Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

January 2014

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 10 Comments
NY-23, my home district, is a focus for both parties for 2014 because it is one of only a few competitive districts. The district is geographically enormous, a mostly rural area running along the Southern Tier of upstate New York. Once you leave Ithaca, it's a whole other country. Which is why incumbent Republican Tom Reed should be okay by a few percentage points. 2nd Amendment rights, and opposition to the NY SAFE Act, are big issues. Tompkins County, which includes Ithaca, is the exception. Tompkins County is one of only two upstate counties which has not passed a Resolution opposing the SAFE Act. County Opposition to SAFE Act ao January 2014 Guess who was the Democratic Chair of the Tompkins County legislature: Martha Robertson, the Emily's List-backed challenger to Reed. The SAFE Act is in play in the race because of Robertson's confusing voting record, where she appears to have both voted for and against the SAFE Act. WETM 18 reports:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 29 Comments
That's pretty much the evidence presented in this article by a former TSA employee, Dear America, I Saw You Naked: And yes, we were laughing. It starts with the absurd:
I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying. Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.... I quickly discovered I was working for an agency whose morale was among the lowest in the U.S. government. In private, most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency’s day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds.
.... and goes on to the disgusting:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 44 Comments
When Elizabeth Warren's fake Cherokee status broke in late April 2012, Warren's campaign went into panic for several days, issuing statements about Warren's ancestry that proved troublesome when compared to the facts. The entire issue was portrayed as a Scott Brown campaign dirty trick, and the Boston Herald -- the city's not-completely-liberal paper -- was attacked. Warren even entertained questions herself initially, reciting tales of her Aunt Bee and high cheekbones which both were laughable and questionable. Not that long after the Cherokee narrative broke, and endangered her campaign, Warren's campaign found a theme -- don't attack my family, I'm not backing away from my parents -- and stuck to it relentlessly. With a mostly sympathetic press in tow, Warren somewhat successfully reframed the issue away from her demeaning usurpation of Native American identity for employment purposes to why people were attacking her family. Warren also went into media shutdown, refusing to answer any questions except when confronted in unavoidable situations. Even then, Warren robotically stuck to the stript of defending her family. Warren avoided one-on-one interviews with anyone other than sycophants until the day before the Massachusetts Democratic state convention, when the Cherokee narrative threatened to derail Warren's attempt to keep her only Democratic rival, Marisa DeFranco, off the ballot. The convention-eve interviews, where Warren of course stuck to script, were enough to quiet party concerns, and DeFranco was kept off the ballot. I don't know if Warren's false narrative ever would have doomed her campaign, considering it was Massachusetts, but the script and press control worked for electoral purposes. Fast forward to Wendy Davis.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 7 Comments
A Resolution passed yesterday by the Philadelphia City Council is a good reflection of how deeply the pushback against the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel has reached in American civil and political society.  (Full Resolution embedded at bottom of post.)
Condemning the American Studies Association’s academic boycott against Israeli academic institutions and urging the Department of Education, the State System of Higher Education and all colleges and universities in Pennsylvania to reject the academic boycott.

* * *

WHEREAS, The academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, including colleges and universities, serves to restrict academic freedom and hinders the collaboration and free flow of information between academics all over the world; and WHEREAS, Academic freedom, the free flow of information and ideas and international academic collaboration are crucial factors in promoting progress in all areas of study from the hard sciences and technology to the humanities; and .... WHEREAS, Academic freedom is an indispensable component of a free and democratic society and should be guarded vigilantly; and WHEREAS, The American Studies Association’s call for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions threatens academic freedom and should therefore be rejected; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the City Council condemns the American Studies Association’s academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions and urges the Department of Education, the State System of Higher Education and all colleges and universities in Pennsylvania to reject the academic boycott.
The Philadelphis Resolution was proposed by Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, who made the announcement on his Facebook and Twitter pages. https://www.facebook.com/CouncilmanKenyattaJohnson#!/CouncilmanKenyattaJohnson/posts/574424249299048?stream_ref=10

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 26 Comments
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones has noticed the obvious -- The NY Times is devoting enormous resources to going after Chris Christie. The Times has found its mark, and now just needs actual news and actual wrongdoing to take him out. As Drum describes it, No Smoking Guns Yet, But the Noose Is Tightening Around Chris Christie:
The New York Times is pretty clearly expending a lot of resources on the various Chris Christie scandals. So far they haven't produced any smoking guns, but they're sure digging up some stuff that doesn't look good for Team Christie. First up is a look at the Christie political team, which was apparently obsessed with winning votes in Democratic-leaning towns. This wasn't because the votes themselves were all that critical to Christie's 2012 reelection campaign, but because winning in these places "would validate the governor’s argument that he would be the most broadly appealing Republican choice for president in 2016" ....
After describing a couple of Times pieces that show no direct evidence of wrongdoing, just a tough politician, Drum concludes:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on January 31, 2014 5 Comments
The press office of Viktor Yanukovych announced Thursday that the President of Ukraine would take a sick leave for an indefinite period of time, prompting uncertainty amid continuing tensions in Ukraine. From the Wall Street Journal:
Ukraine's president and his opponents accused one another of sabotaging efforts to end the political crisis Thursday, as an unexpected presidential sick leave further damped hopes for compromise. President Viktor Yanukovych's absence was quickly denounced by his opponents as a case of executive malingering in a country where politicians have in the past delayed one another in parliament by throwing eggs, padlocking the doors and body-blocking the rostrum. The Ukrainian president's office issued a statement saying Mr. Yanukovych, 63, is taking time off from work because of a fever and respiratory illness. The statement did not indicate when he would return to work.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his government resigned on Tuesday, in an attempt to appease protesters.  Parliament also voted to repeal or modify many of the anti-protest laws that had been passed in mid-January and sparked escalating violence. But Yanukovych must sign the repeal from Parliament and it is not known whether or not that would occur while he is on sick leave, according to the Associated Press. Just after the announcement of his sick leave, the president of Ukraine defended his handling of the ongoing crisis there. From CNN:

Posted by Andrew Branca on January 30, 2014 20 Comments
Florida news outlets -- including First Coast News -- are reporting  today that Marissa Alexander has had her re-trial delayed until July 28. The re-trial had been scheduled to being in March.  The delay was the result of a motion by the defense. Given that it seems most unlikely any new evidence or legal arguments will develop in that additional time, the four month delay suggests the defense may attempting to buy time to negotiate a plea agreement.  Should Alexander be retried on the same evidence as was presented at her first trial, a re-conviction seems all but unavoidable. In 2012 Alexander was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault for firing a bullet past the head of her estranged husband and his two minor children.  Under Florida's "10-20-Life" law requiring mandatory minimum sentences for the use of a gun in a crime, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. An error in the jury instructions on self-defense at her trial won her the re-trial now delayed until July. The case of Marissa Alexander has been covered extensively here at Legal Insurrection, including in these prior posts: Sheriff’s Office Takes the Heat for Marissa Alexander Bail Kerfuffle Marissa Alexander Remains on Bail, Under Tightened Conditions

Posted by Andrew Branca on January 30, 2014 7 Comments

Judge Russell Healey, presiding over the murder trial of Michael Dunn in the shooting death of Jordan Davis, promised the parties a decision Wednesday on releasing to the media the jail house telephone recordings of Dunn. Oddly, this was a decision all sides had thought he'd...

Posted by David Gerstman on January 30, 2014 7 Comments
You might remember that Secretary of State John Kerry was quick to praise President Bashar al-Assad of Syria for completing the job of destroying all chemical weapons facilities in record time. According to the deal worked out in September with Assad's protecter, Russia, Syria was to rid itself of all of its chemical weapon compounds and production facilities. The first part of that obligation was to neutralize all of the factories so that they could no longer produce chemical weapons. Syria reportedly allowed that task to be completed on time.
Syria has destroyed its declared chemical-weapons production facilities, international inspectors said Thursday, marking a major step in the complex task of ridding the country of the weapons of mass destruction. The declaration came a day before a Nov. 1 deadline as the team overseen by the inspectors hewed to an ambitious schedule for destroying Syria’s entire chemical arsenal by the middle of next year — a far more rapid process than comparable efforts in other countries and one that must be implemented in the middle of a civil war.
A week later, Kerry publicly praised Assad.

Posted by A.F. Branco on January 30, 2014 0 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2014 24 Comments
WOAI 1200 in San Antonio had an article yesterday about Wendy Davis having her daughters defend her mothering, Involvement of Davis Daughters Seen as High Stakes Gambit in Governor's Race. The article quoted an SMU political analyst as indicating bringing the daughters out was a risky move that might work, but that the campaign should have anticipated the issue:
“Their fundraising numbers went very well, but they seemed to be unprepared by what they should have expected, an assault by the Greg Abbott campaign on the story that Wendy Davis wanted to tell about herself and her rise from difficult circumstances to be a candidate for governor,” Jillson said. “She should have been prepared for this assault and had better answers and responses ready to go.” ... “This is really a new candidate to statewide office being rocked by charges that should have been anticipated,” Jillson said. “It remains to be seen whether she will be taken down by these charges.”
One of the comments to the article caught my eye, because it made a point similar to what I made in Wendy Davis is the Deja Victim candidate, that the public may react negatively to a candidate who has her children fight her battles for her. Here's part of the comment, with the full comment embedded below:
Letting her children fight media political battles for her by sending in "don't be mean to my mommy" letters is just weak. She needs to put on her big girl panties, accept the reality of what she has chosen to do, and stop whining about it or she has given up before she even gets started.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2014 28 Comments
Scarlett Johhansson has been under attack by the anti-Israel Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement because she became a "Global Brand Ambassador" for SodaStream, the Israeli company that has factories around the world, including one in the "West Bank." See yesterday's post,  SodaStream wins French court case against boycott group, for more about how SodaStream's factory has become a model of cooperation, employing over 500 Palestinians on the same terms and conditions as Israelis, and providing a boost for the moribund and corrupt Palestinian economy. BDS doesn't care. Palestinians literally are starving to death in Syria, yet BDS is obsessed with SodaStream. Even supporters of the anti-Israel group Anonymous saw the absurdity: Anonymous Israel Johansson Yarmouk As readers know, BDS is not about supporting Palestinians, it's about hating Israel's existence. Johansson also has been a global ambassador for Oxfam International.  Oxfam has an image of a neutral, non-political humanitarian organization that only cares about feeding the poor and improving living conditions. That's a false image.  Oxfam is a BDS supporter as to the disputed West Bank, you just didn't know it.  BDS started harassing Oxfam demanding it cut its ties to Johansson.  When Oxfam announced that it was reviewing her role, Johansson beat them to the punch and resigned last night. Johansson didn't just resign, though, she unmasked Oxfam's support for BDS as incompatible with growing peaceful relations between Israelis and Palestinians, as AP reported:

Posted by New Neo on January 30, 2014 13 Comments
When I was solidly engaged in not watching Obama's SOTU speech, I thought of the antidote: Winston Churchill. I have long cringed when anyone refers to Obama as a great orator. To me he seems like a terrible one: flat, repetitive delivery; devoid of content (that is, when he's not engaged in flagrant lying, or errors); and cliché upon cliché. But why single Obama out? The US hasn't had a president who's a great orator in a long, long time. Kennedy had some good moments, and Reagan was very good indeed, but I can't think of anyone of Churchillian quality since Lincoln. But "Churchillian quality" is a tall, tall order. Martin Luther King perhaps, but he wasn't a president. It helped that Churchill was a writer who wrote his own speeches. Actually, if you read the William Manchester biographies of Churchill, you'll learn that Churchill actually dictated most of his speeches in the wee hours of the morning to a bevy of night-owl secretaries. Churchill carefully plotted out his delivery, too, and he was a master at it:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 29, 2014 9 Comments
This is a small win, but a win is a win. We need a lot more such legal challenges to anti-Israel boycott groups, who  are propagandists and have no compunctions about lying and making up accusations in the worst tradition of Pallywood. Whether it's hummus, coffee cafes, or academic scholars, there is nothing Israeli that the deranged Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement will not attack. SodaStream has been under attack for years, with BDS groups trying to keep the product out of stores and commercials off the airwaves. The BDS movement is so obsessed with SodaStream that it even uses a term, Greenwashing, to complain about SodaStream touting the environmental benefits of its product. SodaStream has a compelling story to tell, however, as a bridge for peace, one we have focused on before: SodaStream just won a case against a French BDS group, getting a small amount of damages but also an order that the group stop claiming that it is illegal for stores to sell SodaStream products. As reported by Haaretz:
MORE POSTS
Accessibility by WAH