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August 2014

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 02, 2014 6 Comments
I know, don't count your chickens. But ... I've been following the moribund and hapless campaign of Martha Robertson in my home NY-23 District since last September, when I exposed a false fundraising solicitation that GOP operatives were caught trying to take down the Robertson website. In what would become a precursor to a bizarre hide-the-candidate strategy, the Robertson campaign had shifting explanations and made promises, such as hiring a forensic expert, it did not keep. The campaign could have put the issue to rest early by simply admitting it made a mistake and offering to return donations made in reliance on the false claim, but it didn't, so the issue has lingered. Robertson's inability to admit her own weaknesses set the tone early, as Robertson's campaign went into shut-down mode on issues such has her strong support for single payer -- yeah, we found that gem video too -- and the use of Obamacare as just the first step. Martha Robertson We Need Single Payer 2009 With the exception of the City of Ithaca, the mostly rural, Republican-leaning district is not keen on getting government more involved in our lives. So a liberal Democrat like Robertson was going to have an uphill battle, and would need a solid campaign to avoid being stigmatized as just another out-of-touch Ithaca liberal. How liberal is Ithaca? When I moved here in 2008, these could have been the directions I gave people to my house:
To live in Ithaca is to live in a city alive with anti-Bush, anti-war protest. I often joke that the directions to my house in Ithaca read as follows: Take a right at the fifth Obama sign, a left at the third "Impeach Bush" placard, bear right at the "Support Our Troops, End the War" poster, and we are the house just after the "There's a Village in Texas Missing its Idiot" banner.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2014 5 Comments
There have been reports for years that Hamas uses the main hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, as a headquarters. It reportedly has bunkers underneath, and uses the hospital itself. There have been tidbits of media reporting on Hamas' use of Al-Shifa as a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices. But mostly it has been covered up by reporters in Gaza, as I detailed in Media cover-up of Hamas crimes starting to unravel. Tweets have been deleted and articles taken down by reporters for major publications. One Italian reporter who left Gaza blew the whistle on the fact that it was Hamas or Islamic Jihad misfired rockets that cause a large number of deaths in a refugee camps. The victims were transported to Al-Shifa, where another rocket had already hit. A Wall Street Journal reporter tweeted, then deleted, his observation that it was a Hamas rocket that hit the hospital. Once the evidence became clear that Israel was not responsible, the media moved on, as if it never happened. The media has a narrative it wants to tell, and that narrative does not include the deaths, injuries and damage Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others are causing. Here is a good example of how the media played up an Israeli missile striking near Western reporters:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 01, 2014 20 Comments
Last year, a student at the University of Virginia was arrested by state agents after they mistook a package of bottled water in her car for beer. However, justice has been at least partially served for Elizabeth Daly, who was 20 years old at the time of her arrest. She has been awarded $210,000 in a settlement between herself and the state of Virginia:
Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced the settlement Wednesday night with Elizabeth Daly, who had filed a $40 million federal lawsuit against agents with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. ... Herring said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing by any of the parties in the lawsuit. "My goal throughout this case has been to reach a resolution that is just and fair for all parties, including Ms. Daly, the ABC and its agents, and the Commonwealth and its taxpayers," Herring said. "After careful consideration of the potentially significant costs of taking this case to trial, I believe we have reached such an outcome."

Posted by Amy Miller on August 01, 2014 20 Comments
Yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the state's voter ID laws in two separate opinions that could drastically affect the rules governing the polling place come November. Although a federal court previously ruled Wisconsin's laws to be unconstitutional, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen told the press that yesterday's separate rulings by the Wisconsin Court could convince the federal court to put its ruling on hold and allow the laws to remain in place for the fall elections. Writing for the majority, Justice Crooks stated that the challengers to the law did not meet their burden of proof when arguing that the law violated the constitutional rights of Wisconsin voters:
We conclude that the legislature did not exceed its authority under Article III of the Wisconsin Constitution when it required electors to present Act 23-acceptable photo identification. Since 1859, we have held that "it is clearly within [the legislature's] province to require any person offering to vote[] to furnish such proof as it deems requisite that he is a qualified elector." Cothren v. Lean, 9 Wis. 254 (*279), 258 (*283-84) (1859). Requiring a potential voter to identify himself or herself as a qualified elector through the use of Act 23-acceptable photo identification does not impose an elector qualification in addition to those set out in Article III, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

Posted by Casey Breznick on August 01, 2014 10 Comments
For the second time in 13 years, Argentina has defaulted on its government debt payments after failing to reach a settlement with the so-called “holdout” bondholders Wednesday night. Midnight Wednesday was the deadline of a thirty-day negotiation period during which Argentina was already in technical default, having been barred by a US Court from making its scheduled coupon payments in late June to restructured debt holders. I covered the events leading up to the technical default in this article. Here’s a summary:
  • In late 2001 Argentina defaulted on $144 billion of its government debt. It was in the midst of the 1998-2002 Argentine depression, which was itself a result of poor government policy.
  • In 2005 and again in 2010, Argentina restructured its debts and offered bondholders swaps for new bonds at 30% of their original value in order to guarantee payment. Only 7% of investors opted out of the deal.
  • These opt-outs are today’s holdouts and the ones taking Argentina to court are the “vulture funds.” Led by Elliot Management and Aurelius Capital Management, they want full payment based on the original terms. They are demanding $1.5 billion.
  • During June of this year, US District Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that Argentina must pay all of its bondholders at the same time. Argentina claimed that it could not manage to do this. The country was dealt a huge blow when the US Supreme Court refused to take the case, thereby affirming Griesa’s ruling.
  • When Griesa ordered payments to the restructured debt holders be returned to the Argentina the country entered technical default with a thirty-day period to negotiate a settlement.
  • The issue is being hashed out in New York state courts because the capital markets associated with the bond transactions are located on Wall Street which is under New York’s jurisdiction. Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner also transferred legal jurisdiction of the matter over to New York courts during the initial debt restructuring negotiations.
For missing the $539 million payments to the restructured debt holders once again, Argentina is now in a state of default. This was despite a last-ditch effort by private Argentine bankers to prevent default by offering to compensate the holdout hedge funds or to purchase their bonds at full value.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2014 81 Comments
[This post will be "sticky" most of the day] Live Video and Twitter feed at bottom of post. The U.N. and U.S. sponsored 72-hour ceasefire only lasted barely hours, as Hamas used the lull to launch an attack in which IDF soldiers were killed and one is missing and believed kidnapped. This has led to Israeli retaliation and renewed fightings.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 01, 2014 30 Comments
On July 30, 2014, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) helped introduce the "Campus Accountability and Safety Act," a bipartisan initiative aimed at forcing universities to address and curb the problem of sexual assault on college campuses. During a press conference Wednesday, the coalition pushing the Act emphasized problems with existing policies, saying that current federal law actually encourages universities to under report sexual assaults that occur on campus. In a summary distributed to the press and public, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said that "[t]he bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act will create incentives for schools to take proactive steps to protect their students and rid their campuses of sexual predators." The full breakdown of the Act states several key goals:
  1. Establish new campus resources and support services for student survivors
  2. Ensure minimum training standards for on-campus personnel
  3. Create new historic transparency requirements
  4. Increase campus accountability and coordination with law enforcement
  5. Establish enforceable Title IX penalties and stiffer penalties for Clery Act violations
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