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April 2015

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 09, 2015 27 Comments
Former U.S. Senator and Rhode Island Governor Linc Chafee has announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee. When Rhode Island reader and blogger Tony emailed me about it, I thought it was a joke. Chafee has a reputation of a buffoonish political character who switches political sides on a whim. On second thought, that may make him perfect as a presidential candidate. Apparenty it's true. Here is his announcement: The Providence Journal reports:
Former U.S. Senator and Governor Lincoln Chafee, who slipped quietly out of the State House in January, made a big splash Thursday in local politics by announcing he may run for president in 2016. Chafee made his announcement on his website Chafee2016.com and in a news release in which he said he was announcing the formation of an exploratory committee to consider a run as the Democratic Party nominee. Chafee, a former Republican turned Independent turned Democrat, said he will spend the next few months in New Hampshire, Iowa and other key battleground states, asking voters whether his “independent thinking and fresh ideas for the future” are what is needed in the 2016 presidential campaign.
GoLocalProv has more details on his background:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 09, 2015 27 Comments
Back in 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the body of the United Nations with a piece of poster board and a red marker. During the two weeks prior to that moment, he had been waging a public battle with the Obama Administration over the dangerous progression of Iran's nuclear program---sound familiar---and made the decision to cut through the rhetoric in hopes that a visual aid might wake up the rest of the world. So, he picked up his marker and drew a literal red line that served as an ultimatum: “At this late hour there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs, and that is by placing a clear red line on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.” Remember? NATIONS-articleLarge Yesterday, the Obama paid passive-aggressive homage to Netanyahu's famous "bomb" with one of their own:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 09, 2015 21 Comments
Within hours of the White House celebrating a supposed Iran nuclear framework "deal," it became apparent that the various sides -- the U.S., the Iranians and the Europeans -- had very different understandings of the deal. Those competing narratives now have moved to the stage of open declarations by senior Iranian officials that the White House is lying and that key elements in a White House Fact Sheet never were agreed upon and are unacceptable. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has taken to Twitter to call the Obama administration a bunch of untrustworthy liars: https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/586113075809558528

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 09, 2015 17 Comments
The Republican "War on Women" isn't over and if liberals have their way, it never will be. Newly announced presidential candidate Rand Paul appeared on the Today Show yesterday morning and had the nerve to push back when Savannah Guthrie put words in his mouth. Nick Gass of Politico:
Rand Paul clashes with Savannah Guthrie over changing views Sen. Rand Paul clashed with “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie over her line of questioning during an interview Wednesday morning, criticizing her for editorializing over perceived changes in his political views since his election to the Senate. “You have had views on foreign policy in the past that were somewhat unorthodox, but you seem to have changed over the years,” Guthrie told the Kentucky Republican, who was appearing via satellite from Nashua, New Hampshire. “You once said Iran was not a threat, now you say it is. You once proposed ending foreign aid to Israel, now you support it, at least for the time being, and you once offered to drastically cut … defense spending.” Paul attempted to speak as Guthrie continued.
MSNBC's Ed Schultz, who once referred to conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham as a "right wing slut" is just beside himself over all this misogyny:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 08, 2015 57 Comments
The State Department stepped in it. Again. Now infamous for her dippy soundbites, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf might have topped her "ISIS just needs jobs" gaffe today. Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, both former Secretaries of State, wrote an op-ed that was published in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Brutally critical of the administration's much touted Iran deal, the op-ed focused on the White House's dismissive attitude towards the danger Iran poses. Kissinger and Shultz were less than impressed by the administration's insistence on the necessity of a deal with a country whose priorities aren't remotely in the same galaxy as those of the United States, noting:
Cooperation is not an exercise in good feeling; it presupposes congruent definitions of stability. There exists no current evidence that Iran and the U.S. are remotely near such an understanding. Even while combating common enemies, such as ISIS, Iran has declined to embrace common objectives. Iran’s representatives (including its Supreme Leader) continue to profess a revolutionary anti-Western concept of international order; domestically, some senior Iranians describe nuclear negotiations as a form of jihad by other means.
In sum, the op-ed eloquently observes the Iran deal is a complete and total cluster. At a press conference held earlier today, Marie Harf was in no mood to discuss the WSJ lashing. Flustered, Harf attempted to avoid questions on the WSJ op-ed, but Associated Press reporter Matt Lee persisted. "I read it and it's far from nuanced. It's pretty damning," Lee says. "You just reject it outright? They say this is a recipe for disaster basically, but you say, no, clearly, you wouldn't be pursuing something you thought was a recipe for disaster. Is that correct?" Lee reads a few lines of the piece, and lobs them back to Harf.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 08, 2015 8 Comments
RickPAC's latest shows portions of Governor Perry's speech at The Citadel earlier this week. "As a former captain in the United States Air Force, I know the global good done by those who wear the uniform of our country," Perry says. "I'm acutely aware of the sacrifice made by our soldiers, our sailors, and our marines." During college, Perry was a member of Texas A&M University's ROTC unit, the Corps of Cadets. Upon graduation, he received a commission as an officer in the Air Force where he served for several years.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 08, 2015 27 Comments
One has to ask, what exactly is going on at the US State Department? We have been following the deterioration of Yemen for months. Despite the obvious dangers to American citizens within this country, I guess our bureaucrats decided they really didn't need an evacuation plan. Fortunately, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government seem to be more on top of the situation.
The US, besides economically developed France, Germany and Sweden, besides 22 nations have sought India's assistance to evacuate its citizens from violence hit Yemen. An US government travel advisory for Yemen pointed out that India would offer its assistance to evacuate American citizens from Sanna to Djibouti. The US citizens have been advised to contact Indian diplomats in Embassy at Sanna for assistance for evacuation either by boat or air. This is significant considering the fact that the US has strong naval presence as well as deployment of its Air Force in West Asia. France also has presence of its Navy in the region to counter piracy. ​

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 08, 2015 3 Comments
I reported the other day how U. Penn anti-Israel students try backdoor divestment ploy:
I will give the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement credit for one thing: It is highly adaptive. The run-of-the mill anti-Israel divestment pushes on college campuses have had only mild success. Most often the attempt to get student government to endorse a boycott of companies doing business in Israel has failed, but there have been some successes, particularly in the U. California system.... By contrast, divestment from fossil fuels is gaining some traction even at the administrative level, because there is more of a student and campus consensus. It was only a matter of time that BDS tried to co-opt a larger issue to use against Israel. Some anti-Israel groups at the University of Pennsylvania seem to think they have found a broader theme: Divestment from companies causing “displacement” of people.
I don't believe in coincidences. When BDS switches tactics at multiple campuses, it's almost certainly part of a broader shift. One of the many great frauds of the BDS movement is the impression it conveys of grassroots activism, when in fact it is highly coordinated. So it is no great surprise that anti-Israel students and faculty at New York University are following the path taken at U. Penn., to link divestment from Israel to other unrelated divestment movements. Liel Leibovitz at The Tablet Magazine, writes At NYU, BDS Goes Stealthy: Divestment movement on campus attempts to link Israel and fossil fuels:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 08, 2015 19 Comments
A Massachusetts jury is ready to release the verdict in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is accused on 30 counts; 17 of those counts carry a sentence of either death or life in prison. In terms of the end result, it could come down to Count 1: Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. If Tsarnaev is found guilty on this count, he will become eligible for the death penalty. During the trial, prosecutors focused on the devastation caused by the attack, while defense attorneys focused on mitigating factors affecting Tsarnaev's conduct. They tried to emphasize the role his 26 year-old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev played in the bombing:
On Monday, the jury saw a video of the moment a bomb exploded and disemboweled an 8-year-old boy and ripped the leg off his sister. The blast killed a 23-year-old graduate student from China. The jurors heard more horror from April 15, 2013. At one point, prosecutors played a video that showed the scene after a bomb exploded -- blood and injured victims everywhere and the sounds of a child howling. His mother lost her leg.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 08, 2015 21 Comments
Will 2016 be the year of the foreign policy presidential cycle? It might be, if President Obama keeps up his march to mediocrity. The President's time in the White House has been plagued with an apparent desire to make America look as weak (I'm sure he would say "humbled") as possible. Challenges to the idea that the U.S. should be taking a backseat are met with borderline frenzied opposition. Blame for vulnerabilities on the international stage is quickly placed on other players. Questions about goals and direction are shuffled to the side in favor of domestic pop culture outreach. If we know what's good for us, we'll encourage the brave fools throwing their hats in for the 2016 Republican primary to do something different---focus on foreign policy. Normally, this isn't something we like our candidates to focus on because the knowledge base required to speak intelligently about international relations is significantly broader and more nuanced than that required for domestic issues. Still it won't be that hard to at the very least start a conversation about America's role in the world. On a recent episode of the Hugh Hewitt show, former Vice President Dick Cheney managed it in a 30 second soundbite: Listen:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 08, 2015 5 Comments
Late last month, immigration lawyers from the DoJ had the uncomfortable task of standing before a federal judge in Texas and explaining to the court why important information about the Administration's deferred action program was kept out of sight. They had good reason to---at least from their perspective. After President Obama announced his Executive Amnesty program on November 20 of last year, federal officials granted more than 100,000 applications for deferred action. However, in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, DoJ lawyers assured the court that the Administration had done nothing to begin implementation of the President's deferred action plan. Oops. Hanan, not at all inclined to grant the administration any favors, blocked the program from moving forward last February, and has now denied requests made by the DoJ to allow the President's immigration plan to proceed even as it is still being challenged in court.

Posted by New Neo on April 08, 2015 15 Comments
Remember this? It's one of the few papers that Obama wrote while in college or law school that is still available, a 1983 article that appeared in the Columbia campus paper. The article is mostly straight reportage and quotes about the Nuclear Freeze Movement, featuring organizations called "Arms Race Alternatives" (ARA) and "Students Against Militarism" (SAM). But Obama reveals his own attitude in a few comments such as, "Generally, the narrow focus of the Freeze movement as well as academic discussions of first versus second strike capabilities, suit the military-industrial interests, as they continue adding to their billion-dollar erector sets." Note the superior tone and the contempt for the military, already present in Obama at a relatively young age. To him, the "military-industrial interests" are just boys playing with expensive toys. Obama quotes one activist as saying "everyone's asking for peace, but no one's asking for justice," which (in Obama's words), causes "one...to wonder whether disarmament or arms control issues, severed from economic and political issues, might be another instance of focusing on the symptoms of a problem rather than the disease itself." To Obama, the real problems appear to be economic and political issues involving a lack of justice, and the arms race is a mere symptom of that deeper concern (shades of this far more recent policy statement).

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 08, 2015 138 Comments
Last weekend a cop shot of a fleeing unarmed black man in Charleston, SC.   Not all the facts are in, but the video (apparently captured by a cell phone) is damning; it shows the cop firing at the fleeing black man several times, finally bringing him to the ground.  There seems little indication that the fleeing man represented an imminent threat to anyone, much less the police officer. It also appears that the cop planted his Taser beside the man's body.
ABC Breaking US News | US News Videos The NY Times reports:
A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting in the back and killing an apparently unarmed black man while the man ran away. The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, said he had feared for his life because the man had taken his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man, Walter L. Scott, 50, fled. The North Charleston mayor announced the state charges at a news conference Tuesday evening.
Here's the full video:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 08, 2015 7 Comments
If there's one thing the men and women who bravely put their lives on the line defending America and freedom shouldn't have to worry about, it's whether or not they're offending anyone in the process. Yet according to Bill Whittle, who has interacted with members of our armed forces, that's exactly what's happening under our current commander in chief. Here's a partial transcript of the new edition of Afterburner, via Truth Revolt:
Bill Whittle: 'Sir, I Will Not Obey that Order' Let’s just assume for a moment that you’re a radical, left-wing zealot, who was raised by actual communists, and who, naturally enough views the United States military as the tool of capitalist exploitation and colonial racism. Now, further assume that through a perfect storm of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, fate, money, power and media bias somehow conspired to make you Commander in Chief of those same armed forces.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 07, 2015 15 Comments
Yet another Complaint has been filed by a male student disciplined after a campus adjudication of alleged sexual assault, this time against the California Regents for the conduct involving UC-Santa Barbara. As in all the other complaints, there are allegations that the sexual relations were consensual, a substantial delay in reporting, and alleged bureacratic bungling and mischief denying the male student. But this one has a unique twist -- the male was on leave of absence and the conduct was after the semester was over and the female accuser was transferring to another school.  This raises a unique question of the reach of university jurisdiction to enforce campus sexual conduct rules. What is not unique about this case is the salacious nature of the alleged facts. According to the Complaint, the accused male and accusing female were part of a group sex encounter at his parent's Lake Tahoe house, after school was over in June, with the male having graduated and the female transfering:
32. On June 14, 2014, John Doe and Jane Doe, along with a group of friends, traveled to Jane Doe’s parents’ home in Lake Tahoe for the weekend to celebrate the end of the school-year. Although some of the individuals on the trip happened to be members of the UCSB Mock Trial Team, the trip was in no way sponsored by or affiliated with UCSB. * * * 37. While John Doe was out of the house, L.B. approached Jane Doe in the master bedroom and asked whether she would be interested in having group sex with her and B.R. Subsequently, Jane Doe, L.B. and D.J. advised B.R. that they would be interested in the group sex only if John Doe was also involved. 38. When John Doe returned to the house, Witness B.R. advised him of B.R.’s earlier conversation with Jane Doe, D.J. and L.B. and inquired whether John Doe would be interested in taking part in the group sex.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 07, 2015 15 Comments
Say the name "Laurence Tribe" to anyone connected to the legal community, and you're sure to get a reaction. Love him or hate him, Harvard Law's Professor Tribe has made a name for himself as one of those fearlessly liberal legal scholars that we can always depend upon to be fearlessly liberal. Well, except when he's not. Yesterday, the New York Times published a profile on Professor Tribe and his unlikely legal alliance with Peabody Energy. Peabody is a coal company that is working overtime to shoot down a controversial EPA regulation that would place a limit on CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. For environmentalists, the regulation is important because it forms the backbone of President Obama's climate change agenda; if they lose this regulation, the plan loses its teeth. Peabody retained Professor Tribe to argue their case against the EPA in federal court, and the reaction from the legal community has bordered on apoplectic. From the NY Times:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 07, 2015 34 Comments
At this point, I've pretty much given up on the idea that I'll be able to make it through a week without somehow being maligned, insulted, or "made to care" about something by the President of the United States. He is who he is, and he's made it abundantly clear that he's not going to turn a 180 anytime soon. Yet I was somehow still shocked when I heard that he had taken a beat during a recent speech to lob an insult at Christians in general for being...un-Christian, or something. Did I mention this happened during his speech at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast?
“On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Obama said. “And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.” As the crowd began to murmur, the president backed off, saying, “But that’s a topic for another day.” “I was about to veer off,” he explained. “I’m pulling it back.” “Where there is injustice we defend the oppressed,” Obama said, returning to his prepared remarks. “Where there is disagreement, we treat each other with compassion and respect. Where there are differences, we find strength in our common humanity, knowing that we are all children of God.”
Watch:
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