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Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2015 12 Comments
We continue to investigate the strange cancellation of a mid-year legal seminar in Israel by the Virginia State Bar (VSB).  With the help of Judicial Watch, we have served a FOIA request on VSB, and will pursue the facts no matter how long it takes, including FOIA litigation if there is no alternative. The cancellation of the Israel trip came after an email was sent by 36 VSB members to the VSB Council on Friday morning, March 27, alleging that the members would be prohibited from attending or face discriminatory interrogation by Israeli border officials on the basis of religion and ethnicity. None of the 36 said that they actually wanted to go on the Israel trip; instead they argued that VSB should boycott Israel because of its border security policies. http://myemail.constantcontact.com/42nd-Midyear-Legal-Seminar---JERUSALEM--ISRAEL---REGISTER-BY-APRIL-1-.html?soid=1111187925215&aid=0Z9htbr8awM As we have documented, there never was any evidence that any VSB member would be barred or subjected to unwarranted interrogation. To the contrary, initial claims by VSB suggesting that the Israeli Embassy confirmed that some VSB members might be barred turned out not to be accurate. An Israeli Official with whom I communicated denied such a conversation took place, and that denial was admitted by the only VSB representative to have substantive conversations with the Embassy.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 01, 2015 13 Comments
Senator Ted Cruz's campaign headquarters opened last night. Nestled in the bustling Upper Kirby neighborhood, the campaign HQ is situated in the heart of Houston. Handing out small American flags and Ted Cruz labelled bottles of water, volunteers sauntered through the crowd with iPad minis, ensuring faithful supporters were registered for campaign updates. With more attendees than anticipated, the lines to view the office space were quite lengthy. To keep people entertained, Rafael Cruz was there to shake hands: Ted cruz campaign hq open house houston rafael cruz president 2016

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 01, 2015 17 Comments
A years long investigation into New Jersey's Democratic Senator Robert Menendez resulted in a federal indictment for corruption charges today. Sen. Menendez denies any wrong doing. According to the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Senator Robert Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, setting the stage for a bitter court fight and putting his political future in doubt. The charges had long been expected and Mr. Menendez, a 61-year-old Democrat of New Jersey, has promised to fight them. He has offered no indication that he plans to step down or relinquish any power while he goes through that process. The case involves Mr. Menendez’s longtime friendship with Dr. Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye surgeon and political benefactor. The two men became friends in the 1990s and have spent holidays together in the Dominican Republic, where Dr. Melgen, 60, has a home in the gated oceanfront resort of Casa de Campo.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2015 35 Comments
You all remember Lois Lerner's contemptuous refusal to testify before a House Committee after she gave an opening statement in which she effectively testified to her defense. The House sought a DOJ prosecution for contempt. News that will shock no one, DOJ will not prosecute. Politico reports:
The Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups.

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Posted by Amy Miller on April 01, 2015 15 Comments
The drama surrounding the official prisoner swap in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has left a lot of Americans wondering just what happened in the days leading up to Bergdahl's going AWOL and eventual capture by the Taliban back in 2009. Sgt. Bergdahl is now on trial on counts for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy; if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. His attorneys, however, aren't prepared to go down without a fight. Defense counsel is planning to argue that Bergdahl couldn't be a deserter because it was never his intention to desert. Instead, they say Bergdahl simply wanted to leave and go to the closest forward operating base to lodge a complaint against his unit. Bergdahl's platoon mates' response? One man says its "asinine." Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 01, 2015 32 Comments
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson may have called for changes to his state's recently-passed religious freedom legislation, but he certainly isn't giving activists and the press a free pass to paint Arkansas' RFRA with the wrong brush. "This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial, but these are not ordinary times," he said during a press briefing earlier today. Hutchinson didn't concede to arguments made by progressives and LGBT activists that the bill is a tool businesses can use to facilitate discrimination against gay people, but he did publicly ask the legislature to clarify language in the bill. From the AP:
"What is important from an Arkansas standpoint is one, we get the right balance and secondly, we make sure that we communicate we're not going to be a state that fails to recognize the diversity of our workplace, our economy and our future," Hutchinson said at a news conference at the state Capitol. Hutchinson initially supported the bill and on Tuesday his office had said he planned to sign it into law.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2015 9 Comments
I just booked my plane tickets to visit Israel in May. Maybe I'll call it an Apology Tour. I'll let Israelis know that the current administration, with its childish chickens**t taunting treatment of Israel, does not represent the American people, who overwhelmingly support Israel. (Will this violate the Logan Act?) Fortunately, I have the speech already written for me:
In recent years we've allowed our Alliance to drift. I know that there have been honest disagreements over policy, but we also know that there's something more that has crept into our relationship. In America, there's a failure to appreciate [Israeli's] leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic [nation] and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 01, 2015 8 Comments
Martin O'Malley has made it pretty clear that he expects to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President in 2016. While most of the media is frothing over the Indiana/RFRA issue, O'Malley is quietly going around, giving interviews and meeting with people (and likely donors). O'Malley represents a challenge from the left for Hillary that doesn't come with the polarization that accompanies Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Hillary email scandal is not going away as more information drips out every day that contradicts the claims she made in that now famous press conference at the UN. On Tuesday O'Malley was asked about the email scandal and essentially said if she has nothing to hide than she shouldn't have an issue talking about it: https://youtu.be/E89s8ElHry0?t=1m59s

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 01, 2015 32 Comments
Each day brings a new reason to be happy about Harry Reid's impending retirement. The newest one is his outright admission that he used his position as senate leader to dishonestly smear Mitt Romney in the run-up to the 2012 election. Even the reliably liberal Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post is disgusted:
Harry Reid’s appalling defense of his attack on Mitt Romney’s tax record One of the more outlandish moments of the 2012 campaign came when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went to the floor of the world's greatest deliberative body and accused GOP nominee Mitt Romney of not paying any taxes at all for the past 10 years. Reid's evidence? Someone had told him. (That "someone" is alleged to be Jon Huntsman, father of the former Utah governor. Huntsman denies involvement.)... And yet, the clip above shows Reid, in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, not only refusing to apologize for the claim but defending it — in a very weird way.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 31, 2015 7 Comments
The Virginia State Bar's cancellation of its mid-year legal seminar in Israel gets stranger and stranger. For background, see my posts: I have learned new information today. Key among the new information is that I obtained from a VSB Council Member a copy of the email which appears to have started the controversy. The email was sent to all council members at approximately 9:14 a.m., on March 27, 2015, repeating the allegations contained in a Change.org Petition, and signed by 36 VSB members. Here is a partial image: Virginia State Bar Email from 36 Members March 27 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on March 31, 2015 14 Comments
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has officially conceded defeat in this week's elections. Initial counts suggest he lost by more than 2 million votes. Those of you familiar with Nigeria's political evolution understand what a huge step this concession is toward getting through the election season; operatives on the ground in Nigeria anticipated violence, and for good reason. Fighting following 2011's highly-contested elections led to the deaths of over 800 people after allegations surfaced that efforts were made to disenfranchise voters unlikely to support the incumbent regime. So, a public concession is a huge deal---but it's not been effective at diffusing all tension:
As the scale of this weekend's electoral landslide became clear, President Goodluck Jonathan called Buhari on Tuesday to concede defeat to the opposition leader, Buhari's camp said, an unprecedented step that should help to defuse anger among Jonathan's supporters. In the religiously mixed northern city of Kaduna, where 800 people were killed in violence after the last elections in 2011, Buhari supporters streamed onto the streets, waving flags, dancing and singing in celebration.

Posted by Jay Caruso on March 31, 2015 29 Comments
On March 26th, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The uproar would lead one to think such a law was brand new and have never been codified in law before. That would be wrong of course, 19 other states and the federal government have their own versions of the RFRA. The federal version was in fact, signed by President Clinton in 1993 after it passed the Senate on a vote of 97-3. The moment it became law, activists, talking heads and journalists, without discussing the actual text of the law, began pontificating how gays could now be "discriminated against" in the state of Indiana. The histrionics hit a fever pitch, when Justin Nelson of the National Gay And Lesbian Chamber of Congress said businesses in Indiana would be allowed to put "Straights Only" signs up in their windows. Gabriel Malor wrote an in depth analysis for the law and had this to say:

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 31, 2015 27 Comments
Is NBC up to its old—and I do mean old—tricks? Way back in the early 1990s the network’s “Dateline NBC” program ran a "news" story claiming that certain General Motors pickup trucks would explode in flames when involved in an accident. They demonstrated this propensity to their viewers by filming a controlled crash involving one of the GM trucks in question. Sure enough: kaboom! and fire! The only problem? The kabooming and fire were helped along by NBC’s surreptitious placement of incendiary devices hidden inside the vehicle. In February of 1993 the show’s hosts, Jane Pauly and Stone Phillips, would be forced to deliver a humiliating three and a half minute on-air apology to GM, as the network agreed to pay GM to settle a suit brought against NBC over the story. (LA Times: “NBC Admits It Rigged Crash, Settles GM Suit). Now claims are being made that NBC is using a similar dirty trick once again to falsely dramatize another explosive "news" story, this time on a different “news” show, the Today Show, and by a different “news" reporter, Jeff Rossen.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 31, 2015 15 Comments
You may recall Hillary claiming she only used one device during her tenure as Secretary of State for "convenience." You may also recall how her once device claim was instantly proven questionable when a video surfaced of her stating otherwise. The day following Hillary's press conference, the Associated Press filed suit against the State Department over the embattled former Secretary's emails after repeated attempts to access records were fruitless. Fast forward several weeks into EmailGate. Today, the AP reports Clinton was using an iPad while serving as Secretary of State, placing Clinton's initial one device claim squarely in the Big Fat Lie category. But it gets better. Evidently, Clinton managed to serve as the Secretary of State and only send four emails containing the word 'drone.' Ever. Or at least that's what the State Department is saying:
The State Department says it can find only four emails sent between former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff concerning drone strikes and certain U.S. surveillance programs, and those notes have little to do with either subject. She asks for a phone call in one, a phone number in another. She seeks advice on how best to condemn information leaks, and accidentally replies to one work email with questions apparently about decorations.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 31, 2015 20 Comments
The arbitrary deadline to come to an agreement with Iran is today. But according to the Associated Press, that deadline might be extended to tomorrow, making this the third deadline extension.
They had set a deadline of Tuesday for a framework agreement, and later softened that wording to a framework understanding, between Iran and the so-called P5+1 nations — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. After intense negotiations, obstacles remained on uranium enrichment, where stockpiles of enriched uranium should be stored, limits on Iran's nuclear research and development and the timing and scope of sanctions relief among other issues. The aim has been a joint statement is to be accompanied by additional documents that outline more detailed understandings, allowing the sides to claim enough progress has been made to merit a new round, officials said. Iran has not yet signed off on the documents, one official said, meaning any understanding remains unclear. ...The softening of the language from a framework "agreement" to a framework "understanding" appeared due in part to opposition to a two-stage agreement from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Earlier this year, he demanded only one deal that nails down specifics and does not permit the other side to "make things difficult" by giving it wiggle room on interpretations.
Any deal reached would only amount to a soft framework, and likely not be particularized in writing as we reported Friday.
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