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April 2015

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 03, 2015 44 Comments
Rep. Vanessa Summers understood the cries of an 18-month-old as racism. According to the Washington Times:
Democratic Rep. Vanessa Summers made the comment during a debate on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the House, referencing Republican Rep. Jud McMillin’s child. “I told Jud McMillin I love his son, but he’s scare of me because of my color,” Ms. Summers said to Mr. McMmillin, who is white, during last week’s debate, the Indy Star reported March 24. Ms. Summers later defended her comment, recalling the meeting with Mr. McMillin’s son earlier in the session. “He looked at me like I was a monster and turned around and cried,” Ms. Summer said, the newspaper reported. “And I told him you need to introduce your child to some people that are dark-skinned so he will not be scared.” Mr. McMillin said Ms. Summers‘ comment was “unfortunate.”
Take a look:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 03, 2015 38 Comments
Well that "Framework" negotiation was fun. For the Iranians, who got a great deal at least as far as a Framework goes. As this WaPo editorial points out, the Obama administration gave up on key parameters:
THE “KEY parameters” for an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program released Thursday fall well short of the goals originally set by the Obama administration. None of Iran’s nuclear facilities — including the Fordow center buried under a mountain — will be closed. Not one of the country’s 19,000 centrifuges will be dismantled. Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium will be “reduced” but not necessarily shipped out of the country. In effect, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact, though some of it will be mothballed for 10 years. When the accord lapses, the Islamic republic will instantly become a threshold nuclear state. That’s a long way from the standard set by President Obama in 2012 when he declared that “the deal we’ll accept” with Iran “is that they end their nuclear program” and “abide by the U.N. resolutions that have been in place.” Those resolutions call for Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium. Instead, under the agreement announced Thursday, enrichment will continue with 5,000 centrifuges for a decade, and all restraints on it will end in 15 years.
In his speech after the announcement, Obama took care not only to repeat the false rhetorical device of the only choice being between this deal and war, he blamed that choice on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. David Horvitz at The Times of Israel writes, Defeatist Obama’s deal with the devil:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 03, 2015 64 Comments
Ann Coulter appeared on the O'Reilly Factor last night and addressed the story of the Indiana pizza place which was forced to shut down because of threats. She pointed out that the left has adopted a regular cycle of outrage which usually turns out to be false. She also urged Republicans and conservative Christians to stand up to bullies. Watch the video:

Posted by New Neo on April 03, 2015 7 Comments
Religious wars continue:
Islamist gunmen burst into a Kenyan university before dawn Thursday, shooting students and taking hostages in a terror attack that left 70 dead, Kenyan officials said. Two attackers were killed in the ongoing security operation, and one was arrested, authorities said.... Joel Ayora, who was on the campus and witnessed the attack, said gunmen burst into a Christian service. Taking hostages from the service, they then "proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims." The attackers separated students by religion, allowing Muslims to leave and keeping an unknown number of Christians hostage, Agence France-Presse reported... The dangerously porous border between Somalia and Kenya has made it easy for Al-Shabaab militants to cross over and carry out attacks.
The attack is now said to be over, with four terrorists killed and over 140 students murdered. Fifty or so who had been held hostage (mostly females) have been freed.

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 03, 2015 34 Comments
Members of the Legal Insurrection community will be familiar with the travails of Pennsylvania nurse and single-mom of two Shaneen Allen under the heel of New Jersey's unconscionable anti-Second Amendment laws, as we covered the matter here in some detail, including PA Nurse Arrested on Gun Charges Given Reprieve (9/24/14) and The Memo that let Shaneen Allen — and Chris Christie’s political future — off the hook (9/29/14). In brief, Ms. Allen was in possession of a PA-issued concealed carry permit and a handgun when she drove across the Delaware and into New Jersey.  Pulled over for a routine traffic stop, Allen volunteered to the officer that she was in possession of the handgun.  She mistakenly believed that her PA concealed carry permit, like her PA driver's license, was legally valid in both states. The New Jersey authorities quickly disabused her of that notion, charged her with illegal possession of a handgun, threatened the mother of two small children with a multiple-year mandatory jail sentence, and refused to allow her to enter a diversion program for non-violent first-time offenders (the same program into which football star and wife knock-out puncher Ray Rice would be readily admitted without hesitation just months later).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 02, 2015 12 Comments
On March 27, 2015, the Virginia State Bar, the state licensing agency, precipitously cancelled a planned mid-year seminar in Israel just a few hours after 36 VSB members emailed the VSB Council complaining of discriminatory Israeli border policies. With little time for investigation or opportunity for opposing viewpoints to be heard, the Israel tip was cancelled without the Council being consulted or permitted to vote.  We expect that when VSB complies with the FOIA request served by Judicial Watch on our behalf, we will learn more details. The Israel trip was undersubscribed and probably would have been cancelled on April 1 anyway, but VSB acting through President Kevin Martingayle and President-Elect Edward Weiner, chose to focus on alleged Israeli border policies when the membership was informed by mass email in late afternoon/evening. The push back was swift, leading to a March 29 VSB explanation which again focused on alleged discriminatory policies, while disavowing that the cancellation was political. That March 29 doubling down was just as ill-advised as the original March 27 cancellation. As Prof. David Bernstein of Volokh Conspiracy (The Washington Post) points out, VSB should have issued a correction and apology rather than compounding the error. Bernstein thinks the apology should have looked like this:

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 02, 2015 17 Comments
The 2016 election is a little over 18 months away which can be a lifetime in the world of politics. It is assumed by most people Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Martin O'Malley may have something to say about that but as it stands at this point, Hillary is the runaway choice to secure the nomination. As for her potential opponents, the GOP field is still being fleshed out with only Ted Cruz making it official. Two other GOP Senators,  Marco Rubio and Rand Paul are expected to announce their candidacies within the next two weeks. Even though it is early, Hillary cannot be too pleased about some recent polling data that shows her numbers falling:
Hillary Clinton's lead over her would-be GOP foes has slipped in three critical swing states as the growing controversy over her email use has dominated coverage of the likely Democratic presidential candidate. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush scrapes past Clinton with a three-point lead, still within the margin of error, in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. Clinton had a one-point edge in the Florida dead heat Quinnipiac reported in early February. The last two months have also erased Clinton's previously double-digit lead over every other potential GOP contender for the presidency in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 02, 2015 2 Comments
While diplomats postured and preened over their hard-fought "nuclear framework" intended to usher in the era of a nuclear-but-not-nuclear Iran, Yemen continued to burn. Today, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels made major progress in their attempt to seize control of Aden, Yemen's key strategic port city and site of ousted President Hadi's last-stand. (He fled to Saudi Arabia last week.) The Houthi don't yet exercise full control over Aden, but have managed to break through barriers armed by soldiers loyal to Hadi, briefly occupy the Presidential palace, and raise the Yemeni flag before withdrawing for fear of airstrikes. This isn't an insignificant accomplishment; if the Houthi eventually oust Hadi loyalists from Aden, they will have seized control over one of the most strategically important ports in the Middle East, and upped the ante on Saudi coalition forces currently trying to regain ground.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 02, 2015 31 Comments
A vague agreement to agree was just announced. The precise details are somewhat vague, as it's just a statement of point, but one thing is clear: Iran is thrilled.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 02, 2015 49 Comments
Yesterday, we told you about a small Indiana pizza joint that has been forced to close down after its proprietors committed the unpardonable sin of coming forward in support of Indiana's new RFRA law. An irresponsible "news hit" led to a landslide of boycott threats, liberal thinkpieces, and threats against the lives and livelihoods of Memories Pizza's proprietors. I'm going to walk back a word I used just now---what happened here goes beyond a "boycott." Nobody involved in what has been done to Memories Pizza is "taking a stand"---unless, of course, this is what "taking a stand" looks like: memories pizza arson tweet Twitter is full of nutcases, but here's the problem---no one in the local media took a stand against this.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 02, 2015 27 Comments
California's "mega-drought" has been caused more by water mismanagement than "global warming." As I have foreseen, the state's drought cycle is the pad for Governor Jerry Brown to launch new rules. This time, Brown is issuing the state's first set of water restrictions.
Brown ordered the California Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory restrictions to reduce water usage by 25%. The water savings are expected to amount to 1.5 million acre-feet of water over the next nine months. Other elements of Brown's order would: --Require golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscaped spaces to reduce water consumption. --Replace 50 million square feet of lawn statewide with drought-tolerant landscaping as part of a partnership with local governments.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 02, 2015 16 Comments
Climate change is turning into the hobgoblin of political posturing, with both sides seemingly incapable of making it through a news cycle without finding some new and exciting way to bring up the impending boiling of our oceans. Progressives can always be counted on to play connect-the-dots with their favorite token issues, and a new Congressional resolution does just that. California Democrat Barbara Lee proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives late last month that encourages policymakers to frame their approach to climate change through the lens of gender equality. The resolution claims that women in developing areas could eventually be forced into prostitution in exchange for access to clean water and food for their families. Correlation vs. causation---it's a problem for liberals. Dennis Miller opines:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 02, 2015 81 Comments
A family owned pizza shop in Indiana closed its doors until further notice yesterday after death and firebombing threats, as well as hacking. The PJ Tatler provides a stunning account of how what happened:

Story About First Business to ‘Publicly Vow to Reject Gay Weddings’ Was Fabricated Out of Nothing

The Huffington Post headline screams: Indiana’s Memories Pizza Reportedly Becomes First Business To Reject Catering Gay Weddings Memories Pizza is a nine-year-old shop in downtown Walkerton, Indiana, just a few blocks from John Glenn High School. It’s owned by an openly-Christian couple, the O’Connors, who decorate their shop with mementos of their faith in Christ. So how does a small business in a small town wind up making headlines around the world as the new avatar of Christian bigotry?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2015 12 Comments
We continue to investigate the strange cancellation of a mid-year legal seminar in Israel by the Virginia State Bar (VSB).  With the help of Judicial Watch, we have served a FOIA request on VSB, and will pursue the facts no matter how long it takes, including FOIA litigation if there is no alternative. The cancellation of the Israel trip came after an email was sent by 36 VSB members to the VSB Council on Friday morning, March 27, alleging that the members would be prohibited from attending or face discriminatory interrogation by Israeli border officials on the basis of religion and ethnicity. None of the 36 said that they actually wanted to go on the Israel trip; instead they argued that VSB should boycott Israel because of its border security policies. http://myemail.constantcontact.com/42nd-Midyear-Legal-Seminar---JERUSALEM--ISRAEL---REGISTER-BY-APRIL-1-.html?soid=1111187925215&aid=0Z9htbr8awM As we have documented, there never was any evidence that any VSB member would be barred or subjected to unwarranted interrogation. To the contrary, initial claims by VSB suggesting that the Israeli Embassy confirmed that some VSB members might be barred turned out not to be accurate. An Israeli Official with whom I communicated denied such a conversation took place, and that denial was admitted by the only VSB representative to have substantive conversations with the Embassy.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 01, 2015 13 Comments
Senator Ted Cruz's campaign headquarters opened last night. Nestled in the bustling Upper Kirby neighborhood, the campaign HQ is situated in the heart of Houston. Handing out small American flags and Ted Cruz labelled bottles of water, volunteers sauntered through the crowd with iPad minis, ensuring faithful supporters were registered for campaign updates. With more attendees than anticipated, the lines to view the office space were quite lengthy. To keep people entertained, Rafael Cruz was there to shake hands: Ted cruz campaign hq open house houston rafael cruz president 2016

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 01, 2015 17 Comments
A years long investigation into New Jersey's Democratic Senator Robert Menendez resulted in a federal indictment for corruption charges today. Sen. Menendez denies any wrong doing. According to the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Senator Robert Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, setting the stage for a bitter court fight and putting his political future in doubt. The charges had long been expected and Mr. Menendez, a 61-year-old Democrat of New Jersey, has promised to fight them. He has offered no indication that he plans to step down or relinquish any power while he goes through that process. The case involves Mr. Menendez’s longtime friendship with Dr. Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye surgeon and political benefactor. The two men became friends in the 1990s and have spent holidays together in the Dominican Republic, where Dr. Melgen, 60, has a home in the gated oceanfront resort of Casa de Campo.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2015 35 Comments
You all remember Lois Lerner's contemptuous refusal to testify before a House Committee after she gave an opening statement in which she effectively testified to her defense. The House sought a DOJ prosecution for contempt. News that will shock no one, DOJ will not prosecute. Politico reports:
The Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups.
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