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Posted by Mike LaChance on July 31, 2015 14 Comments
Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore has entered the race for the 2016 Republican nomination. Now before you throw yourself off the nearest building, hear me out. This guy has serious credentials. Gilmore was chairman of the National Commission on Homeland Security for five years, he's an Army Intelligence veteran and he was the governor of Virginia on 9/11. In some ways, Gilmore is more qualified than many of the candidates who are already running. Last night on Special Report, Gilmore had an opportunity to make the case for his candidacy.

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Posted by Amy Miller on July 30, 2015 59 Comments
This week's collective global meltdown over the killing of Cecil the Lion has brought out the worst in both activists and everyday citizens who found themselves upset at Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer over the allegedly illegal hunt. Actress Mia Farrow tweeted Palmer's personal address. Screenshot via Twitchy: farrowtweet Other Twitter uses were quick to report the dox to the platform's support staff, prompting Farrow to delete the tweet. Instead of leaving it at that, she decided to post another tweet, this time including Palmer's business address:

Posted by New Neo on July 30, 2015 90 Comments
As a huge fan of the very articulate and forceful Carly Fiorina, I've been wondering why she continues to score very low in the polls for the Republican nomination. Here's my attempt at an answer. I believe Carly Fiorina scores low not only because she lacks name recognition, but because she has never held elective public office and she lost the one race she entered. Even though she did well (considering it was in bluer-than-blue California,) she still lost. Also, although she can explain her firing from Hewlett-Packard in a way that doesn't reflect poorly on her (see this and this), the firing still doesn't sound to the casual listener like a success story. But far more importantly, Donald Trump—-who naturally gains more publicity from his statements and his candidacy because he is flamboyant and somewhat outrageous---has taken the spot Fiorina would otherwise occupy, that of “business-oriented political outsider who has never held public office.” He is far, far more well-known than Fiorina via his long self-promoting stint in the public eye, and is therefore a magnet for the many protest voters on the right. Supporting Trump is a twofer for anyone who's angry at the establishment: he is not a member of the GOP establishment, and he really gets the goat of those who are.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 30, 2015 22 Comments
Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court voted 4-3 to make public sector employees subject to the state's 2012 Right to Work law. The holding dealt a huge blow to the labor unions vying to represent the state's almost 40,000 employees. The court's argument turned even the friendly appeals court ruling on its head; while the appeals court ruling said that the existence of the Michigan Civil Service Commotion did not preclude the inclusion of state employees under the right to work laws, the supremes held that the Commission never had the authority to require state employees to pay the union-related agency fees, even before right to work laws existed. More from Michigan Capitol Confidential:
Justices Viviano, Markman, Young and Zahra ruled that while the Civil Service Commission has control of salary, benefits, grievance procedures and employment conditions, it does not have the authority to require involuntary payments to the union. Adopting an argument provided by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the majority held that agency fees were akin to a tax on public employees and that the Michigan Civil Service Commission lacked the power to tax. Justices Bernstein, Kelly and McCormack disagreed with the majority, saying that the Civil Service Commission’s authority includes the ability to force union payments from employees.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2015 19 Comments
While the ire of the media has been focused mostly on Donald Trump for the past few news cycles, Scott Walker is still getting some scorn. This column by Dana Milbank at The Washington Post could all but be a campaign poster for walker, with a few wording changes:

Why Scott Walker is so dangerous [to liberals]

Why Scott Walker is so dangerous:
“First off,” Scott Walker proclaimed, “we took on the unions, and we won. We won!” Taking on the unions is usually first off for Walker, the Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate. It is the very rationale for his candidacy. And on Thursday, he took a detour from the campaign trail to appear here before the annual meeting of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of state legislators dedicated in large part to defeating unions.... Walker then went on to celebrate his triumphs over the demonstrators who objected to his dismantling of Wisconsin’s public-sector unions, portraying the pro-union forces as violent thugs....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2015 4 Comments
The Security Subcommittee of The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on July 28, 2015, on The Impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement The Tower has a write up on the full scope of the hearing. In a prior post, we featured the testimony of Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream International, about the threats, intimidation and violence of the BDS movement directed at SodaStream for 8 years, Epic House Testimony – BDS in business of “Manipulation, Violence and Destruction” In this post, we focus on the testimony of Northwestern Univ. Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich Prof. Kontorovich's full written presentation (embedded at bottom of this post) contains important background as to the role Congress can play in opposing BDS consistent with U.S. law, policy and history of involvement in the issue. The subjects covered include:
  1. Background on Economic Warfare Against Israel
  2. U.S. Policy on Boycotts of Israeli Entities
  3. The Scope of Anti-boycott laws
  4. The Argument that Boycotts of Israel are Justified or Required by International law
  5. Potential European Measures and their Implications for International Trade Law
Here is Prof. Kontorovich's appearance before Congress:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 30, 2015 8 Comments
Though it's no longer leading the headlines, EmailGate is still alive and well. Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email account and private servers during her tenure as Secretary of State was bound to be problematic. When use of a private email account initially surfaced, Clinton repeatedly insisted no classified information was sent from her personal email account. Late last week, the Inspector General debunked Clinton's claims saying classified information had in fact been transmitted through the former Secretary's private email.
The inspector general for the intelligence community has informed members of Congress that some material Hillary Clinton emailed from her private server contained classified information, but it was not identified that way. Because it was not identified, it is unclear whether Clinton realized she was potentially compromising classified information. The IG reviewed a "limited sampling" of her emails and among those 40 reviewed found that "four contained classified [intelligence community] information," wrote the IG Charles McCullough in a letter to Congress. McCullough noted that "none of the emails we reviewed had classification or dissemination markings" but that some "should have been handled as classified, appropriately marked, and transmitted via a secure network." The four emails in question "were classified when they were sent and are classified now," spokeswoman Andrea Williams told CNN. McCullough said that State Department Freedom of Information Act officials told the intelligence community IG that "there are potentially hundreds of classified emails within the approximately 30,000 provided by former Secretary Clinton."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on July 30, 2015 6 Comments
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee is set to become the first head of the state from India to visit Israel. The visit by the Indian head of the state, set for early October, has a great symbolic value -- considering India only established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. Much like Israel, India too is a parliamentary democracy where President acts as a ceremonial head of the state, while executive powers rest with the Prime Minister and the cabinet. The high-level state visit is the result of tenuous diplomacy spanning decades that saw an erstwhile adversarial Asian giant turn into a trusted ally. Since India and Israel established diplomatic relations 24 years ago, Israel has become an important trade and technology partner for India -- not just in defence sector. Bilateral trade between the two countries that was pegged at $200 million in early 1990s has now crossed well over $4 billion. In recent months, Israeli defense companies like Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael and Meprolight have entered in partnerships with Indian companies to form defence Joint Ventures – giving boost to Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India” initiative aimed to develop India’s manufacturing capabilities.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 30, 2015 11 Comments
Chaka Fattah, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania's second district, has been charged with racketeering conspiracy alongside four other people in a case that smacks of influence peddling. The Department of Justice announced the charges yesterday:
Congressman Chaka Fattah and Associates Charged with Participating in Racketeering Conspiracy A member of Congress and four of his associates were indicted today for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy involving several schemes that were intended to further the political and financial interests of the defendants and others by, among other tactics, misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal, charitable and campaign funds. Congressman Chaka Fattah Sr., 58, of Philadelphia; lobbyist Herbert Vederman, 69, of Palm Beach, Florida; Fattah’s Congressional District Director Bonnie Bowser, 59, of Philadelphia; and Robert Brand, 69, of Philadelphia; and Karen Nicholas, 57, of Williamstown, New Jersey, were charged today in a 29-count indictment with participating in a racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including bribery; conspiracy to commit mail, wire and honest services fraud; and multiple counts of mail fraud, falsification of records, bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution and money laundering.
Naturally, Fattah denies the charges:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2015 99 Comments
On July 4, 2015, 22 year-old Lane Pittman decided to take his electric guitar and play the Star Spangled Banner on the street outside his friend's house in Neptune Beach, near Jacksonville. Pittman says that after a police officer asked him to stop, he asked if it was okay to play on the sidewalk, and was told that was okay. And play he did:
"I don't think I ever played that song as good in my life as I did on that day. It felt right. It was an emotional roller coaster."
The crowd topped 200 people, spilling onto the street around him: Then Pittman was, to his surprise, arrested for breaching the peace:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 29, 2015 7 Comments
You might need the Kleenex for this one. An eight-year-old boy is the first pediatric recipient of a double hand transplant. When he was only two-years-old, a life threatening infection lead to the amputation of both hands and feet. He also received a kidney transplant from his mother.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 29, 2015 23 Comments
Somewhat overshadowed by the Center for Medical Progress' horrifying expose on Planned Parenthood's baby part harvesting operations are an important series of videos released by Live Action earlier this month. Live Action has long used undercover videos to expose Planned Parenthood. Beginning in early July, Live Action unfurled a four video series looking at Planned Parenthood's role in sex education. According to Life Site:
Planned Parenthood “counselors” teach minors in the name of “sex-ed”: sexual bondage and sadomasochism, and steering them to sex stores to “get educated.” In the latest video, a Colorado counselor told the Live Action investigator (posing as a minor) that “sexual exploration is normal” – and went so far as to suggest defecating and urinating on men as an option.

Posted by Andrew Branca on July 29, 2015 304 Comments
On July 19, just 10 days ago, UC police officer Ray Tensing shot and killed motorist Sam DuBose in the course of a traffic stop, according to reports by CNN and others. Today, prosecutor Joe Deters announced that Officer Tensing had been indicted for murder in the killing. The silver lining for bloggers everywhere is that much of the event was captured by Officer Tensing's body-cam. You can watch the full video here, but I have relevant portions reproduced in slow-motion and relevant screen captures below, as well. Officer Tensing claims that he shot DuBose because the driver began dragging the officer with his car. Certainly, dragging someone with your car is conduct likely to cause death or grave bodily harm, and thus warrants the use of deadly force in self-defense.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 29, 2015 6 Comments
The Security Subcommittee of The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on July 28, 2015, on The Impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement. According to the House Advisory, the purpose was
  •  To better understand the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, and review the economic impact of the Movement on American and Israeli businesses. 
  • To review how the goals of BDS may or may not be affected by International Trade Law, U.S. federal law, and state law. 
  • To seek to establish the formal position of the Administration with regard to BDS.
  • To review potential actions by the Department of State to maintain free and open trade among the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
The Tower has a write up on the full scope of the hearing. In a later post we will focus on the testimony of Northwestern Univ. Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich, whose lecture on The Legal Case for Israel is a must watch. Today we focus on the testimony of Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream International.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 29, 2015 17 Comments
This week, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released it's third video documenting Planned Parenthood's participation in baby part harvesting. If you watch the video (you must watch the video,) be warned---it's nauseating. I don't give these kinds of warnings lightly. When CMP first launched its campaign against Planned Parenthood, conservatives in the Senate came together to draft legislation defunding Planned Parenthood and its affiliates. The team, headed up by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), today introduced S.1881, which includes three main objectives:
  • Prohibiting federal funding for PPFA or any of its affiliate organizations
  • Protecting federal funding for health services for women (including diagnostic laboratory and radiology services, well-child care, prenatal and postnatal care, immunizations, cervical and breast cancer screenings and more)
  • Ensuring there is no reduction in overall federal funding available to support women’s health.
In a press conference announcing the bill, sponsor Joni Ernst spoke out against PPFA's harvesting-for-profit scheme, saying, “As a mother and grandmother, I find this footage of Planned Parenthood’s role in the harvesting of the organs of unborn babies morally reprehensible and vile... The American people are horrified by these videos as well. Simply put, this legislation ensures that funding for women’s health is protected and that taxpayer dollars will not go to Planned Parenthood.” You can watch that press conference here:
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