RandySF
RandySF's JournalSince online polls are now all the rage on DU, I'll post these results, too.
Hillary Clinton's performance in Tuesday night's debate resonated strongly among members of her party, with more than half—56%—saying she won the debate. Just 3% of Democrats who watched or followed coverage of the debate said she did worst, giving her a net performance score of +53. Bernie Sanders scored a +30, showing he still appealed to a significant number of Democrats, according to the latest NBC News online poll conducted nationwide by SurveyMonkey from Tuesday evening immediately following the debate until Thursday morning.
Before the debate, a number of pundits said Martin O'Malley needed a breakout performance similar to Carly Fiorina's first debate, in order to gain name recognition and put some momentum behind his campaign. But O'Malley fell short of that goal, with a tepid score of -6. Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb were also rated poorly, scoring a -21 and -24 respectively.
The primary race looks fairly unchanged since last month for the top two Democratic contenders. Clinton leads Sanders by 14 points among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters. Support for Joe Biden has dropped off by 5 points, possibly due to diminished expectations for the vice president's entry into the race.
In last month's NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll we saw the erosion of a number of key Democratic voting groups from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. The voting public is notoriously fickle at this time in the campaign season, with more than three months to the first caucus or primary. With the caveat that these subgroups have smaller sample sizes, and therefore tend to have more volatility, a number of important voting groups - men, whites, blacks, college graduates, and those over 65 are back in Clinton's camp.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/nbc-online-poll-clinton-wins-debate-reenergizes-core-backers-n445546
Not everything is a conspiracy
Not everyone is lurking in the shadows trying to steal the primary away. Protection of copyrighted material is not a subjugation of democracy. People who support other candidates are not automatically sell-outs, coporatists, hedge-fund managers or part of the 1%. Last I checked, we have the right to choose whom to support without being subjugated to examinations for "Stockholm Syndrome". We are not secret Republicans. There is a world out there with sunlight and fresh air. If you're angry, go take a walk/jog, hit a punching bag or whatever you want to do so long as you occasionally turn off the TV and computer and focus on things that give you peace of mind. Trust me, you'll live a little longer.
Feds Arrest Fox News Commentator, Allege He Lied About CIA Past
WASHINGTON -- A regular guest commentator on Fox News who has been lying for years about working for the Central Intelligence Agency was arrested on Thursday and is being charged in connection with falsely claiming he worked as an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the CIA for nearly three decades.
Wayne Simmons, a 62-year-old who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested by federal authorities following his indictment by a federal grand jury for allegedly committing major fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government. Simmons claims to have worked for the CIA from 1973 to 2000, and "used that false claim in an attempt to obtain government security clearances and work as a defense contractor, including at one point successfully getting deployed overseas as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
In court documents, federal prosecutors alleged that Simmons had a "significant criminal history, including convictions for a crime of violence and firearms offenses, and is believed to have had an ongoing association with firearms notwithstanding those felony convictions." They successfully petitioned a judge to keep Simmons' indictment sealed until his arrest today, noting that Simmons "has a history of acting in an aggressive manner, and is likely aware of the imminent nature of the charges in this case."
Simmons has been interviewed by Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto and has appeared on "Fox & Friends." He has discussed a wide range of issues on the network, including CIA interrogation techniques and, ironically, a former CIA official found guilty on fraud charges. He is a member of the "Citizens Commission on Benghazi," a panel created by the conservative media organization Accuracy in Media that has trafficked in conspiracy theories about the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Libya, in which several officials were killed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wayne-simmons-arrest-cia_561fd787e4b028dd7ea6fd43?utm_hp_ref=politics
Hillary Clinton roars, Bernie Sanders stumbles on guns, and more
Check out five opinions trending online, from the NRA’s fact-checking unit to the “Cadillac tax.”
Clinton roars: Hillary Clinton deftly threaded the needle on policy positions during Tuesday night’s CNN debate, writes New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, dubbing her a “seamstress.” And Bernie Sanders made her seem like a young comer with little to lose.
“For much of the debate, Sanders somehow came across as the embattled incumbent, targeted by the other four candidates, while Clinton came across as the energetic upstart. He seemed bowed, irascible. She seemed buoyant, effervescent. It was as poised a performance as she’s finessed in a long time, and while I’ve just about given up making predictions about this confounding election — I never thought Donald Trump would last so long, and I never saw Ben Carson coming — I think Clinton benefited more from Tuesday’s stage than Sanders did. She mixed confidence and moments of passion with instances of humor, and her manner was less didactic and robotic than it can often be.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/10/14/hillary-clinton-roars-bernie-sanders-stumbles-guns-and-more/94qo875Y57GbvZ9WEva0bM/story.html
Arizona Republican "compromises" on gun control.
A former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party tweeted Tuesday night during the first Democratic presidential debate that guns should be taken away from "blacks" because "they are the main killers."
At one point, debate moderator Anderson Cooper asked the candidates where they stood on the "Black Lives Matter" movement. The question of whether "black lives matter" or "all lives matter" had tripped up some of the candidates before, but on Tuesday night they all said the movement was legitimate.
Former Arizona GOP chair Randy Pullen, who is white, offered his unsolicited take on Twitter.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/randy-pullen-democratic-debate-blacks-guns
UC Professor began sexually harassing students FOURTEEN years ago and was just now disciplined.
Dr. Marcy and Paul Butler, now of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, became famous 20 years ago as the leading American hunters and discoverers of planets around other stars, known as exoplanets. Dr. Marcy was mentioned only a few weeks ago as a potential Nobel Prize honoree. But he also left a trail of complaints and rumors about inappropriate behavior over the years.
This summer, in response to a formal complaint by four former students, the University of California concluded that Dr. Marcy had violated its policies on sexual harassment. The violations, spanning 2001 to 2010, included groping students, kissing them and touching or massaging them inside their clothes.
Dr. Marcy was informed that another harassment violation would leave him subject to immediate suspension or dismissal — a decision that was not widely known until BuzzFeed News reported it last week.
On the eve of the report’s release, Dr. Marcy posted an apology on his website, disagreeing with some aspects of the harassment complaints but saying he took responsibility. “It is difficult to express how painful it is for me to realize that I was a source of distress for any of my women colleagues, however unintentional,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/science/geoffrey-marcy-to-resign-from-berkeley-astronomy-department.html
Hillary Clinton Punched Down During The First Debate -- And It Worked
LAS VEGAS -- The first debate of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary will be defined by two moments: When the topic turned to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) chief vulnerability, Hillary Clinton jumped at the opportunity to draw a sharp contrast. When the roles were reversed, Sanders threw her a lifeline.
Those two exchanges -- the first on gun control and the second on Clinton's use of a private email account as secretary of state -- exemplified not just the different political DNA of each candidate, it underscored the brewing intensity of a Democratic primary that few thought would be competitive.
Clinton's overall performance will be remembered as the more forceful one, in part because the early questions played to her strengths. A back-and-forth on why Sanders didn't consider himself a capitalist led to her defending robust regulations, with him touting Denmark.
But the truly defining segment dealt with guns, perhaps Sanders' biggest vulnerability in the Democratic primary. Clinton previewed her attack a few weeks ago when, among the series of proposals she unveiled after the Oregon mass shooting, she called for ending legal immunity for gun manufacturers -- something Sanders voted for as a congressman. And once the topic surfaced at the debate, she pounced.
"For this immunity provision, I voted against it," Clinton said. "I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn't that complicated to me. It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cnn-democratic-debate_561dd837e4b0c5a1ce611bf6
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders call for Edward Snowden to face trial
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred over Edward Snowden during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate with both calling for him to face trial, but with the Vermont senator saying he thought the NSA whistleblower had “played a very important role in educating the American people”.
Clinton was unmoved by public approbation for Snowden, who exposed the depths of US and UK surveillance to media including the Guardian in 2013.
“He broke the laws of the United States,” she said. “He could have been a whistleblower, he could have gotten all the protections of a whistleblower. He chose not to do that. He stole very important information that has fallen into the wrong hands so I think he should not be brought home without facing the music.”
Snowden has said he did not believe he was granted adequate protection from reprisal under whistleblower laws. Laws protecting whistleblowers in intelligence agencies are written differently from laws protecting others who oppose their employers – including in the government – on grounds of conscience, and are generally considered comparatively weak.
Sanders – Clinton’s main challenger for the Democratic nomination – was more lenient. “I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American public,” the Vermont senator said. He, too, said that Snowden had broken the law and suggested that he ought to be tried. “I think there should be a penalty to that,” he said. “But I think that education should be taken into consideration before the sentencing.”
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/13/clinton-sanders-snowden-nsa-democratic-debate
Eighteen earthquakes in the East Bay in the last 24 hours.
And I am sitting less than a mile from the Hayward Fault. I'm getting nervous (probably for no good reason).
Quick conclusions on tonight's debates.
1. Hillary and Bernie reinforced their current supporters.
2. Biden lost big if he had any plans of running because Hillary likely reassured people who were on the fence.
3. O'Malley is done.
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