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January 2016

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 28, 2016 25 Comments
I have been enjoying Legal Insurrection's "Conservative Case For" series very much, with posts highlighting Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And while I can't really make the conservative case for any of the current crop of Democratic nominees, I thought this might be a golden opportunity to share a deep concern I have as an independent conservative who is a registered Democrat in California. I also hope to provide some insights into the Democratic Party primary race, which has been extremely contentious. My worry stems from the 2008 race. Many Republicans were thrilled when Obama became Democratic Party's nominee, theorizing he would easily be vanquished by the GOP candidate. Interestingly, conservative pundit extraordinaire Don Surber reminded everyone recently that National Review actually begged Obama to run.

Posted by A.F. Branco on January 28, 2016 13 Comments

Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. For more A.F.Branco cartoons at Legal Insurrection click here...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2016 112 Comments
Enough has been written about how Donald Trump is breaking or rewriting or ignoring all the rules. Or operating in 3 dimensions while everyone else is operating in 2 dimensions. I see something in Trump, though, that is very familiar to me. It's the concept of creating chaos in your opponent's house as a revolutionary tactic.  Or to put it another way, being a disrupter. The now deceased Abbie Hoffman and Trump seemingly have little in common. While Hoffman rejected capitalism Trump embraces it. Yet they both employed the same tactic. Hoffman tried to create chaos in the economic system, but never really succeeded. Trump has succeeded in creating utter chaos in everyone else's house (Republican Party, Fox News, other candidates, basically anyone who crosses his path).   That's only half the equation, though. It's not just enough to create chaos in others. The second part is to create community within your own house. Hoffman never was good at that; in business Trump has been good at building his own house. I first wrote about this just after Obama took office, using a passage from Hoffman's book, Steal This Book. (Text here) Here's my post, from February 9, 2009, “Steal This Country”:

Posted by edgeofthesandbox on January 27, 2016 11 Comments
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we revisit the story of Anatoly Shapiro. Major Anatoly Shapiro was a Jewish officer in the Red Army who led his troupes to liberate Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945.  He enlisted in the Red Army at the onset of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, was wounded in Kursk in 1943, but it's what he saw 71 years ago at Auschwitz that left the most indelible mark. Shapiro recalled additional details of the day of the liberation in this remarkable interview given shortly before his death in 2005 at the age of 94 to an Israeli radio host Tovia Singer.  This was during the second intifada, and Shapiro spoke to that too:

Posted by Taryn O'Neill on January 27, 2016 10 Comments
A security breach discovered at a California-based software and hardware company has many officials worried, including U.S. Congressman Will Hurd of Texas. Rep. Hurd expressed his concerns over the breach in a Wall Street Journal op-ed explaining that foreign hackers may "have been reading the encrypted communications of U.S. government agencies for the past three years." Juniper Networks provides network equipment and routers to the U.S. government that are believed to be used by the Defense Department, FBI, Justice Department, and Treasury Department.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2016 20 Comments
Hillary has an honesty perception problem, and everyone knows it. That problem surfaced at the CNN Democratic Town Hall the other night, when a young man in the audience questioned Hillary about it: Hey, remember when speaking truth to power was a supposedly liberal ideal? Not in 2016 America. To Joan Walsh, well-known liberal writer and agitator formerly for Salon now for The Nation, the young man's question was pretty impertinent. Particularly since he's male and white. And young. (Admirably, Walsh does disclose that her own daughter works for Clinton.) In an ode to Hillary, Walsh writes, Why I’m Supporting Hillary Clinton, With Joy and Without Apologies (italics in original):

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 27, 2016 18 Comments
For the first time ever, primary voters will be required to furnish identification before voting in New Hampshire's primary elections February 9. First implemented in New Hampshire's 2012 general election cycle, the goal is to crack down on voter fraud.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 27, 2016 11 Comments
"Getting rid of Assad" often comes up as a throw away line in political discourse, particularly during Republican presidential debates. Overthrowing or replacing Bashar al Assad would be easy enough, the U.S. has deposed and replaced plenty of tyrants in its day, but seldom does anyone discuss what would happen in this fictions scenario after Assad gets the boot. Danielle Pletka, Senior Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at AEI explains:

Part 1:

Explore the five groups that could have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in their crosshairs.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 27, 2016 7 Comments
Early in December, the first news I had of the San Bernardino terror attack was Facebook inquiries as to whether I was alright. Today, Facebook friends were asking me about another attack that seemed to be occurring a mere mile from where I often work. Fortunately, it was a false alarm:
Reports of an active shooter at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) Tuesday morning led to a lengthy lockdown of the military facility, but U.S. Navy officials confirmed no gunman was found and no injuries were reported. NMCSD was placed on lockdown just after 8 a.m. and people inside were ordered to shelter in place after an unidentifed Department of Defense employee reported hearing three shots fired in the basement of Building 26, which houses a gym and barracks, according to the Navy.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2016 12 Comments
This is one of the more unusual campaign closing statements. Mike Huckabee in the past has had the pulse of Iowa. But he's been relegated to the undercard debates recently. So here is a rather "interesting" closing video. It focuses more on the Democrats than his Republican competitors. [Apparently singer Adele objected to the use of her song, even though sung by someone else, so the ad was taken down.] What gives?

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 27, 2016 91 Comments
Ted Cruz is intelligent, articulate, and well-prepared to defend and protect the Constitution as the next president of the United States.  He entered the national spotlight during his contentious 2012 run for the Senate, but it's worth taking a look at his resume because it highlights long-standing and staunch support of conservative principles.

Conservative Credentials: Pre-Senate Life and Career

Prior to winning that senate seat with conservative grassroots and TEA Party support and becoming the first Hispanic to serve as a senator from Texas, Cruz was also the first Hispanic—and the longest-serving person in Texas history—to hold the office of Solicitor General of Texas. Cruz joined the George W. Bush campaign in 1999 as a domestic policy adviser and advised then-candidate and Governor Bush on a wide range of policy and legal matters, including civil justice, criminal justice, constitutional law, immigration, and government reform. During the Bush administration, Cruz served as associate deputy attorney general at the DOJ and as a policy adviser on the Federal Trade Commission.  While at the FTC, Cruz was an avid free-market crusader—an extension of his high school participation in the Houston-based Free Market Education Foundation, a program Cruz entered at the age of 13.

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 27, 2016 34 Comments
At a town hall event in Iowa this week, Hillary Clinton was asked by a supporter if she would consider appointing Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court if she becomes president. She thought it was a great idea. ABC News reports:
Hillary Clinton Would Consider Appointing President Obama to Supreme Court A second Clinton administration could mean a future Justice Barack Obama. At a campaign event in Deocorah, Iowa on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton lit up when a voter asked her if she would consider appointing the president to the Supreme Court should she win the White House. "Wow, what a great idea. No one has ever suggested that to me, I love that, wow," the Democratic presidential candidate responded. "He may have a few other things to do but I tell you that's a great idea."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 26, 2016 166 Comments
The dispute between Donald Trump and Fox News has escalated rapidly today. It went from Trump was thinking about refusing to appear, to Trump likely not appearing, to the campaign saying Trump "definitely" would not appear. Megyn Kelly, the focus of Trump's ire, just announced on her show that Trump is out based on conversations Carl Cameron had with the Trump campaign. The Trump campaign apparently has released a statement to that effect. Trump Statement Fox News Debate (added) Fox News issued the following statement:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 26, 2016 26 Comments
While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had many well-known speeches and quotes, I think it's fair to say that his "I Have a Dream" speech is his most famous. And in that most famous speech, the following line may be the most famous:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
In a campus world of affirmative action based in part on the color of one's skin, and a hyper-sensitive microaggression mania, I've wondered how long it would take for Dr. King's most famous line to be repudiated. There is an irreconcilable tension between Dr.King's call to not base the evaluation of people on the color of their skin, and the modern progressive demand that skin color (and other immutable characteristics) be a central focus of everything.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 26, 2016 58 Comments
UPDATE - Everything changed in the three hours since this post. Trump campaign says he’s out of Fox News Debate (Reader Poll) Fox News just announced its stage line up for the debate Thursday night. Donald Trump is center stage. Fox News Debate 1-28-2016 Line Up Donald Trump is upset that Megyn Kelly is one of the moderators of Thursday's Fox News debate. Trump has been complaining for days, demanding she be removed. Fox News just said No. Now Trump is upping the ante, posting this Instagram video complaining of Kelly's bias:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 26, 2016 12 Comments
A subcommittee of Portland Community College's Cascade Campus Diversity Council has declared April 2016 Whiteness History Month. They hope to, "inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism." According to Oregon Live, Whiteness History Month is the brainchild of PCC faculty and staff. Different from other heritage months, Whiteness History Month is not a celebration though. It's all about social constructs, racism, and multiculturalism. Or something:
The Project seeks to challenge the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness. Challenging the master narrative of traditional curriculum is a strategy within higher education that promotes multicultural education and equity.
The event's Statement of Purpose could've been penned by Rachel Dolezal. "Whiteness is a state of consciousness," and not about the color of skin, they contend. Skin color? That's just plain ol' "white."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 26, 2016 14 Comments
The same minds that brought you Ted Cruz's machine gun bacon, Lindsey Graham experimenting with the best ways to destroy a cell phone after Donald Trump gave his phone number to a raucous crowd, and Ann Romney's tips for on being a freakin' awesome grandma, bring you "How To Get Revenge with a Football" by Marco Rubio. Cameos include Sen. Cory Gardner, CNN Commentator S.E. Cupp, Rep. Trey Gowdy, Dr. Ben Carson, WMAL's Larry O'Connor, and more.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 26, 2016 15 Comments
One of the most interesting (maybe the only interesting) part of last night's Democratic candidate "town hall" forum was when a young questioner said his friends think Hillary is dishonest. Hillary's answer is irrelevant. Media spin that this shows her strength of durability is nonsense. The questioner reflected a growing public perception that Hillary is corrupt and dishonest, as reflected in this word cloud based on Quinnipiac word-association polling in August 2015. The three most common words used to describe Clinton? “Liar,” “dishonest,” and “untrustworthy.”
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