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Posted by Amy Miller on May 19, 2015 9 Comments
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced in a press conference today that he will not appeal the punishment the NFL handed down in the wake of the "Deflategate" scandal. Kraft stated that his decision was based on the idea that he could either "end (this controversy) or extend it." He called the discipline “unreasonable and unprecedented,” but tempered his comments by saying, “[w]e have concentrated the power of adjudication of problems with the office of the commissioner. Though I might disagree with what the commissioner has decided, I do have respect for him … that’s he’s doing the best in the best of the 32... I’m gonna accept — reluctantly... At no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective 32.” Following an independent investigation, the Patriots were fined $1 million and lost their first round draft pick for 2016 and fourth round pick for 2017. Additionally, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2016-2017 season. The allegations and evidence uncovered during the investigation were recently released in The Wells Report, which we covered earlier this month.

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Posted by Amy Miller on May 19, 2015 16 Comments
Today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) and business owners in a press conference to discuss the Trade Promotion Authority. The TPA would "fast-track" trade legislation that would pave the way for the yet-incomplete Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Leader McConnell and other proponents of the TPA are giving the legislation priority in spite of a growing debate over both transportation funding, and reauthorization of provisions of the Patriot Act that allow the NSA to collect phone records. Democrats have attempted to put the debate over the TPA until June (thus easing their own time crunch on desired pro-union amendments,) but Senate leadership is bucking all efforts to sideline the bill until after the Memorial Day recess. You can watch the full press conference here (starting at 5:52):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2015 23 Comments
I knew that Hillary was going to have a Blumenthal problem for her 2016 campaign. But I expected that the problem would be Max Blumenthal, son of close Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal. Max, the virulently anti-Israel activist, has been the subject of much controversy because of his penchant for vituperative and outlandish attacks on Israel, not the least of which was his call for Israeli Jews to be indigenized after the end of the Jewish state. See our Max Blumenthal Tag for some background. The issue with Max was whether Hillary could have Sidney as an advisor given Sidney's seeming support for Max's antics, if not his anti-Israel agenda. Buzzfeed reported on the problem back in November 2013, Clinton Adviser Sid Blumenthal’s New Cause: His Son’s Anti-Israel Book:
A veteran confidant of Hillary Clinton has waded into a bitter argument over the explosive topic of Israel, defending his son’s intensely anti-Israel book from a liberal critic. Sidney Blumenthal, a former New Yorker writer turned Clinton adviser from the White House to the 2008 campaign, has been waging an online campaign against Nation columnist Eric Alterman for negatively reviewing his son Max Blumenthal’s book, Goliath. The book was described by Alterman, himself a frequent critic of Israel, as “awful” and something that “could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed).”

Posted by Amy Miller on May 19, 2015 17 Comments
Over the weekend, Islamic State forces took effective control of the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Yesterday Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren attempted to put the loss of ground in perspective, while emphasizing the unique challenges urban warfare presents to a still-young fighting force. From the DoD:
“To read too much into this is a mistake,” Warren said. “This is one fight, one episode, in which Iraqi Security Forces were not able to prevail –- today.” While ISIL was able to gain the upper hand in Ramadi, “what this means for our strategy is simply that we -- the coalition and Iraqi partners -- now have to go back and retake Ramadi,” Warren said. Defense Department officials have always said there would be ebbs and flows in Iraq’s fight against ISIL, he said, adding that “it’s a difficult, complex, bloody fight, and there will be victories and setbacks.” Iraq and coalition forces will retake Ramadi, Warren said, “In the same way we are slowly but surely retaking others parts of Iraq with Iraqi ground forces, combined with coalition air power.”
Ramadi has held several places in the Iraqi war lexicon: flashpoint, stronghold, symbol. This reality was reflected in last month's meltdown over Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey's comments about the longterm symbolic importance of the city as compared to other areas in the current conflict zone:

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 19, 2015 9 Comments
You may have noticed that our unbiased media is asking Republicans lots of questions about the Iraq War. Hillary Clinton is the only 2016 candidate who voted for the Iraq War as a senator; she was also directly involved with the war in her role at the State Department. Perhaps she deserves a few similar questions---when she finally decides to take one. Last night, Bill O'Reilly opened his show by discussing new initiatives America is taking to deal with ISIS, but as Charles Krauthammer pointed out, there are many questions Hillary Clinton still has to answer on this subject. As a senator, she opposed the surge in Iraq and implied that David Petraeus was lying during his congressional testimony. Does she still agree? Clinton was the secretary of state when we pulled out of Iraq in 2011. Was that a mistake?

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Posted by Anne in Petah Tikva on May 19, 2015 25 Comments
Last Sunday, May 10, 2015,  I set out, together with my husband, brother and sister-in-law, on a “roots” trip to Germany. I was feeling rather ambivalent about the whole trip as I always swore to myself that I would never set foot in Germany after what happened to my family and of course to the Jewish people as a whole. To understand the background of my family history, read my family history page here.  In short, my mother had 3 older brothers who were sent on a Kindertransport to Holland for safety in 1938 after Kristallnacht, but the Nazis invaded in 1943 and shipped them to Sobibor where they were killed on the day they arrived, while my grandparents and their daughters eventually made it to safety in England. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368"] Above: My mother’s 3 brothers who were killed in the Shoah: David, Elchanan (Herbert) and Uri HY”D Below: The 3 brothers with my mother Judith תבדל”א[/caption] The people of Michelstadt, my mother’s home town, issued a memorial book last year, and kindly invited us to come out and visit. Despite my ambivalence I felt it is important to accept their efforts to “make good” towards the Jewish community and they have been extremely gracious towards us. Following is a diary of sorts of our trip.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 18, 2015 34 Comments
Anybody remember VonDerrit Myers? That's him, on the right side of the picture above. Heck, I couldn't quite place the name, and I actually posted about his untimely demise at the hands of law enforcement way back in October 2014, shortly after the Mike Brown kerfuffle in the same St. Louis area. (See: St. Louis Shooting Victim Vonderrit Myers Tests Positive for Gunshot Residue.) VonDerrit was one of those "cops shoot unarmed black child" stories that that had cities on edge. Then his mom had to concede that her son was armed, "but only with a sandwich." It didn't take long for the lab results to come back, however, and confirm that if VonDerrit's mom was correct, then her son's sandwiches were made of fired gunpowder--because that's what they found all over his deceased hands. The police forensics report would also supplement the gun powder residue (GPR) results with three recovered 9mm bullets fired from the S&W handgun found in the deceased VonDerrit's possession. Of course the police all along had reported that they fired on VonDerrit only after he had fired his own gun at them. Fortunately, the police were more timely and accurate in their fire, and so the loss was not as great as it might otherwise have been.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 18, 2015 32 Comments
As some of you may be aware, Attorney Alan Gura has been waging a legal battle against the District of Columbia (as well as other jurisdictions) based upon their unconstitutional infringement of the Second Amendment generally, and DC residents concealed carry rights in particular. Having already won a court decision compelling the District--and in particular, its Police Chief Cathy Lanier (pictured above)--to issue concealed carry permits to lawful, qualified residents, Gura naturally ran into the usual anti-gun rearguard position: "Sure, we'll issue permits--on terms of our own choosing. Terms that nobody except our rich friends and political comrades will ever be deemed to have satisfied." And those terms invariably require that the applicant have some special and unusual reason to be granted a concealed carry permit.  This is the kind of restriction still being employed in liberal states like New Jersey and New York, and which was being employed in California until the recent Peruta decision by the 9th Circuit. Gura responded to Lanier's demand that applications show some special reason--above and beyond simply being law-abiding Americans with civil rights--by filing a motion for an injunction with the US District Court for DC, to prohibit Lanier from imposing those special conditions. Today that Court handed down its decision on the requested motion--and Gura was the big winner, again:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 18, 2015 54 Comments
I'm struggling to concoct a scenario more damning than this. After filing a FOIA suit, thanks to a court order Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Department of Defense and Department of State which indicate the Obama administration knew al Qaeda was planning the attack in Benghazi ten days before it happened. TEN DAYS. hillary gif benghazi FOI dept state scandal judicial watch Immediately following the 9/11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012, the DOD had identified the culprits and indicated the attack had been planned "ten days or more" prior.
A Defense Department document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), dated September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, details that the attack on the compound had been carefully planned by the BOCAR terrorist group “to kill as many Americans as possible.” The document was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Obama White House National Security Council. The heavily redacted Defense Department “information report” says that the attack on the Benghazi facility “was planned and executed by The Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR).” The group subscribes to “AQ ideologies:”
The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 atacks on the World Trade Center buildings.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 18, 2015 13 Comments
Okay, now they've gone and done it. Colorado Law Week reports:
The University of Denver Sturm College of Law will continue leading legal marijuana education with an investment from Denver-based law firm Vicent Sederberg. The law school announced today that Vicent Sederberg made a $45,000 commitment to enable one faculty member to serve as the Vicente Sederberg Professor of Marijuana Law and Policy. “As the marijuana industry expands in Colorado and around the nation and the world, there is a growing need for attorneys qualified to represent business owners,” Vicente Sederberg founding partner and DU Sturm College of Law alumnus Brian Vicente said in a press release. “With the launch of this professorship, Sturm College of Law will be taking the lead in providing law students the training they need to enter this new field. We are proud to be able to support their efforts in this area.”
The Denver Business Journal elaborates:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 18, 2015 11 Comments
The anti-Semitism deeply embedded in the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been apparent for years, but particularly since the 2014 Gaza War. Rallies against Israel regularly devolved into Jew-baiting throughout Europe, and even in some places in the U.S., like Miami where they chanted, “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.” At a Boston rally sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace in July 2014, Israel supporters were attacked by a woman who yelled that they would claim back Jerusalem for Christians and Muslims. It is no surprise that Walking While Jewish is dangerous in many cities in Europe. While there is an intellectual distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, in reality on the streets of Europe and some places in the U.S., they are one and the same.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 18, 2015 25 Comments
Fresh hell alert! It's happening---the President has arrived on Twitter: Here's how the White House describes their vision for the new account:
The @POTUS Twitter account will serve as a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him. President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them.
So...more Barack Obama? I'm sure you're all extremely excited about this development.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 18, 2015 3 Comments
Qatar is busy prepping to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and that means importing thousands of migrant laborers from all over the world to help complete massive (and costly) construction projects; the tiny country is sinking billions into the completion of new roads, hotels, and stadiums, and and has come under criticism from the international community for what are alleged to be unsafe (read: deadly) and unhealthy (read: inhumane) labor practices. As part of a campaign to revamp the event's image, Qatari authorities organized a media event aimed at allowing full access to the areas where migrant workers live and work. Claims that workers' situations had improved were not enough, and journalists from many different countries flew in for what they believed to be an open access event. BBC News' Mark Lobel and his team were among the journalists to attend the event---and now they're saying that they're lucky they were able to come home.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 18, 2015 20 Comments
I can't be the only one who has absolutely had it with campaign theatre---especially when it pops up during media interviews with presidential candidates. Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace went full tilt-a-whirl on presidential hopeful Marco Rubio over some alleged "flip-flopping" on George W. Bush's decision to enter Iraq back in 2003. The issue itself is obviously fair game, but Wallace took things a step further by pressing the Senator on his answers to two separate-yet-equally-important questions: Was the war in Iraq a mistake? And, if you had known that there were no WMDs, would you have been in favor of the Iraqi invasion? Except Wallace presented them as the same question. It didn't go well. Watch: (Real Clear Politics has the full transcript of this segment, which you can read here.) ...what the hell did I just watch?

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 18, 2015 93 Comments
UPDATE (5/18/15, 19:43EST): This post has been updated with additional information about Apperson's mental health (or lack thereof) as reported today by WKMG Orlando television. This WKMG report is based upon their obtaining a copy of the police report of officers who spoke with Apperson immediately after he tried to shoot George Zimmerman in the head.  The police report specifically notes:
During the investigation, I learned that Apperson has exhibited unusual behavior in which he had recently been admitted to a mental institution. It appears that Apperson has a fixation on Zimmerman and has displayed some signs of paranoia, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.
(emphasis added) Here's a video of the WKMG on-air report earlier today:
A report by WESH Orlando and other news sources states that Matthew Apperson, the man arrested last Friday for firing a .357 Magnum bullet at George Zimmerman's head a week ago, was bonded out of jail over the weekend.  Bond was reportedly set at $35,000. Apperson was formally charged this past Saturday with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and firing a deadly missile into an occupied conveyance, police said.  He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on June 23. As conditions of bail Apperson was ordered to turn in his firearms to police, which he reportedly did on Sunday, and to stay away from George Zimmerman. Contributing to Apperson's arrest were police observations of his "unusual behavior" and apparent "fixation" with Zimmerman immediately following the shooting.  The police report also notes Apperson as saying "I hope I got him [Zimmerman] this time."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 18, 2015 10 Comments
The U.S. Supreme Court issued an Order this morning denying the Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the Wisconsin John Doe case. For background, see our prior posts, including Will Supreme Court take blockbuster “John Doe” campaign case?:
The case is O’Keefe v. Chisholm.... The issue on which review was sought had little to do — on the surface — with the substance of the abuses in the John Doe case, but rather, focuses on a technical legal point as to whether and when federal courts can or should stop state investigations.... But, the nature of the case necessarily involves the underlying ability of states to regulate campaign coordination and how that ability interacts with First Amendment rights.
While the Court will not hear the case, the underlying investigation currently is on hold anyway because of a separate federal court order not involved in the Supreme Court petition, and a state court order putting the investigation on hold. Here is the Supreme Court Order: http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/051815zor_a86c.pdf
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