James Comey's integrity is now seriously in question - and with just 8 days to go before election day - voters need some answers - fast.

When news broke Friday about Comey's letter to Congress revealing existence of emails that might - just might - have something to do with the Clinton email investigation - everyone immediately assumed the worst.

Here - we all thought - was the October surprise we'd all been waiting for.

But with the vantage of three days of leaks and counter leaks behind us - things look a lot more complicated.

We now know - for example - that the emails in question were not actually to or from Hillary Clinton herself.

They were instead found on Huma Abedin's laptop during an investigation into her husband Anthony Weiner's alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

We also know that the FBI hadn't even looked at these emails when Comey went public with them, and we know that the Justice Department told him NOT to write his now infamous letter to Congress because they didn't want him interfering with the presidential election.

Oh yeah - and we ALSO know that these emails may not even contain any new information - just that they COULD contain new information.

In other words - this is all still very much in the air - which is why almost a hundred former Justice Department officials -- Republican and Democrat alike -- have now condemned Comey's actions as a dangerous breach of protocol.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has gone even farther and suggested that the FBI director may have broken the law that bans federal employees from taking part in political activity.

The sympathetic reading of this situation is that Comey just went public with these emails just because he felt like he had a personal and professional obligation to.

He promised Congress he would keep it updated with any new developments in the Clinton case - and on Friday that's exactly what he did.

But again - that's just the sympathetic reading of the situation.

It assumes Comey didn't know what he was doing - which is impossible because the Justice Department told him in very plain English the explicit consequences of what he was doing.

There are two possible scenarios here:

One, Comey either knew he was breaking protocol but didn't DIDN'T think it could throw the election into chaos or Comey knew he was breaching protocol and WANTED to throw the election into chaos.

Either way he should probably lose his job.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... What's Wrong w/the Central Banks (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Tuesday's Daily Stack 

Hour One: How Will the Election Results Impact the Stock Market?
- Steve Beamon, Society to Advance Financial Education  

Tweet: "So, to recap. Trump will go on trial in November accused of racketeering, and again in December accused of child rape...." by Salman Rushdie.

Article: "Donald Trump's Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders" by Kurt Eichenwald.

Article: "FBI probe of new Clinton emails spooks market" by Adam Shell.

Article: "Pelosi: GOP House might impeach Clinton" by Susan Ferrechio.

Law: "Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act", 1930 by Wikipedia.

Article: "Dodd-Frank Is Hurting Community Banks" by Marshall Lux.

Article: "Modern robber barons ride wave of M&A deals" by Steve Johnson.

 

Site: BallotPedia.

Law: "Hatch Act of 1939" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Harry Reid: Comey may have violated the Hatch Act" by Caroline Kenny.

Article: "Diplomatic Omissions" by David Emery (U.S. embassy attacks).

Article: "Comey Breaks Silence: White House Tried To Force Incapacitated Ashcroft To Back Spying Program", May 15, 2007.

Article: "Flood of leaks turns coverage against Comey, but impact on Clinton unclear" by Howard Kurtz.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: Want To Know Why This Election Isn't About Issues?" by EarlG.

Site: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

Video: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

DVD: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits" by Greg Palast.

Article: "Republican Trump voter arrested in Iowa for voter fraud after allegedly attempting to 'rig' election" by Sarah K. Burris.

Article: "In private, Burr quips about gun owners shooting Clinton" by Manu Raju.

Article: "Sounds Like Republicans Intend to Never Fill the SCOTUS Vacancy if Hillary Clinton Is President" by Jim Newell.

Bible: "Leviticus".

Article: "John Kasich follows through on vow not to vote for Donald Trump, writes in John McCain instead" by Henry J. Gomez.

Article: "Paul Ryan on voting for Trump: I already voted 'for our nominee'" by Tom Kludt.

Article: "Oregon militia standoff trial: shock and anger after Bundys found not guilty" by Sam Levin and Julia Carrie Wong.

Article: "Bundy juror: 'Not guilty' does not mean innocent" by AP.

Article: "Oregon standoff prosecutors failed to prove 'intent' to impede federal workers" by Maxine Bernstein.

Video: Trump Supporter Explains Hillary Assassination Plans To Camera.

Hour Two: No, 'Emailgate' is Not Worse Than Watergate
- John Dean, Justia/The Nixon Defense: What He Knew & When He Knew It  

Article: "No, 'Emailgate' Is Not Worse Than Watergate" by John W. Dean.

Book: "Threshold: The Progressive Plan to Pull America Back from the Brink" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Watergate scandal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The List Just Keeps on Growing: Two More Women Say Donald Trump Sexually Assaulted Them" by Elizabeth Preza.

 

Article: "Wise use movement" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2012 Benghazi attack" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Dennis Hastert" by Wikipedia.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Bob Ney 

Article: "Mosul battle: Iraqi special forces enter city limits" by BBC.

Article: "California National Guard Can't Find 4,000 Soldiers Who Received Improper Payments, Officials Say".

Article: "Face it, Obamacare has failed" by Mitch McConnell.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Hour Three: In for Thom for the third hour...
- Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel    

Site: District Sentinel.

Site: Unanimous Dissent.

Article: "Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?" by Franklin Foer.

Article: "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia" by Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers.

Video: The President Addresses Joint Session of Congress: 2/21/09.

Article: "Former CIA chief: 'Hacking foreign political parties? That's what we do'" by Jason Murdock.

Article: "China's top climate negotiator slams Trump's promise to pull U.S. out of Paris climate deal" by Alejandro D�vila Fragoso.

Article: "China cap-and-trade market gives carbon pricing opponents 'nowhere to hide': UN" by Bruce Cheadle.

Article: "Clean Power Plan" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Chief Obama Trade Negotiator: "We Can Get the Votes" for T.P.P." by Sam Knight.

Article: "Russia threatens to resume full-scale bombing of Aleppo as rebels continue counter-offensive" by Raf Sanchez.

Site: Black Box Voting.org.

Article: "California Today: Yes, They're Still Counting the Presidential Primary Votes" by Ian Lovett, June 29, 2016.

Article: "Experts predict long lines for some on Election Day in Maricopa County" by Rebekah L. Sanders.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

I'll be talking with Carl Higbie, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Charles Sauer and Secretary Tom Vilsack.

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...