Democratic Committee Digs Deeper into Opposition Research

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The Democratic National Committee, which considers opposition research it obtains on Republicans as a core function for the Democratic campaigns, has been buying reams of material from an outside group started by a close ally of Hillary Clinton.

The party committee’s most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission show a $144,000 payment to American Bridge 21st Century, an opposition research-focused “super PAC” that was founded in the 2012 presidential cycle by David Brock, Mrs. Clinton’s tormentor-turned-defender on the left.

The purchase came as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is increasingly reviewing core functions of the party committee such as research and communications, which whoever wins the Democratic nomination will use to augment their message and their efforts to shape criticism of the Republicans.

The task has become more urgent as the Republican presidential primary has moved away from where many of Mrs. Clinton’s aides originally saw it heading, with a likely nomination of former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio or Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Instead, the race is a tossup, with insurgents like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and the New York real estate magnate Donald J. Trump either at the top or on the rise in most polls. (Read more from “Democratic Committee Digs Deeper into Opposition Research” HERE)

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Arizona Sheriff: We’ve Had 10,000 Unaccompanied Migrant Juveniles in Two Months

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Pinal County, AZ Sheriff and Congressional candidate Paul Babeu (Editor’s note: Babeu apparently once threatened his gay illegal alien boyfriend with deportation) stated, “just the last two months alone, we’ve had 10,000 unaccompanied juveniles” who are “staying here” and that “the Obama administration says the border is wide open, that there is no law it comes to immigration” on Monday’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on the Fox Business Network.

Babeu said, “just the last two months alone, we’ve had 10,000 unaccompanied juveniles, and also with some family members. And the arms are open, and that’s the message that’s been sent. The last wave, 100,000 from Central America.”

He added, “We’re a compassionate nation. We always have been. And this is where I’m tired of being shouted down by President Obama, like somehow we’re not good Americans if we don’t do everything that he says we should to do. And we’ve had a million legal immigrants last year, and we do this every year.” Babeu continued, “I think it’s the most compassionate thing we can do, is reunite them with their families in Central America. What America should be doing is finding ways to solve the problems of violence in Central America, support their governments, because if we don’t solve that core problem, this isn’t going to end. We’re going to have this problem next month, next year, and then we own these people, and all the social network to support them for their entire lives. Because if you think that these kids are going anywhere, think again. They’re staying here.” (Read more from “Arizona Sheriff: We’ve Had 10,000 Unaccompanied Migrant Juveniles in Two Months” HERE)

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Nursing Home Workers Posting Abusive Photos of Elderly on Social Media

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Nursing home workers across the country are posting embarrassing and dehumanizing photos of elderly residents on social media networks such as Snapchat, violating their privacy, dignity and, sometimes, the law.

ProPublica has identified 35 instances since 2012 in which workers at nursing homes and assisted-living centers have surreptitiously shared photos or videos of residents, some of whom were partially or completely naked. At least 16 cases involved Snapchat, a social media service in which photos appear for a few seconds and then disappear with no lasting record.

Some have led to criminal charges, including a case filed earlier this month in California against a nursing assistant. Most have not, even though posting patients’ photos without their permission may violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal patient privacy law that carries civil and criminal penalties.

The incidents illustrate the emerging threat that social media poses to patient privacy and, at the same time, its powerful potential for capturing transgressions that previously might have gone unrecorded. Abusive treatment is not new at nursing homes. Workers have been accused of sexually assaulting residents, sedating them with antipsychotic drugs and failing to change urine-soaked bedsheets. But the posting of explicit photos is a new type of mistreatment — one that sometimes leaves its own digital trail.

In February 2014, a nursing assistant at Prestige Post-Acute and Rehab Center in Centralia, Wash., sent a co-worker a Snapchat video of a resident sitting on a bedside portable toilet with her pants below her knees while laughing and singing. (Read more from “Nursing Home Workers Posting Abusive Photos of Elderly on Social Media” HERE)

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Climate Change Shock: Burning Fossil Fuels ‘COOLS Planet’, Says NASA

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Major theories about what causes temperatures to rise have been thrown into doubt after NASA found the Earth has cooled in areas of heavy industrialisation where more trees have been lost and more fossil fuel burning takes place.

Environmentalists have long argued the burning of fossil fuels in power stations and for other uses is responsible for global warming and predicted temperature increases because of the high levels of carbon dioxide produced – which causes the global greenhouse effect.

While the findings did not dispute the effects of carbon dioxide on global warming, they found aerosols – also given off by burning fossil fuels – actually cool the local environment, at least temporarily.

The research was carried out to see if current climate change models for calculating future temperatures were taking into account all factors and were accurate.

A NASA spokesman said: “To quantify climate change, researchers need to know the Transient Climate Response (TCR) and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) of Earth. (Read more from “Climate Change Shock: Burning Fossil Fuels ‘COOLS Planet’, Says NASA” HERE)

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Will The GOPe Do A “Murkowski” On Trump?

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What Happens to the GOP If Trump Wins?

With Trump as its standard-bearer, the GOP would suddenly be asked to rally around a candidate who has been called by his once and former primary foes “a cancer on conservatism,” “unhinged,” “a drunk driver … helping the enemy.” A prominent conservative national security expert, Max Boot, has flatly labeled him “a fascist.” And the rhetoric is even stronger in private conversations I’ve had recently with Republicans of moderate and conservative stripes.

This is not the usual rhetoric of intraparty battles, the kind of thing that gets resolved in handshakes under the convention banners. These are stake-in-the-ground positions, strongly suggesting that a Trump nomination would create a fissure within the party as deep and indivisible as any in American political history, driven both by ideology and by questions of personal character.

Indeed, it would be a fissure so deep that, if the operatives I talked with are right, Trump running as a Republican could well face a third-party run—from the Republicans themselves. . .

Any candidate attempting a third-party bid would confront serious obstacles, such as getting on state ballots late in the election calendar. As for down-ballot campaigns, most state laws prohibit candidates from running on multiple lines; so a Senate or congressional candidate who wanted to avoid association with Trump would have to abandon the GOP line to re-run with an independent presidential contender. The Stevenson example shows that leaving a major party line is fraught with peril—although the write-in triumph of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2010 suggests that it can sometimes succeed.

The very fact that serious political thinkers are contemplating such a possibility demonstrates that when Republicans look at the perils posed by a third-party bid from Donald Trump, they may be looking in the wrong direction. It’s not Trump the Defector that could trigger the biggest threat to the party, but Trump the Nominee. (Read more from “What Happens to the GOP If Trump Wins?” HERE)

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Watch: These Are the Top 10 Things Obama Said Happened in 2015

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By CNS News Staff. President Barack Obama issued a weekly address today listing what he believes are the Top 10 things that happened in the United States in 2015.

The Number 3 and Number 2 items on his list are the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage and what he calls the “Christmas Miracles” of the budget deal he made with the Republican Congress and the new law he signed, enacted by the Republican Congress, that re-authorizes Department of Education programs.

The Number 1 item on Obama’s list is his belief that Americans worked to achieve things he admires.

Here is the president’s weekly address:

Hi, everybody. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Not just for spreading holiday cheer – but also for list makers. You’ve got wish lists; Santa’s list; and of course, a blizzard of year-in-review lists. So I decided to get in on the action.

(Read more from “Watch: These Are the Top 10 Things That Obama Said Happened in 2015” HERE)

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Obama Skips Democratic Debate, Goes Golfing in Hawaii

By Nick Gass. On his first full day of his annual Christmas vacation in Hawaii, President Barack Obama was not tuned in to see the latest debate between those vying to become his Democratic successor.

Instead, the president spent much of the Democratic on the golf course more than 5,000 miles away. (Read more from “Obama Skips Democratic Debate, Goes Golfing in Hawaii” HERE)

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Hillary’s Bizarre Brief Absence from This Weekend’s Debate Explained

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Coverage of the Saturday night Democratic debate has focused on Bernie Sanders’ apology to Hillary Clinton for his staff’s poor judgment in viewing her campaign’s proprietary data. But Clinton issued a “sorry’’ of her own — although for a far less serious matter.

Clinton apologized to a live television audience for returning late from the ladies’ room after the break.

The reason is one many women are familiar with: An unexpected line for the loo. While Clinton waited for the ladies’ room to clear out, time ticked down and the debate organizers allowed the show to go on without her.

What viewers didn’t know was the sole women’s bathroom was a little further than the men’s room from the stage. And when the debate went to a long commercial break Clinton lost out to Lis Smith, the caffeine-guzzling deputy campaign manager for former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who beat her to the restroom. Smith declined to comment for the story.

A top Clinton staffer who was strategically posted outside the bathroom (presumably to avoid these kinds of situations) gave Smith a verbal OK to make a quick pit stop, according to one person familiar with the ladies’ line. (Read more from “Hillary’s Bizarre Brief Absence from This Weekend’s Debate Explained” HERE)

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One Dead, 37 Injured After Car Plows into Crowd on Las Vegas Strip

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Las Vegas police said late Sunday that a woman who drove her car into a crowd of pedestrians along the Strip, killing at least one person and injuring 37 others, may have done so intentionally.

Police Capt. Brett Zimmerman told the Associated Press that while terrorism has been ruled out, the driver appeared to turn onto the sidewalk, hitting pedestrians, before going back into the street. She then drove onto the sidewalk again at a different spot of Las Vegas Boulevard, hitting others. Zimmerman said police are reviewing video from casino-hotel surveillance cameras.

Of the injured, six were in critical condition, 26 injured and four were treated and released, according to Lt. Peter Boffelli, who called the crash “a huge tragedy.”

“We know this was not an act of terrorism,” Zimmerman said. “We will comb through that footage to get a detailed idea of what occurred. Right now from what we know, we’re looking at it possibly being intentional.”

The crash took place at around 6:40 p.m. local time on a stretch of the Strip that includes the Planet Hollywood resort, where the Miss Universe pageant was taking place Sunday evening. There was no indication that the crash was connected to the pageant. (Read more from “One Dead, 37 Injured After Car Plows into Crowd on Las Vegas Strip” HERE)

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Smart Strategy or Overconfidence? Rubio Plays Hard-To-Get with Voters

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Marco ­Rubio no doubt wants to sit behind the big desk in the Oval Office. What is not so clear is how hard he is willing to work to get there.

Republican activists — including many who appreciate Rubio’s formidable political gifts and view him as the party’s best hope for beating Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton — say they are alarmed at his seeming disdain for the day-to-day grind of retail politics. Even some staunch supporters are anxious.

“Rubio has not put in the face time that he really needs to have, I don’t think,” said Al Phillips, an influential South Carolina pastor who backs Rubio. “I think that’s been somewhat to his detriment.”

That may be, as some of his allies fret privately, a sign of overconfidence in his own abilities. Or it may be a smart strategic decision that the personal touch is overrated in an era in which celebrity billionaire Donald Trump is leading the field with a campaign that consists largely of mega-rallies, barrages of tweets and television interviews that are literally phoned in.

And Rubio is certainly capable of turning on the charm with one key constituency: deep-pocketed donors. He recently secured support from billionaire hedge fund managers Paul Singer and Kenneth Griffin. He’s believed to be the favorite to win over billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. (Read more from “Smart Strategy or Overconfidence? Rubio Plays Hard-To-Get with Voters” HERE)

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Jimmy Carter Just Delivered Tragic News About His Family

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Just hours after his 28-year-old grandson died, a shaken former President Jimmy Carter broke the news to his Plains, Georgia, church and then taught Sunday School according to the church’s minister.

The grandson, Jeremy Carter, had not been feeling well and laid down to take a nap Saturday, Maranatha Baptist Church Rev. Jeremy Shoulta told CNN.

The younger Carter’s heart stopped, the minister said, and the family tried CPR and rushed him to a hospital.

“They were trying to keep his heart going and eventually, later in the night or the wee hours of (Sunday) morning, his heart stopped,” Shoulta said.

Despite the tragic loss, the former President taught Sunday school as he has for many years, Shoulta said. (Read more from “Jimmy Carter Just Delivered Tragic News About His Family” HERE)

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