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Posted by Mike LaChance on February 14, 2015 3 Comments
A North Carolina man named Craig Hicks murdered three young Muslims last week over what appears to be a parking dispute. Some liberals in the media have consulted the Southern Poverty Law Center on the subject---but have failed to point out that Mr. Hicks is an apparent fan of SPLC. Jesse Walker of Reason reported. H/t to Instapundit.
The Killer, the Reporter, and the Southern Poverty Law Center Craig Hicks, the man who murdered three Muslims in North Carolina this week, had a Facebook page. One of the groups he liked on it is the Southern Poverty Law Center. An AlterNet article about Hicks—reprinted today in both Raw Story and Salon—includes several long quotes from Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Guess what subject never comes up? No, I don't think the SPLC deserves any blame for the crime. That would be ridiculous. But the SPLC itself has a long history of throwing around blame in precisely that ridiculous way, so it would have been nice to hear how Potok reacts when an event like this lands in his own backyard. Double standards deserve to be challenged, right? By the way: While the AlterNet piece doesn't mention Hicks' apparent fondness for the SPLC, it does mention the fact that his Facebook likes lean liberal. But it dismisses this as unimportant, telling us the significant thing is that Hicks "appears to fit the psychological profile of violent extremists—regardless of their ideological stripes."
Patrick Poole of PJ Media recently made this observation:

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Posted by Casey Breznick on February 14, 2015 19 Comments
"Socialism is like a nude beach. Sounds pretty good until you actually get there." Iowahawk on Twitter
Last week, Cornell's President David Skorton dropped a bombshell on the student body when he announced, in an email sent to all students, a $350 student health fee to be levied on all students who do not purchase Cornell's Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) starting next academic year. Immediately, the campus erupted in outrage over yet another hike in the cost to attend Cornell---one that would not be covered by financial aid because it is a fee and one that was announced so suddenly without any warning from the University administration. The Cornell Review, the campus's conservative publication of which I am Editor-in-Chief, was the first to break the story and has worked diligently all week gathering and reporting as much information as possible to bring the situation to national attention. I am scheduled to appear on Fox & Friends Sunday morning (tentatively 7:20 a.m. Eastern)[see update below] to discuss the student protests. When the fee was first announced, the student body---conservative, liberal, and apolitical---united in a way it rarely does, directing collective indignation towards the administration for shoving more costs onto students and their families.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 14, 2015 6 Comments
Some Democrats are planning to boycott Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress next month because they view John Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu as an insult to Obama. Senator Marco Rubio spoke out on Thursday, urging Democrats not to boycott the speech. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
Rubio Urges Democrats to Not Boycott Netanyahu Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) strongly urged his Democratic colleagues to stand with Israel during his floor speech Thursday, stating they should not boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 address to Congress.
“Don’t do this to a people that are in the crosshairs of multiple terrorist groups with the capability of attacking them,” Rubio said. “Don’t do this to a nation whose civilians are terrorized by thousands of rockets launched against them at a moment’s notice. Don’t do this to a country that’s facing down the threat of a nuclear weapon annihilating them off the face of the Earth. Don’t do this to a people that are being stigmatized all over the world, even as we speak, who are being oppressed. Don’t do this to a country that in forum after forum has become the subject of de-legitimatization as people argue that somehow Israel’s right to exist is not real."
Here's the video: Rubio's sentiment has been echoed by Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 14, 2015 39 Comments
A big problem with bureaucrats and politicians is that so many possess degrees in law and social science; therefore, whenever the results of a "scientific study" sound like a platform to generate to rules, they go all in without properly analyzing the data. Our current news cycle is filled with the unintended consequences of these edicts, but today I want to focus on one of the popular mandates. America's War on Cholesterol. About 40 years ago, a group of researchers concluded that cholesterol in the diet increased the risk of heart disease.  Within a relatively short period of time, eggs (an important component of American diets) were defamed.  Subsequently, sales dropped substantially -- hurting thousands of poultry farmers. Then, a few years back, another study asserted the existence of "good cholesterol".

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Posted by Amy Miller on February 14, 2015 2 Comments
Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been formally charged with trying to cover up the involvement of the Iranians in a bombing of a Jewish center. This comes after shocking reports that prosecutor Alberto Nisman had (before his suspicious death) drafted a warrant for the arrest of Fernandez, charging her of attempting to shield Iranian officials from responsibility for the bombing. Nisman was found dead in his home a day before he was slated to testify against the current Argentinian government. BBC News explains how the scandal has ballooned for the Argentinian president:
Although this was an expected move, it could not have come at a worse time for the Argentine president. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was already facing criticism for the way she has been managing the Nisman case, which has become the worst crisis of her political career so far. Now she will also face pressure from the judiciary, which is demanding an unprecedented investigation into a sitting president - one that could end up with an impeachment-like process if she is found guilty. Meanwhile, prosecutors are calling for a massive protest on the streets of Buenos Aires next week in what is expected to become the largest anti-government march in recent years. Opposition leaders, unions and even the Catholic Church are joining calls for a fair and independent investigation into a death that has shocked this nation.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 14, 2015 28 Comments
Bill Maher has some ideas about what really destroyed Brian Williams' credibility with the American people...and it has absolutely nothing to do with his recent suspension. From Mediaite:
See, what “destroyed” Brian Williams’ credibility in Maher’s eyes was “ten years of wasting precious news time with bullshit stories.” It really bothers him that national nightly newscasts shirk their “sacred responsibility” to report the news in favor of viral YouTube videos, cutesy human interest stories, and lots and lots of weather coverage. He called it “journalistic malpractice” for Williams to spend so little time reporting on climate change and instead covering east coast blizzards “like white Godzilla is on the way.”
Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 13, 2015 15 Comments
Earlier this week, President Obama sat down to promote Obamacare interview with Buzzfeed and Vox.
Post by BuzzFeed Video.
That the President chose listacles, cat memes, and explainer 'journalism' was not unnoticed by Right leaning media, and thus outrage ensued. Many, like Fox New's Greta Van Susteren simply want our president to be SERIOUS. ISIS is crucifying and beheading their way across the Middle East, Yemen is in shambles, thanks to Senate Democrats, DHS could potentially start the month of March unfunded, Montana is trying to ban yoga pants, Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show, and the whole world is going to hell. And here's our President turned gif, wielding a Selfie Stick, striking his best Tom Cruise in a dirty mirror.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 13, 2015 3 Comments
Canada's equivalent of Fox News shut down early this morning. In a land where the state run Human Rights Commission works tirelessly to squash free speech, Sun News Network will be missed. Sun News' closing leave the network's commentators like Ezra Levant, who've consistently spoken out against Canada's penchant for political correctness are now without network home, and Free Speech, largely without a national voice. Citing difficulty obtaining a buyer, the network was left with no viable way to remain operational. In August of 2013, federal regulators denied Sun News a mandatory cable spot, making it difficult for the network to attract viewers. CBC News reports:

Posted by Amy Miller on February 13, 2015 8 Comments
Yesterday, thousands of people descended on Raleigh, North Carolina to pay homage to the three muslims killed in this week's brutal shooting in Chapel Hill. At one point, the memorial tilted political as the father of one of the victims begged for a federal investigation into the murders:
In an impassioned speech to the assembly, the father of the two slain women implored President Obama and law enforcement to investigate the killings as a hate crime. “Please involve the F.B.I. Please investigate. Please look carefully,” said Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist in nearby Clayton. “I have talked to lawyers. I have talked to law professors. This has hate crime written all over it!” “It is all about making this country that they loved, where they lived and died, peaceful for everybody else,” Dr. Abu-Salha said. Without uttering his name, Dr. Abu-Salha referred in his eulogy to the Facebook page of Mr. Hicks, the neighbor charged with the murders, where he frequently made clear his disdain for all religions. Dr. Abu-Salha asked people to ignore what he saw as defamatory depictions of Islam in the news media, and specifically in the current movie “American Sniper.”
I'm not going to sit here and throw stones at speakers at a memorial where emotions are running high. His child was in the ground. That being said, over the past few days we're learned a little more about Hicks. Neighbors and friends of the victims are coming forward with troubling accounts of the dynamic between Mr. Hicks and his neighbors:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2015 10 Comments
By now, readers of Legal Insurrection know all about Rasmea Odeh, and her convictions for a 1969 supermarket bombing in Jerusalem for which she was convicted in 1970, and immigration fraud, for which she was conficted in Detroit in November 2014. As Rasmea's supporters hold fundraisers, letter writing campaigns, student events, and livestreams to celebrate Rasmea as a hero, the families of Rasmea's victims mourn. Rasmea will be sentenced in the Detroit case on March 12, 2015. She filed motions in court for a new trial and for judgment to be entered in her favor, citing alleged trial errors. In an Order issued today (full embed at bottom of post), , Hon. Gershwin A Drain denied the motions, lambasting Rasmea's attorney's for submitting perfunctory papers in support of the motions.
As an initial matter, Defendant’s Motion for a New Trial is so lacking in legal authority and argument, it should be denied on this basis alone. Defendant claims the Court committed nine legal errors, yet fails to cite a single case, statute, rule or other authority supporting her assertion. Defendant did not even include the legal standard for granting new trials. Nor does she develop her arguments in any meaningful way. Moreover, it is not clear why Defendant re-raises numerous arguments already thoroughly considered and rejected by this Court, particularly in light of the fact that she offers no new arguments explaining why this Court’s original conclusions were incorrect.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 13, 2015 8 Comments
We've already talked about how Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stole the show at this year's State of the Union address---mostly because the entire internet was 90% sure they caught her during the action: As it turns out, she wasn't merely napping---she was fighting back the effects of a fine California vino. From TPM:
"The audience for the most part is awake because they're bobbing up and down all the time. And we sit there, stone faced, the sober judges," Ginsburg said. "But we're not, at least I was not, 100 percent sober." She explained that the justices have dinner together before the annual speech, which she said Scalia hadn't attended in several years, and that Justice Anthony Kennedy brought along a bottle of California wine that was just too good to resist. "I vowed this year -- just sparkling water, stay away from the wine -- but in the end the dinner was so delicious it needed wine to accompany it."
Watch:

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 13, 2015 28 Comments
The old quip in self-defense circles is that it is imprudent to bring a knife to a gunfight. This caution must apply only more certainly to the bringing of a rock to a gunfight, a lesson learned the hard way by one Antonio Zambrano-Montes after he was shot and killed this past Tuesday by the Pasco, WA police department, as reported by CNN and other news sources. Police were called after reports that Zambrano-Montes was at an urban intersection hurling rocks at vehicles. When officers responded, they too began to be pelted with stones as large as softballs, with officers being struck multiple times. Police say that they attempted to use various degrees of non-deadly force, including voice commands and a taser, but that these efforts were unsuccessful. Events were escalated to imminent deadly force against the officers by Zambrano-Montes. Video below shows shooting death of Zambrano-Montes.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 13, 2015 4 Comments
Add Wisconsin to the ever expanding list of states impacted by the measles outbreak. The state's public health officials indicate that two patients are now isolated and being tested for the disease. Last week, there were 14 states with 102 infected citizens and public health officials were warning that the outbreak of this formerly eradicated disease was going to spread.  It looks like that prediction is true. I suspect other states will be joining Wisconsin shortly. Meanwhile, the crisis continues apace in California, as news comes of an infected San Francisco man riding the very public BART system to his job at at LinkedIn and then heading out to a local bistro. There is some good news to be found amid the notices of fever and rashes, however. Disneyland, the epicenter for many of these cases, isn't seeing attendance plummet.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 13, 2015 20 Comments
Back in December of 2013, a woman named Justine Sacco boarded a plane in New York that was bound for South Africa. She was planning to visit family for the holidays. She tweeted what was perceived as a politically incorrect message to her tiny Twitter following and by the time she landed, she was national news. While she was in the air, her tweets were discovered and promoted by writers at Gawker and BuzzFeed and then the rest of the Twittersphere went into a fury. Professor Jacobson addressed the issue:
Yesterday was the worst Twitter day of all time. Or at least the worst that I remember. Some lady no one had ever heard of and who had about 100 followers at the time sent the Tweet above. The tweet went viral.... Whoever started it, plenty of websites picked up on it and ran with it to feed the mob and not miss out on clicks and eyeballs. By the time I saw it, long after she became a hunted woman, my first impression was similar to that of John Nolte at Breitbart.com: Looks like the type of “white privilege” claptrap we read almost weekly at Salon.com or Slate.com. Some liberal white person coming to grips with her privilege and wanting the whole world to know about it.... Racist? You’d need to know a lot more. Maybe shoot her a tweet back and ask what she meant, or look her up and send her an email before proclaiming her to be a racist. But no one could do that. She was on an airplane to visit her native South Africa. For 11 hours. And in those 11 hours she became a hated and hunted woman.... Greg Gutfeld summed it up best:
Ms. Sacco was fired from her job as a result. Here's a video report ABC News provided at the time:

Posted by Amy Miller on February 13, 2015 28 Comments
Rick Perry may be polling in the single digits, but that hasn't stopped the former Texas governor from pushing ahead with a messaging strategy that emphasizes experience over rhetoric, and results over flash. Via the AP:
Perry, who is considering a second run for president, wrapped up a two-day trip to New Hampshire with a speech at the Strafford County Republican Committee's Lincoln Day Dinner. While he repeated his warning that GOP voters shouldn't nominate a "critic in chief," he had plenty of criticism for President Barack Obama, saying his lack of executive experience before becoming president has hurt him and that he hasn't picked up many management skills on the job. The nation is ready, he said, to move beyond "eight years of this years of this young, very attractive, amazing orator, junior U.S. senator." "I don't think they're going to go there," Perry said. "They're going to go to a tested, results-oriented executive who has a record of accomplishment."
This isn't the first time Perry has thrown shade at his younger potential opponents. During his interview last week with the Texas Tribune, Perry emphasized his own experience over that of other, untested candidates:
Asked about what separates him from Cruz, Perry never mentioned his potential rival by name. Instead, he downplayed Senate experience and alluded to the fact that Cruz’s tenure in office is the same as then-Sen. Barack Obama's when he ran for president in 2008. “It’s one of the selling points, if you will, to the American people as they decide who’s going to follow Barack Obama,” he said. “I think they’re going to make a rather radical shift, away from a young, untested United States senator whose policies have really failed.”
Ba-zing---because it's true.
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