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July 2016

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 05, 2016 5 Comments
A family found a letter from Thomas Jefferson from 1815 to the U.S. Ambassador to France about the victory in the War of 1812:
“As in the Revolutionary War, [the British] conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot,” Jefferson wrote in the letter, penned at his Monticello home on Valentine's Day, 1815. "We owe to their past follies and wrong the incalculable advantage of being made independent of them. . . ”

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 05, 2016 12 Comments
The Swedish police face over 40 reports of rape and sexual assault at two music festivals over the weekend in Karlstad and Norrköping. The police have identified seven suspects described as "foreign young men." The victims are mostly under 18-years-old with three under 15. The youngest victim is only 12-years-old.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 05, 2016 81 Comments
Despite describing Hillary's email debacle as "completely careless," the FBI announced earlier today it would not recommend prosecution. Professor Jacobson covered the decision in more detail here. Surprising? Not really. Maddening? Hell yes it is. Responses across the political spectrum are trickling in and Speaker Ryan minced no words, rejecting Clinton's "pattern of dishonesty and poor judgement":

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 05, 2016 14 Comments
An armed citizen in Tennessee ended a hostage/robbery with a single deadly shot. The would-be robber entered a corner store, wielding a large blade. After stealing the contents of the cash register, he took a female clerk hostage on his way out the door. A customer ran to his vehicle, grabbed his gun, and shot the perpetrator in the chest once, killing him. The hostage was unscathed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 05, 2016 127 Comments
FBI Director James Comey gave an on-camera press statement today from FBI headquarters, and is taking questions from reporters off camera. Despite finding serious problems and carelessness in handling classified information, rejecting claims that such information must be "marked" classified, and likelihood of foreign hacking, Comey says no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case because no bad intent. Somewhere, David Petreaus and dozens of others prosecuted in the past are crying. Legal Insurrection readers called it: https://legalinsurrection.com/2016/07/will-fbi-recommend-prosecuting-hillary-reader-poll/ (Full Text of Comey Statement at bottom of post)

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on July 05, 2016 9 Comments
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Chicago Mayor and long-time Obama confidant Rahm Emanuel once said. Despite being rejected by the UK voters in the last month’s referendum, top bureaucrats running the European Union want to do precisely that. Since Brexit results, they have unveiled plans to build an EU Army, expand the entitlement programmes, and boldest of all -- calls to create a unified EU Government, a pan-European Superstate. What was once confined to the realm of myth and conspiracy theory, is now being proposed from the helm of the EU. On the day of the Brexit result, President of EU Parliament Martin Schluz and German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel published a detailed proposal calling for reconstituting the EU into a European Government. Both Gabriel and Schulz are leading members of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) that is currently in a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). Having tied its lot to Merkel’s policy of open borders, SPD’s poll numbers have hit a historic low. The proposal co-published by two of the Europe’s most powerful politicians wants to wrest remaining economic powers away from the national governments, creating an ‘Economic Schengen’ zone.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 05, 2016 34 Comments
The Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter was recently invited to participate in the city's gay pride parade. At one point, the Black Lives Matter members stopped and sat down on the street halting the entire procession. Then they started issuing demands. Global News reports:
Black Lives Matter gets police kicked out of future Pride parades say co-founders Sunday’s Pride parade was historic for the city in many ways. It was the first time a sitting Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, marched alongside thousands of members of the LGBTQ community and its allies. It was also the first time Black Lives Matter Toronto did the same, leading a passionate procession down Bloor and Yonge Streets.

Posted by Miriam Elman on July 04, 2016 6 Comments
Over the last few weeks, hundreds of thousands of devout Muslims were guaranteed unfettered access to their holy spaces on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount—the most sacred site in Judaism. Throughout the holy month of Ramadan, which concludes on July 5, additional units of Israel’s National Police were mobilized to ensure that worshippers could safely pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site for Islam.

Protection of Muslim Worshippers

https://twitter.com/ambassadorlenk/status/747704636342149121

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 04, 2016 7 Comments
Thomas Jefferson rightly receives the lionshare of credit for writing the Declaration of Independence, though he wasn't the only founder who had a hand in its creation. Following the introduction and debate of Richard Henry Lee's resolution to dissolve ties with Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five -- John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson -- to write the Declaration during the Congressional recess. Later, Jefferson wrote of the Committee:
"unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught [sic]. I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams requesting their corrections. . . I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered to the Congress."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 04, 2016 23 Comments
We reported recently on the murder of 13-year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel while she slept in her bed, 13-year old Israeli girl stabbed to death in bed by 17-year old Arab terrorist. Hallel Ariel 13 year old Israeli girl stabbed to death with family The funeral was heartbreaking. You don't need a translation as Hallel's mother spoke at her funeral:
Sobbing, Rena Ariel caressed the blue shroud-covered body of her daughter Hallel Yaffa, 13, before uttering her final parting words to the girl who had been a brilliant student and who loved to dance.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 04, 2016 14 Comments
I have been following the antics of "AG's United for Clean Power," a group of Democratic states attorneys general spearheaded by former Vice President Al Gore, who are threatening Big Oil and climate change skeptics with racketeering statutes. Despite scholarly reminders of this tactics' obvious constitutional abuses and outcries from proponents of First Amendment rights and sound science, the Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee is keen to adopt the approach.
The committee unanimously adopted a “joint proposal calling on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change.” I.e., it wants to criminalize courageous people who still believe it’s okay to think independently, at least about allegedly dangerous manmade global warming.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 04, 2016 20 Comments
While traveling back home from a conference in Atlanta, I had a chance to read the new book Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate by Gary Byrne. Byrne's book is a gripping read, as he conveys his personal history to join the Secret Service, his time at the White House, and his decision to join the Federal Air Marshals Service. However, it is not an easy read, as it is difficult to learn of how the Clintons and other elite politicos disdainfully treated patriotic Americans such a Byrne, who want only to serve their country.

Posted by Anne in Petah Tikva on July 04, 2016 5 Comments
Today is the 4th of July and besides being the 240th birthday of America... (Mazal Tov! You've already doubled the usual wish of "until 120" ) ...it is also the 40th anniversary of an equally auspicious day - the miraculous rescue by IDF special forces of over 100 Jewish hostages held by German and Palestinian terrorists in Entebbe, after their Air France airplane was hijacked on its way from France to Tel Aviv.

Posted by David Gerstman on July 04, 2016 10 Comments
Numerous news reports have covered the Navy's report on the capture of ten U.S. sailors in January by Iran, notably the Navy's decision to discipline nine officers and sailors over the incident. But the media buried a bigger part of the incident in the Navy's report. Here's Politico, quoting from Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson:
Richardson said a number of serious mistakes contributed to the sailors’ capture, but he reiterated they broke no international laws and “had every right to be where they were on that day” because the laws of the sea allow for what’s called innocent passage. “The investigation concluded that Iran violated international law by impeding the boats’ innocent passage transit. They violated sovereign immunity by boarding, searching and seizing the boats and by photographing and videotaping the crew,” Richardson said.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 03, 2016 84 Comments
So much speculation lately. From Loretta Lynch's impromptu, it-just-happened, guess-who-I-bumped-into private sit down with Bill Clinton, her saying she's staying out of it but maybe not, to Hillary's interview with the FBI, to supposed leaks by "sources" in both directions. The QUESTION IS NOT whether you want the FBI to recommend Hillary be prosecuted. The QUESTION IS whether you think the FBI will recommend Hillary be prosecuted.

Get it? The Reader Poll question is not what you want to happen, but what you think will happen.

It's Yes or No. A time for choosing. No "undecided" allowed. Make a choice, the FBI has to.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 03, 2016 8 Comments
The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for a massive bomb that killed over 120 in Baghdad, their third attack in three countries in a week. The bomb exploded after midnight in Karrada, a neighborhood filled with shops and restaurants filled with people making plans before the end of Ramadan. The dead included 25 children and 10 women. Officials have said many people are still missing.
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