Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

July 2015

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 18, 2015 15 Comments
Governor Scott Walker appeared on the Kelly File Thursday night and commented on the shooting in Chattanooga. His response was starkly different than Obama's. Transcript via Mike Miller of IJ Review:
Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker joined the growing chorus of those calling on President Obama to acknowledge that America is at war with radical Islam on Thursday, saying we need to call it what it is.
We need to acknowledge that we’re at war and radical Islamic terrorism is our enemy. It’s not enough just to have containment anymore. When you talked about the policies that prohibited our military personnel from being armed at an establishment like this; those are outdated. [W]e’re facing an enemy in radical Islamic terrorism that’s willing to take the fight to us. We need to make sure that our men and women in uniform not only have the resources to protect us and keep our country safe, [but] they need to have the resources to keep themselves safe.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 18, 2015 23 Comments
Following the Chattanooga terror attack, the media seems confused about what had happened or at least why it had happened. Ted Cruz, however, experiences no such confusion and issued a powerful statement.
“In the wake of this vicious attack on our nation we need to rid ourselves of two dangerous delusions, first and foremost that a ‘lone gunman’–as President Obama described the shooter–is somehow isolated from the larger threat of radical Islamic terrorism. In the modern world, no one acts in isolation. Through social media ISIS, al Qaida, and other groups are infiltrating our nation with impunity while our government will not even admit that radical Islamic terrorism is a problem. “The second delusion is that this attack is somehow isolated from previous episodes, notably those in Little Rock, Arkansas and Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009—both of which were attacks on American military facilities. The Obama administration was woefully reluctant to call either an act of radical Islamic terrorism, instead suggesting ‘workplace violence’ as a justification for the killings. Finally, after years of effort, the victims of Fort Hood were properly recognized as victims of attacks by foreign terrorists when they received Purple Hearts on April 15, 2015. Likewise, the victim of the Little Rock attack received a Purple Heart on July 1, 2015.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2015 126 Comments
When it came to Donald Trump's comments on violence from illegal immigrants, I argued that it was possible to differentiate between the man (Trump) and the issue. Whether or not you liked the man, he raised a legitimate issue. Trump in an interview today made a comment about John McCain that is reverberating around the internet:
“He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
https://youtu.be/qJ7JlUc82nA?t=1m40s Now there is no daylight between the man and the issue. It's ludicrous to argue that McCain is not worthy of hero status for his service just because he was captured. It's not like he was Bowe Bergdahl and deserted. McCain was shot down, and famously endured torture in North Vietnamese prison. He also refused release when the North Vietnamese learned he was the son of an Admiral, and sought to score political points. There were plenty of people just waiting to find an issue to go after Trump. Illegal immigrant violence wasn't the issue. This may be it. Is this the end, or at least the beginning of the end of Trump's rise? Will this be remembered as the moment the rise of Trump's campaign began to slow and the Republican Party began to heal? https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/622446366657265664

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 18, 2015 14 Comments
With news this morning of a fifth victim of the Chattanooga terror attack, we mourn four fallen Marines and one fallen Sailor: Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" K. Wells, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan, Staff Sgt. David A. Wyatt, Sgt. Carson A. Homquist, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith. While we mourn, the media is puzzling over what the motive might possibly be for Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a Muslim from Kuwait who became a naturalized American citizen and has recently made trips to the Middle East from which he came back "changed," to attack a military recruitment center. If this type of thing hadn't happened before, we might be more willing to think this a mystery.  But as Streiff points out, this type of thing has happened before:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2015 8 Comments
Periodically throughout this summer, we are taking a look back at our coverage of the 2014 Gaza conflict. It's important to do this because a relentless propaganda campaign portrays the conflict as initiated and continued by Israel in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens by a Hamas-affiliated cell in the West Bank. In fact, the conflict started as a result of relentless Hamas rocket fire into Israel, a topic we recently revisited in Gaza July 8, 2014 – Hamas Rockets Ignite War. On July 10, 2014, CNN reported on the Hamas rocket fire: In this post, we revisit how the ground war started only after Hamas rejected an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, which Israel had accepted. Had the conflict stopped at that point, only a small fraction of the deaths and destruction which eventually were visited on Gaza to try to stop the rocket fire would have happened. Hamas, and it supporters in the West including leading pro-BDS websites which justified and encouraged "the resistance," bear responsibility for what befell Gaza. On July 15, 2014, Hamas formally rejected the Egyptian ceasefire proposal and continued rocket fire into Israel.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 18, 2015 5 Comments
Here at Legal Insurrection, we devoted a lot of (virtual) ink to the Rolling Stone campus rape story debacle. Sabrina Erdely's now-retracted article on "Jackie's" traumatic gang rape---and its relation to the campus sexual assault problem Erdely so desperately wanted to prove exists---serves as a textbook example of how not to conduct an investigation, and may end up costing Rolling Stone more than its reputation (or at least, whatever is left of it.) Back in May, University of Virginia associate dean of students Nicole Eramo filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Rolling Stone, its parent company Wenner Media, and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely for their portrayal of Eramo in Erdely's story. Eramo argues that Erdely and Rolling Stone knew Jackie was unreliable, had serious doubts about the story, and yet ran with it anyway because they were desperate to fulfill their own narrative and sell magazines. As I said in May, the benefits of attempting to salvage Eramo's reputation via the courts must outweigh the risk that opposing counsel and the MSM could find something that causes further damage; her attorneys likely would not have filed the suit had they not performed that analysis. Still, Rolling Stone has decided to answer the complaint by claiming that UVA actually contributed to the faulty report. Via WaPo:

Posted by AACONS on July 17, 2015 24 Comments
It is not often that I feel compelled to defend President Obama. But in this case I will. The recent nuclear deal with Iran reveals that he is not a poor negotiator but rather an excellent one. The President has been mocked for his negotiation skills throughout his tenure by the Left and the Right - from people ranging from Paul Krugman to Bob Woodward to Donald Trump. And interestingly the reasons both sides give for their assessment are as similar as they are contrary. To the Left, Obama is simply too good to be good negotiator. He’s no mere politician, after all. He’s an ideologue! Too filled with idealism, too pure, too above the taint of politics to be talented at negotiation. The Atlantic for example wrote in its 2011 piece “Why Obama Is So Bad At Negotiations” that “The truth is, that while the president's idealism has made him a very poor negotiator, it is what attracted me and I suspect many others to him in the first place. His lack of cynicism and belief that we could tackle our problems together as one nation was unique, beautiful and stunning in our modern political system.” Similarly, the Right argues that Obama is a poor negotiator because, again, he is an ideologue. As GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorna said on a recent appearance on Hannity “[Obama] has spent a lifetime in politics and ideology. That’s it. That’s his life. If you have no experience in negotiating you don’t negotiate very well. If you have no experience in problem-solving you don’t solve problems very well. If you have no experience in compromising you don’t compromise very well. What’s he good at? Giving a speech and sticking to his ideology.” This perception of Obama as a poor negotiator has been tested by the recently announced Iranian nuclear deal.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 17, 2015 13 Comments
Yesterday's murders in Chattanooga unleashed a hailstorm of speculation about the origins of the shooter, his motives, and whether or not he was affiliated with ISIS, al-Qaida, or another network of Islamic extremists. Even before the authorities released the shooter's name---Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez---reasonable speculation ensued. Throughout the course of the day, we learned that he was 24 years old, was a naturalized citizen from Kuwait, and that he was "religious," but not the type of person any of his friends would peg as a budding terrorist. The U.S. Attorney's office has said that the attacks are being treated as an instance of domestic terrorism; the FBI, while not contradicting the U.S. Attorney, has cautioned against speculation as to Abdulazeez's motives.

We know the names of the murdered Marines

Technicalities aside, the Marines have released the names of the four men he slaughtered in cold blood:
  • Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan of Hampden, Massachusetts;
  • Staff Sgt. David A. Wyatt of Burke, North Carolina;
  • Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist of Polk, Wisconsin;
  • Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells of Cobb County, Georgia, who went by "Skip"

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2015 20 Comments
We are fans of Carly Fiorina. She should be on the stage at the debates, though it's not clear she will be. Fiorina has shown an ability to take on hostile questioners with a smile, as she slices and dices liberal talking points. That's why we have featured videos of her appearances several times. And it's why we were so disappointed in her Buzzfeed video. In this video, via Steven Crowder, Fiorina is at the top of her game. The interview is from late May, but it's a prime example of why Fiorina should be on the national stage:
“The scientists that tell us that climate change is real and caused by man made activity, also tell us that a single nation acting alone can make no difference at all. So, when I see a state like California destroy lives and livelihoods with environmental regulations that will make no difference at all to climate change, when I see the Obama administration take that same regulation and apply it nationally – it will make not difference at all, yet we’re destroying people’s lives and livelihoods – I wonder, why are we doing this? Why are we doing this when it won’t have any impact?

Posted by Amy Miller on July 17, 2015 40 Comments
Last night, a writer at Gawker outed and gay-shamed someone at the behest of an unnamed (for his safety!) source. It was a story steeped in sex, fame, cash, and blackmail, which made it a perfect target for today's salacious clickbait culture. Today, Gawker's managing partners voted 5-1 (with the lone dissenter being the editor who approved the story) to take the story down---but the damage has already been done. Sorry, Nick Denton---you don't get to take this one back. (The link above is a web archive link; if you wish to read their hit job, you can click knowing that you won't be giving Gawker any traffic.) Long story short, Gawker allegedly received a series of text messages and photos showing a planned liaison between Condé Nast CFO David Geithner (his name sounds familiar because he's Tim Geithner's brother) and a gay porn star and escort. Gawker claims that the escort, whose story is told under the pseudonym "Ryan," sent them the photos and text messages after Geithner (who is married to a woman) was unable to meet him as planned during a Chicago business trip. Major money was involved: $2500 plus airfare for "Ryan's" plane ticket from Texas to Chicago. Geithner forwarded a chunk of the cash to "Ryan" in advance, and sent his photo and lodging plans to "Ryan" via text:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2015 29 Comments
Ryan Grim (Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post) and Danny Shea (Editorial Director, The Huffington Post), have announced that because Donald Trump in their eyes is a sideshow, any news about Trump will be banished from the "Politics" section of HuffPo News to the Entertainment section, A Note About Our Coverage Of Donald Trump's 'Campaign':
After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won't report on Trump's campaign as part of The Huffington Post's political coverage. Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple: Trump's campaign is a sideshow. We won't take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you'll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-note-about-our-coverage-of-donald-trumps-campaign_55a8fc9ce4b0896514d0fd66 This was a political decision by the higher-ups at HuffPo to tell the electorate how to view a candidate not as part of the editorial process, but as part of the news process. Because HuffPo News has become a powerful force in news coverage, this will have a ripple effect beyond HuffPo readership. Here's how HuffPo it pitching the story on its homepage:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2015 14 Comments
The Obama administration and its supporters try to paint opposition to the Iran nuke deal as a Bibi Netanyahu problem. That's a convenient excuse, because it allows Obama to play the Democrat loyalty card among members still upset about Bibi's appearance in Congress. It also plays into "Israel Lobby" demonization, the bogeyman of the left. The opposition to the Iran nuke deal, however, is bringing together usual political enemies. Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic interviews Isaac Herzog, Bibi's primary domestic political opponent, Israeli Opposition Leader: Iran Deal Will Bring Chaos to the Middle East:
Last December, when I interviewed the leader of Israel’s left-leaning Labor Party, Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Forum, he said, in reference to nuclear negotiations with Iran: “I trust the Obama administration to get a good deal.” In a telephone call with me late last night, Herzog’s message was very different. The deal just finalized in Vienna, he said, “will unleash a lion from the cage, it will have a direct influence over the balance of power in our region, it’s going to affect our borders, and it will affect the safety of my children.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2015 8 Comments
There is a reason many nations, including the United States and Israel, refused to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). The fear was that ICC, created by the 1998 Rome Treaty, would go the way of entities like the UN Human Rights Council, and turn into a political operation directed at the West, the U.S. military, and Israel in particular. The ICC just proved that these fears were warranted, with an outrageous decision overruling an ICC prosecutor's decision not to investigate the Maarvi Mari incident, and requiring reconsideration because of international political concerns. In the Mavi Marmara incident, covered here many times (see Featured Image), Israeli commandos boarded a ship part of the 2010 Gaza flotilla organized by Turkish Islamists. The Israeli troops were attacked and responded with gunfire which killed 9 Turkish citizens. The incident caused a political rift between Israel and the already anti-Israel, anti-Semitic Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A UN panel determined that Israel's naval blockade of Hamas-run Gaza complied with international law, and that Israel faced "organized and violent resistance" when it legally boarded the Mavi Marmara. The ICC prosecutor decided not to open a formal investigation (.pdf) of the Mavi Marmara incident as a war crime, given the limited scope of the incident. The ICC judges just ordered otherwise, requiring reconsideration as reports Law Professor Avi Bell in The Times of Israel, The ICC declares war on Israel:

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 17, 2015 14 Comments
EPA Chief Gina McCarthy recently testified before Congress; when questioned by Chairman Lamar Smith over ineffective regulations that raise the cost of energy and thereby punish low income Americans, she admitted the regulations would have virtually no impact on climate. All that effort, basically for nothing. Transcript and video via Marc Morano of the Climate Depot (emphasis added):
CHAIRMAN LAMAR SMITH: “On the Clean Power Plan, former Obama Administration Assistant Secretary Charles McConnell said at best it will reduce global temperature by only one one-hundredth of a degree Celsius. At the same time it’s going to increase the cost of electricity. That’s going to hurt the lowest income Americans the most. How do you justify such an expensive, burdensome, onerous rule that’s really not going to do much good and isn’t this all pain and no gain. ADMINISTRATOR GINA MCCARTHY: “No sir, I don’t agree with you. If you look at the RIA we did, the Regulatory Impact Analysis you would see it’s enormously beneficial. CHAIRMAN SMITH: “Do you consider one one-hundredth of a degree to be enormously beneficial?” ADMINISTRATOR MCCARTHY: “The value of this rule is not measured in that way. It is measured in showing strong domestic action which can actually trigger global action to address what’s a necessary action to protect…”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2015 23 Comments
The video below was posted by Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, with the comment:
THIS CHILLING VIDEO MIGHT MAKE YOU KICK YOUR KIDS OUT OF THE HOUSE — TO PLAY OUTSIDE
It's one of the more depressing statements about what has happened to childhood. I don't want to turn this into one of those "When I was a kid, I had to walk 4 hours to school..." type of things. It's just the opposite. It's about the freedom we had. To fall. To bump our heads. To compete. To get physical. "Just be home by dinner" used to be the norm, now it could get a parent arrested or get child services involved. Something very important was lost along the way.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 16, 2015 12 Comments
Carly Fiorina has joined the Buzzfeed Video cast of players in a new promo spot Buzzfeed is flogging as an effort "to show the men of BuzzFeed what it’s like to be a woman in the workplace." I'm sure you know what's coming. Watch: I sat at my desk for a good ten minutes working through my feelings about this one. For years, I have encouraged Republicans to be bold with their messaging, to branch out to different markets, and to stop taking themselves so damn seriously all the time.
MORE POSTS
Accessibility by WAH