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Posted by Nathaniel on May 28, 2014 7 Comments
Three Republican Candidates face Democrat incumbent Ami Bera in the race for the CA-7 congressional seat: Doug Ose, Igor Birman, and Elizabeth Emken. The Cook PVI ranks this district as EVEN, or perfectly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and Election Projection says the district has a weak Democrat hold. According to the DCCC's internal poll, Bera is the current frontrunner as the June 3rd California primaries approach, polling at 47%. Ose and Birman follow with 22% and 17% respectively, and Emken trails at 7%. The remaining 7% are undecided. Due to the nature of California's primaries, only the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, will move on to the November elections. With Bera's huge lead in the polls, this leaves one spot open for the three Republican candidates to fight over, and so the party infighting is currently heated. Despite trailing both Emken and Ose in funding (until recently), Birman has managed to hold a strong second place in in the Republican primary polls. And now, he's bringing the fight to Ose, accusing him (rightfully, I'd say) of being too liberal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C87Dsv7ZQzQ&w=640&h=450&rel=0 Birman, who as a child emigrated to the US from the Soviet Union, is a staunch conservative: he has been endorsed by both Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Tom McClintock, and his campaign website states:
My first and only allegiance will be to the Constitution that every Member of Congress swears an oath to preserve and protect. Congress has ignored too many Constitutional principles. Having risked so much for a chance to live in freedom as an American, I will never forget them.
The primary race boils down to this: Will voters go for a moderate on the assumption that will make a victory more likely? Hasn't that been tried before?

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 28, 2014 25 Comments

Today is a travel and meeting day for me. So imagine my consternation to read the comment in the Tip Line from commenter Ragspierre, linking to a National Review post, about Obama's West Point speech today: Have we reached peak strawman…??? I have been an Obama straw man...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 28, 2014 16 Comments
In his first interview with a U.S. television news station since leaking information about NSA surveillance programs, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sits down with NBC News’ Brian Williams for a one hour primetime special.  The interview, which was conducted last week, will air this Wednesday and NBC News has released some early clips in advance. From NBC News:
Edward Snowden, in an exclusive interview with "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, is fighting back against critics who dismissed him as a low-level hacker — saying he was “trained as a spy” and offered technical expertise to high levels of government. Snowden defended his expertise in portions of the interview that aired at 6:30 p.m. ET on Nightly News. The extended, wide-ranging interview with Williams, his first with a U.S. television network, airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. “I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word, in that I lived and worked undercover overseas — pretending to work in a job that I’m not — and even being assigned a name that was not mine,” Snowden said in the interview. Snowden described himself as a technical expert who has worked for the United States at high levels, including as a lecturer in a counterintelligence academy for the Defense Intelligence Agency and undercover work for the CIA and National Security Agency. “But I am a technical specialist. I am a technical expert,” he said. “I don’t work with people. I don’t recruit agents. What I do is I put systems to work for the United States. And I’ve done that at all levels from — from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top.”
Williams’ interview with Snowden comes after months of negotiation between NBC News and intermediaries for the former NSA contractor, according to the New York Times.  The interview was conducted in Russia, where Snowden has been living since being granted asylum there last year. That location alone apparently presented its own challenges for the interview.

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Posted by David Gerstman on May 28, 2014 11 Comments
For years many the feeling was that Europe had unquestioned leverage with Israel and therefore could take sides without losing its clout. But trade and tech have taken their toll on this assumption. Israel is building alliances in Asia, and European leverage is sure to suffer. Former Israeli foreign and defense minister, Moshe Arens, explains in Ha'aretz Why Israel is shifting eastward.
On reflection this is not totally unexpected. For many years the economic development of the countries in East Asia has been outpacing the economic development of Europe. Japan made giant strides in the years after World War II. South Korea followed suit. China has become the economic wonder of the twenty-first century. There are, as well, indications of accelerated economic development in India, the world’s largest democracy. It is natural that Israel’s economic relationship with these countries would begin to rival its relationships with the countries of Europe, a Europe which seems to be in permanent economic crisis and lagging behind the Asian tigers. ... Despite the centuries of anti-Semitism that marked most European nations and the guilt borne by them for their actions during the Holocaust, Europe, in recent years through the machinery of the European Union, has waged a constant campaign of criticism and condemnation of the policies pursued by Israeli governments, going so far as to impose economic sanction against Israel.
The second point was made in an op-ed in late February by Clemens Wergin in the New York Times, Why Israel no longer trusts Europe.
To Europe, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of all problems facing the region — a view in no way altered by the Arab Human Development Reports published by the United Nations since 2002, which showed that Arab autocracies and cultural backwardness were the root of the region’s woes.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2014 29 Comments
We have been following the Wisconsin "John Doe" anti-conservative witch hunt for a long time. The short story is that Wisconsin investigators using secret "John Doe" state processes have been targeting conservatives in Wisconsin under the factually and legally frivolous theory that they illegally coordinated with Scott Walker's campaign. After certain of the targets sued in federal court alleging a violation of their constitutional rights, a federal judge sided with the targets and issued an injunction barring further investigation and ordering return of evidence seized.  The investigators are in a judicial head lock. The civil suit against the investigators -- who are local prosecutors by day -- continues into the discovery phase. Money damages and other relief are in play, and the hunters have become the hunted. Here are some prior posts: Now comes a disturbing report in The Wall Street Journal that Scott Walker might cut a deal letting the investigators out, Scott Walker's Friends:
Wisconsin prosecutors have suffered a series of stunning legal defeats in recent months as they pursue a secret investigation of the conservative groups that helped Governor Scott Walker get elected. Those cases are shaping up as a major policy victory for free speech and political debate—unless a last-minute settlement rescues the prosecutors. We've learned that Steven Biskupic, who represents Friends of Scott Walker, has been negotiating with Wisconsin special prosecutor Francis Schmitz to settle the state's investigation. The understandable concern among the direct targets of the John Doe is that Mr. Biskupic will cut a deal that would exonerate Mr. Walker while wresting concessions from some of Mr. Walker's allies....

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 27, 2014 39 Comments
This year's Memorial Day weekend was filled with tragedy for Californians -- a tragedy that might have been prevent if  parents' warnings about their mentally ill son had been pursued. Six University of California Santa Barbara students were killed Friday in a spree murder.  The school has cancelled classes in mourning for the profound loss.
UC Santa Barbara canceled classes for Tuesday as the campus mourned six students killed in a rampage on Friday. The school, however, said faculty and staff will be on campus to offer support and counseling to students.
The dead students have now been identified as:
  • Veronika Weiss, 19, from Westlake, CA
  • Katherine Breann Cooper, 22, from Chino Hills, CA
  • Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, 20, from Los Osos, CA
  • Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, from San Jose, CA
  • George Chen, 19, from San Jose, CA
  • Weihan Wang, 20, from Fremont, CA
Authorities have  determined that the killer was a troubled off-and-on student at Santa Barbara City College named Elliot Rodger. Rodger shot and killed himself at the end of the shooting spree.
Authorities have identified the killer, who left various video and written manifestos saying that he was seeking to kill sorority women and others at the university as revenge for the way women had rejected him. The killer -- who subsequently shot himself -- has been identified as a student who enrolled but frequently dropped out of classes at Santa Barbara City College. Rodger posted a video on YouTube prior to the killings. In it, he outlined what he was going to do and said that the women deserved it for rejecting him. The Los Angeles Times published a transcript of the video. "On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house at UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blond slut I see inside there. All those girls I've desired so much. They have all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance toward them, while they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes," the video says. "I take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one, the true alpha male."
The YouTube video of one of Rodger's many disturbing dialogs is below.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2014 2 Comments
One of the many big lies of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, and its supporters on campus, is that it wants peace. In fact, it wants war by other means, boycotts of various stripes to destroy Israel. The YaLa Young Leaders Conference seeks to have youth from around the Middle East talk online as a means of advancing peaceful relations. The YaLa Facebook page has over 450,000 likes. It's 2013 Annual Report (pdf.) details its activities and student involvement throughout the Middle East: YaLa Young Leaders 2013 Report members map Shimon Peres gave a speech at this year's conference held May 25, 2014. Other speakers were a mixed group, not all of whom (like Desmond Tutu) are considered favorable to Israel: (More conference videos here) Maybe it's a fool's errand, but at least it's an attempt to get youth talking to each other. Which is why it has been attacked since its inception by BDS movement supporters. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is the official international boycott organization. The American Studies Association adheres to its academic boycott guidelines. PACBI issued a statement calling for a boycott of this year's YaLa conference, Boycott YaLa-Young Leaders Group and Its Online Normalization Conferences:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2014 19 Comments
The Terrorism and Security Experts of Canada Network (TSEC) has just issued a report documenting Muslim Brotherhood activity in North America. Via Blazing Cat Fur, here are the summary of findings:
  • Canada has a significant presence of Muslim Brotherhood adherent individuals and organizations. Their values and actions are frequently the antithesis of the Canadian Constitution, values and law. Despite statements to the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood considers itself above local laws and national constitutions.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood’s use of settlement and the “process of civilization jihad” has proven effective. The long term aim is to globally impose a virulent form of political Islam to the exclusion of other faiths or systems.
  • Internationally, the Muslim Brotherhood is realigning under pressure as old alliances crumble and opportunities arise. An aggressive posture is re-emerging which has used extensive political violence in the past.
  • The policy and process of denial is deeply rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood.
  • Muslim Brotherhood adherent groups should not be given governmental accreditation, access to public grants nor should they have charity status.
  • Canada’s stance against Muslim Brotherhood adherent organizations in recent years has been more aggressive than the USA, especially in financial areas.
The CBC has picked up on the report, Muslim Brotherhood activities need to be probed in Canada, report says:
The Canadian government should consider investigating the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has entrenched itself in North America and represents a greater systemic threat than al-Qaeda, according to a newly released report on the group.

Posted by A.F. Branco on May 27, 2014 1 Comment

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 William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2014 30 Comments
The attacks on a University of Virginia law professor for expressing legal views not in keeping with the views of some LGBT activists and much of the political establishment has created a stir in legal academia. In Jamaica, a somewhat analogous case is developing regarding a recently retired professor who was fired from his continuing HIV/AIDS research position after filing an accurate, but politically incorrect, expert report in a highly contentious case in Belize (h/t Blazing Cat Fur). The case has received almost no attention outside the Caribbean press, and none in the U.S. as far as I can tell. The background is that the Belize Supreme Court is considering a court case seeking to overturn Section 53 of the criminal code, which bans some forms of homosexual behavior, specifically male-on-male sodomy. Argument was held in May 2013 but there has been no decision as of this writing. The highly charged nature of the case pits a coalition of international gay rights activists against some Christian churches and groups. Enter Dr. Brendan Bain, who retired as a Professor in 2013 from the University of West Indies.  While still a professor, in 2012 Dr. Bain submitted testimony in the form of an Expert Report in the case (embedded in full at the bottom of this post). Dr. Bain is one of the pioneers in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, as detailed in the introduction to his Expert Report, and in the numerous news reports referenced later in this post. [caption id="attachment_87310" align="alignnone" width="454"]Dr. Brendan Bain by Steve Shapiro for the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference (Dr. Brendan Bain,by Steve Shapiro for the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference, used under an Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.)[/caption] Among other things, even after his retirement as a professor Dr. Bain was director of the U.S.-funded Regional Coordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART), which he helped create.  Here is his bio from 2013 from the CHART website:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 26, 2014 5 Comments
Memorial Day is a time for remembering the men and women who died while serving in our nation's armed forces.  Every year, as I pay respect to those fallen, I’m also reminded of my grandfather, who we lovingly called “Poppy.” Poppy served in World War II, and I’ve previously honored him on other occasions with an excerpt from his own diary of his experiences in the war.  Among those experiences, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and endured things I could never even imagine.  And like so many others in his generation, he lost friends to the war, men who made the ultimate sacrifice.  Just as many did in wars before and after this. When I was a child, there were many times I helped Poppy put up the flag on the front porch of my grandparents’ home. It was something he did for specific holidays – Memorial Day, Independence Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day.  For me, those days seemed all about parades and such, and I wasn’t really as much aware as a child of the true importance of such days. But as silly as my grandfather often was with us as kids, I’d always remembered that there was something more solemn in his nature whenever he put up that flag, especially on Memorial Day.  Once the flag was up and flapping in the breeze, he would stand back and seemed to reflect for a moment or two.
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