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September 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on September 03, 2015 37 Comments
The former Hillary Clinton aide who set up the now-infamous "home-brew" server has told at least three Congressional committees that if he is asked to testify about Clinton's server or system of records, he will invoke the Fifth Amendment. Magliano worked on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign as the IT director; after that campaign came to an end, he joined up with a Clinton-affiliated PAC, and helped set up the server in Clinton's New York home. He worked for the State Department from 2009-2013, and is now employed by a tech firm that occasionally contracts with State. He was subpoenaed to testify before the House Benghazi Committee, as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee. More coverage from NBC News:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 03, 2015 17 Comments
President Obama has been busy this week, renaming the nation's highest peak from Mt. McKinley to the traditional Alaskan name, Denali (meaning high one...which seems a clever way for Obama to actually name the place after himself with nobody being the wiser). Because Alaska doesn't have many golf courses, he has been working hard, too. Obama has been staring down glaciers to fight climate change and giving millions of taxpayer dollars away in specialty commissions to aid in this epic battle.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 03, 2015 41 Comments
Today, Donald Trump took a major step toward dispelling fears that his dedication to the GOP may be fleeting. After a meeting with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Trump held a public press conference and signed a loyalty pledge to the party. Under the pledge, he promised to support the Republican party's eventual nominee, and not run as a third party candidate. Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 03, 2015 10 Comments
Thursday, a pro-Scott Walker SuperPAC announced the release of its first television ad of the campaign cycle. "Fight & Win," hits Iowa airwaves Tuesday. As the name suggests, the ad highlights Walker's experience successfully fighting unions. Unintimidated PAC announced in early August that, $7 million in television time in Iowa from September 8 through February 1, 2016 (the day of the Iowa Caucus)."

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 03, 2015 19 Comments
As Hillary Clinton continues to stumble over scandals and sink in the polls, speculation is growing around the possibility of a Joe Biden run for 2016. A trip to Florida by the VP this week is fueling the fire. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post:
A speech. A party fundraiser. In Florida. Clinton? Sanders? No, Joe Biden. Rarely has a speech on the importance of community colleges been more closely scrutinized. That was the central theme of remarks delivered by Vice President Biden on Wednesday at one of the nation's largest universities -- at least, the stated theme. The other, which he only hinted at, was the political subtext: Still grieving from the death of his oldest son, Biden is weighing a presidential bid. And until he makes his 2016 decision, everything he says and does will be viewed through a campaign prism... "Look at all the press you’ve attracted," he joked to the crowd packed into a sweltering classroom at Miami Dade College. "Their interest in community colleges has impressed me. I hope that’s what they’re going to write about." The speech was the first stop on an itinerary that marks the vice president's most active political trek since his son Beau Biden, the 46-year old former Delaware attorney general, died of brain cancer in May. Close friends and aides say the vice president is still undecided about making a late entrance into the Democratic race dominated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is slipping in polls, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is enjoying a summer surge.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 03, 2015 28 Comments
As if biting off a big chunk off Ukraine in Crimea wasn’t enough, Putin is now putting Russian troops on the ground in Syria. Counting on President Obama’s continuing Foreign Policy paralysis on Syria, Russian army is reinforcing Dictator Bashar al-Assad’s air and ground forces. Neither Russia nor Assad’s Syria have any real intentions of destroying the Islamic State (ISIS) in the region. Their primary aim is to restore and maintain territorial control. Emboldened by America’s retreat under President Obama’s reign and the recent rise of its regional ally Iran in the Middle East, Russia feels confident opening up a new front in the Arab heartland. A story by Michael Weiss in The Daily Beast confirms that Russian troops are playing combat role in Syria. Previous reports from the Syrian frontlines dating back to 2013 had indicated Russian presence amidst the ranks of Assad’s Syrian Arab Army (SAA). Michael Weiss writes:
Russian pilots are gearing up to fly missions alongside the Syrian air force, dropping bombs not just on ISIS but on anti-Assad rebels who may or may not be aligned with the United States or its regional allies. Several sources consulted for this story said the Pentagon is being unusually cagey about Russia’s reinvigorated role in Syria. A former U.S. military officer told The Daily Beast, “I’m being told things like, ‘We really can’t talk about this.’ That indicates to me that there’s some truth to these allegations.”
After Iran gets access to over $100 billion of frozen reserves as a signing amount for the nuclear deal, Regime in Tehran is setting about carving out a new map of the Middle East -- tightening its hold on Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. Russian want to play a bigger role in this scramble for the Middle East.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 03, 2015 28 Comments
UPDATE: The State Department has filed a Motion to Stay the Judicial Watch case seeking information regarding Huma Abedin's non-State Department employment, including emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton. The full motion is at the bottom of this post. ORIGINAL: The State Department just filed a motion in federal court seeking a "coordinating judge" for various FOIA cases seeking records of Hillary Clinton's emails, among other things. (Full embed at end of post.)
The United States Department of State (“State”), defendant in numerous Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) cases in this district in which the emails of certain former officials are at issue, hereby requests the designation of a coordinating judge to allow the orderly and efficient resolution of common questions of law, fact, and procedure in those cases, pursuant to Local Civil Rules 40.5(e) and 40.6(a).
While seemingly innocuous and purporting to want to streamline court cases, the State Department indicated that it intends to seek a stay of current court cases until the motion is determined:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 03, 2015 21 Comments
A federal judge tossed out the controversial 'Deflategate' decision Thursday morning. New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2015-2016 season, the team incurred a $1 million fine, and the Patriots lost their first round draft pick in 2016 and fourth round pick in 2017. Two employees who handle footballs for the club were also implicated. “Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective May 6. They aren’t allowed to be reinstated without the NFL’s permission,” reported Yahoo News. Multiple sources including Yahoo Sports claimed there was no evidence that Brady, coach Bill Belichick, or Patriots owners were directly involved in the Deflategate scandal. According to Yahoo Sports, the NFL handed down the unprecedented punishments, “for violating playing rules and not cooperating fully in the investigation.” But that was all tossed out the window. You can read the full decision here:

Tom Brady Deflategate Federal Ct Decision

Posted by Petra Marquardt-Bigman on September 03, 2015 5 Comments
Just a week before the prominent Palestinian activist leader Bassem al-Tamimi embarks on a month-long speaking tour in the U.S., he and his family attracted massive media attention when a clip of one of the clashes they provoked with the IDF went viral. Daily Mail Ahed Tamimi bites Israeli Soldier2 The Tamimis are used to sympathetic media coverage, including a fawning New York Times Magazine cover story in March 2013 on the family's ambition to start a "Third Intifada". Bassem Tamimi is usually presented as  an admirable organizer of “nonviolent resistance” who can count on the support of Amnesty International and who has been praised as a “human rights defender” by the European Union. By contrast, Bassem Tamimi’s views on the “right to resist” that he often invokes and the use of his children in his activism – including regular efforts to challenge the IDF into responding to provocations like rock-throwing – have so far largely escaped scrutiny. Yet, just a few hours of research reveal many easily discoverable cracks in the carefully cultivated image of the Tamimis as peaceful activists and “non-violent” protesters.

Use of Children to Confront Soldiers as Cameras Roll

The Tamimis are best known for the 2012 video of daughter Ahed confronting Israeli soldiers for the cameras:

Posted by Andrew Branca on September 03, 2015 60 Comments
Yesterday Judge Barry Williams made several important rulings on the Freddie Gray case, in which six Baltimore police officers have been charged with various felonies in the death of the arrested drug suspect, reports the Baltimore Sun. Key among these are that each of the officers will receive a separate trial, and that Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby will not be forced to recuse herself from the proceedings. Left unanswered until a successive hearing next week is whether the trials will be held in Baltimore, where the alleged crimes occurred, or outside the city where defense lawyers argue a less tainted jury pool is available. These rulings strike me as being consistent with reasonable due process as well as political decision-making. The six officers charged were each involved in some, but not all, of the activities around Gray's arrest and later apparent injury while being transported in the police vehicle. This is reflected in the differing charges against each of them. As a result, the evidence relevant and admissible in one officer's prosecution might well not be either in another officer's prosecution. Expecting a jury to keep all this straight in a simultaneous trial of six defendants would be unrealistic, to say the least. Indeed, I very much expect the press and the general public will find doing so all but impossible. (I anticipate we'll be seeing a lot of bad legal analysis as a result.) To refresh our recollection, here's a table listing the six defendants, the charges against them, and their defense counsel. This might well prove a handy reference moving forward:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 02, 2015 45 Comments
The Iran nuclear deal, which is so bad in so many ways explained here so many times, is a done deal. Democrats now have enough votes in the Senate to prevent an override of an Obama veto of a resolution of disapproval, if it even gets to a vote given Democrats are close to the votes needed to filibuster. Partial blame belongs to Republicans in the Senate for agreeing to a procedure that required passage of a resolution of disapproval by a supermajority, rather than approval by a supermajority, or even a majority. But at least Republicans opposed the deal, which means that majorities in each house of Congress are against it. Whatever procedural mistakes Republicans made are dwarfed by the substantive embrace of the deal by most Democrats in Congress. That despite the fact that the deal is hugely unpopular overall, and is at best a split decision even among Democrats not in Congress. It is not an exaggeration to say that loyalty to Obama was the overriding factor. Democrats in Congress were the main targets of Obama's demagoguery -- be with Obama or be for war; be with Obama or be for the monied lobbyists. The message was clear: Be with Obama or be a traitor. So the deal will not fail. To say that it "passes" is inaccurate. There will be calls once the votes are taken to heal. To make Israel, once again, a matter of bipartisan consensus.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 02, 2015 26 Comments
Does calling it 'Democratic Socialism' make it less socialisty? Nah. Not really. But that doesn't stop Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders from pretending there's a difference. "What Democratic Socialism is about, is having a government which reflects the interests of the ordinary people, rather than is currently the case, the billionaire class," explained Sanders.
Bernie Sanders Explains Why You Shouldn't Be Scared Of The Ter...Bernie Sanders explains why you shouldn't be scared of the term 'socialism' Posted by NowThis on Monday, August 31, 2015

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 02, 2015 168 Comments
In Kentucky, a county clerk refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses despite the Supreme Court's recent ruling has made her way into national headlines. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis claims her religious beliefs have created an issue of conscience which prohibits her from participating in or condoning gay marriage. Citing God's authority, Davis has stopped issuing all marriage licenses. The whole affair turned into one horrid media circus:
ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 02, 2015 35 Comments
New York University is expanding, and a coalition of groups are opposing the expansion. Some due to community concerns, some due to concerns over the cost of NYU tuition, room and board. The protest was descibed in NYU Local:
Yesterday, a rally organized by Faculty Against the Sexton Plan (FASP) drew a crowd of over 200 people in Washington Square Park to protest the NYU 2031 expansion plan. The rally featured voices not only from FASP, but also support from the Student & Labor Action Movement, NYU Divest, the Roosevelt Institute, New York State United Teachers, Students for Justice in Palestine, Long Island University, Cooper Union, and a variety of other students and community members. The event also featured a performance by the theatrical percussion group STOMP.
After the airing of grievances, NYU Local noted:
Several NYU students shared personal narratives relating the burden of NYU’s financial obligations. These stories related how the high cost of NYU’s tuition has robbed students of normalcy. One student, wearing a mask and identifying herself only as “Mandy,” described how she was forced into prostitution to pay her rent and tuition bills.
See the Featured Image. The Observer further described:

Posted by Amy Miller on September 02, 2015 36 Comments
Some Second Amendment advocacy organizations are putting their members on alert among concerns that anti-gun organizations are using social media to encourage members to target open carriers with police action. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has posted a series of messages on its page encouraging its followers to immediately call police if they feel uncomfortable in the presence of an openly-carried firearm. The Buckeye Firearms Association caught a screen grab from the Coalition's Facebook page: swatting This is a screenshot taken today (9/2/2015) of the Coalition's Facebook page, doubling down on their original call to action:

Posted by Amy Miller on September 02, 2015 13 Comments
Last Friday, Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth stopped to fuel up at a suburban Houston gas station. Soon after, Shannon Miles pulled up, put a gun to the back of Goforth's head, and shot him 15 times. It wasn't a murder---it was an execution; and now, those close to the investigation are asking whether or not nationwide anti-cop rhetoric played a part in it [emphasis mine]:
Surveillance video from the gas station shows that Goforth, 47, had just come out of a convenience store after he had pumped gas and that Miles got out of his red truck, she said. “He runs up behind Deputy Goforth and puts the gun to the back of his head and shoots. Deputy Goforth hits the ground and then he continues to unload his gun, shooting repeatedly into the back of Deputy Goforth,” [Harris County District Attorney Devon] Anderson said. Goforth was shot 15 times and a witness saw the shooting, Anderson said. She added that the shell casings match the .40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun found at Miles’ home. Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said Saturday that the attack was “clearly unprovoked,” and there is no evidence that Goforth knew Miles. “Our assumption is that he (Goforth) was a target because he wore a uniform,” the sheriff said.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 02, 2015 43 Comments
Today Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski committed her vote in support of the controversial Iran nuclear deal, bringing the total number of Senators backing the deal to 34---the magic number needed to ensure Democrats can sustain President Obama's veto should Senators opposed to the deal bring forward a resolution of disapproval. More from the AP:
Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland became the crucial 34th vote in favor of the agreement. "No deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime," Mikulski said in a statement. She called the accord "the best option available to block Iran from having a nuclear bomb. For these reasons, I will vote in favor of this deal." The backing from Mikulski, who is retiring next year, gives supporters the margin they need to uphold an Obama veto of a congressional resolution of disapproval if Republicans pass such a measure later this month. And it spells failure for opponents of the international agreement who sought to foil it by turning Congress against it. Leading that effort were Israel and its allies in the U.S., who failed to get traction after spending millions of dollars trying.
Reaction on both sides, of course, exploded:
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