Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

July 2015

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 31, 2015 19 Comments
Today was one of those terrible days I'm glad I was traveling for. That seems to be a pattern for me; I was traveling on the day of the Newtown, CT school shooting, and other incidents that I don't have time to dig out of the archives. Very early, before 5 a.m. Eastern (when I left the house,) I saw tweets about a firebombing of a house near Nablus in which a very young child, Ali Dawabsheh (one and one-half) was murdered. While the perpetrators have not been captured as of this writing, the Israeli government and IDF are calling it an act of "Jewish terrorism." The word "revenge" was spray painted on the wall in Hebrew. Ali's father Saad and mother Riham, and 4-year-old brother Ahmad, are in the hospital in very serious condition with life-threatening burns. The attack was condemned by all facets of Israeli society including the Prime Minister and political leaders, as well as Jewish organizations around the world. There is a lot of soul searching going on.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 31, 2015 28 Comments
This week, the Center for Medical Progress released its fourth Planned Parenthood sting video. This video, like those before it, shows undercover activists teasing out evidence suggesting that Planned Parenthood is in the business not only of providing abortions, but selling the resulting "fetal tissue" for profit. Via WaPo:
Like the three previous releases from the Center for Medical Progress, the latest video contains accusations of illegal and unethical activity: First, it argues that Planned Parenthood profits from compensation as part of fetal parts donations; and second, that clinics may alter procedures to provide more intact specimens, in violation of established ethical standards for fetal parts collection. “We have to kind of see the baseline of how things are getting extracted now and see if we can do any work with them to maybe be more gentle,” Ginde says in the video. She adds that the clinic has little control over whether specimens come out intact or not, but adds, “Sometimes, if we get, if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then we are intact.” ... In another portion of the video, the undercover actors are allowed to observe the specimen collection process inside a Planned Parenthood clinic. “Do people do stuff with eyeballs?” Ginde asks the undercover actor. Later, a medical assistant notes that a specimen is “another boy.”
Watch:

Posted by Jay Caruso on July 31, 2015 9 Comments
The book 13 Hours, based on events on the ground in Libya on September 11, 2012 has been adapted for the big screen and the movie will be released in January, 2016. Mitchell Zuckoff, the author of the book opted, instead of trying to wrap a narrative around the book, basically just told the story of what happened on the ground, leaving politics largely out of it. The film was directed by Michael Bay which will be a departure of sorts for him. While Bay has directed fun, popcorn style action movies with lots of explosions, the subject matter here is much more delicate. It's real and four Americans were killed including the Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. The real question is: How will it be received by Democrats, particularly, Hillary Clinton? Here is the trailer:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 31, 2015 50 Comments
Though it's seemingly impossible to discuss the tragic tale of Cecil the lion without invoking a comparison war, there is an entire part of this story that those with their hair ablaze forgot to consider -- what do Zimbabwean's think? It appears I'm not the only one pondering the African perspective. While Americans are calling for the extradition of the dentist who killed Cecil the lion and the hashtag #lionlivematter was trending on social media, Zimbabwe had one question -- what lion?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 31, 2015 43 Comments
File this under: Things that would be hilarious if they weren't real life and cross-reference under Not The Onion. As if Hillary Clinton using a personal email account and home brewed server while serving as Secretary of State weren't inept enough, Clinton's private attorney is running around with a thumb drive full of classified info. You read that correctly -- a thumb drive. flashbam Mind you, Clinton has sworn time, and time again that no classified information was transmitted via her personal email account. Which, as we've noted repeatedly begs the question -- how the hell did she do her job?! In any case, the Inspector General debunked the whole "I did not send classified information from my email account" claim. And now we learn that her attorney has a pocket-full of classified info.

Posted by New Neo on July 31, 2015 11 Comments
After all the false leads in the year and a third since Malaysian Flight 370 vanished, we now have a real possibility that a piece of it has washed ashore, a sort of cryptic message in a bottle that may have drifted thousands of miles from wherever the plane's gravesite---and that of its 227 passengers and 12 crew---lies. Unofficial reports are that the piece is indeed from a Boeing 777, the type of plane involved in the disappearance, and that there are no other 777s that are unaccounted for. Experts have been dispatched to identify it further and more exactly, aided by a number that was found on it which might be some sort of component number. The item appears from photos to be similar to a plane part known as a flaperon, which is a lightweight piece of an aircraft wing that "has sealed chambers, making it buoyant." The buoyancy could help explain how it ended up on an island. Notice that the place it was found is named Saint-Andre de la Reunion Island, otherwise known as Reunion Island---a fitting name for the site of a plane's re-entry from the land of the lost into the realm of human awareness.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 31, 2015 14 Comments
Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore has entered the race for the 2016 Republican nomination. Now before you throw yourself off the nearest building, hear me out. This guy has serious credentials. Gilmore was chairman of the National Commission on Homeland Security for five years, he's an Army Intelligence veteran and he was the governor of Virginia on 9/11. In some ways, Gilmore is more qualified than many of the candidates who are already running. Last night on Special Report, Gilmore had an opportunity to make the case for his candidacy.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 30, 2015 59 Comments
This week's collective global meltdown over the killing of Cecil the Lion has brought out the worst in both activists and everyday citizens who found themselves upset at Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer over the allegedly illegal hunt. Actress Mia Farrow tweeted Palmer's personal address. Screenshot via Twitchy: farrowtweet Other Twitter uses were quick to report the dox to the platform's support staff, prompting Farrow to delete the tweet. Instead of leaving it at that, she decided to post another tweet, this time including Palmer's business address:

Posted by New Neo on July 30, 2015 90 Comments
As a huge fan of the very articulate and forceful Carly Fiorina, I've been wondering why she continues to score very low in the polls for the Republican nomination. Here's my attempt at an answer. I believe Carly Fiorina scores low not only because she lacks name recognition, but because she has never held elective public office and she lost the one race she entered. Even though she did well (considering it was in bluer-than-blue California,) she still lost. Also, although she can explain her firing from Hewlett-Packard in a way that doesn't reflect poorly on her (see this and this), the firing still doesn't sound to the casual listener like a success story. But far more importantly, Donald Trump—-who naturally gains more publicity from his statements and his candidacy because he is flamboyant and somewhat outrageous---has taken the spot Fiorina would otherwise occupy, that of “business-oriented political outsider who has never held public office.” He is far, far more well-known than Fiorina via his long self-promoting stint in the public eye, and is therefore a magnet for the many protest voters on the right. Supporting Trump is a twofer for anyone who's angry at the establishment: he is not a member of the GOP establishment, and he really gets the goat of those who are.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 30, 2015 22 Comments
Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court voted 4-3 to make public sector employees subject to the state's 2012 Right to Work law. The holding dealt a huge blow to the labor unions vying to represent the state's almost 40,000 employees. The court's argument turned even the friendly appeals court ruling on its head; while the appeals court ruling said that the existence of the Michigan Civil Service Commotion did not preclude the inclusion of state employees under the right to work laws, the supremes held that the Commission never had the authority to require state employees to pay the union-related agency fees, even before right to work laws existed. More from Michigan Capitol Confidential:
Justices Viviano, Markman, Young and Zahra ruled that while the Civil Service Commission has control of salary, benefits, grievance procedures and employment conditions, it does not have the authority to require involuntary payments to the union. Adopting an argument provided by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the majority held that agency fees were akin to a tax on public employees and that the Michigan Civil Service Commission lacked the power to tax. Justices Bernstein, Kelly and McCormack disagreed with the majority, saying that the Civil Service Commission’s authority includes the ability to force union payments from employees.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2015 19 Comments
While the ire of the media has been focused mostly on Donald Trump for the past few news cycles, Scott Walker is still getting some scorn. This column by Dana Milbank at The Washington Post could all but be a campaign poster for walker, with a few wording changes:

Why Scott Walker is so dangerous [to liberals]

Why Scott Walker is so dangerous:
“First off,” Scott Walker proclaimed, “we took on the unions, and we won. We won!” Taking on the unions is usually first off for Walker, the Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate. It is the very rationale for his candidacy. And on Thursday, he took a detour from the campaign trail to appear here before the annual meeting of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of state legislators dedicated in large part to defeating unions.... Walker then went on to celebrate his triumphs over the demonstrators who objected to his dismantling of Wisconsin’s public-sector unions, portraying the pro-union forces as violent thugs....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2015 4 Comments
The Security Subcommittee of The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on July 28, 2015, on The Impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement The Tower has a write up on the full scope of the hearing. In a prior post, we featured the testimony of Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream International, about the threats, intimidation and violence of the BDS movement directed at SodaStream for 8 years, Epic House Testimony – BDS in business of “Manipulation, Violence and Destruction” In this post, we focus on the testimony of Northwestern Univ. Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich Prof. Kontorovich's full written presentation (embedded at bottom of this post) contains important background as to the role Congress can play in opposing BDS consistent with U.S. law, policy and history of involvement in the issue. The subjects covered include:
  1. Background on Economic Warfare Against Israel
  2. U.S. Policy on Boycotts of Israeli Entities
  3. The Scope of Anti-boycott laws
  4. The Argument that Boycotts of Israel are Justified or Required by International law
  5. Potential European Measures and their Implications for International Trade Law
Here is Prof. Kontorovich's appearance before Congress:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 30, 2015 8 Comments
Though it's no longer leading the headlines, EmailGate is still alive and well. Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email account and private servers during her tenure as Secretary of State was bound to be problematic. When use of a private email account initially surfaced, Clinton repeatedly insisted no classified information was sent from her personal email account. Late last week, the Inspector General debunked Clinton's claims saying classified information had in fact been transmitted through the former Secretary's private email.
The inspector general for the intelligence community has informed members of Congress that some material Hillary Clinton emailed from her private server contained classified information, but it was not identified that way. Because it was not identified, it is unclear whether Clinton realized she was potentially compromising classified information. The IG reviewed a "limited sampling" of her emails and among those 40 reviewed found that "four contained classified [intelligence community] information," wrote the IG Charles McCullough in a letter to Congress. McCullough noted that "none of the emails we reviewed had classification or dissemination markings" but that some "should have been handled as classified, appropriately marked, and transmitted via a secure network." The four emails in question "were classified when they were sent and are classified now," spokeswoman Andrea Williams told CNN. McCullough said that State Department Freedom of Information Act officials told the intelligence community IG that "there are potentially hundreds of classified emails within the approximately 30,000 provided by former Secretary Clinton."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on July 30, 2015 6 Comments
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee is set to become the first head of the state from India to visit Israel. The visit by the Indian head of the state, set for early October, has a great symbolic value -- considering India only established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. Much like Israel, India too is a parliamentary democracy where President acts as a ceremonial head of the state, while executive powers rest with the Prime Minister and the cabinet. The high-level state visit is the result of tenuous diplomacy spanning decades that saw an erstwhile adversarial Asian giant turn into a trusted ally. Since India and Israel established diplomatic relations 24 years ago, Israel has become an important trade and technology partner for India -- not just in defence sector. Bilateral trade between the two countries that was pegged at $200 million in early 1990s has now crossed well over $4 billion. In recent months, Israeli defense companies like Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael and Meprolight have entered in partnerships with Indian companies to form defence Joint Ventures – giving boost to Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India” initiative aimed to develop India’s manufacturing capabilities.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 30, 2015 11 Comments
Chaka Fattah, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania's second district, has been charged with racketeering conspiracy alongside four other people in a case that smacks of influence peddling. The Department of Justice announced the charges yesterday:
Congressman Chaka Fattah and Associates Charged with Participating in Racketeering Conspiracy A member of Congress and four of his associates were indicted today for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy involving several schemes that were intended to further the political and financial interests of the defendants and others by, among other tactics, misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal, charitable and campaign funds. Congressman Chaka Fattah Sr., 58, of Philadelphia; lobbyist Herbert Vederman, 69, of Palm Beach, Florida; Fattah’s Congressional District Director Bonnie Bowser, 59, of Philadelphia; and Robert Brand, 69, of Philadelphia; and Karen Nicholas, 57, of Williamstown, New Jersey, were charged today in a 29-count indictment with participating in a racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including bribery; conspiracy to commit mail, wire and honest services fraud; and multiple counts of mail fraud, falsification of records, bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution and money laundering.
Naturally, Fattah denies the charges:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2015 99 Comments
On July 4, 2015, 22 year-old Lane Pittman decided to take his electric guitar and play the Star Spangled Banner on the street outside his friend's house in Neptune Beach, near Jacksonville. Pittman says that after a police officer asked him to stop, he asked if it was okay to play on the sidewalk, and was told that was okay. And play he did:
"I don't think I ever played that song as good in my life as I did on that day. It felt right. It was an emotional roller coaster."
The crowd topped 200 people, spilling onto the street around him: Then Pittman was, to his surprise, arrested for breaching the peace:
MORE POSTS
Accessibility by WAH