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Posted by Mark Finkelstein on May 26, 2017 16 Comments
Today's Morning Joe aired a mock anti-Republican ad that its staff created. Scarborough said he told "the kids in the back that work for us" to "draw up an ad that will look like what we're going to see next year." As you'll see from the video clip, the ad is predictable campaign fare, focusing on the Republican health care bill. Pre-existing conditions coverage disintegrates. Medicaid is "slashed." And, of course, "huge tax cuts for the rich," with images of President Trump against a backdrop of yachts and mansions. The ad ends with the disclaimer: "not an actual ad, but probably will be."

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2017 52 Comments
Rock'em Sock'em Republican candidate Greg Gianforte, best known for "body-slamming" and ego-shaming a reporter for The Guardian, defeated Democratic Candidate Rob Quist, best known as a nudist resort socialist Cowboy poet and singer. While the final numbers are not in as of this writing, it looks like the margin for Gianforte will be in the 6-7% range. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2017/by_state/MT_Page_0525.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=POLITICS

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 25, 2017 25 Comments
A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court ruling was declassified and released this week. The ruling reveals that the Obama administration engaged in widespread violation of NSA surveillance rules. The Obama administration was reprimanded by the FISA court for illegal searches that constitute "very serious Fourth Amendment issue.” According to previously classified documents, this admission of methodical and long-term violations of Americans' Constitutional rights was made on October 26th of 2016.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 25, 2017 6 Comments
In March of this year, a mob of students at Middlebury College in Vermont stormed into a talk by sociologist Charles Murray. After shutting down the event, the mob chased chased down Murray and ultimately sent a professor who was assisting him to the emergency room. Since then, the school has claimed twice that students were being disciplined but refused to release details about any punishment. Now we know why. There wasn't any. Scott Jaschik reports at Inside Higher Ed:
No Suspensions Seen at Middlebury More than two months after Charles Murray visited Middlebury College and was shouted down there, the college has finished reviewing and in some cases punishing students who were involved in preventing him from giving his talk.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 25, 2017 32 Comments
While President Donald Trump had a busy day getting all the 28 NATO partners on board the global anti-ISIS alliance, former President Barak Obama appeared at a youth rally in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The event in Berlin was organised to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Taking a swipe at his successor’s immigration policy, Obama got cheers from audiences in Berlin with meaningless platitudes like “we can’t hide behind a wall.” Yes, Obama decried walls as he sat fenced behind a security cover with “helicopters patrol[ling] the skies and snipers with balaclavas watch[ing] the scene from nearby rooftops” -- as one news-outlet described it.

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Posted by Mike LaChance on May 25, 2017 23 Comments
It has been almost five years since news broke that officials at the IRS used the power of government to harass members of the Tea Party and other conservative groups. The media has largely ignored the scandal and so far, no one has gone to jail. Earlier this month, IRS officials claimed they couldn't testify because their lives were at risk. USA Today reported:
IRS officials say lives at risk in tea party bias case Details about tea party bias claims against the IRS could remain secret because current and former agency officials say their lives are in danger if they publicly testify about the case.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2017 71 Comments
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the case en banc, has upheld substantially all of the Maryland District Court injunction against Trump's revised travel Executive Order in an opinion (pdf.) dripping with politics. (Full embed at bottom of post). The opinions (including concurring and dissenting) are 200 pages, so it will take some time to digest, but you'll get the message from the opening paragraph:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2017 4 Comments
Public executions by Hamas in Gaza are quite common. But some are more equal than others, and the public execution today has received quite a bit of attention, in fact more than Hamas wanted. The execution was livestreamed -- apparently against Hamas wishes -- by the Gaza Now News Agency from a window in a building overlooking the execution site. The background is that the three men executed were allegedly involved in the killing of a senior Hamas terror planner in March, as we reported at the time, Senior Hamas Terror Planner Mazen Faqha Assassinated in Gaza:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 25, 2017 33 Comments
There is simply no excuse for what happened in Montana last night. Prior to a campaign rally held by Republican Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte for today's special election, Gianforte allegedly roughed up Guardian political reporter, Ben Jacobs.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on May 25, 2017 12 Comments
James Taranto's late, lamented Wall Street Journal column had a running tongue-in-cheek rubric, "We Blame George W. Bush," in which the former president was blamed for everything under the sun, despite his utter lack of connection to it. In that spirit, Taranto might have had a field day with a panel discussion on CNN this morning, in which the participants did their best to blame President Trump for an incident in Montana in which the Republican congressional candidate has been accused of manhandling a reporter. Co-host Alisyn Camerota got the ball rolling by asking whether there is "some sort of larger story or message we should take away here . . . growing aggression against the press."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 25, 2017 7 Comments
President Donald Trump seems to have achieved a significant foreign policy aim ahead of his meeting with the leaders of 28 NATO member states. According to the reports in German media, France and Germany have formally agreed to join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State. "After sustained pressure from Washington, NATO will be joining the international coalition," German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote. Other reports suggest that Manchester’s deadly terror attack, for which ISIS claimed responsibility, may have played a role in convincing Germany and France in joining the global alliance to destroy the Islamist terror group. Despite Germany’s consent, there is trouble brewing in Merkel’s camp. Her second-in-command, German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, has placed conditions on the proposed alliance, telling reporters that "combat operations were not part of NATO agreement. [NATO] is a defense alliance."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 24, 2017 42 Comments
If you thought that intelligence community leaks against Donald Trump were okay because Trump was the target, then you don't understand the problem. Such leaks to the NY Times and Washington Post, among others, are not only criminal, they are contagious. If accusations being made by the British are true, the leakers in the U.S. intelligence community have revealed to the NY Times highly sensitive information shared as part of a joint terrorism investigation. It all started when the NY Times ran a lengthy report on the evidence recovered at the scene of the Manchester concert suicide bombing, Found at the Scene in Manchester: Shrapnel, a Backpack and a Battery:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 24, 2017 13 Comments
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released their score of the American Healthcare Act. In their analysis, the CBO indicated 23 more Americans would be uninsured if the Senate were to pass the AHCA.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 24, 2017 13 Comments
On Monday, former national security adviser Michael Flynn refused to honor a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee for documents connected to the investigation into its Russian probe. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right. The committee has tried another way to receive the documents by issuing two subpoenas for two of Flynn's former businesses. From Reuters:
"While we disagree with General Flynn's lawyers' interpretation of taking the Fifth ... it's even more clear that a business does not have a right to take the Fifth," the panel's vice chairman, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, told reporters, referring to Flynn's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 24, 2017 11 Comments
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) will not let go of a border adjustment tax (BAT) when it comes to tax reform, which will set up a major showdown with the White House and possibly the Senate. Ryan admitted today that the House could pass a tax bill without the BAT, but he's still trying to sell the idea to his fellow lawmakers and the White House.
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