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June 2013

It's fairly well known that prior to his role in the Gang of 8, Marco Rubio was opposed to an across the board amnesty, and was critical of the 1986 amnesty. In this October 2009 interview, uncovered by Morgen Richmond (formerly of Verum Serum), Rubio takes a particularly hard line, insisting that "you cannot grant amnesty," and going on to explain how amnesty undermines the entire immigration system going forward. The interview is pretty devastating to Rubio's role in the Gang of 8 immigration bill which puts legalization and a path to citizenship ahead of enforcement of current laws and securing both the borders and the visa system (starting at 0:38):
The problem is the American people have no trust in the federal government, and they're not going to have a trust in the federal government until the federal government deals with the issue of illegal immigration. Until the federal government gives people confidence that the law is being enforced, that the border is being secured, that our visa process is no longer being abused. So I think step one is to enforce our existing laws. Secure our borders, fix our visa entry problem…deal with the illegal immigration problem first. When the American people have confidence that the federal government has done that then we can move to step two. And step two is create a legal immigration that works, that once again is a positive for America. You cannot grant amnesty. If you grant amnesty you will send a message that all you have to do is come into America illegally, stay here long enough, and we will let you stay. Number 2, you will destroy any hopes you have of having a legal immigration system that works. If the American people see us grant amnesty they will never again believe in legal immigration, they will never again support it. And that's wrong for our country, bad for our future. In fact in '86 when Reagan created an amnesty program, about 3 million people were granted amnesty. The result was that you had a bunch of people standing in line to enter legally who all claimed to be illegal because it was easier

While everyone is focused on protests in Cairo, the war continues in Syria. Via Al Jazeera, Syria army launches intense bombing of Homs: Air strikes killed at least three civilians as Syrian government forces intensified their attacks and pressed forward with a new bid to retake several...

After days of demonstrations and mounting tension, protests continue across Egypt today  in what is expected to be a peak point in the movement against President Mohammed Morsi. You can follow live coverage and updates below. Video livestream:
Watch live streaming video from ontveglive at livestream.com
Russia Today also has a good live streaming video feed without any commentary, but it's not embeddable - you can view it here in a separate window. On Twitter: Follow the #Egypt and #June30 hashtags: Other coverage: Pat Poole is also live-blogging the protests at Pajamas Media.  You can also follow him on Twitter at @pspoole. https://twitter.com/zakariamj/status/351349295640879106 https://twitter.com/DoaaY/status/351349628349853696 https://twitter.com/MiroEgyptian/status/351349496363499521

Major demonstrations are taking place across Egypt Sunday on the first anniversary of President Mohammed Morsi taking office.  Morsi, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected after the January 2011 Arab Spring, which led to the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak. Observers have grown increasingly...

There will be intense pressure on the House Republicans to approve not just an immigration reform bill, but one that includes citizenship for adults who broke the law to come here. Amnesty is what this debate is all about. Democrats want it in the worst way, and...

Hey folks, Our Friday end-of-day analysis post had accumulated in excess of 200 comments, and, perhaps coincidentally, we also began hearing increasing complaints of slow loading.  Whether the cause is the large number of comments or some other aspect of the page, Professor Jacobson and I...

It's worth "liking" the "Ready for Hillary" page on Facebook, the former First Lady's foray into readying the country for her eventual campaign, not only to give your friends a fright, but also to witness just how different her marketing is than her nemesis Barack...

SCOTUS decisions had some college folks talking this week. DOMA ruling praised by some professors at Catholic universities Not all of it so nice. Students ridicule DOMA supporters as ‘hideous’ and ‘disgusting’ outside Supreme Court George Washington U. student blasts Clarence Thomas as ‘Uncle Tom’ for affirmative action ruling Other...

My home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has provided much material for Legal Insurrection over the years, including the dispute as to the name itself. Splitting the year between Ithaca and Rhode Island provided me with the distinction of having Patrick Kennedy and Maurice...

Under direct testimony John Good testified that the black man wearing the black hoodie was straddling the man in the white or red sweatshirt "MMA-style" and rained down blows in a "Ground-and-Pound" style of attack.   [caption id="attachment_57004" align="alignnone" width="473"] Taryvon Martin at 7-11, February 26, 2012[/caption] It...

Military Judge Col. Denise Lind ruled Friday that two tweets posted by Wikileaks can be permitted as evidence in the case against Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. From FOX News: A military judge has ruled that prosecutors can introduce tweets suggesting an Army private took his...

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved a resolution Friday determining that IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination when she made opening statements in a May hearing before refusing to answer further questions. https://twitter.com/DarrellIssa/status/350658805895409664 From USA Today: A deeply divided House...

The Army is reportedly restricting staff members’ internal access to The Guardian UK’s NSA related news coverage. Officials say automatic content filters are responsible. From the Monterey Herald:
Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email the Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks." He wrote it is routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative "network hygiene" measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information. "We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security," he wrote, "however, there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information." In a later phone call, Van Vleet said the filter of classified information on public websites was "Armywide" and did not originate at the Presidio. Presidio employees described how they could access the U.S. site, www.guardiannews.com, but were blocked from articles, such as those about the NSA, that redirected to the British site.
Spencer Ackerman, U.S. national security editor at the Guardian, tweeted earlier that the Department of Defense indicated it is not selectively blocking Guardian content, rather, automatic content filters are responsible. https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/350597454627995648 https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/350598534241861632 Indeed, an email from Van Fleet embedded in the Monterey Herald article goes on to elaborate:

The State seems to have suffered the most destructive of its own witnesses to date in calling Jonathan Good to the stand.Good was composed, coherent, and direct through his extensive testimony, the entirety of which was entirely consistent with the defense's theory of lawful self-defense. [caption...