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Author: Kemberlee Kaye

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Kemberlee Kaye

Kemberlee Kaye is the Senior Contributing Editor of Legal Insurrection, where she has worked since 2014 and is the Director of Operations and Editorial Development for the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She also serves as the Managing Editor for CriticalRace.org, a research project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation.

She has a background working in immigration law, and as a grassroots organizer, digital media strategist, campaign lackey, and muckraker. Over the years Kemberlee has worked with FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, and US Senate re-election campaigns, among others. 

Kemberlee, her daughter, and her son live a lovely taco-filled life in their native Texas.

You can reach her anytime via email at kk @ legalinsurrection.com.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 07, 2015 4 Comments
Members of both political parties descended upon Selma, Alabama earlier today. Partisan politics were shelved as members of Congress were unified in remembering the sacrifice of those who marched for freedom. So how did Republicans commemorate the day? Take a look:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 07, 2015 6 Comments
According to AFP, Boko Haram's leader pledged loyalty to ISIS in an audio message posted to Twitter this afternoon. From Yahoo News:
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram militants, Abubakar Shekau, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in an audio recording released Saturday. "We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims, Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Husseini al-Qurashi," said the voice on the message, which was believed to be that of Shekau and was released through Boko Haram's Twitter account. Qurashi is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the IS group which has proclaimed a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq. Shekau spoke in Arabic, but the message contained French and English subtitles. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the message. Shekau was not pictured, a contrast from most of Boko Haram's past messages in which the Islamist leader has been shown, often in close up shots. But Shekau did identify himself in the recording, which was accompanied by the subtitles and a graphic including an image of a radio microphone. There have in recent months been signs of closer ties between the Nigerian militants and the IS group, with both using similar ways of communicating with the outside world. Boko Haram has notably begun releasing videos that resemble those made by IS. Boko Haram has been waging a six-year uprising against the Nigerian state, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Analysts have long debated the extent of Boko Haram's ties to other jihadist groups, but the evidence was never clear.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 07, 2015 7 Comments
Today commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when Rep. John Lewis first led a march from Selma to Montgomery, seeking the right to vote. On their first attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, some six hundred marchers were greeted by law enforcement officers wielding nightsticks and tear gas. Martin Luther King, Jr., lead a symbolic march two days later. On March 21, more than 3,000 marchers joined Dr. King on a march to Montgomery. By the time the Dr. King reached Montgomery, approximately 25,000 marchers accompanied him. Only a few months later, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Selma marked a pivotal turning point in the Civil Rights movement. Today, leaders from all political stripes gather together by the Edmund Pettus Bridge to remember the bravery of those who marched for freedom and celebrate how far we have come. Livestream of the event is here: Leaders in attendance include Senator Tim Scott, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Rep. John Lewis, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, President George W. Bush, and many more. Follow their live Twitter updates:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 06, 2015 13 Comments
As Snowmageddon descended upon the Imperial City, freedom-loving sledders wielding "Sled Free or Die" placards marched, sleds-in-hand to Capitol Hill. The prohibition on sledding on Capitol Hill is a long-standing regulation, and is not a recent occurrence. According to CNN:
... a regulation written -- clearly by 19th-century scrooges -- banning play on the Capitol grounds. "It shall be the duty of the Capitol police on and after April 29, 1876, to prevent any portion of the Capitol Grounds and terraces from being used as playgrounds or otherwise, so far as may be necessary to protect the public property, turf and grass from destruction or injury," the regulation reads.
Those sledding in civil disobedience were informed by Capitol Police that their down-hill antics were prohibited. Undeterred, they continued to slide down Capitol Hill anyway. Despite the warnings, police watched sledders without bothering to enforce the city's archaic regulation.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 06, 2015 25 Comments
Allegations of corruption and scandal have swarmed New Jersey Democratic Senator Menendez for years now. That the DOJ waited until now to pull the trigger is... interesting. Just four days ago, Menendez said he would only support a deal that dismantled Iran's nuclear program, according to NJ.com:
"As long as I have an ounce of fight left in me, as long as I have a vote and a say and a chance to protect the interests of Israel, the region, and the national security interests of the United States, Iran will never have a pathway to a weapon," Menendez said, bringing the delegates to their feet. "It will never threaten Israel or its neighbors, and it will never be in a position to start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Not on my watch." Menendez is one of the most outspoken supporters of increasing sanctions if negotiations fail to curb Iran's nuclear program. The issue has pitted Menendez against President Obama, a fellow Democrat. Obama has threatened to veto new sanctions legislation, saying it would give Iran an excuse to walk away from negotiations and leave a military solution as the only option to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons.
Though it's worth noting Menendez has a history of supporting AIPAC, and fighting with the White House over the proper course of action on Iran. Today, CNN reports the DOJ is moving forward with criminal corruption charges:
Washington (CNN)The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal corruption charges against New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, alleging he used his Senate office to push the business interests of a Democratic donor and friend in exchange for gifts. People briefed on the case say Attorney General Eric Holder has signed off on prosecutors' request to proceed with charges, CNN has learned exclusively. An announcement could come within weeks. Prosecutors are under pressure in part because of the statute of limitation on some of the allegations. The case could pose a high-profile test of the Justice Department's ability to prosecute sitting lawmakers, having already spawned a legal battle over whether key evidence the government has gathered is protected by the Constitution's Speech and Debate clause.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 05, 2015 28 Comments
House Republicans came out swinging, passed a killer DHS appropriations bill -- one that hammered much needed immigration enforcement, and acted as though they were ready for an immigration battle royal. For one brief, joyous moment, it seemed as though conservatives finally had the Congress they'd long desired. Boy was that short-lived. What began as a bill that held sought to beef up immigration enforcement (an area where this administration has been far too lax), ended as a 'clean' funding bill with no strings attached. Despite holding majorities in both houses, Republicans received nothing they wanted. Friday morning, Boehner said he would, "not be blackmailed by Senate Democrats." Senate Democrats perpetually filibustered the House bill, disallowing debate. By Friday afternoon, Senate Republicans had split the funding bill in two -- one, a 'clean' funding bill, and the other, a bill that addressed the president's executive amnesty and other enforcement related items. The 'clean' funding bill passed in the Senate. The House tried again, but Senate Democrats refused to go to conference to discuss differences in the House and Senate bills, and so the House found itself in a nasty predicament. By passing a 'clean' funding bill, Senate Republicans gave the White House and Democrats exactly what they wanted, leaving House Republicans without any leverage, any backup plan, and absolutely no way around a 'clean' funding bill. Yet in spite of the Senate sell out, there appeared to be hope. As late as Monday evening, prior to the House's passage of Tuesday's 'clean' funding bill, Speaker Boehner and House leadership were promising to hold the line and fight. What went so horribly wrong?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 05, 2015 11 Comments
Finally, a film that captures the very heart of America -- hope, courage, and the belief that anyone, regardless of background or circumstance, can achieve the American Dream. Comeback, a powerful mini series by Opportunity Lives, explores the lives of a handful of individuals who overcame adversity to live a life they never dreamed possible. The teaser for the first episode is being released tomorrow and the full series will be available for viewing on Opportunity Lives' website March 17. Helping individuals better themselves, operating out of love and compassion, and instilling in them a sense of self worth is how we begin to repair America's cultural wounds; it's how communities who've struggled with poverty and violence climb out of a seemingly endless destructive cycle. While Comeback is not a political film, it's vital watching for anyone involved in politics, grassroots work, or interested in making a tangible difference in the lives of those most in need. John Hart, Editor-in-Chief of Opportunity Lives had this to say about Comeback:
Opportunity Lives is proud to release the trailer for an extraordinary new seven-part miniseries called “Comeback” that tells inspiring stories of real-life Americans overcoming adversity in our nation’s cities and communities. The complete series will be available on March 17. At OL, we’re focused on solutions and “what works.” That’s what Comeback is about. The film, which is a feature-length documentary from start to finish, highlights what’s working in some of our nation’s most troubled communities. What works is people caring for people one-on-one and walking with them through their journey of redemption and restoration. Over the course of the next few days we’ll be introducing you to some of those people. You’ll meet men like Greg Bradford who overcame addiction with the help of his friend and mentor Paul Grodell (both featured in the above poster). You’ll meet more people like Greg and Paul as we release trailers for each episode until the full series is available on March 17.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 04, 2015 37 Comments
The plot thickens. Monday, the New York Times broke the story about Hillary Clinton's little email problem. The former Secretary of State used a personal email account the entire time she served as DOS's top dog. As Professor Jacobson pointed out yesterday, use of personal email for state business appears to be in violation of record keeping rules. This morning, the Associated Press reported that not only was Clinton using a personal email account, she was running the account from servers located in her home (emphasis added):
The computer server that transmitted and received Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails — on a private account she used exclusively for official business when she was secretary of state — traced back to an Internet service registered to her family’s home in Chappaqua, New York, according to Internet records reviewed by The Associated Press. The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, impressive control over limiting access to her message archives. It also would distinguish Clinton’s secretive email practices as far more sophisticated than some politicians, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were caught conducting official business using free email services operated by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.
The AP report suggests Clinton was using the server to navigate around transparency:
Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails. And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton’s home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking.
And then there's this ghost that ran Clinton's servers:
It was unclear whom Clinton hired to set up or maintain her private email server, which the AP traced to a mysterious identity, Eric Hoteham. That name does not appear in public records databases, campaign contribution records or Internet background searches. Hoteham was listed as the customer at Clinton’s $1.7 million home on Old House Lane in Chappaqua in records registering the Internet address for her email server since August 2010.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 04, 2015 2 Comments
British street artist, Banksy, recently visited Gaza. According to Mashable, this was not his first trip:
The Palestinian territory is not a new base for the British graffiti artist; in 2005 he made headlines for his art on Israel's West Bank barrier. There were nine images in total, including one work with a girl attempting to float over the wall holding balloons, one of children playing on the sand with a hole above them showing a beach in the wall, and another of a dove with an olive branch and a bullseye on its chest.
Far from politically conservative, much of Banksy's art rails against corporations and the wealthy, is anti-war, and pretty much diametrically opposed to any political view I have. His Occupy-like sympathies aside, Banksy is incredibly talented. If only he used his talents for good, rather than wasting them on anti-Israel propaganda...

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 03, 2015 28 Comments
After almost two months of funding drama, Congress is no closer to resolving the Department of Homeland Security's funding in a dispute over President Obama's immigration executive action. In a Ground Hog-esque day turn of events, we're right back where we started. Thanks, Democrats. Speculation that Pelosi and company agreed to support a one week bill because Boehner was considering a "clean" funding bill akin to the Senate, found its way into more than one mainstream media write up of the DHS debacle this weekend. Because we'd rather not take someone else's word for it, we inquired independently. This weekend, Speaker Boehner's office assured us House Republicans had no plans to capitulate to the demands of Senate Democrats. As to the speculation that there was some kind of a deal with Pelosi? "There is no such 'deal' or promise," says Boehner Spokesman Michael Steel. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise echoed the sentiments saying, “There is no such deal and there’s no such bill,” Scalise said on “Fox News Sunday." “On Friday, there was a bill on the House floor to pass a clean funding bill. We rejected that because we said we’re fighting the president on what he’s doing illegally on immigration," according to The Hill. "We are not giving in to Senate Democrats’ blackmail," Boehner said, "Will keep fighting Obama’s unilateral action on immigration to protect Constitution."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 02, 2015 12 Comments
Bibi will address Congress Tuesday morning to discuss the dangers of a nuclear Iran. At the time this post was published, 34 members of Congress have confirmed they will not be attending the Israeli Prime Minister's speech. To commemorate the occasion, Secure America released this seriously rad video:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 28, 2015 7 Comments
Which means Congress gets to have this same fight all over again next week. Joy. The Senate passed a clean funding bill late yesterday afternoon, placing efforts to combat President Obama's executive overreach in a separate piece of legislation. Last night it looked as though a DHS shutdown was imminent. Democratic lawmakers in the House were actively whipping votes against the three week stopgap appropriations bill, resulting in the bill's failure---even though the White House indicated President Obama would've signed the bill to prevent an agency shutdown. The Washington Post reported (emphasis added):
The House passed a measure earlier Friday afternoon to go to conference with the Senate to hash out the differences between their long-term bills. No Democrats voted for it. Senate Democrats oppose a conference. Senate Democratic aides acknowledged that the bill would probably have passed their chamber if it had cleared the House.
Just two hours before the shutdown deadline, Democratic hold outs caved and agreed to pass a temporary funding bill that will only fund the agency for one week. According to USA Today:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rallied Democrats to support the one-week extension before funding expired. She said that voting for the seven-day measure would put Democrats on a path toward possible passage next week of a $40 billion spending bill that would fund the agency through the end of September.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 27, 2015 31 Comments
What a mess this has become. Hell bent on pursuing legislation that would allow for the dissolution of Congressional powers (a.k.a. Obama's Executive immigration overreach), House Democrats refused to pass a short term funding bill for DHS. The bill would've funded DHS through March 19 and prevented an agency shut down. Unless a deal is reached and an appropriations bill is passed by midnight tonight, agency shutdown is imminent. Some 200,000 of DHS's 231,000+ are deemed 'essential' and would remain in place in the event of a shut down (as they did in the shut down of 2013), as NRO noted. Weeks ago, the House passed a DHS appropriations bill that sought to curb Obama's immigration overreach. Since the House bill's passage, Senate Democrats have continually filibustered, thus disallowing any Senate debate on the the House bill. Then, a judge in Texas issued a temporary injunction, preventing implementation of Obama's Executive immigration action; the same executive action Democrats insist on implementing. In an attempt to build a bridge across the impasse, the Senate passed a clean funding bill, creating a separate bill to address the president's Constitutional curb stomp.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 26, 2015 17 Comments
It's not everyday llamas make national news. And it's not everyday I have an opportunity to write a headline with about a llama. According to Fox News:
Two escaped llamas sparked a high-speed chase in Sun City, Ariz., this afternoon. Police and residents alike swarmed the black and white llamas in an attempt to capture the two outlaws, who ran through the streets from their attempted captors. The llama drama came to an end after the partners-in-crime were lassoed and caught.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 24, 2015 13 Comments
We knew this day was coming, although we'd hoped that somewhere in his heart, President Obama might find the decency to pass legislation that would create thousands of jobs, reinvigorate communities and small towns, likely decrease the instances of exploding trains, and pump much needed cash into our fledgling economy. Alas... Some have speculated that because the pipeline would've run through red states, President Obama would never be willing to reward those states with economic bounty. But we've been assured that the bipartisan, union-backed bill was vetoed because the President takes his job very seriously. Gregory Korte reports at USA Today:
"The presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously," Obama said in his veto message. "But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people. And because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest — including our security, safety, and environment — it has earned my veto."
Suddenly, the President is concerned about "well established executive branch procedures" *cough* executive immigration overreach *cough*. But I digress...

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 23, 2015 20 Comments
You gotta love the Oscars. It's one of the best nights to watch Hollywood revel in its self-importance. As customary, at least one award recipient had to wax poetic about something political. Winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood, Patricia Arquette took the opportunity to make a pitch for wage equality. "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States." Arquette's pitch for equal rights may have been relevant in 1869, but hardly seems to resonate in 2015 -- the age of the stay at home father. Not to mention that when celebrities complain about wage equality, they're squabbling over a discrepancy of millions when most Americans won't see that much cash in a lifetime. At least Arquette got a rise out of Meryl Streep (who looked fabulous, by the way).
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