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October 2015

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 02, 2015 36 Comments
Tragic deaths seem to dredge up the worst kind of discourse from liberal punditry. The national conversation, particularly in regards to calls for increased gun control tends to go something like this: "Someone broke a law." "WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. WE MUST DO SOMETHING." "Yes, but these individuals didn't follow the law to begin with." "WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. WE MUST DO SOMETHING." "Because criminals will follow a new law when they're already ignoring all the others?" "WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. MOAR LAWS. ALL THE LAWS. SOMETHING. GUNS. SOMETHING. YARRRRGHH." "We must do SOMETHING," is tired mantra and one beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Friday morning, National Review's Charles Cooke joined Morning Joe to discuss the horrific Oregon community college shooting. Cooke writes extensively about second amendment liberties.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 02, 2015 22 Comments
Jeb Bush is being raked over the media coals for supposedly expressing a callous disregard for the Oregon mass shooting victims by saying "stuff happens." But those words in a long dialogue were taken completely out of context and promoted by New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza. It was then picked up by others in the media based on Lizza's tweet about it, which was shared over 1000 times on Twitter. Here's how it went down. Former Governor Jeb Bush was questioned about Thursday's UCC tragic shooting during a press conference held Friday afternoon. Ryan Lizza, a reporter for the New Yorker and CNN contributor pulled two little words from Bush's answer, pretended they were indicative of Bush's statement as a whole, and then kept digging. Lizza tweeted:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2015 41 Comments
I have a column at USA Today, Time to talk about gun free zones. Here is an excerpt:
Gun-free zones presume the good intentions of those entering the zone. And the overwhelming majority have such good intentions. But for those who have bad intentions, gun-free zones turn schools and other locations into shooting galleries. The good people are unarmed, the evil person is armed.... Gun-free zones achieve the opposite of what is intended. Rather than making good people safer, it puts them at the mercy of the evil people.
You know the drill. You go over to USA Today, read the whole thing, and share it on Facebook and Twitter. There has been an attempt by Think Progress and some others to dispute whether the campus and/or buildings were gun free zones, but it's pretty clear they were:

Posted by Amy Miller on October 02, 2015 20 Comments
The latest jobs report released today could spell trouble for the US economy---and workers. According to analysts, the economy underperformed in terms of jobs created. Experts surveyed by CNNMoney estimated that we would see a net gain of 204,000 jobs in this report; gains in excess of 200,000 are considered "healthy," so this was an optimistic prediction. In reality, however, the economy only added 142,000 jobs in September---an "unhealthy" diagnosis. The unemployment held steady at 5.1%; however, labor force participation rate dropped to 62.4 percent (from 62.6 percent), and the three month average for job creation has stagnated well below 200,000. More via the NY Times:
Friday’s report came just two weeks after the Federal Reserve decided that the recovery was still too frail to risk lifting interest rates from their near-zero level. The latest evidence of a weakening economy may push any rate increase into next year even though the Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, had previously suggested that the central bank was likely to go ahead with a rate increase before year’s end.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 02, 2015 99 Comments
Yesterday, a 26 year old man loaded a gun and committed mass murder at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. New reports indicate that the man (whose name doesn't deserve any more ink on this site) killed at least 9 people and injured many more before police neutralized him. Four guns believed to belong to the shooter were recovered at the scene. Amid the horror comes the story of 30 year-old Chris Mintz, a student and Army veteran who was shot 7 times while trying to protect his classmates from the gunman. That's his picture at the top of the page---his actions earned him the spot. Mintz reportedly blocked the door to the classroom he was in to prevent the shooter from entering. When the shooter did manage to enter the room, Mintz was shot several times. He is currently recovering in a local hospital and is expected to survive. More from ABC News:
"I just hope that everyone else is OK," he told ABC News this morning. "I'm just worried about everyone else. The man’s actions in the fatal shooting, where 10 people died and seven, including himself, were injured, did not go unnoticed by his peers.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 02, 2015 14 Comments
What?! You mean to tell me Iran may have lied about stuff?! It's a good thing we didn't strike a nuclear deal with them or anything, oh wait... Monday, Saudi Arabian news outlet Al Arabiya reported eight members of the Iranian Women's Soccer Team were not actually women.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 02, 2015 4 Comments
The progressive base of the Democratic Party is voting with their wallets and has pushed fundraising for Bernie Sanders up to the level of the Clinton machine. Over the last three months, Sanders has come within $2 million of Hillary's grand total. James Hohmann and Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post:
So much for the Clinton juggernaut Clinton raised $28 million from July 1 to Sept. 30. Bernie Sanders raised $26 million. Hillary personally headlined 58 fundraisers during that time period, the same number as she did during the previous quarter. Sanders only appeared at seven finance events! Almost all of his money came from online. The disclosures come with fresh evidence that the base of the Democratic Party is not ready for Hillary. Yesterday alone, the Sanders campaign raised more than $2 million online. About $500,000 of that came in from 10:30 p.m. until midnight, according to my colleagues Matea Gold and John Wagner. Sanders has received 1.3 million donations from about 650,000 different donors. That puts him across the threshold of 1 million contributions earlier than Barack Obama in both his presidential campaigns.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2015 9 Comments
We previously reported how activists in Ithaca, New York, arranged a one-sided anti-Israel presentation to the Third Grade classes at the Beverly J. Martin School, which included local Jewish Voice for Peace activist Ariel Gold and Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi. Tamimi is best known for using children, including his own, to confront Israeli soldiers to create viral photo and video. He also advocates using children in protests, including setting up roadblocks, and rock throwing. Tamimi is on a national speaking tour, co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, and had two other appearances in the Ithaca area in addition to the third grade appearance. When news of the third grade event came to the attention of the Ithaca City School District Superintendent Luvelle Brown, he launched an investigation, and at the end of that investigation issued a strongly worded statement condemning what had happened. The statement reads, in part:

Posted by Amy Miller on October 01, 2015 71 Comments
At least 10 people were murdered today when a gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. According to authorities, the shooter was a 20 year old man. They haven't released his name, or any other information about him, but officials did confirm that he is dead. Now, investigators are looking at social media posts from as early as last night trying to figure out more about the shooter, and what motivated him to kill. More from CNN:
According to the source close to the investigation, authorities are looking at social media posts between a person they believe may have been the shooter, and others. The conversation happened Wednesday night on 4chan. In it, the writer talks about planning to carry out a shooting. Others egg him on, giving him suggestions on how to do it, and the type of weapons to use. The responses are mixed -- with some users characterizing the would-be gunman as a pathetic loser. Others called him a twisted hero. In the posts, there is a reference to the UC Santa Barbara shooter, who wrote a manifesto and videoed himself before opening fire a year ago. "This is the only time I'll ever be in the news. I'm so insignificant," reads an apparent post by the would-be Oregon gunman.
During a press conference, President Obama seized the opportunity to initiate another outright push for more gun control legislation, saying, "somehow, this has become routine." Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on October 01, 2015 8 Comments
A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll shows that Hillary Clinton's numbers have taken a dive since July, when she commanded 59% support for her nomination. This summer Bernie Sanders drew just 14% of the support of those polled, with an undeclared Joe Biden still raking in 8% support. Now, polling shows that Clinton's support has dropped almost 20 points to just 41% of likely Democratic primary voters. Sanders and Biden, meanwhile, have gained ground, earning 23% and 20%, respectively. She's still in the lead, but the field is spreading out---which could mean bad news for the left's presumptive nominee. More from The Hill:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 01, 2015 32 Comments
Facing pressure from activists, Grocer Whole Foods recently announced that by April of 2016 they'll no longer been selling products made from prison labor. Not only is the Texan grocer's move disappointing, it's also misguided. According to NPR, the groups targeting Whole Foods decried prison labor as "slave labor" and "exploitation."
The move comes on the heels of a demonstration in Houston where the company was chastised for employing inmates through prison-work programs. Michael Allen, founder of End Mass Incarceration Houston, organized the protest. He says Whole Foods was engaging in exploitation since inmates are typically paid very low wages. "People are incarcerated and then forced to work for pennies on the dollar — compare that to what the products are sold for," Allen tells The Salt. Currently, Whole Foods sells a goat cheese produced by Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy in Longmont, Colo., and a tilapia from Quixotic Farming, which bills itself as a family-owned sustainable seafood company. These companies partner with Colorado Correctional Industries, a division of the Colorado Department of Corrections, to employ prisoners to milk goats and raise the fish."
Exploiting inmates? What about providing them with trade skills, social skills, or teaching work ethic and purpose? That's exactly what Colorado Correctional Industries does. "Every participant is not only encouraged, but expected to contribute ideas, effort and commitment," says CCI.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2015 20 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the U.N. General Assembly today. It was a powerful speech -- one of, if not his best. The full speech is at the bottom of the post. The full text is here. Here are some highlights. Too bad neither John Kerry nor Amb. Samantha Power were present to hear it, and as a show of solidarity. Netanyahu had a powerful 45 seconds of silence shaming the U.N. for its silence on Iran's threats to destroy Israel. In the face of repeated Iranian threats and U.N. anti-Israel resolutions, Netanyahu declared "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 01, 2015 3 Comments
FrackNation director Phelim McAleer released a short film Wednesday ahead of Josh Fox's new film, GASWORK. Known for his film, Gasland, GASWORK is a short, fictional film that supposedly, “investigates the dangerous working conditions in the oil and gas fields.” McAleer's short is here:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 01, 2015 29 Comments
As President Obama told the UN General Assembly that the principle of "might is right" was not the answer to the world's problems and then went on raising a toast to President Putin at a luncheon on Wednesday, September 28, Russian Armed forces where busy installing long-range air-defenses, claiming air superiority over area well beyond Syrian air space, denying access to US and NATO already conducting airstrikes against ISIS positions. Jerusalem Post quoted NATO's top commander, General Philip Breedlove saying Russia’s move to deny access to US and NATO forces in the Eastern Mediterranean was a "a growing problem." Russia’s first airstrike targeted non-ISIS Syria rebels rather than the dreaded Islamic State. BBC reports:
[Russia] launched air strikes in Syria for a second day. [Russian air-]strikes reportedly targeted positions in the north-west held by the Army of Conquest rebel alliance. Russia said it had struck four Islamic State (IS) facilities overnight, and destroyed a "terrorist HQ" outside Idlib and a command post near Hama. (…) Russia carried out about 20 missions on Wednesday. The US fears they targeted non-IS opponents of Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Obama administration's response was prompt and swift, issuing a 'strong statement' reminding Russia that by resorting to violence, it was 'throwing gasoline on fire.' Only thing those generals on Kremlin fear more, is a sternly worded letter from John Kerry.

Posted by New Neo on October 01, 2015 35 Comments
Is this the wave of the future?:
Central bank policymakers had believed they had run out of room to support their respective economies, with their interest rates held close to the floor. ...Cut rates too deeply, [they thought], and savers would end up facing negative returns. In that case, this could encourage people to take their savings out of the bank and hoard them in cash... [But as] central bank rates have turned negative, the rates offered on bank deposits have followed. Yet rather than stuffing cash under mattresses, people have left their money in the bank or spent it.
This is already happening in Sweden. One of my first thoughts on reading that people are not pulling their money out of the banks was that perhaps the Swedes are just used to the habit of banking and don't quite know where else to put their money. After all, a few hundred thousand kronor would be hard to stuff under a mattress, and perhaps anxiety-provoking. And it is true that Sweden already has a very high savings rate.
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