America is moving to the right and away from the Democratic Party: poll

◼ Partisan winds blowing across America are pushing the country to the political right. - STEVEN ROSENFELD, ALTERNET/Raw Story

...“Since 2008, there has been a significant movement away from the Democratic Party both at the national level and in many states,” Gallup reports. “Democrats still maintain a modest advantage in national partisanship, partly because they have an advantage in some of the most highly populated states such as California, New York and Illinois. At the same time, other large states like Florida and Texas are competitive, with Florida showing a slight Democratic edge and Texas a slight Republican one.”...

◼ Co-author of The Emerging Democratic Majority recants - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone

...John Judis, co-author of the 2002 book The Emerging Democratic Majority, now says that majority has come and gone. That’s the thesis of his important National Journal article “The Emerging Republican Advantage.” I reviewed Judis’s book, co-authored by Ruy Teixeira, when it came out in 2002 — an unfortunate moment, as I noted, for their thesis, since it was a pretty good Republican year. But I also took it seriously and in time, in the 2006 and 2008 elections, its thesis seemed vindicated. Democrats won those elections with large majorities from blacks, Hispanics (in many states), single women and members of the Millennial generation.

“These advantages remain partially in place for Democrats today,” Judis now writes, “but they are being severely undermined by two trends that have emerged in the past few elections.” One, which he considers not so surprising, is that “Democrats have continued to hemorrhage support among white working class voters” — a declining share of the electorate, as he notes, but still a significant one. The Republican trend he finds surprising is among what he calls “middle-class Americans” in “the office economy” or, to put it in exit poll terms, college but not post-college graduates with household incomes between $50,000 and $100,000....

Featured Speaker for February: Eureka Police Chief Andy Mills

Andrew (Andy) Mills is currently the Chief of Police for the City of Eureka, California, a city of 30,000 residents, which is situated in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Eureka is surrounded by gigantic redwood trees, a mesmerizing ocean and some of the best outdoor adventures in California. It is also home to urban problems in a rural community.

Formerly, Andy Mills was a San Diego Police captain assigned to Eastern and Western Divisions. Each of the commands had populations of 150,000 residents and about 200 employees. Prior to that, he served as the commanding officer of Criminal Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism, two tours in the Gang Unit where he implemented Intelligence-Led Policing, created an in-house intelligence database, and served on the executive committee for the CalGang Database. Recently, Mills helped create and implement the Major City Chief’s Criminal Intelligence Enterprise which has been adopted by the Major City Chiefs.

Mills belongs to the Homeland Security Policy Institute, of the Intelligence Task Force at George Washington University. Mills was the 2000 recipient of the Police Executive Research Forum’s national Gary P. Hayes award for his contributions to improving the quality of police service. Andy managed one patrol team that won the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing and three others that were Goldstein finalists. His work in the field has been included in several publications produced by PERF and the COPS Office. Mills has published articles on the National Criminal Intelligence Enterprise (NCIE), police leadership, problem solving and police ethics in Problem Solving Quarterly, Law Enforcement News and several National Institute of Justice publications. He frequently lectures at conferences and has provided training to scores of police agencies, including Washington, D.C., Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Rio de Janeiro. He has also taught for the University of Delaware police leadership program.
__________________

JOIN US FOR LUNCH
MEET POLICE CHIEF ANDY MILLLS
If you go:
Thursday, February 19
11:30 am Socializing
12:00-1:00 Lunch meeting and presentation

Please RSVP: Call Leola 443-7205 or Email: leola41j@yahoo.com

Lunch cost: $15. Beverage only: $4 (Tax and tip included)
Make checks payable to HRWF

Location: ◼ 445 Herrick Avenue, Eureka, near the golf course. Call if you need directions

Obama's Middle East Fantasy

◼ link - Eli Lake/Bloomberg View

...the new strategy is a rich stew of feel-good euphemism. As the New York Times reported, the word "lead," "leadership" or some variation appears nearly 100 times. The word "Islam" is only mentioned twice. There is a lot of "training" and "equipping." Rest assured, our "efforts" are almost always "comprehensive."

...If Obama really wants to address everything from inequality to political repression to disaffected youth, he will have to jettison his faith in the wisdom of his own disengagement from the Middle East. Yet the strategy document suggests Obama has not learned this lesson. Indeed, it boasts of how the administration shifted away from costly and unsustainable ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to what it calls a more "sustainable approach" to fighting terrorism.

There are good reasons to support America's disengagement from the region. But to pretend this disengagement will have no cost on America's ability to shape events in the Middle East is delusional.

Because the reality is this: For all of the problems posed by significant U.S. ground forces in the Middle East, it is the only option right now if Obama wishes to stop the advance of the Islamic State without aiding the advance of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Killer piece by @elilake on Obama's national-security strategy and how it in no way resembles the world as it is http://t.co/3lIHgFOVTS

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 6, 2015

10 States Suing Over Obama’s Immigration Actions Find Their Senators on Opposite Side

◼ Lawmakers in Florida, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin—states that have all signed onto a lawsuit that alleges the president’s immigration plan is unconstitutional—have twice blocked debate on a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while also undoing Obama’s immigration actions. - Daily Signal

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation who has closely followed the lawsuit, said these senators are not working in the best interest of the people back home.

He told The Daily Signal: “The polling shows that Americans are overwhelming against what Obama has done. Yet, we have senators from these states going against what their constituents want and what their state attorneys general or governors are doing.”

Senators from the 10 states include:

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

How a Ragtag Band of Activists Won the Battle for Net Neutrality

◼ Despite fierce opposition from the major Internet providers, the FCC is poised to seize expansive new regulatory powers.

It was completely hopeless.

That's what Marvin Ammori, a net-neutrality advocate and consultant for tech companies, told Ari Shahdadi, the general counsel of Tumblr, over burgers in New York City in January 2014.

A federal court had just sided with Verizon and struck down the government's net-neutrality regulations, potentially giving Internet providers the green light to block websites or carve up the Internet into "fast lanes" and "slow lanes."

Ammori and Shahdadi feared the future of the Internet as an open and free platform could be in danger. But the only way to restore net neutrality would be for the Federal Communications Commission to do the politically unthinkable, what some called the "nuclear option."

They would have to convince the FCC to declare the Internet a "telecommunications service" under Title II of the Communications Act. That move, they believed, was the only way the FCC could enact real net-neutrality protections that could hold up in court. But it would provoke the full wrath of some of the most powerful companies in Washington. Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable would all argue it would strangle their industry with outdated utility-style government controls.

How could a handful of start-ups and some feisty Internet activists beat multibillion-dollar corporations with hundreds of well-connected lobbyists?

Shahdadi managed to talk Ammori back from the ledge. A few years earlier, Shahdadi reminded him, they had helped organize a huge online uproar over the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Thousands of websites shut down in protest over the anti-piracy measure. Despite the vocal support of Hollywood and the music industry, lawmakers were forced to drop the legislation in the face of the massive public backlash.... KEEP READING

◼ On the other hand: FCC Commissioner Slams ‘Obama’s 332-Page Plan To Regulate The Internet’ - Daily Caller

Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on Friday raised the first of many criticisms to come about FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s aggressive net neutrality plan distributed to commissioners Thursday, which Pai described as “President Obama’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet.”

In a statement released Friday, Pai lamented the fact that the 332-page plan, which he tweeted a picture of himself holding next to a picture of Obama, won’t be released to the public until after the commission votes on its implementation later this month....

“President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet. It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works,” Pai said. “The plan explicitly opens the door to billions of dollars in new taxes on broadband… These new taxes will mean higher prices for consumers and more hidden fees that they have to pay.”

And then he came for the Internet, made it over in his image... 332-pages of new rules... http://t.co/EQ9d1BM7Mh pic.twitter.com/7dv5N1GYrB

— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) February 10, 2015

Krauthammer ‘Stunned’ By Obama’s ‘Banal & Offensive’ Prayer Breakfast Remarks

◼ Charles Krauthammer tonight slammed President Barack Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, where Obama compared ISIS attacks to the violence committed by Christians in the Crusades. - Conservative Videos