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September 2015

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 11, 2015 5 Comments
We previously wrote how the State Department filed a motion to stay the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case filed by Judicial Watch seeking records with regard to Huma Abedin's outside employment while serving as Hillary Clinton's State Department aide. In this case, Judge Emmet Sullivan forcefully had required the State Department to search for records, including requiring outreach to the FBI as to searches of Hillary's server. Judge Sullivan has harshly criticized State Department behavior as well as what he termed Hillary’s failure to follow policy:
THE COURT: Right. But assuming, though, in that scenario there wasn’t a violation of government policy either, correct? We’re not talking about a search of anyone’s random e-mail accounts. We’re talking about a search of devices that may have contained official government documents, that’s what we’re talking about. We wouldn’t be here today had the employee followed government policy, right? [transcript at 16]
The motion for a stay was in conjunction with a request for appointment of a coordinating judge to handle numerous FOIA cases involving Hillary's emails. While purportedly filed to increase court efficiency, it looked like a naked attempt to take the case away from Judge Sullivan. In a ruling that was just posted, Judge Sullivan denied the motion for a stay, and asserted his right to control his own docket:

Posted by Amy Miller on September 11, 2015 45 Comments
During an address to the Eagle Forum in St. Louis this afternoon, former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he is suspending his presidential campaign. From ABC News:
“We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too.” "That is why today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States," he said, adding that he has "no regrets" about his run. He also took what appeared to be a veiled swipe at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. "Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, it betrays the example of Christ," he said. In recent weeks, Perry has been particularly vocal in his criticism of the real estate mogul. Perry, who launched his campaign on June 4, has been polling in the low single digits throughout his campaign - most recently at 1 percent in the crucial first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa. He was slated to debate for the second time in the lower-tier debate on CNN next week.

Posted by New Neo on September 11, 2015 5 Comments
On 9/11's 10th anniversary I wrote a post that contained this observation:
For those of us who were grownups when 9/11 happened, it’s also been transmuted—not to something that was always there, but to something that’s been incorporated into our view of the world. We’ve all done that differently. But for us, the shock and surprise and horror reoccurs (to a somewhat diminished extent, of course; there’s no shock like the first shock) whenever we see the footage, or when we think—really really think, without the protective shield of familiarity—of what actually happened on that day.
I believe that, in the four years that have passed since I wrote those words, 9/11 has been transmuted into something that was always there, something that no longer surprises. And although I haven't watched any footage today of the attack, I think there is less shock and no surprise. The reason for that is that a great deal has happened since I wrote those words four years ago. Since then, although we had responded in Afghanistan to 9/11 and then to Saddam Hussein's defiance of nuclear weapons inspections in Iraq, the Obama administration has purposely wiped out those gains, particularly in Iraq. When I wrote that 10-year anniversary piece in September of 2011, the US was poised on the brink of Obama's complete withdrawal from Iraq, which he was determined to accomplish against the opinion and advice of every military adviser. In the four years since that withdrawal, ISIS has risen up in the vacuum that was left, and it has wreaked horrors on civilian populations, barbarities that are of enormous scale and magnitude even compared to 9/11 and which have reverberated around the world with images of sadistic violence. Does anyone doubt for a single moment that the killers would wreak a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand 9/11s on us if they could?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 11, 2015 11 Comments
James Bond is a socialist sympathizer? Who knew? Current James Bond leading man Daniel Craig gave almost $50,000 to a shady pro-Bernie Sanders SuperPAC. The English actor is a U.S. resident, so his political donations to American candidates and PACs are perfectly legal. According to a report from the Center for Public Integrity, Craig confirmed he, "donated nearly $50,000 this summer to Americans Socially United, an organization purporting to support Sanders’ upstart presidential campaign."
What Craig apparently didn’t know: The super PAC’s founder, Cary Lee Peterson, has routinely run afoul of creditors and the law — including stiffing one of the nation’s largest news companies out of a six-figure sum. Sanders himself has disavowed super PACs, which have no contribution limits, and his campaign has demanded that Peterson curtail his operation. But there is little the U.S. senator from Vermont can actually do to stop passionate supporters — or opportunists — from launching such groups.

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 11, 2015 5 Comments
A new memorial center has been created in Shanksville, Pennsylvania to honor the people on United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed in a field on September 11th when passengers fought back against the terrorists. Here's an Associated Press report via FOX News:
Flight 93 memorial visitor center is dedicated A new visitor center has been dedicated on a Pennsylvania hill overlooking the site where United Airlines Flight 93 came down during the 9/11 attacks. The visitor center is at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville. It uses photos, video, artifacts and interactive displays to tell the story of how passengers and crew fought to regain control of the plane. The hijackers are believed to have wanted to crash it into the U.S. Capitol. An outdoor platform offers a commanding view of the crash site where 33 passengers and seven crew members were killed. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said at Thursday's dedication that the center captures "the real honor of the 40 and what they did."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 11, 2015 35 Comments
Scott Walker has fallen dramatically in the polls, undone for now by the Trump phenomenon. Numerous pundits, including me, wonder if he can get back up again. Surveying the Republican field, based solely on current polling, Scott Walker should not even be on Hillary's radar. But he is. And she just lashed out at him more viciously than she has any other candidate. Politico reports:
Making her 2015 debut in Scott Walker’s home state of Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton on Thursday unleashed her harshest and most extended diatribe yet against a Republican rival not named Donald Trump, accusing the governor of being a tool of the billionaire Koch brothers. “It seems to me, just observing him, that Governor Walker thinks because he busts unions, starves universities, guts public education, demeans women, scapegoats teachers, nurses, and firefighters, he is some kind of tough guy on a motorcycle, a real leader,” Clinton said to a packed audience at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Well, that is not leadership folks. Leadership means fighting for the people you represent."

Posted by Amy Miller on September 11, 2015 14 Comments
CNN has released the lineup for next week's Republican presidential debates. The main stage will play host to:
  • Donald Trump
  • Ben Carson
  • Jeb Bush
  • Scott Walker
  • Carly Fiorina
  • John Kasich
  • Chris Christie
  • Ted Cruz
  • Marco Rubio
  • Mike Huckabee
  • Rand Paul
Meanwhile, the early debate field has been narrowed down to 5 players:
  • Rick Perry
  • Bobby Jindal
  • Lindsey Graham
  • George Pataki
  • Rick Santorum

Posted by Mirabelle Ward on September 11, 2015 21 Comments
On Tuesday I wrote about National Review contributing editor Andrew C. McCarthy and Representative Mike Pompeo's clearly accurate assertions that President Obama has failed to comply with the requirements of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015. Both McCarthy and Pompeo further asserted that this non-compliance meant that the Congressional review period for the proposed nuclear deal with Iran had not started, and therefore that the time within which Congress must vote on it had not yet started. I also wrote that that McCarthy and Pompeo disagreed about the consequences of this non-compliance, with Pompeo claiming that “the president remains unable lawfully to waive or lift statutory Iran-related sanctions” and McCarthy arguing that Obama still had "authority to waive the existing sanctions — although not to lift them permanently." By Wednesday, however, McCarthy had basically -- and quite happily, it seems -- admitted that his interpretation was wrong. Senator Ted Cruz, he says, explained that,
Under Corker [i.e., the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015] section (b)(3), "prior to and during the period for transmission of an agreement … and during the period for congressional review … the President may not waive, suspend, reduce, provide relief from, or otherwise limit the application of statutory sanctions with respect to Iran[.]" Further, under other provisions of the Corker law, the prohibition against Obama’s taking actions to lift sanctions is extended to ten days after the date that he vetoes a “resolution of disapproval” (assuming one is passed by both houses of Congress). Get it? From the time Obama reached the deal with Iran, through the time for congressional review, and for up to ten more days after Obama’s veto of a disapproval resolution, the sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program must remain in place.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 11, 2015 19 Comments
At 8:46 a.m. in New York on September 11, 2001, the first airplane hit the World Trade Center North Tower. I was at my desk in Providence, RI, when I heard the first reports of a "small plane" hitting the World Trade Center. Seemed odd, but not out of the realm of possibility. Morning news shows interrupted coverage as the murky facts began to emerge. Slowly, it became clear it was no accident, as the South Tower also was hit (at 31:20 of video below). https://youtu.be/Nn9EVxueiyc?t=22m5s And then the Pentagon was hit And then the unthinkable, the Towers collapsed:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 10, 2015 13 Comments
Well, that didn't last long. Chuck Schumer's breakaway from the Democratic Party and obedience to Obama, by coming out against the Iran nuke deal, lasted about as long as the inmates who escaped from Dannemora prison in upstate NY in June. John McCormack at The Weekly Standard reports, Schumer Praises Obama on Iran, Hits Republicans as Hostage-Takers:
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is the highest-ranking Democrat to oppose President Obama's executive agreement with Iran over the Islamic republic's nuclear program. But during the Senate Democratic leadership's final press conference prior to a vote on the deal, Schumer didn't say anything about it. Instead, he chose to attack Republicans. "Everywhere Republican leaders look this fall, there's potential disaster lurking thanks to their hard right members determined to hold the government hostage unless they get everything they want," Schumer said on Wednesday, referring to budget negotiations.

Posted by New Neo on September 10, 2015 10 Comments
As expected, the Iran deal disapproval measure failed to win the requisite 60+ votes to invoke cloture in the Senate and allow a vote on the merits. The linked article describes the Congressional Democrats as: "overcoming ferocious Republican opposition and delivering President Barack Obama a legacy-making victory on his top foreign policy priority." But the reality is that Obama's side not only did not get a single Republican vote, it failed to get all the Democratic votes, either. So this was another bipartisan vote---but as usual with Obama, the bipartisanship was all on the side of the opposition to the president. This "victory" of Obama's, so "legacy-making," therefore consisted of Obama getting just enough Democrats on his side to block a vote on the merits (that vote to invoke cloture failed by a margin of two). Even had cloture gotten the necessary 60+, and the disapproval bill come to a vote and been passed, Obama would have vetoed it and there would not have been enough votes to override that veto.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 10, 2015 12 Comments
Democrats are unhappy with the way their party officials are handling this election cycle---and the party doesn't mind one bit. Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has come under fire repeatedly for the way she's managing her flock of potential presidential candidates. In addition to sanctioning just six official debates, DWS has limited the potential for rogue forums by creating a new rule: if a Democrat chooses to participate in a non-sanctioned debate, they'll be banned from future sanctioned ones. During a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, she doubled down on the new rules:
“We’re not changing the process. We’re having six debates,” said Wasserman Schultz, who has been under fire from several Democratic presidential candidates over the debates. “The candidates will be uninvited from subsequent debates if they accept an invitation to anything outside of the six sanctioned debates.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 10, 2015 28 Comments
Just in case you were wondering, no, this is not from The Onion. I know it's hard to tell these days, but this is an actual thing that happened. According to Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon, the New York Times has provided a nifty new tool, a Congressional 'Jew Tracker.'
The New York Times has come under fire from Jewish organizations for launching a website aimed at tracking how Jewish lawmakers are voting on the Iran nuclear agreement. The online chart, which tracks whether lawmakers who opposes the accord are Jewish, is being criticized as anti-Semitic in nature and an attempt to publicly count where Jews fall on the issue, which some have sought to turn into a debate about dual loyalty to Israel. The feature, titled “Lawmakers Against the Iran Nuclear Deal,” includes a list of legislators currently opposing the deal.
On the outset, the NYT article seems harmless enough, "Lawmakers Against the Iran Nuclear Deal," it's called. But then there are the charts...

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 10, 2015 14 Comments
Team Hillary has a sad because the New York Times published articles that were critical of the embattled former Secretary of State. Clinton's response? Declare war on the NYT and any other publication that publishes content portraying Mrs. Clinton in a negative light, naturally. Heaven forbid a newspaper do their one and only job. Never mind that the NYT endorsed Hillary over Barack in 2008, or that they've largely danced around the whole FBI investigation thing. WAR. The best part? That while Team Hillary is launching mortars at "hostile" press, Mrs. Clinton is publicly declaring she's infinitely and sincerely transparent. Tuesday, the Weekly Standard noted how the NYT recent editorial shakeup followed complaints from the Hillary Clinton Fan Club.
Ever since the start of the campaign, Hillary Clinton boosters have been complaining about coverage of their candidate in the New York Times. And today the paper announced that Washington bureau chief Carolyn Ryan is being demoted -- or shifting roles! -- at the paper. As the Huffington Post outlines, "The New York Times announced Tuesday that Elisabeth Bumiller, a veteran reporter and current Washington editor, will take over as Washington bureau chief -- one of the paper’s most prestigious posts. Carolyn Ryan, who was named bureau chief in late 2013, will transition to a new role as senior editor for politics." Hillary boosters are publicly connecting what they see as bad coverage with Ryan's new role at the paper.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 10, 2015 5 Comments
With many European campuses and lecture halls serving as training grounds for anti-Israel activism and boycott campaigns, Universities and research institutions in India are queuing up to cooperate with Israel. This week, Tel Aviv University signed cooperation agreements with three leading academic institutions in India. University of Mumbai, Wellingkar Institute of Management and Amity University agreed on series of joint programmes including short-term faculty exchange, holding joint research workshops and exchanging doctoral candidates. This move would strengthen Tel Aviv University's existing extensive cooperation with Indian educational institutions. Engineering students from India already attend summer courses in cyber security and entrepreneurship at Tel Aviv University -- both areas of vital importance to India. India too brings its own set of strengths on the table. Indian educational and research institutions offer a talent pool that is comparable to any major developed country in the world. Recently, Israel's IDC Herzliya also signed wide-ranging agreements with several leading Indian universities and academic institutions. India, once dubbed as the “23rd Arab State” for its unwavering support for the “Palestinian Cause”, has moved closer to Israel in recent years.

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 10, 2015 77 Comments
Just minutes ago Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams denied the defense motion brought on behalf of the six police officers charged int the death of Freddie Gray to have their trials held outside the city of Baltimore, reports CBS Baltimore and other news sources. https://twitter.com/Morgan_SGJCDNR/status/641995846716928000 The officers' lawyers had argued that it would be impossible to select an unbiased jury in the city, because jurors would be very much aware that anything but a guilty verdict could lead to a resurgence of the riots and looting that occurred last April following Gray's serious injury while in police custody.

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 10, 2015 13 Comments
When it comes to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, it's like we're watching a replay of what happened in 2008. In 2008, Hillary Clinton was the presumptive Democrat nominee until the party's base cast her aside for a little known senator who was seen as an outsider with a more progressive resume. In 2016, the same scenario is playing out in the popularity of Bernie Sanders. In 2008, Hillary cried. This week, Hillary cried again. In 2008, Hillary seemed too focus-grouped and stale. Now, we're being told in advance that Hillary is going to be more spontaneous. Conservative author and columnist Mark Steyn made the same point on Hannity last night, saying that she's tone deaf and that she is once again defeating herself:
Steyn Rips Hillary's 'Tone Deaf,' 'Slow-Motion Train Wreck' Campaign Mark Steyn said on "Hannity" tonight that Hillary Clinton's "train wreck" presidential campaign is in trouble, and there is no doubt that she committed a crime with her private server and email.
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