Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

May 2016

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 25, 2016 22 Comments
Katie Couric's documentary Under the Gun edited out remarks by a guns rights group to make them look unprepared for a simple question. Couric sat down with the Virginia Citizens Defense League and asked them, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?” The clip shows the members sitting silently for around nine seconds, but audio provided to the Washington Free Beacon's Stephen Gutowski shows the group provided an answer.

Posted by David Gerstman on May 25, 2016 6 Comments
How's the Iran nuclear deal working out? I'm not asking the broader foreign policy question that Tom Nichols just addressed, but how is the nuclear aspect of the deal by itself working out? According to Jonathan Broder of Newsweek, the deal is unraveling. And it is the fault of the United States.
Probably the biggest source of friction is a U.S. law that bars Iran from using the U.S. financial system and the American dollar, even indirectly. The law, enacted in 2012, was aimed at punishing Iran for a variety of alleged sins: the country’s ballistic missile program, human rights abuses and state-sponsored terrorism. Because these issues haven’t been resolved, there is virtually no chance Congress would repeal the law in the foreseeable future, experts say. As long as that statute remains in place, foreign banks holding Iran’s funds in dollars will be wary of doing business with the country.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 25, 2016 2 Comments
The Kremlin has officially pardoned Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko after two years of imprisonment and a farce trial in exchange for two Russia Special Forces servicemen. The Ukrainian and Russian governments did not offer any details about the exchange. But journalists in Ukraine "noted that a Ukrainian presidential aircraft had flown to the airport of Rostov-on-Don, a southern Russian city close to the Ukrainian border." It came back at 3PM local time with Savchenko on board.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 25, 2016 4 Comments
The official Palestinian Authority television celebrated the death of U.S. tourist Taylor Force, calling his murderer a martyr 11 times in the broadcast. From the report:
Official PA TV newsreader: "In Qalqilya, hundreds of citizens accompanied the body of Martyr Bashar Masalha [to his burial]..." Official PA TV reporter: "After delays by Israel in the transfer of his body, Martyr Bashar Masalha’s family, from the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya, received their son in the evening... The Martyr Bashar returned from Qalqilya to his village Hajja in a procession... His family, friends, and people of the region took it upon themselves to ensure that this [burial] would be a large national wedding (i.e., to the 72 Virgins in Paradise) befitting of Martyrs... The Martyr was accompanied to his last resting place in the cemetery for Martyrs in Hajja..."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 25, 2016 14 Comments
If you've been following this election cycle, you're well aware that our current presidential primary/caucus setup is bunk. It's weird. It's complicated. It's arbitrary. And it's far more confusing than it ought to be. HBO's John Oliver also noticed the "erratic clusterf*ck" that makes up our modern presidential primaries. No, it's not suitable for work, but it is pretty darn funny:

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 25, 2016 25 Comments
The inspector general at the State Department says Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton broke federal email rules when she used a private server while she served as secretary of state. NBC News reports::
"At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department issues before leaving government service," says an audit by the State Department Inspector General, obtained by NBC News. "Because she did not do so, she did not comply with the [State] Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 25, 2016 10 Comments
D.C. Democrats are discussing Debbie Wasserman Shultz's fate as DNC Chairwoman. The Hill reported Tuesday that Wasserman Schultz may be fired as DNC Chair before the national convention in July.
Democrats backing likely presidential nominee Hillary Clinton worry Wasserman Schultz has become too divisive a figure to unify the party in 2016, which they say is crucial to defeating presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in November.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 25, 2016 11 Comments
The last time we checked the regulatory runoff from the Animas River spill, a 132-page report by the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation laid the blame for the contamination at the doorstep of the Environmental Protection Agency. Now, the legal runoff is about to hit.
New Mexico is seeking more than $136 million from the Environmental Protection Agency and the owners of Colorado’s Gold King Mine, noting that dangers from contaminants spewed into the Animas River by the Aug. 5 mine spill are still lurking in New Mexico waters. In a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court, Attorney General Hector Balderas and the New Mexico Environment Department cite economic setbacks and environmental damage suffered by the state after more than 3 million gallons of toxic waste was dumped into the river. It demands reimbursement of $889,327 for short-term emergency-response costs paid by the state, more than $6 million to pay for long-term monitoring of the Animas and San Juan rivers and $130 million for lost income, taxes, fees and revenues suffered by the state because of the spill.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 25, 2016 9 Comments
Former Vice President Al Gore hasn't picked a horse in the 2016 race which wouldn't seem like a big deal if it weren't for the fact that he served with Hillary's husband for eight years. The New York Post reports:
Al Gore still won’t support Hillary Clinton Despite renewed pleas from Hillary Clinton’s desperate team that he endorse the former first lady, Al Gore on Monday again declined to support the Democratic front-runner.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 25, 2016 5 Comments
This past Sunday more than 1,500 people—along with dozens of members of the media and press—attended The Jerusalem Post’s 5th Annual Conference in New York City. The one-day event, themed “Israel, the U.S. and the Free World Facing Global Terror,” was held at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in the heart of Times Square and Manhattan’s theater district. JPost annual conference 2016 logo According to the pre-conference publicity, the annual conference—which in the past has proved to be “both newsworthy and dazzling”—was predicted to be the “best and biggest yet”. It was indeed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 24, 2016 29 Comments
Breitbart author/media personality Milo appeared at DePaul University tonight, and was met with a stage takeover and threats of violence. Breitbart News has the details:
Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at DePaul University had to be cut short Tuesday night after protesters stormed the stage, blew whistles, grabbed the microphone out of the interviewer’s hand, and threatened to punch Yiannopoulos in the face.
Our friend Rebel Pundit (aka Jeremy Segal), who is the husband of Legal Insurrection author Anne Sorock, was outside filming protesters.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 24, 2016 24 Comments
Ithaca, NY, loves it some Democratic Socialism of the Bernie Sanders type. Ithaca is the second Most Pro-Sanders Zip Code in the nation, just behind the Mission District of San Francisco. https://res.cloudinary.com/crowdpac/image/upload/v1/posts/sqxrdtsjkv8eqenihsjf.jpg Here are the directions to my house, circa November 2008:
To live in Ithaca is to live in a city alive with anti-Bush, anti-war protest.  I often joke that the directions to my house in Ithaca  read as follows:  Take a right at the fifth Obama sign, a left at the third “Impeach Bush” placard, bear right at the “Support Our Troops, End the War” poster, and we are the house just after the “There’s a Village in Texas Missing its Idiot” banner.
Ithaca really is "10 Sq. miles surrounded by reality"

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 24, 2016 10 Comments
Over the years I've chatted with many a woman who was ardently pro-abortion until 1) they became pregnant or 2) they learned what actually happens during an abortion procedure. Pro-life group, Live Action, is utilizing the latter scenario -- showing pro-choicers how babies are ripped to pieces during an abortion. Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, explains what happens during the most common type of second trimester abortion (13-24 weeks of pregnancy), dilation and evacuation (D&E). Live Action stopped men and women on the street to show them Dr. Levatino's account (he has a great story of his own), and not one of them left as resolutely pro-abortion as they were before seeing the video. Many changed their minds completely.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 24, 2016 10 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French Prime Minister Manuel Valls he wants to hold a one-on-one meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas instead of a multinational conference in Paris. Netanyahu thinks Abbas will use the conference as a way to ignore direct negotiations with Israel. France has scheduled the peace talks for the beginning of June without Israel or Palestinian Authority representatives. From The Times of Israel:
“The Palestinian Authority does not see the French initiative as an inducer for negotiations, but as a way to avoid them,” he said. Instead, Netanayhu said, he would be willing to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “in Paris or wherever,” and hold face-to-face negotiations without international mediation. “Every difficult issue will be on the table,” he said.
France plans to host another conference with Israel and Palestine in the autumn.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 24, 2016 34 Comments
Cleta Mitchell is a conservative activist who has been very vocal about the IRS scandal which involved the targeting of conservative Tea Party groups in the run-up to the 2012 election. She recently appeared on C-Span and an alleged IRS employee called into the show and explained to her that he would target these groups because they want to abolish the IRS. Ali Meyer reported at the Washington Free Beacon:
IRS Employee Admits He Would Go After, Target, and Try to End Conservative Groups A self-identified IRS employee admitted he would go after, target and try to end conservative groups who wanted to abolish the IRS, to Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing those groups, on a Washington Journal segment on C-SPAN.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 24, 2016 5 Comments
Terrorist group Hamas plans to conduct public executions in Gaza in an attempt to bring down crime. Ismail Jaber, the group's attorney general, said he wants them to "take place before a large crowd." Hamas has thirteen men waiting for their execution after the courts convicted them "of murder connected to robberies." Officials can seek the death penalty for "collaborators, murderers and drug traffickers." If Hamas conducts the executions, the numbers could push them past Saudi Arabia. The kingdom houses 31.5 million people and executed 153 in 2015. Hamas will commit more death penalties since they have a population on 1.8 million.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 24, 2016 9 Comments
Revolting details have come to light about Islamic State’s secret chemical weapons program. British newspaper The Telegraph reported that ISIS has been testing lethal chemical on humans, as well as setting up labs and moving chemical weapons stockpiles to residential areas of the Iraqi city of Mosul. The report claims that ISIS has been experimenting on captives held at a prison camp in Nineveh, Mosul. The residents near the prison have been reporting breathing difficulties and children were developing severe rashes -- side effects associated with chlorine and mustard gas. The residents of a former Christian neighbourhood in Mosul reported that ISIS moved their chemical labs after US airstrikes on the terrorist group's chemical facility at a local university. ISIS fighters moved in the locality with huge unmarked trucks and had been dumping dead dogs and rabbits in the nearby waste heap. The Telegraph corroborated the local eyewitness accounts with an ISIS informer who verified that animals dumped in the area had previously been tested with chemicals.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 24, 2016 11 Comments
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders predicts that the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia could be "messy" as he presses his progressive platform planks: "Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle." If the upcoming California primary is any indication, the Democratic Party could get messier far sooner. Both former President Bill Clinton and Sanders held rallies in the San Diego area this weekend. Sanders' first rally had at least 10,000 attendees.
MORE POSTS
Accessibility by WAH