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Posted by David Gerstman on March 20, 2014 7 Comments
Israeli homes built on land captured in the 1967 war is the perennial go-to blame game for Palestinians' hard line at negotiations.  But it's just a negotiating ploy as to which Western leaders are all to eager to engage. The other day, for example, David Weinberg wrote in Blame those Damn Settlements that removing the settlements would not alter threats to Israel or Muslim rejectionism of a Jewish national entity:

If it wasn't for the settlements, you see, the Palestinians undoubtedly would recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would formally forgo the so-called "right" of return for Palestinian refugees. Hamas and Fatah would bury the hatchet. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would win the Nobel Peace Prize, twice. And the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement would stop seeking to demonize and delegitimize Israel.

If it wasn't for the settlements, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani would announce an end to Iranian nuclear enrichment activities and the dismantlement of all related nuclear facilities. The Iranians would also stop shipping missiles to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

After his litany, Weinberg, of course, acknowledged that he was being facetious and observes, "Settlements are an issue for negotiation, a solvable matter of dispute." It is easier to use settlements as an excuse for the lack of peace. Doing so, lets the Palestinians off the hook.  It assumes that Israel has a partner for peace.

When he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this week, that's the approach that President Obama took. Obama said:

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Posted by A.F. Branco on March 20, 2014 7 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 William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2014 14 Comments
Face it, Obama has structured key portions of U.S. foreign policy on Vlad Putin playing nice. Iran nukes? Check. Syria chemical weapons and civil war? Check. Egypt shifting allegiances? Check. Nuclear arms treaty compliance? Check. Central and Eastern Europe territorial integrity? Check. On what key issues does Putin need Obama? Yeah, now Vlad is threatening to leave the relationship and take all the prized possessions with him. Via AP, Russia warns West it may change its stance on Iran:
Russia may revise its stance in the Iranian nuclear talks amid tensions with the West over Ukraine, a senior diplomat warned Wednesday. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to the Interfax news agency, that Russia didn't want to use the Iranian nuclear talks to "raise the stakes," but may have to do so in response to the actions by the United States and the European Union. The statement is the most serious threat of retaliation by Moscow after the U.S. and the EU announced sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. Ryabkov, who is Russia's envoy to the Iranian talks, said that Russia considers the "reunification" with Crimea as far more important than the developments surrounding the Iranian nuclear program.
The featured image, a Branco Cartoon from September 2013, still rings true. So does this photoshop that made the rounds:

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2014 6 Comments
We reported previously on Anti-Israel student group suspended at Northeastern for vandalism, intimidation, disruption. That group was Northeastern Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Ilya Feoktistov has an excellent write-up on the group at FrontPage Mag, including images of its leader, law student Max Geller, wearing a Hezbollah t-shirt and carrying a weapon in the Palestinian Territories. A rally in support of Northeastern SJP was held on March 18. The rally was hyped in advance by anti-Israel websites like Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada, and among branches at SJP at numerous universities. The co-sponsors included a wide range of left-wing groups: Northeastern SJP Rally Press Release Co Sponsors The expectation was that there would be a mass rally. It didn't turn out that way. There were at most about 200 protesters according to participants. It's pretty obvious from photos and video that many if not most of the protesters were not even students, but a coalition of local (and rather aged) activists and some union members with gripes unrelated to Israel: Calling the President of Northeastern a "Zionist Goon," as reflected in the video, was bad enough, and was typical of the attacks. https://twitter.com/conorkelly94/status/445931489898024960 Chanting "Long Live the Intifada" was much worse.  The Second Intifada alone caused the deaths of approximately 1000 Israelis and 3000 Palestinians. Supporters of Venezuela and the Hugo Chavez socialism agenda were handing out flyers:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on March 18, 2014 9 Comments
With ongoing developments on the crisis in Ukraine, here are some news updates from Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a draft treaty making Crimea part of Russia. From CNN, Ukraine cries 'robbery' as Russia annexes Crimea:
Never mind what the West thinks -- the Kremlin says Ukraine's Crimea region is now part of Russia. A signing ceremony Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Crimea and the mayor of the city of Sevastopol made it official, the Kremlin said in a statement. The territory, ceded to Ukraine in the Soviet era, is now part of the Russian Federation, it said. The annexation -- which had not been expected to occur until Russian lawmakers met later this week -- was met with a howl of protest in Kiev, where Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called it "a robbery on an international scale."
Additional details also at CBS News. Also Tuesday, a Ukrainian soldier was reported to have been killed on a base in Crimea and another wounded, though some of the details appeared to be unclear at the time of this writing. From AFP:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on March 18, 2014 10 Comments
A California man who hacked into the computers of Miss Teen USA and other women and then extorted some of them into sending nude photos of themselves or undressing for him on video chat has been sentenced to federal prison. Jared James Abrahams, now twenty years old, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Central District of California. Among Abrahams’ victims was Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, who had alerted authorities last year after she received an anonymous email that included attachments of nude photos of her in her own bedroom, and the sender demanded she “perform” for him or he would post the photos online.  Abrahams had hacked into Wolf's computer and remotely accessed her webcam to obtain the photos without her knowledge. Abrahams was arrested last year and other victims of his "sextortion" attempts were discovered. From the US Attorney’s office:
Abrahams targeted young women he knew, and he identified other victims after hacking into Facebook pages. Using hacking software, Abrahams took control of victims’ email accounts, social media accounts and even their computers – which allowed him to remotely turn on web cameras and occasionally take pictures of naked victims. Abrahams used the nude photos to extort victims by threatening to publicly post the compromising photos or videos to the victims’ social media accounts – unless the victim either sent more nude photos or videos, or engaged in a Skype session with him and did what he said for five minutes. Several teens and women in their early 20s were victimized when Abrahams posted nude photos to their social media accounts. At least two victims consented to the Skype sessions proposed by Abrahams to keep their photos off the Internet.
Cassidy Wolf said last year that the incident had terrified her – I wrote at the time about her harrowing ordeal, and she described the experience in several media interviews. Abrahams pleaded guilty in November to one count of computer hacking and three counts of extortion, after signing a plea agreement in October.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 18, 2014 299 Comments
Back on February 26 we reported that defense counsel for Joseph Walker--the New Jersey cop who shot and killed Joseph Harvey Jr. in an apparent "road rage" incident in Maryland--had filed a motion to dismiss the first degree murder indictment against him on the grounds that the Grand Jury had been given "materially false and misleading testimony."  You can see that story here:

Off-duty “Road Rage” Cop lawyer: Grand Jury given “materially false and misleading testimony”

Shortly thereafter I received a call from Walker's lawyers offering to share with me their motion and the accompanying exhibits.  These are not confidential documents, but rather are public documents having been submitted to the trial court. Nevertheless, having them provided directly by counsel was a great convenience in accessing them. Over the last few days I have been going through the attached exhibits, which consist mostly of transcripts of witness statements to police, as well as a brief report generated by the MD State Police themselves and a sketch of the shooting scene with the locations of the vehicles and other items. Today I wrap up this series of "exposés" with the actual motion itself, as well as the transcript of the actual MD State Trooper testimony presented to the Grand Jury.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 18, 2014 16 Comments
The Obama administration and some state exchanges have rolled out a number of curious advertising campaigns intended to sell the Affordable Care Act to the American people. Last fall we got a series of ads about 'Brosurance' featuring photos of college guys doing keg stands, then in December we were introduced to Pajama Boy. More recently, we were lectured to by Big Mother. Now, the White House has pulled out all the stops and is featuring animated GIFs you would expect to see in a BuzzFeed post about TV shows from the 1990s but not on the official White House website. The images are part of an interactive contest that encourages readers to vote for their favorite reason to get covered...
As millions of Americans scramble to fill out their March Madness brackets, we've got another big milestone coming up: the March 31st deadline to sign up for health insurance. If you need affordable coverage, head over to HealthCare.gov and #GetCoveredNow. If you've got insurance, help spread the word by voting for your favorite reason to get covered.
I can't help but wonder what Vladimir Putin and his associates in Moscow must think of all this. Read on to see examples of the ridiculous images which are actually posted on the website for the United States White House.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 18, 2014 18 Comments

When I discussed Cover Oregon ads, which were a study in hippie-oriented marketing appropriate in the 1970′s, I thought I had uncovered the worst Obamacare marketing scheme that could have been possibly concocted. I was wrong. Lonely Conservative reviews the new website developed by the Rhode Island...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2014 10 Comments

A comment to our bumper sticker post, Guide to California Crazy, inspired a response from reader JoAnne: Just wanted to add this picture to prove Alex's hypothesis! And just another reason we left California! This pic is from 2006 but she changed the signs to go...

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