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June 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on June 12, 2015 17 Comments
The debate surrounding congressional approval of "fast track" trade authority has officially taken a swan dive through the looking glass. Obama wants it. House republicans want it. Democrats, for the most part, are ready to vote "no"---their union backers are making them more nervous than the White House ever could---even if it prevents their president from advancing more legacy-building legislation. More from the AP (emphasis mine):
Obama himself, who's been unusually personally engaged on a bill that could amount to the biggest achievement of his second term, paid a surprise visit to the annual congressional baseball game Thursday night for some 11th hour persuading. Obama arrived as Democratic and Republican lawmakers faced off at Nationals Park and was greeted with chants of "TPA! TPA!" from the GOP side — the acronym for the Trade Promotion Authority fast track bill. He brought beer and visited with lawmakers on both sides. Earlier, in a closed meeting in the Capitol, top White House officials implored Democrats not to deny Obama the trade authority. Such a vote, they said, would block needed trade expansion for the nation and sink a major priority of the Democratic president.
It really happened---I was there to see it: obama flake annotated

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 11, 2015 87 Comments
It appears that black activists in Detroit are so impressed with how Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby is doing in Baltimore that they've adopted the same strategy in Cleveland, based on reports by Cleveland.com. Exactly a week ago we provided an update on the case of Tamir Rice, a black 14-year-old who was shot and killed by Cleveland police officers responding to a man-with-a-gun call:  VIDEO: Shooting of Tamir Rice by Police Goes to Grand Jury." Residents had called 911 because Tamir was walking around a public park with an apparent gun and pointing it at people.  When police responded to the scene, Rice immediately reached for the "gun" in his waistband and was killed by police gun fire. All that happened back in November 2014, and just last week the police finally wrapped up their investigation. The conclusion?  The evidence did not warrant charges against the one officer who actually fired shots, Officer Timothy Loehmann.  Further, if there was not sufficient evidence to charge the Loehman there would certainly not be sufficient evidence to charge to second officer, Frank Garmback, who had merely driven the patrol car. This certainly seems consistent with the actual video evidence available (embedded below the fold), as covered at length in our previous post on the subject but re-embedded here for your convenience:
Indeed, the surveillance video (below the fold, and annotated by the author) clearly shows Rice openly handling an apparent pistol (seemingly spinning it on his finger cowboy-style at the 1:20 mark), placing and removing it from his waistband (e.g., at 2:00 mark), and even apparently pointing the gun-like object at passersby. There are at least 10 occasions captured by the grainy footage of the surveillance video in which Rice is openly displaying the apparent gun in some fashion.  To an actual observer at the scene, the handling of the gun would have been far more apparent. When police pulled up to his location, they say Rice immediately reached for the apparent gun in his waistband (highlighted in the photo below, and seen at the 7:27 mark in the video), and they engaged him with defensive fire.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 11, 2015 5 Comments
Every headline today concerning Saudi Arabia and the conflict in Yemen contains the words "crunch time." Every. Single. One. It's an accurate assessment, of course, and it does a good job of describing the urgency that Saudi and western powers are finding themselves operating under. Saudi Arabia has now spent 11 weeks conducting airstrikes on key strategic targets in Yemen in an effort to drive back the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and bolster local fighting forces loyal to deposed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The strikes have done their job, destroying heavy artillery and machinery, and creating a chaotic playing field for rebel ground forces. But:
Despite the destruction of much of their heavy weaponry, the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control most of the country's populated west and still daily attack Saudi territory with mortar fire or missiles. The possibility of a ground operation in support of the ragtag local groups still fighting the Houthis in Aden, Taiz, Marib and al-Dhala appears to have been discounted by the Saudis and their allies in an Arab coalition from early on.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 11, 2015 29 Comments
I enjoy reading or hearing stories that humanize candidates. The story of Mitt Romney helping to remove a stump from a neighbor's yard was a good one, or how the Perry family adopted Marcus Luttrell -- also a heartwarming, warm fuzzy inducing tale. Even John McCain recounting his time as a POW was powerful stuff. These stories provide insight into how candidates live beyond the flashy lights, teleprompter flanked podiums, and soundbites of the politisphere. They're meaningful. In many ways, these stories explain a core part of who they are. But that's not the case with Politico's latest slobberfest. Thursday morning, Politico published a story called Every wedding should have a Hillary Clinton Bible reading. Obvious disagreement with the premise aside, what are we supposed to take from this story? What does it say about Hillary? That we now have proof Mrs. Clinton can read?

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 11, 2015 86 Comments
So this happened last night. Sean Hannity had two guests on his show to discuss race relations. Eric Guster, a criminal defense attorney (on the left in the video below), and Pastor Marcus Mosiah Jarvis (next to Guster). Hannity was making the argument that President Obama should refrain from injecting himself into racial incidents because Obama is, according to Hannity, a "three time loser" in such situations. In illustrating this point Hannity mentions the name Trayvon Martin, and that's where the wheels come off. Defense Attorney Guster immediately interrupts Hannity to ask, incredulously, if the show host believes Zimmerman was right in shooting Trayvon. When Hannity responds, "Absolutely," we get a nice pair of flabbergasted head explosions, which Hannity counters actual knowledge of the facts and law of the case. It seems the two guests neglected to avail themselves of the totally free resource: "The Zimmerman Files: Aggregated day-by-day live coverage & analysis", or otherwise inform themselves on the case. The exchange is all in the brief video (1:17) below. (If you're somewhere where video is not immediately an option I've also transcribed the exchange below the fold, but it's faster to watch than to read.)

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 11, 2015 7 Comments
The NYT published an article last week pretending Sen. Rubio's traffic tickets from the 90s were scandalicious. Mockery of the "troubling" allegations ensued and the NYT was rightly mocked. This week, the NYT again dropped a ridiculous "scoop." This time, they portrayed the Rubios as spendthrifts who had luxury speed boats and a house with extra-large windows... As these things go, the NYT report found its way into national and local news coverage, providing perfect mashup fodder. Yesterday, the NYT received the Jon Stewart treatment:

Posted by Miriam Elman on June 11, 2015 11 Comments
In the saturated market of pro-Palestinian activism, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has emerged as a major player. On its website, JVP now boasts over 60 member-led chapters across the country and more than 200,000 online Facebook and Twitter supporters. These days it’s also flush with new funding sources. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which describes JVP as the “largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States”, until very recently the organization reported an approximate average of $300,000 in annual contributions. By 2013 that figure had jumped to over $1 million. NGO Monitor notes that according to JVP’s 990 tax forms, from 2005-2011 the organization more than tripled its total revenues. It’s unclear where all the money is coming from. As NGO Monitor observes, JVP isn’t very transparent about its donor base. But the group has received some modest funding from the Violet Jabara Charitable Trust, an Arab-American foundation that also financially supports the virulently anti-Zionist Electronic Intifada; The Wallace Global Fund, which also supports the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank that’s long been a clearinghouse for anti-Israel positions; and The Firedoll Foundation, which also funds other pro-BDS groups.

Posted by New Neo on June 11, 2015 20 Comments
Atlantic writer Russell Berman wonders:
...[Obama's] decision to champion his signature achievement in such pointed terms just weeks before the high court’s ruling is due raised the question of whether Obama was trying to jawbone the justices at the 11th hour. ...“It seems so cynical,” he said, “to want to take coverage away from millions of people; to take care away from people who need it the most; to punish millions with higher costs of care and unravel what’s now been woven into the fabric of America.”... The speech came a day after the president, in response to a reporter’s question, commented directly on the case before the justices..."Under well-established precedent, there is no reason why the existing exchanges should be overturned through a court case," Obama said. "This should be an easy case. Frankly, it probably shouldn't even have been taken up," he added... [In 2012, Obama had] sharply warned the Court not to rule against his healthcare law the first time around. “I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said then.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 11, 2015 54 Comments
Baltimore is caught in a law enforcement conundrum. People rioted over what they claimed was police brutality and as a result, cops are doing less than they used to. Can you blame them? Public backlash and fear of prosecution have caused them to switch from proactive policing to a reactive mode. This chart from the Baltimore Sun illustrates the gravity of the situation by comparing arrests from 2014 and 2015: Allahpundit of Hot Air points out some grim statistics:
There were 23 homicides and 39 nonfatal shootings in Baltimore in May 2014. Through 29 days of May 2015, there were 42 homicides and 104 nonfatal shootings. Gulp.
Gulp indeed.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 10, 2015 9 Comments
Most of us are aware of the maladies racking government entitlement programs like SNAP and Medicaid. But there's another government run program whose implications are arguably the worst of all -- foster care. The statistics are horrifying. According to the Foundation for Government Accountability:
  • 60% of children rescued from sex trafficking report being part of the foster care system
  • 14 out of 21 men who age out of the foster care system (meaning they turn 18 and are no longer eligible for the system) end up incarcerated by the time they're 20-years-old
  • 71% of girls who've been run through the foster care wringer are pregnant by the time they're 21-years-old
safe families foster care failing entitlement reform

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 10, 2015 74 Comments
Earlier today Jane Bishkin, the attorney for Eric Casebolt, gave a brief news conference to provide context around the former police officer’s decision to resign yesterday. Here’s the video in its entirety. In the process, Bishkin very cleverly won for Casebolt everything that could be salvaged, sacrificed nothing that had not already been lost, and cut off the oxygen from a potential Ferguson-style race riot in the otherwise quiet and racially integrated Texas community of McKinney.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 10, 2015 12 Comments
I hate the TSA. Hate, hate, hate. Not just because they reached into my purse while I was waiting to board a plane. And not because they've lectured me about tooth paste on five, yes -- five separate occasions. My hatred of TSA is not even a result of their oft pervy-handed ways. I hate the TSA because they're painfully incompetent. Last week, the acting head of the TSA stepped down after a, "news reports that undercover security agents had penetrated airport security on 67 occasions," according to the Washington Post. That amounts to a 96% failure rate. As if a 4% screening success rate wasn't bad enough, a new audit found the TSA accidentally hired 73 workers who were listed on their own terror watch list. "This is totally unacceptable... we need to revamp the TSA process," said Texas Representative Michael McCaul in an interview with Fox News. "Most importantly, it puts Americans at risk."

Posted by Amy Miller on June 10, 2015 9 Comments
The day Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover was revealed, I made a joke about it. It wasn't anything particularly crude or shocking, and it didn't go any further than the mildest joke you would have seen on Twitter that day, but I still fielded text messages chewing me out for being "insensitive" and "transphobic" by chittering outrage squirrels who don't understand what phobic means. People in general have accepted that for the most part, comedy comes from a dark place. It's the knee-jerk reaction that you repress, but that the comedian packages and splatters on the wall for the world to see. That being said, even the world's most popular creative talents are getting the sense that, when it comes to comedy, the general population would much rather not laugh at the expense of the bubble-wrapped classes that the left so jealously shields from criticism. On last night's Late Night with Seth Meyers, comedian Jerry Seinfeld joined Seth and New Yorker editor David Remnick and unleashed on today's PC culture that can't even handle a lighthearted joke about social media that happens to have the word "gay" in it. Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 10, 2015 5 Comments
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke has confirmed that American man and paramilitary fighter Keith Broomfield was killed fighting ISIS alongside Kurdish forces in Syria. More from NBC News:
Idris Nassan, Kurdish co-deputy foreign minister of the Kobani district, also confirmed to NBC News that an American who had joined Kurdish fighters died in a battle with ISIS in his area. It was not immediately clear when Broomfield was killed. Broomfield's mother, Donna, said she had learned from her other son that Keith was dead. "I didn't want him to go but I didn't have a choice in the matter," she tearfully told NBC News over the phone from Westminster, Massachusetts. She said that her son had left to fight around four months ago and that while there was "a little bit of texting" after he first arrived, lately she had heard "nothing." "I'm waiting for his body to come back," she added.
Social media accounts belonging to Kurdish fighters were the first outlets to leak his death, confirming that Broomfield was killed in the Syrian countryside surrounding Kobani.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 10, 2015 5 Comments
American officials are scrambling to contact people exposed to an Indian woman who has been diagnosed with an extremely difficult-to-treat strain of tuberculosis.
A female patient with an extremely hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis is being treated at the National Institutes of Health [NIH] outside Washington, D.C., and federal and state officials are now tracking down hundreds of people who may have been in contact with her. The woman traveled to at least three states before she sought treatment from a U.S. doctor. While TB is not easily caught by casual contact, extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB is so dangerous that health officials will have to make a concerted effort to warn anyone who may be at risk. ... The patient, who isn't being identified in any way, may face months or even years of treatment. Ordinary TB is hard to treat and requires, at a minimum, weeks of antibiotics. XDR-TB resists the effects of almost all the known TB drugs. Sometimes patients have to have pockets of infection surgically removed. Only about a third to half of cases can even be cured.
This quest could prove extremely challenging. The NIH's latest patient traveled through one of the country's busiest airport hubs then onto three separate states.
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