WE Blog

Clinton’s not so radical past

By Robert Farley
Published on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 06:04 p.m.

SUMMARY: A chain e-mail says Clinton sympathized with the Black Panthers and interned for a law firm run by a Communist. The source? An article by Clinton advisor-turned-foe Dick Morris.

The latest anti-Hillary Clinton chain e-mail making the rounds comes not from an anonymous voice in the blogosphere but from a former political consultant who once helped guide the Clintons’ political life in Arkansas and the White House.

Although it’s not clear who created the e-mail, the allegations it carries are based on an article by famed strategist Dick Morris. The one-time Clinton ally paints an embellished picture of Hillary Rodham as a student radical who interned for a law firm headed by a Communist and worked tirelessly to help Black Panthers on trial for murder.

Anonymous e-mail attacks have been popular in this year’s presidential campaign, particularly in the Democratic contest where both leading candidates have been subjected to viral assaults. But this one is unique because it cites a well-known source: Morris.

You may remember him as the campaign manager for Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, the one who stepped down in disgrace when it was revealed that he allowed a prostitute to listen in on conversations with the president. She said Morris had a thing for toe sucking.

Morris’ relationship with the Clintons quickly soured. Now, he’s a political commentator for Fox News and a nationally syndicated columnist with a Web site, DickMorris.com. Clinton-bashing is his passion.

On Aug. 9, 2007, Morris wrote an article for FrontPageMag.com, a conservative Internet journal, where he restates two points he made about Hillary Clinton in a book he wrote years before. The first was about her alleged sympathy for the Black Panthers and the other referenced her internship with a law firm run by a Communist.

We’ll start with the Black Panthers. Here’s what the e-mail, taken directly from Morris’ article, says: “Hillary’s main extra-curricular activity in law school was helping the Black Panthers, on trial in Connecticut for torturing and killing a federal agent. She went to court every day as part of a law student monitoring committee trying to spot civil rights violations and develop grounds for appeal.”

Here’s the history.

In 1970, eight Black Panthers, including its national chairman Bobby Seale, were brought to trial in New Haven, Conn., on charges of murdering a fellow member, Alex Rackley, who was suspected of being a police informant. He was not a federal agent.

The trial consumed the Yale campus, and many Yale students rallied in support of the black defendants, or at least for their right to a fair trial. Consider this statement from Yale President Kingman Brewster: “I personally want to say that I am appalled that things have come to such a pass that I am skeptical of the ability of black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the U.S.”

Clinton, a Yale Law School student a the time, played a “minor” role in the doings that year, said Paul Bass, a journalist who spent years researching the Black Panther case for a book he co-authored called “Murder in the Model City.” She co-chaired a committee whose main role was to prevent violence at a May Day demonstration, he said.

Clinton’s committee also offered legal advice to demonstrators who got arrested and to monitor the trial for civil rights abuses, Bass said.

But if that civil-rights monitoring ever happened, said two sources interviewed by the St. Petersburg Times, one thing is certain: Clinton was not an every-day trial watcher, as Morris claims. Nor did she “help” the defense.

“I can’t say she was never in court,” said David Rosen, a junior member of the defense team for Seale. “But she was not there every day. In fact, I don’t even remember seeing her there at all. I know she didn’t do any work for the defense team.”

According to Carl Bernstein’s biography “A Woman in Charge,” Clinton was among the student-observers from a civil liberties class who attended the trial daily “to report possible abuses by the government, discuss them in class, write papers about them and prepare summaries for the American Civil Liberties Union.”

That last part is news to Mike Avery, who was hired by the ACLU as a staff lawyer to keep tabs on the Black Panther case.

“I didn’t see Hillary Rodham anywhere around the place, and I would have known,” said Avery, now a law professor at Suffolk Law School.

People involved in the case all knew each other and socialized together, he said. “She was not in that crowd,” he said, “by no stretch of the imagination.”

Clinton’s campaign did not respond Times inquiries.

Another Morris charge sent by chain e-mail said: “Hillary interned with Bob Treuhaft, the head of the California Communist Party. She met Bob when he represented the Panthers and traveled all the way to San Francisco to take an internship with him.”

In 1971, Clinton did spend a summer interning as a law clerk for Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein.

And senior partner Treuhaft had once been active in the American Communist Party, though he was not “head of the California Communist Party” as Morris claimed in his article. Investigated and harassed by McCarthyites in 1950s, Treuhaft was listed by the House Un-American Activities Committee as one of the most dangerously subversive lawyers in the country, according to his 2001 obituary in the Times of London. But he became disillusioned with the party and left it in 1958, before Clinton started her internship with the firm.

In her autobiography, Clinton makes only passing reference to her responsibilities at the firm, which she called “a small law firm in Oakland, California.” She wrote, “I spent most of my time working for Mal Burnstein researching, writing legal motions and briefs for a child custody case.”

Burnstein, who was never a communist, is retired now. Reached at his home in California, Burnstein recalled that Clinton was one of the firm’s better summer interns: smart and a hard worker.

“She wasn’t political at all, that I remember,” Burnstein said. “The only politics that were discernible were probably liberal politics … She came to us because of the civil rights cases we did, the things we did with racial equity and other civil rights things. That was her interest.”

In addition to Treuhaft’s former association with the Communist Party, another partner in the firm, Doris Walker, was, and still is, an active member.

Clinton must have known about those associations, Burnstein said. “It’s not like it was a secret.”

Walker, now retired, said she figured someone would try to make political hay out of it eventually. Reached at home in California this week, she said she “must be the only living Communist Party member of my generation.”

“It was sort of a left-wing firm,” Walker said, but most of the lawyers were not communists. To dredge it up now, she said, amounts to little more than red-baiting.

Although Morris did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment, in his 2004 book, “Rewriting History,” an acerbic rebuttal to Hillary Clinton’s autobiography, “Living History,” he takes a more measured stance.

“Hillary was no Communist, nor should her work at the Treuhaft firm imply that she was,” Morris wrote. “But the fact that she chose this job out of all the summer jobs that might have been available, traveling three thousand miles for it, tells something about her orientation at the time. Just as the fact that she does not describe the firm’s work or reputation says something about her today.”

That part’s not in the e-mail, which ends with Morris’s assessment of Clinton: “She is a disaster for all Americans.”

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/feb/15/clintons-not-so-radical-past/

http://www.kansas.com/711/story/314470.html

Apparently there is evidence of non-citizens voting in Kansas elections.

It’s time for a voter ID.

It’s enough circumstanial evidence to warrent an investigation.

Hollyfornia Excess:

Perhaps if Paris Hilton would have donated that money to a homeless shelter, she could have done some real good?

“Paris Hilton has been honoring her title as the world’s number one party princess by boogying until all hours all week in Sin City, but even she was surprised by a very “spirited” Valentine/birthday gift given to her by a total stranger on Thursday night at her home-away-from-home LAX.

A club goer spotted the former prisoner getting down and dirty, and knowing that she was just shy of the big 2-7, proceeded to purchase four gold-plated three liter bottles of 1995 Dom Perignon at $40,000 per bottle. Paris and her new “friends” then lit some sparklers and celebrated the “sweet” day in style.” Fox News

Your linkie no workee, Sol – i – san

SolDevVB
Posted February 16, 2008 at 6:07 pm | Permalink
JR,
…
Simplistic model, but would you like the government to regulate what your kids did for chores and how much you should compensate them with allowance?

Seriously, would this be a model you would support?

test

test

test

http://www.nvgopcaucus.com/results

Does this link work? Can anyone post an embeded link outside this domain?

Where’s the Substance?
By Scott Galindez
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 18 February 2008

Madison, Wisconsin – Many pundits and the Clinton campaign keep asking where the substance is to Obama’s campaign. There’s a simple answer: in his plans.

It’s true that his stump speeches are full of soaring oratory and do not satisfy policy wonks, but do a simple search of his web site and you will find substance. He also regularly gives policy speeches packed with specifics.

For example, on Saturday in Wisconsin, Senator Obama laid out his plan for revitalizing the Community College System.

Obama proposes to make tuition at a community college completely free for most Americans by creating a new “American Opportunity Tax Credit.” He explained, “This fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is free. The credit will be available to families at the time of enrollment by using the prior year’s tax data to deliver the credit at the time the tuition is due. Recipients of this credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of public service a year, either during the school year or over the summer months.”

The senator also proposed creating a so-called “Community College Partnership” that would assess the role of community colleges and help to tailor their services to the needs of students and industry.

Senator Obama also laid out his plan for the economy in a speech to workers at a General Motors assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

In that speech, Obama said he would offer direct relief to victims of the mortgage crisis, and would also offer a tax credit to low- and middle-income taxpayers that will help them meet their mortgage obligations.

His job creation program focuses on infrastructure and “green energy jobs.” He proposes spending $210 billion over ten years to create jobs in these sectors and retrain workers to transition to these opportunities.

Another proposal affecting workers would be in the area of retirement accounts. He would mandate employers to place a small percentage of salaries into a retirement savings account. Under his plan, the federal government would match the funds set aside.

For working parents who split time between earning a living and caring for their kids, Obama proposes expanding the child-care tax credit for people earning less than $50,000 a year, and he proposes doubling spending on quality after-school programs. He also would expand the “Family Medical Leave Act” to include more businesses and millions more workers, and would require every employer to provide seven paid days of medical leave a year.

On health care, the major difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are mandates. Both would set up a similar system that individuals could buy into. Clinton would mandate that everyone must buy in. Obama would only require that children be covered; he cited the situation in Massachusetts,where some people are being fined for not buying into a plan that they think they can’t afford. Obama says he is committed to universal health care, but doesn’t want to put an “unfair burden on individuals while we work to get there.”

On Iraq, Obama has pledged to getting all US combat troops out in 16 months. Clinton will not set a date. Neither candidate would remove all troops; both believe a small force will be necessary to protect the embassy, and to protect Iraqis who have assisted our soldiers. Many antiwar activists oppose both Clinton’s and Obama’s plans, saying they don’t go far enough, fast enough.

This article is not intended to be an endorsement of Obama on the issues. The real differences between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are very small. Senator Clinton also would invest in “Green Jobs;” she has a national service plan, and would provide similar tax credits. The corporate media are doing the country a disservice by echoing unfair charges that Obama’s campaign is all about speeches and has no substance.

” but would you like the government to regulate what your kids did for chores and how much you should compensate them with allowance?”

I’d much rather government have that role than it be the province of greedy business.

Well sol

SOME parents used to think it was perfectly ok to send their kids off to work in coal mines.

Until the government enacted child labor laws.

Would you be in favor of repealing those?

Well, “SolDecVB” –

If we’d stop spending $9 Billion a month on George WMD Bush’s little Iraqi adventure, some funds will be freed up, don’tcha think?

MonkeyHawk
Posted February 18, 2008 at 11:09 am | Permalink
If we’d stop spending $9 Billion a month on George WMD Bush’s little Iraqi adventure, some funds will be freed up, don’tcha think?

No problem with that at all. Nor pulling our troops off of all foreign soil. No worries. What is your point? You still haven’t funded the programs. You need the money before you spend it.

That is the damn problem with politicians these days. You’ve got Hillary and Obama looking to spend an additional 200-300 billion a year and it will be paid by??? No one really knows. Taxing the ‘evil rich’? There is only so much they will bear. The cost will either be pushed off on the consumer or they will pick up their marbles and headquarter off shore. No more tax dollars.

Then McLame, 100 more years in Iraq that will be funded by??? Well, he was for taxing the ‘evil rich’ before he was against it.

Is no one fiscally responsible? Can any of these candidates show how they will fund their policies?

Proud Man — You posted a link to a Letter to the Editor, and call it evidence??

C’mon!! THAT isnst evidence… Now, find one of the interpreters to write in, and THAT would be evidence!!

It is highly possible for someone to need an interpreter at a political rally… And they could even be citizens!! Maybe they can SPEAK English, but cant read it?? My grandmother spoke perfect English, but never learned to read English… Of couse she couldnt READ her native German either!!

The “lette writer” doesnt tell us what KIND of interpreter was being used… The DEAF also have interpreters!!

The Letter simply doesnt give enough information to prove registration of illegals… But IF the Kansas Dems are allowing such, it should be STOPPED!!

SolDevVB
Posted February 18, 2008 at 11:41 am | Permalink
That is the damn problem with politicians these days. You’ve got Hillary and Obama looking to spend an additional 200-300 billion a year and it will be paid by??? No one really knows. Taxing the ‘evil rich’? There is only so much they will bear. The cost will either be pushed off on the consumer or they will pick up their marbles and headquarter off shore. No more tax dollars.
———————————————–

And Democrats today cry about Bush’s deficits and how we could have better used the money spent in Iraq on US socialist programs.

That shows they don’t give a dang about the deficits. They only care if $1 is diverted away from Socialist programs.

And Hillary has voted to fund the Iraq war how many times?

Heh. Leonard Pitts had it right in his column about conservatives not being on time. The democrats have been courting hispanic voters for years. The republicans just wish they had thought of it sooner.

Like on time.

Now they see the handwriting on the wall, and so they paint any hispanic friendly actions as courting and registering illegal voters.

And they suggest blacks and gays would be better off supporting the republicans.

he. heh. hehehehehehe. HEE HEE HEE HEEHEEEEEEEEE!

Damn. That’s a good one.

I can name that tune in fewer words.

“Jesus, save me from your followers”

AmWay-Regular–

I’ve registered dozens of people to vote, and if there’s any question at all about their citizenship, I ask.

Obviously, one can’t vote if one is not a citizen. It’s not a violation of civil rights to ask a factual question.

I think either you or your source doesn’t know what the hell you’re talking about . . .

Or both.

This is from the Colby College admissions blog. While directed at Juniors, the advice therein contained should be heeded by any student in high school who is thinking about applying to college, any college. Steven Davis, if you are about, I would request your son take a look at this, too.

http://tinyurl.com/2af6py

That said, I definitely have to agree with his assessment of work ethic, though.

Does anybody realize on how much is depended upon staff members getting reports from people that gather information from other people that gather information from other people that gather information from other people that gather information from other people?

I know it keeps on repeating but that is the scary part of our governing methods and to think that is what decisions are based upon.

As Mr. Davis has stated, we will have to do more than just raise taxes and cut spending.

It is painfully obvious to anyone that really looks at the numbers that we are in a big hole and more digging is not going to get us out.

Regardless of who is president or who controls Congress, fiscal realities have to be faced.

The era of low(er) taxes is over. Trickle down economics is a failed theory and has never produced a balanced budget.

Taxes will have to be raised and tax breaks rescinded to increase revenues, however painful that may be.

More importantly, merely cutting spending is not going to get us to a level of fiscal responsibility.

McCain has proposed eliminating earmarks. Bush says that he will veto any spending bill that doesn’t cut earmark spending in half.

Earmarks total about $35 billion right now. The deficit for fiscal 2009 is estimated at $600 billion.

Cutting earmarks is like putting a bandaid on a cut finger while the patient dies from a severed jugular.

To return to fiscal responsibility, spending has to be SLASHED, cut to the bone, across the board cuts, deep into the meat.

A few cuts………………….

The War on Iraq.

Foreign military bases.

Social Security as we know it.

Medicare and Medicaid as we know it.

Congressional staffing, pensions and salaries.

Redundant Federal programs that mirror state programs.

Redundant Federal programs that are covered by two (or more) Federal Departments.

If Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike were truly interested in the future of this country, they would (symbolically) cut their salaries by 25%, refuse their pensions and buy their own health insurance like average Americans.

The same would hold true for many Federal employees, Judges, bureaucrats, Cabinet members, executive staffers, etc.

Average Americans are going to suffer in the coming years due to the bloated Federal government and out of control spending coupled with unrealistic tax cuts.

The Federal government should be the first to step up and take the hit.

“I don’t support the nanny state. I think the government should be less involved in individual’s lives.”

You only THINK you will enjoy feudalism sol.

“Any guesses WS? I like a leader that leads by example !!!”

Damn, let’s see, Mr. Dev VB…. Todd Tiahrt? Nope. Ted Kennedy? Nope. Pat Roberts? Nope. Dan Burton? Nope.

Just one – Dr. Ron Paul – and the GOP has completely neutered him.

So much for THAT party of fiscal responsibility.

Clinton Cries Foul! Obama’s Orations NOT Original!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3392913.ece

February 18, 2008

Hillary Clinton accuses Barack Obama of plagiarism

SolDevVB
Posted February 18, 2008 at 1:50 pm | Permalink
I know I would enjoy freedom and liberty JR
——————————————–

JR has no clue what Feudalism means.

He thinks Big Government gives mankind Freedom. Small Government gives mankind Feudalism.

I wish I could say all this comes as a big surprise, kfg; I really do. What has happened/is happening follows the scenario I crafted mentally, and should have posted, the day the bill was pulled from before the committee.

We’ll see, “ksfarmgrrl,”

But it looks as if the House can’t override a veto.

Just when you think that the Lege has gotten their collective heads screwed on – not straight, but at least on – they go and pull some stupid stuff like this.

I guess their version of a representative system is ever so slightly different than the rest of us.

Kansans oppose the power plants by a 2 – 1 margin.

85% of the power would go out side of Kansas.

100% of the pollution would stay in Kansas.

100% of the water used would be from our aquifier, water that we can’t spare.

And………….. if future Federal CO2 guidelines require additional pollution eliminating equipment – guess who will either pay for it or see a huge investment turn into a ghost town.

Dang……………

It’s all on Kathy now.

She had better gather what little spine she has and veto that damn plant.

Don’t Mess With WWII Vets:

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080214_lj_hawes.bfc57dff.html

80-year-old John Wayne fan puts attacker in hospital

10:06 AM CST on Friday, February 15, 2008

By CHRIS HAWES / WFAA-TV

Investigators say they were definitely going to rob him – possibly even kill him.

But an 80-year-old North Texan wasn’t about to let that happen, so he took action.

One of the suspects is in the hospital and both are facing charges.

Two men obviously thought James Pickett, 80, was an easy target when they showed up at his home on Saturday with a knife.

“He just came through that door, stabbing and beating,” said Pickett.

Captain Clint Pullin said it looked as though the men wanted to kill him.

But before you worry too much about Pickett, learn a bit more about him.

He’s a WWII veteran, former firefighter and lifelong John Wayne devotee.

In short, even at 80, he is someone you just don’t mess with.

What the men didn’t know is Picket had taken a pistol and put it in his pocket before opening the door.

“He jumped and turned and I shot him,” Picket said.

The two brothers, Paul and Holden Perry, ran but didn’t get far before calling an ambulance.

A bullet just missed Paul Perry’s spine.

“The only problem was I run out of bullets,” Picket said.

A neighbor describes Picket as a “hero.”

Worried about retribution, friends are sticking close.

Both brothers face assault, burglary and robbery charges.

Deputies assure James Pickett they aren’t likely to get out of jail anytime soon but he isn’t worried.

“I think I’m a ten times better shot than and he is… But they best not come back,” he said.

The US is blessed with great coal deposits and these plants make good sense, until at least the subject of CO2 emissions are made a part of the law, which has not happened. These plants meet all requirements under the present law, to not approve them is to have one set of laws on the books we don’t follow and go off on some other unspecified course. That’s bad for future business in Kansas, too much risk for companies if they know we don’t even follow are own law. We must remain a nation under the law not whims, or chaos ensues.
The wind doesn’t blow all the time either, we would still need backup generating capacity and these plants won’t eliminate the development of wind generated power when and where it makes sense. These companies are in this to make a profit, they are not going to do things that don’t make the most sense financially, and right now these plants do.

Hey WS,
What do you think of the state of KS putting a severance tax on any power sold outside KS? Might turn those Holcomb plants into money generators for the all the citizens of the state. I don’t completely buy into the CO2 deal, not that I don’t believe it, but I’m sure not going to get my bowels in an uproar over that yet. Groundwater, that’s another story though. That water may someday be as valuable as gold or oil in a manner of speaking. A severance tax would be saying ‘okay, built your plants, generate needed power, but any that doesn’t stay in the state gets taxed for you, the plants, are profiting utilizing resources of the states. I am not a big tax proponent at all, especially when it applies to me but I am for taxing things that leave the state.

“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. ”

Major General Chesty Puller, USMC – while on a Battalion inspection.

BTW, AmWay–

You were WRONG about needing a photo ID to register for the primaries.

I never got an acknowledgement of that.

“The US is blessed with great coal deposits and these plants make good sense, until at least the subject of CO2 emissions are made a part of the law, which has not happened. These plants meet all requirements under the present law, to not approve them is to have one set of laws on the books we don’t follow and go off on some other unspecified course. That’s bad for future business in Kansas, too much risk for companies if they know we don’t even follow are own law. We must remain a nation under the law not whims, or chaos ensues.”

What’s bad for businiss, and certainly Kansas’ long term economic health, is to use up resources that support the economy we have to provide a service that is unnecessary.

I swear Boxlock, are you a proll on this subject?

Don’t recall posting about primaries.

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