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Author: Mike LaChance

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Mike LaChance

Mike LaChance has been covering higher education and politics for Legal Insurrection since 2012. He has also written for American Lookout, Townhall, and Twitchy.

Since 2008 he has contributed work to the Daily Caller, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, the Center for Security Policy, the Washington Free Beacon, and Ricochet.

Mike is a Generation X, New England lifer who describes his political views as conservative and libertarian.

You can find him on Twitter @MikeLaChance33

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 17, 2015 22 Comments
We interrupt your regular programming about Jeb Bush and Donald Trump to bring you this report about the Republican nomination for 2016. Scott Walker now leads the field. Jonathan Easley of The Hill:
Walker leads nationally in new poll Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads a tight field of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new survey from Public Policy Polling. Walker is alone in first place in the poll with 17 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 15 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) at 13 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 12 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 11 percent. That’s a big jump for Bush, who was at 11 percent support in the same poll last month. However, Bush will begin his quest for the GOP nomination with a negative favorability rating among Republicans, according to the poll. Only 37 percent said they have a positive view of Bush, against 40 percent who have a negative view. Bush is dragged down by those who identify as “very conservative,” with only 32 percent of those saying they have a positive view of Bush. Bush is the top choice among self-described “moderate” Republican primary voters.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 16, 2015 12 Comments
The race for 2016 has shifted the focus of the media and many Americans away from the IRS scandal, but a new development in the story has come to light. Over 6,000 Lois Lerner emails have been found but the IRS is stalling on sharing them. You'll never guess why. Gerri Willis of the FOX Business Network reports:
IRS Finds 6,400 Lois Lerner Emails But Won't Hand Em Over The Internal Revenue Service may have found 6,400 emails from Lois Lerner, who oversaw the tax agency’s Exempt Organizations Unit, but the government agency has no plans to share. Attorneys from the Department of Justice representing the IRS say the emails won’t be shared because the service is making sure that none of them are duplicates. Lerner is at the center of a scandal in which the tax agency denied special tax status to conservative groups. Her emails have been sought by members of Congress and conservative groups alike. One of those groups, Judicial Watch, has been seeking emails as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed two years ago. Originally, the IRS said the email trail was permanently lost because the computer drive that contained it crashed. However, the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration or TIGTA, was able to retrieve 6,400 emails which it has subsequently sent to the agency. It is these emails that the IRS wants to check for duplicates.
Watch the video report below.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 14, 2015 34 Comments
Jeb Bush is expected to announce his run for president tomorrow, and his team has already released their first video and are touting it as Bush introducing himself to the American people. The spot focuses on Bush's time as governor of Florida and hits specific notes on women, minorities, the disabled, education, and jobs. Take a look below, hat tip to The Shark Tank: We decided to use the campaign logo as the featured image of this post because there's been some buzz about it on Twitter.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 14, 2015 14 Comments
Bob Woodward appeared on CNN's State of the Union program with Jake Tapper today and claimed that one of Hillary's favorite sayings is "fake it until you make it." He also pointed out the fact that she has a trust deficit issue and that she hasn't been forthcoming enough with the emails from her time at the State Department. Here's more from Blake Seitz of the Washington Free Beacon:
Woodward: Clinton Email, Donor Disclosure ‘Not Enough’ The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward laughed off Hillary Clinton’s reluctant disclosure of emails and foundation donors as “not enough” on Sunday’s State of the Union. Democratic National Committee Vice-Chairwoman Donna Brazile mounted a peculiar defense of Clinton, claiming that she has “never seen a politician who has laid out more information about herself. We have read her emails, we have seen all the donors—” “Not enough! Not enough!” Woodward interjected, as panelists S.E. Cupp and Dana Bash laughed.
Watch the video:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 13, 2015 18 Comments
Hillary Clinton announced her intention to run for president back in April with the release of a video but apparently, that wasn't the real launch of her campaign. The second and all-new launch happened today on New York's Roosevelt Island which, ironically, used to be called Welfare Island. Attendees were told to expect 'airport style security' for the event. Luckily for Mrs. Clinton's staff, it doesn't look like they had to worry about crowd overflow:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 13, 2015 22 Comments
Carly Fiorina sat in the "Center Seat" Thursday night on Special Report with Bret Baier. They ought to call the segment the "Hot Seat" as it offers viewers and the pundits on the panel a chance to ask the candidate tough questions in a close setting. Fiorina took questions about herself, her career, the campaign and a host of other issues every candidate is facing for 2016. Topics include jobs, healthcare, government surveillance, foreign policy, and reclaiming feminism. It's worth pointing out that Fiorina took more questions in this 17 minute segment than Hillary Clinton has taken in the last two months. If you watched the video to the end, you heard Fiorina talk about the left's monopoly on the term "feminism" and its meaning. She gave a speech Thursday night where she expanded on this point.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 12, 2015 27 Comments
Our humorless and intellectually superior friends on the left listened to what Jerry Seinfeld said about political correctness and proved his point in exactly the way you'd expect. Progressives can't abide a celebrity with Seinfeld's gravitas criticizing their culture of microaggressions and limits on free speech so naturally, he must be discredited. MSNBC's Alex Wagner discussed the subject with her guests and for the most part, they dismissed Seinfeld's concerns because after all, he's rich. Matthew Balan of NewsBusters:
Shorter MSNBC: Seinfeld's Jab at 'Creepy PC' Isn't Valid Because He's Rich Alex Wagner, along with her three liberal guests, ripped Jerry Seinfeld on her MSNBC program on Wednesday, for his blast at "creepy" political correctness. Wagner hinted that Seinfeld had "fallen behind the times." New York magazine's Annie Lowrey mocked his critique: "I kind of roll my eyes at Jerry Seinfeld. You know, he's a billionaire – like I don't feel sorry for him if people don't laugh hard enough at his jokes."
Here's the video:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 11, 2015 54 Comments
Baltimore is caught in a law enforcement conundrum. People rioted over what they claimed was police brutality and as a result, cops are doing less than they used to. Can you blame them? Public backlash and fear of prosecution have caused them to switch from proactive policing to a reactive mode. This chart from the Baltimore Sun illustrates the gravity of the situation by comparing arrests from 2014 and 2015: Allahpundit of Hot Air points out some grim statistics:
There were 23 homicides and 39 nonfatal shootings in Baltimore in May 2014. Through 29 days of May 2015, there were 42 homicides and 104 nonfatal shootings. Gulp.
Gulp indeed.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 10, 2015 8 Comments
You might think that the fact that four Americans died in the 2012 attack on our embassy in Libya (on Hillary Clinton's watch) was bad enough, but you'd be wrong. Stephen Collinson of CNN:
Hillary Clinton's real Libya problem Hillary Clinton has another Libya problem. She's already grappling with the political headaches from deleted emails and from the terror attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi. But she'll face a broader challenge in what's become of the North African country since, as secretary of state in 2011, she was the public face of the U.S. intervention to push out its longtime strongman, Moammar Gadhafi. Libya's lapse into the chaos of failed statehood has provided a breeding ground for terror and a haven for groups such as ISIS. Its plight is also creating an opening for Republican presidential candidates to question Clinton's strategic acumen and to undermine her diplomatic credentials, which will be at the center of her pitch that only she has the global experience needed to be president in a turbulent time.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 09, 2015 14 Comments
Hillary Clinton's made-to-order nomination for 2016 may not be as safe as she thought. Once again, many people in the far left base of the Democratic Party, i.e. primary voters, are rejecting Mrs. Clinton for a progressive upstart from the senate. Jonathan Topaz of Politico:
Wisconsin straw poll surprise: A narrow Clinton win Hillary Clinton is crushing the rest of the Democratic presidential field in national polls, but over the weekend, in a Wisconsin straw poll, there was reason to give the Clinton camp pause and the Bernie Sanders camp hope — Sanders scored a strong second-place finish with 41 percent of the vote, to Clinton’s 49 percent. The Vermont senator, a self-described democratic socialist and a long shot for the White House, received 208 of 511 delegate votes at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention in Milwaukee on Saturday, while Clinton won votes from 252 of the delegates, leaving her just short of a majority. Vice President Joe Biden and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who announced his candidacy late last month, each received 3 percent of the vote. Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who is considering a bid, won 2 percent, while former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who announced his long-shot candidacy last week, received 1 percent.
Professor Jacobson noted this story yesterday on Twitter:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 07, 2015 19 Comments
Do you like the idea of tax dollars being used for research to support gun control? Two Democrats introduced legislation last week for that very purpose. The NRA's Institute for Legislative Action reported:
Legislation Proposes $60 Million for Anti-Gun Research On Monday, NRA F-rated Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation to authorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to give $60 million of the taxpayers' money to anti-gun activists over the next six years, to conduct "research" promoting gun control. The two longtime anti-gun legislators say that their bill is necessary for two reasons, both of which are hokum: First, they say, Congress in 1996 "almost halted entirely" all funding of gun control research, the operative word being "almost." In 1996, Congress did stop the CDC from funneling millions of the taxpayers' dollars to anti-gunners to conduct "research"--pitiful by academic standards--designed from the get-go to promote a political agenda against a constitutionally-protected right. However, it didn't shut off the spigot through which millions of dollars flow to the same anti-gunners from leftwing philanthropic foundations. For example, the Joyce Foundation alone has given several million dollars to a variety of anti-gun groups and individuals every year since 1996.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 06, 2015 7 Comments
It wasn't supposed to be this way. The Affordable Care Act was going to bring about the golden age of single payer healthcare in the Green Mountain State. Instead, it went there to die. Activists protested during the new governor's inauguration, but it made no difference. Now, things are getting worse. Abby Goodnough of the New York Times:
In Vermont, Frustrations Mount Over Affordable Care Act BURLINGTON, Vt. — Just a few years ago, lawmakers in this left-leaning state viewed President Obama’s Affordable Care Act as little more than a pit stop on the road to a far more ambitious goal: single-payer, universal health care for all residents. Then things unraveled. The online insurance marketplace that Vermont built to enroll people in private coverage under the law had extensive technical failures. The problems soured public and legislative enthusiasm for sweeping health care changes just as Gov. Peter Shumlin needed to build support for his complex single-payer plan. Finally, Mr. Shumlin, a Democrat, shelved the plan in December, citing the high cost to taxpayers. He called the decision “the greatest disappointment of my political life.”...

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 06, 2015 6 Comments
Many people have written about our media which, with few exceptions, has become an arm of the Democratic Party. The other casualty of this era is the world of comedy. Last year, I wrote about it in a piece titled Cowardly Comedy in the Age of Obama. Little has changed since then. Most American comedians seem to have no problem speaking truth to power when Republicans are in charge but have found themselves unable to do so for the last seven years. It's obvious that many of these same comics are hoping to carry their sad act into the age of Hillary as well. David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon put together the informative reel below which shows the lopsided treatment the left gets from America's court jesters. Of course, there are consequences for all of this.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 04, 2015 30 Comments
Jeb Bush may be a decent man, but when it comes to fundraising, conservative donors are putting their eggs in another candidate's basket. Matea Gold and Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post:
With some donors doubting Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio seizes an opening Marco Rubio is benefiting from pockets of discontent in Jeb Bush’s sprawling money network, winning over donors who believe the 44-year-old freshman senator from Florida offers a more compelling persona and sharper generational contrast against Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. Rubio is working to seize the moment by making an all-out push to lock down financial backers in the coming month, hopscotching the country in a nonstop series of fundraisers that are limiting his presence on the campaign trail. While he faces stiff competition in the money race from Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, in particular, Rubio’s in-person courting sessions are starting to pay off. Longtime Bush loyalists and other big-money players on the right have emerged from the meetings raving about his abilities, according to people familiar with private gatherings he has had across the country.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 03, 2015 26 Comments
Have you noticed that the same media that uses words like "extreme" to describe Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and other Republicans finds nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to Bernie Sanders? Sanders, who wants a 90% tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, and recently came under fire for a 1972 column describing female rape fantasies, describes himself as a socialist---yet the media treats him like a viable candidate for 2016. Socialism is the most important aspect of Sanders' political identity and goes a long way in helping us understand the media's kid-glove treatment of him. Jennifer Harper of the Washington Times:
The Bernie Effect: Media normalize socialism There’s yet another trend in the trendy news media, identified by more than one concerned critic. Consider a new Investor’s Business Daily editorial titled “The soft-soaping of socialism in the U.S.” The publication focuses on the happy-go-lucky press coverage of a certain Vermont independent making a vigorous run for the White House as a Democrat.
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