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Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 02, 2015 8 Comments
Russia's Vladimir Putin isn't letting the untimely death of an opposition leader distract him from creating Soviet Empire version 2.0. With the Obama Administration suggesting jobs as a solution to ISIS and its brutal ambitions, the Russian leader seems to be forging a key alliance with two countries that are extremely concerned about the terrorist take-over of Libya.
Various unconfirmed reports are emerging indicating that there may be joint international action planned in Libya as early as next week. Egypt is already conducting air strikes against ISIS-linked targets in Derna, close to where Egyptian Coptics were massacred recently, as displayed in a gruesome video. Debka reports that Egypt’s president Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi is planning further action in Libya, including more air strikes and possible ground troops, within a few days. According to the report, Egyptian commando and marine forces are preparing for sea landings to seize Derna and destroy the terrorist elements there. If this attack is actually launched, it will be the first time in modern times that an Arab country has sent ground forces into another Arab country. Al-Jazeera television reports that the Italian navy is getting ready to carry off sophisticated military drills off the coast of Libya as early as Monday. Although Italy claims that it will be a regular exercise, there are many more vessels taking part in this year’s exercise than have in the past, which Italy explains by saying that they are testing out sophisticated new technologies. ...Some reports indicate that Russia has hinted at a willingness to participate in a naval blockade of Libya to prevent arm supplies from leaving Libya for other countries. Russia could play a role in this because it already has a naval fleet in the Mediterranean.

LATEST NEWS

Posted by Amy Miller on March 02, 2015 35 Comments
Probable presidential candidate Scott Walker changed his mind on immigration, and it became major news. This is ridiculous. Via Fox News:
“My view has changed,” Walker said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview taped Friday. “I’m flat out saying it.” Walker in 2013 said a plan in which illegal immigrants can become United States citizens by first paying penalties and enduring a waiting period “makes sense.” However, he is now saying such a plan is tantamount to amnesty, amid criticism that he has flip-flopped on that issue and others -- including right-to-work legislation in his home state. “I don’t believe in amnesty,” said Walker, who finished second Saturday in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll for potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates. “We need to secure the border. We ultimately need to put in place a system that works -- a legal immigration system that works.”
Here's the video: Obviously, the left piled on:

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 William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2015 6 Comments
We will have live coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at AIPAC, scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. But of course, it's running late (the slipped in a panel discussion), so stay tuned. Amy is in the room and will send photos and reports. Her Twitter feed is at bottom of post. (Update 10:30 - speech over, will embed video when available)(video added)

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2015 20 Comments
Martin O'Mally [damn - I spelled his name wrong] (quick, look him up on Wikipedia, and let me know who he is) is spoken about in certain circles as a possible challenger to Billary. The New York Times reports that Marty (is it okay to call him that?) is jabbing at Billary, Martin O’Malley, in Veiled Jab at Hillary Clinton, Derides Politics of ‘Triangulation’:
Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who is likely to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, took a veiled shot at a potential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech in South Carolina on Saturday, criticizing the politics of “triangulation” that have historically been associated with the Clintons. “The most fundamental power of our party and our country is the power of our moral principles,” Mr. O’Malley said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by an aide. In words that echoed those of Senator Barack Obama when he battled Mrs. Clinton in 2007 for the Democratic nomination, Mr. O’Malley added: “Triangulation is not a strategy that will move America forward. History celebrates profiles in courage, not profiles in convenience.” Mr. O’Malley’s comments came at the Democratic Party’s John Spratt Issues Conference in Myrtle Beach, and South Carolina is a crucial early primary state that Mrs. Clinton lost to Mr. Obama. Mr. O’Malley has in the past declined to contrast himself with Mrs. Clinton.... The remarks from Mr. O’Malley, who is viewed as facing an uphill battle, signaled a new phase both of his own efforts, after a year of saying he was not in “compare-contrast” mode with Mrs. Clinton, and of the early 2016 campaign.
Billary is scared. Very scared.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 01, 2015 11 Comments
Today, I braved an ice storm to video protests at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, DC. The nasty weather didn't stop a group of around 60 anti-Israel activists from storming the steps of the Washington Convention Center and blocking at least one entrance to the conference grounds. Code Pink and other anti-Israeli groups went into a frenzy against AIPAC, the "Israel lobby," and what they believe is the "Apartheid" State of Israel. I also saw harassment of men, women, and children who had done nothing to deserve it except make the mistake of revealing their conference badge before they reached the door. Those who were obviously religious Jews (based on their head coverings, clothing, and facial hair) got it worse.  There were shouts of "Go Home" hurled at the attendees. There was also the Hezbollah flag flying overhead, as this video shows.  There were chants that "BDS is the best" (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement), and "The State of Israel's Got to Go."

Posted by David Gerstman on March 01, 2015 28 Comments
The administration continues in its attempt to marginalize Prime Minister Netanyahu ahead of his speech on Iran. And the efforts appear to be backfiring. Jeffrey Goldberg tells some important truths in today's column, Danger Ahead for Obama on Iran:
I’m fairly sure Netanyahu will deliver a powerful speech, in part because he is eloquent in English and forceful in presentation. But there is another reason this speech may be strong: Netanyahu has a credible case to make. Any nuclear agreement that allows Iran to maintain a native uranium-enrichment capability is a dicey proposition; in fact, any agreement at all with an empire-building, Assad-sponsoring, Yemen-conquering, Israel-loathing, theocratic terror regime is a dicey proposition. The deal that seems to be taking shape right now does not fill me—or many others who support a diplomatic solution to this crisis—with confidence. Reports suggest that the prospective agreement will legitimate Iran’s right to enrich uranium (a “right” that doesn’t actually exist in international law); it will allow Iran to maintain many thousands of operating centrifuges; and it will lapse after 10 or 15 years, at which point Iran would theoretically be free to go nuclear. (The matter of the sunset clause worries me, but I’m more worried that the Iranians will find a way to cheat their way out of the agreement even before the sun is scheduled to set.) ... This is a very dangerous moment for Obama and for the world. He has made many promises, and if he fails to keep them—if he inadvertently (or, God forbid, advertently) sets Iran on the path to the nuclear threshold, he will be forever remembered as the president who sparked a nuclear-arms race in the world’s most volatile region, and for breaking a decades-old promise to Israel that the United States would defend its existence and viability as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
And as Goldberg noted, three years ago Obama promised in one of Goldberg's columns, “We’ve got Israel’s back.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2015 37 Comments
It's often said that the Second Amendment makes all the others possible. Let's take a step back. The Second Amendment is good, I'll admit.  But as readers know, the Third Amendment is just as -- if not more -- important:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
What's more, what good is the First Amendment if a soldier is quartered at your desk while you try to blog? So I was glad to see Prof. Glenn Reynolds highlight a symposium at U. Tennessee Law School on the Third Amendment:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2015 12 Comments
On March 1, 2012, Andrew Breitbart died. My post upon hearing the news tried to capture what many of us were feeling, including reactions from friends and foes, Andrew Breitbart dead. We've tried our best to remember his death each anniversary: As well as his legacy: Later in the day on March 1, 2012, I wrote A personal note on the death of Andrew Breitbart. There's not much I can add to it now:
I only spoke once with Andrew Breitbart. He reached out to me, and we spoke by phone. The topic is not important, but I was shocked that he even knew who I was; but as I’ve come to learn, Andrew seemed to know who everyone was in the conservative blogosphere. He was just that way. Since my wife called this morning to let me know of Andrew’s death, it has been hard to focus on anything else. In her words, we don’t have that many bright media lights, and to lose him hurts.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 01, 2015 8 Comments
Ever since the Benghazi attack that killed an American ambassador and three other Americans, Hillary supporting liberals have been calling the incident a non-issue but facts are stubborn things. They'll undoubtedly give the same white wash to the fact that the Clinton Foundation has accepted donations from foreign governments. Yet even MSNBC's Chris Matthews has acknowledged that these issues are serious. Video via the Washington Free Beacon:

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 01, 2015 2 Comments
CPAC was a blast. Although I had a hard time getting there, it was worth it. I was amazed at some of the people I was able to get close to and photograph just by walking around the event. Have a look below. Here's Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and Erick Erickson of Red State. They were part of a panel on GOP prospects for 2016. Here are Katie Pavlich and Guy Benson of Townhall. Same panel as the one mentioned above.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 28, 2015 24 Comments
Gawker Media website Deadspin helped Cory Gardner win the Colorado Senate race, and contributed to Republicans taking the Senate, by botching a gotcha story about Garnder supposedly faking his high school football record. Deadspin was dead wrong, and we said Thanks Deadspin! Now Gawker Media website Jezebel has done the equivalent for Scott Walker. "Senior Reporter" (what could that possible mean at Jezebel?) Natasha Vargas-Cooper thought she had a big, BIG scoop that proved Walker hated women, or something. You see, Walker supposedly didn't want sexual assault statistics reported by the University of Wisconsin because budget cuts would defund such reporting: Jezebel Scott Walker Sexual Assault Reporting Original It was the perfect WAR ON WOMEN narrative. But Vargas-Cooper didn't know the full story, perhaps because she was too busy dancing on Walker's political grave. The Daily Beast then picked up the story, and Scott Walker supposedly hating women spread like wildfire. Turns out the reporting cut was requested by the University of Wisconsin itself because it was redundant of federal reporting it already did -- why spend the money to report the same thing twice? And the world came crashing down on Jezebel and Vargas-Cooper, but she stood strong in the face of the patriarchy:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 28, 2015 12 Comments
When it comes to domestic problems, a common joke among my independently minded friends is, "It's all Bush's fault." However, when it comes to problems of a more international scope, the preferred target is the United States. So, when tasked with figuring out what went wrong, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues blamed America first! Despite the fact that there have been regular flare-ups of Ebola in Africa since 1976, and that there is a United Nations group that is tasked "to improve health, particularly among disadvantaged populations", a recent report lays the blame for the spread of the virus at America's doorstep.
The United States fumbled its response to the Ebola epidemic before it even began, neglecting experiments to make vaccines and drugs against the virus, and cutting funding to key public health agencies, a presidential commission said Thursday. Americans focused on their own almost nonexistent risk of catching Ebola from travelers instead of pressing to help the truly affected nations, the scathing report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues says. They've been acting against their own best interest, the commission said in its report. "Both justice and prudence demand that we do our part in combating such devastating outbreaks. Once we recognize our humanitarian obligations and the ability of infectious diseases to travel in our interconnected world, we cannot choose between the ethical and the prudential," it reads. "Ethics and enlightened interest converge in calling for our country to address epidemics at their source."

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.
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