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February 2015

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 24, 2015 13 Comments
We knew this day was coming, although we'd hoped that somewhere in his heart, President Obama might find the decency to pass legislation that would create thousands of jobs, reinvigorate communities and small towns, likely decrease the instances of exploding trains, and pump much needed cash into our fledgling economy. Alas... Some have speculated that because the pipeline would've run through red states, President Obama would never be willing to reward those states with economic bounty. But we've been assured that the bipartisan, union-backed bill was vetoed because the President takes his job very seriously. Gregory Korte reports at USA Today:
"The presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously," Obama said in his veto message. "But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people. And because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest — including our security, safety, and environment — it has earned my veto."
Suddenly, the President is concerned about "well established executive branch procedures" *cough* executive immigration overreach *cough*. But I digress...

Posted by Amy Miller on February 24, 2015 17 Comments
James O'Keefe's latest undercover operation unveils what many of us have suspected about Al Sharpton---he's not really in this for equality's sake. In a new video released by Project Veritas, the daughter of Eric Gardner sounds off on Al Sharpton's monetization of the race-based movement-building that occurred in the wake of her father's police-related death. She also openly complains about National Action Network, Sharpton's advocacy group, and their tendency to hijack homegrown demonstrations and social movements. Watch:
From the New York Post: “You think Al Sharpton is kind of like a crook in a sense?” the investigator is heard asking Garner’s oldest daughter. “He’s about this,” Snipes replies, rubbing her fingers together. “He’s about money with you?” the undercover asks. “Yeah,” Snipes responds.

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 24, 2015 53 Comments
The Department of Justice will reportedly announce that it will not bring federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman over Zimmerman's self-defense killing of Trayvon Martin, reports ABC News. This decision comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the actual facts of the case. Zimmerman's claim of lawful self-defense was overwhelmingly supported by evidence presented at trial, and there was no additional evidence suggesting Zimmerman had set out to deliberately violate Martin's civil rights. Indeed, the only shocking aspect of this is that it took the Department of Justice 19 months after Zimmerman's acquittal to make the announcement. Given the Obama Administration's incessant spinning of the news cycle so as to avoid getting pinned down to any single particular scandal, it seems likely that the announcement will be timed to coincide with the three year anniversary (February 26, two days from today) of Martin's death. Soon after the 2012 shooting, the Department of Justice ordered a team of FBI agents to interview witnesses, neighbors, co-workers, and friends of Zimmerman in a search for any evidence of racism.  They didn't just come up empty; what evidence they did find confirmed that Zimmerman was decidedly not racist.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 24, 2015 9 Comments
Yesterday, I touched a little bit on how ISIS' acts of terror have had their intended effect on people in the Middle East. Those targeted---or even existing in the blast zone---are falling apart, and it's not all due to videos released of burnings and beheadings. ISIS has a long history of rampaging through villages, destroying homes and kidnapping civilians (including women and children.) This is a tactic we've seen Boko Haram use as well; it creates an atmosphere of instability and fear, puts all the control in the hands of the terror group, and makes it much easier to gain both new territory and new members. Today, ISIS fighters continued their rampage, kidnapping "crusaders" in northern Syria and Afghanistan*. From Fox News:
ISIS' online radio station, al-Bayan, said in a report Tuesday that ISIS fighters had detained myriad "crusaders" and seized 10 villages around Tal Tamr after clashes with Kurdish militiamen. ISIS frequently refers to Christians as "crusaders." Syria's official SANA news agency reported that ISIS overran seven villages during an attack on Monday. It was not immediately clear what ISIS planned to do with the Assyrians. The militants have a long history of killing captives, including foreign journalists, Syrian soldiers and Kurdish militiamen. Most recently, militants in Libya affiliated with ISIS released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. But ISIS also could use its Assyrian captives to try to arrange a prisoner swap with the Kurdish and Christian militias that it faced off against in northeastern Syria. There is a precedent: The extremists have released Kurdish schoolchildren as well as Turkish truck drivers and diplomats after holding them for months. Last year, ISIS abducted several Assyrians in retaliation for some of them fighting alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG. But most were released after long negotiations, Reuters reports.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 24, 2015 19 Comments
Sickening videos recently surfaced from ISIS showing the next generation of Islamic radicals being trained. Elsewhere in regions impacted by the group's atrocities, videos nearly as chilling are being uploaded. From Egypt comes a clip of children at play. The game? "ISIS Executions"
Children from Egypt's El Mahalla El Kubra have been video-taped “slaughtering” other children ISIS-style while playing with wooden sticks. The video raises more questions than answers on the “merits” of sharing horrific videos detailing the terror group's crimes, particularly with children. The Al Qaeda off-shoot ISIS, which has come to control larges swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, has taken great pride in releasing highly-produced videos, showcasing how they behead their captives. Despite a cat and mouse chase to remove their graphic propaganda online, many continue to share the videos, unconcerned by the damage they could cause to viewers. This El Mahalla El Kubra video may have been made after the militant group “ISIS in Libya” beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers who had been abducted in Libya more than a month ago. On February 15, the terrorists posted a gruesome and bloody video on YouTube that showed the beheading of the hostages, creating an uproar in Egypt, including the bombing of ISIS sites in Libya. El Mahalla Al Kubra is an industrial and agricultural city in Egypt, located in the middle of the Nile Delta on the western bank of the Damietta branch, and is home to about half a million people.
(Click HERE for Tamer Abdo Amin's Facebook page with the full video).

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 24, 2015 11 Comments
When it comes to talk of banks and money in America, Elizabeth Warren says the game is rigged. In the case of the Clinton Family Foundation, she may have a point. A new ad from American Crossroads uses Elizabeth Warren's own words to skewer the Clintons and the funds they freely take from foreign governments. The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Ad Featuring Elizabeth Warren Hits Clinton Foundation on Money from Foreign Governments American Crossroads has found the unlikeliest of partners: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.). In an ad released Monday, the Super PAC headed by Karl Rove attacked Clinton for reports that the Clinton Foundation has accepted millions of dollars from countries barred from making political contributions.
Watch the video. It's short but it makes a powerful point.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2015 8 Comments
By now, most of you have heard of Steven Salaita, whose unhinged (that's a charitable description) tweets apparently caused the University of Illinois Board of Trustees not to approve his contingent offer of tenured employment. Shortly after UI at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise indicated that she would not forward the contingent offer to the Board (though she later did so), I noted the irony of protests that Salaita's academic freedom was being infringed, Steven Salaita controversy points to the hypocrisy of anti-Israel academic boycotters:
I have argued strenuously against the academic boycott of Israel, led by people like Steven Salaita, on a number of grounds. Not the least of those grounds is that academics who insist on violating the academic freedom of Israelis and those who wish to interact with Israelis do damage to the system in its entirety.... There is a related point to how academic boycotts have a negative ripple effect. On what ground do the academic boycotters of Israel claim their own academic freedom if they are so quick to deny it to others?

Posted by Amy Miller on February 23, 2015 29 Comments
Who is Hillary Clinton? As it turns out, not even her consultants know. At least, not right now, which is why she's added some of the best corporate branding wizards in the business to reimagine her persona in the image of someone fit for the Oval Office. All of this is happening before any sort of formal announcement of her candidacy, which is probably smart considering the image many Americans have of her involves a Senate panel and an ensuing scandal painting her as a heartless government pawn. So what will this revamped image look like? A "winning picture," according to her consultants. Fox News has the story: But even with a rebrand, will Clinton be able to convince people who have watched her for years that she's the change that we need right now? I don't think so, and neither do some Democratic strategists. The problem with Hillary won't necessarily lie in her image; it lies in finding something new for her to offer the American people:

Posted by Amy Miller on February 23, 2015 12 Comments
They're the "next generation" of Islamic radicals, and they're being trained en masse at the Al Farouk Institute for Cubs in Raqqa, Syria---if a new video released by ISIS is indeed what the group claims it to be. From Fox News:
The 9-minute video released Monday shows about 70 camouflage-clad kids, who are reportedly the children of foreign fighters who have flocked to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamist army. An instructor states in Arabic that most of the children are in the second phase of training and that they represent the "next generation" of ISIS. The video illustrates the charge in a UN Human Rights Council report last year that determined that Islamic State “has established training camps to recruit children into armed roles under the guise of education.” “At the camps, the children recruited received weapons training and religious education,” the report stated. “The existence of such camps seems to indicate that ISIS systematically provides weapons training for children. "Subsequently, they were deployed in active combat during military operations, including suicide-bombing missions," it stated.
According to the Clarion Project's Ryan Mauro, this video serves a bigger purpose than shock value. They're showing us these training camps because they want to convince the world that they're not just committed to wreaking present havoc; it's their version of proof that they're here to stay. "ISIS is emphasizing its child recruits because it obviously makes for good footage but also to emphasize this is a generational struggle," Mauro said. "You can kill off the current leaders and fighters, but their kids will fight on. It makes it harder to celebrate ISIS' losses if you know their manpower will be replenished with brainwashed children." The authenticity of the video has not been independently verified.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 23, 2015 20 Comments
You gotta love the Oscars. It's one of the best nights to watch Hollywood revel in its self-importance. As customary, at least one award recipient had to wax poetic about something political. Winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood, Patricia Arquette took the opportunity to make a pitch for wage equality. "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States." Arquette's pitch for equal rights may have been relevant in 1869, but hardly seems to resonate in 2015 -- the age of the stay at home father. Not to mention that when celebrities complain about wage equality, they're squabbling over a discrepancy of millions when most Americans won't see that much cash in a lifetime. At least Arquette got a rise out of Meryl Streep (who looked fabulous, by the way).

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 23, 2015 17 Comments
Today, a decade long court battled ended when two Palestinian organizations were found liable for knowingly supporting terrorist attacks which resulted in the death of American citizens. Benjamin Weiser reports for the New York Times:
The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable on Monday by a jury in Manhattan for their role in knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004 in which Americans were killed and injured. The jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan awarded $218.5 million in damages, a number that is automatically tripled to $655.5 million under the special terrorism law under which the case was brought. The verdict ended a decade-long legal battle to hold the Palestinian organizations responsible for the terrorist acts. And while the decision was a huge victory for the dozens of plaintiffs, it also could serve to strengthen the Israeli claim that the supposedly more moderate Palestinian forces are directly tied to terrorism. The financial implications of the verdict for the defendants were not immediately clear. The Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, had serious financial troubles even before Israel, as punishment for the Palestinians’ move in December to join the International Criminal Court, began withholding more than $100 million a month in tax revenue it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf. The verdict came in the seventh week of a civil trial in which the jury had heard emotional testimony from survivors of suicide bombings and other attacks in Jerusalem, in which a total of 33 people were killed and more than 450 were injured.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 23, 2015 10 Comments
The federal government has filed in U.S. District Court an Emergency Expedited Motion for a Stay of the Temporary Injunction putting a stop to Obama's executive immigration action. The successful plaintiff states have filed a letter opposing expedited treatment. If the District Court denies the stay, or does not rule by the close of business on Wednesday, February 26, the feds will go to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking emergency relief. Both documents are embedded below. Discussion and analysis to follow. Here's part of the Intro to the government's motion and brief:
A stay pending appeal is necessary to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS” or “Department”) is able to most effectively protect national security, public safety, and the integrity of the border. Specifically, the Deferred Action Guidance enjoined by this Court is an integral part of the Department’s comprehensive effort to set and effectuate immigration enforcement priorities that focus on the removal of threats to public safety, national security risks, and recent border crossers, thereby best securing the Homeland in the face of limited resources. Absent a stay, DHS will sustain irreparable harm—harm that would not be cured, even if Defendants ultimately prevail on that appeal....

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 23, 2015 39 Comments
Now that the White House has concluded its summit on violent extremism, the State Department is soliciting the public for ideas on how to combat extremism. Via The Right Scoop: This is what national security looks like when a community organizer is in charge.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 23, 2015 29 Comments
In the various speeches I've given since the summer Gaza conflict, I've predicted that the conflict would not move the public opinion needle much, if at all. That, despite snap surveys over the summer which suggested potential weakening of support. I also point out that some college campuses are anti-Israel bubbles, not reflective of the nation as a whole. Left-wing anti-Israel faculty in particular are isolated from the public on Israel, as they are on so many other things. Gallup just released its annual survey of opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Except for a very recent drop in Democrat support, presumably because of the dispute over Bibi Netanyahu's appearance Congress, American support for Israel is as strong as ever. Seven in 10 Americans Continue to View Israel Favorably:
Even as relations between the leaders of Israel and the United States reportedly deteriorate over disagreement about how to handle Iran's nuclear program, Israel has retained its broadly favorable image in the U.S. over the past year. Seventy percent of Americans now view that country favorably, and 62% say they sympathize more with the Israelis than the Palestinians in the Mideast conflict. By contrast, 17% currently view the Palestinian Authority favorably, and 16% sympathize more with the Palestinians. These attitudes, from Gallup's Feb. 8-11 World Affairs survey, are unchanged from a year ago, suggesting that neither the evident friction between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nor the 50-day conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip last year, greatly affected how each is perceived in the U.S.
Gallup Israel Palestinian Favorability Chart Feb 2015 What's particularly interesting is when forced to choose, American still choose Israel by close to historic proportions:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 23, 2015 8 Comments
BROWN PEOPLE, Hispanic Politics and the Disunited State of Amigos by Javier Manjarres is an entertaining and eye-opening look at America's Hispanic community, and the author's personal experiences as a citizen activist and conservative pundit. This spirited book is essential reading for those who want an enhanced understanding of the complexities of this expanding group of voters. Manjarres, the son of Colombian immigrants, is the Managing Editor of The Shark Tank, which offers "biting commentary on anyone and anything that comprises Florida Politics." He was voted 2011 CPAC Blogger of the Year and was acknowledged by FreedomWorks for his efforts during the 2010 election cycle. He was credited as being the "tip of the spear" of Senator Marco Rubio's campaign for U.S. Senate in 2010, and helped lead Rubio to victory over sitting Governor Charlie Crist. Here is a recent appearance by Manjarres on Newsmax TV in which he discusses the evolving relationship with Cuba:

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 22, 2015 6 Comments
One day before the terror attacks in Copenhagen, during a Friday, February 13 sermon, Hajj Saeed, the imam of the city’s Al-Faruq Mosque rejected inter-faith dialogue with Jews calling it a “malignant idea”. There can be no reconciliation with the Jews, said Saeed; it would be like trying to “reconcile Truth with Falsehood”. It’s easy to dismiss Saeed’s words as the rantings of a hater. In fact, that’s what people involved with interfaith organizations tend to do. Everyone pretends as if Muslim preachers the world over aren’t saying these things. The only problem is that they’re getting harder to ignore. These days it seems like a week doesn’t pass without hearing about some hostile imam or sheikh shouting “death to the Jews”, or some angry mob harassing Jews on the streets.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 22, 2015 13 Comments
This morning on FOX and Friends, Ann Coulter responded to buzz over Rudy Giuliani's recent comments calling into question Obama's love for America. Calling the issue non-controversial, Coulter pointed out that if critics think Giuliani can't see into Obama's heart, then why are Democrats always calling conservatives racist? Can they see into our hearts? She then goes on to point out reasons why one might arrive at such a conclusion about Obama. This is classic Coulter. Watch the entire exchange below.
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