December 5, 2015

Truth-Out: "Super PACs, Dark Money and the Hillary Clinton Campaign, Part 1"

Very informative IMHO.

Super PACs, Dark Money and the Hillary Clinton Campaign, Part 1
Saturday, 05 December 2015 * By Melissa Yeager and Libby Watson * Truthout/Sunlight Foundation

We're going to dive into the web of financing for all of the presidential candidates, but as we have looked into several Republican candidates already - like Ted Cruz's plethora of super PACs and Right to Rise's pro-Jeb Bush advertising - we're going to start this exercise over on the Democratic Party side with Hillary Clinton.[1]

We'll be delving even deeper into the Clinton money network tomorrow morning, so keep your eyes peeled for part two. But for now, let's get started!

Players You Should Know
To start with, here are the names you need to know and how they fit under our current campaign finance system.[2]

Ready for Hillary PAC (hybrid super PAC)
Ready PAC (hybrid super PAC, formerly Ready for Hillary)
Hillary for America (candidate PAC)
Priorities USA Action (super PAC)
Correct the Record (super PAC)
American Bridge 21st Century (super PAC)
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation (501(c)(4))
American Independent Institute (501(c)(4))
Media Matters (501(c)(3))
The Bonner Group
Now that you know who is involved, here's the story we know right now of the money backing Hillary. It's rather lengthy so in this post we'll cover Ready for Hillary, Ready PAC, and Priorities USA Action. We'll be looking at the rest tomorrow.

Ready for Hillary
First of all, it's important to point out that the Hillary Clinton political fundraising machine started a full two years before she declared she was running for president. (At least, the one actually associated with her name did.)

MUCH More: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33882-super-pacs-dark-money-and-the-hillary-clinton-campaign-part-1

December 5, 2015

Speaks Volumes: "Clinton still confident in Rahm Emanuel"

Hillary doubles down in support of Rahm's criminal malfeasance and cover-up for killer-cops.

Clinton still confident in Rahm Emanuel
By Mario Trujillo * December 05, 2015 * The Hill

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton says she still has confidence in Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, amid controversy surrounding the delayed release of a video that showed Chicago police shooting a black teenager last year.

Clinton responded “I do” when asked whether she stood by Emanuel, who is a veteran of both the Obama and Clinton administrations.

“He loves Chicago and I'm confident that he's going to do everything he can to get to the bottom of these issues and take whatever measures are necessary to remedy them,” she told reporters Friday in Iowa, according to Bloomberg.
Emanuel penned an op-ed Friday contesting the idea that the video showing the killing of Laquan McDonald by police was withheld because of his election.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/262207-clinton-expresses-confidence-in-chicago-mayor

December 5, 2015

Anyone else see this coming? "Police Response To San Bernardino Stokes Militarization Fears"

When I was watching the live coverage of San Bernardino, and saw those armored vehicles approaching
that bullet-riddled black SUV on the scene of the shoot-out, it made me go: "hmmm .. THIS must be
what all that military gear and armored tanks are for." Sad to say -- thanks to the NRA, ISIS and their
ilk -- I suspect the military gear is probably here to stay.

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Police Response To San Bernardino Stokes Militarization Fears
by Martin Kask * December 4, 2015 * NPR

On the day of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., the city's SWAT team was training for an active shooter situation just minutes away from the scene of the massacre. "We were just working through scenarios when this call went out," says Lt. Travis Walker, the SWAT team commander.

Walker says they'd decided to train on Wednesday in part to learn some lessons from the deadly shooting in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week. This response isn't unique to San Bernardino; in the weeks since the terrorist attacks in Paris, local law enforcement agencies around the country have been preparing for the possibility of more challenging attacks. In San Bernardino on Wednesday morning, Walker was running his officers through scenarios with volunteers playing the role of shooters.

"We'd just finished a training scenario that involved multiple shooters at multiple locations within a small confined area," he says. And then they were off — to the scene of a real-life multiple-shooter attack. They didn't get there in time to stop it, but the suspects were killed in a shootout later in the day. Walker and his team were there for that, too, using armored vehicles to get close.



That scene was meaningful because those were the very same kind of armored vehicles that for the past year or so have become a symbol of what some people call police militarization, something that's gotten a bad rap since the Ferguson, Mo., protests last year.

Walker says now people can see why they have the heavy gear.

December 2, 2015

Poll: Sanders MORE electable than Hillary against top Republicans

Poll: Sanders more electable than Hillary against top Republicans
By Jesse Byrnes * Dec. 2, 2015 * The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is more electable than Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton against several top Republican candidates, according to the new national Quinnipiac University Poll.

Sanders leads Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) by 10 points, businessman Donald Trump by 8 points, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson by 6 points and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) by 1 point in the poll. Clinton also leads the top four Republican candidates, but by slightly smaller margins. She leads Cruz by 5 points, Trump by 6 points, Carson by 3 points and Rubio by 1 point in the survey.

Still, Clinton has widened her lead in the Democratic race to 30 points in the poll, taking 60 percent to Sanders's 30 percent. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley takes 2 percent in the latest poll.

On the Republican side, Trump has widened his lead and is now supported by 27 percent, followed by Rubio at 17 percent and Cruz and Carson tied at 16 percent.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/261756-poll-sanders-more-electable-than-hillary-against-top