February 12, 2016

Alan Grayson’s Double Life: Congressman and Hedge Fund Manager

The hedge fund manager boasted that he had traveled to “every country” in the world, studying overseas stock markets as he fine-tuned an investment strategy to capitalize on global companies’ suffering because of economic or political turmoil.

But the fund manager had an even more distinctive credential to showcase in his marketing material in June 2013: He was a “U.S. congressman,” Representative Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Now he is also among the leading Democratic candidates for one of Florida’s United States Senate seats.

This highly unusual dual role — a sitting House lawmaker running a hedge fund, which until recently had operations in the Cayman Islands — has led to an investigation of Mr. Grayson by the House Committee on Ethics.

<snip>

Interviews and the documents show that Mr. Grayson told potential investors in his hedge fund that they should contribute money to the fund to capitalize on the unrest he observed around the world, and to take particular advantage when there was “blood in the streets.”

The emails also show how Mr. Grayson’s work for the hedge fund — which had $16.4 million in assets as of October and only four investors since it was established — at times interfered with his other duties. In August 2015, after Mr. Grayson introduced legislation calling for larger annual increases in Social Security benefits, he signed off on a plan to highlight the proposal at an event in Tampa, Fla., emails obtained by The Times show. But the plan was scuttled, two former aides said, when economic turmoil in China sent stock markets tumbling globally and Mr. Grayson had to turn his attention to the fund.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/us/politics/alan-graysons-double-life-congressman-and-hedge-fund-manager.html?_r=0

February 12, 2016

Machete attack in Ohio restaurant leaves 4 injured; one critically

Frantic 911 calls captured the moment a machete-wielding man injured four people in an attack at an Ohio restaurant before he was shot dead by police Thursday.

The man's attack was first reported at the Nazareth Restaurant and Deli in Columbus around 6 p.m., the Columbus Police Department said today. The man allegedly walked into the restaurant, had a conversation with an employee and left, before returning about 30 minutes later, according to the Associated Press. That's when he allegedly approached a man and a woman sitting by the door and launched his attack, the AP reported.

"Some guy pulled out a machete and started stabbing people," one mother said in a 911 call obtained by ABC News. "I ran out with my kids." She said she was calling from another store's bathroom with her two young children.

"My wife just called me in a panic," another 911 caller said, "telling me that a guy in the restaurant's stabbing people. And she's hiding, I think, out in the back. She cut her hand pretty bad."

<snip>

http://abcnews.go.com/US/inside-machete-wielding-mans-terrifying-attack-ohio-restaurant/story?id=36889413

February 12, 2016

Hillary snapped at BLM activists: "...then I will only talk to white people..."

And Representative Jeffries says Bernie is dismissive. Thank dog Bernie hasn't said the imperious, dismissive crap that rolls off Hillary's lips.

<snip>

"Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will talk only to white people about how we are going to deal with the very real problems," Clinton snapped. Jones said it's a "form of victim blaming" for Clinton to tell Black Lives Matter what it "needs to do to change white hearts." While Clinton avoided opening up about her personal culpability in America's race problem, that provoked a passionate explanation of how she sees politics:

<snip>
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/08/video-hillarys-meeting-with-black-lives-matter.html

February 12, 2016

It appears quite clear that many Hillary fans support the swiftboating of Bernie

by powerful members of the MSM who have obvious connections to Hillary. About Chris Matthews, nothing more needs to be added. But who knew that Capehart's partner was Deputy Chief of Protocol at State under Hillary and currently works for her campaign? Amazing what a little digging turns up.

Five years ago, while Nick Schmit, the deputy chief of protocol at the US State Department, was traveling in Japan for work, he got a message from a friend suggesting he meet Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart. They were both single at the time, and the friend thought they would have a lot in common. She was right! As Schmit and Capehart prepare to celebrate their fifth anniversary in November, this lively duo agreed to let Capitol File take a peek into their home to learn more about their happy, busy lives.

>snip>

http://capitolfile-magazine.com/inside-jonathan-capehart-and-nick-schmits-house
http://www.yatedo.com/p/Nick+Schmit/normal/a11ff4c0b6814ab541ce85fa871b878b

February 12, 2016

Let Me Tell You About the Debate "Audience" In Milwaukee

I LIVE in the Milwaukee area, so you’d think I could manage to wrangle a ticket to tonight’s debate, right? Wrong! The closest I could come was the chance of “winning” a ticket via the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s donation request email. I entered for my change of winning the ONE ticket they offered. Never heard from them. I guess I lost. Maybe I should have donated a pile of money to boost my odds.

The debate was held at my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. You think UWM students could get a ticket? Wrong! They had to register for a lottery and then only 25 tickets were handed out to the lucky “winners”.

So….who WAS in the audience? Beats me. Certainly not activists or ordinary citizens. I suspect they were State Party loyalists and hangers-on. Martha Lanning, chair of the Wis Dems, like other members of the establishment, has already endorsed HRC. Otherwise, it was 25 lucky UWM students and 1 lucky winner of the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s email donation contest.

The game was rigged, my friends. Just like the rest of our Democracy has been.

<snip>

It isn’t even a “Milwaukee audience” since all the faces I see are white and Milwaukee is majority non-white.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/11/1483904/-Let-Me-Tell-You-About-the-Debate-Audience-In-Milwaukee

February 12, 2016

Hillary gets creative trying to distance herself from SuperPac

In other words she lied.

<snip>


The idea that there was Hillary Clinton just settin' up the ol' presidential campaign when along came this super PAC, unbeknownst to her, that decided to collect money on her behalf just for its own sake is risible. Support from Priorities USA, among other super PACs, was very much an effort on behalf of Clinton's team to get her elected. Clinton has even helped solicit donations for Priorities. From the New York Times in May:

Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin personally courting donors for a "super PAC" supporting her candidacy, the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has fully embraced these independent groups that can accept unlimited checks from big donors and are already playing a major role in the 2016 race.

Her decision is another escalation in what is expected to be the most expensive presidential race in history, and it has the potential to transform the balance of power in presidential campaigning, where Republican outside groups have tended to outspend their Democratic counterparts.

Mrs. Clinton’s allies hope that with her support, the top Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA Action, will raise $200 million to $300 million. That is on par with what the largest Republican organizations, such as the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads super PAC and its nonprofit affiliate, spent in 2012.

Campaign chairman John Podesta has been personally courting Priorities donations, too. And then there's Bill Clinton.

<snip>



http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/11/hillary_clinton_didn_t_just_randomly_bump_into_her_super_pac.html


Pantsuit on fire.

February 12, 2016

Demand Jonathan Capehart and the WaPo retract this lie

By Jonathan Capehart February 11 at 5:38 PM

In trying to establish the civil rights bona fides of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), many of his supporters have taken to posting a black-and-white photo of the presidential candidate from 1962. Students can be seen sitting on the floor and standing in the back as the then-dark-haired activist addresses them.


The compelling picture can be found in the senator’s biographical video on his campaign website. “At the University of Chicago,” Sanders says as the photo fades in and out, “I got involved in the civil rights movement. We ended up engaging in a sit-in demonstration.” It’s on the campaign’s Tumblr feed. “As the Civil Rights Movement grew, Bernie led a sit-in to desegregate off-campus housing at the University of Chicago,” reads the timeline under 1962. And Sanders used it in a stirring 2013 video to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. “I remember the day very well and I remember the moment, the period well,” he says as the photo passes by, “because up at the University of Chicago, where I was then going to school, we were working with young people in the South.”


But that’s not Bernie Sanders in the photo. It is Bruce Rappaport.

<snip>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/02/11/stop-sending-around-this-photo-of-bernie-sanders/


The photographer who took those photographs, world renowned photographer Danny Lyons says they damn well are Bernie.

SHAME on the WaPo and Capehart.

"In 1962 and the spring of 1963 I was the student photographer at the University of Chicago, making pictures for the yearbook, the Alumni Magazine and the student paper, The Maroon. By the summer of 1962 I had taken my camera into the deep South, and become the first photographer for SNCC.

"That winter at the University of Chicago, there was a sit-in inside the administration building protesting discrimination against blacks in university owned housing. I went to it with a CORE activist and friend. The sit in was in a crowded hallway, blocking the entrance to the office of Dr. George Beadle, the chancellor.

"I took the photograph of Bernie Sanders speaking to his fellow CORE members at that sit-in. Bob McNamara, a close friend and CORE activist, is in the very corner next to me in the picture. Across the room from me is another campus photographer named Wexler, who taught me how to develop film.

"I photographed Bernie a second time after he got a haircut, as he appeared next to the noble laureate and chancellor Dr. George Beadle. Time Magazine is now claiming it is not Bernie in the picture but someone else. It is Bernie, and it is proof of his very early dedication to justice for African Americans. The CORE sit-in that Bernie helped lead was the first civil rights sit-in to take place in the North."

<snip>
http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2016/february/02/when-danny-lyon-met-bernie-sanders/


Contact information:

https://m.facebook.com/capehart

http://help.washingtonpost.com/ics/support/ticketnewwizard.asp?style=classic&deptID=15080

The Washington Post's ombudsman's number is 202-334-7582

https://mobile.twitter.com/capehartj

February 12, 2016

Celebrated Photographer: Yes, that is Bernie Sanders. Time Magazine is lying

We're always happy to get an email from Danny Lyon, the great American photographer, credited with inventing what became known as 'the new journalism' back in the 1960s. Lyons photographs of society's outsiders and its dispossessed and downtrodden have become legendary over the years, and he remains to this day a peerless - and fearless - chronicler of human integrity, dignity and resistance.

He sent us a link to a couple of photographs he took of Democrat contender Bernie Sanders back in the early 1960s when the then student activist was talking at a gathering of students holding a sit in in protest at institutional racism againt black students in Chicago. This is what Danny said:

"In 1962 and the spring of 1963 I was the student photographer at the University of Chicago, making pictures for the yearbook, the Alumni Magazine and the student paper, The Maroon. By the summer of 1962 I had taken my camera into the deep South, and become the first photographer for SNCC.

"That winter at the University of Chicago, there was a sit-in inside the administration building protesting discrimination against blacks in university owned housing. I went to it with a CORE activist and friend. The sit in was in a crowded hallway, blocking the entrance to the office of Dr. George Beadle, the chancellor.

"I took the photograph of Bernie Sanders speaking to his fellow CORE members at that sit-in. Bob McNamara, a close friend and CORE activist, is in the very corner next to me in the picture. Across the room from me is another campus photographer named Wexler, who taught me how to develop film.

"I photographed Bernie a second time after he got a haircut, as he appeared next to the noble laureate and chancellor Dr. George Beadle. Time Magazine is now claiming it is not Bernie in the picture but someone else. It is Bernie, and it is proof of his very early dedication to justice for African Americans. The CORE sit-in that Bernie helped lead was the first civil rights sit-in to take place in the North."

<snip>
http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2016/february/02/when-danny-lyon-met-bernie-sanders/

February 12, 2016

One Candidate

is running a positive campaign. The other is running a negative one.

One candidate promised to run a positive issue oriented campaign and is keeping that promise. One candidate did not and could not.

One candidate employs and works closely with political hit men. The other doesn't.

One candidate has a SuperPac just to spin. The other doesn't have any SuperPacs.

One candidate focuses on the people. The other focuses on "i".

One candidate and only one candidate deserves my vote.

February 12, 2016

Bernie Sanders Is More Serious on Foreign Policy Than You Think

(Lawrence J. Korb (born July 9, 1939, in New York City) is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information. He was formerly director of national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.)




CNN last week and on Meet the Press this week, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders cited me as someone who has given him foreign policy advice. I admit I was surprised to hear this—I have spoken to Senator Sanders only once since he declared his candidacy, in October. In the time since, this fact has been used by the media and his opponents to cast doubt on Sanders’ foreign policy credibility, to point out a supposed weak spot in a surging candidacy: Since I’m not on his campaign, and have met with him only once, how serious could Sanders—the socialist crusader battling the former secretary of state—really be?

The answer is: serious. Since Sanders’ public mention of me, I have been asked repeatedly whether I think his foreign policy positions and experience are sound. I do.


In my dealings with him, and in analyzing his record in Congress over the past 25 years, I have found that Sanders has taken balanced, realistic positions on many of the most critical foreign policy issues facing the country. In the mold of realists like Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush, Sanders voted against the invasion of Iraq in 2002, while wisely supporting the war against in Afghanistan in 2001 and the intervention in the Balkans in 1990s. And Sanders certainly isn’t a foreign policy lightweight: In fact, given his long tenure in the House and Senate, he has more foreign policy experience than Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama did when they were running for office the first time.

What would a President Sanders’ foreign policy look like? Based on his record and my conversation with him, I believe it would be rooted in a number of key principles. First is restraint in using American force abroad. As he has stated, and as is demonstrated by his vote against the Iraq War and the first Gulf War, Sanders believes military action should be the last, not first, option and that, when taken, such action should be multilateral. I also believe, based on our conversation, that he would follow the Weinberger Doctrine (also known as the Powell Doctrine): When the United States uses military force abroad, our objectives should be clear, we should be prepared to use all the force necessary to achieve those objectives, and we should know when they have been achieved.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-foreign-poicy-213619#ixzz3zx3WL7dT