Morning Reads: Obama Takes Executive Action on Militarized Police

Good morning — and a happy 75th birthday to Harry Reid!

On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted 67-22 to censure anti-Communist witch hunter Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin for contempt of a subcommittee. They declared that “Tail Gunner Joe” had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity.”

Stat of the day: 16 percent — the share of all capital gains that the 400 richest families in the US took home in 2010, according to the IRS.

Policing the police –> On Monday, President Obama announced that his administration would direct $263 million to local police departments for body cameras and new training. The White House also is preparing an executive order that would overhaul the distribution of military equipment to local police. Justin Sink reports for The Hill that the order would require “departments to develop a consistent list of equipment that police departments are eligible to acquire, require a local civilian review of all requests, and mandate police departments receive the necessary training to use the equipment properly.” ALSO: David Beasley and Julia Edwards report for Reuters that Attorney General Eric Holder will soon “release new guidelines to limit racial profiling by federal law enforcement, a move long awaited by civil rights advocates.”

The gift that keeps on giving –> Politico’s Kenneth Vogel writes that political organizations are becoming worried that their funding will dry up when a small group of deep-pocketed donors die. So increasingly, the groups are courting the children of the rich to assure that the money will keep flowing as vast fortunes are handed down to the next generation.

“One of the biggest transfers of wealth in history” –> WaPo’s Steven Mufson writes that falling oil prices “are draining hundreds of billions of dollars from the coffers of oil-rich exporters and oil companies and injecting a much-needed boost for ailing economies in Europe and Japan — and for American consumers at the start of the peak shopping season.” BUT: At Grist, Heather Smith writes that, “environmentally, oil prices are a wash, no matter what. If oil prices rise, people use less of the stuff, but there’s more financial incentive to dig it up. If oil prices fall… fracking operations dry up.”

New front –> The White House is considering a plan to partner with Turkey to create a buffer zone within Syria that might give opponents of the Islamic State a relatively safe space from which to operate against the militant group. The US would also get use of an air base in Turkey for fighter and drone operations. Karen DeYoung has the details at WaPo.

Who’s concerned about black-on-black crime? –> Jamelle Bouie writes at Slate that nobody is more outraged than members of the black community.

Related –> Nine Cleveland police officers — eight white and one Latino — filed a lawsuit claiming that they were the victims of racial discrimination. They say that in 2012 they faced greater scrutiny than black officers after killing two unarmed African-Americans following a car chase. Tom Boggioni has more details at Raw Story.

“The tech have-nots” –> MoJo’s Josh Harkinson visits what is believed to be the biggest homeless encampment in the country, which sits “a stone’s throw from Apple’s headquarters” in Silicon Valley. AND: Here’s a video about those homeless in San Jose, produced for BillMoyers.com in April 2013.

Prodigy –> At MSNBC, Anna Brand introduces us to a 16-year-old Sri Lankan-American girl in Tennessee who’s working on her PhD in defense studies. She got a master’s from Harvard this year and hopes to one day become the secretary of defense.

It’s no jetpack, but… –> The Terrafugia Transition is poised to become the world’s first commercially available flying car — if it can get approval from two regulatory agencies. Via: Grist.