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August 2014

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 06, 2014 36 Comments
Dr. Milton Wolf's primary challenge to Kansas Senator Pat Roberts fell shy last night, but by a much closer margin than just about anyone predicted, 48-41. We supported Dr. Wolf, as someone who would help move the Republican Party and the Republic forward, departing from the stale insider Washington, D.C. games. A "scandal" regarding some old Facebook posts of anonymous patient x-rays sapped Wolf's momentum early in the race, and probably cost him some large backers who might otherwise agree with his politics. But as the race progressed, Wolf picked up steam as Roberts faltered and became portrayed as a D.C. insider out of touch, both physically and philosophically, with Kansans. Despite the loss, let's give Dr. Milton Wolf a round of applause for fighting the good fight with enormous odds against him. According to Politico, a key factor -- if not the key factor -- in Roberts' win was help from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the same group that rescued Thad Cochran. The NRSC is an incumbent protection organization, plain and simple. That's its job, help protect Republican incumbents. Period. No matter how bad. No matter the implications for the Party long term. Many people are critical of the NRSC, because they confuse the NRSC's role. Politico reports:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 06, 2014 25 Comments
A new study is claiming that President Obama's controversial "Cash for Clunkers" program negatively impacted the amount of money Americans spent on new cars, and had no overall impact on how many new cars were sold. "Cash for Corollas: When Stimulus Reduces Spending," a new study out of Texas A&M University, suggests that not only did Cash for Clunkers fail to stimulate the new car industry, it also acted at odds with environmental restrictions that eventually contributed to the program's failure. From the abstract:
Cash for Clunkers was a 2009 economic stimulus program aimed at increasing new vehicle spending by subsidizing the replacement of older vehicles. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show the increase in sales during the two month program was completely offset during the following seven to nine months, consistent with previous research. However, we also find the program's fuel efficiency restrictions induced households to purchase more fuel efficient but less expensive vehicles, thereby reducing industry revenues by three billion dollars over the entire nine to eleven month period. This highlights the conflict between the stimulus and environmental objectives of the policy.
In his overview of the "Cash for Corollas" study, AEI's James Pethokoukis notes that the study contradicts the White House's claim that the program would pull from future car sales to increase current demand and overall car sales.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 06, 2014 33 Comments
Anti-Semitism is becoming a pervasive, worldwide problem hinged on anti-Israel attitudes. Australia has seen numerous anti-Israel protests and an increase in anti-Semitic incidents.  A Rabbi visiting from Israel was recently attacked.  Some of the Australian media have engaged in anti-Semitic tropes. In the Bondi area of Sydney, a group of religious Jews recently was attacked: The latest attack was on a school bus used by a Jewish school, from The Daily Telegraph - Australia:

Posted by A.F. Branco on August 05, 2014 3 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 Andrew Branca on August 05, 2014 55 Comments
Welcome back to the eighth day of the murder trial of Detroit homeowner Theodore Wafer for the shooting death of Renisha McBride on his front porch in the early morning hours of November 2, 2013.

Theodore Wafer Back on Cross-Examination

Wafer was back on cross-examination today, having taken the stand in his own defense yesterday (for details see here: Homeowner Takes the Stand in Detroit Front Porch Murder Trial). Cross examination was continued by Assistant Prosecutor Athina Siringas. Cross had left off yesterday afternoon with a rather low-key playing of interview video of Wafer that day at the Dearborn Heights police station—a rather odd move by the prosecution, as it left the jury to dwell all evening on the rather excellent direct examination by the defense that took place over much of the afternoon. The prosecution touched upon a number of issues over the course of their cross examination of Wafer—indeed, I would argue that they touched upon too many issues, including spending valuable time on some that seem of very questionable utility in obtaining a conviction. Although the prosecution did get to the very important issue of Wafer’s repeated statements that the shooting was an “accident,” they did so for what seemed too brief a period and with too little intensity. The only explanation that comes to mind is that Wafer’s already expressed counter-argument to this avenue of attack was perceived as too robust to be effectively overcome, and thus that a focused attack on this point would be ineffective.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 05, 2014 35 Comments
Last week, Congress expedited a bill that gave $225 million to Israel for their missile defense system known as the Iron Dome. The bill passed through the House with a vote of 395-8 and was quickly passed through the Senate. According to CBS News:
The money will go to restocking Israel's Iron Dome, which has been credited with shooting down dozens of incoming rockets fired by Palestinian militants over three and a half weeks of war. The vote came two days after the Pentagon announced ammunition deliveries to the Jewish state and as a planned 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and Hamas unraveled almost as quickly as it began. Efforts in the Senate to approve the money stalled Thursday night after Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma sought cuts elsewhere in the budget to pay for the aid. Earlier, senators attempted to lump the Israel money into a broader spending bill that included border security and wildfire assistance money. That bill failed to get the necessary 60 votes on Thursday, and the House had little interest in it, anyway. Friday's separate Israel bill passed by voice vote.
Yet not everyone voted for the bill to provide funding to Israel's missile defense system. Eight members of Congress voted against the bill, four Republicans and four Democrats.

Posted by Bruce Carroll on August 05, 2014 9 Comments
Reports are coming from Afghanistan today about a brutal shooting of American military personnel at an Afghan-NATO training base in Kabul. From The New York Times:
A United States Army major general was killed on Tuesday by an Afghan soldier, shot at close range at a military training academy on the outskirts of Kabul, an official of the American-led coalition and Afghan media reported Tuesday. The officer was the highest-ranking member of the American military to die in hostilities in the Afghanistan war. The coalition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and would not release the name of the major general, said an unspecified number of other service members of the American-led coalition and Afghan soldiers, including a senior Afghan commander were also shot. Their conditions were not known.
Martha Radditz from ABC News reports the American general killed would be the highest ranking casualty of the entire Afghanistan war. Other media reports say many more Americans were injured in the "insider attack."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 05, 2014 13 Comments
We've been here before. The Jenin Massacre that wasn't. The Pallywood industry of deception. And a Western media that laps it all up without question when hostilities are active, and only in some cases bothers to look back later as the facts come out. In the current Gaza conflict, one of the biggest talking points, repeated endlessly by the media, anti-Israel groups, "human rights" groups, and the U.N., is that only a tiny portion, maybe 15% of deaths, were Palestinian combatants. That numbers game was put into play not by Israel, but by those against Israel. It's morbid to engage in these body counts, but it is the Palestinians and their advocates who put them in issue by claiming that the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths constitutes proof of a war crime. It doesn't, as disproportionate force is more than a number count, but in the public relations realm it matters. Slowly, as in past conflicts (including in Lebanon 2006), that statistic will be revealed to be a lie. That civilian deaths are a result of rockets launched from civilian areas is only part of the story. The Washington Post, to its credit, has two articles at least presenting the possibility that the media has been manipulated. In Reporters grapple with politics, erratic sources in reporting Israeli/Gaza death toll, WaPo examines the questionable civilian-to-combatant statistics used by Palestinians:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 04, 2014 7 Comments
Cities are well within their rights to spend taxpayer dollars to increase exposure and bring tourists to visit, but how would you feel if your city council voted to spend up to $100,000 of your money to bring one of the most controversial television shows currently on air to your neighborhood? That's exactly what the Santa Fe City Council wants to do. The Council is prepared to open its wallet (and its heart, if the love is there) to convince the producers of "The Bachelor" to bring the show to Santa Fe, in hopes that the show's popularity will tempt tourists and fans alike to visit. Via New Mexico Watchdog:
The New Mexico Tourism Department is considering spending $50,000 of its own money to try to bring the production crew of the show, which features one bachelor choosing a potential wife from a pool of 25 women, to Santa Fe.

Posted by Andrew Branca on August 04, 2014 41 Comments
Court room testimony took a dramatic turn today in the murder trial of Detroit homeowner Theodore Wafer for the front porch shooting death of Renisha McBride when Wafer took the stand to testify in his own behalf. Direct questioning was conduced by lead defense counsel Cheryl Carpenter.  (As usual for this trial we had no live video feed, so our observations are second hand and based on the outstanding live blogging of the trial by Detroit Free Press reporter Gina Damron and pictures by Detroit Free Press photographer Mandy Wright.) The defense did an excellent job of hitting all the key issues necessary for a robust narrative of innocence. Wafer describes his growing fear at hearing "indescribeably loud banging" [sic] on his front and side doors, banging that went on and grew more severe, to the extent that it was vibrating the floor of his home. He  described how one of his neighbors across the street had just a few months prior to the events on his porch had been forced to hold off three violent attackers with his handgun.  He recounted how his neighborhood had grown increasingly dangerous, and that he discovered various drug paraphernalia, including syringes, on his property on a monthly basis.  Just recently he'd had his car vandalized outside his home. In the fact of this growing lawlessness he'd acquired a pistol-gripped shotgun specifically for home defense, noting that he wasn't getting any younger and that he could not afford an alarm system.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 04, 2014 7 Comments
Once again we return to writing about Malmö, Sweden. Malmö, for us, has become something of the poster-child for Islamist anti-Semitic violence in Europe coupled with leftist tolerance and indifference, all in the name of hating Israel. From our archives: Recently there have been anti-Israel rallies in Malmö: It is not surprising that the anti-Semitic shame of Malmö egged on by anti-Israel hate in the streets has resulted in violence, from JTA via Haaretz, Rabbi attacked in Sweden, days after synagogue vandalized
A rabbi from the Swedish city of Malmo was attacked by men who hurled objects at him from a car and used anti-Semitic pejoratives. Rabbi Shneur Kesselman was assaulted on Saturday night along with a member of his congregation, the Sydsvenskan daily reported Sunday. The attack, which resulted in no physical injuries, came on the heels of vandalism against the southern city’s main synagogue on July 31, when unidentified individuals smashed three of the building’s windows by hurling objects at them.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 04, 2014 13 Comments
Live Video and Twitter feed at bottom of post Breaking reports out of Egypt indicate that the various "Palestinian factions" have agreed to a 72-hour unconditional truce. This was the original Egyptian proposal which was rejected by Hamas more than two weeks and over 1000 lives ago. Israel reportedly will agree, as it has multiple times before. Let's see if Hamas again uses the truce as an opportunity to launch more surprise attacks.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 04, 2014 64 Comments
Over the past few years, social conservatives have found their lifestyles (and in some cases, their livelihoods) under full assault by a very vocal, activist minority in the left. Progressive ire directed at the pro-life, pro-family, etc. crowd is nothing new, but with the advent of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it's easier and faster to sling mud with few consequences. The Sunday Edition of the Dallas Morning News republished an essay by National Journal and Atlantic editor Jonathan Rauch about conservative Christians' "great secession" (his words, not mine) from the culture. Via the Dallas Morning News:
I am someone who believes that religious liberty is the country’s founding freedom, the idea that made America possible. I am also a homosexual atheist, so religious conservatives may not want my advice. I’ll give it to them anyway. Culturally conservative Christians are taking a pronounced turn toward social secession: asserting both the right and the intent to sequester themselves from secular culture and norms, including the norm of nondiscrimination. This is not a good idea. When religion isolates itself from secular society, both sides lose, but religion loses more.
Jonathan Rauch is a liberal. A gay, atheist liberal who writes for mainstream media outlets. But this article isn't about Jonathan Rauch, and it doesn't matter what he believes. The important thing to glean from articles like this one---even if something strikes a well-tuned nerve---is that there are people out there who aren't as gay, liberal, or faithless as Jonathan Rauch who are noticing these things too.
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