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July 2015

Posted by Jay Caruso on July 24, 2015 21 Comments
Code Pink is a radical left wing organization, known for interrupting speeches, addresses and crashing gatherings by being loud, waving around signs and sometimes dressing up as female body parts. This week, Ted Cruz was speaking at a Stop Iran rally in Washington DC. After being introduced, the Senator was almost immediately interrupted by Code Pink protesters. Rather than having them removed from the area, Senator Cruz actually invited the Code Pink spokesperson over and engaged in a back and forth debate with here. The video is below and goes for about 24 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=500&v=1QCbpafD3Pw

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 24, 2015 6 Comments
We are told that the Obama administration, its successor and European governments will strictly enforce Iran's adherence to the nuclear deal. Put aside for the moment the problems with the deal, and focus on compliance. Put aside also that Iran has a history of cheating on nuclear issues. We have a recent example of how the West will become complicit in non-compliance. In Syria, The Wall Street Journal reports, Mission to Purge Syria of Chemical Weapons Comes Up Short (paywall):
.... One year after the West celebrated the removal of Syria’s arsenal as a foreign-policy success, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the regime didn’t give up all of the chemical weapons it was supposed to. An examination of last year’s international effort to rid Syria of chemical weapons, based on interviews with many of the inspectors and U.S. and European officials who were involved, shows the extent to which the Syrian regime controlled where inspectors went, what they saw and, in turn, what they accomplished. That happened in large part because of the ground rules under which the inspectors were allowed into the country, according to the inspectors and officials.... Demanding greater access and fuller disclosures by the regime, they say, might have meant getting no cooperation at all, jeopardizing the entire removal effort.
That is a key point with Iran too -- the fear that Iran will simply back out of the agreement by claiming Western non-compliance will cause the West to back away for fear of losing all compliance. The WSJ article continues noting that control on the ground gave Syria a huge advantage, and Russia ran interference for Syria (as it will do for Iran on compliance issued):

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 24, 2015 10 Comments
John Kerry testified before a senate panel about the awful Iran deal Thursday and was met by skepticism and derision from lawmakers in both parties. In a classic Democrat defense move, Kerry again tried to spin the issue and suggest it's his critics who are being unrealistic. CNN reported:
Kerry to senators: No 'fantasy' alternative to Iran deal Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that there is no "unicorn" or "fantasy" alternative if the U.S. rejects the deal, which the administration maintains will keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon but which many Republicans see as providing Iran a path to a bomb. But Committee Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennesse Republican, said that the U.S. had been "fleeced" and that Kerry had "turned Iran from being a pariah, to now Congress being a pariah" in the course of making the agreement. And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, repeatedly warned that the next president could overturn the deal, which isn't a binding treaty.
Here's a short highlight reel:

Posted by Miriam Elman on July 24, 2015 2 Comments
On July 16, Israel’s Christian Empowerment Council (CEC) released a short pamphlet titled Test The Spirits: A Christian Guide to the Anti-Israel Boycott Movement (BDS). It’s authored by Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth in the Galilee. The new guide garnered some publicity in Israel. But here in the U.S., other than a press release featured by JNS and a few other websites, it hasn’t received a lot of attention. Spread the word about this terrific new resource. Test The Spirits rejects the isolation and vilification of Israel under the banner of Christian values. It’s an unreserved and heartfelt vindication of the Jewish state and the Jewish people. http://www.cecisrael.org/

Posted by Amy Miller on July 23, 2015 30 Comments
This is not a drill: Al Sharpton is launching a media watch blog, and you're all invited to the party! According to Capital New York Sharpton's advocacy organization, the National Action Network, will launch "The Daily Shift," a new media criticism blog that organizers hope will give bloggers and citizen journalists a chance in the spotlight. The site was announced via the Instagram account of Rachel Noerdlinger, a Sharpton spokeswoman who briefly worked in the offices of New York Mayor Bill di Blasio:

Posted by Amy Miller on July 23, 2015 7 Comments
The Wall Street Journal is reporting via defense officials that Ankara has agreed to allow the United States to launch air strikes against ISIS from the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. This is a departure from previous Turkish policy, which until now only allowed drone launches from the base. No Turkish aircraft will be used in any strikes launched by the US. Reuters reports that a deal between President Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan may have been reached as early as Wednesday; White House press secretary Josh Earnest told the media today that the two leaders have reached an agreement to "deepen" cooperation in the fight against ISIS, but didn't go into details. Turkey's concerns about the violence in Syria go beyond the threat ISIS poses to the rest of the world. Until now, Turkish officials have refused to lead on the Islamic State pushback, citing concerns that merely taking out ISIS will not quash the violence caused by intra-Syrian conflict. Ankara has advocated for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for a larger role.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 23, 2015 20 Comments
On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, I was on a panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Keynote speakers at the Annual Meeting include Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. The topic of my panel was Freedom of Thought in Higher Education. The panel chair was Utah State Senator Howard Stephenson, and fellow panelists Dr. Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, and Robert Shibley, Executive Director of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). The panel was the best attended workshop of the day, with over 100 attendees, mostly state legislators. [caption id="attachment_135470" align="alignnone" width="600"]William A. Jacobson Cornell ALEC Annual Meeting 2015 [L-R - Robert Shibley, Peter Wood, Howard Stephenson, William Jacobson][/caption]My portion focused on the anti-Israel academic boycott and broader boycott movement (BDS). About one-third of the more than 100 mostly state legislators in attendance had heard of BDS. I covered the history of BDS, which was created at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban Conference, and how systematic academic boycotts pose systemic risk which is appropriate for narrowly tailored legislation that protects the system without unduly infringing on academic freedom and free speech. I discussed, among other things, my challenge to the tax exempt status of the American Studies Association.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 23, 2015 33 Comments
Speaking in South Carolina Thursday, Hillary dropped an atomic gaffe. Of all the idiocy that's seeped out of Hillary Clinton's mouth, this just might take the cake as the dumbest thing she's said so far. Ruby Cramer, the Buzzfeed political reporter on the Hillary beat captured the moment on social media:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 23, 2015 31 Comments
Anti-consumer choice advocates were defeated once again in the ongoing war to regulate Uber into oblivion. Uber declared yet another over NYC Mayor DeBlasio and the city's cab cartel Wednesday. Under the guise of wanting to monitor Uber's effect on NYC traffic flow, DeBlasio failed to whip the requisite number of votes to pass legislation that would've limited new for-hire vehicle licenses.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 23, 2015 35 Comments
A new study has recently been published that has really heated up Climate Change arguments. Valentina Zharkova, a professor of mathematics at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, used a new model of the sun's solar cycle and its periodic change in solar radiation emissions to predict a "mini Ice Age" may begin shortly.
The earth is 15 years from a "mini ice-age" that will cause bitterly cold winters during which rivers such as the Thames freeze over, scientists have predicted. Solar researchers at the University of Northumbria have created a new model of the sun's activity which they claim produces "unprecedentedly accurate predictions". They said fluid movements within the sun, which are thought to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will converge in such a way that temperatures will fall dramatically in the 2030s. Solar activity will fall by 60 per cent as two waves of fluid "effectively cancel each other out", according to Prof Valentina Zharkova.
Legal Insurrection covered this concept, termed "Maunder Minimums," is a previous post related to global warming.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 23, 2015 35 Comments
My what a difference a few years makes. Coinciding with his speech Wednesday, Governor Perry's campaign released a video highlighting their "biggest supporter."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on July 23, 2015 6 Comments
For the second time in a few weeks, India has abstained at the United Nations instead of voting on an Israel-related resolution. On July 3, 2015 India abstained from weighing in on a UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel for 2014 Gaza conflict. The anti-Israel resolution passed with 47 votes in favour, with the US opposing, and India amongst 5 nations abstaining. Then on Monday, Israel unsuccessfully tried to table a resolution to challenge the official recognition of Hamas-linked NGO in the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is fair to ask: why abstain? Israel is one of India's leading defense partners, and an emerging trade partner. But considering the fact that until recently India was referred to as the "23rd Arab state" for siding with Arab-block on every anti-Israel resolution at the UN, this is a huge diplomatic shift for the world's largest democracy. Since India normalized diplomatic ties with the Jewish State in 1991, Israel has become India’s partner of choice when it comes modernizing the country’s military capabilities. The government is collaborating with Israel in agriculture, water management, and renewable and clean technologies; and India’s technology-driven IT giants have made significant investments in Israel’s innovation and startup ecosystem.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 23, 2015 17 Comments
President Obama appeared on the Daily Show this week and claimed that the IRS never targeted the Tea Party. Yet according to an explosive new report from Judicial Watch, the IRS used donor lists from certain organizations to target specific people for audits:
Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS Used Donor Lists to Target Audits (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that confirm that the IRS used donor lists to tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits.  The documents also show IRS officials specifically highlighted how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may come under “high scrutiny” from the IRS.  The IRS produced the records in a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking documents about selection of individuals for audit-based application information on donor lists submitted by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220)). A letter dated September 28, 2010, then-Democrat Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) informs then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman: “   I request that you and your agency survey major 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) organizations …”  In reply, in a letter dated February 17, 2011, Shulman writes: “In the work plan of the Exempt Organizations Division, we announced that beginning in FY2011, we are increasing our focus on section 501(c)(4), (5) and (6) organizations.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 22, 2015 34 Comments
Carly Fiorina is proud to be pro-life. She's also not willing to let Hillary Clinton's extreme stance on abortion go unnoticed. Flanked by pro-life leaders Tuesday, Carly Fiorina's campaign released a short video in response to the second and arguably worst, undercover Planned Parenthood video. The second investigative video showed yet another ranking Planned Parenthood official nonchalantly discussing the sale of aborted baby parts. "These pro-life leaders are standing with me today to decry the moral depravity that we have seen now from Planned Parenthood. It doesn't matter whether you think you're pro-choice or pro-life, every woman, every man has to look at these videos and think, what has gone wrong in our nation?" said Fiorina. "The hypocrisy of telling women over and over again that their unborn children are not life and yet talking calmly about how to preserve the organs of that life to save another life. The cruelty of denying women over and over again ultrasounds, so that they can see the life they carry within them and yet using that same technology to ensure the organs are preserved so that they can be presumable sold to save others."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 22, 2015 17 Comments
Dozens of organizations have come together to emphasize the danger Iran poses to Israel and the international community. To that end, they've joined forces to host a Stop Iran Rally in Times Square. The Stop Iran Rally has an impressive list of speakers: poster9

Posted by Amy Miller on July 22, 2015 78 Comments
Yesterday, Donald Trump shocked the conscience of the planet when he revealed Senator Lindsey Graham's personal cell phone number during an open press conference. Over the past few days, feuding between the two presidential hopefuls has boiled over, fueled by the outrage that ensued after Trump made a disparaging comment about Senator John McCain's military service. It has been a field day for the media, and for activists on both sides of the issue: Graham called Trump a jackass! Trump called Graham an idiot! AND RELEASED HIS CELL PHONE NUMBER! It may have been a jerk move, but it resonated---nobody likes a bully, and many conservatives have been waiting for the moment when someone would take Graham to task over his attitude toward the base. Graham took the punch like a champ... ...but took things one step further, and turned Trump's prank on its head. Welcome to Christmas for political junkies. Watch:
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