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July 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on July 07, 2015 5 Comments
Since the Taliban rose to power in 1996, the people of Afghanistan have lived a live of fear and deprivation. A cursory search for ground footage in preparation for this article offered little in the way of troop movement or news spots, but much in terms of brutal executions; the western world is still reeling in the wake of the horror that is ISIS, but for people living in Afghanistan and the surrounding areas, the violence isn't a new trend---it's a way of life. As a rule, Taliban leadership has roundly refused to meet with leaders of the Afghan leadership; that, coupled with the brutality and absolute polarity of the ideological conflict itself, has made the Afghan war less easy to comprehend than other conflicts in the region. Recent developments, however, could signal the beginning of the end of outright hostilities. This evening (local time,) leaders from both the Taliban and the Afghan government are meeting in Islamabad to continue to discuss peace terms. Parties have been meeting for several months at various locations around the world---a fact that Taliban ground forces have roundly tried to cover up---but this meeting is being touted as having greater significance than the previously-disavowed discussions. More from the Wall Street Journal:
A senior Afghan official said U.S. and Chinese officials took part in Tuesday’s meeting as observers. Their attendance, together with Pakistan’s willingness to play host, is significant as it points to a broadening involvement of key players in a possible peace process. But it was unclear whether the meeting in Islamabad was fully backed by Taliban leadership. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militant group, said he wasn’t able to confirm whether the Islamabad talks took place at all.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 07, 2015 4 Comments
This week the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and its supporters will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the supposedly grassroots launch of the BDS movement by Palestinian "civil society" organizations. The Associated Press, through its writer Tia Goldenberg, has a lengthy article on the BDS movement. The article is receiving a lot of attention, including a Drudge link, and because it is AP is being reprinted (under varying titles) at numerous news website. The article starts with BDS's supposed grassroots beginnings, Boycott Israel drive gains strength, raising alarm:
Ten years ago, a small group of Palestinian activists had a novel idea: inspired by the anti-apartheid movement, they called for a global boycott movement against Israel as a nonviolent method to promote the Palestinian struggle for independence.
That narrative of how the BDS movement began is false, and demonstrably so. The boycott call issued in July 2005 was not the result of a small group of activists getting together, it was the result of a multi-year organized effort for a global boycott of Israel, most prominently in a boycott call issued at the 2001 UN Durban Conference which was so anti-Semitic the U.S. walked out. We have explored this history many times at Legal Insurrection. Here is the actual history of the BDS movement:

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 07, 2015 20 Comments
Media bias is no longer a problem perceived only by conservative bloggers. A Gallup poll last fall found 60% didn't trust mass media but a new survey from USA Today and the Newseum Institute finds that 70% of Americans believe the media is biased. Clearly, the scandals of Brian Williams and George Stephanopolous played a role. Bradford Thomas of Truth Revolt:
Media Fail: 70% Believe News Reporting Intentionally Biased A new survey by USA Today and the First Amendment Center found that Americans' distrust of the news media has skyrocketed over the last year, the number of American adults believing news reporting is biased jumping up to 70 percent, while less than a quarter now say they trust the news media. The 2015 State of the First Amendment Survey released Friday found that only 24 percent of American adults believe that "overall, the news media tries to report the news without bias," a 17-point drop from last year and the lowest number since the poll began in 2004. More than two-thirds, 70 percent, disagreed with that statement, a 15-point increase since last year.
One positive finding in the survey was an increase in support for the First Amendment.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 07, 2015 26 Comments
Somewhat overshadowed by the Independence Day holiday weekend, Rick Perry's unorthodox jobs and economic growth speech ruffled all the right feathers. Candidate job plans tend to blur together because regardless of party affiliation, they're virtually indistinguishable. Reduce/raise taxes, decrease/increase regulation, "get America working again!", "yada yada yada middle class!" Then there's always "something strangling something." Whether it's speech writer laziness or well tested imagery I don't know, but there's always something being strangled. "Bring jobs back to America!" [insert story of someone candidate met while campaigning and how current administration/elected official's policies have made it hard for anecdotal individual to find work] and so on. And that's pretty much every single economic policy speech in modern history. Or at least it was until last Thursday. Perry's economic opportunity speech at the National Press Club last week was unlike any other speech of its kind and brilliantly so.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 07, 2015 13 Comments
Remember the Miles of New Sidewalks, and Empty Stores I wrote about on July 6, 2010? It concerned federal Stimulus Plan "shovel ready" construction of miles of sidewalks in Warren, Rhode Island, which were built pretty much just for the sake of building them:
Warren, Rhode Island, has new sidewalks from the center of town down Rte 103 to the Massachusetts border, almost two miles away. Thanks to the Stimulus Plan. I have driven that road hundreds of times, and also have cycled the route many times. I never noticed any particular problem with the sidewalks. I also almost never noticed anyone using the sidewalks, particularly once you leave the very center of town. The road is a local main road, not exactly a walk in the park. But there are new sidewalks as far as the eye can see.... Warren, Rhode Island, also has plenty of empty storefronts. The sidewalks will not change that, and neither will the Stimulus Plan.
Here's what the newly constructed sidewalks looked like in 2010:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 06, 2015 9 Comments
Today, former President George W. Bush celebrates his 69th birthday. To commemorate this great man, world class leader, and Texan, we've compiled some of our favorite W moments.

This great moment in baseball history

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 06, 2015 16 Comments
Frank Luntz recently conducted polling of American "opinion elites" attitudes toward Israel. The results, but not the data, were published in an article by David Horvitz, Editor in Chief of The Times of Israel, Israel losing Democrats, ‘can’t claim bipartisan US support,’ top pollster warns:
Three quarters of highly educated, high income, publicly active US Democrats — the so-called “opinion elites” — believe Israel has too much influence on US foreign policy, almost half of them consider Israel to be a racist country, and fewer than half of them believe that Israel wants peace with its neighbors. These are among the findings of a new survey carried out by US political consultant Frank Luntz. Detailing the survey results to The Times of Israel on Sunday, Luntz called the findings “a disaster” for Israel. He summed them up by saying that the Democratic opinion elites are converting to the Palestinians, and “Israel can no longer claim to have the bipartisan support of America.” He said he “knew there was a shift” in attitudes to Israel among US Democrats “and I have been seeing it get worse” in his ongoing polls. But the new findings surprised and shocked him, nonetheless. “I didn’t expect it to become this blatant and this deep.”
Read the rest of Horvitz's article for more details. The article created huge concern in pro-Israel circles, and delusional euphoria among Israel haters. But is the sky really falling on Israel? I have written a response, published in The Times of Israel.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 06, 2015 5 Comments
US stock prices sank into the negative this morning in the wake of Greece's landslide "no" vote rejecting a referendum that would have created yet a new layer in the flailing country's creditor-debtor relationship with more stable Eurozone countries. In the US, the Dow showed a mid-morning flatline, but recovered by the afternoon. Markets in Asia, however, experienced a more dramatic response, and Japan and South Korea both closed under significant decline. The response of the European market was more modest, but still reflected uncertainty as Greece pushes its creditors for a mercy ruling. More via USA Today:
"There's been no panic of any kind," Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group told clients. "The market remains faithful that the European Central Bank and other European institutions have done an adequate job firewalling the eurozone against Greece." Investors, at least so far, are behaving as if they do not fear financial contagion from the Greek crisis, unlike the financial infection that spread globally after Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy back in the fall of 2008. "The week ahead will be dominated by Greece and the implications of the landslide 'No' vote," says David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds, adding that he expects difficult negotiations ahead between the two parties.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 06, 2015 12 Comments
Earlier this month, the EPA lost big when the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had erred during implementation of new regulations governing coal-fired power plants. That blow came on the heels of Congressional action against the EPA's new "Waters of the United States" rule, which opponents rightly argue amounts to little more than a power grab legitimized under the trappings of "environmentalism." It's an agency under fire; and while it may not be teetering on the verge of total self-destruction, evidence released today suggests that the EPA may be more nervous than they'd like to admit about maintaining a hold on private enterprise. E-mails obtained from the EPA via a FOIA request submitted by the Environment & Energy (E&E) Legal Institute show that agency officials used talking points provided by a left-wing special interest group to sway prominent journalists covering controversial new power plant regulations. From Lachlan Markay at the Washington Free Beacon:

Posted by David Gerstman on July 06, 2015 8 Comments
Adam Kredo of the Free Beacon obtained an e-mail threatening Democratic legislators who have doubts about the nuclear deal with Iran that the administration is negotiating.
“Democrats in Congress are the only remaining obstacle to finalizing today’s historic deal,” Zack Malitz, campaign manager for CREDO, said in a statement emailed to reporters on July 2, along with a note that details of the email were not to be published until a deal was actually announced. “Every Democrat should go on the record right now in support of the deal, and pledge to defend it from attacks in Congress.” “Republicans will try to sabotage the deal and take us to war, but they can’t do it without Democratic votes,” Malitz wrote. “Progressives will hold accountable those Democrats who vote to help Republicans sabotage the deal and start a war.”
The Free Beacon cited a source who observed that this kind of political threat was consistent with the administration's mindset.
“This is exactly what you’d expect from the deal-at-any-cost lobby,” the source said. “The White House lied to Congress about what it would deliver and doesn’t have anything left than its raw political power.”
The Free Beacon report comes just after Bloomberg reported that an effort to promote a nuclear deal with Iran has been funded with millions since 2003.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 06, 2015 9 Comments
On Saturday, the internet exploded after Hillary Clinton's campaign lasso'd reporters covering an Independence Day parade into an actual, mobile pen. It was a terrible visual for the Clinton machine, and as Aleister pointed out yesterday, revealed yet another crack in the facade hiding an operation that is barely holding itself together. Yesterday's State of the Union panel roundly lampooned the entire disaster, but it was S.E. Cupp who stood up and pointed out what many of our commenters have been saying for some time now---this is the media's fault. Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on July 06, 2015 17 Comments
If you've been away from all technology (and nestled comfortably under a rock) since Sunday afternoon, you should know that the US women's soccer team dominated Japan in the final match of the World Cup 5-2. It was a big deal: Soon after the end of the match, a Nike ad released back in early June began to circulate on social media amongst my conservative lady friends. When I clicked on the video and saw that it was, in fact, an official Nike Soccer promotion, I immediately flashed back to this past March's feminist freakout over Nike sports apparel that was a little too pretty for those friendly social justice warriors to handle. Would this latest spot lick the wound, or diverge from the comfortable PC path? Neither, really. Watch:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 05, 2015 10 Comments
In the spring of 2014, a series of ugly incidents rocked the campus of Vassar College, a small liberal arts college just north of New York City. It started with a boycott protest against a course that involved travel to Israel and the West Bank, including forcing a professor and students to walk a gauntlet of people ululating (audio example here). It culminated in the posting on social media of a Nazi cartoon portraying Jewish control of the U.S. The group mounting the protest and posting the plainly anti-Semitic cartoon was Vassar Students for Justice in Palestine. The series of events was ignited by passage of an academic boycott of Israel by the American Studies Association, a rejection of the boycott by Vassar's president (along with 250 other university presidents), and a counter-reaction by 39 Vassar professors who defended the boycott.  SJP took it from there. It's all detailed in my post Anti-Israel academic boycott turns ugly at Vassar and a series of follow up posts, including about my debate challenge to the 39 professors (which was not accepted): With everything happening on the anti-Israel boycott front, both good and bad, Vassar had faded a little from memory, until I saw a July 3, 2015 Op-Ed in The Washington Post by Jill Schneiderman, one of the two Vassar professors teaching the boycotted course. For Schneiderman, the memories obviously haven't faded, and remain raw. The Op-Ed is How academic efforts to boycott Israel harm our students. Read the whole thing. Here is an excerpt:

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 05, 2015 10 Comments
Back in March, Ted Cruz raised $2 million in three days but the haul his campaign and supporter groups has brought in over the last three months makes that look like small potatoes. According to a new report from Reuters, Cruz has entered impressive territory:
Cruz presidential campaign says supporters donated $51 million Republican Senator Ted Cruz and the outside groups supporting his presidential bid have raised more than $51 million in the three months since he launched his campaign for president, according to a statement from his campaign on Sunday. Cruz, who announced his candidacy on March 23 in a speech at the conservative school Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, has raised far less in donations directly to his campaign than his supporters have collected for the four outside spending groups supporting him. The statement said there were 175,000 individual donations to the campaign with an average contribution of $81. About $10 million came in during the second quarter of the year.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 05, 2015 28 Comments
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley's political capital is rising. Her leadership in the wake of the shooting in Charleston has some wondering if she's now a contender for vice president on the GOP's 2016 ticket. Joseph Weber of FOX News:
Haley’s Charleston response, Confederate flag stand spark VP talk South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley’s response to the Charleston massacre, highlighted by her call to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, has thrust her back into the national spotlight and re-ignited talk about what role she might play in the 2016 race. Not only is Haley poised to be a powerful surrogate, there's already chatter that she could make a solid Republican vice presidential candidate. "She’d be on anybody’s list,” Mike Huckabee, one 14 GOP presidential candidates and a former Arkansas governor, told Fox News on Tuesday. “She’s done a terrific job in South Carolina.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 05, 2015 41 Comments
After California became the epicenter of a measles outbreak earlier this year, the state's legislature proposed a tough, new bill making vaccinations for children attending public school mandatory (with few exceptions.) Governor Jerry Brown just signed that bill into law.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law one of the nation’s strictest childhood vaccination requirements, approving a bill that generated multiple protests and controversy as it moved through the Legislature. Senate Bill 277, authored by Sacramento pediatrician state Sen. Richard Pan and former Santa Monica-Malibu school board president state Sen. Ben Allen, eliminates parents’ ability to claim “personal belief” exemptions to schoolchildren’s vaccine requirements at both private and public schools in California. Only medical exemptions, approved by a doctor, will be allowed under the law. A licensed physician will have to write a letter explaining the child’s medical circumstances that make immunization unsafe for that child.
Opponents are so unhappy with the new rule that they began preparing a lawsuit before the ink had dried.
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