Image 01 Image 03

May 2013

We are going to have some great coverage of the George Zimmerman trial.  I think Legal Insurrection's coverage will be the best around.  I'll have an announcement about that probably Sunday night. In the meantime, you can brush up on the case by reading our prior posts through...

UPDATE 6/1 - 11:00am EST: We have moved live coverage to this link. Taksim Square's Gezi Park  in Istanbul, Turkey has erupted into a scene of chaos this afternoon, after protesters who have been demonstrating there throughout the day clashed with Turkish police.  The protests began peacefully earlier in the week, but the situation has clearly escalated and there are reports of protesters and bystanders being sprayed with pepper spray, water cannons and tear gas. https://twitter.com/ClaireBerlinski/status/340567583252160513 The Washington Post gives us a quick guide to what's going on there.
While the protests evolved into a full-scale demonstration against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (more on that later), they started out much smaller. The peaceful sit-in began on Monday to counter planned construction at the park, which would replace one of downtown Istanbul’s few green spaces with a shopping mall. The scene looks similar to what cities like New York and D.C. experienced during the Occupy protests: large crowds of people milling around, playing instruments and sleeping in tents. [...] Taksim Square is, notably, a loaded place for the Turkish left. In 1977, dozens of protesters were killed in the square when unidentified gunmen opened fire on May Day celebrations. In 2007, police detained nearly 600 after a violent rally in which protesters chanted for Erdogan to resign. And riots broke out again on May Day this year, when hundreds gathered for an anti-government demonstration despite a government ban. The repeated crackdowns, and a growing perception that Erdogan’s government has displayed what the AP calls “increasingly authoritarian and uncompromising tendencies,” have motivated some to call for more mass action. Istanbul’s Hurriyet Daily News reported on Wednesday that Turkey’s main opposition party leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, visited Gezi Party and promised protesters that a member of his party would be there every day, supporting them. Protesters reportedly held a sign that depicted Erdogan as an Ottoman sultan. Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, is both Turkey’s most popular politician and, in the words of the Hurriyet Daily News, “one of the strongest Turkish prime ministers ever.” The protests would have to grow considerably to challenge him: Erdogan has signaled that he plans to run for the presidency when his term expires, and while he isn’t the frontrunner, he’s consistently scored well in approval polls, even winning the people’s choice award for Time’s 2011 Person of the Year. But on social media, at least, the movement against him seems to be gaining momentum. Reuters’ Jonathon Burch reports that thousands of protesters are gathered on Istiklal Street calling for Erdogan to resign. Per this graphic circulating on Twitter, there are Gezi Park solidarity rallies planned in several cities around Turkey, as well as in Helsinki and New York.
Many, some on the scene, are providing updates on social media:

In October 2009, Charles Krauthammer critiqued President Obama's foreign policy in a Weekly Standard article Decline is a choice: Indeed, as he made his hajj from Strasbourg to Prague to Ankara to Istanbul to Cairo and finally to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama drew the picture...

Some of our readers are disputing that Michele Bachmann "retired" from running for office, but however you describe it, she's not running for the congressional seat she has been in for several terms. And it looks like her main competitor -- whose election was made more not...

Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco ...

There has been a no-holds barred assault on conservatives and the Tea Party movement by the Obama administration since day one. Peaceful political protesters were called terrorists, political donors were bullied, tax records were leaked, secondary boycotts by supporters of the administration sought to deprive conservatives...

From Amy: I spied this car's stickers driving down Smoky Hill Rd. in "purple" Aurora, CO. ...

It's always interesting to watch the contortionists at MSNBC when it comes to defending the actions of the Obama administration. Mediaite has posted video of a segment from Martin Bashir's program, in which a panel discusses the language used in the FBI affidavit pertaining to FOX...

Investigators from both the House Ways and Means and House Oversight committees will be interviewing two front-line IRS workers from the Cincinnati office in Washington DC this week, and another two next week, according to congressional sources who spoke to CNN today. House investigators are interviewing...

In an interview today, President Bashar Assad of Syria claims that Russia has delivered some of the S-300 missiles he bought.The Lebanse paper, Al Akhbar, quoted from an exclusive interview Assad gave to Hezbollah's Al Manar television channel. "Syria has received the first batch of Russian...

The Al Qaeda magazine, Inspire, is celebrating the Boston Marathon bombings and mocking US security in its current issue, while insinuating unavoidable future attacks on Americans. From the NY Post: Inspire, known as the Vanity Fair of terrorism, also tried to parlay recent ricin-laced letters sent Congress...

It seems some major news outlets are not all that thrilled about Attorney General Eric Holder’s invitation to meet with their Washington bureau chiefs this week. At issue is the fact that Holder’s meetings - at least the first one - to discuss guidelines for journalists...

By most accounts, Hezbollah's large-scale intervention combined with unending supplies of weapons and advisors from Iran and Russia have helped Assad turn the tide against the rebels. Until that intervention, and even in the initial weeks, it looked like the rebels would hold on in Qusayr after inflicting...

The other day, when I was researching my post about Thomas Friedman and Obamacare, I contacted an old blogging buddy of mine - I was on the Watcher's Council with him a few years ago - Scott Kirwin (aka The Razor). Scott views Obamacare through the...

I couldn't care less about RI Governor Linc Chafee changing from "Independent" to "Democrat." The Democrats in Rhode Island are the most upset about it, because they know him.  They can have him. You know who else doesn't care? Aggie95 incthe Tip Line (you remember what that is, don't...