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June 2015

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 23, 2015 20 Comments
The federal government is regulating the American meal, again. This time, the target is trans-fat!
The Obama administration is ordering food companies to phase out the artery-clogging trans fats that can lead to heart disease, the country's leading cause of death. The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it would require food makers to stop using trans fats — found in processed foods like pie crusts, frostings and microwave popcorn — over the next three years.
It turns out California has banned trans fats since 2008, when our "conservative" Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill outlawing them. When I was at the local doughnut shop yesterday, with my husband (who requested the fat-laden extravaganza for his Father's Day Breakfast), I asked the proprietor about living with the trans fat ban. She explained that while she readily complied with the rules, at added expense passed onto the customer, some other shops continued using the banned ingredients. She noted that several were closed temporarily, until legal items arrived. These facilities were then regularly reinspected for compliance. Imagine this on a large scale. It is anticipated that the conversion will cost food manufacturers billions .

Posted by Amy Miller on June 23, 2015 10 Comments
Can we be done with Rachel Dolezal? I think we're ready to be done with Rachel Dolezal. If the left's reaction to the general backlash against a decades-long exercise in blackface is any indication, we may be nearly free of seeing her face in the news. Acknowledging that the story is quickly fading into the background, Salon (#SalonPitches, still going strong!) published a missive dragging the issue back into the racial limelight: "What we can’t afford to forget about Rachel Dolezal: A master class in white victimology." I'm not going to pull a quote from this thing, because to do so would be to jump down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass, and into a world of intellectual pain; suffice it to say, the author attempts to make academic hay and fails (or succeeds, depending on how you feel about academia) spectacularly. On a more serious note, officials associated with the NAACP and other organizations continue to take Dolezal to task, bristling at the idea that we can change our racial heritage as a matter of "identity." The rest of the world, however, seems happy to hand over the story to comedians and the entertainment establishment. On a recent episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Maya Rudolph succumbed to demands that she take on the character and pulled it off with flair (and an afro):

Posted by Amy Miller on June 23, 2015 12 Comments
Since last year, Obama Administration officials have been internally debating whether or not to continue with their existing policy banning the payment of ransom to terrorists in exchange for hostages. In the United States, the law specifically bans the aiding of a terror organization; however, debate over the diplomatic effects of this policy rose to the forefront last year, when ISIS terrorists demanded ransom in exchange for the life of a 25 year-old American woman. The US policy of denying ransom---either paid by the government, or private parties---caused tension in the international community. Switzerland, Spain, and France, among others, all permit negotiations with terror organizations, with all of Europe contributing at least $125 million to Al Qaeda and its affiliates in the last 5 years. Last month, the Administration signaled that it was ready for a shift in policy by discussing the possibility of creating a "Hostage Czar," who would be responsible for guiding families through the ransom payment process; and now, the White House is ready to announce an official change in policy that would allow families to pay ransoms to terror organizations without fear of prosecution.

Posted by New Neo on June 23, 2015 53 Comments
Here's an interesting article about how it might have been a good thing if the attendees at the Bible study meeting in Charleston had been armed. That's not just a fanciful thought. Mass murders, even mass murders at churches, have been thwarted before by a good guy wielding a gun and stopping the bad guy (and here I use the word "guy" in the completely non-PC sense that includes "woman"):
Murray had already shot and killed two people in the parking lot when he burst into the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Before he could pull the trigger again, however, the 24-year-old shooter was gunned down by Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard with a concealed-carry permit. That was eight years ago, but even though Ms. Assam was credited for saving as many as 100 lives that day, a dozen states continue to restrict the carrying of concealed firearms in churches — including South Carolina.
There have been quite a few similar cases of a law-abiding citizen with a gun (often an ex- or off-duty police officer, but not always) stopping or even preventing a mass shooting. A list of similar incidents can be found here. That there are not even more is probably due to the fact that mass shootings are actually quite rare to begin with---despite our perceptions that they are common, and despite the fact that even a single one is too many---and so it is not surprising that there are not so very many cases where a witness pulled a gun and even tried to stop such a shooting. Another reason is likely to be that mass murderers understand that they will be more likely to achieve their goals if they attack people in a gun-free zone, and so many attacks occur in such places. But the shoot-em-up fantasy of someone like MSNBC's Bob Shrum appears to lack any real-world precedent:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 23, 2015 17 Comments
Today, pro-trade members of the Senate won a major battle for free trade after they overcame a liberal filibuster levied against the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), or "fast track" trade authority. Coming into today's cloture vote, analysts weren't 100% sure that Republican leadership would be able to wrangle both their own caucus, and the 14 pro-trade members across the aisle, into agreement over TPA. Going into the weekend, Democrats remained concerned about shuffling the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) provisions to a separate vote, worrying that Republican leadership would go back on their word to advance the job funding program at a later date. Also causing frustration for analysts was the sudden flip-flop of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz, who announced his run for the presidency earlier this year, today changed his vote on TPA from yea to nay in the wake of pressure from tea party lobbying groups.

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 23, 2015 58 Comments
A trial date of October 13 has been set for the six officers charged with a plethora of felonies following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody this past April, reports the Baltimore Sun.  The same report notes that each of the officers has pleaded not guilty, and requested a jury trial. Baltimore City Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams has been assigned to preside over the case.  Warren Alperstein, an attorney representing the city's bar association, characterized Williams as having a reputation for favoring neither the prosecution nor the defense, stating:
He is a no-nonsense, fair and practical judge who will no doubt control that courtroom, neither state- nor defense-oriented . . . He will not be persuaded by media. He will not be influenced by public sentiment. He will rule as the law will require him to do. Period. There will be no outside influences.
That would be refreshing, considering the high-profile basking in the limelight still ongoing by Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who today is given a fawning profile in Vogue magazine.  The caption to her featured image in the Vogue article (photo taken by no less than Annie Liebowitz) reads "“The unrest had nothing to do with my decision to charge,” says Mosby. “I just followed where the facts led.” These facts would, presumably, be the same facts Mosby continues relentlessly to deny the public.

Posted by David Gerstman on June 23, 2015 7 Comments
First the good news, the so-called Schabas report, the United Nations Human Rights Council inquiry into last year's war between Hamas and Israel, isn't as bad as its predecessor, the infamous, discredited Goldstone report. But it's still pretty bad. The Schabas report is named for the judge who originally headed it, William Schabas. Schabas stepped down when it was reported that he had done paid work for the Palestinian Authority. Schabas had previously said that he wanted to see Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried for war crimes had to step down when it was clear that he was hopelessly compromised. After he resigned the commission was headed by former New York State justice, Mary McGowan Davis. For the most part media outlets reported that the conclusion of the report is that both sides "may have committed war crimes." There are two problems with this. The first is that it is inconclusive. The second and more serious one is that it put Israel and Hamas, which precipitated the conflict by launching rockets into Israel, on the same level. Rockets fired from Gaza civilian area at Israel

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 23, 2015 20 Comments
Back in the fall of 2014, when the news of Grubergate broke, Obama claimed that Jonathan Gruber was just some advisor who never worked on his staff. You don't have to take my word for it. Here's a video of Obama responding to a direct question on the subject from Ed Henry of FOX News: You might be shocked to learn that our president wasn't being entirely truthful.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 22, 2015 22 Comments
Rasmieh (Rasmea) Odeh is the convicted bomber of the SuperSol supermarket in "West" Jerusalem in 1969 which killed Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.   The evidence of Rasmea’s guilt was and is overwhelming, and has grown more so over the years. See my prior posts on the case: Rasmea had a lawyer in the Israeli trial, and engaged in extensive pre-trial litigation and trial that stretched over the better part of a year. An International Red Cross observer termed the trial to be fair. While Rasmea would claim that the conviction was the result of her confession coerced through 25 days of sexual torture, in fact Rasmea confessed the day after arrest and there was evidence independent of the confession. Moreoever, years later, after they all were out of prison, Rasmea's main co-conspirator would credit Rasmea with being the mastermind. Rasmea was sentence to life in prison, then was released in 1979 in a mass prisoner exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.  She eventually made her way to the U.S. in the 1990s In November 2014, Rasmea was convicted in federal court in Detroit of lying on her immigration and naturalization forms, by falsely denying she ever had been arrested, convicted or imprisoned. Rasmea was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered deported. She is free on bond pending appeal.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 22, 2015 20 Comments
Last week, we discussed the Treasury Department's ill-conceived decision to boot Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill in exchange for a yet-to-be-determined gal. Monday, the former Federal Reserve chairman wrote he was "appalled" by the Treasury Department's latest announcement. And because it's 2015, Bernanke blogged his disgust:
I must admit I was appalled to hear of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's decision last week to demote Alexander Hamilton from his featured position on the ten dollar bill... Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, would qualify as among the greatest of our founders for his contributions to achieving American independence and creating the Constitution alone. In addition to those accomplishments, however, Hamilton was without doubt the best and most foresighted economic policymaker in U.S. history. As detailed in Ron Chernow's excellent biography, as Treasury Secretary Hamilton put in place the institutional basis for the modern U.S. economy. Critically, he helped put U.S. government finances on a sound footing, consolidating the debts of the states and setting up a strong federal fiscal system. The importance of Hamilton's achievement can be judged by the problems that the combination of uncoordinated national fiscal policies and a single currency has caused the Eurozone in recent years. Reflecting on those parallels, as Fed chairman I recommended Chernow's biography to Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank. Mario told me that he read it with great interest.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 22, 2015 14 Comments
Of everything I've witnessed from the pro-abortion crowd this ad quickly took its place among the most disturbing. It's not disturbing because it's gruesome or gory or because it mocks pro-lifers -- it doesn't. "The End of Pretending" is uniquely disturbing because it seeks to make the senseless murder of an unborn child the solution to a less than perfect life. "Let's pretend that life is perfect and everything happens exactly as you plan," the ad begins says. It goes on to paint what I suppose is a "dream" scenario of a perfect life. But because we all know that life isn't perfect, you'll probably need an abortion, suggests the ad. In an interesting departure from the "reproductive rights" mantra, UltraViolet chose to call abortion a "productive" right; which makes sense if you view children as disposable glob of cells impeding the road to your dream job. Take a look:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 22, 2015 1 Comment
Another day, another opportunity for domestic terrorists to begin their work on US soil. Today, the FBI arrested 19 year-old Justin Nojan Sullivan after an extended investigation revealed he may have been plotting ISIS-style attack here in the US. Officials aren't yet sure (or haven't yet revealed) exactly how large of a safety threat Sullivan posed; he was arrested after law enforcement discovered a silencer in the North Carolina home where he lived with his parents. Sullivan had asked a private dealer---in reality an FBI agent working undercover---to build the silencer for him, and bragged to the agent about what he planned to do with it:
...an undercover operative made contact with Sullivan, who allegedly told him, "I liked IS from the beginning, then I started thinking about death and stuff so I became a Muslim." The FBI says Sullivan talked about buying an assault rifle from a gun show in North Carolina and shoot people last weekend "because his parents would be out of town at the time." He did not buy a rifle before he was arrested Friday but allegedly planned to purchase one at the Hickory Gun Show last weekend.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 22, 2015 48 Comments
Marc Maron knows how to run an interview. I've been listening to his podcast for a while now; I call it cultural anthropology, much in the same way that those who monitor MSNBC and other outlets justify their forays into the gutters of mainstream media. I may not agree with him politically, but listening to Maron draw out the celebrities and entertainment types whose voices populate the podcasts downloaded to my phone every week is an exercise in appreciation for the human element of a terrible and transparent industry. Rarely does he spend much time talking politics; the 'cast is not a hospitable environment for talking points, and more often than not, guests who go into it with an agenda end up derailing into the gorge of their own humanity. Sex, drugs, rock n' roll, frustrations, failures, emotions...that's Maron's goal. Unless, of course, you're the President of the United States. If you're the president, you get to use your mic time to stump about the obstructionist Congress and preach about gun violence.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 22, 2015 17 Comments
IranTruth.org hopes to expose the dangers of the Obama administration's dealings with Iran. As part of the site launch, IranTruth released a new video chronicling the devolution of President Obama's Iran stance, beginning with Senator Obama's campaign promises:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 22, 2015 62 Comments
Today, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that stands to drastically change the relationship farmers have with the federal government. The order in Horne, et al. v. Department of Agriculture turned on its head the idea that the government can seize an entire "bundle" of property rights, yet avoid classifying that seizure as a taking as long as they allow the original owners to retain some manner of interest in the property. In 2001, Marvin and Laura Horne challenged that very premise when they decided to withhold portions of their raisin crop that the government mandated be relinquished to the Raisin Administrative Committee (which is indeed a real thing); the Hornes were fined almost a million dollars for their transgressions, but they fought back, arguing that the Committee's seizure of even a portion of an individual farmer's crop as a condition of participating in the market constituted an unconstitutional taking.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 22, 2015 14 Comments
Self-described socialist and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has a record of being remarkably supportive of the Second Amendment.  (Remarkable because he's a favorite among progressives.)   Considering the leftward movement of the Democratic party and their avid support for all sorts of gun control, this could be a potential problem for Sanders. In the wake of the Charleston shootings, Sanders was asked about gun control, and despite the president's latest push, he was very cautious in his response.  CNN reports:

Two days after a white man walked into a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people, the Vermont senator and presidential candidate took a cautious approach on gun control Friday when speaking with reporters after an event in Las Vegas.

"I think the people of Vermont understand that guns in Vermont are different than guns in Chicago or guns in Los Angeles," Sanders said, telling the assembled journalists that he thinks "it is wrong" when people are "in some cases suicidal and in some cases homicidal" are "still being able to purchase guns."

Sanders, saying his home state of Vermont has "zero gun control," acknowledged that different parts of the country have different outlooks on guns.

Posted by Amy Miller on June 22, 2015 15 Comments
Donald Trump's big presidential announcement mostly went over like a lead balloon here at Legal Insurrection. For me, it felt like just another announcement; in terms of political theatre it was huge, but in terms of substance...to be honest, I'm still distracted by all the theatre. Professor Jacobson did a radio hit after the announcement, and described the impending Trump Candidacy like this:
“Donald Trump entering the race is pretty much like somebody throwing a hand grenade into the room. He is going to get attention, he’s probably going to cause some casualties, and he is going to absorb a lot of the oxygen in the room.”
Remember what I said about political theatre? This is what that looks like---someone who comes in and sucks the life out of the cycle just by being there. This weekend, Neil Cavuto hosted a panel for a debate on whether or not America "needs to hear" Donald Trump's message on wealth. Watch:
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