Subject: Correct The Record Friday August 29, 2014 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 08:11:41 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

**

*Correct The Record Friday August 29, 2014 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*CNN: “Rand Paul blasts Clinton, Obama policy on Syria”
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/28/rand-paul-blasts-clinton-obama-policy-on-syria/>*

“Adrienne Elrod, spokesman for the pro-Clinton group Correct the Record,
argued in a written statement that Paul's ‘belief in extreme isolation’ is
‘wrong for our country, our people and our place.’”

*New York Times: “Hillary Clinton Praises Obama on Ferguson Response and
Echoes Call for Inquiry”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/us/politics/hillary-rodham-clinton-praises-obama-on-ferguson-response-and-echoes-call-for-inquiry.html>*

“Nearly three weeks after the shooting of Michael Brown prompted widespread
protests in a St. Louis suburb and a national examination of race and
police tactics, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday praised President
Obama’s response to the episode and called for a swift investigation into
the circumstances that led to the unarmed black teenager’s death.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Hillary Clinton Cites Racial
Inequities in First Ferguson Comments”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-cites-racial-inequities-in-first-ferguson-comments/>*

“Hillary Clinton, in her first public comments on a police officer’s
shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., said that policing
must be rooted in ‘trust’ and ‘professionalism’ rather than ‘fear,’ and
that African-Americans face ‘inequities’ in the nation’s judicial system
that whites would never tolerate.”

*Washington Post blog: Post Politics: “Hillary Clinton on Ferguson: ‘We are
better than that’”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-on-ferguson-we-are-better-than-that/>*

“Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, weighing in for the first time
on the controversial shooting death of Michael Brown, said Thursday that
she grieves for both Brown's family and his community, and called for
better than what occurred in the chaotic aftermath of the shooting in
Brown's hometown of Ferguson, Mo.”

*Associated Press: “Clinton Says Frayed Trust Led to Ferguson Violence”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLINTON_POLICE_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“Hillary Rodham Clinton broke nearly three weeks of silence Thursday on the
fatal police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Missouri, saying his
death and the violent protests that followed resulted from frayed bonds of
trust in a racially divided community.”

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton makes first Ferguson remarks”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/hillary-clinton-ferguson-110422.html>*

“Hillary Clinton on Thursday made her first public remarks on the racial
unrest in Ferguson, Mo., saying that ‘we cannot ignore the inequities’ in
America’s justice system and ‘we can do better’ than what happened with the
shooting of Michael Brown and its aftermath.”

*CNN: “Hillary Clinton breaks silence on Ferguson”
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-breaks-silence-on-ferguson/>*

“Hillary Clinton broke her silence Thursday on the protests over the death
of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, telling an audience of
technology investors that the United States ‘can do better.’”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Venture Capital Dispatch: “Hillary Clinton Tells
Tech Execs Not Everyone Sharing in Industry Gains”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-tells-tech-execs-not-everyone-sharing-in-industry-gains/>*

“The bulk of her speech centered on the technology industry’s role in the
U.S. economy. She frequently praised Silicon Valley in the well-received
speech, which ended with a standing ovation from the several hundred
attendees.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: CIO Journal: “Hillary Clinton Talks Tech in San
Francisco”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-talks-tech-in-san-francisco/>*

“Hillary Clinton, Thursday, emphasized the importance of technologies such
as Big Data and cloud computing in helping to drive economic recovery in
the U.S.”

*New York Times: “Democrats Wary of Benghazi Inquiry Stretching Into ’16
Election Season”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/us/politics/democrats-wary-of-benghazi-inquiry-stretching-into-16-election-season.html?_r=0>*

“A House Republican-led investigation of the 2012 terrorist attack on an
American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, will extend well into next
year, and possibly beyond, raising concerns among Democrats that
Republicans are trying to damage Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential
prospects.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Is the Stage Set for 2016
Debate Heavy on Foreign Policy?”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/29/is-the-stage-set-for-2016-debate-heavy-on-foreign-policy/>*

“Pocketbook concerns are typically what animate American voters in
presidential races. Yet there are signs that what’s happening abroad will
have more urgency when Americans pick a successor to Mr. Obama.”

*New York Magazine blog: Daily Intelligencer: “The Race To Make Hillary
Clinton More Liberal Is On”
<http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/race-to-make-clinton-more-liberal-is-on.html>*

“The campaign, instead, is likely to center on organized liberals using a
candidacy to pressure Clinton not to move too far toward the center.”

*Politico: “Paul Ryan ahead of Hillary Clinton in one race”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/paul-ryan-hillary-clinton-books-110420.html?hp=r1>*

“Clinton’s book sold more than 85,000 copies in the first week —
exponentially more than Ryan’s book.”

*Articles:*

*CNN: “Rand Paul blasts Clinton, Obama policy on Syria”
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/28/rand-paul-blasts-clinton-obama-policy-on-syria/>*

By Ashley Killough

August 28, 2014, 1:25 p.m. EDT

Sen. Rand Paul continued his recent blitz against Hillary Clinton as a “war
hawk,” blasting the former secretary of state for having a “shoot first”
foreign policy.

In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, the Kentucky Republican
highlighted Clinton’s advocacy to arm Syrian rebels when she was the
nation’s top diplomat.

The militant Islamist group known as ISIS originated from the Syrian
opposition forces, and Paul argues that those who sought to arm the rebels
and help unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have done more harm
than good.

“We aided those who've contributed to the rise of the Islamic State,” he
said.

The Obama administration didn’t agree to send weapons until after Clinton
left office, and it only sought to aid moderate elements among Syria’s
opposition groups.

There’s been no clear indication, however, that U.S. assistance to Syrian
rebels have directly benefited ISIS in a significant way.

Paul, who labeled Clinton a “war hawk” in a recent interview with NBC News,
said Clinton was “eager to shoot first in Syria before asking some
important questions.”

“We are lucky Mrs. Clinton didn't get her way and the Obama administration
did not bring about regime change in Syria,” he continued. “That new regime
might well be ISIS.”

CNN reached out to Clinton's spokesperson for comment but did not receive a
response. Adrienne Elrod, spokesman for the pro-Clinton group Correct the
Record, argued in a written statement that Paul's "belief in extreme
isolation" is "wrong for our country, our people and our place."

While the United States has conducted air strikes against ISIS in Iraq, the
administration has now taken steps that signal it could take similar action
against ISIS in Syria.

Falling in line with his non-interventionist views, Paul said it would be
“more realistic” to recognize that while some regimes are bad, they may be
helping keep stability in a country.

“There are evil people and tyrannical regimes in this world, but...America
cannot police or solve every problem across the globe,” he wrote.

While he didn’t offer any specific solutions moving forward, he detailed
how he would handle the solution in a separate interview.

“If I were in President Obama’s shoes at this time, I would have called
Congress back, I would have had a joint session of Congress, and I would
have said ‘this is why ISIS is a threat to the United States, to the
stability of the region, to our embassy, to our diplomats, and this is why
I’m asking you today to authorize air attacks,’” he told the conservative
news outlet Breitbart.

*New York Times: “Hillary Clinton Praises Obama on Ferguson Response and
Echoes Call for Inquiry”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/us/politics/hillary-rodham-clinton-praises-obama-on-ferguson-response-and-echoes-call-for-inquiry.html>*

By Amy Chozick

August 28, 2014

Nearly three weeks after the shooting of Michael Brown prompted widespread
protests in a St. Louis suburb and a national examination of race and
police tactics, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday praised President
Obama’s response to the episode and called for a swift investigation into
the circumstances that led to the unarmed black teenager’s death.

In a paid speech at a technology conference in San Francisco, Mrs. Clinton
said she watched the funeral of Mr. Brown, the 18-year-old who was shot by
a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. “As a mother, as a human being, my
heart just broke for his family,” she said.

“But I also grieve for that community and for many like it across our
country,” said Mrs. Clinton, a potential Democratic presidential candidate
in 2016. “Behind the dramatic, terrible pictures on television are deep
challenges that will be with them and with us long after the cameras move
on.”

On Sunday, as Mrs. Clinton finished up a book signing for her memoir “Hard
Choices” in the beach community of Westhampton, N.Y., she declined to
respond to news media inquiries about Ferguson.

Mrs. Clinton had been criticized for not speaking out on the subject. On
Thursday, she weighed in with extended remarks that included praise of Mr.
Obama for deciding to send Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to Ferguson,
and for having demanded a swift investigation into the circumstances that
led to Mr. Brown’s death.

“That’s both appropriate and necessary to find out what happened, to see
that justice is done, to help this community begin healing itself,” she
said.

She also invoked the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and said, “We can’t
ignore the inequities that persist in our justice system.”

A grand jury is considering evidence into the actions of Officer Darren
Wilson, who shot Mr. Brown. Officer Wilson has received support from those
who say he has been portrayed as guilty in news media coverage without the
benefit of a trial.

Mrs. Clinton, who earns roughly $200,000 per speech, challenged the largely
white audience to “imagine what we would feel, what we would do if white
drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a
traffic stop as black drivers, instead of the other way around,” or if
one-third of all white males “went to prison during their lifetime.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Hillary Clinton Cites Racial
Inequities in First Ferguson Comments”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-cites-racial-inequities-in-first-ferguson-comments/>*

By Peter Nicholas

August 28, 2014. 4:47 p.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton, in her first public comments on a police officer’s
shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., said that policing
must be rooted in “trust” and “professionalism” rather than “fear,” and
that African-Americans face “inequities” in the nation’s judicial system
that whites would never tolerate.

As a likely Democratic presidential candidate, Mrs. Clinton was under
growing pressure to address the rioting that engulfed the St. Louis suburb
after Michael Brown’s death nearly three weeks ago.

In a speech in California Thursday, she said that her “heart just broke for
[Mr. Brown’s] family because losing a child is every parent’s greatest
fear.”

The clashes between police and demonstrators, she said, reflect the “deep
challenges” that Ferguson confronts.

“This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any
community together, fray,” she said. “Nobody wants to see our streets look
like a war zone. Not in America. We are better than that,” she added.

Broadening the point, Mrs. Clinton said the criminal justice system is
proving unfair to minorities.

She mentioned that whites would never put up with a system that made them
three times more likely to be searched by police in a traffic stop –the
reality confronted by black drivers.

Invoking Rev. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, she said the
nation must “make the dream real for all Americans.”

“And that mission is as fiercely urgent today as when he [Dr. King] stood
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the hot August sun all those years
ago.

“So we have a lot of work to do together.”

Mrs. Clinton didn’t directly criticize a police response in Ferguson that
relied on military-style equipment and tactics.

But she hinted at a better approach when she commended “decent and
respectful law enforcement officers who showed what quality law enforcement
looks like.”

Mrs. Clinton also addressed Edward Snowden, the economy and immigration.

*Washington Post blog: Post Politics: “Hillary Clinton on Ferguson: ‘We are
better than that’”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-on-ferguson-we-are-better-than-that/>*

By Sean Sullivan

August 28, 2014, 3:38 p.m. EDT

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, weighing in for the first time
on the controversial shooting death of Michael Brown, said Thursday that
she grieves for both Brown's family and his community, and called for
better than what occurred in the chaotic aftermath of the shooting in
Brown's hometown of Ferguson, Mo.

Clinton's remarks came nearly three weeks after Brown, an unarmed black
teenager, was shot dead by a white police officer. She adopted a careful
tone and avoided singling out any one person or entity for blame in an
incident that has sparked a national debate over issues of race and the use
of force by authorities.

"We can do better. We can work to rebuild the bonds of trust from the
ground up," Clinton said.

The potential 2016 presidential candidate applauded President Obama for
sending Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson, a decision she called
"both appropriate and necessary."

Clinton made her remarks at a summit in San Francisco hosted by the data
storage company Nexenta. Her comments on events in Ferguson came well after
most other prominent politicians weighed in on the shooting and its
aftermath.

Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug 9.
Authorities are still probing details of the shooting, which sparked
intense clashes between protesters and police that received widespread
attention.

"This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any
community together fray," Clinton said. "Nobody wants to see our streets
look like a war zone. Not in America. We are better than that."

Clinton said her "heart just broke" for Brown's family. "Losing a child is
every parent's greatest fear and an unimaginable loss," she said, adding
that she also grieves for the city of Ferguson.

Clinton encouraged Americans not to ignore "inequities that persist in our
justice system."

"Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white drivers were
three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as
black drivers, instead of the other way around," she said.

The former secretary of state encouraged Americans to join each other in
the process of healing after the Ferguson shooting.

"We should all add our voices to those who have come together in recent
days to work for peace, justice and reconciliation in Ferguson and beyond,"
said Clinton.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Clinton said, should
resonate with people and spur them to renew his mission.

"It was 51 years ago today that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called us to
live out the true meaning of our creed, to make the dream real for all
Americans," she said. "And that mission is as fiercely urgent today as when
he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the hot August sun all
those years ago."

*Associated Press: “Clinton Says Frayed Trust Led to Ferguson Violence”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLINTON_POLICE_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Haven Daley

August 28, 2014, 5:54 p.m. EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton broke nearly three weeks of
silence Thursday on the fatal police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in
Missouri, saying his death and the violent protests that followed resulted
from frayed bonds of trust in a racially divided community.

The remarks by the former secretary of state during a speech to a
technology group were her first about Michael Brown's Aug. 9 death in the
St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

As a potential Democratic presidential candidate, Clinton was criticized
for waiting so long to talk about the shooting of Brown, who was black, by
a white police officer after a midday confrontation on a street.

Clinton lamented the shooting and the numerous tense confrontations that
followed between angry protesters and heavily armed police.

"This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any
community together fray," she said. "Nobody wants to see our streets look
like a war zone. Not in America. We are better than that."

She said America cannot ignore inequalities in its justice system.

"Imagine if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by
police during a traffic stop as black drivers, instead of the other way
around," she said, or "if white offenders received prison sentences 10
percent longer than black offenders for the same crimes."

Clinton noted that higher percentages of black men go to prison compared to
white men.

"That is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans and so
many of the communities in which they live," she said. She said Martin
Luther King Jr.'s call for racial equality "is as fiercely urgent today" as
it was decades ago.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton was among those who chastised Clinton and
other politicians for waiting weeks to discuss the events in Ferguson.
Sharpton said Clinton and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential GOP
presidential candidate, should not "get laryngitis on this issue."

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton makes first Ferguson remarks”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/hillary-clinton-ferguson-110422.html>*

By Maggie Haberman and Katie Glueck

August 28, 2014, 3:15 p.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton on Thursday made her first public remarks on the racial
unrest in Ferguson, Mo., saying that “we cannot ignore the inequities” in
America’s justice system and “we can do better” than what happened with the
shooting of Michael Brown and its aftermath.

Clinton made the comments at a paid speech in San Francisco at the Nexenta
OpenSDx Summit, where she was the keynote speaker. It was the first
official public appearance she has made since Brown was shot multiple times
by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb.

Her remarks were measured. Clinton acknowledged the pain of the Brown
family’s loss and the disturbing visuals of the protests after the
shooting. But she was also respectful toward police officers, a community
that backed Clinton in her reelection fight in 2006 in the Senate from New
York.

“Imagine what we would feel, what we would do if white drivers were three
times as likely to be searched by police at a traffic stop as black
drivers, instead of the other way around,” she said. “If white offenders
received prison sentences 10 percent longer … if a third of all white men —
look at this room, take one third — went to prison during their lifetime.
Imagine that.”

But that’s the reality in many communities around the country, Clinton said.

She praised President Barack Obama’s decision to send Attorney General Eric
Holder to Ferguson and the president’s calls for a “thorough and speedy
investigation,” which is “both appropriate and necessary to find out what
happened, to see that justice is done, to help this community begin healing
itself.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton pressed Clinton the weekend after the shooting to
speak out about issues of race in the country. She has been on vacation for
much of the last two weeks since the shooting, save for three book
signings. At her last one, in Westhampton, N.Y., she ignored two reporters’
questions about her response to the issue. Other African-American leaders,
such as Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), had suggested that Democrats who were not
speaking out were doing so to allow Obama to be the main voice as the
president.

“Watching the recent funeral for Michael Brown as a mother and as a human
being, my heart just broke for his family, because losing a child is every
parent’s greatest fear and an unimaginable loss,” she said.

“But I also grieve for that community and for many like it across our
country. Behind the dramatic, terrible pictures on television are deep
challenges that will be with them and with us long after the cameras move
on. This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any
community together fray. Nobody wants to see our streets look like a war
zone, not in America. We are better than that.”

Clinton added, “We saw our country’s true character in the community
leaders who came out to protest peacefully and worked to restrain violence,
the young people who insisted on having their voices heard, and in the many
decent and respectful law enforcement officers who showed what quality law
enforcement looks like, men and women who serve and protect their
communities with courage and professionalism, who inspire trust rather than
fear.

“We need more of that, because we can do better. We cannot ignore the
inequities that persist in our justice system, inequities that undermine
our most deeply held values of fairness and equality,” she said.

“We can do better. We can work to rebuild the bonds of trust from the
ground up. It starts within families and communities.,” she said.

She tried to give sweep to her comments, saying, “It was 51 years ago today
that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called us to live out the true meaning of
our creed, to make the dream real for all Americans. And that mission is as
fiercely urgent today as when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
in the hot August sun all those years ago.”

Clinton also worked in a mention of the tech firm hosting her. “At Nexenta
you say better living for a better world. At the Clinton Foundation we say
we’re all in this together. If you put those together, it comes out to a
pretty good road map for the future,” she said. “And we need all of you,
your energy and your efforts, your innovation, your building, your creating
to help us achieve that better world.”

*CNN: “Hillary Clinton breaks silence on Ferguson”
<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-breaks-silence-on-ferguson/>*

By Dan Merica

August 28, 2014, 3:15 p.m. EDT

(CNN) - Hillary Clinton broke her silence Thursday on the protests over the
death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, telling an
audience of technology investors that the United States "can do better."

Her statement, which came at the end of her prepared remarks to the Nexenta
OpenSDx Summit, was the first time Clinton spoke about the protests since
they began earlier this month, and her comments came after civil rights
leaders had called on Clinton to weigh in.

"Watching the recent funeral for Michael Brown as a mother, as a human
being, my heart just broke for his family because losing a child is every
parent's greatest fear and an unimaginable loss," Clinton said. "But I also
grieve for that community and many like it across our country. Behind the
dramatic terrible pictures on television are deep challenges that will be
with them and with us long after the cameras move on."

Brown was shot dead earlier this month by a police officer in the St. Louis
suburb. The shooting sparked large protests that were accompanied by
looting and a sizable police presence.

Michael Brown's funeral: Hope, tears and a call for social change

The former secretary of state and prohibitive favorite for the Democratic
presidential nomination in 2016 has avoided questions about Ferguson since
the protests began. At a book signing in Westhampton, New York on Sunday,
Clinton did not respond to two reporters’ questions about Brown's killing.

Clinton’s statement on Thursday struck a balance between grieving with
Brown's family and highlighting some of the positive police work that
occurred in Ferguson around the protests.

"This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any
community together fray," Clinton said at the event in San Francisco.
"Nobody wants to see our streets look like a war zone, not in America. We
are better than that."

Rand Paul on Ferguson: Police too militarized

Clinton also applauded President Barack Obama for his response to Ferguson,
which included a statement on the killing and the dispatching of Attorney
General Eric Holder to the suburb.

"We can do better," Clinton said. "We cannot ignore the inequities that
persist in our justice system. Inequities that undermine our most deeply
held values of fairness and equality."

She continued: "Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white
drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a
traffic stop as black drivers instead of the other way around. If white
offenders received prison sentences ten percent longer than black offenders
for the same crimes. If a third of all white men – just look at this room
and take one-third – went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that.
That is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans in so
many of the communities in which they live."

In the weeks after the shooting, civil rights and black thought leaders had
called on Clinton to comment on Ferguson. At a rally earlier this month
about the killing, Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader and host on
MSNBC, said, "Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, don’t get laryngitis on this
issue. … Nobody can go to the White House unless they stop by our house and
talk about policing."

Marc Lamont Hill, a CNN commentator, said Clinton's decision to "ignore the
question and to not proactively and assertively address the issue is
shameful."

On Thursday, Clinton cited the life of Martin Luther King Jr. as a guide to
how the United States should respond to the protests in Ferguson.

"It was 51 years ago today that Martin Luther King Jr. called us to live
out the true meaning of our creed, to make the dream real for all
Americans," Clinton said. "And that mission is as fiercely urgent today as
when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln memorial and the hot august sun
all those years ago."

Clinton supporters, like CNN contributor Donna Brazille, heralded the
statement as both timely and needed. "

"She's right, we can do better," said Brazille, who added that she didn't
counsel Clinton on the statement. "It's time we start to take the necessary
steps to build one America so everyone can enjoy the American Dream."

Not all were satisfied with the timing of Clinton's statement, however.

"Hillary Clinton offers a statement on Michael Brown and Ferguson. 19 days
later," Hill tweeted in response to the speech. "Next she'll offer her
thoughts on Rodney King and Vietnam."

*Wall Street Journal blog: Venture Capital Dispatch: “Hillary Clinton Tells
Tech Execs Not Everyone Sharing in Industry Gains”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-tells-tech-execs-not-everyone-sharing-in-industry-gains/>*

By Deborah Gage

August 28, 2014, 6:37 p.m. EDT

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday told a tech
industry conference in San Francisco that new technologies were helping to
drive a U.S. economic recovery but that not enough people were sharing in
the gains.

Speaking at a conference sponsored by Nexenta Systems Inc. where everyone
who attended received a signed copy of her latest book, “Hard Choices,”
Mrs. Clinton declined to say whether she would run for president. She said
she would be working hard this fall to make sure that Democrats don’t lose
the Senate and can maintain “a decent balance” in the House.

The bulk of her speech centered on the technology industry’s role in the
U.S. economy. She frequently praised Silicon Valley in the well-received
speech, which ended with a standing ovation from the several hundred
attendees.

Mrs. Clinton cited new technologies like cloud computing and
“software-defined everything,” which she said are “helping businesses
operate more efficiently and effectively at the same time that they
increase productivity and profit and are helping to drive economic
recovery.”

She also praised what she called “a revolution” in domestic energy
production and the “mountains of data generated by life in the 21st
century” as major U.S. competitive advantages.

Better use of data has already created new tools for farmers and truckers,
more efficient supply chains and improvements in health care, she said. She
praised “experts in Silicon Valley” for helping to fix the flawed rollout
of the Obama administration’shealthcare.gov website and said that “going
forward, the government could use more of your expertise” since it is
“woefully behind in all policies that affect tech.”

Still, she said, despite the promises of technology, “the historic link
between productivity gains and wage gains” has been lost in the U.S., and
“too many are losing ground and losing hope.”

She called on the tech community to embrace “a classic American
public-private partnership” to help the country remain competitive and
provide more equal opportunities for all.

“I believe it’s still true that a lot of families in America today are
hurting from the great recession, and communities are coming apart at the
seams, and the American dream of opportunity and equality feels out of
reach,” she said.

Ms. Clinton also made her first public comments on the recent killing of a
young black man by police in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked racially
charged protests. As she watched the funeral of Michael Brown, “my heart
broke for his family. Losing a child is every parent’s greatest fear and an
unimaginable loss.”

She said she grieved for Ferguson and “every community like it across the
country…Nobody wants to see our streets look like a war zone—not in
America. We’re better than that.”

After her speech, Mrs. Clinton was interviewed on stage by Nexenta Systems
Inc. Chief Executive Tarkan Maner, answering questions on a wide range of
foreign and domestic topics. Mr. Maner said the session was not scripted
and he was told he could ask whatever he wanted.

An active Democrat who did business with the State Department at his
previous company, Wyse Technology (now part of Dell Inc.), Mr. Maner told
Venture Capital Dispatch that he wanted to see more women involved in tech.
He declined to discuss Mrs. Clinton’s fee, which is undisclosed.

Here are excerpts from their discussion:

On Edward Snowden:

After 9/11, “there’s no doubt we went too far in a number of areas,” Mrs.
Clinton said, adding there needs to be a robust debate about balancing
privacy and liberty with security. “People need to be involved. And finally
we need to make it clear to other countries that our tech companies are not
part of the government…I think there needs to be a global compact about
surveillance and information. The U.S. government does not use information
for commercial purposes but others do.”

On women in tech:

She said most of the solution to the gender imbalance in the technology
industry rests with the private sector. She cited a cultural bias or
discouragement against girls and women and praised Google Inc. for
combining job listings with personal outreach to urge women to apply. “I’ve
hired a lot of men and women in my career, and oftentimes women need
convincing.”

On immigration reform:

Reform is needed, she said, but “given the great recession where so many
people have lost jobs, there has to be extra effort to try to fill the jobs
with people who are already here. If that’s not possible you can make a
good faith argument that you tried.”

On repatriating foreign earnings:

Tech earnings were repatriated when she was in the Senate, but too many
companies did not put the extra money they received from lower taxes to
productive use, she said. She is checking into a proposal by Cisco Systems
Inc. CEO John Chambers and others to have companies invest a percentage of
their repatriated earnings in an infrastructure bank to repair airports and
ports and increase broadband access.

On gun control:

Citing the death this week of a gun instructor in Arizona who was
accidentally shot by a 9-year-old girl: “We need a concerted public effort
to rein in the extremists on gun control.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: CIO Journal: “Hillary Clinton Talks Tech in San
Francisco”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/08/28/hillary-clinton-talks-tech-in-san-francisco/>*

By Rachael King

August 28, 2014, 6:28 p.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton, Thursday, emphasized the importance of technologies such
as Big Data and cloud computing in helping to drive economic recovery in
the U.S. Speaking at a technology conference in Silicon Valley, Mrs.
Clinton addressed a wide range of subjects including HealthCare.gov,
government surveillance and the challenges the government faces in its use
of technology.

Advances in technology are helping businesses operate more efficiently and
effectively, she said. “They’re better serving their own customers, but at
the same time increasing productivity and profits and helping to drive our
economic recovery.”

Mrs. Clinton acknowledged, though, that not enough people were sharing in
the gains of that economic recovery, wrote VentureWire’s Deborah Gage.
Despite the promises of technology, “the historic link between productivity
gains and wage gains” has been lost in the U.S., and “too many are losing
ground and losing hope,” said Mrs. Clinton.

Still, she asserted that Big Data is helping to make business and
government more efficient. Mrs. Clinton noted that the United States is
home to one-third of all data in the entire world. “I think that’s a major
competitive advantage,” she said, citing a McKinsey estimate that the
productivity gains unlocked by Big Data could add hundreds of billions of
dollars to the gross domestic product of the United States.

“The potential savings and improvements in the healthcare sector alone are
staggering,” she said. Mrs. Clinton cited a recent report about how the
increased costs in Medicare seem to have slowed down and even begun to
decrease, in part because of better use of data and more effective
understanding of what works and what doesn’t work. Under the Affordable
Care Act, the government is seeing many of the same results, she said.

She acknowledged that the government still faces many challenges with the
use of technology, both in its day-to-day operations and in projects like
HealthCare.gov. “Let’s face it, our government is woefully behind in all of
its policies that affect the use of technology,” she said. She noted
Silicon Valley’s role in helping to fix HealthCare.gov and put the
Affordable Care Act back on track. “Going forward, the government could use
more of your expertise on the front end, designing and launching programs
rather than coming in afterward to help save them,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton shared her views on a wide range of technology issues:

Government surveillance “Moving from what we did in response to 9/11, which
in many respects was just scrambling around trying to figure out how we get
information that protects us and our friends around the world, there’s no
doubt that we may have gone too far in a number of areas and those have to
be rethought and we have to rebalance.”

Foreign spying Surveillance is everywhere, not just the U.S. “Every time I
went to countries like China or Russia, we couldn’t take our computers, we
couldn’t take our personal devices, we couldn’t take anything off the
plane,” she said, adding, “I think there needs to be a global compact about
surveillance and about information and what it’s used for.”

Women in tech “The government can do some things more stem education for
girls and women, but most of the solution rests with the private sector,”
she said. “We’ve gone backwards, we had more women graduating in STEM
subjects 30 years ago than today.”

Repatriation of Foreign Money Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers and
others business leaders have floated a proposal to invest a percentage of
repatriated profits into an infrastructure bank to do everything from
repairing airports and sea ports to expanding broadband access. She hasn’t
yet vetted the idea, but she said it’s interesting. “It doesn’t do our
economy any good to have this money parked somewhere else in the world.”

Mrs. Clinton spoke at the OpenSDx Summit sponsored by Nexenta Systems Inc.,
a software-defined storage startup company.

*New York Times: “Democrats Wary of Benghazi Inquiry Stretching Into ’16
Election Season”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/us/politics/democrats-wary-of-benghazi-inquiry-stretching-into-16-election-season.html?_r=0>*

By Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer

August 28, 2014

WASHINGTON — A House Republican-led investigation of the 2012 terrorist
attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, will extend
well into next year, and possibly beyond, raising concerns among Democrats
that Republicans are trying to damage Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential
prospects.

Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of
the House select committee on Benghazi, said his go-slow investigation was
not motivated by politics. He said that he had gone out of his way to
maintain good relations with Democrats on the committee, asking
Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s ranking Democrat,
to join him in private meetings in July with family members of the four
Americans killed in Libya in July.

“I promised the family members of the four slain and my colleagues on both
sides of the aisle the investigation would be serious and fair,” Mr. Gowdy
said in an email. “Nothing would undercut both of those promises like an
orchestrated timing.”

But concern is rising, both among Democrats and among those who note that
most select committees tend to conclude far more quickly. For instance, the
select bipartisan committee to investigate the response to Hurricane
Katrina in 2005 took a year from its formation to complete a 361-page
report. The bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, took a year and a half.

The Benghazi committee, which was formed in May, could take much longer,
and leaders are budgeting as much as $3.3 million for the investigation
this year alone, a sum greater than the entire budget of the House
Intelligence Committee. Mr. Gowdy said he would spend less than that, and
he has set the panel’s first public hearing for September, to review
enactment of the State Department’s security recommendations after the
attack. Other than that, there have been few outward signs of progress.

After the midterm elections two months away, Republican attention is likely
to shift sharply to Mrs. Clinton, the secretary of state at the time of the
deadly assault and a possible Democratic presidential contender for 2016.

“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck,”
said Phil Singer, a former Clinton campaign aide. “It’s hard to look at the
timing and think it’s simply a coincidence that it would wrap up in the
heart of the presidential campaign.”

Mr. Cummings said the chairman had repeatedly assured him politics would
play no part in the investigation. But, he noted, the House Intelligence
Committee completed its own investigation of the attacks this month, the
seventh inquiry into the matter.

“The question now is what is left to investigate, and I do not think we
need until 2016 to answer it,” he said.

The attack on the compound in Benghazi, which took the life of a United
States ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, has outraged the Republican
Party’s most conservative voters.

But Mr. Gowdy’s methodical, under-the-radar approach has offered up little
for partisans to seize upon, at least for now.

He said the investigation should be complete by the end of 2015, “assuming
cooperation from agencies, witnesses and the administration.” Mr. Gowdy
added, “I say ‘should’ because we cannot predict what witnesses will say,
what documents may be produced, and whether either will lead to additional
lines of appropriate inquiry.”

He added, “Just as I did not sign up for nor have any interest in a
political investigation, likewise I have no interest in half measures,
partial productions or a lack of access to witnesses with relevant
information.”

To Democrats, such deliberation is suspicious in light of what is already
known. Representative C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking
Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said a declassified version
of his panel’s Benghazi report could be released in September. He said the
committee found no intelligence failure ahead of the attack. Intelligence
agents did warn of increased threats but “had no specific tactical threat”
before the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, he said. And there was no “stand down”
order issued to military officers to hold off a rescue.

“There was no illegal activity, no illegal arms sales occurring, and no
evidence the intelligence community assessments were politicized in any
way,” he said. “If there are any more facts to be found, I’m all for it,
but how much further can you go?”

Last week, Mr. Gowdy hired the retired Lt. Gen. Dana K. Chipman, the Army’s
former top lawyer, to be the committee’s chief counsel. Jamal Ware, a
former House Intelligence Committee spokesman, was brought on to handle
communications.

Mr. Gowdy defended the length of time he expects the investigation to take.
“I know it seems too logical for members of Congress, but the length of any
investigation is dependent upon the level of compliance from others,” he
said. “The documents are in many instances in the custody of others, and
the schedules of potential witnesses are completely outside of our control.”

But the committee’s senior Democrats appear to be losing what enthusiasm
they could muster when they reluctantly agreed to serve on it.

“I am not sure what the committee can productively do that hasn’t been done
already,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, a
member of the select committee and the House Intelligence Committee. But,
he added, “These committees tend to take on a life of their own.”

*Wall Street Journal blog: Washington Wire: “Is the Stage Set for 2016
Debate Heavy on Foreign Policy?”
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/29/is-the-stage-set-for-2016-debate-heavy-on-foreign-policy/>*

By Peter Nicholas

August 29, 2014, 6:47 a.m. EDT

TROMSO, Norway – Anyway, back to chess …

When we left off in our last column we had described the proxy fight
between the West and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the leadership
of the world chess federation.

Mr. Putin prevailed, with his preferred candidate defeating one of his
fiercest critics, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, and handing
him a victory on the cultural front.

Earlier this month, Mr. Kasparov spoke about his underdog campaign in an
interview during the world chess team tournament hosted by this Arctic city
(an event inexplicably ignored by the major TV networks). He also made
plain he has no great sympathy for the way President Barack Obama is
managing the showdown with Mr. Putin in Ukraine.

“If Obama and (British Prime Minister David) Cameron were leading their
respective countries in the 1980s, I would still be playing chess under the
Soviet flag,” said Mr. Kasparov, who grew up in the old Soviet Union and
who now lives in Manhattan. “We see reactions, but we do not see
leadership.”

That gets at an important question: Do American voters grasp the stakes
involved in the conflicts roiling the Middle East, Asia and – well –
virtually anywhere else you look? Are they prepared to elevate foreign
policy to a central issue in the 2016 presidential campaign?

That’s not the norm. Pocketbook concerns are typically what animate
American voters in presidential races. Yet there are signs that what’s
happening abroad will have more urgency when Americans pick a successor to
Mr. Obama.

Images are powerful things and the gruesome video of a hooded Islamist
State thug beheading American journalist James Foley could drive home to
everyday Americans that the extremist group’s march across Iraq and Syria
is very much their concern.

What’s more, the potential candidates seem primed to confront one another
on foreign policy once the ’16 race starts up. In her interview this month
with the Atlantic, Democrat Hillary Clinton indicated she would be far more
interventionist than Mr. Obama. In pointed terms, she suggested the
president missed the moment when he failed to arm the moderate Syrian
rebels fighting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad at an earlier stage.

She said “the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists
have now filled.”

Dismissing one of the more colorful tenets of Mr. Obama’s foreign-policy
approach — “Don’t do stupid stuff” — she said the phrase doesn’t amount to
“an organizing principle” for “great nations.”

Mrs. Clinton’s muscular vision of the U.S. role in the world could create
one of the sharpest general election differences between herself and a
potential Republican opponent.

Consider Rand Paul. On “Meet the Press” this week, the Kentucky Republican
senator said Mrs. Clinton was looking like a “war hawk.” Mr. Paul has
called for slashing foreign aid and has shown a wariness toward military
engagements.

“If you wanna see a transformational election in our country, let the
Democrats put forward a war hawk like Hillary Clinton, and you’ll see a
transformation like you’ve never seen,” Mr. Paul said.

Doubling down, he wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that
took aim at Mrs. Clinton for wanting to “shoot first in Syria before asking
some important questions.” Calling her an “interventionist,” Mr. Paul wrote
that toppling Mr. Assad might only have cleared a path for extremists
fighting to gain power in Syria.

As Grandmaster Kasparov might put it: Mrs. Clinton moved a piece and Mr.
Paul countered. It’s game on.

*New York Magazine blog: Daily Intelligencer: “The Race To Make Hillary
Clinton More Liberal Is On”
<http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/race-to-make-clinton-more-liberal-is-on.html>*

By Jonathan Chait

August 28, 2014, 4:37 p.m. EDT

The 2016 Democratic presidential campaign is beginning to take shape. It’s
a highly unusual campaign. Hillary Clinton commands the massive party
loyalty of an incumbent, except she’s not an incumbent, so it is possible
for another Democrat to challenge her without the campaign necessarily
signalling the all-out, you-have-failed opposition of a Gene McCarthy in
1968, Ted Kennedy in 1980, Pat Buchanan in 1992, and so on. The campaign,
instead, is likely to center on organized liberals using a candidacy to
pressure Clinton not to move too far toward the center.

Three developments this week have given that campaign a more visible shape:

1. Bernie Sanders looks like a likely candidate. “I’ll be going to New
Hampshire, and I’ll be going to Iowa,” he told the Hill. “That’s part of my
trying to ascertain the kind of support that exists for a presidential
run.” Sanders plans to run on a left-liberal economics program: “a 'massive
jobs program,' raising the minimum wage, changing the nation’s trade
policies, programs to make childcare and college education more affordable,
and subsidized healthcare.”

2. Elizabeth Warren — a possible opponent who has been more coy than
Sanders but has pointedly left the door open — was asked about Israel at a
town-hall meeting. A constituent compared Israel’s counterattack in Gaza to
that of the police in Ferguson. Warren struck a surprisingly hawkish tone:

Warren told [the questioner] she appreciated his comments, but "we're going
to have to agree to disagree on this one."

"I think the vote was right, and I'll tell you why I think the vote was
right," she said. "America has a very special relationship with Israel.
Israel lives in a very dangerous part of the world, and a part of the world
where there aren't many liberal democracies and democracies that are
controlled by the rule of law. And we very much need an ally in that part
of the world."

Warren said Hamas has attacked Israel "indiscriminately," but with the Iron
Dome defense system, the missiles have "not had the terrorist effect Hamas
hoped for." When pressed by another member of the crowd about civilian
casualties from Israel's attacks, Warren said she believes those casualties
are the "last thing Israel wants."

"But when Hamas puts its rocket launchers next to hospitals, next to
schools, they're using their civilian population to protect their military
assets. And I believe Israel has a right, at that point, to defend itself,"
Warren said, drawing applause.

If Warren runs, her candidacy seems less likely to be the vehicle for
dovish foreign-policy critics of Clinton. Or, at least, that campaign will
have a significant omission on Israel.

3. One of the most gaping opportunities against Clinton might have been
Ferguson and police discrimination, where liberals — especially
African-Americans — have expressed outrage, and Clinton has kept silent.
Today, Clinton spoke about Ferguson and closed that gap:

“We can’t ignore the inequities that persist in our justice system that
undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and equality,” she said.

“Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white drivers were
three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as
black drivers, instead of the other way around,” Clinton said. “If white
offenders received prison sentences 10 percent longer than black offenders
for the same crimes. If a third of all white men—just look at this room and
take one third—went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that. That is
the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans and so many of
the communities in which they live.”

So, where does the Democratic campaign stand? As of now, there appear to be
possible avenues for a left-wing challenge on economics. A challenge to
push her on social issues or foreign policy has not yet emerged on the
horizon.

*Politico: “Paul Ryan ahead of Hillary Clinton in one race”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/paul-ryan-hillary-clinton-books-110420.html?hp=r1>*

By Jake Sherman

August 28, 2014, 2:30 p.m. EDT

Rep. Paul Ryan finished ahead of Hillary Clinton — at least on the newest
New York Times Best Seller list.

The Wisconsin Republican’s newest book, “The Way Forward,” will debut at
No. 5 on the nonfiction hardcover best-sellers list, one spot ahead of
Clinton’s “Hard Choices,” according to an advance copy of the list provided
to POLITICO.

Ryan is on a nationwide publicity tour for the book, which wraps up
Friday night
with a speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

Ryan’s publisher, Twelve — an imprint of Hachette Book Group — says
Bookscan shows he has sold 6,266 copies of the book. That number does not
capture all sales, and the publisher says approximately “12,000 units were
sold” last week. The publisher said sales were impacted by the spat between
Amazon and Hachette — the book was not available for pre-order.

Clinton’s book sold more than 85,000 copies in the first week —
exponentially more than Ryan’s book.

*Calendar:*

*Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official
schedule.*

·  September 4 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton speaks at the National Clean
Energy Summit (Solar Novis Today
<http://www.solarnovus.com/hillary-rodham-clinto-to-deliver-keynote-at-national-clean-energy-summit-7-0_N7646.html>
)

·  September 9 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton fundraises for the DSCC at
her Washington home (DSCC
<https://d1ly3598e1hx6r.cloudfront.net/sites/dscc/files/uploads/9.9.14%20HRC%20Dinner.pdf>
)

·  September 14 – Indianola, IA: Sec. Clinton headlines Sen. Harkin’s Steak
Fry (LA Times
<http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-tom-harkin-clinton-steak-fry-20140818-story.html>
)

·  September 19 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton fundraises for the DNC with
Pres. Obama (CNN
<http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/27/politics/obama-clinton-dnc/index.html>)

·  October 2 – Miami Beach, FL: Sec. Clinton keynotes the CREW Network
Convention & Marketplace (CREW Network
<http://events.crewnetwork.org/2014convention/>)

·  October 13 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton keynotes the UNLV Foundation
Annual Dinner (UNLV
<http://www.unlv.edu/event/unlv-foundation-annual-dinner?delta=0>)

·  October 14 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes
salesforce.com Dreamforce
conference (salesforce.com
<http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/highlights.jsp#tuesday>)

·  October 28 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton fundraises for House
Democratic women candidates with Nancy Pelosi (Politico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/hillary-clinton-nancy-pelosi-110387.html?hp=r7>
)

 ·  December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts
Conference for Women (MCFW <http://www.maconferenceforwomen.org/speakers/>)