>> ^dag:
Are you listening Captain Planet?

Hey there, daggeridoo! Cut the guy some slack! You gotta remember that CaptainPlanet was tired when he wrote that offensive remark. Sleep deprivation makes people say all sorts of crazy shit. Some make ugly homophobic remarks, while others hallucinate that they were taking sniper fire in Bosnia.

They're really to be pitied. Can we get another donation drive going, this time to buy them some Ambien?

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/26/10234/1725/937/484182

- Associated Press, 3/17/08

"Everyone else was told to sit on their bulletproof vests," Clinton said. "And we came in, in an evasive maneuver....There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run to our cars. Now, that is what happened."

- Clinton speech, 3/17/08

"I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went. I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

- New York Times, 3/1/08

"[S]he evoked foreign battlefields, recalling a trip to Bosnia as first lady, when the welcoming ceremony ‘had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.’ She said she had traveled to more than 80 countries and was ‘on the front lines’ as the United States made peace in Bosnia and Northern Ireland and helped save refugees from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo."

- CNN 1/1/08

"I was the first, you know, high-profile American to go into Bosnia after the peace accords were signed because we wanted to show that the United States was 100 percent behind the agreement. We wanted to make it clear to the Bosnians of all backgrounds. Plus we wanted to thank our American military and our allies for a great job. So, we landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because they said there might be sniper fire. I don’t remember anybody offering me tea on the tarmac."

Clinton said she was "sleep-deprived" and "misspoke" when she said last week that she landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996, when she was first lady.

"She recalls being told to move out of an area due to the threat of sniper fire, no sound of bullets, no bodies falling by her side, just "it's not safe to be here, please get to your transport", that does not sound terribly memorable to me, and may have actually happened after the greetings caught on tape."

No. That is somewhat like the account given in her book, where she is told about some sort of generalized threat of sniper fire (before she lands, I think). But a series of recent statements--remember, this "misstatement" has been repeated often in several different contexts--differ markedly. At one point while talking about this she actually insinuated that she had to shield the little girl with her body.

Again, feel free to give her the benefit of the doubt. Even I don't necessarily see this as a "smoking gun," as you put it. But the idea that it's not a substantive criticism--that it's somehow a distraction from real issues--seems bogus to me.

>> ^Tofumar:
"Remember, we are talking about being shot at by a friggin sniper.

This is not what I hear. She recalls being told to move out of an area due to the threat of sniper fire, no sound of bullets, no bodies falling by her side, just "it's not safe to be here, please get to your transport", that does not sound terribly memorable to me, and may have actually happened after the greetings caught on tape.

I am not asserting that she is unfailingly honest, I think there is ample evidence against such a position. I just don't see this being any sort of smoking gun.

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." – Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008.

You know if I was facing near death everyday, sitting out shooting the 50. cal overhead open to all kinds of sniper fire, hoping my humvee won't go over an IED, walking point in the mazes of streets, having locals harrass me, knowing that my vechile probably wouldn't withstand a RPG, seeing oil truck drivers and private merc forces like Blackwater make more then me per day then I get in a month.... hell...

I'd do stupid shit to get my mind off it too.