He offers a look at the lessons of past presidents in this Wall Street Journal op-ed. Presidential visits aren't always the right answer: They gobble up local personnel and resources that are often needed urgently elsewhere. But a mere "flyover" is no substitute, as President George W. Bush learned in 2005 when he did an aerial survey of a drowning New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. It made him look detached, wary of involvement, and it confirmed impressions made by his administration's slow, botched early response to the disaster. But he wasn't the first to make this mistake. In 1968, during the unrest following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President Lyndon Johnson rode in a helicopter over riot-torn areas of Washington, D.C. A photo taken at the time of LBJ looking down on the devastation is a perfect image of presidential remoteness. Another book I've been sent for review is 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Surviving in the Wild and Being Prepared for Any Disaster, written by retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson. It's full of fascinating little tips for everything from commonplace threats — avoiding pickpockets and purse-snatchers — to surviving if stranded in the wild, to even what to do if you're kidnapped, and how to leave DNA markers to help investigators later. My absolute favorite bit of advice is the section on how to take out a hijacker on a plane. The book even explores the scenario of what to do if pilots or security officials believe the hijackers have surgically-implanted explosives. In that case, you're supposed to ask the pilot to lower the plane to 10,000 feet to depressurize the cabin, lead the captured hijacker to the to the emergency exit door behind the wings, and… have them depart the plane a little before the scheduled arrival time. This leads to the single most giggle-inducing diagram ever to appear in a survival guide: 
Just picture the Wilheim Scream right there. ADDENDA: This week on the pop-culture podcast: Mickey offers a theory on why you didn't hear as much about MTV's Video Music Awards this year; the even-more-random-than-usual lineup of this fall's Dancing With the Stars, why we want professional athletes to shut up and let us enjoy some escapism for a few hours, a quartet of documentaries probe a long-forgotten 1990s crime, and the odd things your body can do, with most of the listener entries being . . . reasonably tasteful. | 
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