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March 2015

Posted by New Neo on March 05, 2015 10 Comments
In a previous post at Legal Insurrection, I suggested that the terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen and the Salman Rushdie fatwa issued in 1989 by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran are analogous. In the case of the fatwa, a Muslim leader and cleric called on Muslims to kill a Western author deemed to be guilty of blasphemy towards Islam, more or less the same action the modern-day terrorists have taken on themselves against Western cartoonists who lampoon Mohammed. In light of Obama's repeated insistence that terrorists do not act as agents of Islam, doesn't he need to answer some questions about the Rushdie fatwa? The questions appear in an essay of mine in the Weekly Standard, and whether or not Obama ever addresses them (please do not sit on a hot stove until he does), they point out the absurdity of his denial of the connection between such killings and Islam. Here's an excerpt:
The fatwa Khomeini issued makes chilling reading even today. Here’s a translation: "I would like to inform all the intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book entitled ‘Satanic Verses’. . . as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, are hereby sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Moslems to execute them quickly, wherever they find them, so that no one will dare to insult Islamic sanctity. Whoever is killed doing this will be regarded as a martyr and will go directly to heaven."

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 05, 2015 44 Comments
The Hillary Clinton email scandal is growing worse by the day. We now know that she not only used a private email account in her time at the State Department but she even hosted it on a private server in her New York residence. In classic Clintonian doublespeak, Hillary tweeted just before midnight last night that she really, truly, wanted everyone to see her emails, so she told the State Department to release them. But the issue is not what she turned over to State, but what she didn't. Hillary's team selected what was turned over to the State Department, so her tweet is a complete distraction that doesn't address the problem: Hillary Tweet See Emails Other issues involve why she set up a home-based email server for official business, which gave her complete control over access in violation of public records laws.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 04, 2015 59 Comments
The last time we checked in with the "Duke University Porn Star" Belle Knox, she was complaining about how the disclosure of her new-found adult film career was hurting her sex life. Knox seems to be making a second career out of complaining. She is a featured speaker for Liberty Fest NYC this October, on the high cost of education that she says drove her to her current job.
Belle Knox (Miriam Weeks) made headlines when it was revealed that she is a Duke University student paying for tuition by doing porn. Belle has used her new found fame to have an honest discussion with Americans about the state of college tuition & the federal government’s wasteful spending.
I would have more respect for Knox if she put her expensive education on hold and perhaps learned a trade that would provide her the income necessary to get the degree she wants. I would feel exactly the same way if Knox were male, though it seems the porn industry is one in which women earn substantially more than men. Perhaps the current administration could focus on this particular wage gap?

Posted by Amy Miller on March 04, 2015 21 Comments
Barack Obama is fighting a losing battle to defend his foreign policy---and the latest blow has come from inside his own cabinet. Today, new Defense Secretary Ash Carter went on the record as a critic of the three year plan to defeat ISIS contained in President Obama's request for use of continued military force in the Middle East. “I wouldn't assure anyone that this will be over in three years or that the campaign will be completed in three years,” Carter said, before admitting that he understands why that sort of timeline was included in the request. More from Fox News:
He said the three-year sunset “is not something that I would have deduced from the Department of Defense's necessities, the campaign's necessities, or our obligation to the troops.” He added: “I think it has to do with the political calendar in our country. I understand that. That's a constitutional issue wherein the executive branch and the legislative branch share responsibility for the conduct of military operations.” Carter recently took the helm of the Defense Department, replacing Chuck Hagel whose tenure was marked by disagreements with the Obama administration. While Congress is weighing the request for military authorization, the president already has launched airstrikes and other military actions in Iraq and Syria. The White House nevertheless committed to putting the issue to a vote. Asked Wednesday if he thinks additional U.S. troops will be needed in Iraq, or whether U.S. troops would be introduced in Syria, Carter left the door open. “That is a question that will hinge upon what is required for success there,” he said.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 04, 2015 27 Comments
Hillary Clinton's email scandal gets worse by the day. First, the NY Times broke the story of Hillary's exclusive use of personal email account, raising serious security issues in addition to record keeping issues.  Then WaPo broke that Hillary set up her own email domain. The White House appears ready to abandon her on the issue: AP reports that Hillary had her own email server in her house:
The email practices of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who used a private account exclusively for official business when she was secretary of state, grew more intriguing with the disclosure Wednesday that the computer server she used traced back to her family's New York home, according to Internet records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 04, 2015 27 Comments
The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice has released an extensive report (embedded below) clearing former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting death of Mike Brown in August 2014. Wilson's shooting of Brown led to weeks of often violent protests, including repeated nights of looting and arson. These protests, largely organized by Al Sharpton and similar racial activists, left portions of Ferguson in ruins. In November 2014 Darren Wilson received a no true bill from the grand jury empaneled to hear criminal charges against him, sparking additional riots. He shortly thereafter resigned from the Ferguson police department, and has stayed out of the news since. We covered the grand jury's findings extensively here at Legal Insurrection, including here: Analysis: #Ferguson Grand Jury: NO Indictment In Michael Brown Shooting In considering civil rights charges against Wilson the Department of Justice ultimately determined that the credible witnesses and forensic evidence overwhelmingly favored Wilson's narrative of lawful self-defense. The witnesses whose testimony favored a narrative of racist misconduct were found to be lies, inconsistent with the forensic evidence, or simply not credible relative to the witnesses favorable to Wilson's narrative. A Department of Justice investigation continues into the Ferguson police department generally, on the basis that the department has engaged in racist activity. The specific examples noted by the New York Times, however, seem only to illustrate mockery of President Obama and his wife, rather than black people generally.
A report from that investigation found a wide pattern of discrimination by the city’s police force, and said that city officials had sent racist emails on their government accounts. One depicted President Obama as a chimpanzee. Another included a photo of topless African women with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s high school reunion.”
One can't help but recall the thousands of Progressive depictions of President George W. Bush as a chimpanzee during his administration.  Not racism, I guess.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 04, 2015 37 Comments
The plot thickens. Monday, the New York Times broke the story about Hillary Clinton's little email problem. The former Secretary of State used a personal email account the entire time she served as DOS's top dog. As Professor Jacobson pointed out yesterday, use of personal email for state business appears to be in violation of record keeping rules. This morning, the Associated Press reported that not only was Clinton using a personal email account, she was running the account from servers located in her home (emphasis added):
The computer server that transmitted and received Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails — on a private account she used exclusively for official business when she was secretary of state — traced back to an Internet service registered to her family’s home in Chappaqua, New York, according to Internet records reviewed by The Associated Press. The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, impressive control over limiting access to her message archives. It also would distinguish Clinton’s secretive email practices as far more sophisticated than some politicians, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were caught conducting official business using free email services operated by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.
The AP report suggests Clinton was using the server to navigate around transparency:
Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails. And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton’s home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking.
And then there's this ghost that ran Clinton's servers:
It was unclear whom Clinton hired to set up or maintain her private email server, which the AP traced to a mysterious identity, Eric Hoteham. That name does not appear in public records databases, campaign contribution records or Internet background searches. Hoteham was listed as the customer at Clinton’s $1.7 million home on Old House Lane in Chappaqua in records registering the Internet address for her email server since August 2010.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 04, 2015 2 Comments
British street artist, Banksy, recently visited Gaza. According to Mashable, this was not his first trip:
The Palestinian territory is not a new base for the British graffiti artist; in 2005 he made headlines for his art on Israel's West Bank barrier. There were nine images in total, including one work with a girl attempting to float over the wall holding balloons, one of children playing on the sand with a hole above them showing a beach in the wall, and another of a dove with an olive branch and a bullseye on its chest.
Far from politically conservative, much of Banksy's art rails against corporations and the wealthy, is anti-war, and pretty much diametrically opposed to any political view I have. His Occupy-like sympathies aside, Banksy is incredibly talented. If only he used his talents for good, rather than wasting them on anti-Israel propaganda...

Posted by Amy Miller on March 04, 2015 38 Comments
In case you missed it, yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech before Congress eviscerating Obama's policy toward Iran and triggering a complete meltdown amongst Democrats and liberal talking heads. I included the rail-jumping from MSNBC institution Chris Matthews in a previous post, but something he said during his rant has been nagging at me ever since I blew it off and hit "publish":
Speaking to Thomas Roberts shortly after Netanyahu’s speech ended, Matthews said definitively, “This man from a foreign government walked into the United States legislative chamber and tried to take over foreign policy.” “He said you should trust me, not your president on this,” Matthews continued, describing the tone of Netanyahu’s remarks. “I’m the man you should trust, I’m your true leader on this question of U.S. geopolitics. If you want to protect yourself, you must listen to me and not this president.” Calling the situation “startling,” Matthews said, “It’s a remarkable day when the leaders of the opposition in Congress allowed this to happen. Think it through, what country in the world would let a foreign leader come in and attempt to rest from the president control of U.S. foreign policy?” “This was a takeover attempt by Netanyahu with his complying American partners to take American foreign policy out of the hands of the president,” he concluded.
Watch:

Posted by Julius Kairey on March 04, 2015 6 Comments
If Israel were an Arab country, it would receive near-universal praise as a paragon of justice. Its robust protections of freedom of speech, along with frequent and open elections, would make it the only Arab state in which people have a real say in the operation of their government. Israel would be celebrated as the only gay-friendly state in a region of rampant anti-gay persecution. Its strict prohibition of the traditional practice of honor killings — where women accused of disgracing the family name are murdered by their male relatives — would be lauded as proof of its progressive and egalitarian values. And its modern capitalist economy, driven by a dynamic high-tech sector, would be the model for other Arab nations seeking to lift their people from the depths of poverty. Of course, Israel isn’t an Arab nation, and it is treated according to this double-standard. It is the world’s only majority-Jewish state, and it is surrounded by Arab theocracies, dictatorships and monarchies, each of which have gone to war in a failed bid to end its existence. And yet, Israel’s remarkable history of repeated triumph in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity receives little sympathy among some “left-wing” segments of communities across the nation. It is not immediately obvious why this is so. Israel’s history reads like a liberal success story.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 03, 2015 28 Comments
The last time we checked on California's new rules for issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, the Department of Motor Vehicles was so overwhelmed with requests for new licenses that it can take up to three months to get an appointment...even for lawful citizens. The new program has been so popular that now over 110,000 illegal immigrants now hold those vital pieces of identification.
California has handed out 110,000 driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally during the first seven weeks of applications. The figures for all of January and much of February were released this week by the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. In early January when the law took effect, hundreds of immigrants lined up at designated DMV offices for walk-in appointments. The applicants have to submit documents and take a written test, and later, they must take a road test. They receive licenses that read "not acceptable for official federal purposes" like boarding planes.
Let's take a look at the written test requirements for a moment. I remember studying diligently for several hours before taking my exam several years ago, and being very nervous about getting the correct answers. It is difficult to believe so many immigrants who have not had basic educational opportunities either here or in their native land would pass the exam.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 03, 2015 13 Comments
My formerly home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is keeing up its long history of corrupt politicians. In March 2014, we reported how Gordon Fox, the RI House Speaker and most powerful politician in Rhode Island was resigning after fed and state police raid. Now we know why. The FBI has issued a press release that Fox is pleading guilty to three federal charges:
Former Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, 53, of East Providence, has waived federal indictment and is expected to plead guilty in federal court to a three-count Information charging him with wire fraud, bribery and filing a false tax return. The charges stem from former Speaker Fox’s theft of $108,000 donated by campaign supporters to pay for personal expenses; his acceptance of a $52,000 bribe to advocate and move for issuance of a liquor license for an East Side restaurant while serving as Vice-Chairman of the City of Providence Board of Licenses in 2008; and his failure to account for these illegal sources of income on his tax returns....
News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England Via News 10:

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 03, 2015 95 Comments
This "standing headline" is becoming so ubiquitous it ought to be formally recognized as an internet meme. A robbery suspect, identified in the CNN report simply as "Africa" or "Brother Africa" was being arrested by four LAPD officers yesterday in Los Angeles.  He was violently non-compliant, as evidence by the video below and by eye witness testimony.  Witness Yolanda Young told local news reporters from KTLA:
He was down, but then he jumped up, like he was juiced up, and then he started swinging at the police and they were fighting him back.
[NOTE: Video above was replaced on 3/3/315 with a version that was not "fuzzed-out," as was original video.]

Posted by Amy Miller on March 03, 2015 29 Comments
Earlier today we provided full coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks to Congress, and watched the country react as the man many are now calling the de facto leader of the free world completely and utterly devastated President Obama's plans to strike a nuclear deal with Iran. During the speech, I noted that once things got rolling, the loss of the boycotting Democrats was barely noticed. What was noticed was how proud the membership in the chamber was of Netanyahu, and his resolve in the face of not just enemies in the Middle East, but also opposition from the US, historically one of Israel's closest allies. After the speech, Obama...he didn't give a statement. He pitched a fit:
Later, at the White House, Obama took issue with Netanyahu's comments as well as the invitation that led to his speech. "On the core issue, which is how do we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which would make it far more dangerous and would give it scope for even greater action in the region, the prime minister didn't offer any viable alternatives," he said. Asked before a meeting with Defense Secretary Ash Carter about Netanyahu speaking before Congress, Obama said the U.S. has a system of government where "foreign policy runs through the executive branch and the president, not through other channels."
Obama's response was bad. Pelosi's was almost worse:

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 03, 2015 23 Comments
Leaders in the Democratic Party have begun to figure out that if their far left base gets too excited about a candidate like Elizabeth Warren, it could create problems for the presumed nominee, Hillary Clinton. Weasel Zippers points to a column by Think Progress:
Sexist Warren Buffett Goes On The War Path Against Liz Warren (Socialist – MA) – She Is Too ‘Angry’ And ‘Violent’ With Rich People Liz sure as heck isn’t friendly with the middle class either.
Via Think Progress: In an interview Monday morning with CNBC, Berkshire Hathaway CEO and billionaire Warren Buffett was asked what he thinks of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and her views of Wall Street. “I think that she would do better if she was less angry and demonized less,” he responded. “I believe in hate the sin, love the sinner, and I also believe in praising by name and criticizing by category.” He continued that while there are “plenty of other candidates” whose political style he doesn’t agree with, “I do think it’s — I think it’s a mistake to get angry with your, with people that disagree with you,” he said of her. “In the end we do have to work together… And it does not help when you demonize or get too violent with the people you’re talking to.”[…] But Buffett’s use of the emotional word “angry” may be a sign of some subtle sexism.
The effort to squash the 'Warren wing' is on. Big time.
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