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January 2016

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 15, 2016 2 Comments
I'm not sure who thought "al Jazeera America" would be a good idea in the first place, but as many of us predicted, the network which began in 2013 just didn't catch on. In a sense it was doomed from the start because it began when its media group—al Jazeera Media Group owned by the Qatari government—bought Al Gore's embarrassingly unsuccessful Current TV.  Al Jazeera America also suffered a decided lack of enthusiasm in the American market. The ratings problem was so marked that when al Jazeera America managed to twice beat out MSNBC for two daytime hours, it was noteworthy and quite remarkable given how abysmal MSNBC's own numbers are.  As late as November of last year, al Jazeera was reorganizing and desirous of changing the network's image. Variety reported at the time:
The new chief of Al Jazeera America says the early-stage cable-news network is moving forward after a rocky launch that left the staff demoralized and prompted speculation that the Qatar-backed outlet might abandon its efforts to plant a flag in the United States. “There is a clear picture of where we are going to go,” said Al Anstey, who was named chief executive of the cable network in May. After supervising the operations of Al Jazeera English, Anstey replaced Ehab Al Shihabi, whose tenure overseeing the network was marked by the departures of some senior executives and a $15 million lawsuit from a former employee alleging that a senior executive was hostile to women and made remarks that could be construed as anti-Semitic.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 14, 2016 137 Comments

Big Picture

Tonight's GOP debate was Ted Cruz's night. He went right after Donald Trump multiple times, but in a way that came across as forceful and informed, but not nasty. He also fended off a pretty vigorous attack from Marco Rubio. His strongest points came early and against Trump, when the audience would be the largest. Trump was runner-up. He had a good moment on Cruz's slam on "NY Values," but I'm not sure how defending NY values plays outside NY. His performance will confirm pre-existing views of him. Rubio had an okay night, not great, not horrible. Maneuvered the immigration issue into one of national security -- in other words Gang of 8 was then, this is now. Landed some punches on Cruz at the end. Christie may have raised his profile as the acceptable establishment candidate, as Jeb again failed to impress, and Kasich was Kasich. At least Christie showed some fight. Biggest loser -- Ben Carson. Didn't seem to be in the game at many levels.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 14, 2016 16 Comments
Welcome to our live coverage of the GOP presidential primary debate. The main stage debate begins at 9:00 EST. The debate will last two hours and will be moderated by FBN Managing Editor of Business News Neil Cavuto and FBN Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo. The prime time debate will include:
  • Donald Trump
  • Sen. Ted Cruz
  • Sen. Marco Rubio
  • Dr. Ben Carson
  • Gov. Jeb Bush
  • Gov. Chris Christie
  • Gov. John Kasich

How to watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 14, 2016 12 Comments
Earlier today, the Washington Post compared Hillary's poll numbers from her presidential run in 2008 to data from the current election. The results? Bad news for Mrs. Clinton and her supporters. Philip Bump writes at WaPo:
If we compare where Clinton is now in the Real Clear Politics polling average, the 2016 picture and the 2008 picture aren't really all that similar. Nationally, she was doing much better in 2008 than she is right now, perhaps in part because the anti-Clinton vote in 2008 was still split between two people -- Barack Obama and John Edwards -- instead of just one. But that recent trend line, a function of two new national polls that were close after a bit of a lull, is not very good news.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 14, 2016 14 Comments
Thursday, Planned Parenthood filed suit against pro-life undercover video makers, Center for Medical Progress or CMP. CMP released a series of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors and managers from around the country haggling over the price of aborted baby parts. Reuter's reports:
The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco against anti-abortion group the Center for Medical Progress alleges conspiracy and fraud among other violations in connection with the recordings. The videos, which were released in July, sparked widespread controversy by purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to negotiate prices for aborted fetal tissue.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 14, 2016 28 Comments
Chelsea Clinton is a highly successful person, for reasons entirely related to the circumstances of her birth, not her qualifications or personal accomplishments. The sweetheart deal she received at NBC came to epitomize the crony political capitalism her parents so effectively turned into a megafortune, as this August 29, 2014, NY Times report reflected:
Ms. Clinton, who is vice chairwoman of the philanthropic organization her father founded, made an annual salary of $600,000 at NBC, according to Politico. She remains on the board of IAC/InterActiveCorp, the digital media company overseen by Barry Diller, a longtime Clinton supporter. In 2011, that position paid an annual retainer of $50,000 and a $250,000 grant of restricted stock.
When Chelsea was the child in The White House, and even after that when she was a private person, she was entitled to privacy and freedom from political attack so long as her political role was limited to trying to make her mother seem human to a skeptical public.

Posted by David Gerstman on January 14, 2016 14 Comments
With the news that Iran has seized two American boats and detained 10 American sailors in the Persian Gulf just ahead of the State of the Union earlier this week, I'd like to go back to something that President Barack Obama said a little more than a year ago. Even though the sailors have been released, albeit under humiliating circumstances, the real story here, which the media is generally ignoring, is that they were taken prisoner in the first place. At the end of 2014, Obama gave an interview to Steve Inskeep of NPR. When explaining his rationale for the nuclear deal this is what Obama said:
So, when I came into office, the world was divided and Iran was in the driver's seat. Now the world's united because of the actions we've taken, and Iran's the one that's isolated.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 14, 2016 7 Comments
The trend for the BDS movement is to make demonization of Israel the center of the progressive universe through the theory of "intersectionality." Israel is placed at the center of all evil in the world, the unifying focus regardless of the issue:
Every real or perceived problem is either blamed on or connected to Israel. The concerted effort to turn the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-Israel movement has at its core the claim that Israel is the root of problems of non-whites in the United States. Thus, if a police chief somewhere attended a one-week anti-terrorism seminar in Israel years ago, every act of brutality by a cop on the beat is blamed on Israel. So too, Students for Justice in Palestine protesters in New York City even blamed high tuition on Zionists, leading to rebukes by administrators against such thinly-veiled anti-Semitism. The Jew once again is made the source of all evil, the conspiratorial puppet-master controlling all and responsible for all. And Israel alone receives such treatment and is used as the link to connect all injustices in the world.
This anti-Semitic use of "intersectionality" theory flourishes because a generation of students -- many of whom now are faculty -- have been schooled based on lies about the creation of Israel and the Arab refugees created in the civil war and invasion by Arab armies. In that false narrative, the Jews are wholly evil and the Arabs are wholly innocent.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 14, 2016 47 Comments
Bernie Sanders' "Democrat socialist" policies sound good and have a lot of popular support among certain demographics, but when pressed on how he would pay for all the free stuff he's promising, he's a bit nonplussed.  Pesky details like that just don't interest him; it's all about the utopian ideal in his dreamy little head, not about reality. For example, although he pledged to release his plan for paying for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, he's now decided that might be a mistake and is considering breaking that particular pledge. CNN reports:

Bernie Sanders could break his pledge to release details on how he would pay for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, according to a top aide.

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 14, 2016 19 Comments
There is another Republican debate tonight and Jeb Bush will participate despite his lagging campaign and poll numbers. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Bush at 4.7 percent. Jeb's message never caught on despite plenty of media attention and financial backing. It didn't help that he is an establishment candidate or that he's viewed by many as a legacy candidate like Hillary Clinton. Bush has tried to jump start his campaign by attacking Donald Trump numerous times but that has backfired and worked in Trump's favor. It might be time for the governor to call it quits. Perhaps the most telling reason is this photo from a Bush rally last night:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 13, 2016 78 Comments
It must be old campaign oppo dump day in America. Earlier today, an old, deceptively edited campaign ad from Marco Rubio's Senate run floated to the surface of the internet. This evening, the New York Times thinks they have a hot scoop with a story about Ted Cruz's Goldman Sachs loans. The New York Times is about four years late to the "exclusive" party though. Cruz's Goldman Sachs loans are old news. According to their 2012 personal filings, the Cruz's took loans from both Goldman Sachs and Citibank. His wife, Heidi Cruz, works for Goldman Sachs, but is currently on leave. These loans were not, however, disclosed in the FEC filings for Cruz's campaign, Ted Cruz for Senate Committee. First, the NYT story:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 13, 2016 24 Comments
What better way to start the new year than a little "audacious" executive action? White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, "we’ll do audacious executive action throughout the course of the rest of the year, I am confident of that." The Hill has the story:
The comments are a clear sign the president will continue his go-it-alone approach, which has angered Republicans in Congress.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 13, 2016 11 Comments
Tuesday, The Hill reported the State Department will sift through and release emails of top Hillary Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. 29,000 pages of Adedin's emails will be scrutinized by the State Department for monthly release over the next 14 months. At least 400 pages per month (should they meet certain requirements) will be published in a similar fashion as Hillary Clinton's. From The Hill:
The State Department has agreed to comb through 29,000 pages of emails from a top aide to Hillary Clinton and release batches of those emails every month.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 13, 2016 25 Comments
Wednesday morning, an abbreviated interview from Marco Rubio's time as Speaker of Florida's House mysteriously surfaced and began bouncing its merry way through the political corners of the internet. Judging solely on the content of the 2008 clip (which cuts off Rubio mid-sentence) the viewer is led to believe that way back in the day, Rubio advocated for carbon taxes and cap and trade. Basically, Al Gore, Jr. First the clip: It concludes with Rubio saying, "I am in favor of giving the Department of Environmental Protection a mandate that they go out and design a cap and trade or a carbon tax program, and bring it back to the legislature for ratification some time in the next..." and that's where we're left hanging. There's just one teency weency problem though -- that's not what Rubio said, at least not entirely.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on January 13, 2016 8 Comments
The US State Department is criticizing Israel's proposed "Transparency Law," suggesting that Israelis should not know when foreign governments are influencing their domestic politics. If enacted, the current version of the Transparency Law would deem an Israeli Non-Governmental Organization ("NGO") a foreign agent if it receives more than 50% of its budget from foreign government sources.  The NGO would then be required to disclose that it is a foreign agent in publications and political tracts, and to disclose foreign donors. The impetus behind the Transparency Law is Israel's increasingly hostile NGO community, such NGO's propaganda value to Israel's enemies, and their overwhelmingly non-Israeli financing.  Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan University and NGO Monitor has explained the problem:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 13, 2016 54 Comments
Every confrontation with Iran has a phase which is much more important to the Iranians than the physical outcome. It's the humiliation phase, in which the Iranians get to exploit photos and video showing their opponents as weak and the Iranians as strong. We saw it throughout the U.S. Embassy hostage drama in 1979-1980, in which the hostages were paraded in front of the cameras and crowds. Iran Hostage Crisis The 10 U.S. sailors were released earlier today after Iran seized two small U.S. Navy boats yesterday. Iran demanded an apology and is claiming it got one, though the U.S. denies that. There is no doubt, however, that the pathetic and delusional John Kerry openly thanked the Iranians:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday thanked Iran for its cooperation in the release of 10 sailors who had mistakenly entered Iran's territorial waters, an incident that stoked international tension.
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