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Posted by Amy Miller on July 23, 2015 7 Comments
The Wall Street Journal is reporting via defense officials that Ankara has agreed to allow the United States to launch air strikes against ISIS from the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. This is a departure from previous Turkish policy, which until now only allowed drone launches from the base. No Turkish aircraft will be used in any strikes launched by the US. Reuters reports that a deal between President Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan may have been reached as early as Wednesday; White House press secretary Josh Earnest told the media today that the two leaders have reached an agreement to "deepen" cooperation in the fight against ISIS, but didn't go into details. Turkey's concerns about the violence in Syria go beyond the threat ISIS poses to the rest of the world. Until now, Turkish officials have refused to lead on the Islamic State pushback, citing concerns that merely taking out ISIS will not quash the violence caused by intra-Syrian conflict. Ankara has advocated for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for a larger role.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 23, 2015 20 Comments
On Wednesday, July 22, 2015, I was on a panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Keynote speakers at the Annual Meeting include Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. The topic of my panel was Freedom of Thought in Higher Education. The panel chair was Utah State Senator Howard Stephenson, and fellow panelists Dr. Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, and Robert Shibley, Executive Director of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). The panel was the best attended workshop of the day, with over 100 attendees, mostly state legislators. [caption id="attachment_135470" align="alignnone" width="600"]William A. Jacobson Cornell ALEC Annual Meeting 2015 [L-R - Robert Shibley, Peter Wood, Howard Stephenson, William Jacobson][/caption]My portion focused on the anti-Israel academic boycott and broader boycott movement (BDS). About one-third of the more than 100 mostly state legislators in attendance had heard of BDS. I covered the history of BDS, which was created at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban Conference, and how systematic academic boycotts pose systemic risk which is appropriate for narrowly tailored legislation that protects the system without unduly infringing on academic freedom and free speech. I discussed, among other things, my challenge to the tax exempt status of the American Studies Association.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 23, 2015 33 Comments
Speaking in South Carolina Thursday, Hillary dropped an atomic gaffe. Of all the idiocy that's seeped out of Hillary Clinton's mouth, this just might take the cake as the dumbest thing she's said so far. Ruby Cramer, the Buzzfeed political reporter on the Hillary beat captured the moment on social media:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 23, 2015 31 Comments
Anti-consumer choice advocates were defeated once again in the ongoing war to regulate Uber into oblivion. Uber declared yet another over NYC Mayor DeBlasio and the city's cab cartel Wednesday. Under the guise of wanting to monitor Uber's effect on NYC traffic flow, DeBlasio failed to whip the requisite number of votes to pass legislation that would've limited new for-hire vehicle licenses.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 23, 2015 35 Comments
A new study has recently been published that has really heated up Climate Change arguments. Valentina Zharkova, a professor of mathematics at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, used a new model of the sun's solar cycle and its periodic change in solar radiation emissions to predict a "mini Ice Age" may begin shortly.
The earth is 15 years from a "mini ice-age" that will cause bitterly cold winters during which rivers such as the Thames freeze over, scientists have predicted. Solar researchers at the University of Northumbria have created a new model of the sun's activity which they claim produces "unprecedentedly accurate predictions". They said fluid movements within the sun, which are thought to create 11-year cycles in the weather, will converge in such a way that temperatures will fall dramatically in the 2030s. Solar activity will fall by 60 per cent as two waves of fluid "effectively cancel each other out", according to Prof Valentina Zharkova.
Legal Insurrection covered this concept, termed "Maunder Minimums," is a previous post related to global warming.

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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 23, 2015 35 Comments
My what a difference a few years makes. Coinciding with his speech Wednesday, Governor Perry's campaign released a video highlighting their "biggest supporter."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on July 23, 2015 6 Comments
For the second time in a few weeks, India has abstained at the United Nations instead of voting on an Israel-related resolution. On July 3, 2015 India abstained from weighing in on a UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel for 2014 Gaza conflict. The anti-Israel resolution passed with 47 votes in favour, with the US opposing, and India amongst 5 nations abstaining. Then on Monday, Israel unsuccessfully tried to table a resolution to challenge the official recognition of Hamas-linked NGO in the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is fair to ask: why abstain? Israel is one of India's leading defense partners, and an emerging trade partner. But considering the fact that until recently India was referred to as the "23rd Arab state" for siding with Arab-block on every anti-Israel resolution at the UN, this is a huge diplomatic shift for the world's largest democracy. Since India normalized diplomatic ties with the Jewish State in 1991, Israel has become India’s partner of choice when it comes modernizing the country’s military capabilities. The government is collaborating with Israel in agriculture, water management, and renewable and clean technologies; and India’s technology-driven IT giants have made significant investments in Israel’s innovation and startup ecosystem.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 23, 2015 17 Comments
President Obama appeared on the Daily Show this week and claimed that the IRS never targeted the Tea Party. Yet according to an explosive new report from Judicial Watch, the IRS used donor lists from certain organizations to target specific people for audits:
Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS Used Donor Lists to Target Audits (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that confirm that the IRS used donor lists to tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits.  The documents also show IRS officials specifically highlighted how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may come under “high scrutiny” from the IRS.  The IRS produced the records in a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking documents about selection of individuals for audit-based application information on donor lists submitted by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220)). A letter dated September 28, 2010, then-Democrat Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) informs then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman: “   I request that you and your agency survey major 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) organizations …”  In reply, in a letter dated February 17, 2011, Shulman writes: “In the work plan of the Exempt Organizations Division, we announced that beginning in FY2011, we are increasing our focus on section 501(c)(4), (5) and (6) organizations.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 22, 2015 34 Comments
Carly Fiorina is proud to be pro-life. She's also not willing to let Hillary Clinton's extreme stance on abortion go unnoticed. Flanked by pro-life leaders Tuesday, Carly Fiorina's campaign released a short video in response to the second and arguably worst, undercover Planned Parenthood video. The second investigative video showed yet another ranking Planned Parenthood official nonchalantly discussing the sale of aborted baby parts. "These pro-life leaders are standing with me today to decry the moral depravity that we have seen now from Planned Parenthood. It doesn't matter whether you think you're pro-choice or pro-life, every woman, every man has to look at these videos and think, what has gone wrong in our nation?" said Fiorina. "The hypocrisy of telling women over and over again that their unborn children are not life and yet talking calmly about how to preserve the organs of that life to save another life. The cruelty of denying women over and over again ultrasounds, so that they can see the life they carry within them and yet using that same technology to ensure the organs are preserved so that they can be presumable sold to save others."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 22, 2015 17 Comments
Dozens of organizations have come together to emphasize the danger Iran poses to Israel and the international community. To that end, they've joined forces to host a Stop Iran Rally in Times Square. The Stop Iran Rally has an impressive list of speakers: poster9

Posted by Amy Miller on July 22, 2015 78 Comments
Yesterday, Donald Trump shocked the conscience of the planet when he revealed Senator Lindsey Graham's personal cell phone number during an open press conference. Over the past few days, feuding between the two presidential hopefuls has boiled over, fueled by the outrage that ensued after Trump made a disparaging comment about Senator John McCain's military service. It has been a field day for the media, and for activists on both sides of the issue: Graham called Trump a jackass! Trump called Graham an idiot! AND RELEASED HIS CELL PHONE NUMBER! It may have been a jerk move, but it resonated---nobody likes a bully, and many conservatives have been waiting for the moment when someone would take Graham to task over his attitude toward the base. Graham took the punch like a champ... ...but took things one step further, and turned Trump's prank on its head. Welcome to Christmas for political junkies. Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on July 22, 2015 7 Comments
The federal government has finally decided how to publicly handle an OPM data breach that compromised over 20 million federal employee records this past June. Rather, they've decided what they aren't going to do about it. Citing concerns over national security, the Obama Administration has decided that they will not publicly blame China for the hack, even though conventional wisdom (and a fair amount of now-public evidence) suggests that they were responsible. Officials fear that coming out in an official capacity against Beijing will compromise what evidence investigators have been able to assemble. More from WaPo:
“We have chosen not to make any official assertions about attribution at this point,” said a senior administration official, despite the widely held conviction that Beijing was responsible. The official cited factors including concern that making a public case against China could require exposing details of the United States’ own espionage and cyberspace capabilities. The official was among several who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 22, 2015 12 Comments
The entire world is in flames, but never fear---President Barack Obama is busy doing the sort of work that keeps America safe. You know, by sitting down for a 20 minute interview with a comedian. Obama's last interview with The Daily Show's Jon Stewart went just as you'd expect: cheeky, wordy, and full of the sort of backhanded insults that keep the 24 hour news cycle spinning. You can watch the full interview here: (The interview is cut up into three segments---you'll be able to skip to the other segments at the end of the embedded video.) Climate change. Iran. Those damn Republicans.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 22, 2015 10 Comments
The 2016 elections will boil down to cause, and effect---and when it comes to foreign policy, the Democrats will have much to answer for, especially when it comes to the rise of ISIS. The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, which began in 2010, remains one of Obama's more controversial foreign policy orders to date. The war wasn't popular, but then again, neither was the idea of letting go of a country we fought so hard to clean out and control before that country was ready to stand on its own two feet. Still, Obama persisted, and the rest is history: large parts of Iraq crumbled, and the chaos gave rise to the Islamic State's brutal, terrifying brand of terrorism. Outgoing Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno spent more time in Iraq than any other U.S. General; he was an architect of the Surge, and spent half his time overseas as a top commander---and he says the chaos we're seeing today could have been prevented if only the Administration had agreed to follow recommendations regarding the pace of troop withdrawals, saying, “If we had stayed a little more engaged, I think maybe it might have been prevented... I've always believed the United States played the role of honest broker between all the groups and when we pulled ourselves out, we lost that role.” Via Fox News:

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 22, 2015 30 Comments
Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics recently interviewed 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate Martin O'Malley. Their discussion covered a wide range of topics, but when talk turned to foreign policy, O'Malley suggested that climate change was behind the rise of ISIS. Transcript and video via Real Clear Politics:
Martin O'Malley: Climate Change Created ISIS MARTIN O'MALLEY: One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria and the rise of ISIS, was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that nation, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather, the conditions — of extreme poverty that has now led to the rise of ISIS and this extreme violence.
The interview is approximately six minutes long. To hear the segment on ISIS and climate change, skip to the 3:40 mark:

Posted by Jay Caruso on July 22, 2015 22 Comments
When President Obama was pushing Obamacare, he stated  before a joint session of Congress in September 2009 that it would not be opened up to illegal immigrants. Remember what happened next? Representative Joe Wilson yelled, "You lie!" and it caused quite a stir. Here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vt_OrSeWk Wilson may have violated the rules of decorum, but was he wrong? It has taken some time, but President Obama may owe Wilson an apology. From Forbes:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 22, 2015 25 Comments
After enjoying gloriously warm and sunny weather during my northern European "apology tour", I was astonished return and find California's mega-drought seemingly ended with record rainfall.
San Diegans woke up Monday after record-breaking storms brought up to four inches of rain in one community and more than an inch in many others. “Amazing is the best way to put it,” NBC 7’s Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh said as she described the amount of rainfall San Diego County received in 48 hours. ...Saturday's rainfall broke records in at least 11 locations, including five places that had the most rain ever recorded on any day in July, according to the National Weather Service.
Now, our media is focusing on "El Niño" and predicting the Golden State will be hit with floods.
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