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May 2015

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 21, 2015 92 Comments
UPDATE: We have additional information on the specific charges specified in the Grand Jury indictments, and how they differ from the charges announced by Prosecutor Mosby on May 1. Here's video of Mosby's press statement on the charges, at which she took  no questions: Clarification on changes to "false imprisonment" charges: Below we note that the "False imprisonment (8th Amendment)" charges are not present on a written list of the Grand Jury's charges (embedded below), and we speculate that this may be an implicit concession that the arrest of Gray was lawful. Shortly thereafter I were provided with the video of Mosby reading the charges, above. In the video the "False imprisonment" charges she specified in her May 1 allegations against the officers are also gone. It seems however, based on her verbal reading, that she has replaced that "False imprisonment (8th Amendment)" charge with a "Misconduct in office for illegal arrest (8th Amendment)". It's unclear if this represents a substantive alteration in the charges. For purposes of transparency I'll leave my earlier speculation intact below, but flag it with reference to this clarification. The officers are now scheduled to be arraigned on July 2, according to Mosby's read press statement.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 21, 2015 10 Comments
Obama's executive amnesty fiasco seems to get messier by the week. In early May, the DOJ filed a document disclosing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, (USCIS) had "erroneously" issued 2,000 work permits were issued despite the temporary injunction prohibiting their dispersal. "The government sincerely regrets these circumstances and is taking prompt corrective steps, while gathering additional information about these issues, including how these errors occurred," wrote the DOJ. Yesterday, Texas accused the Justice Department of running interference for the Department of Homeland Security who flubbed Obama's executive amnesty edict. Lead by Texas' Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas requested proof that executive amnesty has in fact, halted. "In today’s filing with the federal district court, the states argued for increased oversight of the administration's compliance with the court's injunction, and for the opportunity to look into whether the defendants should be sanctioned for their misrepresentations to the court," said a statement from Paxton's office. According to Paxton, “the newly-revealed admission that even more expanded work permits were granted to 2,000 illegal immigrants raises serious questions about the Obama Administration’s reliability moving forward. Increased oversight is needed to hold the federal government accountable for its apparent inability to report accurate information to the court.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 21, 2015 7 Comments
The ancient Egyptians worshipped divine bulls...and now it seems to be paying off! The country's stock market has gone bullish after it halted capital gains taxes.
Egypt suspended a capital gains tax on Monday, sending shares soaring after a months-long downturn in which investors had complained of a lack of clarity about the new taxes, with some even taking the government to court. Immediately after the announcement, Egypt's EGX 30 index rose 3.3 percent to 8562.07, according to Egypt's official news agency. By late afternoon, shares were up 6.5 percent. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi approved a law nearly a year ago which placed a 10 percent tax on capital gains, fueling a sell-off by investors in an economy already battered by years of political unrest since the 2011 uprising. The law had been part of a broader government effort to broaden the tax base as it pushed through a host of tough measures, including slashing fuel subsidies, amending the property tax law, imposing a 10 percent tax on stock dividends and allowing the Egyptian pound to devalue somewhat against the dollar.
Contrast that with President Obama, who used America's moms as an excuse to propose capital gains tax increases.
In a wide-ranging interview with Vox, Obama discusses his proposal to raise capital gains taxes on couples making more than $500,000 a year to help pay for middle-class tax breaks. The rate would go from 23.8% to 28%. Obama tells Vox’s Ezra Klein the capital-gains proposal “would make a big difference in our capacity to give a tax break to working moms for child care.” And, says Obama: “There’s no evidence that would hurt the incentives of folks at Google or Microsoft or Uber not to invent what they invent or not to provide services they provide.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 21, 2015 5 Comments
We recently reported on legislation in Illinois barring state pension funds from investing in companies that boycott Israel. The legislation passed both chambers unanimously, a stunning bi-partison rejection of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Gov. Bruce Rauner has promised to sign the legislation. The BDS movement is screaming about the legislation because while boycotting Israelis is cool with them, bocotting the boycotters is the worst violation of human rights ever. That's not much of an exaggeration as to their response -- it is full blown hissy-fit which mischaracterizes the legislation as suppressing speech. The reaction from BDS not only has been a hissy fit, it has been bizarre and revealing. Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the most aggressive BDS organizations, is demanding the State Department change its long-standing definition of anti-Semitism. I've long argued that the anti-Israel boycotters, particularly in academia, were forfeiting their standing to complain when the boycotts boomeranged and were turned on them. I'd rather that BDS never started this fight, but it did and now BDS supporters are realizing they are swimming in the ocean of a pro-Israel American population. The campus and faculty lounge anti-Israel bubbles are exceptions, not the rule. And that strong and increasing public support of Israel is being expressed through elected representatives. The Illinois legislation came at a time of two pending federal bills targeting the international boycott of Israel. But states may be where the action will be, as NY legislators plan to introduced a bill similar to the one passed in Illinois:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 21, 2015 21 Comments
The New York Times has extensive reporting on the first partial batch of Hillary emails released to the public regarding Libya. This is only the first batch, and of course, we don't know what was deleted from her private server. The bottom line is that the relationship with Sidney Blumenthal is as suspicious as suspected, Hillary knew the video story was a crock, and most of all, the entirety so far demonstrates why Hillary sought to hide her activities for so long. First Batch of Hillary Clinton Emails Captures Concerns Over Libya:
The Times obtained about a third of the 850 pages of emails. They appear to back up Mrs. Clinton’s previous assertions that she did not receive classified information at her private email address. But some of the emails contain what the government calls “sensitive” information or “SBU’’ — sensitive but unclassified. This includes details of the whereabouts of State Department officials in Libya when security there was deteriorating during the 2011 revolution. One email from a year and a half before the attacks that was marked sensitive but unclassified contained the whereabouts of Mr. Stevens as he considered leaving Benghazi during the uprising against the Qaddafi regime because of the deteriorating security.
That's of great interest, because foreign hacking of the home server has been a huge concern, and not just from foreign governments. How did al Quada affiliates know where Ambassador Chris Stevens would be? At least on the date of the above email they could have obtained the information from Hillary's emails. Gizmodo, part of the Gawker Media group, has a caustic take on Hillary's security lapses:

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 21, 2015 12 Comments
MSNBC's Morning Joe recently asked a panel of Iowa Democrats to cite something, anything, that Hillary Clinton accomplished in her role as secretary of state. The silence was deafening. Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard:
Iowa Dems Can’t Name an Accomplishment Secretary of State Hillary Clinton In a video played this morning on MSNBC, Iowa Democrats were not able to name an accomplishment of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner... "I really can't name anything off the top of my head," one voter says after letting out a long sigh. Another asks the interviewer, "Want to give me a minute? Give me two minutes."
Watch the video below:

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 21, 2015 118 Comments
This past Monday the office of Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby filed a motion in opposition to an earlier defense motion (oofah, lawyers) requesting that charges against six Baltimore police officers be dismissed, or alternatively, that Mosby recuse herself from the case. We covered the defense motion for dismissal/recusal in detail in a previous post, here:  Freddie Gray Case: Detailed Analysis of Motion to Recuse Prosecutor. Mosby's motion in opposition (embedded at the bottom of this post) is remarkable for a number of reasons, most substantially for it's epic levels of projection. In the motion's second sentence it claims that the defense motion is "born of desperation" and "the desire for publicity," and in the third sentence that the defense motion is "spewing invective" and "casting aspersions," ultimately concluding that the defense motion "bounces from one ridiculous allegation to another, like a pinball on a machine far past 'TILT.'"

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 20, 2015 59 Comments
Yesterday, we wrote about Emma Sulkowicz, aka Mattress Girl, the Columbia University student who carried her mattress around to protest rape. For the whole backstory, see here. Sulkowicz never pressed charges and the university dismissed the case against the alleged offender. By carrying her mattress around, Sulkowicz made national headlines and also earned credit for her performance art. Over the past few months, Sulkowicz’s version of events have been challenged by Nungesser’s accounting. Nungesser shared his side of the story and provided screen shots of text and Facebook messages to corroborate his recollection of the contentious tale. Following months of defamation due to Sulkowicz’s claims, Nungesser recently filed suit against Columbia University in an effort to clear his name. Columbia made an exception to the rules that usually prohibit large objects at commencement ceremonies. The exception allowed Sulkowicz to carry her mattress across the stage. Sulkowicz and her mattress graduated yesterday. But today, there's a new twist in the sordid mattress-wielding misadventure.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 20, 2015 14 Comments
Leave it to the good ol' Ayatollah to tattle on U.S. officials. If Atatollah Khamenei's Twitter feed is any indicator, Iran is not too keen on the idea of nuclear inspections. Early this morning, Iran's Supreme Leader tweeted: The New York Times Ayatollah Khamenei, "ruled out inspections of Iranian military sites and interviews of Iranian nuclear scientists in any potential deal on its nuclear program," at a graduation speech Wednesday.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 20, 2015 14 Comments
It's another failure of the "Have a problem? Throw money at it!" strategy democrats know and love so well---but this time, it's happening at the expense of veterans. It's been nearly a year since Eric Shinseki resigned his role as VA Secretary, and yet things are no better for veterans than they were before the embattled bureaucrat finally relented to demands from Congress that he step down. Of course, lack of leadership wasn't (and isn't) the agency's only problem; reports last year unveiled not just one or two corrupt officials, but an entire network of people willing to sweep problems under the rug. House Speaker John Boehner made a speech today shedding light on the continuing problems at the VA, and calling the Obama Administration on the carpet for allowing disgraced VA officials to be rewarded for their failure.
The number of patients facing long waits is about the same, Boehner said, while the number of patients waiting more than 90 days has nearly doubled. The VA's problems are so deep it can't even build a hospital, Boehner said, referring to a half-finished project in Denver that is $1 billion over budget.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 20, 2015 5 Comments
Last Sunday tens of thousands of Israelis participated in the annual Jerusalem Day march and flag procession, which runs through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter en route to the Western Wall. Jerusalem Day—Yom Yerushalayim—celebrates the reunification of the city following the 1967 Six Day War. As a tribute to the holiday, in an earlier post I offered at least five reasons that Yom Yerushalayim is worth celebrating. Last week, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition to change the “provocative route” of the march to avoid potential confrontations between the revelers and east Jerusalemite Palestinians. Two Israeli leftist NGOs argued that in previous years the flag-bearing procession had sparked violence and “unnecessary disruption for local residents”.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 20, 2015 12 Comments
Hillary's "Blumenthal problem" just got a lot bigger. A source close to the House Select Committee on Benghazi told the AP today that the Committee has issued a subpoena to former Hillary Clinton confidant and adviser Sidney Blumenthal. The panel wants answers from Blumenthal about his communications with Clinton during her time as Secretary of State; specifically, if he had any business arrangements with her that led him to communicate with her about Libya. Tensions regarding Clinton's involvement (or, lack thereof, if you believe she ignored the danger) in the disaster at the embassy in Benghazi are compounded by the "delays" Congressional investigators have encountered in their effort to acquire e-mail documentation of Clinton's time as Secretary of State. The two issues are hopelessly commingled, giving democrats an opportunity to accuse Gowdy and other Republicans of purposefully dragging out the investigation.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the panel, issued a statement Wednesday assailing the committee's GOP leadership for its handling of the subpoena.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 20, 2015 5 Comments
Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the May 29 inauguration of Nigerian President Elect Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja next week. Buhari stands to replace Goodluck Jonathan, and will take his place in the history books as the first challenger to ever oust an incumbent president in a Nigerian election. Unlike Kerry's recent visit to Somalia, this visit will not be unprecedented. Before January's elections, Kerry visited the country and warned officials that their future relationship with the US depended upon the completion of a successful election. (One could make a fair argument that the elections weren't completely successful---many Nigerian polling places---especially those in the conflict-torn northeastern states---played host to violence and intimidation tactics, and prevented a solid majority of the population from casting a vote.) Kerry's visit is likely to constitute more than just a celebration of a new regime, however. Nigeria is Africa's largest economy, and most successful oil producer, but their first quarter returns reflect the nervousness of their investors, and suggest trouble for the economy:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 20, 2015 20 Comments
In 2011, ABC News launched a major rebranding effort focused on the slogan "See the Whole Picture," featuring key news personalities including George Stephanopoulos:
Today ABC News launched a major re-branding initiative. The last time that ABC News spoke directly with its audience about what defines ABC News was over a decade ago with "More Americans Get Their News from ABC News than Any Other Source" - a statement that is still true today. ABC News President Ben Sherwood laid out the foundation of the new campaign to ABC News staff in an email on Monday morning: Starting today and over the course of 2012, you're going to see new on-air promos that feature images of an unprecedented gathering of ABC News anchors and correspondents and a call to action: When viewers turn to ABC News, they will "See the Whole Picture." Believe it or not, it's been more than a decade since ABC News consistently put forward a message or slogan. This new promise - "See the Whole Picture" - will help unify ABC News and differentiate our efforts from the competition.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 20, 2015 9 Comments
The American people are learning that Hillary Clinton doesn't like to answer questions and a new ad from American Crossroads focuses like a laser on the issue:
New American Crossroads Ad Calls Out Hillary Clinton for Dodging Tough Questions WASHINGTON – Today, American Crossroads released a new web ad calling out Hillary Clinton for continuing to dodge tough questions and provide non-answers to the few inquiries to which she has been forced to respond. “Despite being a candidate for president, Hillary Clinton is determined to dodge important questions about her positions and provide non-answers to inquiries about her ethical troubles,” said Ian Prior, Communications Director for American Crossroads. “Whether the issue is trade, the Keystone Pipeline, or the influence of foreign donors, Americans deserve better than transparent spin and crickets from Hillary Clinton.”
Watch the ad: As long as we're on Hillary ads, there's another one I'd like to share with you.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 20, 2015 57 Comments
Los Angeles now joins two other bastions of progressive political activism in setting the new minimum wage level to $15/hour.
Los Angeles became the largest US city to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour on Tuesday, as a wage increase bill passed the city council by a vote of 14-1. It is now up to city attorney Mike Feuer to draft an ordinance to implement the new minimum wage requirements. The ordinance will then return to the council for a final vote before becoming law. Under the proposed legislation, the city’s minimum wage would increase to $10.50 in July 2016, and would increase incrementally every year until it reaches $15 in July 2020. For small businesses with 25 or fewer employees, the wage hike would come on a modified schedule with the incremental increases starting in July 2017 and the minimum wage reaching $15 by July 2021. The current minimum wage in California is $9 an hour and is set to increase to $10 in January 2016. In the past year, two other US cities have approved similar wage increase measures. In June 2014, Seattle moved to increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2017. Last November, San Francisco voted to increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2018.
It will be interesting to see the economic fallout from this decision. As many aspiring actors and actresses work fast food jobs and hold entry-level service positions to survive while catching their big break, I would anticipate that Hollywood will be feeling the pinch in a much more limited pool of talent. And that is likely to be only one of many unintended consequences of this vote.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2015 14 Comments
I'm leaving Friday for a two week Apology Tour to Israel. I will deliver the speech referenced in the link, possibly. I hope I don't violate the Logan Act. I'll start in Haifa and northern Israel, where I'll be a guest at the University of Haifa Law School and will travel up the coast and then to towns and places of interest along the Lebanese border. After that it's down to Tel Aviv, then to the South along the coast to Sderot, and the areas bordering Gaza. After a visit with faculty at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, it's to Jerusalem, where I'll be staying in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Along the way, I'll focus on meeting people, not just visiting places. Among others, I'll visit with the families of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, killed in the terrorist bombing by Rasmea Odeh of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969. I'll also see many of the bloggers we link to, and many others with whom I've become acquainted online over the past couple of years. Building relationships and strengthening ties is what The Apology Tour is all about. It's not actually about the apology. As I did in 2013, I'll be posting at Legal Insurrection about some of the places and people I'll meet, but I'll also do shorter, less formal daily updates at Morning Insurrection, so be sure to subscribe. What can you expect from my reports?
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