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Posted by edgeofthesandbox on February 19, 2014 42 Comments
The United States is not Ukraine, so, I hope, we don't find ourselves living in interesting times. 1.  Somewhat educated young people with no opportunities are a revolutionary class.  Between 1990 and 2006, as Ukraine's population declined, the number of students entering colleges shot up an unbelievable 60%.  According to another source, " The number of students enrolled in Ukrainian universities grew from 1.5 million in 2001, to 2.5 million in 2009-2011."  Towards the end of this period the student population consisted primarily of those born in the 1990's when fertility went through the floor. At the same time, the quality of education continued to decline.  Ukrainian universities are not highly ranked, and that grades and diplomas are bought and sold is an open secret.  In 2006, 32% of recent college graduates were unemployed.  Overall youth unemployment (ages 15-24) is 18.6%.  That the students and young people in general and are very active in protests is not surprising, but it helps to know their circumstances. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450"] (Ever wonder why Ukrainian women are so eager to bare their chests for the joy of media outlets across the world? Femen protest against sexual harassment in universities.)[/caption]

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 18, 2014 26 Comments

What's in a name?...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on February 18, 2014 4 Comments
Violence again erupted in Ukraine on Tuesday. From the NY Times:
Mayhem gripped the center of the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday evening as riot police officers tried to drive two armored personnel carriers through stone-reinforced barriers in Independence Square, the focal point of more than two months of protests against President Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Pelted by rocks and fireworks, the vehicles became stuck in the massive barricades outside the Khreschatyk Hotel and burst into flames, apparently trapping the security officers inside, prompting desperate rescue efforts from their colleagues.

In the course of wild day of parries and thrusts by the protesters and the police, the authorities in Kiev reported nine people killed, including two police officers. It was the bloodiest day of violence since President Yanukovych spurned a trade deal with Europe in November and set of protests that began peacefully but have since involved occasional spasms of deadly violence.

Live feeds and other video footage show clashes between protesters and police forces and footage of the scenes on the ground.

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Posted by Mandy Nagy on February 18, 2014 9 Comments
The Director of National Intelligence indicated Monday that the federal government probably should have been more transparent in the first place about its collection of phone records. In an interview with the Daily Beast’s Eli Lake, James Clapper reflected on how the program may have been received differently had general information about it been shared with the public from the outset. From the Daily Beast, Spy Chief: We Should’ve Told You We Track Your Calls:
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Clapper said the problems facing the U.S. intelligence community over its collection of phone records could have been avoided. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I will. Had we been transparent about this from the outset right after 9/11—which is the genesis of the 215 program—and said both to the American people and to their elected representatives, we need to cover this gap, we need to make sure this never happens to us again, so here is what we are going to set up, here is how it’s going to work, and why we have to do it, and here are the safeguards… We wouldn’t have had the problem we had,” Clapper said. “What did us in here, what worked against us was this shocking revelation,” he said, referring to the first disclosures from Snowden. If the program had been publicly introduced in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, most Americans would probably have supported it. “I don’t think it would be of any greater concern to most Americans than fingerprints. Well people kind of accept that because they know about it. But had we been transparent about it and say here’s one more thing we have to do as citizens for the common good, just like we have to go to airports two hours early and take our shoes off, all the other things we do for the common good, this is one more thing.”
It's difficult to know whether or not the American public would have accepted the program as another security necessity.  But I'd agree that a more extensive public debate about the general nature of the program probably would have been more productive at the outset.

Posted by A.F. Branco on February 17, 2014 9 Comments

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 17, 2014 35 Comments
Did anyone actually expect the Geneva conference with the warring parties in Syria to end in anything other than complete failure? Apparently someone did.  John Kerry, who now is embittered at the outcome, Kerry Blames Syrian Government for Deadlocked Talks
Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement on Sunday night that blamed the Syrian government for the deadlock in peace talks but asserted that the United States remained “committed to the Geneva process.”

Mr. Kerry’s statement followed two rounds of generally fruitless discussions during which the Syrian government continued its attacks on rebel-held areas with crude weapons known as barrel bombs, and came as more than 200,000 Syrians remained cut off from humanitarian assistance.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy to the negotiations, underscored the frustration when he apologized to the Syrian people over the weekend and questioned the value of continuing the talks.

The main aim of Mr. Kerry’s statement appeared to be to pressure President Bashar al-Assad and to keep alive the hope that a political settlement might be reached in Syria. He was scheduled to fly on Monday to the United Arab Emirates, which is among the Persian Gulf countries that have supported the rebels.

Kerry's optimism that Bashar Assad would talk himself out of power was naive at best, dangerous at worst.  There appears to be no Plan B, as Paul Mirengoff at Power Line notes:

Posted by Laurel Conrad on February 16, 2014 15 Comments
On Sunday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio took to Twitter to draw attention to the deadly street protests in Venezuela. Marcho Rubio Twitter Venezuela What's Happening The tweet links to a powerful youtube video titled "What's going on in Venezuela in a nutshell (English version)," where a Venezuelan woman living in America explains the current anti-government protests and government backlash. The video depicts photos and footage of the violent scene in Venezuela.  At the end of the video, the woman narrator concludes, "If you are human, and want to share the truth, please, share this video." Over the past week, Venezuelan protesters have been fighting against corruption in the government, high inflation, and a high murder rate.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 16, 2014 32 Comments
"Microagression" is the latest craze in racial grievance, something we highlighted when a UCLA professor was accused of the transgression for correcting grammar on minority students' papers. The fake scenario of Obama kicking open a door after a press conference went viral after Jay Leno showed it on the Tonight Show. It obviously was fake, but took on a life of its own on the internet, causing Snopes to issue a False rating and a video comparing the original and edited versions. It also spawned a .gif of the key moment. Obama kick open door gif All fairly light-hearted humor. Brian Farnan, Vice President for Internal Affairs at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) in Canada thought it was funny too, and circulated the .gif as part of a weekly mailing. That got him in trouble with the thought police, who filed a complaint against him with SSMU's Equity Committee, which enforces an expansive Equity Policy banning a broad range of supposedly "oppressive" conduct. As reported by The McGill Tribune:

Posted by New Neo on February 16, 2014 9 Comments
At this point it's tempting to regard the IRS as not-so-secret agents of the Obama administration and the Democrats. This is not paranoia. As Ed Rogers wrote in the WaPo, it is fact:
Encouraged by the lack of a public backlash, an uninquisitive press, cover from the White House and an eager-to-please bureaucracy, the Democrats are boldly counting on the IRS to be their political and policy enforcer.This statement isn’t an overreach by the “vast right-wing conspiracy” or a phony crisis created by hecklers (like me) on the right — it goes back to the early stages of President Obama’s reelection campaign.
Rogers goes on to list some of the more egregious examples of what has occurred and how the administration has been emboldened by the fact that so far there have been few negative consequences to them for their actions. The hue and cry that might have been expected - and to a certain extent came at first, when some of the revelations about Tea Party harassment were revealed - has been muted and blunted. So now the excesses are being further and more openly institutionalized:
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