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May 2014

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 14, 2014 24 Comments
General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former Egyptian army chief who deposed the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, is likely to win in the upcoming presidential election at the end of this month. His popularity has increased enormously during his successful battle against Egypt's religious extremists who threatened to enact a wide array of "reforms" while they were in power, everything from enacting laws repressing religious freedom to calling for the destruction of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. Now, he offers an intriguing new plank on his presidential platform by "casting himself as a defender of religion and taking aim at the doctrinal foundations of Islamist groups the state is seeking to crush." From Reuters:
Striking a pious tone that sets him apart from former president Hosni Mubarak, Sisi also appears to be taking on the mantle of a religious reformer. He has blamed outdated "religious discourse" for holding back Egypt. "I see that the religious discourse in the entire Islamic world has cost Islam its humanity," Sisi said in an interview televised on May 5. "This requires us, and for that matter all leaders, to review their positions." With references to God and morality, Sisi may turn out to be the most outwardly pious of any of the military men to have governed Egypt since the republic was founded in 1953.
This video from WoChit General News summarizes his stance:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 13, 2014 18 Comments
The White House voiced its opposition Tuesday to any ransom or other concessions in exchange for the release of more than 250 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped last month. From the Washington Post:
The Obama administration underscored its opposition to any offer of ransom or other concessions to retrieve more than 250 schoolgirls abducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram on Tuesday, even as the United States widened its participation in the international effort to locate and free the girls. “We, as a matter of policy, deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, and that includes ransoms or other concessions,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. He said the Nigerian government is leading the search effort, however, and the United States is merely assisting. That was a tacit acknowledgment that despite the outpouring of American popular and political support for efforts to free the girls, the United States cannot intervene if Nigeria chooses to pay off the terrorist group or release captured militants in a trade.
The statement from the administration comes after a video surfaced on Monday in which a purported leader of Boko Haram claimed to show some of the kidnapped girls and said they would only be released in exchange for militant prisoners.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2014 8 Comments

TaxProf has released the rankings of blogs run by law professors, for the 12 months ending March 31, 2014. Go to Law Prof Blog Traffic Rankings for the full list, including percentage changes from the prior year.  The Top 15 are in the featured image. Plus College Insurrection comes in...

Posted by CampusClimatologist on May 13, 2014 4 Comments
Legal Insurrection has learned that Students for Justice in Palestine-backed UCLA student president-elect Devin Murphy, whose supporters accused his anti-divestment opponent of corruption and conflict of interest for taking a sponsored trip to Israel from a pro-Israel organization, took a sponsored trip to Israel from a pro-Israel group in January 2013. Murphy, who defeated anti-BDS candidate Sunny Singh by a mere 31 votes in an election with 8,200 cast, went to Israel on a California Student Leaders  trip sponsored by the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. http://youtu.be/jUGZwLb2XiE?t=3m15s That Murphy went on such a sponsored trip but is pro-divestment, shows that such trips are merely educational, and do not dictate a particular pro- or anti-divestment result. SJP filed a judicial board conflict of interest complaint not only against Singh for going on a trip sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, but also against Lauren Rogers, another anti-BDS council member who also went on a Project Interchange Trip. Murphy also signed a letter pledging not to take sponsored trips to Israel from various groups, which accused numerous pro-Israel organizations of promoting bigotry against Muslims, Blacks, and Armenians. Questioned about his trip (video clip here, and embedded below), Murphy claimed that he had no conflict of interest because he was not a member of the council at the time.  He also did not indicate that he would recuse himself from related matters while on council.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 13, 2014 23 Comments
Per its tradition in the second week of May, America's business leaders have voted for the states with the "best" and "worst" business climates. As usual, Chief Executive Magazine places California at the top....of the naughty list!
That’s 10 years in a row — a decade of dominance. Over that same period, California saw its unemployment rate go from mirroring the national rate to having consistently among the highest rates. The Golden State is now second worst in the nation when it comes to the percentage of adults who want to work full time but can’t find such jobs.
An executive officer's comments about the results summarizes many of the points I made recently when reporting about Toyota's move to Texas.
“California could hardly do more to discourage business if that was the goal. The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing. The only saving grace is that there are still a lot of affluent areas that drive local economic zones, but the trend line on these is not good for the mid- to long-term.”
A good example of this dynamic involves one of the most popular exports of the state, Sriracha Hot Sauce. The company that makes the sauce, Huy Fong Foods, has been embroiled in a public battle with the Irwindale City Council over complaints that fumes from its busy plant are causing neighbors to get sick. A video report summarizes the controversy. Team Texas is eager to offer the firm another option:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 12, 2014 42 Comments
We have focused for years on the White Privilege industrial complex, in which hundreds of people make a living promoting, sustaining and preaching "white privilege" as an overarching perspective on American society: Now a new website, Progressives Today, has exposed just how bad it is. The White Privilege conference in Madison, WI, was videotaped and will be rolled out (including on the Kelly File tonight):
These people are not like the civil rights activists of the 1950s and 60s. In those days activists criticized America because the benefits of democracy, personal liberty and free enterprise did not extend to minorities, particularly black Americans. They fought for inclusion into the great American system, so that all citizens could have a shot at the American dream. But today’s White Privilege crowd – largely elitist college professors and K-12 teachers – reject the idea of making the American system work for everyone. Their goal is to trash the system altogether, specifically targeting free enterprise, individualism, Christianity and free speech. Their goal is to remake America with some form of collectivist economy, and presumably some form of totalitarian government that could impose and maintain such a system. They’re pursuing that goal by enlisting thousands of teachers from across the nation to push their ideas on naïve K-12 students.
This is the same progressive push of which Microaggression Mania and Check Your Privilege speech control is a part. It is the complete racialization of education. We will update with video from the Kelly File as soon as available. UPDATE: Kelly File video via Gateway Pundit:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 12, 2014 5 Comments
In a new video that claims to show some of the Nigerian girls recently kidnapped from a school in Chibok, a purported Boko Haram leader said the girls would only be released if exchanged for militant prisoners in custody. From Agence France-Presse:
Boko Haram's leader said in a new video obtained by AFP on Monday that more than 200 abducted Nigerian schoolgirls would only be released if the government freed militant fighters from custody. Abubakar Shekau made the claim in a 27-minute video, which he claimed showed about 130 of the girls who were kidnapped from their school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok nearly a month ago. The girls' disappearance has triggered global outrage, in part due to a social media campaign that has won the support of high-profile figures from US First Lady Michelle Obama to Pope Francis. The militant leader said the girls shown in the video had converted to Islam and all were shown in Muslim dress, reciting the first chapter of the Koran and praying at an undisclosed location. Boko Haram has made prisoner exchange demands before without success and Nigeria's government again dismissed the request outright.
(AFP video embed is blocked, view video on YouTube or click the link in the video below) At the time of this writing, it could not yet be confirmed if the girls in the video are in fact some of those abducted last month. More description of the video from the NY Times:
The video shows dozens of girls dressed in head scarves and long gowns that cover their bodies but reveal their faces. They are praying and seated cross-legged in the type of scrubland that is pervasive in this region, not far from the Sahara Desert. One of the girls is shown reciting the opening of the Quran; three express allegiance to Islam; two say they had converted from Christianity.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 12, 2014 27 Comments
Today is the day the obsession with diversity counting comes home to roost at liberal websites. Bring out the bag of popcorn. The NY Times Public Editor bemoans that only about one-third of the reporters are women, Still Talking About It: ‘Where Are the Women?’
“We’re acutely aware,” [Janet Elder, deputy managing editor] said. “It’s a problem here and it’s an industry-wide problem.” At The Times, she said, about a third of the roughly 400 reporters are women.
We have that beat easily. Look at the 12 regular contributors (including me) in the sidebar -- fully half are women. Legal Insurrection contributors May 12 2014 BREAKING - LEGAL INSURRECTION LOOKS MORE LIKE AMERICA'S GENDERS THAN THE NY TIMES. Bring out the large bucket of popcorn. The ever-liberal The American Prospect notes that liberal publications are very, very white, The Unbearable Whiteness of Liberal Media:

Posted by David Gerstman on May 12, 2014 12 Comments
The Los Angeles Times just published The Mideast peace gap: Why Kerry has failed by Aaron David Miller. Miller, a long time peace processor (he served under both Presidents George H. W. Bush and BillClinton) nails the essential problem with the Kerry's peace process.
Simply put, the maximum that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to give on the core issues that drive the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can't be aligned, let alone reconciled, with the minimum that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is prepared to accept. You want to know why every effort in the last decade has failed? That's why.
If Miller had left it at that he would have been correct. Obvious. But correct. The problem with the op-ed is that he continued. For example:
The idea that Netanyahu is ready to pay the price and could be persuaded to do so was a fundamental misunderstanding of the man and his times. Now the longest continuously serving prime minister in Israel's history, Bibi never envisioned himself as the midwife or father of a Palestinian state. That's not who he is. Ideology, family, politics and his fears of the Arabs all drive him in a different direction. His self-image is as the Israeli leader who is to lead Israel out of the shadow of the Iranian nuclear bomb and to guide it through the challenges of a dangerously broken, angry and dysfunctional Arab world. And he reflects the mood of an Israeli public that sees almost no reason or urgency — regardless of U.S. doom-and-gloom threats of violence, third intifadas, apartheid state or demography — to grapple with the problem. Governing is about choosing. And for now, Netanyahu has made his choice.
This is not a serious appraisal of Netanyahu, but psychoanalysis by an unlicensed psychiatrist. Instead of looking at Netanyahu's record, Miller strung together a series of cliches that every right thinking peace processor would believe. I would agree that Netanyahu "never envisioned himself as the midwife or father of a Palestinian state." But he also understands that as a leader of a democratic country he is bound by the obligations of his predecessors. Netanyahu would not have been elected in 1996 if the peace process had been successful. He was elected in the wake of ten days of terror in February and March of 1996. Though he was elected because of his critique of the peace process, he continued it. Backed by assurances of the Clinton administration (later betrayed), Netanyahu withdrew Israel from most of Hebron, and as Charles Krauthammer pointed out, "With Hebron, Netanyahu managed to bring most of the nationalist camp of Israel to recognize that Oslo is a fact." Has Miller, who now demeans Netanyahu at a distance, ever done as much for the peace process?

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on May 12, 2014 48 Comments
Eleanor Clift, who is a “key member of the political team” at Newsweek and regularly appears the television program, The McLaughlin Group, declared last week that Ambassador Chris Stevens was not murdered in the September 11th terrorist attack in Benghazi.
I would like to point out Ambassador Stevens was not murdered. He died of smoke inhalation in the safe room in that CIA installation.
According to her bio, Clift has followed the Clinton family as a journalist since the early nineties, and it appears she may have grown a certain fondness for the former Secretary of State, as that is the only logical explanation for making such a outlandish statement on purpose. But Clift didn’t stop there. After being challenged by others on the panel, she spouted off the same lines that were spoon fed to the media in the immediate aftermath of the attack, that we all now know are completely untrue.
PAT BUCHANAN: It was a terrorist attack, Eleanor. He was murdered in a terrorist attack. CLIFT: It was an opportunistic terrorist attack that grew out of that video. BUCHANAN: The video had nothing to do with it. SUSAN FERRECHIO: She’s still talking about the video? CLIFT: There were demonstrations across the world. BUCHANAN: Not in Benghazi. There was no video related to it at all. CLIFT: It was still opportunistic… If we’re going to put people on trial we should put David Petraeus on trial, not Hillary Clinton.
So, if I follow Clift’s logic, Ambassador Stevens wasn't murdered in the Benghazi terror attack because the coordinated mortar bombardment he was seeking shelter from that night did not land a direct hit. Instead, maybe Clift thinks they were a series of warning shots, one of which accidentally created enough smoke to suffocate the late Ambassador? Contrary to Clift's intent -- which was to say the Benghazi investigations are overblown and redundant -- her outlandish and downright false statements demonstrate the critical need for the special committee on Benghazi. The Administration's misleading talking points, and the media's general refusal to even slightly scrutinize them in the lead up to the 2012 election, demand a full inquiry into the truth of the matter. Perhaps the this investigation will clear some things up for Clift, who seems incapable of absorbing the reality that this attack was not the result of a YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0eDDyQwOpk One final note: Clift also repeatedly characterized the attack as "opportunistic," which is essentially another way of saying it was spontaneous (like the protest about the video that never actually occurred).

Posted by A.F. Branco on May 12, 2014 5 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 CampusClimatologist on May 12, 2014 3 Comments
Two months ago, after a contentious meeting that lasted until dawn, UCLA’s student government (USAC) defeated a BDS resolution on a 7-5, essentially party-line vote.  The hard work of hundreds of students and alumni, aided by numerous pro-Israel organizations, secured a hard-fought victory. But Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and their allies dried their tears, regrouped, and returned for another round.  Their strategy was two-fold:  Cut off the vital supply lines between campus activists and the real world, then use the morally-backwards campus environment to wield the myriad "anti-racist" tools as weapons against Israel and Jews. [caption id="attachment_85855" align="aligncenter" width="475"]Screenshot 2014-05-11 20.44.54 Students gather to hear USAC election results at UCLA on Friday afternoon[/caption]

Campus Lawfare As Political Tool

As reported here last week, SJP filed a case with USAC’s judicial board, claiming two anti-BDS-voting council members, Sunny Singh and Lauren Rodgers, had violated conflict of interest rules by receiving a free educational trips to Israel.
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