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October 2014

Posted by Amy Miller on October 03, 2014 16 Comments
A three-judge panel has overturned a previous ruling blocking implementation of Texas' new abortion restrictions. Last month, the State of Texas appealed a U.S. District Court decision blocking the new restrictions, saying that the court's application of the "undue burden" standard was improper. The Fifth Circuit panel agreed with the state's argument, keeping consistent with their own precedent regarding what constitutes an unconstitutional restriction on a woman's right to seek an abortion. Predictably, abortion advocates are crying foul. Via USA Today:
"Today's ruling has gutted Texas women's constitutional rights and access to critical reproductive health care and stands to make safe, legal abortion essentially disappear overnight,'' said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the group. ... Among the law's provisions is the requirement that clinics performing abortion procedures upgrade to certain hospital-type equipment, which Northup's group calls "a multimillion-dollar tax on abortion services.'' ... "Texas Republicans are forcing women's health clinics to close,'' said Lisa Paul, spokeswoman for the Texas state Democratic Party. "This will not only deny women their right to choose, but also reduces their access to prenatal care, cancer screenings, mammograms, and annual wellness visits.''

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 03, 2014 27 Comments
Some Democrats are running for election or re-election this November but all Democrats are running as fast as they can from Obama. For his part, the president isn't doing them any favors. In a speech at Northwestern University yesterday, Obama tied himself and his deeply unpopular policies directly to the Democratic Party and the 2014 elections. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post reported:
28 words that Democrats really wish President Obama didn’t say today Here are the four sentences that will draw all of the attention (they come more than two thirds of the way through the speech): "I am not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them." Boil those four sentences down even further and here's what you are left with: "Make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them." You can imagine Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas or Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina or Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky grimacing when they heard those 28 words. That trio has spent much of the campaign insisting that this election is NOT about Barack Obama, that it is instead about a choice between themselves and their opponents.

Posted by David Gerstman on October 03, 2014 10 Comments
The lead article in the October issue of Commentary by Omri Ceren is Yes, Israel Won in Gaza. Ceren's central premise is that Hamas built a huge terror infrastructure including tunnels, an enhanced rocket arsenal and specialized training for its terrorists, but "[a]ll of it was gone by mid-August." Hamas' plans for a spectacular terror attack against Israel and a coup against Fatah in the West Bank similarly were stymied. But what really grabbed me about the article was his description of the escalation:
In Gaza, Hamas radically escalated what had been, since the beginning of the year, a steadily increasing stream of rocket fire. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon had declared in January that Jerusalem would “not tolerate rocket fire” and that the “IDF and other security forces will continue to chase after those who shoot at Israel.” February saw more rockets and a large bomb planted on the border. In March, Hamas fired its heaviest rocket barrage since the conclusion of Israel’s 2012 incursion into Gaza—but then the fire steadily decreased throughout April and May.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2014 3 Comments
We reported last night on a demand by one of the targets of the Wisconsin John Doe investigation for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the John Doe prosecutors, particularly John Chisholm, WI “John Doe” target seeks criminal investigation of prosecutors Also last night, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that a new lawsuit on behalf of a conservative group has been filed alleging that the John Doe prosecutors violated conservative groups’ rights:
As a sixth lawsuit was filed Thursday connected to an investigation of Gov. Scott Walker and his conservative allies, the leader of one group being probed took to the airwaves to accuse Milwaukee's district attorney and state election officials of engaging in "domestic spying." "We have in Wisconsin a taxpayer-funded domestic spying operation of over three years' duration conducted by the Milwaukee County DA, John Chisholm, and now in concert with Kevin Kennedy at the Government Accountability Board, which is corrupt and so is Kennedy," said Eric O'Keefe, one of the directors of the Wisconsin Club for Growth. O'Keefe spoke to WISN-AM (1130) host Vicki McKenna. His comments came as a Milwaukee County group sued Chisholm, Kennedy and the members of the accountability board, arguing it has a constitutional right to collaborate with candidates — raising issues at the heart of the legal battle over whether Walker and the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative organizations have illegally worked together. Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates has not been involved in the investigation connected to Walker. But the group has been a longtime Walker ally, and its lawsuit addresses what has been raised in the investigation into his campaign's activities. The lawsuit is being funded by a group affiliated with O'Keefe using lawyers who have represented O'Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
The Complaint in the new case now is available on PACER, and is embedded in full below.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 03, 2014 11 Comments
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed former House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay's 2010 money laundering conviction. The panel in an 8-1 vote held that the state failed to prove that corporate contributions made to Republicans running for seats in the Texas legislature in 2002 violated Texas Election Code. This ruling affirmed last year's overturning of the conviction by a lower court. We covered that earlier reversal, Which office does Tom Delay go to, to get his reputation back? From the Capitol City Project:
DeLay long believed the charges were politically motivated. “I understand what it’s about and it’s about … the criminalization of politics and the misuse of power … and prosecutorial misconduct,” DeLay said Wednesday. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 8-1 that the state did not sufficiently prove that DeLay funneled money as part of a plan to redraw congressional district lines in the state. He was accused of laundering $190,000 to fellow Republicans running for the Texas Legislature back in 2002.
Earlier this year, Leader DeLay spoke out against the similar targeting of Texas Governor Rick Perry by the Travis County District Attorney's Office:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2014 9 Comments
We've covered the Wisconsin "John Doe" proceeding targeting Governor Scott Walker and dozens of conservative Wisconsin activists many times before. Scroll through the John Doe (WI) tag. The legal short version is that Milwaukee County prosecutor John Chisholm has been on a years-long investigation of Scott Walker and the conservative movement, claiming there was illegal coordination. A state court judge effectively shut down the investigation finding that there was no legal basis for that claim. A federal district court judge made a similar finding, but that finding was reversed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals mainly on procedural grounds -- that federal courts should not interfere in state court proceedings, finding that the Supreme Court had not yet definitively ruled on whether the alleged conduct at issue, so-called "issues advocacy," could be regulated. The political short version is that the John Doe investigation, which seized records before it was shut down, chilled and stifled conservative speech in Wisconsin. The John Doe investigation also has become a political hammer over Scott Walkers' head, used by his political enemies to try to defeat him at the ballot box. One of those political enemies of Walker, according to a whistleblower who used to work in Chisholm's office and was friendly with his family, was Chisholm's wife, a school system union representative furious at Walker's collective bargaining reform. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outed the whistleblower, and has been attacking him as untrustworthy, as the Journal Sentinel calls for the the investigation to continue. Now one of the main targets of the John Doe case, and one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, has fired back at the prosecutors by demanding a criminal investigation of the prosecutors' alleged political motivations.  (Embedded at bottom of post.) The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on September 29, John Doe target strikes back with call for probe of prosecutor:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 02, 2014 45 Comments
No one is sure what's going to happen in November but many experts are predicting that Republicans will win control of the Senate. Nancy Pelosi, though, isn't worried, she's looking forward to taking back both Houses of Congress in 2016, while maintaining the presidency to boot. Rebecca Shabad of The Hill reports:
Pelosi: Dems will take Congress, WH in '16 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted a Democratic sweep in 2016. If Republicans keep the House in November, Pelosi said they wouldn’t hold their majority for long. “Their days are numbered. I know that in two years, I know we’ll have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president,” she told reporters at her weekly press conference. “I’d like it to be in two months,” she added. Asked if she was conceding that Republicans would hold the House in November’s midterms, Pelosi insisted, “No, I’m not." “I think we’ll do okay,” said Pelosi, who was headed to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to discuss the elections. Pelosi compared November’s midterms to the Olympics, in which the final result can come down to a matter of inches or seconds. “Five weeks from today, we can have no regrets,” she said.
Nothing is set in stone and Republicans shouldn't be overconfident but Red State editor Erick Erickson sees one sign that shows Democrats are very worried.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 02, 2014 1 Comment
I recently pondered: Is Hong Kong on brink of its own version of Tiananmen Square? Now, I think the answer is no. It appears the recent student-lead uprising is being handled by Hong Kong leaders the way many of our municipalities handled their "Occupy" events -- Wait until the residents tire of the disruptions, then sweep the activists away.
Crowds of pro-democracy protesters thinned noticeably by Thursday morning after the Hong Kong government adopted a more conciliatory stance of trying to wait out the demonstrators. Downtown streets that had been fairly crowded on previous nights began to empty late Wednesday, as many went home after days outdoors in heat that had been sweltering even by Hong Kong’s tropical standards. But many predicted that crowds would build again later on Thursday, as demonstrators returned after showers, sleep and hot meals. “Compared to yesterday morning, I think there is a smaller crowd,” Venus Wong, a 22-year-old office worker, said as she sat in front of the local government headquarters with two friends, eating a McDonald’s breakfast at midmorning. “But I think more people will come back later in the day.”
These demonstrations---collectively known as the "Umbrella Revolution", a nod to the umbrella's use in protecting people from the effects of tear gas---decry Beijing's control over the slate of Hong Kong chief executive candidates for 2017, and have been bolstered by outside contributions from Anonymous:
The "hacktivist" group Anonymous sent this video to News2share early Wednesday morning, apparently declaring a cyber-war against Hong Kong for the treatment of protestors there. The group has already defaced several Hong Kong-based websites, and promised that dozens more would be affected over the next few days.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2014 22 Comments
Are the folks at Jeopardy trolling us? Via The Wall Street Journal, here are questions (and the answers) about Elizabeth Warren asked on a recent episode of Jeopardy:
1) In 2012, Elizabeth Warren was elected a senator from this state. Answer: What is Massachusetts? Mr. Trebek: You got it. 2) Mrs. Warren is on the Senate committee known as HELP: Health, Education, Labor and these retirement benefits. Answer: (incorrect) What is Social Security? Answer: (correct) What are pensions? Mr. Trebek: P stands for pensions, correct. 3) Elizabeth chaired the Congressional oversight panel for this program, whose 4-letter abbreviation sounds like a canvas cover. Answer: What is TARP? 4) An expert on bankruptcy, Elizabeth Warren wrote a 2008 text on the essentials of this part of the bankruptcy code. Answer (incorrect): What is Chapter 13? Answer (correct) What is Chapter 11? 5) Mrs. Warren championed the creation of and was the interim director of this bureau, CFPB for short. Answer: Contestants are stumped
Okay, I'll take the bait. Here are 5 alternative questions for the next time Jeopardy covers the topic in its regular rounds:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2014 23 Comments
Somehow, this seemed inevitable. Just-resigned Secret Service Director Julia Pierson allegedly is the victim of male privilege, and was treated differently than a man in a similar position would be treated. This video clip -- just before the resignation -- led to charges of sexism: Those charges increased after the resignation.
At The New Republic, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson Was a Victim of the "Glass Cliff": On Wednesday, Julia Pierson, the first woman to ever lead the Secret Service in its nearly 150-year history, resigned her post amid heavy criticism over an intruder who was able to get as far as the East Room of the White House. Reasonable people can disagree about whether, ultimately, she deserved to lose her job or whether anyone in charge during such an incident would have to resign. But it’s probably not pure chance that Pierson, who held that position for just a year-and-a-half, was a woman. Time and again, women are put in charge only when there’s a mess, and if they can’t engineer a quick cleanup, they’re shoved out the door. The academics Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam even coined a term for this phenomenon: They call it getting pushed over the glass cliff.
On Twitter, the claim was made that Pierson was just the fall gal for male failure reflecting male privilege:

Posted by Andrew Branca on October 02, 2014 65 Comments
The Washington Post reported yesterday that "The Justice Department is not expected to bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin." The reasons why appear in the 10th paragraph of the story:
Mark O’Mara, the lawyer who represented Zimmerman, said that approximately 40 witness statements collected by investigators in 2012 indicated there was no evidence to support a civil rights prosecution. “I was watching the whole case pretty closely for two years, and they didn’t do anything except take those 40 statements,” O’Mara said. The statements “suggested that George acted in very non-racist ways. He took a black girl to the prom. His best buddy was a black guy. He mentored two black kids. He sought justice for a black homeless man beaten up by a white cop’s son.” “To those who have seen civil rights investigations and civil rights violations,” he said, “it looked as though the Department of Justice was just placating pressure that existed by suggesting there was an ongoing investigation.”
[caption id="attachment_69481" align="alignnone" width="500"]George Zimmerman, immediately following the vicious attack upon him by Trayvon Martin (George Zimmerman, immediately following the vicious attack upon him by Trayvon Martin)[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2014 29 Comments
There are seemingly endless programs and advocates to increase the participation of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as a means of addressing the gender imbalance, which is particularly dramatic at the graduate and doctoral levels. The National Science Foundation has special grant programs.  The White House emphasizes the issue.  Efforts are made at the elementary and secondary school levels to increase participation by girls. One of my daughters was a computer science major in college (the only female CS major that year), so I'm well aware of the extensive outreach to women. Despite years of concerted efforts, the STEM gender imbalance has barely moved. Men still dominate, by a lot. But the gender imbalance is equal or even more dramatic in fields dominated by women, as this chart shows (via AEI, h/t Ron Coleman): Total Graduate Enrollment by Gender 2013 AEI continues, Women earned majority of doctoral degrees in 2013 for 5th straight year, and outnumber men in grad school 137.5 to 100
The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) recently released its annual report recently on US graduate school enrollment and degrees for 2013, and here are some of the more interesting findings in this year’s report:

Posted by Amy Miller on October 01, 2014 9 Comments
A recent Marquette University Law School poll shows that Democrats could be in for a real struggle come November. Among likely voters, Scott Walker has 5 points on Mary Burke in the Wisconsin Governor's race, with only 2.5% of those polled saying they'd vote for "someone else." Just over half of likely voters hold an unfavorable opinion of the way Barack Obama is doing his job; in contrast, 52% approve of Scott Walker's performance as governor. This recent poll is casting doubt the affect of Democrats' recent efforts to paint Walker in a bad light:
Wolf Blitzer confronted DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz today over her recent comment that Governor Scott Walker is giving women “the back of his hand” with policies she believes are incredibly anti-woman. At a discussion on women’s issues weeks ago, Wasserman-Schultz had said, “Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand. I know that is stark. I know that is direct. But that is reality… What Republican tea party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back. It is not going to happen on our watch.” Wasserman-Schultz had walked those comments back a bit, but Blitzer confronted her about it again today. She said, “I’ve already said that I chose the wrong words, but that shouldn’t distract from the fact that Scott Walker’s policies are terrible for women.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 01, 2014 5 Comments
A few weeks ago, we covered the story of Columbia student, Emma Sulkowicz, who alleged she was raped by another student. Rather than pursue the matter all the way through the legal system (she dropped her case), Sulkowicz took her case to the University tribunal. Her alleged rapist was not found guilty by the campus tribunal, so Sulkowicz decided to protest her trauma through performance art (and college credit) and carry a mattress around campus as long as her alleged rapist remained on campus.  Carrying the mantel of Sulkowicz's cause, what was supposed to be a national day of action and a million mattress march, was not widely protested.  The only two protests we could find are at Texas Tech and Cornell. At Texas Tech:

Some Texas Tech University students have demonstrated against what they say is a "rape culture" on campus by laying bed sheets spray-painted with "No means No" at three locations.

The women's actions Wednesday came a day after university officials sent an email to students and faculty that called activities at a recent off-campus fraternity party "reprehensible."

A picture of a banner at the Sept. 20 Phi Delta Theta fraternity gathering, briefly posted online, read, "No means yes," followed by a graphic sexual remark.

University spokesman Chris Cook said the school learned of the banner the day after the party and began investigating immediately. Last week the university established a task force to review Greek organizations.

The bed sheets displayed Wednesday were removed by police after about 30 minutes.

Cornell took the call to action more seriously and approximately one hundred students showed up to protest. According to Casey Breznick at The Cornell Review (he also writes for Legal Insurrection and College Insurrection), a National Day of Protest Against Rape Culture took an odd turn yesterday. The protest was co-sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, Black Students United, Crunch: The Kinky Club at Cornell, Cornell Organization for Labor Action, the Cornell Progressive, DASH: Direction Action to Stop Heterosexism,Women of Color Coalition, and Grrls Fight Back. The protest was meant to be the decisive blow to "rape culture" on Cornell's campus. To that end, students read poems aloud. Breznick reports:
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