What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread

Here’s a few to start things off.

1. Despite the press’ best efforts to portray him as a big old meanie because he won’t play along with their gotcha questions, Rand’s stock is up. And Hillary’s is down. 🙂

From YahooNews  “Democrat Hillary Clinton has slipped against leading 2016 Republican candidates in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, according to a poll released on Thursday that cited damage from the furor over the former secretary of state’s emails.

The Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll also showed Clinton in a close race with U.S. Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who declared his candidacy on Tuesday.

Clinton, who is expected to announce her White House bid this month, is tied with all the Republican candidates in Colorado and almost all of them in the early voting state of Iowa, the poll said.

“It isn’t just one or two Republicans who are stepping up; it’s virtually the entire GOP field that is running better against her” since the last swing state survey on Feb. 18, pollster Peter Brown said in a statement.

He attributed the drop to the controversy that erupted in March over Clinton’s use of personal email for work when she was America’s top diplomat. Republicans have raised the prospect of congressional hearings on the issue.”

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2. If that hurt her, then this should too.

From TheHill  “The Clinton Foundation reportedly accepted millions of dollars from a Colombian oil company head before then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to support a trade deal with Colombia despite worries of human rights violations.

The report in the International Business Times comes as Clinton readies an expected run for president. She’s been dogged by questions about whether foreign donations to her foundations could have influenced her official decisions.

The report centers on donations from Frank Giustra and the oil company that he founded, Pacific Rubiales. In a Wall Street Journal story from 2008, Giustra is described as a “friend and traveling companion” of former President Clinton who donated more than $130 million to Clinton’s philanthropies. He’s also a Clinton Foundation board member and has participated in projects and benefits for the foundation.

When workers at Pacific Rubiales decided to strike in 2011, the Columbian military reportedly used force to stop the strikes and compel them to return to work, IBT reports, citing the Washington office of Latin America, a human rights group. Those accusations of human rights violations were part of the criticism of the United States-Colombia Free Trade Promotion Agreement, which was passed by Congress later that year. Pacific Rubiales has repeatedly denied charges that it infringed on workers’ rights.

On the campaign trail in 2008, Hillary Clinton, along with then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, opposed the deal as a raw deal for workers, according to IBT. The pair changed their tune after the election and publicly supported the trade agreement. As secretary of State, Clinton’s State Department certified annually that Colombia was “meeting statutory criteria related to human rights.””

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3. The incestuous relationship between the Obama White House and Google is an interesting read. And now Hillary and other Dems will use this to their benefit as well. I wonder where the American press has been on this story? OK, not really….

From TheDailyMail  “Google executives and employees donated more than $1.6 million to Obama’s two White House campaigns, and the online search giant parachuted top talent into both.

One result has been a coziness with the U.S. government’s executive branch that few other companies can match – marked by access for lobbyists, mentions in nearly half of Obama’s State of the Union addresses, and a personnel feeder trough serving the White House with new senior hires.

There have even been allegations that Google’s up-close-and-personal relationship with the West Wing earned it a reprieve from what would have been an earth-shaking Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit.

Google has insisted it never received special treatment in that case, punctuating its denials with an animated GIF of a laughing baby as a jab at the news outlet that leveled the charge.

White House visitor logs suggest a different kind of story for the company whose motto is ‘Don’t be evil.’

Employees of the Silicon Valley behemoth have been in the White House more than 230 times since Obama took office – approximately once per week. At least 190 of those meetings were with senior officials.”

Much more info at the link.

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