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August 2015

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 22, 2015 5 Comments
It looks like Bernie Sanders learned something from his recent run-in with #BlackLivesMatter in Seattle because he's now taking great pains to reach out to black voters. Vanessa Williams of the Washington Post:
Bernie Sanders looks to broaden his appeal in South Carolina Bernie Sanders fired up a lively crowd of supporters Friday as he began a campaign swing through this early primary state that seven years ago helped to boost the candidacy of another senator who many thought couldn’t beat the odds of winning the presidency. Sanders even made reference to President Obama’s historic election in 2008 as evidence that the country “has in fact made real progress of overcoming our legacy of historical racism … But the bad news is racism still remains a much too real part of American life.”

Posted by Amy Miller on August 22, 2015 21 Comments
Yesterday, a California court lifted a temporary restraining order barring pro-life advocacy group Center for Medical Progress from releasing footage of StemExpress employees discussing the sale of fetal body parts. Immediately, CMP sprang into action, releasing a teaser of their next video ahead of any appeals filed by StemExpress. Watch the preview here: On Friday, CMP teased quotes from the video's transcript. In one segment, StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer jokes with the "buyers" about how some lab techs react to receiving fetal body parts in the mail. It's horrifying [emphasis mine]:

Posted by AACONS on August 21, 2015 13 Comments
The #BlackLivesMatter movement has a message. It is a message they are so desperate for you to hear that they have recently shutdown an anniversary celebration of Medicare and Social Security for you to hear it. Even though that meant physically bullying 73-year old Bernie Sanders off the stage. Their message is, primarily, that the police are a threat to the African American community It is not a new message, of course. As Marco Rubio said, "It is a fact that in the African-American community around this country, there has been for a number of years now a growing resentment toward how the law enforcement and criminal justice system interacts with the community.” As a member of that African American community, I am well aware of this resentment and of the tension between my community and the police.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 21, 2015 4 Comments
Today a California court dissolved a temporary restraining order banning the Center for Medical Progress from releasing footage showing high-ranking StemExpress executives discussing the sale of fetal body parts. The Alliance Defending Freedom issued a press release:
“The First Amendment protects every American’s free speech, regardless of how damaging the truth is for scandal-ridden organizations like StemExpress and Planned Parenthood,” said Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund President Chuck LiMandri. “Our client has the right to expose StemExpress’ role in the potentially illegal sale of aborted babies’ body parts. The court was correct in lifting this gag order, which only served to protect StemExpress’ gruesome business.” “The American people deserve to know the truth about the hideous industry that buys and sells the hearts, lungs, heads, and livers of unborn babies,” said Life Legal Defense Foundation Vice President of Legal Affairs Catherine Short. “The Center for Medical Progress should not be silenced and StemExpress and Planned Parenthood should not be able to get off the hook when there is credible evidence that they have colluded in numerous illegal activities.”
From the opinion (full opinion embedded below the fold):

Posted by Amy Miller on August 21, 2015 23 Comments
Since the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal first broke, supporters of Clinton have clung to a narrative that rejects the possibility that her private systems of record keeping and communication could have caused a national security breach. Spokespeople from the State Department and Clinton's own team have stood by her testimony promising that her personal server didn't convey or store any classified material. This narrative survived the unveiling of several e-mails that State has now marked classified, but that discovery prompted deeper digging by activists and the media. Reuters investigated some of these new "classified" stamps and found that the e-mails marked with those new stamps contain information State's own regulations deem classified, with our without the official designation. Reuters reports:
In the small fraction of emails made public so far, Reuters has found at least 30 email threads from 2009, representing scores of individual emails, that include what the State Department's own "Classified" stamps now identify as so-called 'foreign government information.' The U.S. government defines this as any information, written or spoken, provided in confidence to U.S. officials by their foreign counterparts.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 21, 2015 8 Comments
The Obama administration spent billions to fix the Veterans Administration hospital system so that our nation's former military service personnel could actually receive the good quality healthcare they were promised---and it appears as though the Los Angeles unit used that money to buy shredders.
The embattled Veterans Administration may have another scandal on its hands, after investigators found at least eight benefits claims for veterans at the Los Angeles VA that were shredded instead of being properly processed, according to the Washington Times. The VA’s Office of the Inspector General conducted the internal investigation after receiving an anonymous tip that the staff at the Los Angeles regional office was shredding compensation claims. The 15-page report details what type of documents were allegedly shredded and how the office didn’t have a Records Management Officer, the position created in the wake of similar practices in 2008, for more than a year.
Perhaps the veterans can take some consolation in that fact that the failure of our state's healthcare exchange, Covered California, has left citizens relying on our version of Obamacare unable to access medical care.

Posted by Amy Miller on August 21, 2015 38 Comments
The Center for Medical Progress' investigation into Planned Parenthood's body parts-for-profit scandal has the pro-life community screaming for change, and the pro-choice community scrambling to circle the wagons before their entire system of "sexual freedom" and "fertility management" comes crashing down. One prog-feminist website decided to take a different approach to CMP's revelations. Rather than focusing on a defense of Planned Parenthood and choice, they decided to go after Holly O'Donnell, whose on-camera testimony about what she saw during her time as a procurement tech for StemExpress has served as a definitive nail in the coffin of Planned Parenthood. RH Reality Check author Sharona Coutts did some digging online, and figured out that O'Donnell's sexual preferences were a far cry from what progressives believe is the stereotypical norm for conservative, pro-life activists. Using content pulled from various dating websites and social platforms, Coutts ran a sexually-charged dox on O'Donnell, claiming that O'Donnell's propensity to enjoy sex like a normal human being somehow unveiled the hypocrisy of the pro-life movement. Fortunately, this little act of pillow talk terrorism backfired spectacularly.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 21, 2015 2 Comments
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement suffered one of its worst public relations debacles when it pressured the Spanish Rototom SunSplash festival to ban American Jewish musician Matisyahu. At so many levels, the incident exposed BDS for what it is - anti-freedom, anti-Jewish, anti-just about everything we hold dear. Left twisting in the wind are leading American BDS activists like Ali Abunimah, Max Blumenthal and Joe Catron who supported the ban, even as BDS leader Omar Barghouti ran for political cover and BDS author Ben Norton condemned the ban. BDS defenders of the Matisyahu ban claim the ban was justified because Matisyahu is Zionist and pro-Israel. https://twitter.com/BDSPaisValencia/status/630716300319424516 If being Zionist and pro-Israel were justification for a ban, then BDS would be justified in banning the vast majority of Jews from public appearances. So tell me again how BDS is not anti-Semitic? https://twitter.com/BDSmovement/status/634348175663480832 We mentioned yesterday that the festival organizers had apologized and reinvited Matisyahu to perform. Now the date is set, August 22, on the main stage:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 21, 2015 10 Comments
Greece received the first chunk of its multibillion euro bailout package yesterday---to the tune of 13 billion euros---but all is not well in Athens. Political opposition to the harsh austerity terms laid out by Eurozone creditors has caused a revolt in the far-left Syriza party and prompted Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to tender his resignation and call for early elections. More from the BBC:
Alexis Tsipras made the announcement in a televised state address on Thursday. "The political mandate of the 25 January elections has exhausted its limits and now the Greek people have to have their say," he said. "I want to be honest with you. We did not achieve the agreement we expected before the January elections." Mr Tsipras said he would seek the Greek people's approval to continue his government's programme.
You can watch Tsipras' announcement here, via Reuters.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 21, 2015 7 Comments
Dr. Ben Carson gave a speech Tuesday night to a crowd of 12,000 people at the Phoenix Convention Center. Carson was scheduled to speak at a smaller venue but the event was moved due to high demand. The Right Scoop notes that Carson drew a larger crowd than Donald Trump had at a recent event in the same city. The full speech is at the bottom of this post. It's forty minutes long and you should watch the whole thing but if you're pressed for time, here's a short report from FOX News in Phoenix: Carson touches on all the major issues of domestic and foreign policy but gets his biggest applause breaks when he talks about shrinking the size of government, fair taxation, immigration, healthcare, reducing America's debt, improving national security, and his faith in God. He takes the political fight to Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and boy does he sock it to the media. In fact, if you watch nothing else, skip to the 15 minute mark and listen to Carson explain why the media isn't supposed to take sides in American politics.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 21, 2015 11 Comments
Longtime readers know the history of Legal Insurrection and Mia Love, whose success was one of the most satisfying moments for Legal Insurrection. This interview with Lou Dobbs shows why we've supported her since the start. Via Washington Examiner. Love became very emotional when discussing the Planned Parenthood videos:
Freshman Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, had to wipe away tears while talking about the undercover Planned Parenthood videos on the Fox Business network Wednesday night. "It's our job to protect those who do not have a voice to protect themselves, and to see what is actually happening to babies while they're still alive, I mean, it's horrific," said Love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ETa_sUCDhk "This is not about a Right or Left issue – this is right or wrong, and whether we are going to stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves, or if we're going to just turn a blind eye and pretend that this is not happening," she added, wiping away tears.... "This is who we are as Americans; our job is to protect human life," said Love as tears streamed down her face. Love said she has "always been pro-life" and that as a mother and wife, she wants the American people to know what is happening and "stand up" to protect life.
On Iran, she was just as powerful:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 20, 2015 11 Comments
Yesterday, the AP revealed the existence of a side agreement between the IAEA and Tehran that would effectively neuter inspection protocols contained in the controversial Iran nuclear deal. Sources revealed a draft of "Separate Agreement II" containing provisions allowing Tehran to use its own inspectors—as opposed to a neutral IAEA-based team—to keep tabs on the Parchin nuclear site in Iran. Although a general agreement regarding inspection protocols between the IAEA and Tehran was expected, the contents of the draft provided to the AP were unprecedented. Today, the AP published the contents of the draft agreement. Reporters weren't allowed to make a copy of the draft, but instead transcribed the complete text here:
Separate arrangement II agreed by the Islamic State of Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency on 11 July 2015, regarding the Road-map, Paragraph 5 Iran and the Agency agreed on the following sequential arrangement with regard to the Parchin issue: 1. Iran will provide to the Agency photos of the locations, including those identified in paragraph 3 below, which would be mutually agreed between Iran and the Agency, taking into account military concerns.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 20, 2015 8 Comments
American Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu was banned from the Spanish Rototom Sunsplash festival after intense pressure from supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, who demanded that Matisyahu sign a pledge supporting a Palestinian state. Matisyahu was singled out because he was Jewish. He's not even Israeli. No other musician, regardless of his or her politics, was asked to take a political pledge. It was a huge victory for BDS, which routinely seeks to prevent Israeli musicians from appearing at festivals around the world for the crime of being Israeli and Jewish (the ban doesn't appear to be enforced as to non-Jewish Israelis.) When Matisyahu was first banned, there was much joy in BDS circles, particularly in the United States where BDS leaders like Max Blumenthal, Ali Abunimah and Joe Catron publicly supported the decision. (And apparently still do.) But then a funny thing happened on the way to this huge BDS victory. In fact, something quite unusual in the world of BDS bullying in Europe -- the world expressed outrage.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 20, 2015 40 Comments
A hearing was held this afternoon in federal court in Washington, D.C., before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, in the FOIA case brought by Judicial Watch seeking records regarding then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's aide Huma Adedin's outside employment. We have covered the court developments, including allegations by Judicial Watch that the State Department has failed to comply with court orders and has not provided sufficient searches. Yesterday the State Department filed a Reply admitting that Hillary never was issued a State Department Blackberry, and the Blackberries used by Adedin and Cheryl Mills likely were destroyed. Today's hearing was over Judicial Watch's request for "discovery," which normally doesn't take place in FOIA cases. Discovery could include sworn depositions of witnesses. Amy Miller was in Court for Legal Insurrection and reports: The Judge ordered the State Department to confer with the FBI and DOJ as to searches of the server and thumb drive, including recovery efforts. The Judge wanted to wait until the State Department filed another status report before ruling on discovery issues. Just after the hearing, the Court updated the docket with the following:
Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan: Status Hearing held on 8/20/2015. Court directs the government to file a status report on or before September 20, 2015 for reasons stated on the record in open Court. Further Status Hearing set for 10/1/2015 at 10:00 AM in Courtroom 24A before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. Court to issue order accordingly. (Court Reporter Janice Dickman) (tcr) (Entered: 08/20/2015)
Amy will update soon with further details as to today's court proceedings. *** Amy's Updates First up, the official docket text from today's directive, as filed with the court:
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