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Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 17, 2014 69 Comments
Can't say this was on anyone's near term radar. The NY Times reports U.S. and Cuba, in Breakthough, Resume Diplomatic Relations:
The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, American officials said Wednesday. In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 minutes off the American coast. The contractor, Alan Gross, boarded an American government plane bound for the United States on Wednesday morning, and the United States sent back three Cuban spies who have been in an American prison since 1981. American officials said the Cuban spies were swapped for a United States intelligence agent who has been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years and said Mr. Gross was not technically part of the swap but released separately on “humanitarian grounds.”

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Posted by Andrew Branca on December 17, 2014 26 Comments
News station KPAX in Missoula MT reports that the jury today continues its deliberations on the fate of Markus Kaarma, the man being tried for murder for having shot and killed German college student Diren Dede the night of April 27, 2014. The state argues that Kaarma and his common law wife Janelle Pflager (who has not been charged) deliberately left their garage door open to entice Dede to enter, as well as leaving in the garage a purse containing documented items that could later be identified as having been stolen from Kaarma. At closing the prosecution appeared to concede that the investigation into the shooting was substantively flawed.  Their narrative of guilt also incorporated the approach of describing the 18-year-old Dede as an "unarmed child" who did not "deserve to die" for his effort to burglarize Kaarma.  As put by Missoula County Deputy Attorney Karla Painter:
Even if there was a subpar investigation, that does not give the defendant free range to execute an unarmed child.  Was [Dede] considering taking something that didn't belong to him? Probably. Did he deserve to die for his transgressions? No. Diren was violently and senselessly executed. Please tell the defendant that while we live in a state with a strong gun culture, it is not one of lawlessness, or vigilante justice. Please tell the defendant and Mr. and Mrs. Dede that Diren's life meant more than a couple of cans of beer.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 17, 2014 16 Comments
Senate Republicans are going to use their newfound majority advantage to tackle Keystone XL first thing come January, sending a message to Democrats and Washington at large that they're dealing with a different breed of leadership. Majority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Majority Whip-elect John Cornyn (R-TX) don't have an easy job ahead of them; even in the wake of Dems' midterm cycle defeats, many conservatives are still making their concerns heard about the leadership's commitment to taking on big government, as opposed to just rolling with the punches. But for Mitch McConnell, who has struggled to pass conservative legislation during Harry Reid's time in the Majority, this move seems to be about more than just getting a bill passed---it's about fundamentally changing the way both sides participate in the deliberative process. From Politico:
“I hope that senators on both sides will offer energy-related amendments, but there will be no effort to micromanage the amendment process,” McConnell told reporters. “And we’ll move forward and hopefully be able to pass a very important job-creating bill early in the session.” Among potential energy amendments that senators could seek to attach to the Keystone bill are proposals to slow or stop EPA’s emissions rules for power plants and plans to fast-track liquefied natural gas exports. McConnell added: “The notion that building another pipeline is somehow threatening to the environment is belied by the fact that we already have 19 pipelines, I’m told by Lisa Murkowski, that either cross the Mexican border or the Canadian border. Multiple studies showing over and over again no measurable harm to the environment. People want jobs, and this project will create high-wage jobs for our people and it certainly does enjoy a lot of bipartisan support. You saw that on the vote that was held a couple weeks ago.”
An open amendment debate? This is new territory for the Senate, which under Reid's control served as little more than a killing field for even bipartisan amendments.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 17, 2014 8 Comments
In case you're not aware, the damning videos of MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, which confirmed the worst fears of every single critic of Obamacare, weren't uncovered by a journalist. The entire American media complex was scooped by a regular guy who started looking into the way the law was passed after losing his healthcare plan. James O'Keefe of Project Veritas recently sat down with the man only identified as "Rich" for an enlightening interview, in which he explains why he released the videos:
Project Veritas is releasing a video interview of the man who recently brought videos of MIT economist and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber to public attention. Award-winning journalist and best-selling author James O’Keefe conducted the interview, which is being distributed on YouTube. During the interview, “Rich” stated that there was intentional mislabeling in the Affordable Care Act in order to hide a secret agenda in the bill: A two-hundred-and-fifty billion dollar per year tax grab. “President Obama promised us the most transparent administration in history,” said Project Veritas President James O’Keefe. “Rich has opened a new debate about an effect of the Affordable Care Act which will impact over one hundred and fifty million Americans. We deserve to know if part of the Obamacare plan was intended to eliminate the two hundred and fifty billion dollar yearly tax break. If this is the case, we also deserve to why this information was kept from the public by the White House.”
Watch the interview below: All is not lost for Gruber. In fact, one person thinks he deserves an award.

Posted by New Neo on December 16, 2014 15 Comments
There has been another outrageously evil attack in which Islamist terrorists target children, this time in Pakistan:
Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say. Officials say the attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army.
Gunman methodically went from room to room and shot most of the victims in the head. The terrorists are reported to have been wearing suicide vests, and this article indicates that some of those vests were set off after Pakistani security forces came to the scene. The school appears to have had its own security, but:
The gunmen, who several students said communicated with each other in a foreign language, possibly Arabic, managed to slip past the school's tight security because at least some of them were wearing Pakistani military uniforms, some witnesses said.
When I wrote the introductory sentence to this post, I was careful to say that this attack involved the targeting of children. It is important to state that the killing of children was completely intentional and the main goal of the operation, rather than children being accidental collateral damage in an attack on other people. This is an important distinction, a line the terrorists (and the left) purposely blur in statements such as this:
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. "We want them to feel the pain."

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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 16, 2014 244 Comments
The incident occurred in Victoria, Texas, a suburb of Houston. A dash camera captured officer Nathaniel Robinson tasering 76-year-old Pete Vasquez. Vasquez was driving a vehicle owned by the car dealership where he works. Officer Robinson pulled him over when he noticed the vehicle's inspection sticker had expired. When Vasquez exited the car and attempted to show Robinson the dealer plates---which would've exempted the necessity for up to date inspection tags---that's when the altercation happened. "I don't know what his deal is," Vasquez told an officer that arrived on the scene later. Vasquez went on, "he came over here and got nasty with me and I'm not going to put up with it, I don't care who it is. Then he grabbed me and threw me on the pavement there and I almost knocked my head on that damn poll and then he start [sic] Tasing."

Posted by Amy Miller on December 16, 2014 11 Comments
While a small group of Senate Republicans were busy causing procedural chaos over the #CRomnibus, a lower-profile court case bringing a direct challenge to the constitutionality of Obama's "executive amnesty" was quietly making its way through the federal court system. And guess what---the conservative position won. Although the decision declaring executive amnesty unconstitutional came down within the context of a criminal case, meaning that we don't yet know what the courts would do in the civil context, the holding delivers a blow to those who have chosen to back Obama's disregard for the separation of powers. Via Politico:
U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Schwab issued the first-of-its-kind ruling Tuesday in the case of Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, a Honduran immigrant charged in federal court with unlawful re-entry after being arrested earlier this year in Pennsylvania for drunk driving. "President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore, is unconstitutional," Schwab wrote in his 38-page opinion (posted here). "President Obama’s November 20, 2014 Executive Action goes beyond prosecutorial discretion because: (a) it provides for a systematic and rigid process by which a broad group of individuals will be treated differently than others based upon arbitrary classifications, rather than case-by-case examination; and (b) it allows undocumented immigrants, who fall within these broad categories, to obtain substantive rights."
Most notably, the court shot down the government's argument that President Obama's actions were justified because Congress failed to act. They disallowed Obama's ticking clock theory, and instead redirected focus on the importance of maintaining the power balance.

Posted by David Gerstman on December 16, 2014 15 Comments
A Baltimore City police officer was shot and seriously wounded at a traffic stop Sunday night. At a press conference outside the hospital as the officer was being treated, Baltimore City Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said, "I'm not caught on the irony of the timing of the situation. We've had marches nationwide over the fact that we've lost lives in police custody. I wonder if we're going to have the same marches as officers are shot, too." (The remarks are at about 1:25 in the video embedded below.) According to one news report the Baltimore Police Department has gone to great pains to point out that during the whole episode the police on the scene did not fire their weapons at all.
A man in the back seat refused to comply with an order to show his hands, police said. "One officer advised him that if he didn't comply he would be tased. At some point, there was the discharging of the firearm and the firing of a Taser, exactly which event happened first is under investigation," Baltimore City police Maj. Stanley Branford said.
Three shots were reportedly fired and one struck the officer in the abdomen, below his bulletproof vest, injuring him. His partner took him to the hospital. (According to news reports, officers in Baltimore are authorized to take injured colleagues to the hospital and not wait for ambulances. The nearest hospital is about three miles from the scene of the shooting.)

Posted by Andrew Branca on December 16, 2014 23 Comments
News station KPRC in Houston is reporting through its Click2Houston web site that a Grand Jury is continuing to consider whether to indict in a local case of a off-duty Houston Police Department (HPD) officer Juventino Castro shooting and killing an unarmed black man, 26-year-old Jordan Baker. The Grand Jury began meeting last week, and Castro testified before them on December 11, but they have not as yet come to a decision. Baker was killed by Castro in front of a strip mall where a string of robberies had been reported.  Castro was off-duty and working the strip mall as a security guard at the time.  It has been reported that Castro believed Baker to be a robbery suspect. Baker's family say he was approached by Castro as Baker was riding a bike to the store, and that Baker was killed merely for "being black and wearing a hoodie."

Posted by Amy Miller on December 16, 2014 16 Comments
Did you know that the elf on your shelf is training your children to accept the inevitability of the surveillance state? Neither did we. Digital technology professor for the University of Ontario’s Institute of Technology Laura Pinto thinks so, and in her new paper “Who’s the Boss,” she discusses the nefarious way in which Santa's most popular emissary is conditioning children to devalue their own privacy, and using threats (have you been naughty or nice?) to elicit acceptable behavior. EAG News has a helpful excerpt:
When children enter the play world of The Elf on the Shelf, they accept a series of practices and rules associated with the larger story. This, of course, is not unique to The Elf on the Shelf. Many children’s games, including board games and video games, require children to participate while following a prescribed set of rules. The difference, however, is that in other games, the child role-plays a character, or the child imagines herself within a play-world of the game, but the role play does not enter the child’s real world as part of the game. As well, in most games, the time of play is delineated (while the game goes on), and the play to which the rules apply typically does not overlap with the child’s real world.
And here I thought the dead eyes and homicidal expression were the worst things the elf on my friend's shelf had going for it. I don't have kids. I don't have an Elf. Until about two days ago, I had no idea that the point of the Elf on a Shelf was to conjure up a few moments of peace for mommy and daddy in their otherwise chaotic, child-filled world:
The Elf on the Shelf®: A Christmas Tradition is a cleverly rhymed children’s book explaining the story of Santa’s scout elves, who are sent to be Santa’s eyes and ears at children’s homes around the world! Adopt your own scout elf and learn the tale of Santa’s finest helpers. The whole family will enjoy this Christmas tradition.
Scout elf, indeed. From the man who brought us the terror of, "he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake" comes this weirdness, and in gallops academia to ruin the fun.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 16, 2014 41 Comments
Jeb Bush broke the right wing internet this morning when he tweeted this: He also took to Facebook to detail his reasoning and offer an explanation of what actions he's taking as of right now:
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! Like many of you, our family was blessed with the opportunity to gather together over the recent Thanksgiving holiday. Columba and I are so proud of the wonderful adults our children have become, and we loved spending time with our three precious grandchildren. We shared good food and watched a whole lot of football. We also talked about the future of our nation. As a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States. In January, I also plan to establish a Leadership PAC that will help me facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation. The PAC’s purpose will be to support leaders, ideas and policies that will expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. In the coming months, I hope to visit with many of you and have a conversation about restoring the promise of America. Best wishes to you and your families for a happy holiday season. I’ll be in touch soon. Onward, Jeb Bush

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 16, 2014 20 Comments
Obama's immigration plan has been criticized by many conservatives as nothing more than a plan to create new voters for the Democratic Party. If that's true, which is likely, what could be worse? How about using taxpayer funds to do it? Daniel Wiser of the Washington Free Beacon reports:
Taxpayer-Funded Immigrant Advocacy Group Blasts Republicans An immigrant advocacy group that receives taxpayer funding condemned Republicans on Sunday and encouraged undocumented residents seeking deportation relief to solicit political support from young voters. The New York Times reported that groups including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) hosted an information session for about 5,000 unauthorized immigrants at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Immigrants received assessments about whether they would be among the millions who could qualify for three-year deportation deferrals and work permits under President Obama’s executive order. The event was also explicitly political in nature. CHIRLA executive director Angelica Salas reportedly blasted Republicans for “getting in the way of immigration reform.” A slide show presented during orientation for the session featured unflattering pictures of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.).
Isn't it a bit unethical to use tax dollars provided by some Americans who are presumably Republicans to advance the cause of the Democratic Party?

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 16, 2014 16 Comments
It looks like a mumps outbreak has body-checked the National Hockey League!
This is the most baffling sports medicine story of the year: Thirteen NHL players and two referees have been diagnosed with mumps—a potentially severe and exceedingly viral infection that classically causes fever, body aches, malaise, and in about half of cases, parotitis (a painful swelling of the salivary glands). It's gotten so bad in the NHL that Sidney Crosby set off a mumps alert last week when he spoke to reporters with a welt on his face. (On Sunday, the Penguins confirmed Crosby does indeed have the disease.) So what's going on? The story of this outbreak appears to have begun in early November, when Anaheim Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin noticed a swelling in his jaw after a game against the Arizona Coyotes on November 7th. A few hours later, he developed a fever, chills, muscle aches, and lost his appetite. Four days later, he was ten pounds lighter. By then, the virus was spreading around the Ducks locker room. Three of his teammates would catch the disease before it leapt to other teams: the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, and the Minnesota Wild, where five players came down with mumps, including all-star defenseman Ryan Suter. "Ten percent of our team population contracted it," Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher recently said. "As far as I know, everybody received the immunization when they were young." If that's true, what's the explanation? We know that the mumps vaccine unquestionably works—cases in the United States declined by 99 percent following its introduction in 1967—so why is an outbreak in hockey happening now?
CBS This Morning reviews the story:

Posted by Amy Miller on December 15, 2014 26 Comments
The media has created its own uproar over the Sony Hack. Business Insider has called it an "act of war," and now Sony is trotting out its lawyers and demanding that media agencies refrain from reporting the contents of the stolen data, and delete anything they may have acquired as a result of the hack. Of course, outlets have turned Sony's demand into its own story, and debate over the ethics (and legality) of reporting on stolen data has gotten heated even as the initial furor over "racist" and "shocking" e-mail conversations has tapered off. On Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, host John Heilemann defended the newsworthyness of the hacked e-mails, taking on Aaron's Sorkin's position that it is "morally treasonous" for other media organizations to profit off of Sony's misery.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 15, 2014 14 Comments
Today, the Senate released committee assignments for the 114th Congress, and revealed just how big of a difference having a majority can hold. Republicans are set to gain as many as three seats on the powerful Judiciary, Finance, and Environment and Public Works Committees, which means Republicans will have an early upper hand on issues that affect appointments, confirmations, and immigration. Senators new to the game have received placements that play to their strengths. Louisiana victor Bill Cassidy will continue his focus on resource development on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; meanwhile, Iowa's Joni Ernst will be able to flex her rural background on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Politico has the breakdown on how the rest of the committees will be affected:
The following Senate panels will gain two Republican seats: Agriculture, Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Budget, Commerce, Energy, Foreign Relations, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Indian Affairs, Joint Economic, Rules and Administration, Small Business, Select Committee on Aging and Veterans’ Affairs. The Intelligence Committee picks up one GOP seat, while the split on the Ethics Committee remains the same. Republican leadership awarded four incoming Senate freshman with plum spots on the powerful Appropriations Committee: Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Steve Daines of Montana. And the Budget Committee’s two new Republicans — Perdue and Bob Corker of Tennessee — will also have the additional task of choosing who their new chairman will be: Mike Enzi of Wyoming or Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the current ranking member.
According to the Senate Republican Communications Center, The assignments are subject to ratification by the Republican Conference as well as the full Senate. New Committee Chairs will be selected by a vote of the members of each respective panel and then ratified by the Republican Conference. Here's the full list of assignments:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2014 53 Comments
As we reported, a coalition of student groups at Harvard Law School demanded exam delays due to student trauma over the Ferguson and Eric Garner grand jury refusals to indict. There was withering criticism, including here. HLS refused to budge, but did agree to counseling, meetings, and other steps. William Desmond, a third year HLS student who also is a Law Review Editor, defends the demand for an exam delay in The National Law Journal, Delaying Exams Is Not a Request from 'Coddled Millennials' (h/t Drew M.). Here's an excerpt:
... In essence, law students are being told to grow up and learn how to focus amidst stress and anxiety—like “real” lawyers must do. Speaking as one of those law students, I can say that this response is misguided: Our request for exam extensions is not being made from a position of weakness, but rather from one of strength and critical awareness. Although over the last few weeks many law students have experienced moments of total despair, minutes of inconsolable tears and hours of utter confusion, many of these same students have also spent days in action—days of protesting, of organizing meetings, of drafting emails and letters, and of starting conversations long overdue. We have been synthesizing decades of police interactions, dissecting problems centuries old, and exposing the hypocrisy of silence.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2014 67 Comments
The internets have exploded with Elizabeth Warren-mentum. Elizabeth Warren is playing hard to get when it comes to running for President. She still "is" not running, which literally is true, but never says that under no circumstances will she ever run:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is not running for president, but might she in the future? She wouldn’t say when repeatedly pressed on NPR Monday morning. Instead, she just repeated the same present tense denial she’s uttered dozens of times this year: “I’m not running for president.” It’s hardly the first time Warren, who became a progressive hero this week during a high-profile Senate showdown over Wall Street regulation, has dodged a question on 2016. Even as she and her staff insist the senator is not interested in running – and she distances herself from an effort to draft her into the race – Warren appears to be intentionally leaving some doubt hanging in the air. She may not want to run, but she would like voters to think there’s a chance. “She’s never slammed the door shut,” said Ben Wikler of MoveOn.org, who is hopeful she will run and recently launched a campaign to draft Warren. “As senator Warren has said many times, she is not running for president,” Warren spokesperson Lacey Rose told msnbc.
That tease is getting attention.
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