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Author: Bryan Jacoutot

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Bryan Jacoutot

Bryan is a Georgia attorney practicing law since 2014. He primarily litigates federal and state election law cases on behalf of local and state governments, as well as individual candidate campaigns.

He received his Juris Doctorate from Georgia State University where he also earned a certification in health law from the University's distinguished Center for Law, Health and Society. Bryan earned his undergraduate degree in History from Auburn University.

Follow Bryan on Twitter: @BryanJacoutot

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 26, 2014 54 Comments
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) appeared on MSNBC this week to discuss her objections to the challenge Hobby Lobby has leveled against the United States government’s contraception mandate in Obamacare. Boxer made several baseless claims during the interview, which deserve to be put into a broader political context. Before discussing Boxer's claims, due credit must be given to the MSNBC anchor, Chris Jansing, who drew attention to the fact that Hobby Lobby provides its employees with all sorts of contraceptives through its health plan (16 to be exact), but that the store’s ownership objects to 4 drugs in particular. Among them, Hobby Lobby objects to pills like Plan B — also known as the Morning After pill— and Intrauterine Devices (IUDs), because they have the potential to be "abortion-inducing." In other words, they can terminate a pregnancy after the egg has been fertilized. In response to this very legitimate distinction, Boxer proclaims, “that’s a distinction without a difference.” Perhaps Boxer knows better than the companies who offer these drugs, but I doubt it. Indeed, while Plan B claims to have no effect on a woman who is already pregnant, it qualifies this by saying “there is no medical evidence that Plan B One-Step would harm a developing baby.” It is important to note that “no medical evidence” does not mean there is no possibility. Moreover, Plan-B does not assert that their position is medically conclusive. Thus, Hobby Lobby’s position that it is an abortifacient (an abortion causing drug) is a reasonable one. Beyond Plan B, however, Hobby Lobby also objects to providing IUDs. Unlike Plan B, there is medical evidence IUDs cause abortion after an egg has been fertilized. Indeed, that’s the exact language used to describe how they function.

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 24, 2014 46 Comments
A shocking new report out of Great Britain has revealed that thousands upon thousands of aborted and miscarried babies have been incinerated at a number of British hospitals, some even being used to heat the hospitals themselves.
Ten NHS trusts have admitted burning foetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in ‘waste-to-energy’ plants which generate power for heat. Last night the Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter branded ‘totally unacceptable.’ At least 15,500 foetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts over the last two years alone, Channel 4’s Dispatches discovered. The programme, which will air tonight, found that parents who lose children in early pregnancy were often treated without compassion and were not consulted about what they wanted to happen to the remains.
If the investigation turns out to be verified, which appears likely given the response by the National Health Service, the treatment of unborn children has reached a new level of atrocity in the "civilized" world. These are not isolated incidents in some of the UK's most destitute health service providers. To the contrary, some of these hospitals are the National Health Service's standard bearers.

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 23, 2014 14 Comments
Remember Melissa Harris-Perry’s proclamation that your kids aren’t really your kids, but “these are our children?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qtpdSQox0 At first glance, a recent article by Dana Goldstein in The Atlantic smacked of all the same overtones the Harris-Perry commercial had. Namely, it seemed to convey that parents should surrender their children to the state, and they will be better prepared to succeed in life.
Do you review your daughter’s homework every night? Robinson and Harris’s data, published in The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement With Children’s Education, show that this won’t help her score higher on standardized tests. Once kids enter middle school, parental help with homework can actually bring test scores down, an effect Robinson says could be caused by the fact that many parents may have forgotten, or never truly understood, the material their children learn in school. Similarly, students whose parents frequently meet with teachers and principals don’t seem to improve faster than academically comparable peers whose parents are less present at school. Other essentially useless parenting interventions: observing a kid’s class; helping a teenager choose high-school courses; and, especially, disciplinary measures such as punishing kids for getting bad grades or instituting strict rules about when and how homework gets done. This kind of meddling could leave children more anxious than enthusiastic about school, Robinson speculates. “Ask them ‘Do you want to see me volunteering more? Going to school social functions? Is it helpful if I help you with homework?’ ” he told me. “We think about informing parents and schools what they need to do, but too often we leave the child out of the conversation.
Perhaps Goldstein was looking to echo Harris-Perry's sentiments, but I did not reach that conclusion after reading her article. Depending on the lens you use to view this data, it can be looked at one of two ways.

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 22, 2014 18 Comments
Recently released commercial satellite images have revealed the Iranians are attempting to reconstruct a replica of one of the United States’ largest and most powerful warships, the USS Nimitz.
Construction on the crude model appears to be in full swing at a shipyard near Bandar Abbas, as shown in newly released commercial satellite images. 'They got this barge and threw some wood on top of it to make it look like the USS Nimitz. That's all we know for sure,' a U.S. defense official told AFP... The wooden, non-operational aircraft carrier made to look like a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered American vessel was first spotted on the Persian Gulf last summer, the New York Times reported. Besides having the shape of the 1,100-foot-long carriers, such as USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Carl Vinson, the shipbuilders also replicated the distinctive white markings on bow. A satellite flying over Gachin shipyard also photographed a fake plane parked on the deck of the equally fake carrier.

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 15, 2014 14 Comments
Remember what Ezra Klein said about our old Constitution?
"The issue of the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done."
The internet remembers. Proving that "great minds" think alike, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) proclaimed the Constitution has guided our nation for "some 400 years." (h/t HotAir):

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 14, 2014 20 Comments
The former Director of the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), David Wright, recently resigned in powerful fashion, penning a scathing letter to his boss in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the “remarkably dysfunctional HHS bureaucracy.” The letter, written on February 25th and recently published at sciencemag.org, details the “intensely political environment” that is HHS, the department charged with crafting and implementing Obamacare policy and regulations. Apart from being famous for drafting 20,000 pages of onerous regulations inspired by the nearly 2,000 page Obamacare statute, HHS also made headlines for it’s spectacularly disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov, the website responsible for ensuring the American people are actually able to comply with the new healthcare law. In the wake of the rollout controversy, the American people were livid, many calling for the Secretary of HHS, Kathleen Sebellius, to resign. At minimum, the public wanted someone to be held accountable for the incredibly expensive, taxpayer funded, disaster. In the end, no one ever was. According to Wright’s letter of resignation, unaccountability is the name of the game at HHS [Emphasis Added].

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on March 11, 2014 7 Comments
Recent fundraising figures show the RNC faring better than its DNC counterpart in just about all areas. Notably, the RNC has no debt and nearly $10 Million in cash on hand. The same, however, cannot be said for the DNC, thanks in part to some clever money shuffling among kindred spirits. In the final two months of the 2012 election cycle, the DNC was strapped for cash, and opted to take out two low interest loans totaling $15 Million. The loans were provided by Amalgamated Bank, which uses the tagline, “America’s Labor Bank” and promises to continue “the progressive traditions of its founders as the only majority owned union bank in the United States." [Emphasis Added] Established in 1923, Amalgamated Bank nearly went under following the 2009 housing crisis, but was bailed out by a $100 Million investment from two billionaires (irony?). The two billionaires together received 40% ownership in the bank following their timely contributions. That stake, however, wasn’t enough to unseat the majority owner, Workers United. Workers United is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the well known 2 million member labor union. As membership has declined of late, unions are increasingly looking to find other ways to exercise prominent influence over the political process, apart from traditional contributions. The SEIU and Workers United may have found such a way through low interest loans from their financial institution, Amalgamated Bank. To date, the DNC has yet to pay back even half of the short-term loan, which is due in full by the end of June this year, according to the Federal Election Commission. Of course, loans aren’t the only way unions keep the DNC afloat.
The DNC’s special relationship with the SEIU goes beyond the loans. The union is also one of the largest financial backers of the Democratic Party. The SEIU has given at least $200 million to Democratic candidates and committees since 1990. The SEIU spent over $30 million on elections in the 2012 election alone, spending about $16 million to attack Republican candidates and about $18 million to express advocacy for Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
So, not only do a large contingent of Democrats owe their political careers to unions, their national committee also owes them more cash than they actually have on hand. And let's not forget the President's words, "[the SEIU's] agenda has been my agenda..."
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