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Big Tech Applauds White House Net Neutrality Move

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The Internet Association says Obama’s plan “would establish the strong net neutrality protections Internet users require.”

Pool / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The nation's biggest tech companies praised President Obama's net neutrality proposal announced Monday.

"As we have previously said, the [Federal Communications Commission] must adopt strong, legally sustainable rules that prevent paid prioritization and protect an open Internet for users," Michael Beckerman, president and CEO of The Internet Association, said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. "Using Title II authority, along with the right set of enforceable rules, the President's plan would establish the strong net neutrality protections Internet users require. We welcome the President's leadership, and encourage the FCC to stand with the Internet's vast community of users and move quickly to adopt strong net neutrality protections that ensure a free and open Internet."

The Internet Association represents some of the biggest names online, including Google, Facebook, Netflix, and eBay.


Rand Paul Takes Shot At Hillary Clinton's Age

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The likely Republican presidential candidate suggests that Clinton, who is 67, may not be able to handle the “rigorous physical ordeal” of the campaign trail.

Jim Young / Reuters

Mike Theiler / Reuters

He brings her up in stump speeches. He freely attacks her in interviews with the national press. He hammers her again and again for the strike on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and for a line she botched last month on the campaign trail.

Sen. Rand Paul's latest knock on Hillary Clinton — his potential rival in the next presidential race — came in a Politico article, published on Monday, in which he appeared to take a shot at her age and health. Clinton just turned 67.

In the interview, Paul questioned whether Clinton would be able to physically handle running for president. "It's a very taxing undertaking to go through," he said. "It's a rigorous physical ordeal, I think, to be able to campaign for the presidency."

Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, is 51 years old.

Asked if he wanted to clarify the remark, a spokesman for Paul said, "Nothing to add here." A Clinton spokesman did not respond to an email about the comment.

Adrienne Elrod, the communications director for Correct the Record, a research group backing Clinton, said, "It's pretty funny that Rand Paul is lecturing on the 'rigors' of a presidential campaign, given that last I checked, he's never been a presidential candidate, or even a candidate for re-election to any office."

The "excitement and enthusiasm" for Clinton on the campaign trail, Elrod said, "will be far more than Rand Paul can handle."

When Clinton campaigned for Democrats during the midterms this fall, she kept a demanding schedule. In a 54-day period, she appeared at 45 events in 20 states, stumping for at least 26 different candidates, according to her office.

If Clinton were elected president in 2016, she would be 69 on inauguration day — the same age as Ronald Reagan when he took office in 1981.

The chair of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, has said he considers Clinton's age and health "fair game" in a possible presidential race.

"What I do know is that the issue is going to come up as it does for any person running for president," said Reince Priebus on NBC's Meet the Press earlier this year. "It was fair game for Ronald Reagan. It was fair game for John McCain."


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GOP Congressman: "Impeachment Would Be A Consideration" If Obama Acts On Immigration

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“Impeachment would be a consideration, yes sir.”

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

A Republican congressman says impeachment would be on the table if President Obama acts unilaterally on immigration by taking executive action to slow deportations.

"Well impeachment is indicting in the House and that's a possibility," said Texas Rep. Joe Barton on NewsMaxTV's America's Forum. "But you still have to convict in the Senate and that takes a two-thirds vote. But impeachment would be a consideration, yes sir."

The White House has said in the past they will take executive action to slow deportations before the end of 2014, but the date of such an action has remained unclear.

Here's the video of Barton's remarks:

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor Stops Same-Sex Marriages In Kansas For Now

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Sotomayor calls for a response to Kansas’ request for a stay pending appeal by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an order early Monday evening that stops same-sex couples in Kansas from being able to marry beginning after 5 p.m. CT Tuesday. She added, however, that she or the full Supreme Court could issue an order that changes that at some point in the future.

The move came in response to the request from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed with Sotomayor earlier Monday.

After the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the state's request for a stay last week, Schmidt had said he would be asking for a stay from Sotomayor — who hears procedural requests like this from the 10th Circuit.

In addition to arguments raised by other states' officials in support of a stay, Kansas officials argue that the federal courts never should have taken on the issue — as the Kansas Supreme Court had ordered briefing on the implications of the 10th Circuit's ruling that Utah's similar marriage ban is unconstitutional on Kansas' ban.

In her Monday order, Sotomayor also called for a response to Kansas' request by 5 p.m. ET Tuesday. Sotomayor can then decide the matter on her own, or she can refer the question to the full court.

Although the Supreme Court had been granting stays in similar circumstances earlier this year, it changed course in October after denying several states' requests to hear appeals of challenges to their states' bans. Since then, the court has allowed multiple rulings against bans on same-sex couples' marriages to take effect, even during appeals.

Notably, as to a request made by Idaho officials, Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a brief stay in October while the court considered the matter. Later that week, the court denied Idaho's request for a stay.

After last week's decision from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding four states' bans, however, lawyers on both sides of the issue will be watching the Supreme Court's handling of the Kansas issue for some signals on whether the 6th Circuit decision has changed the dynamic on the issue with the justices.

Here is the opening of Kansas' application:

Here is the opening of Kansas' application:


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The Clintons Were Not The Losers Of The Midterms

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Mitt Romney has the stupidest spreadsheet. We must stop surrogate madness.

Sen. Rand Paul / Via Facebook: RandPaul

Mitt Romney called 80 candidates last week after they won their elections. He campaigned for almost as many. He campaigned for so many people, actually, that the people around him kept a spreadsheet with wins and losses tallied in it:

In two spreadsheets circulated last week, Romney's "winning percentage" is contrasted with Clinton's. After listing the candidates that each of them endorsed, the analysis claims that 66% of Romney's picks emerged victorious in the GOP midterm wave compared with 33% for Clinton.

Clinton is marked down as having backed 39 candidates, while Romney endorsed 76 candidates. There are descriptions of Clinton's activities on behalf of a candidate, whether it was a rally, a fundraiser, a robocall or just an endorsement.

This is the consultant's version of yelling "SCOREBOARD, BITCHES." But it's also insane. Who in America walked into a middle school gym or whatever and thought, "I'm here today to vote for a Republican because Mitt Romney did a fundraiser"?

The reasons given so far for the Republican wave have included: the widespread unpopularity of President Obama, good Republican candidates and campaigns in key races, bad Democratic candidates and campaigns in key races, a failure to turn out core Democratic constituencies that left the electorate significantly older and more conservative. No one has really argued that Mitt Romney's surrogacy drove the Republican wave, as though he were Ursula at the end of The Little Mermaid.

And yet, the reverse idea has been applied to the Clintons.

The Clintons, together, campaigned about as much as Romney did, individually. These ranged from people like Martha Coakley — who by the time Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton got to her was already expected to lose to a Republican in Massachusetts — to people in closer races like Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (winner) and Rep. Bruce Braley (loser). Their top target was Alison Lundergan Grimes, the daughter of a prominent Clinton ally, the beneficiary of a lot of Hollywood money, especially from a top Clinton fundraiser, and the subject of polling that made the race look closer than it ultimately was.

The idea of the Romney spreadsheet actually throws into perfect relief the mad logic in the idea that the Clintons lost last week. The entire notion obscures the real value of surrogates: mostly fundraising, plus earned media.

A great example of this is Kay Hagan, a center-left Democrat with a whisper of a public personality. She won in 2008 on the ballot with Obama. Despite a working theory that she could not possibly win reelection in a redder North Carolina that disapproves of the president, she held a polling lead over Thom Tillis all fall. Ten days before the election, Hillary Clinton did a drive by appearance in Charlotte, and gave a version of her October speech (focus on families, wages, and women) tailored to North Carolina. At no point during the event did Hillary Clinton stand on Kay Hagan's shoulders and shout, fire emanating from her eyes, A vote for Hagan is a vote for meeeee. This, top to bottom, is about as generic as you get.

And as it turns out, the polls were terrible: Hagan lost.

Rand Paul trolled the hell out of these losses (why not?), posting an entire album of #HillarysLosers on Facebook. Paul himself had campaigned for Tillis; the album included one featuring Hagan and Clinton.

Earlier this year, though, a few days before North Carolina's Republican primary, Paul also stumped once for Greg Brannon, the libertarian doctor who once ran a conspiracy website, running a long-shot bid against Tillis, the speaker of the North Carolina House. Brannon got blown out by Tillis. Was that Paul's fault? No. He was there once — and Brannon was going to lose.

Scott Walker actually told the truth a few weeks ago, in a public shot at Chris Christie and the amount of money the Republican Governors Association had given his campaign, days before the New Jersey governor flew to Wisconsin.

"[Christie] is coming because he asked if he could come and we weren't going to say no," Walker told Politico. "But we're not looking for surrogates. The people that have been campaigning with me are by and large from Wisconsin."

Money. We are looking for money. Who cares about surrogates?

Ben Stein: America's Race Problem Is "Pathetic, Self-Defeating Black Underclass"

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“I mean, the real problem with race in America is a very, very beaten-down, pathetic, self-defeating black underclass that is — uh, just can’t seem to get its way going in the way that blacks were able to before the scourge of drugs and the scourge of gangs.”

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Actor and conservative pundit Ben Stein says the real problem with race in America is a "very, very beaten-down, pathetic, self-defeating black underclass."

"If you read the liberal mainstream media, that the main problem with race in America was poor innocent black people being set upon and mistreated by the police," Stein said on NewsMaxTV, commenting on a report that the mother of Michael Brown could face felony armed robbery charges for attacking people in Ferguson, Missouri. "That's just nonsense."

"I mean, the real problem with race in America is a very, very beaten-down, pathetic, self-defeating black underclass that is — uh, just can't seem to get its way going in the way that blacks were able to before the scourge of drugs and the scourge of gangs."

The former game show host and Nixon administration official cited drugs and family destruction as a "crisis in the black community" that President Obama has not addressed.

"I mean, it's an amazing thing — blacks were on their way in this country, even after the horrors of slavery, and then drugs came in, the destruction of families came in, and the crisis in the black community is just absolutely unbelievable. And that, it seems to me, is something that Mr. Obama could have addressed, and he just ignored it completely."

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday last week, Stein called Obama "the most racist president there has ever been in America."

President Obama Turns The Internet Into A Political Weapon

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On Monday, the president surprised just about everyone with a pitch for net neutrality right out of the activist playbook.

Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Obama has finally made the internet the subject of mainstream politics.

His proposal Monday to reclassify the internet as a utility caught almost everyone involved in the movement by surprise, from large tech companies to the policy advisers on Capitol Hill.

The move, a recommendation to allow the FCC to enforce more robust regulations to protect net neutrality, has bigger implications beyond the basic announcement. The presidential platform can turn an issue mired in regulatory details into one with much broader, bigger appeal and an emerging partisan divide: President Obama cast himself as protecting the free internet from corporate greed, while Republican Sen. Ted Cruz immediately accused the federal government of unnecessary meddling.

Obama has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality since his years as a candidate for president, but the lead up to Monday's announcement was very quick, according to those who watch the process closely. The White House decision to stake out the strong position came as a surprise even to their allies.

Officials at top tech companies declined to be identified when talking about the White House net neutrality plan, preferring to let a glowing statement from the industry's trade group, the Internet Association, speak on the record on their behalf. In interviews with BuzzFeed News in the hours after the morning announcement from the White House, net neutrality proponents at the most powerful companies on the internet spoke of being pleasantly surprised by a White House stance that they said changed the game on the net neutrality debate.

"As of 48 hours ago everything was up in the air and on the table," said a one tech industry insider. "There was hope there, but it's another thing to actually see that turn into a real policy stance."

"It's clear that the FCC was moving toward this so-called hybrid approach," another net neutrality staffer said, referring to a proposal unveiled by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler late last month. Net neutrality activists viewed the approach as too weak. The industry proponents said they now consider it dead after Obama's forceful support for the stricter rules favored by netroots activists.

"I think this changes that dynamic," the insider said. Other industry sources expect Monday's presidential declaration to give Wheeler cover to scrap the hybrid plan and go for Obama's.

The extent of Obama's embrace of the activist position on net neutrality delighted supporters.

For several seconds before Obama began touting his proposed regulatory rules changes in a White House video, a buffering symbol appeared, a nod to the so-called Internet Slowdown campaign, an effort by activists to show the worst case scenario in a net neutrality-free world. The logo for the campaign is a raised protest fist.

"It's definitely a play to the netroots organization," a tech company net neutrality staff expert said. "They sort of aligned."

A White House official told BuzzFeed News the video was made by the White House Office of Digital Strategy.

A senior Democratic congressional technology adviser told BuzzFeed News that there was surprise on the Hill at the extent of the president's proposal.

"He's spoken too often recently in vague terms, and I believed he would speak more clearly before the FCC made a decision. That said, I was shocked by the force and clarity of today's statement," the adviser said. "This is a sign of a president who looked at all the facts, current alternatives and old compromises that ISPs rejected and made the gut call to urge the Chairman and the rest of the commissioners to do the right thing."

A White House official said Obama's decision to take to the bully pulpit on net neutrality Monday was the result of conversations inside the White House for "the past months." The strength of the argument notwithstanding, Obama's efforts Monday lean more on the phone side of his 2014 "pen and phone" strategy than the pen end of things. The White House official emphasized that Obama can't actually force the FCC to rule in favor of reclassification, only that he can use his rhetorical power to amplify other calls for the commission to do so.

Republicans, meanwhile, have a phone of their own, and they quickly lined up to condemn Obama's support for a reclassification-based net neutrality enforcement mechanism. Telecom and cable companies also blasted Obama's statement, but the aggressiveness of the White House position set the stage for a battle that could bring net neutrality out of its current home in internet circles and into the wider polarized political debate.

Cruz kicked that effort off when he tweeted that net neutrality was "Obamacare for internet."

Industry proponents of net neutrality said the White House was well aware of how Republicans would react to Obama's statement Monday and say the GOP response was par for the course.

"The president knew the reactions he would get," said one tech company net neutrality staffer. "I don't think he did it with any premonition."

The FCC delayed it's expected December net neutrality plan in the wake of Obama's announcement Monday. The industry views that delay as a good thing for proponents of stricter net neutrality regulations.

"Everybody's betting" on Wheeler backing Obama, one staffer said.

Democratic Candidates Spent At Least $700K To Fly In Clintons

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The first estimate of the costs of bringing in the Clintons to campaign. The final total will likely top $1 million by the time more filings become available.

Hillary Clinton boards a plane on a trip as secretary of state in 2012.

Jacquelyn Martin / Reuters

Bill and Hillary Clinton were the most sought after surrogates in the Democratic Party this year. He campaigned for more than 47 candidates. She for more than 26. Supporters estimate that, together, the Clintons headlined 75 rallies and fundraisers — and logged roughly 50,000 miles jetting from state to state.

When the Clintons travel, they fly private. This year, their airfare cost candidates at least $699,000, available state and federal campaign finance reports show.

Payments from campaigns and party committees to Executive Fliteways, the independent charter company the Clintons use, could be found for just under half of the trips the former first family took on behalf of Democrats this year.

The costs of two Clintons trips — one to Iowa, the other to Kentucky — were reported earlier this fall by Bloomberg and Politico, respectively.

But the $699,000 figure is the first comprehensive estimate that establishes the scope of the costs associated with using the Clintons as surrogates. By the time the rest of the filings come in, the number will likely exceed $1 million.

The Clintons couldn't have paid for their own flights. Legally, candidates are required to pay for surrogate travel or report the costs as an in-kind contribution.

But not every campaigner flies on private charter planes. Sen. Rand Paul, who was on the road nearly every week this fall on behalf of Republicans, often flies commercial — and in coach. He travels alone or with one aide. In contrast, Mike Huckabee, the former governor who sold himself as an American everyman, racked up thousands in private air travel bills, as Politico reported this year.

For the Clintons, flying commercial isn't as viable an option.

Both fly with multiple members of their Secret Service security detail. (One person familiar with the former secretary of state's travel arrangements said she is usually accompanied by about four people from the detail.) Staffers also typically accompany the Clintons on their trips. At rallies on the road this year, Hillary Clinton often appeared with at least three aides from her personal staff.

As of this week, filings showed there were 32 total expenditures, some made in installments of two, made this year by campaigns to Executive Fliteways. Most of the finance reports that show expenditures made after Oct. 15 — when the Clintons did a large share of campaigning — are not yet available to the public.

Only candidates and committees that the Clintons supported showed disbursements this year to Executive Fliteways, which is based in Ronkonkoma, New York, on Long Island. No other candidate or surrogate appeared to make use of the charter company. The 32 payments were each recorded in filings for a campaign or party just before, or soon after, a Clinton event for that entity.

The costs — which total $699,172.82 between both Clintons — are based on a review of 2014 filings to the Federal Election Commission and to secretaries of state, with use of the Congressional Quarterly Political MoneyLine database.

The millions the pair raised at fundraisers far surpassed any travel expenses candidates had to cover. Every rally with a Clinton also garnered attention from the national press — valuable earned media for campaigns.

But the Clintons benefited from the trips too. The former secretary of state, who is considering another run for president, reintroduced herself to voters this fall on the campaign trail and honed a new stump speech.

The average cost for each Clinton trip was roughly $21,000.

Most of the listings for the flights are recorded in finance reports under a memo like "travel expense" or "airfare." A handful of the expenditures listed by the campaigns with more specific notes — like "Charter Flight - WJC" or "Flight - HC 10/16/2014."

Bill Clinton, who campaigned aggressively for Democrats from the spring to Election Day, racked up the majority of the costs that are so far public. Filings for 25 of his events show he billed campaigns at least $610,370.30 for his air travel.

Because Hillary Clinton held most of her rallies and fundraisers in late October, only a fraction of the expenses associated with her travel are currently public.

Payments for the seven trips for which filings are available show her travel cost campaigns at least $88,802.52.

One joint event with her husband at the Iowa Steak Fry, an annual fundraiser hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin, cost $50,099.82 in airfare.

That bill was first reported by Bloomberg last month. The tab for another Clinton trip, an Oct. 15 visit to Kentucky on behalf of Alison Lundergan Grimes, who lost her race for Senate, was first reported earlier this month by Politico.

Executive Fliteways owns a fleet of private jets and has three bases across New York, including one at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains — a 15-minute drive from the Clintons' home of 15 years in the hamlet of Chappaqua.

Public flight records show a Falcon 900 jet housed at Executive Fliteways charted the same course as at least two Clinton trips this fall. The company's website features a picture and description of the plane, which seats 12 passengers.

Clinton has considered basing her possible presidential campaign out of White Plains, Politico reported this month. If she does put her headquarters there, the Westchester Airport could serve as a convenient travel hub for the campaign.

A list of the costs associated with the 32 campaign trips is included below:

Feb. 25, WJC: Alison Lundergan Grimes fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky
Alison Lundergan Grimes's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $28,670.00 (made in two payments: $25,000.00 and $3,670.00) on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21, respectively, for "Transportation"

April 5, WJC: James Lee Witt rally in Hot Springs, Arkansas
James Lee Witt's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $21,831.66 on April 3 for "Flight for President Clinton"

April 6, WJC: Pat Hays fundraiser in Little Rock, Arkansas
Pat Hays's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $10,726.33 for "Airfare"

April 10, WJC: Marjorie Margolies fundraiser in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Marjorie Margolies's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $6,610.50 on Apr. 10 for "Travel"

April 26, WJC: Michigan Democratic Party fundraiser in Detroit, Michigan
The Michigan Democratic State Central Committee paid Executive Fliteways $37,919.61 on April 28 for "Travel expense"

May 3, WJC: Mike Ross fundraiser in Little Rock, Arkansas
Mike Ross's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $7,119.80 on May 4 for "Travel Expenses"

May 13, WJC: Anthony Brown fundraiser in Potomac, Maryland
Anthony Brown's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $10,581.00 on May 21 for "Charter Flight - WJC"

June 13, WJC: Ohio Democratic Party fundraiser in Columbus, Ohio
The Ohio Democratic Party paid Executive Fliteways $28,414.00 on June 22

June 20, WJC: Rahm Emanuel fundraiser in Chicago, Illinois
Rahm Emanuel's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $25,635.00 on July 1 for "Event Costs - Travel Chicago for Rahm Emanuel"

June 28, WJC: Florida Leadership Blue Dinner fundraiser in Hollywood, Florida
The Democratic Executive Committee of Florida paid Executive Fliteways $47,088.77 on June 25 for "Air Travel"

Aug. 6, WJC: Alison Lundergan Grimes fundraiser and rally in Lexington, Kentucky
Alison Lundergan Grimes's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $23,265.00 on Aug. 11 for "Transportation"

Aug. 15, WJC: Arkansas Democratic Party fundraiser in Little Rock, Arkansas
The Democratic Party of Arkansas paid Executive Fliteways $20,366.89 on Sep. 2 for "Fundraising Event Speaker Travel"

Aug. 27, WJC: Seth Magaziner fundraiser in Providence, Rhode Island
Seth Magaziner's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $14,418.00 on Sept. 2 for "Travel & Lodging"

Sept. 2, WJC: Dan Malloy rally in New Haven, Connecticut
The Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee paid Executive Fliteways $14,901.59 on Sept. 5 for "Airfare"

Sept. 2, WJC: Mike Michaud-Maine Democratic Party rally in Portland, Maine
The Maine Democratic State Committee paid Executive Fliteways $14,901.59 on Sept. 4 for "Travel"

Sept. 5, WJC: Charlie Crist rally in Miami, Florida
Charlie Crist's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $41,072.52 on Sept. 5 for "Travel Expenses"

Sept. 6, WJC: Mary Landrieu fundraiser in New Orleans, Louisiana
The Big Easy Committee paid Executive Fliteways $41,072.52 on Sept. 8 for "Travel"

Sept. 13, WJC: Michelle Nunn fundraiser in Atlanta, Georgia
The Nunn Victory Fund paid Executive Fliteways $34,831.86 on Sept. 12 for "Fundraising Event Expense"

Sept. 14, WJC: Harkin Steak Fry fundraiser in Indianola, Iowa
The Harkin Steak Fry 2014 committee paid Executive Fliteways $50,099.82 on Sept. 10 for "travel expenses"

Sept. 16, WJC: Fred DuVal fundraiser in Scottsdale, Arizona
Fred DuVal's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $38,000.00 on Sept. 18 for "Event Expenses - Other"

Sept. 30, WJC: Anthony Brown fundraiser Potomac, Maryland
Anthony Brown's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $7,770.00 on Oct. 6 for "Event expense"

Sept. 30, WJC: Kay Hagan fundraiser in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The Hagan Forward NC committee paid Executive Fliteways $29,230.00 on Sept. 26 for "Travel"

Oct. 2, HRC: Charlie Crist fundraiser and retail stop in Miami, Florida
Charlie Crist's campaign and the Charlie Crist for Florida committee paid Executive Fliteways $20,000.00 on Sept. 29 ($10,000 each) for "Travel/Airfare" and "Travel Expenses," respectively

Oct. 6, WJC: Arkansas Democrats rallies in Arkansas
The Democratic Party of Arkansas paid Executive Fliteways $10,000.00 on Sept. 19 for "Event Speaker Airfare"

Oct. 8, WJC: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fundraiser in California
The DSCC paid Executive Fliteways $23,372.50 on Oct. 9 for "Travel Expenses"

Oct. 13, HRC: Mark Udall fundraiser and retail stop in Denver, Colorado
Mark Udall's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $4,339.00 on Oct. 14 for "Airplane charter"

Oct. 15, HRC: Alison Lundergan Grimes rally and fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky
The Kentucky State Democratic Central Executive Committee paid Executive Fliteways $17,192.50 on Oct. 14 for "Air Travel"

Oct. 16, HRC: Gary Peters-Mark Schauer rally/fundraiser in Rochester, Michigan
The Michigan Democratic State Central Committee paid Executive Fliteways $25,940.00 on Oct. 14 (Made in two payments: $20,233.20 & $5,706.80) for "Travel Expense" and "Flight - HC 10/16/2014," respectively

Oct 21, HRC: Mark Udall-John Hickenlooper-Andrew Romanoff rally in Aurora, Colorado
Andrew Romanoff's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $542.38 on Oct. 14 for "Travel"

Oct. 24, HRC: Gina Raimondo rally/fundraiser in Providence, Rhode Island
The Rhode Island Democratic State Committee paid Executive Fliteways $10,394.32 on Oct. 23 for "Travel & Lodging"

Oct. 24, HRC: Mike Michaud rally/fundraiser in Scarborough, Maine
The Maine Democratic State Committee paid Executive Fliteways $10,394.32 on Oct. 24 for "Travel"

Oct. 26, WJC: Charlie Crist rally in Tampa, Florida
Charlie Crist's campaign paid Executive Fliteways $22,471.34 on Oct. 27 for "Travel/Airfare"


McCain Gives Obama Attorney General Nominee A Tentative Thumbs-Up

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“And I would imagine from my first glance at her credentials that she would get approved by the Senate. This is a very outstanding young woman from everything that I can tell.”

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Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said Monday that based on his first impression, he assumes U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch will get approved by the Senate to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder.

McCain called Obama's nominee and the chief federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York an "outstanding young woman."

"I think elections have consequences and therefore you give his nominees the benefit of the doubt, it doesn't mean you're a rubber stamp," McCain said on the Steve Malzberg Show. "I voted in favor of some of his nominees who I would never have submitted to the Senate, but that's our job, advise and consent."

McCain added he believes a confirmation should wait, however, until the new Senate begins in January.

"Again, why not wait until you have a new Senate where we can look at this with some time to examine; it's one of the most important positions there is. And I would imagine from my first glance at her credentials that she would get approved by the Senate. This is a very outstanding young woman from everything that I can tell."

If approved, Lynch would become the first black woman to serve as the nation's attorney general.

This Battered Woman Wants To Get Out Of Prison

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In December 2006, Tondalo Hall’s boyfriend pled guilty to breaking the ribs and femur of their 3-month-old daughter. For his crime, Robert Braxton Jr. served two years in prison.

In court, prosecutors presented no evidence that Hall herself had harmed the child. But for failing to intervene against Braxton’s abuse, Hall was sentenced to 30 years behind bars.

Her tough sentence was meted out despite evidence that Braxton had also been violently abusing her. In statements to authorities in and out of court, and in a recent interview with BuzzFeed News, Hall described Braxton choking her, punching her, throwing things at her, and verbally assaulting her. Even the judge who sentenced her said that during her testimony, Hall seemed to fear her boyfriend.

Hall is one of 28 mothers in 11 states who a recent BuzzFeed News investigation found were sentenced to 10 years or more for failing to protect their children. In every one of these cases, there was evidence the mother herself had been violently abused by the man. Hall is one of three cases BuzzFeed News found in which the mother got a longer sentence than the man who actually abused the child.

Braxton walked free eight years ago, having been let go for time served. Meanwhile, Hall has been locked up in an all-female prison in McLoud, Oklahoma. She said that she has seen her children only once since she went to prison but that they write each other monthly. In letters shared with BuzzFeed News, the children tell her about sports, school, and clothes. They make reference to her case, too. “I hope God Let's [sic] you out of jail,” one letter says.

Hall has been trying to get her sentence reduced. She currently has 20 years left behind bars. She appealed but lost, and the trial judge in her case has denied a request to modify her sentence. She will not be eligible for parole until 2030.

But she is pursuing one last hope: clemency. Earlier this month, Hall applied for her sentence to be commuted — which would release her while not absolving her of her crime.

In the wake of BuzzFeed News’ original investigation, a women’s rights organization took up Hall’s cause, creating an online petition to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “Tondalo Hall shouldn't be in prison while the man who abused her and her children is free,” wrote UltraViolet, a group that claims nearly 600,000 members nationwide. On Tuesday, an UltraViolet official said that more than 44,000 people had signed the petition since it was first circulated on Nov. 6.

In Oklahoma, a pardon or commutation cannot be granted without the approval of the state’s parole board. It is unclear when the parole board will make a decision on Hall’s case.

Hall herself almost missed the deadline to apply for a commutation. In Oklahoma, only inmates with 20 or more years left on their sentences can apply. When she mailed her application, Hall had 20 years and five days left behind bars.

Another Oklahoma mother, Alishia Mackey, also received a longer sentence than the abuser, and the victim, her son, believes she should be free. But Mackey has 10 years left on her sentence, so she is ineligible for a commutation.

The parole board declined to comment on Hall’s case.

Courtesy of Tondalo Hall, Oklahoma Department of Corrections

Some prosecutors defend the long sentences given to battered women who don't intervene to stop their children from being harmed as sending a message that mothers have a duty to protect their children, even if they must risk their own safety. But many domestic violence advocates women counter that such punishments blame the victim and demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of what it means for women to be trapped in abusive relationships. Such women often fear alerting authorities because doing so can provoke their partners to extreme violence and because the authorities often fail to protect battered women and their children.

Hall, who dropped out of high school in 10th grade, told BuzzFeed News that she met Braxton in either 2000 or 2001, when she would have been between 15 and 17. They soon began dating, and Braxton, who is two years older than Hall, seemed ambitious and nice — in the beginning.

She can’t quite remember what it was that set him off the first time: “I didn’t tell him where I went, or something,” she recalled. They got into an argument, she said, and he punched her in the face.

He apologized, she recalled, and said it wouldn’t happen again, and it didn’t, for a while at least. But then, during another argument, this time when she was pregnant, he put his hands around her throat. “He told me that my mouth was too smart,” she would later testify in court. With her head on the seat of the blue couch in her apartment, he choked her.

The abuse, both physical and verbal, picked up once her third child (and second with Braxton) was born in August 2004, Hall told BuzzFeed News. He isolated her from her loved ones, driving “a wedge between me and my family,” she said.

Hall summed up the alleged abuse in her commutation application: “Robert regularly choked me, blackened my eyes, threw objects at me and verbally assaulted me, while my children were in the home.”

Somewhere along the way, Hall’s friend Gayla Watts-Sparger noticed changes in Hall and her children. Watts-Sparger has known Hall since kindergarten and said Hall was always goofy and outgoing. “You know how you meet somebody, and everything they say is funny?” Watts-Sparger said.

But after Hall moved in with Braxton, Hall became “a lot quieter,” Watts-Sparger said, and Hall’s children acted strange too. Watts-Sparger recalled seeing Hall’s son, who was maybe a year old at the time, sitting upright and very still for a young child. When Braxton came by, Watts-Sparger said, the young boy would flinch.

Reached through his Facebook account, Braxton at first said he would speak with BuzzFeed News but then did not respond to subsequent messages. After BuzzFeed News left repeated voicemails and sent a detailed letter to Braxton’s address given in court papers, a woman identifying herself as “Ms. Braxton” called and said that Robert Braxton does not live there and that she doesn’t know where he is.

In the fall of 2004, Hall said, she noticed that her 20-month-old son’s leg was swollen. Braxton told her he didn’t know what might have happened. The problem persisted for several days, so she brought the boy to the hospital.

Doctors determined he had a fractured femur and other broken bones. Suspecting child abuse, authorities checked on Hall and Braxton’s 3-month-old daughter, and found similar injuries. Both Hall and Braxton were arrested.

Detectives at the Oklahoma City Police Department brought them both into the same interview room. Before the interrogation, Braxton was heard whispering to Hall, “Don’t say nothing.”

Hall initially told the police that she had hurt their son by throwing him on the bed as they were playing — a version she later said was a lie. After Braxton admitted he had squeezed his baby daughter too tightly and cranked her leg, detectives concluded that he was the one who had injured both children, not her.

Hall remained in jail, though. She pled guilty to enabling child abuse, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. She agreed to testify against Braxton — though she did not receive a deal from prosecutors for a reduced sentence.

Braxton took his case to trial. Hall wrote in her commutation application that Braxton “repeatedly threatened me” during their initial court hearings. “For example, when Robert and I were being shuttled to and from court he would terrorize me. He would tell me that I would spend the rest of my life in prison and he would be out with our children.”

Still, Hall agreed to testify against him. During Braxton’s trial, she was the main witness who could have seen Braxton actually harming the children. Yet Hall could not point to any specific abuse that she witnessed — because, she told BuzzFeed News, she didn’t actually see any abuse happen. In court, she also couldn’t recall the date her son began having trouble walking.

Prosecutor Angela Marsee grew frustrated that Hall was not providing enough testimony to nail Braxton. “What do you know?” she asked.

Hall replied that she had once woken up to hear that her daughter was screaming. Braxton had been changing the girl’s diaper. He told her nothing was wrong and that she should go back to sleep.

The prosecutor asked for more. “Was there anything else that happened in your apartment that gave you reason to know that your children were in danger at the hands of this defendant?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Hall replied. That’s when she began to describe the time that Braxton had choked her, when she was pregnant. Yet Braxton’s lawyer objected to this line of questioning, saying it was not relevant to the child abuse charge against him. The judge sided with Braxton.

Prosecutors, who wanted life in prison for Braxton, sensed that their case against him was crumbling. With the trial in recess, the state and the defense worked out a deal. Braxton pled guilty but admitted to having harmed only one child. He said he grew frustrated while changing his daughter’s diaper and then broke her bones by “using too much force and pressure for a baby.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison — but eight of those years were suspended, and he was released for time served.

Hall was upset with the verdict. “I didn’t feel like there was any justice for my kids,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Someone else was also upset with the trial’s outcome: Marsee, the prosecutor. And she would lay much of the blame on Hall.

Courtesy of Tondalo Hall

LGBT Leaders Square Off Over Future Of Fight For Anti-Discrimination Job Protections

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With federal workplace legislation stalled, most LGBT advocates appear ready to embrace a 2012 ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that protects trans workers. Except one: the National LGBTQ Task Force.

Kylar Broadus, right, was one of several people invited on stage with President Obama as he signed executive orders protecting LGBT workers earlier this year.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Advocates have had a tough time advancing federal LGBT workplace protections for decades — and yet, in the Obama era, one of the rare successes on that front has proven to be the most divisive.

How to best achieve the legal protections has become a contentious issue under the Obama administration. Advocates have had to make complex lobbying decisions: Should they push for new legislation to protect LGBT workers, executive action to help some LGBT workers, or both?

After President Obama took the executive action path off the table for the time being in April 2012, a federal agency — the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — gave transgender workers their biggest victory ever by ruling that the ban on "sex discrimination" in the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act includes anti-transgender discrimination.

Many LGBT groups, however, were slow to embrace the ruling at first, which is binding on the federal government but not courts — although they give deference to the agency ruling. As time wore on, more and more groups began embracing the decision — with a few LGBT groups taking cases to the EEOC on behalf of transgender clients. Even then, many groups have been loathe to highlight the EEOC decision, as they press for passage of the federal bill to ban LGBT job bias, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or similar state efforts.

Now, with the legislative route basically closed to LGBT advancements for the remainder of the Obama administration with a newly elected Republican Congress, most LGBT organizations are pushing the EEOC ruling as a key tool for fighting discrimination — except one.

In a new graphic released last month, the National LGBTQ Task Force claimed that "[t]here are no federal protections for employment non-discrimination" for transgender people.

A commissioner of the EEOC, Chai Feldblum, says the Task Force is painting an "incomplete" picture of legal protections for LGBT people in America — specifically, by understating the work of the EEOC. Several other LGBT organizations, in comments to BuzzFeed News this week, echo that criticism, with a Human Right Campaign spokesman saying that "[t]he fact that it's incomplete makes it wrong."

The 2012 EEOC decision came from the case of Mia Macy, who challenged anti-transgender discrimination by bringing a complaint accusing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of violating the Title VII ban on sex discrimination. The EEOC, in a unanimous decision, agreed with Macy — setting the agency and the federal government on a path in which that interpretation was reality. The Justice Department found in favor of Macy's claim a year later, and the EEOC began investigating other complaints of anti-transgender discrimination.

Asked about the graphic, Kylar Broadus, the Task Force's senior public policy counsel and Transgender Civil Rights Project director, said in a terse statement, "The Task Force follows the Macy decision rendered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which is an administrative agency and not a court of law. EEOC rulings are used as guidance by courts of law in most instances. Courts aren't bound by EEOC rulings but usually give great deference to them. Court decisions rendered by appeals courts become law. A case has to be brought to win or set precedent in a particular circuit which is why there is still need for a federal statute protecting workers."

Although EEOC rulings are not binding on the courts, courts do give deference to the agency's interpretation — and two federal appellate courts have, even before the Macy decision, had found that sex discrimination prohibitions under Title VII or the equal protection clause protected against anti-transgender discrimination. In recent months, moreover, the EEOC went beyond resolving complaints within the agency — filing lawsuits in Michigan and Florida using Title VII in suing companies for anti-transgender discrimination.

Finally, Broadus said in his statement, "A federal statute would provide protection across the country for everyone and curtail the need for more litigation."

The federal legislation, long sought by LGBT advocates, has been the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which provides explicit protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity and passed the Senate last year. It has no support from the Republican leadership in the current House, however, and last week's midterm election results make the chance of pro-LGBT legislation even more unlikely in the next Congress.

Feldblum, the first and only out LGBT EEOC commissioner, helped draft ENDA before her appointment to the EEOC and told BuzzFeed News that she, like the Task Force, continues to support the idea of such legislation, writing, "I agree that a strong federal law (one without any exemptions beyond those of current civil rights laws ) is very important to enact for purposes of certainty of protection."

Further, she noted, "I also agree that EEOC determinations are not binding on the courts. Indeed, our agency sometimes argues positions that are not accepted by the courts. So the statement ... is not wrong as a legal matter."

"But it is incomplete — both as a legal and practical matter," she countered. "It fails to capture the reality that the EEOC currently helps thousands of individuals each year get recourse (& remedies) for their discrimination claims, without ever going to court. And they get that through the legal system set up for administrative relief via the EEOC. And that is what our 53 EEOC offices across the country are now doing right now for LGBT people under our Title VII jurisdiction. Thus, there are practical remedies being achieved through the administrative system right now in every state in the country."

More than that, as noted, the agency has gone to court with their interpretation, bringing lawsuits last month in Michigan and Florida on behalf of transgender workers who faced employment discrimination.

"To begin where I started," Feldblum concluded, "that doesn't mean an explicit federal law is unnecessary. To the contrary, it would be hugely helpful. It's just important not to downplay the real practical protection that exists now."

The National LGBTQ Task Force

The unusual decision for an EEOC commissioner to speak out against the actions of an advocacy group was buttressed by other LGBT organizations, who echoed Feldblum's criticism in statements provided to BuzzFeed News in response to inquiries.

"I agree with Commissioner Feldblum. Their statement is incomplete," the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Mara Keisling, said of the Task Force's comment. "We strongly believe job discrimination against trans people is illegal everywhere in this country under Title VII."

HRC's Sainz was more direct, saying of the Task Force's statement, "We certainly don't agree with those sentiments. The fact that it's incomplete makes it wrong."

Tico Almeida, the president of Freedom to Work, said he was "confused and a little bit saddened" by the Task Force's statement, saying it "downplay[s] the real legal protections that currently exist thanks to the tremendous EEOC victory achieved by the courageous Mia Macy."

It's not just the Macy decision, either. President Obama eventually did sign the executive order that he rejected in 2012, leading the Department of Labor to draft regulations, expected to be finalized in coming months, barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The order expands a prior order, enforced by the Office of Federal Contact Compliance Programs within the Labor Department, that bars contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

The problems of inconsistent education about and application of the current legal protections, in addition to the fact that they have not been buoyed by a definitive federal court ruling, and the lack of explicit LGBT protections, are real. As Keisling said, "[I]n most states, the protections are not as clear as they need to be for employers and employees. We need state and local laws, as well as an explicit federal law, to make it absolutely clear to everyone that trans people have rights."

On a point where the Task Force, other advocates, and Feldblum agree, HRC's Sainz noted, "Since the Supreme Court has yet to address either gender identity or sexual orientation claims under Title VII, a federal non-discrimination law will ensure long term protections for LGBT workers and provide additional clarity to employers about their obligations to LGBT people." He added that "[a]dministrative and court success compliment efforts to attain full protections for LGBT people legislatively."

Freedom to Work, along with Lambda Legal, has put that concept to work — further confounding Almeida as to why the Task Force has staked out the position it has — by successfully litigating a case before the EEOC on behalf of a transgender person.

"I would like to see the big national LGBT organizations use their ample budgets on a pubic education campaign to promote the historic nature of the Macy decision so that more LGBT Americans will know that the EEOC is open for business and willing to help," he said.

The biggest of those groups, HRC, had been slow to talk about the effect and impact of the Macy decision, but — particularly in light of last week's election results — appears to be ready to take up Almeida's challenge.

"Both the Macy v. Holder EEOC decision and the Office of Federal Contact Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Directive 2014-2 have provided real, immediate remedies for transgender workers," HRC's vice president for communications, Fred Sainz, told BuzzFeed on Tuesday, referencing the OFCCP's order — years after the issue was first raised — applying the Macy decision to existing federal contractor protections.

"In addition, LGB people may also have claims under Title VII if they have experienced discrimination that involves sex stereotyping," Sainz added, noting an area where recent EEOC decisions suggest further change could be coming. "Any LGBT worker who has experienced gender identity or sexual orientation based discrimination should consider filing a complaint with the EEOC. Once the amendments to Executive Order 11246 go into effect, LGB people working for a federal contractor who has a new or renewed contract may file a complaint with OFCCP. Transgender people working for a federal contractor who experience discrimination may file with OFCCP immediately."


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Chaos In Michigan As LGBT Job Protection Bill Hits Deadline

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A disagreement over whether a non-discrimination bill should include gender identity protections sends Republicans and national LGBT groups scrambling. A key player has gone rogue, two sources say.

Rick Snyder

Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

Chad Griffin

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The heavily funded national effort to secure LGBT job protections in Michigan appeared early Wednesday to be in danger of failing — although advocates were hopeful that much could still change in the coming hours and days of the late session of the Michigan legislature.

National LGBT organizations have made passage of an LGBT non-discrimination bill a priority in Michigan this year, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and devoting staff and organizing time to the effort.

Now, in the last week when new legislation can be submitted for the session, the co-chair of a business coalition created to pass sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination legislation appears to have gone rogue, according to two sources.

Two activists on the ground in Lansing told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday evening that AT&T Michigan President Jim Murray has been actively lobbying for a bill that would only include sexual orientation, and leave out gender identity protections.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Murray, the co-chair of the Michigan Competitive Workforce Coalition, said on Tuesday afternoon that he "prefers" and "will be pushing" for a bill that includes both sexual orientation and gender identity.

Asked if he would oppose the narrower, sexual orientation-only bill if it proceeds, Murray said, "I don't know, definitively, that I can speak to that." He noted that a narrower bill hadn't yet been introduced, and added, "I don't want to oppose anything [at this point], but we are really going to be pushing the five-word bill." The "five-word bill" refers to the measure that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Whether the worker protections bill should include gender identity has become a major point of behind-the-scenes contention — and a potentially critical one to a nondiscrimination bill passing.

The broader bill has had key Republican supporters, though. Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican elected to a second term last week, had supported the inclusion of gender identity protections in the bill earlier this year. One of the state's leading Republican advocates for the measure, state Rep. Frank Foster, also supported the broader bill — a stance that some say contributed to his primary loss earlier this year.

But Murray's efforts pushing a "two-word bill" — one that only includes sexual orientation — have undermined support for the broader bill with gender identity protections, according to activists.

"As of about an hour-and-a-half-ago," the other advocate said at 8 p.m. Tuesday, "the story was it would only be a two-word bill" introduced on Wednesday.

National organizations have been working frantically in support of a bill that would include gender identity, intent on avoiding a repeat of the 2007 vote on a sexual orientation-only version of the federal LGBT job bias bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The vote caused significant acrimony in the LGBT community and has led all national organizations to affirm since that they only would support job bills that include both sexual orientation and gender identity protections.

"Advocates of LGBT freedom concluded together a number of years ago that nondiscrimination efforts should be pursued in a fully inclusive way," said Jeff Cook-McCormac, the senior adviser to the Paul Singer-backed American Unity Fund, said Tuesday night, "and American Unity Fund strongly agrees with that conclusion."

"A nondiscrimination measure cannot pass in Michigan unless its fully inclusive," Cook-McCormac said.

The first public signals of concern about how the Michigan effort is trending came from a notable source: the Human Rights Campaign, the group that took took the most heat for not opposing the sexual orientation-only vote in 2007. The group issued a news release a little before noon Tuesday urging "Introduction of Fully Inclusive Non-Discrimination Bill" in Michigan.

"A fully inclusive non-discrimination bill that covers both sexual orientation AND gender identity is the only acceptable option," HRC president Chad Griffin said in the release. "The Human Rights Campaign and our coalition partners will oppose anything less."

The coalition partners include state groups like the ACLU of Michigan and Equality Michigan, as well as national groups that include the American Unity Fund and Gill Action — the political arm of the prominent donor Tim Gill's efforts.

Kirk Fordham, the executive director of Gill Action, echoed Griffin and Cook-McCormac's remarks, writing, "We, too, support only and inclusive bill and would oppose anything less than that. We've made that position clear to the GOP and Democratic leaders in the state."

Despite the unified effort from three organizations representing some of the biggest financial and organizing players in the national LGBT movement, the effort to move a bill that includes gender identity protections is facing pressure. Advocates say it's coming from Murray. Murray did not respond to an email Tuesday night asking for comment on the advocates' claims.

"We know if the bill went to the floor clean, we have the votes to pass," one of the advocates said. "It is purely resting with the [House] Speaker [Jase Bolger] not wanting to move a five-word bill forward and Jim Murray making sure that whatever moves doesn't include gender identity."

Bolger, also a Republican, was one of the targets of the national advocates, getting $50,000 donations to his leadership fund from both Singer and Gill — but he has recently questioned the need for the transgender protections.


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Republican Dan Sullivan Wins U.S. Senate Race In Alaska

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The GOP candidate defeated incumbent Democrat Mark Begich after absentee ballots were counted, giving Republicans 53 seats in the U.S. Senate.

Republican candidate Dan Sullivan has won the U.S. Senate race in Alaska, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich, the Associated Press projected.

Republican candidate Dan Sullivan has won the U.S. Senate race in Alaska, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich, the Associated Press projected.

Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan addresses the crowd during a campaign rally at a PenAir airplane hangar on November 3.

Getty Images/David Ryder

Sullivan's projected win brought the GOP up to 53 seats in the U.S. Senate. First-time candidate Sullivan led Begich by around 8,100 votes on Election Night on Nov. 4.

Sullivan's projected win brought the GOP up to 53 seats in the U.S. Senate. First-time candidate Sullivan led Begich by around 8,100 votes on Election Night on Nov. 4.

Election observers watch as workers go through questioned ballots cast during the Nov. 4 general election on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, in Juneau, Alaska.

AP Photo/Becky Bohrer

A count of absentee and questioned ballots on Tuesday indicated that Begich would not be able to overcome Sullivan's lead.

Alaska had been seen as crucial to the GOP's hopes of winning control of the Senate, but ultimately that was achieved with a clean sweep of the other key states on Election Night itself.

Supreme Court Allows Same-Sex Marriages To Proceed In Kansas

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Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have stopped them.

People wait in line to enter the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington November 10, 2014.

Larry Downing / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court effectively allowed same-sex couples to begin marrying in Kansas on Wednesday afternoon.

The Supreme Court denied Kansas' request for a stay of the trial court order striking down the state's ban as unconstitutional, ending a hold Justice Sonia Sotomayor had put in place earlier this week while the court considered the request.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have granted the stay, according to the brief order issued by the court's Public Information Office a little past 5 p.m. ET Wednesday.

On Nov, 4, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree struck down Kansas' ban as unconstitutional, putting the ruling on hold until 5 p.m. CT Nov. 11.

In the meantime, the state sought a stay pending its appeal from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied the request on Nov. 7. On Monday, state officials sought a stay from Sotomayor, who oversees such requests out of the 10th Circuit. Sotomayor issued a stay, pending further order by her or the court.

After the same-sex couple plaintiffs filed a response with the court opposing the stay on Tuesday, the court was silent. Crabtree's temporary stay expired, and all that remained was word from the justices.

On Wednesday, the court answered, with the justices denying the stay request and vacating, or ending, Sotomayor's stay.

Although the justices gave no reasons for their decisions, the decision by Scalia and Thomas to note their position that they would have granted a stay marked a change from recent stay requests out of Idaho and Alaska on marriage cases. In those matters, no justices announced opposition to the decision to allow same-sex couples to marry during any appeals.

In Kansas' request to the justices, they pointed to two distinctions that could have explained the reason why Scalia and Thomas would have granted the stay. First, the state noted pending state court litigation, arguing that the federal court should not have proceeded with the case at all. Additionally, the state pointed to the recent decision of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the ban same-sex couples' marriages in four states, asserting that the court should issue a stay in their case because it was now likely that the justices would be hearing a case on the constitutional marriage question.

With the order issued before 5 p.m. CT, Kansan same-sex couples could yet marry on Wednesday.


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Obamacare Architect Says Health Law Passed Because Of "Stupidity" Of American Voters

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Economist Jonathan Gruber made the controversial comments at several different academic events. The White House says it disagrees with the remarks, and “they’re simply not true.”

Economist Jonathan Gruber in Boston in March

Dominick Reuter / Reuters

Jonathan Gruber — who was tapped in 2008 to help draft the Affordable Care Act — made the comments in a series of talks at academic institutions in 2012 and 2013. The talks were captured on video and began circulating widely this week. According to the Washington Post, Philadelphia-area investment adviser Rich Weinstein found the videos after his insurance plan was cancelled and he began watching footage of the law's architects.

As of Wednesday, three separate videos had surfaced. In each of them, Gruber gives a lengthy explanation of the health care law, but also says voters were "stupid" or "exploited." One of the most damning clips comes from a panel discussion at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013:

vine.co


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White House Makes Sharp Pitch For Men To Fight Campus Sexual Assault

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Top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett in an exclusive BuzzFeed News interview on the newest iteration of the White House’s It’s On Us anti-sexual assault campaign.

WASHINGTON — A new, sharply toned public service announcement produced for the White House's ongoing anti-campus sexual assault campaign is aimed at men, who research shows often don't intervene when they witness sexual violence in their midst.

President Obama has tried to make fighting campus sexual crime a component of his second-term legacy. Where previous efforts have focused on empowering women to turn in perpetrators and speak up about campus violence problems, the new effort aims to teach young men to break continuing taboos about getting involved when they see other men in the process of victimizing women, according to top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, who detailed the campaign in a White House interview with BuzzFeed News Wednesday.

The campaign focused on men begins Thursday. The centerpiece is an ominous TV ad, narrated by actor Jon Hamm, that features a college party where a woman is blocked from leaving by one man before another intervenes. It will soon run in heavy rotation during college sports, before movies in theaters owned by Mark Cuban, on Xbox gaming consoles, and across social media. The push to include men in sexual assault prevention will also play a big role in an upcoming week-long national awareness campaign on college campuses. Obama administration plans for the "National Week of Action," running Nov. 17–21, include visits to college campuses by "White House and administration officials," a White House official said.

Jarrett told BuzzFeed News that the shift to outreach to men was a key component of the Obama administration's ongoing "It's On Us" anti-campus sexual assault campaign first announced by the president in September.

"Bystander involvement can be very important, and oftentimes men underestimate other men's attitudes toward violence. They don't understand that other men are opposed to violence too," Jarrett said. "So if they get the sense that it's OK [to intervene] because everyone else around the room feels the same way you do, so the first person who gets up will inspire the next person to get up, and the next person and a next person. Because everyone is uncomfortable with it, but as a general rule men don't know that."

Kyle Lierman, a member of Jarrett's staff at the White House Office of Public Engagement, spearheaded the PSA. He told BuzzFeed News the ad was specifically designed to connect with an audience of men on the issue of sexual assault.

"Most young men can relate to the guy that's sitting on that couch," Lierman said. "You have to show them how they can be a part of the solution."

It's On Us was created in part from the findings of a sexual assault task force launched by the White House that released its findings in April. Activists generally welcomed the effort, but some criticized some task force recommendations for being vague, especially those centered around enforcement mechanisms. White House officials have said the administration is stepping up enforcement efforts as the sexual assault program rolls out, and Jarrett pointed to partnerships with major colleges and universities as evidence that the program is being embraced.

Jarrett said the big goal of the task force — and the It's On Us campaign it begets — is to change the atmosphere surrounding sexual assault on campuses.

"It's a whole new paradigm, because what we're saying is that everyone has a role to play, and the responsibility should not simply be shouldered by the woman," Jarrett said. "Historically, you've heard people say to women, 'Well, take self-defense classes,' and, 'Don't put yourself in a situation where harm could come to you.'"

Making the problem of sexual assault on campus a problem only for women made women uncomfortable about it, Jarrett said, referring to the task force findings. That led to low reporting rates and a general discomfort about the subject, she said.

"We think by making this a responsibility of the entire community, it would take a little of that responsibility off of the woman and it would ensure a change in culture," she said. "There are limits to what you can do with rules and regulations and laws. The only way you're really going to change behavior is to change a culture of what's acceptable behavior and what's not acceptable."

Jarrett said the focus on men in the new administration campaign shows that social attitudes around sexual violence on campus are already changing.

"It's becoming a part of the conversation that everyone is having," she said. "I have several friends who have either juniors or seniors in high school. Every parent is asking the question, 'What is the attitude of the college or university you're considering toward sexual assault?' When my daughter went to college 10 years ago, it never occurred to me to ask that question."

Watch the ad:

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Top White House Adviser: "We Believe In The Process" On Keystone

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In an interview with BuzzFeed News on Wednesday, Valerie Jarrett steered clear of telling Capitol Hill what to do on the pipeline. The White House said Thursday the administration has a “dim view” of plans to vote on Keystone.

An anti-Keystone XL protest outside the Capitol in September 2014.

Gary Cameron / Reuters

The White House has a "dim view" of the proposals to vote on the Keystone Pipeline this week, and emphasized the continuation of the current State Department process for the issue.

"The administration has taken a dim view of these kinds of legislative proposals in the past," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday in Myanmar. "It's fair to say that our dim view of these kinds of proposals has not changed."

In an interview at the White House Wednesday, top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett declined to weigh in on what Capitol Hill should do about Keystone.

"I don't know what they're going to do on the Hill," Jarrett said when asked by BuzzFeed News if the Senate should vote on a Keystone bill. "The only thing I would say to you is we believe in the process and we've been going along with the very important process."

On Wednesday, Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, who is facing a runoff election next month, called for a lame-duck session vote on a bill to force approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and a vote was scheduled for next week. Republicans in the House signaled that they would move their own bill on Friday.

The Ben Carson Super PAC Is Pretty Lucrative If You're Running It

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The Draft Carson campaign has spent millions this year on fundraising, and paid close to $236,000 to Vernon Robinson, the effort’s campaign director.

Ben Carson

Mike Theiler / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The super PAC that has been formed to draft tea party star Dr. Ben Carson to run for president has attracted a lot of attention for its massive fundraising capability, which has raked in more cash than the similar effort to draft Hillary Clinton.

But the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee is spending as much as it's taking in: $10,757,609, to be exact, according to Federal Election Commission data. The money is mostly being spent on fundraising efforts and for a digital campaign that the group's campaign director told BuzzFeed News is modeled on the vaunted Obama operation. It's also providing a salary for Vernon Robinson, the campaign director, who has made nearly $236,000 from his work so far for the PAC, according to FEC filings.

It's not unusual for people running a campaign of some kind to make money. But the committee only categorizes a small percentage of its disbursements as salary payments. The payments in this case haven't been listed as going directly to Robinson, and have been classified as fundraising expenses. The recipient is listed as "Tzu Mahan" — in some cases, "Mahan, Tzu."

Tzu Mahan is Vernon Robinson's consulting and strategy firm. It has one full-time employee: Vernon Robinson. The firm also has "various subcontractors," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Asked why he didn't just list his own name on the FEC documents as a payroll expense, Robinson said, "When Dr. Carson wins the presidency, we want everybody to know that Tzu Mahan is running the strategy."

"People get paid to do politics," Robinson said.

Tzu Mahan's name used to be Tzu Mahan Lee Mitchell, named after several military strategists whom Robinson admires: Sun Tzu, the 19th century Navy admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, the Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee, and Billy Mitchell, a 19th century Army general regarded as a forefather of the modern-day Air Force. Robinson, an Air Force veteran, decided to drop the last two names. Tzu Mahan does not come up in search results for businesses owned by Robinson in North Carolina, where he lives (and where he ran for Congress twice, once as the self-described "black Jesse Helms.") Robinson does appear under his own name in the FEC filings as having had travel expenses reimbursed.

John Philip Sousa IV, the PAC's chairman and a descendant of the composer John Philip Sousa, said he was fine with the amount of money Robinson is making from the PAC. Sousa himself has made close to $100,000 from it so far.

"Is Vernon making a lot of money?" Sousa said. "Yeah, he is. But I will tell you that Vernon works 24/7 and he does a good job for us. And therefore I think he's worth it."

The fact that the payments go to a firm that is really just Robinson himself instead of to Robinson is "between him and his accountant and his attorneys and is not an area that is any of my damn business, so long as it's legal," Sousa said.

The PAC is also growing its political operation. It has between seven and 10 people on staff now, Sousa said, and has regional directors spread out throughout the country. It signed a lease on an office in New Hampshire this week and plans to do the same in other early primary states. According to FEC filings, it has been paying several activists in Iowa and South Carolina for grassroots organizing work. The PAC did not play a role in creating the recent high-profile Carson documentary, Sousa said, and does not collaborate with Armstrong Williams, the conservative activist whose production company produced it.

Sousa, who has questioned where Obama was born and was behind the Americans for Sheriff Joe super PAC that supported anti-immigration Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, has employed other conservative activists in the fight to get Carson in the race, including Allen Brandstater, who is doing advertising work, and Bill Saracino, who is the western regional director.

"Allen has not been involved with this effort," Sousa said. When told that Brandstater's firm is listed as having received over $34,000 from the PAC, Sousa said "he has bought some media for us, but that's the extent of it."

The campaign has also spent $250,000 on advertising work from conservative consultant Rebecca Hagelin, who Sousa says bought airtime for the PAC on Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh's shows.

The real money, though, is being spent on fundraising.

The PAC is spending heavily on direct mail companies, including Omega List, which also provided services for Americans for Sheriff Joe, Herman Cain for President, Ken Cuccinelli for Governor, and other conservative campaigns and PACs. Omega List shares an address in McLean, Virginia, with another major beneficiary of the PAC's largesse: Campaign Funding Direct. Both firms are at the same listed address as Eberle Associates, which lists among its clients Americans for Tax Reform and ProEnglish. Campaign Funding Direct has made an eye-popping $1,594,532, according to numbers crunched by the Center for Responsive Politics; the firm MDI Imaging and Mail has made $1,584,206; and Omega List has raked in $1,550,681.

That's not to say the Carson PAC isn't using newer online techniques to organize activists and solicit donations. According to Robinson, they are using NationBuilder, the campaign platform founded by John Kerry's 2004 campaign field director that is similar to the technology used in Obama's 2008 campaign. Robinson described NationBuilder as "parking a Ferrari in everybody's garage."

They're a "responsive campaign," Robinson said, and compared it to Organizing for Action except that "we don't ask people how we can help you to make Marxism happen in America today."

OFA is "very powerful and we have emulated that, and we are a heck of a lot more responsive than for instance the Republican National Committee," he said. Sousa and Robinson both said the PAC has hundreds of thousands of people on its distribution lists. Nearly all of its donations are from small-dollar donors, and the largest single donation has been around $70,000, Sousa said.

Compared to its fundraising and direct mail costs, the PAC hasn't spent much — $531,788 — on independent expenditures in actual campaigns. Robinson believes, however, that they made the difference in North Carolina senator-elect Thom Tillis' winning race against Sen. Kay Hagan.

Robinson said that they will eventually be able to spend less money fundraising.

"When you start off you have to build a house file, and once you have a house file of donors who support your cause then the fundraising expenses go down," he said.

He believes that the fact that the PAC is lucrative for him is beside the point, when one thinks of all the donors who are excited to see Carson run.

"It's a lot more exciting that there's hundreds of thousands of people who are supporting Dr. Carson to run," Robinson said. "The fact that Vernon Robinson is the principal at Tzu Mahan is not that interesting."

Kentucky Democrat: Grimes Lost Votes By Not Admitting She Voted For Obama

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“I think that — people, voters want to know where you stand, where you are, and they want to feel they can trust what you say.”

Yarmuth holding up a pumpkin with the face of U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell carved on it at a campaign rally for Grimes.

John Sommers Ii / Reuters

A Kentucky Democratic congressman says former Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes hurt herself in the election by refusing to say whether she voted for President Obama.

"I don't think the campaign was poorly run, I think they did a good job," Rep. John Yarmuth said on the Joe Elliot Show Wednesday. "She made some mistakes that hurt her, certainly with the generating enthusiasm among Democrats. And one of 'em was not admitting she voted for the president."

"So, again, I think that — people, voters want to know where you stand, where you are, and they want to feel they can trust what you say. And I think that's been part of my strength, and I think that's where Alison probably lost a lot of ground."

Grimes lost her race to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell by more than 15% on election day.

Here's the audio of the interview:

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Top Republican In The Dark On New Military Force Authorization Plans

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Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, says he hasn’t spoken to Chairman Bob Menendez about any plan to vote on a new AUMF.

Sen. Bob Corker and Sen. Bob Menendez

Joshua Roberts / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking Republican member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that committee chairman Sen. Bob Menendez hasn't spoken to him about plans for a lame-duck vote on a new authorized use of military force to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Democrats on the panel had said prior to recess that they were committed to trying to pass the measure out of the committee during the lame duck, but Corker said he's heard nothing about it.

"What I'd like to do is have that conversation with him before commenting because he certainly hasn't shared that with me," Corker said. "I was with him yesterday in a hearing and he didn't say anything… I also talked to Secretary Kerry at length yesterday on the phone and an AUMF never came up. I don't know what exactly what the status is."

Menendez reiterated yesterday that he'd work to try and move a bill on his panel. Democrats on the committee met Wednesday night to start crafting a strategy and some language.

"I think we're going to try and move something out of committee next week so we're going to be working on language through out the rest of the week," said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the committee who has long been pushing for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force. "I don't know ultimately if we can get it on to the floor but the sense of the democrats last night was we should move something."

That was news to Corker, who also said he believed the onus was on the White House to come to Congress with a first draft of a request, rather than having members write something themselves.

"The best way for the process to work and the way it's always been done is if the president believes he needs an authorization to do what he's doing then he requests that and he sends over a draft that authorizes the things he wants authorized," Corker said.

Even if a new AUMF passes out of committee, it's unlikely something will pass the full Senate before Republicans take over in January. Murphy said there was a chance they would try and attach it to a must-pass defense spending bill if there was a chance for members to offer amendments to that bill.

"If you're going to have an open amendment process on NDAA you're going to have to vote on something related to authorization because it'll be proposed," he said. "I think we should move an AUMF and there's commitment among democrats to move it expeditiously."

Sen. Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat in the Senate, said after a meeting with the White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough that the administration was looking to have a "pre-agreement" ready for the NDAA instead of having an open amendment process.

"If you open it up than you just open up the world for debating ISIL, Iran, you pick it," he said.

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