Book: Black donors forced nearly all-white Obama campaign to recruit black aide

In April 2012, the Obama re-election campaign posted a photo of a staff meeting on its Tumblr account. The aides in the picture were young, casually dressed, and enthusiastic — and nearly all white. The campaign took heat on the Internet for a remarkable lack of diversity, particularly since the staff was working to re-elect the first black president in U.S. history.

Now, a new book filled with inside information from the campaign reports that top Obama aides were also taking heat from key donors and supporters. In The Message: The Reselling of President Obama,author Richard Wolffe writes that influential black supporters were unhappy with the lack of black aides in top campaign roles. The supporters were so unhappy that they forced the campaign to search for African-Americans to fill senior roles in the effort. After months of searching, the campaign found exactly one.

"Inside the campaign to re-elect the country's first black president, there was an embarrassingly low number of African-Americans in the senior ranks," Wolffe writes.

Prominent and wealthy black donors told Obama's aides, as well as his operatives in Chicago, that they would not take part unless and until there was African-American representation in headquarters. [Campaign manager] Jim Messina embarked on an intensive search to fill the hole, asking [White House aide] Valerie Jarrett for her advice on the role she herself played in 2008. There were few candidates who were prepared to give up a year's worth of salary, and unwind their outside work, to commit to the campaign full-time. It took several months before Messina could recruit just one figure to the innermost circle of leadership: Broderick Johnson, a former lobbyist and personal friend of the president, who visited Chicago weekly.

The lack of black staffers, both in senior and lower-down roles, proved embarrassing for the campaign, Wolffe writes. For example, with no blacks to supervise ads targeting African-American audiences, the results could be remarkably off-key. When the campaign produced its first black radio ad, one aide recalled to Wolffe, "It was like something out of Soul Train from the 1970s." With funk music behind it, the ad played sound bites from Obama speeches followed by a chorus singing "We've got yo' back!"

Via: Washington Examiner

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Northern Virginia business group makes Cuccinelli endorsement official

The Northern Virginia Technology Council’s political arm on Monday formally announced its endorsement of Ken Cuccinelli II in the Virginia governor’s race despite an aggressive behind-the-scenes attempt by supporters of his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, to wrest the prize away.

In addition to backing the Republican nominee for governor, NVTC’s TechPAC also voted to endorse the Democratic nominee for attorney general, Sen. Mark R. Herring (Loudoun), over Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg), according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the formal announcement is to be made later this week. The TechPAC has not generally weighed in on lieutenant governor races.

NVTC’s TechPAC, whose 25-member bipartisan board includes top executives from many sectors of the technology industry, voted to endorse Cuccinelli on Thursday after conducting lengthy interviews of both candidates. Several board members said Cuccinelli, the commonwealth’s attorney general, came off as serious and even wonky while discussing policies of importance to the group, while McAuliffe seemed flippant and uninformed.

But the formal announcement was delayed until Monday after McAuliffe supporters and some NVTC officials who have not made up their minds in the race pushed for the council’s executive committee to reconsider the endorsement. Several said they were most concerned about backing Cuccinelli because some of his positions on social issues, such as his hostility to gay rights, could send a message that Virginia is not a welcoming place to do business.

The decision to endorse Cuccinelli touched off an intense lobbying campaign, with some state Democratic lawmakers sending outraged e-mails to TechPAC members that warned their legislative initiatives could be blocked. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) urged the NVTC to reconsider, and so did Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who had said previously he would remain neutral in the campaign after Cuccinelli outmaneuvered him to gain the nomination.

Via: Washington Post

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Ex-Obama aide to sell health reform to Hispanics

A nonprofit led by a former aide for President Obama will target the Hispanic population — particularly mothers — in the coming weeks as part of the push to inform Americans about potential benefits under the new health care law.

Enroll America officials say the fast-growing Hispanic population accounts for about a third of the uninsured population who will be eligible to enroll in state-based insurance markets, known as exchanges, tied to the Affordable Care Act.

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SEE ALSO: Poll finds more share negative view of Obamacare

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The exchanges are portals where Americans without employer-based coverage can buy coverage, often with the help of government subsidies. Open enrollment begins Oct. 1 for coverage that takes effect in 2014.

Enroll America’s president, Anne Filipic, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, said the group is sending out field teams to work with Hispanic community groups in states like Florida, which has a high number of uninsured residents.

They will put a special emphasis on reaching out to mothers, who hold sway over young people.

For the law to work, young, healthy Americans need to enroll in the exchanges to balance out the risk pool when sicker persons with pre-existing conditions enter the individual market because they can no longer be denied coverage.

Republican critics of the law have pointed to rate hikes in select states — premiums are expected to fall in others — as proof that Obamacare is a misguided attempt by the federal government to inject itself into the insurance market.

Via: Washington Times

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FRIEND: NAVY YARD SHOOTER LIBERAL, SUPPORTED OBAMA

Tuesday, on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," Michael Ritrovato spoke at length about his friend, suspected Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis. After expressing his condolences to the victims and their families, Ritrovato then expressed his shock over the actions of a man he described as being "like a brother to me" and a "good-natured guy."

Ritrovato  went on to explain that two of them had a close relationship based in part on their differences, specifically race and politics. Alexis was black, Ritrovato is white. Ritrovato described himself as conservative and Alexis is "more of a liberal type" who supported Barack Obama:

I would say things like, 'You know, you are my brother from another mother.' And he would say things like, 'You're my Italian mafia guy from New York.' So we had things we joked about: Aaron wasn't conservative like I am. He was more of a liberal type; he wasn't happy with the former [Bush] administration. He was more happy with this [the Obama] administration -- as far as presidential administrations.

Ritrovato said he hadn't seen Alexis in a while. The last time they spoke was by phone, where the Alexis talked about his frustration with the company he worked for. Apparently, the company was "slow to pay." There have been other media reports about Alexis being with upset his company regarding some expenses incurred during a trip to Japan.

Ritrovato said that Alexis' fondness for "violent video games" was the only red flag he saw in retrospect.

Via: Breitbart

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Fox News poll: 68 percent concerned about their health care under new law

Nearly 7 out of 10 voters are concerned about their personal health care under the Affordable Care Act and a majority wants to take the health care system back to 2009, according to the latest Fox News national poll.  

The poll, released Tuesday, finds that 68 percent of voters are concerned about their health care under the new system.  That includes 43 percent “very” concerned and another 25 percent “somewhat” concerned. 

The number feeling concerned is more than twice that of those who are unworried (31 percent).  

Even a 56-percent majority of Democrats feels concerned (31 percent “very” concerned).  By comparison, 72 percent of independents and 77 percent of Republicans feel that way.

There’s no gender gap, as about two-thirds of men (65 percent) and women (70 percent) alike are concerned.  

Least concerned is the under-30 crowd.  Even so, 60 percent of that group feels worried.  

Voters between 55-64 years old are the age group most likely to feel concerned about their health care under the new law:  77 percent are worried.  

The poll also finds a 54-percent majority wants to go back to the health care system that was in place in 2009.  About a third -- 35 percent -- thinks it would be better to leave the new law in place.  

Via: Fox News

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No Public Tours, But 344 Visits By Lobbyists To The White House

Regular American citizens visiting the nation's capital lost access to the White House in March as President Obama eliminated public tours to make a point in his battle with House Republicans in the sequestration debate over cutting spending or raising taxes.

But hundreds of K Street lobbyists, including corporate advocates who are paid to influence policy on behalf of Fortune 500 giants, saw no change in their access to the chief executive and his senior aides, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of White House visitor logs and lobbying records.

The analysis found that 200 lobbyists met 344 times with White House officials at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. between March and May.

Among the lobbyists meeting with White House officials in the most recently available three-month period:

• Mary Streett, a lobbyist for energy company Exelon who lobbies on preventing clean air and water restrictions that could harm the company's bottom line, met with officials in March.
• Joshua Zive, who represents coal and energy companies, had a meeting at the White House in April.
• Joanna Acocella, who lobbies for the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, part of the for-profit college industry where schools' steep tuition and dubious training have led massive portions of students to default on their loans and which has faced a crackdown by the administration, met with Patrick Hidalgo, deputy director of the White House Business Council, as part of a large group in May.
• Lobbyists for fellow for-profit college groups Drexel University and Career Education Corp. also had meetings at the White House, records suggest. Funded almost entirely by federally backed loans, for-profit schools are so lucrative that Apollo paid its president $25 million last year.
• Roger R. Szemraj, who represents candy makers and other food interests, met with Doug McKalip, senior policy adviser for rural affairs, along with five other visitors. Cracking down on junk food in schools has been one of the first lady's signature campaigns.
• Paul Carothers, who lobbies for YUM! Brands, which owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, met with the White House Domestic Policy Council's Julie Moreno. Alcohol lobbyists and others whose Images are not entirely aligned also had significant presences.
• Arshi Siddiqui, who represents physicians, the movie industry, Siemens Corp., United Technologies Corp., UPS, and life insurers, met one-one-one with Obama economic adviser Jason Furman twice in April.
• Kim K. Bayliss, a lobbyist for corporate telecommunications giants such as Nexus Communications, met with U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, along with two others.
• Someone with the name of Donna Crane met once with the president as part of a large group and a second time in a one-on-one with a special adviser in May. Donna Crane is a top lobbyist for NARAL, the pro-choice activist group.
• Emily Heisig, who lobbies for the New England Council, a business coalition that wants to loosen immigration restrictions on highly skilled workers, met with the president March 20.
• Labor leader Hasan Solomon of the machinists' union, was granted a meeting with special adviser to the president Stephanie Valencia. Union leaders connected to the AFL-CIO had a whopping 14 meetings with White House officials in the three-month period.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Gun Control Failed in Congress. It’s Happening Anyway.

Gun-control legislation failed loudly following the Newtown school shooting, but that has not stopped President Obama from leaving Congress behind to launch a broad gun-control campaign of his own.

Between the December 2012 massacre and the Navy Yard mass shooting Monday, Obama has taken 25 separate gun-control initiatives, all of which came from executive actions that did not require congressional authorization.

The president's highest-profile move was to nominate and get confirmed Todd Jones as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, filling a seat that had sat empty for more than six years. But Obama has also initiated a series of quieter initiatives, including new rules to keep guns away from felons, better coordinate mental-illness screenings, and better preparing local law enforcement and schools to respond to shootings.

The White House readily admits its actions alone cannot solve the nation's epidemic of gun violence, but given that an expanded-background-check bill stalled in the Senate in April, the executive orders are—for now—Obama's only available option.

"Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities," a visibly angry Obama said after the bill fell six votes shy of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.

For Obama, the actions' main advantage is that they cannot be blocked by the powerful gun lobby—including the National Rifle Association—that successfully stymied the president's legislative push. Down the line, the rules could be changed by a subsequent administration, or Congress could hamper their efficacy by at some point cutting the funding to enforce them. But, for now at least, Obama can move forward without waiting for anyone else's permission.

Most of Obama's orders are aimed at reducing administrative weaknesses that complicate the enforcement of existing gun laws, said John Hudak, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

It will be years, however, before anyone knows whether these policies have any measurable effect in reducing gun violence, Hudak said. "Because these policies were either launched in January or the conversation about them was launched in January, we certainly don't have any evidence about their effectiveness one way or another," he said.

Via: National Journal

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Shelter-in-Place: This Generation’s Duck-and-Cover

On the third floor, employees gathering for a staff meeting chose to barricade themselves rather than flee into the hallway where they heard gunshots.

Capt. Mark Vandroff and his colleagues stacked chairs and desks in front of a door and got down on the floor. Two bullets care [sic] through the wall off the conference room, but high above their heads. The [sic] stayed in place for 30 minutes before police evacuated them.

“We were hunkered down, we were on the floor because we had heard the previous gunshot. We heard gunfire and we looked up and there were two bullet holes in the top of the wall of the conference room,” Vandroff said.

Rather than make noise by talking, his team texted each other from their smart phones.

Via: PJ Media

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NBC Frames Doctor's Call to End Violence as Plea for Gun Control

In an interview on Tuesday's NBC Today with Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief medical officer for Medstar Washington Hospital Center, co-host Matt Lauer seized on her call for an end to gun violence following Monday's Navy Yard shooting as a demand for gun restrictions: "You say you didn't want to wade into the issue of gun control and yet your comments are resonating with people..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Though Orlowski never specifically mentioned gun control, Lauer fretted: "...but we also heard emotional comments after Newtown and Aurora, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Are you worried that your comments will be soon forgotten, as it seems some of those other comments have been forgotten?"

Orlowski replied: "Am I worried? Absolutely. What are we gonna do as an American people to take care of this? Let's stop this now."

Via: Newsbusters

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Security under scrutiny over vetting of U.S. Navy Yard gunman

(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy on Tuesday ordered a review of security at all of its facilities as questions arose about how a former serviceman with a history of violence and mental illness received clearance to work at a base where he killed 12 people before police shot him dead.

The suspect, Aaron Alexis, 34, a Navy contractor from Fort Worth, Texas, entered Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning and opened fire, spreading panic at the base just a mile and a half from the U.S. Capitol and three miles from the White House.

Alexis' employer said he worked in at least six installations in July and August without incident. Alexis was employed by a company called The Experts, a subcontractor for Hewlett-Packard that serviced computer equipment, the company said.

He had been given clearance to enter the base on the Anacostia River despite two gun-related brushes with the law and a discharge from the Navy Reserve in 2011 after a series of what a Navy official described as "misconduct issues."

CNN reported that Alexis had contacted two Veterans Administration hospitals recently and was believed to be seeking psychological help.

"It really is hard to believe that someone with a record as checkered as this man could conceivably get, you know, clearance to get ... credentials to be able to get on the base," Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray told CNN.

In the wake of the latest mass shooting in the United States and questions about security at guarded buildings, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Tuesday ordered a review of physical security at all Navy and Marine Corps installations.

A Navy official said authorities would first take a "quick look" at installations to ensure existing physical security standards are being met. The second review will be larger and more in-depth, the official said.

Via: Rueters

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Report: Obamacare Subsidies Not as Broad as Advertised

Obamacare’s subsidies may not reach the level the law intended, which could discourage many young people from buying health insurance, according to a study released Monday by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

Obamacare provides a federal subsidy for everyone who buys insurance on the federal exchanges and who makes between 100 (or 138 in some states) and 400 percent of the federal poverty level—between $11,940 and $45,960 per year. This subsidy is graduated so that people earning more receive a smaller subsidy than those earning less.

However, the new study found that many people making well below 400 percent of the poverty line will not receive any subsidy because of the way in which the subsidy’s amount will be calculated.

This will hit younger people harder than older people, said David Hogberg, a health care policy analyst at the National Center for Public Policy Research and a coauthor of the report. Hogberg wrote the report with Sean Parnell, president of the public policy research group Impact Policy Management.

The subsidy is calculated in two steps.

First, the federal government determines how much an individual should contribute toward health insurance based on a federally set “applicable percentage.” Then, this amount is subtracted from the cost of the “silver level” insurance plan (insurance plans are grouped into four tiers, with silver being the second lowest). The remaining amount is the size of the subsidy.

Via: WFB

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