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Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 14, 2015 6 Comments
Rasmea Odeh is the supermarket bomber who killed Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner in 1969, served 10 years in Israeli prison before being released in a prisoner exchange, and then made her way to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Rasmea then lied on her visa (1994) and naturalization (2003) applications, among other ways, by denying that she ever had been charged, convicted or imprisoned. Rasmea was convicted in federal court in Detroit in November 2014 of immigration fraud, sentenced to 18 months in prison, and ordered deported. We have covered many times how Rasmea is being treated as a hero by the anti-Israel activist community, The Sickening Deification of Rasmea Odeh. That despite the fact that the evidence of her guilt in the bombing and the immigration charge is overwhelming. Today Rasmea's appeal was argued in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. I had hoped to attend, but was unable. Fortunately the audio of the oral argument is posted online (and at the bottom of this post).

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Posted by Amy Miller on October 14, 2015 6 Comments
Hillary Clinton's performance in last night's debate set off a maelstrom of media filings questioning everything (apparently) we thought we knew about the Democratic primary. Is Joe Biden finished? Did Hillary Clinton just knock Biden out of the running? Is Joe Biden even relevant now? Personally, I think many of these writers are overstating Clinton's performance. She sounded strong, but also rehearsed; that being said, nothing we saw last night should shock us. For all her crimes (give it time,) Hillary Clinton was a First Lady, a Senator, and Secretary of State. She knows how to handle herself. Should we use her lack of meltdown as evidence that Biden 2016 is a lost cause? On the whole, I think not. It's still too early---and Americans still like Joe Biden. A Gallup poll released today shows that 49% of Americans still have a favorable view of Biden; this is his best polling performance since Obama's 2009 "honeymoon" period. biden favorable unfavorable october 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on October 14, 2015 24 Comments
This week the Department of Justice created a new position aimed at coordinating investigations into the growth and threat of domestic terrorism. Current Assistant Attorney General John Carlin announced the move today during a speech focusing on the DOJ's efforts to combat extremism at home. From today's remarks at the George Washington University - Southern Poverty Law Center event [emphasis mine]:
At NSD [National Security Division], in order to ensure that we are gaining the benefits of the information and input from those eyes on the ground from around the country, and in recognition of a growing number of potential domestic terrorism matters around the United Sates, we have created a new position to assist with our important work in combatting domestic terrorism. Just this week, we appointed a new Domestic Terrorism Counsel to serve as our main point of contact for U.S. Attorneys working on domestic terrorism matters. The new DT Counsel will not only help ensure that DT cases are properly coordinated, but will also play a key role in our headquarters-level efforts to identify trends to help shape our strategy, and to analyze legal gaps or enhancements required to ensure we can combat these threats. The new counsel will also play an important role with the DTEC by providing its members with insights from cases and trends from around the country.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 14, 2015 13 Comments
On September 30, Russia broke from existing frameworks when it began its own airstrikes against rebels in Syria. As the airstrikes continued, it became clear that Vladimir Putin's sympathies toward the brutal Assad regime were become manifest in the bombs Russian aircraft dropped not on Assad's strongholds, but on anti-regime rebels backed by the United States and other western coalition forces. Now both Syrian activists and Iranian officials are reporting that over the past few days, Iran has sent over 1,500 fighters into Syria via Damascus; Hezbollah fighters have also made the journey. Officials claim that these fighters are prepping to launch an assault on militants in Aleppo in northern Syria, and that this move has been bolstered by Russian airstrikes. Via Fox News:
"Sending more troops from Hezbollah, and Iran only increases the shelf life of the Syrian regime, which is destined to end," Maj. Jamil Saleh, the leader of Tajammu Alezzah, a CIA-backed Free Syrian Army faction, told the AP. "It will only add more destruction and displacement."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 14, 2015 12 Comments
The challengers to Hillary Clinton in the debate last night made Republican undercard competitors seem downright impressive. Martin O'Malley has the vocal quality of elevator music. It reminds me of another voice, I just can't place it. But there's not much there there. Jim Webb seemed off-kilter, complaining endlessly about not getting enough time, and not really scoring any points with Democrats by invoking concepts like love of country and a strong military -- that will not fly in today's Democratic Party. What can we say about Linc Chafee? I thought he had the potential to be aggressive. Those of us who know him from Rhode Island know that while he comes across as a doofus, he can be quite nasty and acerbic. I thought we might get that from him when his opening statement emphasized that he's never had a scandal and is honest -- but he didn't take the shot directly at Hillary and seemed lost on stage. In short, none of the three lower-tiered Democrats scored any points and all seemed afraid to confront Hillary. Hillary was, as Mark Steyn puts it, The Alpha Female of a Beta-Male Debate:

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 14, 2015 20 Comments
Hillary Clinton supporters understandably are happy after last night's debate. The motley crew of challengers on stage were incapable of stringing sentences together, much less taking on Clinton directly. Bernie Sanders' demand that the media leave Hillary alone on her server also was a boost to her narrative of "nothing to see here, move along." But that good night masked the fact that in the real world, the server is a serious problem legally and politically. When Obama was interviewed on 60 Minutes last Sunday, he seemed to be signaling there was nothing to Hillary's server problem, Obama pretty much signaled Justice to lay off Hillary:
Steve Kroft: Did you know about Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server– President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: –while she was Secretary of State? President Barack Obama: No. Steve Kroft: Do you think it posed a national security problem? President Barack Obama: I don’t think it posed a national security problem....
That was a fairly outrageous statement to make considering the FBI is still investigating, and could be seen as an interference in DOJ evaluation of the case. Did Obama know something the rest of us don't know? Were the FBI and DOJ sharing information about the investigation with Obama? Now Obama is walking it back:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 14, 2015 13 Comments
Playboy Magazine has announced a rather drastic change to its business model. Starting next March, the classic pinup mag will no longer feature women in the nude. Ravi Somaiya reports at the New York Times:
Playboy to Drop Nudity as Internet Fills Demand Last month, Cory Jones, a top editor at Playboy, went to see its founder Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. In a wood-paneled dining room, with Picasso and de Kooning prints on the walls, Mr. Jones nervously presented a radical suggestion: the magazine, a leader of the revolution that helped take sex in America from furtive to ubiquitous, should stop publishing images of naked women. Mr. Hefner, now 89, but still listed as editor in chief, agreed. As part of a redesign that will be unveiled next March, the print edition of Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses. But they will no longer be fully nude. Its executives admit that Playboy has been overtaken by the changes it pioneered. “That battle has been fought and won,” said Scott Flanders, the company’s chief executive. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 13, 2015 23 Comments
Howdy and thanks so much for joining us tonight! You can watch the first Democratic presidential debate live on CNN and CNNgo. This will be the first of six DNC sanctioned debates. The meager number of Democratic debates is a contentious issue for Democratic delegates and candidates who believe the debate schedule has been rigged to favor Hillary.
Five Democratic presidential candidates are about to try their luck at the first Democratic debate of the 2016 election in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. But the spotlight is largely on two: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The former secretary of state needs to remind viewers of the debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook about why she began the year as the overwhelming front-runner and is best able to take the torch from President Barack Obama. Sanders has the opportunity to prove to millions of voters why a 74-year-old self-described democratic socialist can take on both Clinton and Republicans. There's also a lot at stake for the three lesser known underdogs, particularly former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, whose stalled campaigns could benefit from an "all in" performance Tuesday.

Watch real time debate reaction:

To providing a wide array of real time reactions, we've included a few different Twitter feeds for your entertainment. You'll find those beneath. Are you ready? Let the games begin!

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 13, 2015 24 Comments
Tuesday was another bloody day of Palestinian knifings, shootings, car rammings, and rock throwing. Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal summed up the current knifings in Israel quite well, Palestine: The Psychotic Stage:
Today in Israel, Palestinians are in the midst of a campaign to knife Jews to death, one at a time. This is psychotic. It is evil. To call it anything less is to serve as an apologist, and an accomplice.
But its psychotic for a reason -- generations of lies about Jews fed to Palestinians in schools, media, social media and mosques. Yaacov Lozowick, Israel's State Archivist, explains at this personal website, This is what long-term education to hatred will do :
Palestinian society sends itself into spasms of bloody and murderous irrationality from time to time; at the moment the present case doesn't seem the worst of them. Yet what's striking about this time is the age of the culprits. If in the second Intifada there were hundreds of suicide muderers and would-be-murderers, most of them were young adults, and they mostly had some sort of organization behind them. Someone had to give them an explosive belt and drive them to their target inside Israel. This time many of the attackers are teenagers, some even young teenagers; and since they're using kitchen knives, all they need is access to their mothers' kitchens.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 13, 2015 16 Comments
[Depending on where you work, some images in this post may be NSFW.] Are you or is someone you know a victim of the ravages of breast cancer? Never fear---the League of Extraordinary Social Justice Warriors has resurrected a hashtag to help you deal. Welcome to National No Bra Day---it's exactly what it sounds like. Here's how No Bra Day was originally described by, ostensibly, whoever conceived it:
Boobies are Fantastic… We all think so. And what better way to express the way we feel than to support a full day of boobie freedom?? Women are magnificent creatures, and so are their breasts. Let us spend the day unleashing boobies from their boobie zoos.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 13, 2015 18 Comments
Officials in Zimbabwe have confirmed that American dentist and big game hunter Walter Palmer will not be charged for killing Cecil the Lion. In July, Environment minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri called for Palmer to be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges for poaching, relying on reports that both Palmer and his guide illegally lured Cecil out of protected lands. Now, Muchinguri-Kashiri has told the media that Palmer technically did not break any laws, and that all of his hunting permits were in order. Conservationists, however, are not convinced. Via the Christian Science Monitor:
Local conservationists immediately condemned the announcement, maintaining that Palmer, who is a lifelong hunter, had committed a crime and should be subject to legal action, if not in Zimbabwe then in the United States.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 13, 2015 11 Comments
India-Israel diplomatic relations will turn a new chapter with the Indian President's historic state visit to Israel. Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian Head of the State to visit the Jewish State. The state visit is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 17-month old government that seeks to strengthen commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel. However, right at the onset the Indian President’s visit was marred by a controversy, when media reports surfaced early this week that Mukherjee reportedly quoted Mahatma Gandhi during his stay to Jordan, saying, “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French.” Jerusalem Post reports:
Speaking in Amman at the University of Jordan, [President Mukherjee said],“India’s traditional support to the Palestinian cause remains steadfast and unwavering while we pursue strong relations with Israel. Our bilateral relations [with Israel] are independent of our relations with Palestine.”

Posted by Amy Miller on October 13, 2015 51 Comments
Legal Insurrection will be covering tonight's Democratic debate...but I'm willing to bet we won't have nearly as much fun as this guy: Achievement unlocked: Master Troll.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 13, 2015 76 Comments
Despite the crowds of devoted followers who show up at his campaign events, not everyone on the left is convinced that Bernie Sanders could close the deal with America, should he somehow beat the Clinton machine. Bernie's biggest problem, according to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, is the way Sanders describes himself in political terms:
Why Bernie Sanders isn’t going to be president, in five words Here's an exchange from Bernie Sanders's appearance on "Meet the Press" on Sunday: And, in those five words, Sanders showed why — no matter how much energy there is for him on the liberal left — he isn't getting elected president.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 13, 2015 17 Comments
Rand Paul's star has faded within the crowded Republican field, but his team is hoping that a novel digital effort will draw enough attention to Paul (and his policies) to turn things back in the right direction. Today, Rand Paul is livestreaming...everything. The stream will be available on Paul's Facebook page and Ustream channel, offering what the campaign has touted as unprecedented access into life on the campaign trail. Via Rare:
The Paul campaign’s Chief Digital Strategist Vincent Harris told Rare, “In an effort to continue his efforts to run the most digital savvy and transparent campaign on either side of the aisle, Senator Paul will be the first Presidential candidate to live-stream an entire day on the campaign trail.” The live stream, which will be viewable through the campaign’s Facebook and UStream.tv pages, will begin with Paul’s morning in Iowa and will last throughout the entire day. The coverage will wrap up Tuesday night with Paul reacting live to the Democratic debate—the first time Hillary Clinton will have to face Bernie Sanders and the rest of her competitors. Now that could be fun.
Paul announced the decision yesterday on Twitter:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 13, 2015 12 Comments
On the eve of their first presidential primary debate, the Democratic primary drama rages on. According to Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) vice chair of the DNC, she was disinvited from Tuesday's Democratic primary debate after publicly calling for more primary debates. The number of primary debates has been a contentious issue for Democrats this election cycle. DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Shultz struggled to gain control of an auditorium of delegates chanting "we want debates!" in New Hampshire last month. Morgan Chalfant of the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday that Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders' campaign has invited the supposedly dejected Gabbard to Tuesday's debate.
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