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August 2015

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2015 45 Comments
Yesterday, the Judge in the Judicial Watch FOIA case involving Huma Abedin's outside employment ordered an expedited hearing on Judicial Watch's request to take discovery as to, among other things, Hillary's electronic devices and server. While Judicial Watch did not specify the discovery it wanted, that logically could include the sworn deposition testimony of Hillary as to her electronic devices and server, as well as that of her attorney David Kendall, who maintained custody of electronic records. On Judicial Watchs request, the Judge moved the hearing up from September 10 to August 20. The State Department then filed a motion Motion for Extension of Time seeking to delay the hearing until August 27, because two of its key people were on vacation.
As grounds for this request, defendant states that the two DOJ supervisors who are responsible for this case and related FOIA cases are currently on vacation, and that the additional time is required for defendant to respond to the August 17 Order.
(Full embed at bottom of post) The Judge quickly rejected the request to delay the hearing, even before Judicial Watch had a chance to file a written opposition:
MINUTE ORDER denying [28] Defendant's Opposed Motion for an Extension of Time. However, due to the Court's calendar, the status hearing will take place at 1:00 p.m. on August 20, 2015 in Courtroom 24A, rather than 12:00 p.m. as originally scheduled. Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on August 18, 2015. (lcegs4) Modified on 8/18/2015 (ztcr).
UPDATE: Via Byron York, Hillary in a speech today in Nevada says she was the one to make the decision as to what was and was not work related. So she just made herself the key person to testify on the subject:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 18, 2015 13 Comments
Josh Groban joined Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night. As part of a sketch, a piano-playing Groban sang tweets written by Donald Trump. The tweets are in fact, real. "Josh Groban's The Best Tweets of Kanye West was the number one album of 2011. And now, his highly anticipated follow up, The Best Tweets of Donald Trump. "Donald Trump's tweets will make you laugh, will make you cry, but mostly will make you cry," said Groban.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 18, 2015 34 Comments
While California awaits the arrival of a "Godzilla" El Niño, a storm has already broken out in the city of Huntington Park. We reported that two Mexican migrant leaders, both quite undocumented, have been appointed to city commissions. And video of the city council meeting in which those appointments were approved shows only a few citizens on hand to protest the measure. That wasn't the case for the Monday night meeting, in which approximately 200 local residents flooded the council chambers to voice their anger over the action. The following video from that meeting offers a glimpse into city action, which follows a recap of events that lead to the citizen response:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 18, 2015 5 Comments
Polling released by Rasmussen Tuesday show's the "Hillary meter" dropping dramatically. Rasmussen explains:
Last month, we introduced this year’s edition of the Hillary Meter to regularly update public perceptions of the former first lady on her march to the White House. Why a Hillary Meter and not one for, say, Jeb Bush or Donald Trump? Because for one thing, Clinton is far and away the leader in the race for next year’s Democratic nomination, while the winner of the Republican race is anyone’s guess. Secondly, the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of State is an internationally known and highly polarizing figure – greatly admired by many on the left, extremely disliked on the right – who may end up being the nation’s first woman president.
The Hillary Meter is not indicative of who surveyed likely voters want, but rather who they believe will win. Also of note is that individuals surveyed are likely voters and not registered voters. Likely voters tend to (but not always) have a lower propensity for election day turn out. Though the Huffington Post argues that if 2014 is indicative of future elections -- that distinction might not make much difference any longer.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2015 33 Comments
The Daily Mail is reporting an interesting twist in the Hillary email saga, EXCLUSIVE: Hillary's email firm was run from a loft apartment with its servers in the BATHROOM
The IT company Hilary Clinton chose to maintain her private email account was run from a loft apartment and its servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online can reveal. Daily Mail Online tracked down ex-employees of Platte River Networks in Denver, Colorado, who revealed the outfit's strong links to the Democratic Party but expressed shock that the 2016 presidential candidate chose the small private company for such a sensitive job. One, Tera Dadiotis, called it 'a mom and pop shop' which was an excellent place to work, but hardly seemed likely to be used to secure state secrets. And Tom Welch, who helped found the company, confirmed the servers were in a bathroom closet. It can also be disclosed that the small number of employees who were aware of the Clinton contract were told to keep it secret. The way in which Clinton came to contract a company described as a 'mom and pop' operation remains unclear. However Daily Mail Online has established a series of connections between the firm and the Democratic Party.
This raises serious security concerns, as CNN reports over 300 emails located so far now require review for classified information:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on August 18, 2015 6 Comments
While Europe has been busy targeting Israeli researchers, artists and filmmakers in recent days, Asian countries like India, China and Japan are taking tangible steps strengthening its ties with Israel. Last week Norwegian Film festival rejected an Israeli film dealing with disability on the grounds that it “did not deal with occupation” or “discrimination of Palestinians.” In Spain, a music festival barred the Jewish-American reggae star Matisyahu for refusing to comply with the demands of the organizers to publically denounce Israel and endorse the “Palestinian cause” -- in keeping with the best traditions of Spanish Inquisition. In Paris "peace activists" threatened and harangued visitors attending a day-long festival celebrating Tel-Aviv’s culture with music and gourmet. Meanwhile in India, thousands gathered to see the opening on yet another Israeli Agriculture Technology Centre in Gujarat State. Israel runs 30 such centres across India, training farmers in latest agriculture technology and farming techniques. https://twitter.com/danielocarmon/status/632903906389966849

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 18, 2015 11 Comments
Bob Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story over forty years ago but everything old has become new again. Yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Woodward made a direct comparison between Hillary Clinton's emails and Nixon's tapes. Jesse Byrnes of The Hill:
Bob Woodward compares Clinton emails to Nixon tapes Veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward on Monday compared Hillary Clinton’s private email account to the Nixon tapes. “Follow the trail here,” Woodward said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe,” noting that emails erased from Clinton’s private server when she led the State Department were either sent or received by someone else, too. “You've got a massive amount of data. It, in a way, reminds me of the Nixon tapes: thousands of hours of secretly recorded conversations that Nixon thought were exclusively his,” Woodward said...

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 18, 2015 21 Comments
At the RedState gathering, I had an opportunity to sit down with Republican Presidential contender and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Rather than focus on policy, I decided to talk to Governor Walker about his bitter battle with the Wisconsin unions and how those encounters affected him personally. "Those are the sorts of battles, maybe not as high profile as it was then, but essentially that the president goes through all the time," said Walker.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 17, 2015 25 Comments
Living it up in Martha's Vineyard this past weekend, the Clinton's were seen cuttin' a rug. "Hillary and Bill Clinton let their hair — and other body parts — down during a birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard this past weekend, and the candid moment was caught on tape and posted online," reports The Hill.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2015 17 Comments
Will Hillary Clinton be subject to a deposition under oath as to her use of various electronic devices and servers as part of the Judicial Watch FOIA federal lawsuit seeking records as to Huma Abedin's outside employment? That is a distinct possibility in light of the State Department's apparent failure to comply with a Court order as to its efforts to search Hillary's original server for records. The Court, at the request of Judicial Watch, has expedited a status conference originally scheduled for September 10, to August 19:
MINUTE ORDER. In light of the State Department's August 14, 2015 Status Report and Judicial Watch's August 17, 2015 reply thereto, a status hearing will be held on Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 12:00 p.m. in Courtroom 24A. The State Department shall file a reply to Judicial Watch's August 17, 2015 response no later than 12:00 p.m. on August 19, 2015. Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on August 17, 2015. (lcegs4) (Entered: 08/17/2015)
In its papers , Judicial Watch says it intends to seek discovery, which normally does not take place in FOIA cases, because of the State Department's non-compliance. (Full embed of Judicial Watch request at bottom of post.) While Judicial Watch has not specified what discovery it seeks to take, "discovery" can include depositions, which are sworn testimony on the record. Other forms of discovery would appear inadequate given the history of the case. Given the players involved, discovery logically would include Hillary, Abedin, and Cheryl Mills, not to mention Hillary's attorney David Kendall as custodian of at least some records. Judicial Watch provided the following statement in response to our inquiry:
“We believe that discovery is now the only way to receive the necessary information, wherever that may lead.”

Background - How We Got Here

On Friday,  August 14, 2015, we covered the State Department's Court-ordered Status Report in That court order came after the Court ordered Hillary, Abedin and Cheryl Mills not to destroy records, and other court proceedings as to whether all electronic devices had been searched for records.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 17, 2015 7 Comments
A few months ago Gawker staffers successfully formed an employee union. Why? Because they wanted a union. Yes really, that's the only reason. Whether the move spooked other prominent trash click sites or because their own employees were mumbling uniony things is unclear, but both Upworthy and Buzzfeed have discouraged their employees from going the way of Gawker. Last week, Buzzfeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti reportedly explained in a staff meeting that, "he doesn’t think unionization is “the right idea” for BuzzFeed," writes Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed reports:
“I think unions have had a positive impact on a lot of places, like if you’re working on an assembly line,” Peretti said at a company meeting. In such cases, “if you’re negotiating with management it can make a huge difference, particularly when labor is more replaceable.” In contrast, he said BuzzFeed patterns itself after companies like Google and Facebook, which compete for less replaceable talent by offering better compensation and benefits.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 17, 2015 11 Comments
Monday morning, the National Labor Relations Board overturned a ruling that would have allowed football players at Northwestern University to unionize. Citing concerns a union would provide an unfair advantage in the college football arena between unionized schools and the un-unionized, the NLRB's ruling was unanimous.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 17, 2015 49 Comments
Speaking on the soap box at the Iowa State Fair Monday morning, Governor Scott Walker was welcomed by an all too familiar crowd -- union hecklers. Rather than ignoring the front row rabble-rousers, Governor Walker confronted them directly. "I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there. I will fight for the American people over, and over, and over, again. You want someone who's tested? I'm right here. You can see it. This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down. We will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward," said Walker.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2015 5 Comments
Israel's discovery of massive natural gas fields off its coast has the potential to turn Israel into an energy superpower, supplying not only its own needs, but those of surrounding countries and potentially Europe. Israel already has signed a $15 billion deal to supply natural gas to Jordan. We covered the story of Israel's emergence as an energy supplier in March 2013, when Israel started pumping natural gas from the Tamar field, which is not even the largest find, Yesterday the Middle East changed forever, and you didn’t know it. This 2013 PBS reports explains:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 17, 2015 19 Comments
International support for blasphemy laws has been growing in recent years with Muslims pushing for them in Europe and Obama seemingly advocating for them at the U. N. In Quebec, a bill has been introduced that will target those who "write against the Islamic religion." Robert Spencer reports, initially quoting from The National Post:
“Bill 59 assigns new powers to the Quebec Human Rights Commission (QHRC) to combat hate speech, as well as a variety of other provisions meant to protect against extremism, by censoring speech that promotes ‘fear of the other.’ Ominously, the bill would allow the QHRC to pursue websites that in its estimation describe and denounce Islamism….Jacques Frémont, the commission’s president, explained that he planned to use the requested powers to sue those critical of certain ideas, ‘people who would write against … the Islamic religion … on a website or on a Facebook page.'”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 16, 2015 69 Comments
As I mentioned in prior posts, from the very start Hillary Clinton's email and server stories were inconsistent and self-contradictory. On the one hand, in her March 10, 2015 press conference, Hillary said the server housing her email system would not be turned over because it contained personal messages between her and Bill. Hillary's answer suggested that the server existed and was under her control. (Put aside that Bill's spokesman says he only sent two emails in his life, when he was President.)
The server contains personal communications from my husband and me, and I believe I have met all of my responsibilities and the server will remain private … [transcript]
https://youtu.be/k5WZdyCI4Uc?t=9m55s On the other hand, we now know that the actual server which ran the email system while Hillary was Secretary of State was taken into the custody of Colorado-based Platte River Networks in or about June 2013, the data was transferred somewhere, the server was wiped clean, and then physically stored in New Jersey.
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