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Posted by Amy Miller on February 20, 2015 48 Comments
Earlier this week a federal court in Texas issued a temporary injunctive order preventing implementation of Obama's immigration executive action. Following the order, the Obama Administration made it appear as though they were prepared to put their agenda on hold and take the fight over executive power to the courts. I say "appear" because, in spite of the injunction, DHS is still making moves to award multi-million dollar contracts to the firms tasked with handling the processing of millions of illegal immigrants' requests for amnesty. An anonymous source has described the deal as being rushed through at a "full throttle pace," and a Request for Proposal filed by the USCIS details how the agency expects to pull off its latest bait-and-switch. Judicial Watch has the details:
The RFP estimates that the population of potential requesters for the president’s deferred action will be “approximately four million people” and that USCIS anticipates the initial filing of “approximately five to six million forms” related to the amnesty order which also covers the illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and lawful residents. The work is to begin in mid-March, the document reveals, and the contractor will operate out of a new center in Arlington, Virginia because there is no current facility with available space or staff to accommodate the “additional volume of work.” The center will be dedicated to processing deferred action for illegal immigrant parents of citizens, employment authorization and correspondence management. The pricing spreadsheets are astounding and list tens of thousands of work hours—for tasks such as program management, file operations and maintenance as well as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) scanning—that will undoubtedly end up costing American taxpayers enormous sums. The contractor that lands this monstrous government deal must also be able to respond on short notice to growth in volume due to urgent events and requirements. “The growth is more than normal overtime and cannot be completed with overtime,” the government documents state.

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Posted by Amy Miller on February 20, 2015 35 Comments
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has made a name for himself in the fight to roll back union influence. He easily overcame a 2012 recall effort organized by big labor and other progressive interests, and since then has been held up by many conservatives as an example of what Republican leadership should look like. Now considered an emerging contender in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Walker is taking new steps to court both employers, and workers who support right-to-work policies over forced union membership. Legislators in Wisconsin are planning on fast-tracking a new, controversial bill that would make Wisconsin a right-to-work state. Walker had previously urged the legislature to put the issue on the back burner, saying that the revived controversy would conflict with his larger agenda, but after a series of meetings with lawmakers, has agreed to sign on to the effort. That promise has not come without controversy. More from the AP:
"I think we can do this next week without it getting really ugly," said Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald on WTMJ radio in Milwaukee. "We'll see next week whether the Capitol blows up. I don't know." Right to work is a "false promise for Wisconsin," said Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, in a prepared statement. "Right to Work will not create jobs and will lower wages for all workers," Dan Bukiewicz, president of the Milwaukee Building-Construction Trades Council, which represents union construction workers in the Milwaukee area, called right-to-work "an unneeded distraction." "It's very disappointing they're going to fast-track it. Usually when things are done fast they're done incorrectly," he said. "I haven't heard anybody come out from a business standpoint saying this is what they want. The residual results of this will hurt the citizens of Wisconsin." Proponents of right-to-work argue it will make Wisconsin more competitive and that workers should have the freedom to decide whether to pay and join a union, rather than having dues automatically withdrawn.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 20, 2015 27 Comments
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has escalated his battle with ISIS in Libya by sending in Egypt's special forces, which are considered some of the best in the world.
Egyptian special forces have allegedly launched a ground attack in Libya's Islamic State-held Derna capturing dozens of Islamist militants, according to Egyptian and Libyan reports. Ansa news agency cited unnamed local sources as saying that an Egyptian commando stormed the eastern Libyan town, a stronghold of the Islamic State (Isis) there, "capturing 55 Daesh [IS] militants". The Libyan National Army wrote on its Facebook page that Egyptian forces in coordination with the local army stormed IS camp in Derna, "killing a large number of IS militants and capturing several terrorists including Egyptians, foreigners and Arabs". An Egyptian newspaper, ElWatan News, reported that several jihadists were killed in the operation.
I suspect that the only jobs program Sisi is interested in providing ISIS involves the funeral industry. You might think that such a robust response to the terror group that has threatened President Obama would be winning all sorts of support from the White House. Sadly...not so much.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 20, 2015 27 Comments
According to recent reports, the Clinton Foundation is accepting large donations from foreign governments. Accusations of influence peddling are already being made. James V. Grimaldi and Rebecca Ballhaus of the Wall Street Journal:
Foreign Government Gifts to Clinton Foundation on the Rise The Clinton Foundation has dropped its self-imposed ban on collecting funds from foreign governments and is winning contributions at an accelerating rate, raising ethical questions as Hillary Clinton ramps up her expected bid for the presidency. Recent donors include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Australia, Germany and a Canadian government agency promoting the Keystone XL pipeline. In 2009, the Clinton Foundation stopped raising money from foreign governments after Mrs. Clinton became secretary of state. Former President Bill Clinton, who ran the foundation while his wife was at the State Department, agreed to the gift ban at the behest of the Obama administration, which worried about a secretary of state’s husband raising millions while she represented U.S. interests abroad. The ban wasn’t absolute; some foreign government donations were permitted for ongoing programs approved by State Department ethics officials.
The panel on Special Report with Bret Baier addressed the issue last night: Considering their prior position on this issue, the Democratic Party's silence is surprising.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 20, 2015 4 Comments
Anti-Israel divestment resolutions have had success in the U. California system this semester, including the bizarre and seriously mocked decision of the university-wide student council to divest not only from some companies doing business in Israel, but also from the U.S. government. None of these resolutions are binding, but they are an important part of the War on Israel on campuses, in which anti-Israel groups seek to hijack every possible forum and to make everything about hating Israel. One of the most controversial resolution sessions took place at the UC-Davis Student Senate, which passed a divestment resolution. [caption id="attachment_117054" align="alignnone" width="600"]https://twitter.com/SJPUCDavis/status/561048869316722688/photo/1 [UC-Davis SJP students celebrate student Senate Divestment Vote, Jan. 30, 2105][Image via Twitter][/caption]Supporters chanted "Allahu Akbar" at pro-Israel students, and swastikas were painted on a Jewish fraternity though no perpetrator has been identified so far (pro-divestment activists claim it is a hoax). A pro-divestment student leader posted on Facebook after the vote that "Hamas & Sharia law have taken over UC Davis. Brb crying over the resilience" though she claimed it was just satire.  All in all, it made for a poisonous campus atmosphere. The divestment resolution was challenged in the student-run Court of Associated Students as beyond the scope of the Student Senate jurisdiction. Here is the argument Wednesday night:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 19, 2015 35 Comments
Knocking off a seminal left-leaning media figure was bound to incur backlash. And so it seems we have our response; Mother Jones is out to off Bill O'Reilly. Late this afternoon, David Corn and Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones released a report suggesting Bill O'Reilly has a, "Brian Williams Problem." They then accuse O'Reilly of saying, "he was in a "war zone" that apparently no American correspondent reached." The intrepid reporting duo began their damning tale by explaining (in a roundabout way, anyway) why they targeted O'Reilly:
After NBC News suspended anchor Brian Williams for erroneously claiming that he was nearly shot down in a helicopter while covering the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly went on a tear. On his television show, the top-rated cable news anchor declared that the American press isn't "half as responsible as the men who forged the nation." He bemoaned the supposed culture of deception within the liberal media, and he proclaimed that the Williams controversy should prompt questioning of other "distortions" by left-leaning outlets. Yet for years, O'Reilly has recounted dramatic stories about his own war reporting that don't withstand scrutiny—even claiming he acted heroically in a war zone that he apparently never set foot in. O'Reilly has repeatedly told his audience that he was a war correspondent during the Falklands war and that he experienced combat during that 1982 conflict between England and Argentina. He has often invoked this experience to emphasize that he understands war as only someone who has witnessed it could. As he once put it, "I've been there. That's really what separates me from most of these other bloviators. I bloviate, but I bloviate about stuff I've seen. They bloviate about stuff that they haven't."
Of course they neglect the various other discrepancies between Brian Williams' claims and reality. Then they go on to make their case.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 19, 2015 31 Comments
Joe Biden made headlines Tuesday when he publicly canoodled the wife of newly appointed Secretary of Defense Carter. Our friends over at the Washington Free Beacon compiled this epic super cut of Biden's handsy habit: Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post wrote, "Some tipping point has been reached with Biden, it seems. While it used to be chalked up to Biden being "Uncle Joe," it's increasingly being described as "creepy."" On this point, I wholly agree because it is creepy.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 19, 2015 4 Comments
Rasmea Odeh was convicted in Israel in 1970 of the 1969 supermarket bombing that killed students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner. She was convicted again in Detroit in November 2014 of falsely procuring naturalization, by concealing her conviction and incarceration in Israel on U.S. immigration and naturalization applications. Rasmea has become a hero in the anti-Israel activist community and among groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, on the narrative that her original Israeli conviction was unjust as it was the result of a confession extracted after several weeks of horrific sexual torture. The trial judge ruled any such evidence inadmissible, as the immigration charge had to deal with concealment of the conviction and incarceration, not whether Rasmea was guilty of the bombing charges. Rasmea is due to be sentenced on the immigration charge on March 12, 2015. While she faces 10 years in prison it is highly unlikely she will receive anywhere near that much time. The prosecution has not yet filed its sentencing request (or if it did, it's not on PACER yet). In the run up to sentencing, Rasmea's supporters have organized fundraisers, livestream events, and letter writing campaigns urging the Judge to show leniency. There are dozens of groups organizing the effort: http://uspcn.org/2015/02/16/court-denies-motions-from-palestinian-activist-rasmea-odeh-supporters-mobilize-for-march-12-sentencing-in-detroit/ There are campus events sponsored by groups such as the Middle East Studies Association at Loyola University in Chicago:

Posted by Amy Miller on February 19, 2015 8 Comments
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has a net neutrality problem---and he's not staying silent about it. Commissioner Pai is leading the charge against Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler's plans to regulate the way we sell and receive internet access. The problem isn't just with the contents of the plan---which are sweeping and expand government power in communications regulation---but with how careful the FCC has been to not release any details to the public before the Commission's February 26 vote.
“I’ve not been shy about expressing my views on a great many subjects,” Pai said in an interview in his office at FCC headquarters in Washington. “I’ve done my best to make sure that my views are expressed, whether through the spoken word or the pen.” Conspicuously visible on Pai’s desk is Wheeler’s net neutrality proposal, which has been circulated among the FCC commissioners but not released to the public. Pai has repeatedly wielded the bulky document as a prop in media appearances to condemn Wheeler’s plan and to needle the chairman for refusing to publish the text ahead of the FCC’s vote.
The scandal is the theme of a great new video from Project Internet Freedom: Pai's concerns about the FCC's secrecy aren't misplaced. A new poll by the Progressive Policy Institute shows that not only do Americans want to see the net neutrality plan before it is implemented, they're also not convinced that it will bring helpful change:

Posted by Amy Miller on February 19, 2015 69 Comments
Even though the all-out battle to "raise the wage" has fizzled, Americans still have workers' rights on their minds---and polling data shows that they may be more sympathetic to higher wages and more lenient workplace conditions that we previously thought. A new poll of adult Americans (not just "likely voters") shows that more than half the country supports raising the minimum wage, as well as worker-friendly changes to laws governing paid sick leave and parental leave. Via the AP:
Proposals to increase the federal minimum wage, as well as to require employers to give paid leave to their employees, find few objections among Americans as a whole. Six in 10 Americans favor raising the minimum wage, including nearly half who are strongly in favor, the AP-GfK Poll shows, while only 2 in 10 are opposed. Six in 10 also favor requiring all employers to give paid time off to employees when they are sick, while two-thirds favor requiring all employers to give time off to employees after the birth of a child. Among Republicans, about half support requiring employers to give paid sick leave and 55 percent support a requirement for paid parental leave. But the minimum wage divides Republicans more closely, with only 4 in 10 in favor, 31 percent opposed and 27 percent not leaning either way. Half of moderate-to-liberal Republicans, but just a third of conservative Republicans, favor a minimum wage increase. About 8 in 10 Democrats and a majority of independents favor each of these workplace proposals.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 19, 2015 12 Comments
Very few Californians will be happier to see Senator Barbra Boxer retire than me, but many are already clamoring to figure out who will replace her in 2016. Amy Miller analyzed one shock poll that had President Obama's approval ratings cracking the 50% mark. Now, I offer another intriguing poll that has a Republican candidate in the lead for Boxer's spot.
She’s been out of public life for years, she’s never run for office and she’s a Republican, but Condoleezza Rice is now the first choice of California voters to replace Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2016. A Field Poll released Wednesday showed that the former Bush administration official leads a list of 18 potential Senate candidates, with 49 percent of likely voters saying that they would be inclined to vote for her and 39 percent not inclined.
At this point, it's probably the fact that she has never been an elected official---and has been out of the spotlight for many years---that has endeared her to the California electorate.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 19, 2015 14 Comments
A train carrying crude oil derailed in West Virginia Monday, causing a massive fires and forcing evacuations. Here's a report from the Associated Press via the New York Times:
West Virginia Train Derails, Sending Oil Tanker Into River Oil from North Dakota's shale fields was still burning in West Virginia a day after a train carrying more than 3 million gallons of crude derailed in a snowstorm, shooting fireballs into the sky. Hundreds of families were evacuated and nearby water treatment plants were temporarily shut down after 19 tanker cars left the tracks and caught fire, leaking oil into a Kanawha River tributary and burning a nearby house down to its foundation. "There's nothing there," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who toured the scene. "All you can see is a couple of blocks sticking out of the ground. There's some pickup trucks out front completely burned to the ground."
The flames caused by the crash were unbelievable: The accident has revived the debate over the Keystone XL Pipeline, a mode of fuel transport proponents claim is much safer.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 19, 2015 17 Comments
Over the past few weeks, we've covered the devolution of the strategically important state of Yemen. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels evolved from regional threat to occupying force, taking control of the capital city of Sana'a as well as oil-rich lands well outside their original territory in the northern part of Yemen. Soon after the Houthi made moves to control key areas of Sana'a and usurp the U.S.-backed government, State Department officials began to make plans to evacuate embassy and other official staff. The eventual evacuation drew the attention of the world as eventually-debunked reports of Marines being disarmed surfaced, and now, new information has come available that suggests that the State Department's best laid plans for a safe evacuation weren't just foiled---they were non-existent. Unclassified e-mails reviewed by Fox News suggest that officials bypassed security measures intended to protect sensitive data in their scramble to formulate an evacuation plan. These measures were skipped with the permission of higher ups in Washington, and as a result, e-mails and day-to-day operations were left exposed for three days. From Fox News:
But one email reviewed by Fox News showed genuine concern -- even panic -- in Washington, that an unclassified system exposing emails and day-to-day operations was left up and running at the embassy in Sanaa. "We need to quickly think about the plan for destroying/sanitizing the OpenNet data that is still in Sanaa," the email from a supervisor said. "I am a little worried it is still out there."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 19, 2015 13 Comments
Is this now a series? At my speech in Rochester I found Philly Guy. On Wednesday night, February 18, 2015, I appeared on a CAMERA panel in West Palm Beach about countering the anti-Israel movement on campus. I don't know the official count, but I'm guesstimating about 200 people in attendance. I found Legal Insurrection reader, commenter and Twitter fan @SGLawrence [Featured Image], who attended with her daughter. More than that, they gave me a wonderful gift of two illustrated books by Sam Fink, Exodus and The Constitution, accompanied by a wonderful note:
Every time I on on Legalinsurrection.com, I feel that all is not lost -- if there are still thinkers out there like you, applying their incredible talents in these times, I must remain an optimist. Ever since I discovered Sam Fink, I have made it my business to share his beautiful books on The Constitution and on the 5 Books of Exodus. There's just something about Fink that reminds me of you -- a real love of America and Israel, I guess.
[#Blushing] Sam Fink Exodus The Constitution

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 18, 2015 16 Comments
You gotta love The Imperial City -- everyone is an obstructionist and no one is ever responsible. In this particular tale of drama and woe, the previous Congress passed appropriations bills lasting one fiscal year for every major government entity save the Department of Homeland Security. The idea being that once the newly elected Republican majorities took their seats in January, they'd have a strategic advantage in pushing reforms and curbing President Obama's executive immigration overreach as conditions for continued agency funding. Currently, DHS is only funded through the end of February. The House passed an appropriations bill that was heavy on the enforcement (well done, House Republicans). Senate Democrats keep filibustering the House Bill so the Senate hasn't even had a chance to duke it out. Back at the House, Speaker Boehner told Senate Democrats to "get off their asses" and stop obstructing (there's that magic word again) the bill the House passed. All the while, Senate Democrats continue to cry "unfair!" Meanwhile, down in Texas, a judge was all, "yeah, no Obama." Meaning that the fit the Senate Democrats are pitching is over an Executive Order that cannot be legally implemented. Or as Senator Sessions put it, "Congress cannot fund the very action which dissolves its own powers." And DHS is tweeting on their own behalf: Which brings us to now.
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