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Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 02, 2013 7 Comments
Ladar Levison, the founder of encrypted email service Lavabit, abruptly shut down the service in August after pressure from the government to hand over user information.  Levison said at the time that the move was necessary in order to avoid becoming “complicit in crimes against the American people.” Levison had been unable to comment much about the situation because he was legally prohibited from doing so. Since then, more has been made public in recent weeks after some of the documents in the case have been unsealed.  Those alone revealed the lengths to which Levison went to try and get around the government's demands, including fighting them with an ultra-tiny font (as The Verge put it). In a previous interview, Levison briefly elaborated that he had in the past complied with warrants on routine law enforcement requests.  But the circumstances surrounding the incident that finally prompted him to make the drastic decision to shut down his service were different.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 02, 2013 10 Comments

Save the Bear's Dudeness, Dudes: Cornell students demand end to “male heterosexual” Big Red Bear mascot The Tigress Insurrection: A Princeton Alumna Explains Why She Won’t Donate Anymore: "The notion of academic freedom is also false, as faculty stifle and ostracize those who produce scholarship that challenges the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 52 Comments
There was some real angry ugliness at Brown University Tuesday night, as NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was shouted down and his lecture shut down. There has been celebration in some circles at Brown, but not from Biology Professor Ken Miller, a Brown grad himself. Miller wrote a wonderful letter to the Brown Daily Herald about his experience hearing George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, speak at Brown in the late 1960s, and how it compared to the shout down of Kelly. Read the whole thing, this excerpt will not do it justice:
I went to scores of seminars and talks during my four years as an undergraduate at Brown, but the one I will never forget took place on the evening of Nov. 30, 1966.The speaker, a Brown alum, had been invited by the Faunce House Board of Governors to take part in its fall lecture series. But once his name was announced, a storm of objections forced the board to withdraw its invitation. Counterprotests ensued citing academic freedom and arguing that our campus should be open to all views, even — and perhaps especially — to those a majority of its members found repugnant. The speaker was George Lincoln Rockwell ’40, leader of the American Nazi Party. A new campus group called “Open Mind” was formed. Once recognized by the University, it re-invited Rockwell to campus. Rockwell spoke to a packed house in Alumnae Hall.... For the first time in my life, I understood the allure of fascism, the reason that “good people” could have supported the likes of Franco, Mussolini and Hitler. I also understood why the notion that “it couldn’t happen here” is hopelessly naive. It could happen here, and it most certainly would happen if we forgot the lessons of history, lessons that Rockwell brought to life with a sinister smile that evening in Alumnae Hall. I’m glad I was there. I’m glad the talk was allowed to go on. And I’m glad Brown was an open campus where those lessons could be learned in the most personal way possible.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 12 Comments
Earlier this week three were unconfirmed reports of a very large explosion near the Syrian city of Latakia. There was relatively little media coverage to start, almost all from Israeli newspapers citing social media accounts. As in all these cases, Israeli officials were silent as to whodunit.  That's the dance that takes place to avoid a major war. Israel destroys game-changing weapons on their way to Hezbollah, Syria pretends it's not sure what happened, and everyone goes along with a major confrontation.  So long as Israel doesn't try to shift the balance of power within Syria and focuses on weapons headed to Hezbollah, Assad is under limited pressure to react. But not for the first time anonymous U.S. officials have told multiple U.S. media outlets that Israel was behind it. Which raises the question, why the leaks?

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 22 Comments
They own all of our Obamacare problems, completely. CNN reports, Senate Democrats supported rule that led to insurance cancellations:
Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it. “The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time. “The administration's own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House's own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,” the Iowa Republican said. On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year.
These vulnerable Senate Dems who are up for reelection in 2014 helped kill the grandfathering fix: Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 19 Comments
The IRS Scandal is alive and kicking.  Although it is being drowned out of media attention by the Obamacare and Benghazi scandals. Two important revelations this week related to the targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups. First, Lois Lerner has been caught feeding confidential tax information to the Federal Election Commissions, including the infamous questionaires.  Via Judicial Watch, which obtained the documents, IRS’ Lerner Disclosed Confidential Information about Tax Status of Conservative Groups to FEC:
Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained email exchanges between former Internal Revenue Services (IRS) Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner and enforcement attorneys at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) indicating that the IRS provided detailed, confidential information concerning the tax exempt application status and returns of conservative groups to the FEC in violation of federal law. Included with the email exchanges were IRS questionnaires to a conservative group that contained questions of a hostile nature.... The bulk of the records obtained by Judicial Watch consist of extensive materials from the IRS’ files sent from Lerner to the FEC containing detailed, confidential information about the organizations. These include annual tax returns (Forms 990) and request for exempt recognition forms (Form 1024), Articles of Organization and other corporate documents, and correspondence between the nonprofit organizations and the IRS. Under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, it is a felony for an IRS official to disclose either “return information” or “taxpayer return information,” even to another government agency.
Earlier in the week Eliana Johnson at National review detailed the results of IRS leaks about the National Organization for Marriage to its political opponent, the pro-gay marriage Human Rights Campaitn.  Most outrageous is how the the law protects the identify of the illegal leaker.  Investigation IDs IRS Leaker:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 23 Comments
Hey, remember Cash for Clunkers? We sure do, we wrote about it frequently and predicted negative unintended consequences: Seth Mandel at Commentary Magazine has an update, Speaking of Failed Big-Government Programs…:
The ongoing debacle that is the administration’s rollout of ObamaCare has reignited debate about technocracy and big-government liberalism. But Democrats who worry that their mode of coercive politics will be discredited by ObamaCare should be thankful it took this long. A very well-timed reminder of this arrived yesterday from the Brookings Institution. Scholars at the left-leaning think tank analyzed the so-called “Cash for Clunkers” program, the 2009 “stimulus” program intended to get cleaner cars on the road by providing cash vouchers for those who trade in older gas guzzlers and buy newer, more efficient cars. The administration patted itself on the back when the program ran out of money, apparently pleasantly surprised that people took free money during an economic downturn. But Brookings confirms that this was, of course, a terrible program. Here are their major findings:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 16 Comments

Hi, Prof. J: Spied this sticker at the local community college (have actually seen the same car on more than one occasion). Not sure where the driver is coming from, but I share the sentiment with regards to Obama. "Zero" disgusts me so much,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 31, 2013 20 Comments
How ironic. Just two days after NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was shouted down at Brown University over NYC's Stop and Frisk policy, with many protesters citing a finding by a trial Judge of racial discrimination, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has stayed the ruling, and kicked the trial judge off the case. (Full Order embedded at bottom of post.) In a short but scathing ruling, the Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Shira A. Scheindlin "ran afoul of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges":
Upon review of the record in these cases, we conclude that the District Judge ran afoul of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, Canon 2 (“A judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities.”); see also Canon 3(C)(1) (“A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned . . . .”), and that the appearance of impartiality surrounding this litigation was compromised by the District Judge’s improper application of the Court’s “related case rule,” see Transfer of Related Cases, S.D.N.Y. & E.D.N.Y. Local Rule 13(a),1 and by a series of media interviews and public statements purporting to respond publicly to criticism of the District Court.2 Accordingly, we conclude that, in the interest, and appearance, of fair and impartial administration of justice, UPON REMAND, these cases shall be assigned to a different District Judge, chosen randomly under the established practices of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. This newly-designated District Judge shall implement this Court’s mandate staying all proceedings and otherwise await further action by the Court of Appeals on the merits of the ongoing appeals. In taking these actions, we intimate no view on the substance or merits of the pending appeals, which have yet to be fully briefed and argued.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 31, 2013 38 Comments
We previously have reported on the shout down of NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at Brown University on Tuesday, causing cancellation of his lecture: A public forum was held at Brown last night to discuss the controversy generated by preventing Kelly from speaking.  The forum was reported live by multiple campus student publications. One of the early speakers was Marion Orr, Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Studies.  Orr also is Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, which invited Kelly. Orr apologized "especially to my black students and Latino brothers and sisters" for the "hurt" he caused by inviting Kelly, and indicated he did not expect such a reaction. Orr also requested a list of people he should not invite in the future. I spoke with Orr, who said that he meant that request for a list as "tongue in cheek" and that everyone in the room understood that he did not really want such a list. Orr said that he was trying to make a point along the lines of "do you really want to have a list?" Orr did not dispute the substance of the quotes attributed to him regarding the list, but disputed what he meant by the request. The Brown Daily Herald reported, Hundreds assemble to confront Kelly controversy (emphasis added):
Marion Orr, director of the Taubman Center, which sponsored Kelly’s lecture, expressed regret for the controversy. “I sincerely apologize to my students,” Orr said. “Especially to my black students and Latino brothers and sisters — it wasn’t my intention to hurt you, and it hurts me to hear that my decision caused so much pain.” Orr asked the students to submit a list of speakers whom they would not approve of coming to campus, adding that he never expected the intense reaction to Kelly’s event.
The Daily Herald also had a live blog, and reported the exchange as follows (author name, time and graphics removed for ease of reading, but available at the link):

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 31, 2013 24 Comments
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and various senior officials got an earful in a meeting today from Senate Democrats frustrated over the troubled rollout of Obamacare.  The meeting also included CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner and Jeffrey Zients, who was appointed to oversee HealthCare.gov fixes. While McDonough tried to reassure lawmakers that he's taken charge of things and some Democrats tried to view things positively, there was clearly still concern. From The Hill, 'Agitated' Dems vent on O-Care:
Democratic senators facing reelection in 2014 were some of the most vocal critics. One lawmaker described Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) as visibly “agitated.” Shaheen demanded to know why the rollout of HealthCare.gov had become so riddled with problems. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who has spent more of his career in the private sector than in government, also weighed in forcefully, according to the source. "I am not happy with the website. That is a pretty common thought that we all feel," Warner later told reporters.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 31, 2013 7 Comments

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has a new job.  He's reportedly been hired to help maintain one of Russia's largest websites, according to his lawyer. From ABC News: Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the U.S. government for leaking thousands of secret files, is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 31, 2013 12 Comments

This paragraph pretty much sums it up, from an article at The NY Times (emphasis added): [Tom] Scully, who has spent the last 30-some years oscillating between government and the private sector, is hoping to be his own best proof of the Obamacare gold mine. As a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 31, 2013 46 Comments

Jenny Li is a Brown University student, a fellow at the People for the American Way Foundation, helps run Brown Asian Sisters Empowered, and is an environmental activist who is Executive Director of the Brown emPower environmental group: She's also someone who was proud to shut...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 31, 2013 8 Comments
There is so much wrong with Obamacare and HealthCare.gov that the news is swarming.  Or is it swirling? So we'll just keep a running list today of what's new in the past 24 hours.  If you have links, post them in the comments. We'll have a separate post, if needed, for "Breaking" news or if we just feel like it. Let's start with this Al-Jazeera America story about Colorado (via Weekly Standard): From Media Trackers, Obamacare Navigator Sign-Ups Remain Low in Pennsylvania:
As the first month of the Obamacare rollout comes to an end, most of Pennsylvania’s navigator organizations said they have not guided anyone to enrollment in the federal health insurance exchange. The organizations attributed the low enrollment to the lack of a fully functioning website.

Posted by A.F. Branco on October 31, 2013 10 Comments

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