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Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 27, 2015 34 Comments
We recently reported that Obamacare Co-Ops have been dropping like dead, rotting flies. Now, in the wake of the continued failures of program implementation, a new challenge has been filed with the Supreme Court:
Foes of President Obama's health care law are taking another crack at upending the legislation, filing a new challenge with the Supreme Court after a separate long-shot case was rejected earlier this year. The petition filed Monday by the Pacific Legal Foundation, like the prior challenge, focuses on an obscure aspect of the law. The case contends ObamaCare violates the provision of the Constitution that requires tax-raising bills to originate in the House of Representatives.

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Posted by Mike LaChance on October 27, 2015 10 Comments
Across the nation, police departments are having difficulty recruiting new officers. Many people who might have considered a career in law enforcement just a few years ago are, naturally, concerned by the anti-cop rhetoric espoused by the Black Lives Matter movement and the accompanying narrative supplied by many in media. CNN provides these stunning numbers:
The direct impact of officer-involved shootings on recruiting new officers is unclear, but police departments small and large are having fewer candidates apply to become officers. Post-Ferguson, the New York Police Department, the country's biggest police force, says applications are down 18%. LAPD saw a 16% drop in applications since 2013. In Philadelphia, where police have had a decadeslong problem of trying to attract new hires, police recruit numbers dropped 47% in 2014 from 2008. Even the small police force in Leesburg, Virginia, says while it hasn't seen a drop in applications, far fewer qualified candidates are applying, affecting their ability to hire good cops.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 26, 2015 27 Comments
WHY? WHY? WHY? The Cornell Daily Sun student newspaper ran an excellent article showing that over 96% of Cornell faculty political donations went to Democrats. It was simple, ahem, math. Yours truly was quoted extensively, as we reported with mathematical precision, 97% of faculty donations at Cornell Univ. to Democrats:
Prof. William Jacobson, law, one of the 15 Republican donors, said that he found the statistics “completely predictable.”
I had heard that Jesse Watters from The O'Reilly Factor was on campus, but for some reason he didn't contact me. I need better PR people. In fact, I need any PR people. Watters frequently visits college campuses for his Watters' World segments, asking seemingly simple questions to frequently bewildered students. It's always in good fun, never mean-spirited. And that's exactly what he did at Cornell with students on campus. So far, so good. And then Cornell Media Relations stepped in and shut him down. For no obvious reason. And thereby created THE STORY that Watters' World was shut down.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 26, 2015 7 Comments
China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have spent years debating whose sovereignty holds supreme over territory in the South China Sea. Back in 2014, China began the work of turning the Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago into permanent land forms; before China began this massive dredging project, these "islands" would disappear during high tide. Now, however, China has laid exclusive claim to the new islands, as well as a 12 nautical mile buffer zone around them. China has jealously guarded this territory, but the United States Navy is about to defy that claim. Tonight, the Navy will send the USS Lassen through those waters and into the 12 mile buffer zone surrounding the Spratly archipelago in the first of a series of missions into the area. Via Reuters:
The ship would likely be accompanied by a U.S. Navy P-8A surveillance plane and possibly P-3 surveillance plane, which have been conducting regular surveillance missions in the region, according to the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 26, 2015 25 Comments
Among the wave of attacks on Jews in Israel was the attack on Bus No. 185:
Shortly after 8 p.m. on October 12, 22-year-old Muhammad Shamasne boarded bus No. 185 near the entrance to Jerusalem and stabbed a 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier and unsuccessfully tried to grab his gun. Shamasne was shot and killed by police while passengers were attempting to subdue him.
You may remember that attack because we featured one of the heroes. Yair Ben-Shabat, an Israeli Seniors martial arts expert, helped subdue one of the attackers … with his nunchucks.

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Posted by Amy Miller on October 26, 2015 6 Comments
Last week, U.S. Forces teamed up with Kurdish Peshmergas to rescue captives held at an Islamic State compound in northern Iraq. The mission freed around 70 hostages, but led to the death of Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler---the first U.S. service member to die in combat in Iraq since 2011. After the mission was complete, the Kurdistan Regional Government---the same body who requested the raid and the help of U.S. forces---released footage from a helmet cam worn by one of the Kurdish soldiers. Watch (the footage is intense, but not NSFW): According to CNN, a U.S. military official has confirmed the authenticity of the video.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 32 Comments
Discussing Paul Ryan's bid for Speaker of the House Monday, Melissa Harris-Perry made an unusual claim about the term, "hard worker." Alfonso Aguilar, Director of the conservative organization American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership said:
"But let's be fair. If there's somebody who is a hard worker when he goes to Washington, it's Paul Ryan. He not only works with Republicans but with Democrats. You know very well that I work on immigration issues, trying to get Republicans to support immigration reform. Paul Ryan is somebody who has supported immigration reform, has worked with somebody like Luis Gutierrez. Luis Gutierrez is very respectful, speaks highly of Paul Ryan, this is somebody who is trying to govern.
At which point Harris-Perry interrupted Aguilar and then proceeded to wander down a completely unhinged tangent about slavery.
"Alfonso, I feel you. But I just want to pause on one thing, because I don't disagree with you that I actually think Mr. Ryan is a great choice for this roll. I want us to be super careful when we use the language "hard worker," because, I actually keep an image of folks working in the cotton fields on my office wall because it is a reminder of what hard work looks like. So I feel you that he's a hard worker, I do, but in the context of relative privilege... and I just want to point out that when you talk about work-life balance and being a hard worker, the moms who are working, who don't have health care, we don't call them hard workers, we call them failures, we call them people who are sucking off the system."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 10 Comments
Some of the most influential Latino minds in the conservative movement, including Alfonso Aguilar, Director of American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership, representatives from the LIBRE Initiative, Mario H. Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, Rosario Marin, former U.S. treasurer, Massey Villareal, the former chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and many more are meeting on the eve of the CNBC GOP Presidential debate. During the closed-door meeting, leading Conservative Latino activists will discuss the immigration proposals and public statements of each of the presidential candidates and identify any candidates who may not earn the support of the Latino community. Following the meeting, attendees will hold a press conference. Anger over immigration comments made by Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and the seeming endorsement of such comments by Senator Ted Cruz compelled Conservative Latino activists to form a coalition.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 30 Comments
Watchdog groups are accusing the Bureau of of Land Management (BLM) of illegally selling thousands of wild horses to be slaughtered between 2008 and 2012 under the office's Wild Horse and Burro Program (WH&B). A report released by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last week, found that the BLM sold 1,794 federally-protected wild horses to a rancher in Colorado, who then sold the horses to be slaughtered in Mexico. The American Wild Horse Preservation says selling wild horses for slaughter both violates BLM policy and a Congressional ban. The BLM employee who sold the horses to Colorado rancher, Tom Davis, received monetary compensation based on the number of horses sold. The detailed OIG investigation unearthed inconsistency among state-level brand inspectors and licensed officials in Colorado and New Mexico, in what reads like Jim Geraghty's Weed Agency.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 30 Comments
In the twilight of his administration, President Obama is renewing his fight for stricter gun control laws. Tuesday, President Obama will travel to his hometown Chicago. But he's not there to visit family, the President is headed to Chicago for one reason -- to renew the fight for gun control. The LA Times reports President Obama will be speaking to the International Association of Chiefs of Police and there he will make his case for tougher gun laws.
Obama will talk about the need for tougher gun laws with police chiefs gathered in Chicago on Tuesday, aides say, as part of a broader conversation about violence and how police can work more effectively with their communities to combat it. He’s traveling to Chicago simply because that’s the site of the annual gathering of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, but advisors say he’s well aware of the symbolism in returning to his hometown amid this debate. Chicago has long been a battleground for both pro- and anti-gun forces. Three decades ago, in the wake of the assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II, the City Council banned new sales and registration of handguns in the city in 1982. Chicago was the first major city to take that step. Now, with Obama renewing his rhetoric about more gun control in the wake of massacres at a church in South Carolina and a community college in Oregon and considering imposing gun safety rules by executive order, critics once again are pointing to the president’s hometown for proof of the folly.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 12 Comments
Joe and Dr. Jill Biden sat down with 60 Minutes to discuss the Vice President's decision not to sit out a run for White House. "We couldn't win. I'll be very blunt. If I thought we could've put together the kind of campaign that our supporters deserved and our contributors deserved, I would've gone ahead and done it."
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Posted by New Neo on October 26, 2015 18 Comments
Andrew McCarthy has written a National Review article entitled "Hillary's Breathtaking Mendacity." It describes the lies that were revealed and "made explicit" in Clinton's testimony before the Benghazi committee last Thursday, and it's well worth reading in its entirely. But it also exemplifies a response that's occurring only on the right. McCarthy's clear and painstaking description of how Clinton lied to the American people (but not to her daughter) is freely available to all who read National Review, but how many people would that be, compared to those who read the ubiquitous MSM spin that says she acquitted herself admirably in the hearings and no one laid a glove on her, nor was any new or interesting information revealed? The Benghazi hearings have underlined---even though such underlining wasn't needed---how those who control the narrative control the perception and even the conclusion. Clinton can lie through her teeth about material facts for political reasons, it can be demonstrated over and over (or it can be obvious to anyone listening or paying a particle of attention), and if the media decides to ignore that fact, how many people will look for themselves and decide for themselves? Very few, I'm afraid. Apparently, facts are not stubborn things. Not any more. Maybe they never were.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2015 39 Comments
"As a Jew" is a phrase that starts the conversation for some left-wing Jews when it comes to Israel, and particularly "the occupation." The establishment of Jewish identity at the start serves as the shield for what is to follow: A completely one-sided, factually inaccurate, historically-skewed bashing of Israel. Such an Op-Ed was published in The Washington Post on October 23, 2015, by Professors Steven Levitsky (Harvard) and Glen Weyl (U. Chicago)[note: Weyl just joined Microsoft], We are lifelong Zionists. Here’s why we’ve chosen to boycott Israel. The opening reads as many "as a Jew" openings read: "We are lifelong Zionists. Like other progressive Jews ...." The Op-Ed is a caricature of the self-absorbed, selfish, ahistorical "as a Jew" argument which is at the heart of progressive Jewish opposition to Israel, often expressed through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It's mostly, if not all, about making the "as a Jews" feel good about themselves, justifying their own existences by putting the existences of Israelis at risk. I'll go over the Op-Ed later in this post. But first, it's helpful to consider this description of the "as a Jew" phenomenon as it relates to progressive anti-Zionist Jews:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 25, 2015 8 Comments
Watching Bernie Sanders declare that he's about to say something that "may not be great politics" and then announce that "people are sick of hearing about Clinton emails," many people wondered why on earth Sanders would hand such a major victory to Hillary during the first (and so far only) Democrat debate.  It made no sense. She'd had a horrible horrible spring and summer, and her campaign was looking like it was about to implode—so much so that Joe Biden gave serious consideration to jumping into the race.  Sanders handed her a life-line that helped not only jump-start her campaign but set the stage for a cool, confident, cackling Hillary to face the Benghazi committee.   Not great politics?  Understatement of the year. Watch as the significance of the moment slowly dawns on a bobble-headed Hillary: She's grim-faced and readying herself for battle as Sanders begins speaking, but by the end, she's positively giddy as what he has said—and done—sinks in, and she breaks debate protocol by spontaneously reaching out to Sanders and shaking his hand in unconcealed euphoria.  Poor Sanders didn't get it at the time.  But she did.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 25, 2015 26 Comments
Ted Cruz has hit third place (behind Carson and Trump) and double-digits in Iowa.  He's taken over Rubio's third place spot according to Bloomberg.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, at 10 percent, is the only other candidate [besides Carson and Trump] in double digits. He's followed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio at 9 percent. The horse-race numbers for the top four mirror a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, with the main exception being that the earlier poll had Rubio in third place with 13 percent.
As he continues to campaign in Iowa, Cruz emphasizes the import of the 2016 presidential election.  He tweets:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 25, 2015 35 Comments
As an iconic American industry, we have been following McDonald's and its struggle to deal with minimum wage requirements and greedy unions. Now, after a series of bad quarterly reports, the corporate accountants are serving Happy Meals:
The struggling fast food giant announced Thursday that global same-store sales grew 4% in the third quarter of 2015, with the gains driven by growth in several international markets. The burger chain even ended a seven-quarter losing streak in the U.S., where same-store sales grew 0.9% compared to the same period last year. Overall, McDonald’s profit climbed to $1.3 billion for the quarter, up from $1.07 billion for the same quarter a year earlier. The Oak Brook, Ill., hamburger chain surpassed analysts’ expectations with earnings of $1.40 per share. Analysts had projected net income of $1.27 per share, according to Thomson Reuters, compared with $1.09 reported a year earlier. McDonald’s reported they spent $3.1 billion on share buybacks and dividends during the last quarter, a move that helped boost earnings per share
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