Southern Poverty Law Center Just Added More Names

Posted on October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

A New Blacklist From the Southern Poverty Law Center Marks the Demise of a Once-Vital Organization

15 prominent writers and thinkers are labeled “anti-Muslim extremists”—Why?

Tablet: Late last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which became deservedly famous in the 1980s for combating violent white-power hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, published a list of 15 individuals it labels as particularly threatening anti-Muslim extremists. It is sad but telling that the SPLC’s so-called field guide to Muslim-haters is not a list of violent extremists—who certainly do exist—but is instead a blacklist of prominent writers whose opinions on a range of cultural and political issues are offensive to the SPLC. The SPLC blacklist list contains practicing Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, foreign-policy think-tankers like Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes, and right-wing firebrands like David Horowitz—none of whom could be reasonably described as anti-Muslim bigots.

I spoke to Nawaz on the phone in London to ask for his reaction. “A bunch of first-world, comfortable liberal Americans who are not Muslims have decided from their comfortable perch to label me, an activist who is working within his Muslim community to push back against extremism, an anti-Muslim extremist.”

On the face of it, it’s difficult to understand why Nawaz was listed as such. As he told me, he’s a proud Muslim. “I learned Arabic in order to read my holy book,” he said. “In an Intelligence Squared debate, I defended the proposition that Islam was a religion of peace. This was the same week that the man who attempted to bomb Times Square was sentenced so it wasn’t the friendliest New York audience. I hosted Morgan Freeman in a mosque for his documentary The Story of God.”

Nawaz takes the SPLC blacklist seriously, he told me, because he believes that it has put his life in danger. “They’ve put a target on my head,” he said. “This is what putting people on lists does. When Theo Van Gogh was killed in the Netherlands, a list was stuck to his body that included Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s name. It was a hit list. When Bangladeshi reformers were hacked to death by jihadist terrorists, they were working off lists. Only fascists produce lists.”

It’s not easy to understand how the SPLC got here. The organization started in 1971 as a civil-rights law firm designed to combat white-supremacist groups. In 1981 it won a civil suit against the Klan for $7 million that bankrupted the United Klans of America. In 1991, it used the same tactics to win a $12 million judgment against the White Aryan Resistance. It won a $6.5 million case against the Aryan Nations in 2001. Co-founder Morris Dees’ career was dramatized in a TV movie, Line of Fire.

For SPLC’s efforts against violent white supremacists, its members were frequently targeted for reprisal. Yet now, the SPLC is putting bounties on the heads of Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, who are opposed to Muslim extremism. Where the SPLC was once able to win legal battles through careful, often dangerous research that could stand up in court, the organization now identifies the Center for Security Policy, a hawkish right-wing think tank, as a hate group, right alongside the Ku Klux Klan. Where the organization once pushed for freedom for all regardless of race or creed, now it aims to silence those whose opinions it finds objectionable. In doing so, it makes it hard for any impartial observer to place much confidence in future claims about groups and individuals that may actually be dangerous.

Perhaps in spite of the number of white supremacists who have moved into the light with the nomination of Donald Trump, the SPLC no longer has the resources to tackle those who threaten violence and act on it. Instead, it’s spending its time on Google and Twitter—and hoping to raise money by going after writers and intellectuals who get its goat.

What’s more troubling are the suggestions contained in the report that the SPLC no longer thinks that political violence and hate are a bad thing, or even real—as long as the people committing such acts are Muslims. Complaints against radical Islamist violence, the report bizarrely suggests, are

propaganda, the vast majority of it completely baseless, produced and popularized by a network of anti-Muslim extremists and their enablers. These men and women have shamelessly exploited terrorist attacks and the Syrian refugee crisis, among other things, to demonize the entire Islamic faith.

Sadly, a shocking number of these extremists are seen regularly on television news programs and quoted in the pages of our leading newspapers. There, they routinely espouse a wide range of utter falsehoods, all designed to make Muslims appear as bloodthirsty terrorists or people intent on undermining American constitutional freedoms. More often than not, these claims go uncontested.

Interestingly, the document fails to list the man who, according to this description, is the world’s most influential anti-Muslim extremist—President Barack Obama, who told the Atlantic that young people in the Middle East are only thinking about how to kill Americans.

Obama isn’t a violent anti-Muslim extremist any more than the 15 people named here. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an outspoken critic of Islam and has a compelling personal narrative that reflects the story of millions of women and men who have suffered in the name of Islam. David Horowitz is a pugnacious right-wing intellectual who often engages in sharp propaganda. Daniel Pipes is a fierce adversary of Islamic extremism and a knowledgeable scholar of the Middle East. There is much to disagree with in what they and others identified in the SPLC write or argue. I find the work of a small number of the people listed in the report to be puerile. But neither they, nor anyone on this list, deserve to be listed alongside white supremacists who threaten or actually employ violence.

In reality, the SPLC’s field guide has little to do with real anti-Muslim extremism, the red-hot center of which these days is not America but Syria—where so-called secular dictator Bashar al-Assad has teamed up with Iran and Russia to slaughter nearly half a million Sunni Arabs. The SPLC document is simply an enemies’ list, of the kind that fascists, Stalinists, and other totalitarian thinkers can’t help producing. So it’s hardly surprising that the ghost of Stalin makes an appearance. In a paper nominally highlighting anti-Muslim sentiment, David Horowitz is chided for questioning why one professor identifies Paul Robeson as a “model of [American] patriotism.”

That the SPLC document seeks to re-litigate the case of Paul Robeson, who openly admired Stalin, is evidence that the field guide is simply a blunt instrument used to attack the enemies, personal and institutional, of the paper’s four contributing institutions—Southern Poverty Law Center, Media Matters for America, the Center for New Community, and ReThink Media. (Regarding the Robeson issue, perhaps it’s the pet project of SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok who has contributed to the People’s World, a publication affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States of America.)

Nor does the SPLC hide the fact that the purpose of its publication is to blacklist and silence its enemies. The field guide recommends to its consumers in the media that they, “research the background of extremist spokespeople and consider other sources, and if they do use anti-Muslim spokespeople, point out their extremism.”

Why is a liberal organization like the SPLC now using fascist tactics to blacklist enemies? Maajid Nawaz believes the organization has targeted him for a very specific reason. “The left is no longer about advancing progressive values,” he said. “For them, it’s now about tribal identities, and any internal critique is seen as treachery.” Nawaz also believes there may be another reason—the activists at the SPLC, he suggested, “may be influenced by Islamists themselves.” And there is evidence in the paper to suggest that Nawaz’s contention may have some truth to it.

The field guide attempts to rewrite history of the Muslim Student Association, for one. In its dossier on Horowitz, the SPLC complains that he

placed an ad in an April 2008 issue of a campus newspaper, The Daily Nexus, claiming that the Muslim Student Association was “founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of Al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring jihad into the heart of American higher education.” In fact, it had worked with Jewish campus groups, according to faculty members.

Whether or not some chapters of the MSA worked with Jewish campus groups (while the University of California at Irvine chapter shouted down guest speaker Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in 2011), it’s established that Brotherhood members played a role in founding the MSA.

Even more telling is the rationale for blacklisting Nawaz. Among others, he “tweeted out a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad—despite the fact that many Muslims see it as blasphemous to draw Muhammad. He said that he wanted ‘to carve out a space to be heard without constantly fearing the blasphemy charge.’ ”

That Nawaz tweeted out a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in an effort to change the minds of Muslims who might automatically declare such an action to be blasphemy is the act not of an anti-Muslim extremist but a Muslim reformer. That the SPLC itself accuses him of blasphemy belongs not to the tradition of an American Civil Rights organization, but rather to the ideology of a religious fundamentalist organization, of the type that inspired the ISIS cadre that executed the staff of Charlie Hebdo.

The fact is that more than 40 years after its founding, the Southern Poverty Law Center is now aggressively defending the kind of violent supremacists it had once sought to prosecute, and attacking types like Nawaz it had once defended against violence. The suggestion that the organization has in fact switched sides will likely cause violent extremists of all shades and types to breathe a sigh of relief. It is also sign that there is something deeply wrong with our political culture.

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In 2015:

(CNSNews.com) – John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security, announced Wednesday that the Justice Department is creating the new position of domestic terrorism counsel to combat the “real and present threat” of domestic extremism.

Carlin praised groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center “that dedicate themselves to examining what the threat is, observing it, and reporting on it,” adding that the work of the SPLC was “very important.”

The SPLC says it places groups — including conservative, Christian groups — on its “Hate List” based on their beliefs, not their propensity for violence.

“Homegrown violent extremists can be motivated by any viewpoint on the full spectrum of hate — anti-government views, racism, bigotry, anarchy and other despicable beliefs,” Carlin told a gathering at George Washington University. The discussion was co-hosted by SPLC. “When it comes to hate and intolerance, no single ideology governs.”

Carlin was asked about the value of SPLC’s work in helping DOJ deal with the threat of domestic terrorist extremism.

“I can say, based on our briefings, that as I said in my opening remarks, we very much think that the domestic terrorism threat is a real and present threat that demands to be addressed in new, creative ways,” he replied emphasizing that “Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups in this space are very important.”

The SPLC’s website features a “hate map” that lists the conservative. Christian Family Research Council (FRC) as a “hate group” because of its defense of traditional marriage. The “hate map” was cited by convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins in his decision to attack the FRC in 2012 when he shot and wounded a security guard before being subdued. More here from CNS

WikiLeaks: Hillary/Podesta and Army Discussions Include Destroy GOP

Posted on October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

*****

Working document:

To: Interested parties

RE: DNC Structure

STRUCTURE

I would suggest you consider two staffing structures for the DNC:

CEO onlyIf this is the chosen structure, I would recommend finding a new CEO.
Under this scenario, the CEO would be accountable for all functions of the DNC—money, general election, and party/convention affairs. She or he would need to hire a General Election Director to help with general election planning and programs, but would remain ultimately accountable to the Chair for everything in the building.
CEO and General Election DirectorI would then suggest hiring a General Election Director, who would report directly to the Chair on all general election matters (a job scope is attached), including all budgeting, spending, and cash flow for the joint fundraising committee with the campaign. This would be “your person” at the DNC and she or he would work directly with your campaign manager on organizing a general election strategy and getting battleground state parties and the DNC up to snuff. This person would be the final decision maker at the DNC on how the joint committee money is spent and would do so in coordination with your campaign.
In this scenario, I would suggest keeping Amy Dacey as CEO and make her responsible for all party affairs and meetings, the convention, and basic DNC operations (compliance, the building, etc). I suggest keeping Amy because she is already familiar with the rhythm and functions of the DNC, such as the Rules and Bylaws process, the quarterly party meetings, and the convention. These functions are important to the DNC as an institution, especially to the DNC members, but they aren’t particularly important to you if you decide to run. Keeping Amy at the DNC would also allow White House to have someone in the building to look after their needs, such as polling.

Recommendation: I would recommend the second option, since party affairs and the convention are incredibly time consuming and would probably distract from general election planning (i.e. you don’t want the person in charge of figuring out how to win Florida and Ohio taking a week to look at convention sites). You also don’t want the politics of the DNC itself to disrupt or derail your general election effort.

STAFFING OPTIONS

Options for Chair

Stephanie Shriock, President of EMILY’s List
Jennifer Granholm, former Governor of Michigan
Ted Strickland, former Governor of Ohio
NEED OTHER OPTIONS

CEO or General Election Director

Kelly Ward, current Executive Director of DCCC
Mitch Stewart, 270 Strategies, former Battleground States Director for OFA 12
Jeremy Bird, 270 Strategies, former Field Director for OFA 12
Marlon Marshall, former Dep. Field Director for OFA 2012
Buffy Wicks, current ED of Priorities, USA

Other key staff:

Finance Director: recommend keeping Jordan Kaplan
Data and Technology Director: recommend keeping Andrew Brown
Communications and Research: recommend assessment; potentially bring in some enhanced research capacity
Voter protection director: recommend a new Voter Protection Director
Political Director: recommend a new Political Director

TIMING

I would suggest aiming to have a General Election Director in place by the beginning of December, so he or she can attend immediately to some urgent voter protection and research matters. The role could be announced at the December Executive Committee meeting.

A new Chair is slightly less urgent in my opinion. I would certainly make the change by the February DNC meeting, but would probably defer to the White House on what timing they prefer.

Executive Committee December 5-6, Hollywood, FL

Full Meeting Week of Feb 18 (tent), Washington, DC

General Election Director

Job Scope

General election analytics and planning
1. Analytics and polling in each battleground state to identify the actual battleground map
2. Identify off year-work (probably voter registration) that should be done to support the 2016 strategy
3. Start creating turnout and support models for the general election

General election data hygiene and systems
1. Analytics capability for matched data (user capacity, candidate confidentiality)
2. VAN/NGP technical updates
3. Update key tools: make a plan, commit to vote, voter registration, polling place look up, etc.
4. Coordination with campaigns on who is completing what engineering projects; ensuring that all systems will be compatible in the general election

Opposition research
1. Identify next steps on opposition research
2. Ensure all collection and record request work has been completed
3. Setting up a permanent tracking structure (whether that involves purchasing tracking or doing it in house)

Technology and digital
Complete all necessary updates to internal database tools like voter protection incident tracking

Coordination with allies
1. Coordination on state ballot referenda
2. Aligning around general election goals/plan/targeting/best practices
3. Ensuring data systems will be compatible, where possible

Identifying staff for general election field and state organizations

Ironing out state party operational issues
1. Helping
2. Transfer down MOUs for battleground states completed in the off year
  1. Indemnification
  2. Approval of direct mail
  3. Administrative overhead
  4. Using SPP for accountability re: the items above?
3. Aligning state party staff with critical projects (voter protection, registration, etc)

Joint fundraising account money management and supervision

Voter registration projects in battleground states (where needed)
Oversee budget for the program

Coordination with Voting Rights Trust on litigation
Florida
North Carolina
Wisconsin
Ohio
Nevada (Reid coordination)
Michigan?

Coordination with voter protection ballot referenda program
1. Ohio (State Director and team)
2. Florida (State Director and team)
3. Michigan?
4. Colorado?
5. Missouri?
6. Arizona?

Political and research work for voter protection
1. State FOIA project
2. Plaintiff recruitment
3. Earned media and political advocacy management (esp. Florida)
4. Coordinating with Perkins Coie staff on state legislative threat monitoring
  1. Voting law changes
  2. Electoral vote allocations (esp PA and WI)

*****

To: Interested parties

Re: Threat assessment

PRIMARY ELECTION

Message
1. Higher concerns
  1. Authenticity
    1. Emily’s List: “Panelists have about whether HRC is personally trustworthy: tells the truth, levels with people, is sincere in her motivations”.
  2. “Relatability”
    1. Emily’s List: “When voters think about HRC’s positives, they do not instinctively think about what she cares about…when pressed panelists say they do not necessarily think of HRC as “relatable” and tend to describe her personally as more ‘cold’ than ‘warm’”. But respondents are quick to say they do not have a feel HRC as a person. They are intrigued by details like ‘she shops at Target’”.
    2. Emily’s List: “The focus groups make clear, however, that winning the voters’ trust on the economy is not only a matter of having a plan. A successful candidate must also show that s/he personally understands the struggles and concerns voters experience in today’s economy and that s/he is on their side”
  3. Not a clear/credible vision, including clarity on Obama
    1. Emily’s List: “It will be essential for her to articulate a more specific economic agenda that translates these normative values and broad policy directions into a credible plan of action.
  4. Wall Street/elitism
    1. Policy and rhetoric on Wall Street (Emily’s List: 22% “Hillary Clinton won’t stand up to the big banks”)
    2. Personal income and finances
    3. Foundation fundraising and business connections
    4. Campaign finance; superpac affiliation
  5. How to respond to superpac attacks
    1. Do you need to respond?
    2. How do you respond when there is no opponent?
    3. Role of outside groups vs. campaign
2. Lower concerns
  1. Benghazi (only because of upcoming hearings)
    1. Emily’s List: “Benhgazi raises questions about HRC that relate more to lingering questions about her candor than about the event itself. Voters do not know the details of the incident (other than the fatal outcome) and are not especially eager to learn all the complicated facts…Benghazi can serve as a proxy character issue”.
  2. Immigration
    1. Need to be firm and unequivocal
    2. Will there be a compromise that is unpopular with Hispanics?
  3. Use of military force: remains very unpopular with Democrats
    1. Need Simas numbers
  4. Grand bargain: what if Obama cuts a budget deal that’s unpopular with Democrats?

Timing
1. Oxygen for competitors
  1. Waiting too long gives competitors time to get the media spotlight and build credibility
  2. Risk of a reactionary launch
2. Lack of infrastructure to manage GOP attacks in Q1 and Q2
3. Losing talent to other campaigns/jobs
  1. People will start to accept other jobs after Thanksgiving
  2. New DCCC and DSCC leadership and senior staffs; many attractive Senate and House races
4. Losing time on technology
  1. Long term projects like mobile canvassing tools, volunteer engagement ap, etc.
5. Fundraising opportunity cost: losing time in Q2

Geography
1. Iowa
  1. Starting out on the right foot will be key to ice out the competition. This could be challenging if opponents get in early and pick up any steam.
  2. Potential for caucus goes to want to “make it a race” if there’s a perception that the campaign is not fully invested. Primary opponents will always be more accessible and exciting to the left no matter what.
2. South Carolina and early southern primary states: if there’s an African American primary opponent

Demography
1. African Americas (if there’s an African American primary opponent)
2. The 2008 Obama primary coalition: younger, better educated, less partisan primary, male voters are less supportive, but still very winnable

Source: Emily’s List Dec 2013	Support HRC Regardless	Consider others, but prefer HRC	Consider HRC, but prefer others	Likely to support others

Men	29%	39%	15%	6%
Women	40%	46%	6%	5%

18-34	23%	45%	19%	5%
35-49	37%	45%	11%	3%
50-64	36%	44%	6%	7%
65+	43%	39%	6%	5%

Whites	33%	46%	9%	5%
AA	42%	41%	10%	3%
Hisp	40%	36%	10%	6%

Strong D	42%	43%	8%	3%
Weaker D	22%	42%	14%	9%

Political
1. Potential opponents: Biden, Warren, Patrick, O’Malley, Sanders
2. Clumsy launch politics
3. Messy labor endorsement process

Operational
1. Clear leadership and decision making; clarity on who speaks for the campaign
2. Unhelpful chatter and leaks

GENERAL ELECTION

Message
1. Same issues as the primary, as well as…
2. A better GOP candidate than Romney (better profile, more credibly moderate)
  1. Risk of losing more downscale whites in places like PA and OH
3. National environment (largely not controllable)
  1. President Obama’s approval rating/direction of the country
  2. Perceived success/failure of foreign policy at the time

DemographySince we don’t have a lot of polling, it’s most helpful to look at the breakdown of Obama’s vote and figure out how to offset likely changes. Big picture, we have to assume slightly lower performance and turnout among the key “Obama coalition” groups (young people and minorities), which will need to be made up with stronger performance among whites.

Obama won by driving up turnout and support among key minority groups and getting enough whites to break 50%. Your math to 50% could look similar, but one potential “threat” is that you match Obama’s performance with white voters but don’t achieve his level of turnout or support with other groups.

White voters: Obama was the first president to win the presidency with less than 40% of the white vote (39%). This was possible because whites are shrinking as a proportion of the electorate, but also because he organized very strong African American turnout and boosted traditionally high levels of support even higher. These proportions with African Americans will likely dip for you, meaning that you will need over 40% of the white vote nationally.
The GOP candidate will also be a key factor in this equation: Romeny’s profile as a defender of Wall Street and outsourcer helped to suppress support among downscale whites in Pennsylvania, for example. His positions on abortion helped to move persuadable white women to Obama. All these variables will need to be accounted for in determining the win number in each state.
African Americans: African American performance is a key factor in states like Ohio and Florida , where Obama pushed turnout disproportionately high. We have to anticipate 89% African American support, whereas Obama was in the mid 90s. We also have to anticipate a drop in African American turnout. Romney would have won Ohio, for example, if African American turnout had been at “normal” levels.
Hispanics: Hispanics are equally key in some states for determining the win number. They performed at or above 70% for Obama nationally. We have to anticipate closer to 65%, although the rhetoric and immigration stance of the GOP candidate will be a major factor. Correctly predicting Hispanic turnout in Colorado, for example, will determine how much we need to worry about a potential rightward swing in the Denver suburbs.
Young people: level of support and turnout are both major unknowns and need to be examined early. Your level of support is softest with young people, but that could just be because they know the least about you. Extreme GOP views on gay marriage, global warming, and/or birth control could swing and motivate young voters.
That said, we have to assume a drop in performance and turnout among young voters. The Emily’s List general election poll from last year predicts that you can get 50% or more of voters 65 and older, while Obama only got 44%, which could make up the difference.
Asians: exit polls showed that Asians performed 70/30 for Obama, but this could move closer to 60% next year since their level of support for Democrats appears to have dipped in 2014. This needs to be researched further.

Geography
1. Lean Democratic states to watch
  1. Wisconsin: was harder for Obama in 2012 due to Paul Ryan, but Walker’s performance was higher than expected last week. This requires further research.
  2. Pennsylvania: probably stable, but should be monitored, since downscale whites could sour even more depending on the national mood.
2. Battlegrounds to watch
  1. Colorado: Denver suburbs troubling, GOP carried Jefferson Co. this year.
  2. Virginia: African American turnout appeared to be disproportionately high last week, but Warner still performed poorly in suburban counties like Loudon, Prince William, Chesterfield.
  3. Iowa: rural and white, could get worse depending on performance with whites overall and national mood.
  4. Ohio: Obama won with black turnout in 2012; need to identify a path to winning more whites.

The 2016 electorate will look completely different than 2014, which was even lower than 2010. That’s why states like Nevada, where Democrats were beaten badly this year, remain favorable for 2016. The breakdown of the battleground has been covered in other documents, but I’ve noted a few states below that could become harder next year based on what we saw in last week’s election returns.

Changing rules
1. Harsher voting restrictions in GOP controlled battleground states
  1. Florida (Gov has announced a bill already), Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan
2. Changes in electoral vote allocations (there are only rumors now)
  1. Ohio, Michigan, Florida

Financial
1. Full concentration of GOP resources from Day One
2. GOP general election spending begins earlier than

****

To: Cheryl Mills

Re: Legal Options for launching a potential campaign

SUMMARY

If you decide to run, a number of core functions need to be in place for a successful campaign launch, which have been outlined in previous materials. Ideally, every aspect of the campaign will ramp up as quickly as possible, but three tasks will take a particularly long time and will drive the overall timeline:

Researching and testing your message
Developing a brand and logo
Designing and testing your website and mobile ap

All three tasks are highly intertwined and contain a series of constituent steps, which should be carefully sequenced. As demonstrated by the attached timeline, they will collectively take approximately 19 weeks to complete. The first five weeks can take place do not require any funding or structure, but the last 14 will require some sort of funding mechanism. I would recommend that a CTO, Digital Director, and Media Director are hired within the first four weeks to help shepherd the process.

The launch will require a full leadership team, as well as staff in the early 4 primary states and support staff at headquarters. The attached timeline has them starting a month before the launch and I suggest a formal exploratory be set up a month out to pay for them (and the equipment and overhead that will come with them!).

WHAT NEEDS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

Message

As we have discussed before, a campaign is fundamentally an organization built to do one thing—communicate a message. The proposed message development process is a series of focus groups, polls, and web tests to develop a narrative, messages, responses to attacks, and even a tagline for the campaign. This process will allow you to hear directly from voters about their mood and what they want from a president. It will also allow you to explore how you can articulate your vision and policy proposals. Lastly, it will help us to put together a path to victory in the primary and general, including key target groups.

Branding and Logo

Based on how you decide to present your candidacy based on the research process, we will engage design firms to develop a logo and branding scheme for all campaign materials that reflect the kind of candidate you are and the audiences we are trying to reach. The brand will dictate what colors, fonts, and moods should be used to design the site and mobile ap.

Website and Mobile Ap Design

Four separate firms will each create three designs for your site using the branding and logo concepts. We will choose one design (or an amalgamation of many) and go through a cycle of edits and feedback to get it exactly right. We will probably want to do some sort of photo shoot and record a video for the site as well.

WHEN TO START

Attached are three alternative timelines. The first begins in December, the second in January and the third in February. All three have the same 19-week timeline and sequence.

I would suggest establishing a date you want to launch and then work back from there. For example, if you want to launch your campaign at the beginning of the second quarter, you should start the ramp up process in December.

Keep in mind that this process will take over four months, which is a long time to keep potential opponents iced out. For example, the winter DNC meeting (which will take place in mid February) traditionally includes a beauty pageant for declared or prospective candidates. You will undoubtedly be asked to speak and we have to assume for planning purposes that Sanders and/or O’Malley will be declared and actively running by that time. Once a launch date is set, it will be worth thinking of what can be done from a communications standpoint to keep the opposition frozen out, even if you won’t declare for a few months.

BUDGET AND SPENDING

As described above, candidate-specific design work will begin in the fifth week of the ramp up process, at which point you will need either personal resources, or an exploratory committee to fund work.

If personal funds are used, spending can be limited to polling, focus groups, web tests, design firms, and some modest staff overhead. The budget below is approximately $1.3 million, but I would assume this will cost $2-3 million due to unforeseen expenses.

Polling and Focus Groups: $800,000

Logo and branding $100,000

Digital design: $200,000

Staff Overhead $200,000

Even if personal funds are used, there will inevitably need to be an exploratory period of about a month for the sole purpose of hiring staff and getting them ready to execute the launch plan. On the day you declare your candidacy, the campaign will need a fully functioning finance, communications, political, and operations/compliance staff. There should also be skeletal staff in the four early states. Overhead for the last month will likely be $3-4 million.

****

More here including the timeline.

Another item to destroy the GOP and includes SEIU operatives:

From:[email protected] To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] more [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Date: 2007-12-03 19:20 Subject: Revised PowerPoint

Here is a revised PowerPoint based on my discussion with Christine. The script is okay as is but will need to reviewed again if there is any plan to go into more depth on differences between the (c)(4)s and what they will be doing. Please use this version for any additonal changes or updates. Main differences to keep in mind for the presentation or other changes: – The Fund for America has been removed from the corner of all of the slides. – The connections between the Fund for America, the messaging, and the mobilization is not explicit in the org chart (dotted lines removed). – “Building a Permanent Progressive Majority” starts and ends the presenation. – References are all tied to “progressive” voters, issues or targeted states. Thanks, Christine, for your help. Take care – John

Four FBI Probes Related to the Clintons

Posted on October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

How far behind in the investigation process is another dive into Sidney Blumenthal et.al?

Four FBI Probes Related to the Clintons Sharyl Attkisson

The following information is compiled from allegations contained in news reports and in public interviews by current and former law enforcement officials. All of those involved have denied any wrongdoing.

The FBI reportedly has 4 active probes related to the Clintons. Here’s how they dovetail.

1. Clinton Foundation: Four FBI field offices– New York, Los Angeles, Little Rock and Washington DC– have been involved in a lengthy probe of the Clinton Foundation charity. “Pay to play” allegations include the charity soliciting donations from corporations and foreign countries in exchange for access and policy considerations from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which she denies. Emails published this month by Wikileaks reflect consternation among various Clinton allies about the possible appearance of conflicts of interests. Chelsea, the Clintons’ daughter, worried about blurred lines between the charity and the for profit business of one of her father’s aides. In emails, the aide, Douglas Band, discussed how he’d arranged millions of dollars in income for Bill Clinton from foundation donors. He referred to the arrangement as “Bill Clinton, Inc.” Chelsea pleaded with her parents’ confidants to help get the charity’s house in order, and she enlisted outside lawyers to look at the foundation’s business practices. Emails indicate some interviewees told a team auditing the Foundation that donors “may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gift[s].” Various FBI and Department of Justice officials have clashed over whether the probe into the charity is worthwhile. In February, senior Justice Department officials reportedly refused to authorize subpoenas, formal witness interviews or a grand jury in the case, believing the evidence was not compelling. In September, FBI investigators on the Clinton Foundation case asked to see the Hillary Clinton emails, but prosecutors reportedly denied them permission.

2. Anthony Weiner sexting: Weiner is the ex-Congressman who resigned in 2011 amid a sexting scandal. He’s married to top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. He withdrew from the race for New York mayor in 2013 amid another sexting scandal. And in August this year, he was caught allegedly sexting women again, sometimes with his infant son shown in photos. Abedin announced her separation from Weiner after the latest revelations. The FBI began a probe into whether Weiner had traded sexually explicit texts with a minor, and in the process of examining his computers, investigators ran across evidence of Abedin emails sent to and from Clinton’s insecure private server(s), which the FBI had previously investigated. The FBI Clinton email team met with the FBI Weiner team and they agreed the newly-discovered material was potentially relevant. FBI Director James Comey notified Congress on Friday.

Anthony Weiner, husband of top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is under FBI investigation in a sexual texting case.

3. Hillary Clinton email: In July, FBI Director Comey said that Hillary Clinton had been “grossly negligent” in the mishandling of classified emails on private servers as secretary of state, but that there was no basis under which to charge her with a crime. However, the revelations of new Abedin emails that could be relevant to the investigation have returned the status of the case to “open.”

FBI probe of Hillary Clinton email is still active

Read Devlin Barrett’s article in the Wall Street Journal

4. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe: Longtime Clinton ally, former Clinton Foundation board member, and former head of the Democratic National Committee, McAuliffe is also said to be under FBI investigation (led by the Washington Field Office). His lawyer has reportedly said the FBI probe is focused on whether McAuliffe failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity. There are also reports that the FBI is looking into six figures in campaign contributions from a Chinese businessman who also pledged $2 million to the Clinton Foundation while the donor was a member of China’s government, the National People’s Congress. Foreigners are prohibited from making political contributions in the U.S., but can donate personally if they have a green card, which the donor reportedly has.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a former Clinton Foundation board member, reportedly under FBI investigation

There are also questions surrounding McAuliffe’s campaign donations to the wife of a top FBI official, Andrew McCabe, as these various probes have moved forward. The Wall Street Journal reports that McAuliffe’s political action committee gave McCabe’s wife, Jill, $467,500 in late 2015 for her state senate race (which she lost). The FBI’s McCabe has reportedly been triaging for the two teams investigating the Weiner-Abedin email and the Clinton Foundation probes where they intersect. One official told the Wall Street Journal that on August 12, a senior Justice Department official called McCabe to express displeasure at learning New York FBI agents were still on the Clinton Foundation case. “Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation,” McCabe reportedly asked. “Of course not,” reportedly answered the official, after a pause.

The FBI’s Andrew McCabe and wife, Jill

McCabe reportedly recused himself from a separate McAuliffe matter due to McCabe’s wife’s political contributions from McAuliffe, according to the Wall Street Journal. The McCabes and McAuliffe have denied any conflicts of interest or other wrongdoing.

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WikiLeaks: The Democrats Admit the Clintons are a Profit Center

Posted on October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 by Denise Simon

So who is Brent that wrote this email to Podesta? It is a fascinating email and brutally honest.

Brent Budowsky

Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left government in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at [email protected].

Original email is here

Re: Where’s Bill?

To: [email protected]

Date: 2015-09-08 13:56 Subject:

Re: Where’s Bill?

Late fall is much too late. WJC should have begun early summer in stages, a periodic but reinforcing presence escalating late fall, not beginning late fall. If it wasn’t important enough for him to do compared to other things he is doing, shame on him. If it was a staff-generated plan, shame on them. High probability I write a very strong column very soon about these things. I have been very aggressive defending her and avoiding any criticism while she was under attack but this is now going very wrong and when I read the NYT story that reconfirms my view, never publicly stated, that some of the people around her—not you but others—are dumber than bird shit when it comes to modern public opinion and modern politics. I will tell you, I was an early Obama supporter in 2007 and 2008, which was a mistake, but I was in the inner loop going to meetings with John Kerry sitting on my right and Tom Daschle sitting on my left and exchanging ideas with the top Obama people in D.C. and Chicago by speaker phone. They had then, and carried with them into the White House, an unbridled contempt for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Some of them, who now are visible for Hillary, said or wrote things to me when I suggested possible contributions by one of the Clintons that were so dripping with contempt that I told them that if they ever do that again in my presence I would treat it as on the record, write it, and name them, that’s how bad it was. There are some people now working for her who consider her a profit center for their income and not a cause or a mission that they believe in. They almost certainly carry with them an incredible jealousy that Obama has always harbored towards Bill Clinton and a condescending attitude towards Hillary Clinton. That attitude shines through the Times story today that treats her a commodity to be sold and not as a leader of the nation…..it treats her as a calculating tactician who is changing her maneuvers about how to sell herself to manipulatable voters and not as a putative president with a heart and a soul and a passion about WHY she wants to be president and what she would do if she is….. An inauthentic strategy to make her look authentic is absurd.

And BTW, Biden’s populist act on Labor Day with his rhetoric of being indignant about the unfairness of the economy makes a mockery of his four decades of carrying water for banks as their de facto lobbyist in the Senate from Delaware. He won’t take one vote from Bernie when people focus, is the best thing that could happen to Bernie and will come in third behind Hillary and Bernie, taking votes from Hillary that will give Bernie’s percentage more delegates and clout. The solution is for Hillary to be more authentically populist, not as far as Bernie but much more so than she has been, and give her candidacy some heart and soul and bite that is not her nature, and not her staff’s, which may be her undoing. I could write a column listing one by one the corporate clients of many of Hillary’s closest advisors and many Democrats would puke. I have researched this, and it is appalling, and these are people attuned to making money from whomever writes their checks, who are not attuned—and in many ways are hostile to—-the powerful forces that are now driving the electorate…. As for Bill, he should have been a visible presence all along, he is the great validator in American politics, the Babe Ruth of national politics when almost all other politicians, including Hillary, are widely distrusted….Bill is the closest to a recognizable model of the kind of president Americans would be happy with in 2016….he gives the closest indicator of the kind of president Hillary would be, which is a huge plus…. and on selected populist issues where she could distinguish herself that would be a big plus too….. Instead all we watch is a tactical discussion about why she is not doing well because of how much she is distrusted by voters, and suggestions she is dispatching surrogate politicians to do her dirty work attacking the one Democratic candidate who most excites the Democratic base, and the latest innuendo about the Clinton emails because she—and her staff—give the voters and media nothing more exciting and inspiring to discuss beyond what TV shows she will be appearing on to make her less distrusted….. Dan Pfeiffer can say I am bed-wedding but this campaign right now is in very, very serious trouble and unless something dramatic changes the hourglass is now getting low on sand to set things right…..

Brent Sent from my iPad>

On Sep 8, 2015, at 9:50 AM, John Podesta <[email protected]> wrote:> >

Plan has been from the beginning to start using him in the late fall. That’s what they both wanted and still want and I think that’s sound. Chelsea starts her book tour on September 15 which runs through early November. Then she’ll be out more too, although she will certainly get questions on the book tour. Don’t get me started on NYT story.> >>

On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, Brent Budowsky <[email protected]> wrote:>>

I have no comment about today’s New York Times story about the new Hillary being>> discussed as the New Coke, just assume the worst about my view and multiply times>> two.>> >> I will probably write about the following soon:>> >> Why has Bill Clinton has been the invisible man for the Hillary Clinton campaign for the last six weeks? I can only think of two possible explanations, which are:>> >> First, that Bill does not fully believe in Hillary’s candidacy, or alternatively, that her>> staff does not believe a more visible Bill Clinton would be helpful to her, which I>> would consider campaign management malpractice.>> >> From Bill’s vantage point one would like to think that nothing is more important to>> him than spending every waking hour trying to make his wife the next president, and>> from Hillary’s vantage point, in an age when virtually all political insiders have>> negative ratings comparable to the bird flu, Bill remains a towering figure of popularity>> and presidential credibility. Why is he hiding, or being hidden? (Closed door money>> solicitations do not count).>> >> Regarding the Times story, how about the campaign telling voters and media that>> she believes in something more powerful, inspirational and visionary than what television interviews she plans to appear on to improve her negative trust ratings?>> >> Sent from my iPad

Comey’s Decision on Hillary Investigation Due to Hatch Act?

Posted on October 30, 2016October 30, 2016 by Denise Simon

In 2012, Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder drafted an internal memo at Justice regarding election and Hatch Act guidance. The Hatch Act was likely under consideration in the decision for James Comey to pursue the Hillary email server investigation. The New York office of the FBI has taken possession of 4 devices from the Anthony Weiner/Huma Abedin home that include a laptop, a computer, an iPad and a cell phone. It is also noted there are as many as 10,000 (not confirmed) emails on the shared computer that was placed there by Huma, of which she says is unsure how they got there. To be clear, Hillary had a common practice of asking Huma to print out communications of email as they were difficult to read due to the size of the font. Huma complied at every request and often did so by forwarding emails to her yahoo account out of ease of the process. The hardcopies were then delivered to Hillary by courier or faxed on a secure fax machine located in SCIF’s in both Hillary homes.

It must be noted that several Hillary operatives were given ‘limited’ immunity by the Department of Justice and beyond the review of the emails found on the Huma Abedin devices, Comey also is tasked with the determination if any or all of those immunity agreements have been violate due in part to new evidence and most of all in provided testimony given by those such as Cheryl Mills, Justin Cooper and Heather Samuelson to list a few.

This matter will not be resolved before the general election however, it does have countless moving parts that will impact the winning candidate.

Additionally of particular note, David Kendall, Hillary’s long time lawyer of record had a number of boxes of printed out emails that were delivered to the State Department, 2 of which were never delivered. Further, the law firm, Williams and Connelly also made an arrangement with the FBI to turn over several computers. When the FBI arrived at the law office, 2 computers were in fact held back for reasons still unclear at this point. Both law firms did not have any security clearance to be in possession of any classified material.

https://founderscode.com/5164-2/

A Private Computer System at State for Hillary?

comey-hatch comey-hatch-2 It should be noted that a company exists named the Clinton Executive Services Corporation (CESC) which is named on the contracts of agreements that hosted the servers in question. Both Huma and Cheryl Mills were the managers and administrators of this company where the emails in question were controlled. When it comes to the FBI investigation, yet another wing of this RICO and private intelligence operation concocted by Hillary has been ignored and that is of Sidney Blumenthal. He was in business with Cody Shearer and Tyler Drumheller (former CIA and now deceased). These 3 had a company together that sought business opportunities in the Middle East exploiting conditions as a result of the Arab Spring and Libya. Blumenthal had his own server, yet the FBI has not sought control of his and the question is why. Could it be there was executive privilege applied by Obama in this regard? It must also be noted that several files and communications are in fact known to be on the computer of the hacker Guccifer located in Romania. (from the 302 summaries of the FBI)

drumheller