Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

/var/www/vhosts/legalinsurrection.com/httpdocs/wp-content/themes/bridge-child/readFeeds.incFALSE

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2014 58 Comments
Chelsea Clinton has announced she's pregnant. Congratulations. Best wishes for mother and child. It would be perfectly natural for Hillary to show off the grandbaby, particularly if, as expected, she runs for President. I can envision the family, including grandbaby, on stage at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 as Hillary accepts the nomination -- maybe with Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow playing in the background Hillary more than anyone needs humanizing, in what already is a multi-year rebranding project. And Hillary isn't waiting for the arrival to publicly express her joy: https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/statuses/456903198834700288 Will Hillary be treated like Sarah Palin was back in 2008, when Palin appeared with her own child Trig, and was accused of using him as a prop? From the Legal Insurrection archives:

LATEST NEWS

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2014 32 Comments
Steve Lynch is a Democratic Rep. from Massachusetts who doesn't hesitate to buck the party line from a centrist point of view, and to speak openly about problems in the party and with party positions. Lynch ran for Senate to fill John Kerry's seat, but lost in the primary to now-Senator Ed Markey. Lynch recently was interviewed by The Boston Herald about upcoming Obamacare problems and how devastating they will be for Democrats. That runs contrary to cut current news cycle Democratic spin that (allegedly) meeting sign up goals means electoral problems related to Obamacare are over.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, the lone member of the Bay State delegation to vote against Obama­care four years ago, now predicts the law’s botched roll-out will not only cost Democrats valuable House seats but could even jeopardize their control of the Senate in this year’s hotly contested midterm elections. “We will lose seats in the House,” the plain-talking South Boston Democrat said in Boston Herald Radio’s studio yesterday, delivering a harsh diagnosis. “I am fairly certain of that based on the poll numbers that are coming out from the more experienced pollsters down there. And I think we may lose the Senate. I think that’s a possibility if things continue to go the way they have been ... primarily because of health care.”

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on April 18, 2014 26 Comments
As the 2014 midterms approach, a new conservative political action committee (PAC) has just formed with an eye toward electing more black conservative candidates to public office. Noting, "the lock that liberals have held on the black vote is slowly but surely breaking," the PAC’s homepage states,
The Black Conservative Fund is committed to helping fund and elect black conservatives who are dedicated to spreading the message of true limited government and traditional values across our great land.
The PAC, which declares itself as, “first and foremost a CONSERVATIVE political action committee” [Emphasis Original], will be spending time during the lead-up to the 2014 midterms and beyond helping to “elect black conservatives at every level of government.” First, from a conceptual standpoint, I feel the formation of the PAC is one that is absolutely necessary if the conservative movement is to expand into areas where it has traditionally had far too little political presence. If you are one who thinks the conservative movement is doing fine among black voters, consider that Barack Obama was elected in 2008 receiving 96% of the black vote, and was then promptly reelected in 2012 with 94% of the black vote. The results conservatives have achieved over the years in black communities at the national level are nowhere near where they ought to be, and Black Conservatives Fund (BCF) aims to chip away at the problem.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 17, 2014 4 Comments
As mentioned last night, and as expected, there was a protest by student groups seeking divestment from companies doing business in Israel in reaction to last week's 15-8-1 decision of the Cornell Student Assembly to table indefinitely the proposed divestment resolution. About 75 protestors attended the Student Assembly meeting. I heard one of them refer to hundreds, but it was not that many, and many drifted out after a while. Here's a video of the pro-divestment students walking from their gathering area to Willard Straight Hall, where the Assembly meets. You can see there just weren't that many, certainly not hundreds. A disappointing turnout considering the priority the anti-Israel groups place on the protest. The Assembly then voted to suspend the rules and its session, in what appeared to be a preplanned maneuver, according to multiple people who were in the room at the start. I arrived later, because I had class. Effectively, the Assembly went out of session, and then let the anti-Israel students spend almost two hours giving speeches, in what the protesters termed an alternative assembly. There also were other unrelated topics, such as free bus passes, that consumed some of the protest discussion. Here's the Alternative Agenda: Cornell Alternative Assembly Agenda 4-17-2014 The only interesting part was that David Skorton, President of Cornell, previously was scheduled to appear before the Assembly, and kept that appointment. So the President was present during part of this alternative assembly, but not because of the protest. There were some minor theatrics as protestors vented a little, but nothing major. Skorton gave a short speech about improving the process, and left:

LEGAL INSURRECTION QUICK TAKES

Trial Starts for Stanford Students Accused of Vandalism During Gaza Protest

Clemson U. Settles With Prof Who Was Fired Over Charlie Kirk Post

Student Group Demands ‘Racism’ Inquiry After School's DEI Chief Resigns

Families of Idaho murder Victims File Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Washington State U.

Ibram Kendi Reportedly Launching New Center at Howard U. This Month

U. Kentucky Law Prof Suspended for Calling for 'Palestine Everywhere' Wants Federal Judge to Reinstate Him

SEE MORE

Posted by Mandy Nagy on April 17, 2014 14 Comments
Earlier Thursday, reports surfaced that leaflets were distributed earlier in the week in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk demanding Jews register with a government office. We waited to report the information here at Legal Insurrection because of conflicting reports on the story and questions about the authenticity of the leaflets. And then of course, there is the question of whether this is part of a propaganda campaign from one or both sides in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Let’s start with the earlier reports. Here is an earlier article from USA Today:
Jews in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk where pro-Russian militants have taken over government buildings were told they have to "register" with the Ukrainians who are trying to make the city become part of Russia, according to Ukrainian and Israeli media. Jews emerging from a synagogue say they were handed leaflets that ordered the city's Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee "or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated," reported Ynet News, Israel's largest news website. Donetsk is the site of an "anti-terrorist" operation by the Ukraine government, which has moved military columns into the region to force out militants who are demanding a referendum be held on joining Russia. The news was carried first by the Ukraine's Donbass news agency. The leaflets bore the name of Denis Pushilin, who identified himself as chairman of "Donetsk's temporary government," and were distributed near the Donetsk synagogue and other areas, according to the reports.
Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the leaflets, regardless of where they came from.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 17, 2014 11 Comments

New York State municipalities are suffocating under the weight of local pensions. The solution? Defer and delay, rather than deal with the problem now. From The Ithaca Journal, Borrowing for pension costs soar in N.Y.: Local governments and the state increased borrowing off the state pension fund to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 17, 2014 5 Comments
From Mark Steyn, The slow death of free speech - Must we celebrate diversity by enforcing conformity?
What all the above stories have in common, whether nominally about Israel, gay marriage, climate change, Islam, or even freedom of the press, is that one side has cheerfully swapped that apocryphal Voltaire quote about disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it for the pithier Ring Lardner line: ‘“Shut up,” he explained.’ A generation ago, progressive opinion at least felt obliged to pay lip service to the Voltaire shtick. These days, nobody’s asking you to defend yourself to the death: a mildly supportive retweet would do. But even that’s further than most of those in the academy, the arts, the media are prepared to go. As Erin Ching, a student at 60-grand-a-year Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, put it in her college newspaper the other day: ‘What really bothered me is the whole idea that at a liberal arts college we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion.’ Yeah, who needs that? There speaks the voice of a generation: celebrate diversity by enforcing conformity.... In the internal contradictions of multiculturalism, Islam trumps all: race, gender, secularism, everything. So, in the interests of multiculti sensitivity, pampered upper-middle-class trusty-fundy children of entitlement are pronouncing a Somali refugee beyond the pale and signing up to Islamic strictures on the role of women.... I’m opposed to the notion of official ideology — not just fascism, Communism and Baathism, but the fluffier ones, too, like ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘climate change’ and ‘marriage equality’. Because the more topics you rule out of discussion — immigration, Islam, ‘gender fluidity’ — the more you delegitimise the political system....

Posted by A.F. Branco on April 17, 2014 3 Comments

Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source.  To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on April 16, 2014 33 Comments
The efforts of Ukraine’s government to crack down on pro-Russia separatists who have recently seized various government and security buildings in the east appeared to suffer setbacks Wednesday. From CNN:
Pro-Russian militants appeared to tighten their grip on Ukraine's eastern town of Slaviansk on Wednesday as Ukrainian military forces massed nearby in an uneasy standoff. On a day of fast-moving events in the restive region, officials in Transnistria, a separatist region in Moldova on Kiev's other border, turned to Moscow for recognition -- taking example from Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine last month. In Donetsk, six armored vehicles sent into the nearby city of Kramatorsk in the morning later showed up carrying Russian flags in Slaviansk. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said the vehicles had been seized by militants after they were "blocked by local residents, including representatives of Russian labeled subversive and terrorist groups." As of mid-afternoon local time, the vehicles were located "near an administrative building in the center of Slaviansk, surrounded by men in armed uniform not related to the Armed Forces of Ukraine," it said. It was not immediately clear what had happened to the personnel in the cars. State-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti said the crew of the vehicles had switched sides to join the protesters, while other reports said they had been seized by militants.
An earlier report from Reuters news agency also confirmed that the vehicles were later seen under control of pro-Russia separatists.  The article indicates there were reports that Ukrainians gave up the vehicles to the separatists but notes that it was unclear whether there was any threat of force. And the Wall Street Journal reports that in Donetsk, separatists took over the city council building with little effort and apparently without intervention.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 16, 2014 23 Comments
Elizabeth Warren's autobiography is out, and it looks like she is sticking precisely to her campaign script on her false claim to be Cherokee. The title is "A Fighting Chance." The Boston Globe, which has an advance copy (perhaps as a courtesy since it gave Warren so much help in the campaign), summarizes:
She spends several pages describing the family connections that have led her to assert a partial Native American heritage, for which she was criticized by Republicans in her 2012 Senate campaign.... “As a kid, I had learned about my Native American background the same way every kid learns about who they are: from family,” she writes. “I never questioned my family’s stories or asked my parents for proof or documentation. What kid would?” Her ancestry became a major issue during the campaign, and Warren says she was stunned by the attacks – and that she couldn’t provide documentation because her family hadn’t registered any tribal affiliation. “In Oklahoma, that was pretty common,” she writes. “But knowing who you are is one thing, and proving who you are is another.” She reiterated that she did not use her background to gain special treatment. “I never asked for special treatment when I applied to college, to law school, or for jobs,” she writes.
This family dodge has been exposed so many times, detailed at Elizabeth Warren Wiki. The short version is that she never lived as a Native American, but did use the claim to her advantage to get listed as a "Minority Law Teacher" in a directory used as a hiring device in the 1980s. Somehow the editors of The Harvard Women's Law Journal knew about it when Warren was a visiting professor because they listed her as a Woman of Color in Legal Academia. Warren and Harvard never have released her hiring records.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 16, 2014 16 Comments

1. Auschwitz trip: ‘I have no regrets,’ says Palestinian professor Professor Mohammed Dajani took 27 Palestinian college students to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a few weeks ago as part of a project designed to teach empathy and tolerance to both Palestinians and...

MORE POSTS
Accessibility by WAH