Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 15, 201352 Comments
Larry Sabato came out with his rankings of presidential contenders today.
I was going to write about the downgrade of Marco Rubio, but that's old news.
More interesting is the rankings of Democrats. There is no "First Tier" other than Hillary. The drop from Hillary to Joe...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 15, 20139 Comments
NOTE - This post will be updated throughout the day, with "breaking" news at the top, other updates below, and the live streams at the bottom:BREAKING - OBAMA STATEMENT - Condemns violence, cancels joint military exercise, but no aid cutoff:
---------------
The death toll from yesterday's violence has risen to over 500, including numerous policemen.
https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/367962951564525568
It's also becoming clear that the Muslim Brotherhood fired weapons on police who sought to evict the protester's encampment, which likely contributed to the high death toll as police responded with live fire (video via WaPo):
Attacks on Christian churches by Islamists also have spread (list here).
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 15, 20135 Comments
Saw a lot of these in 2012.
But now that he's reelected, displaying one of these may be deemed a capital offense.
So ride 'em cowboy, while you still can.
From Nanette:
I LOVE Texas!!
My favorite so far this year!!!
...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 14, 201311 Comments
I was interviewed this morning by Lee Rayburn of WHCU 870 AM in Ithaca.
The topic was the release of prisoners by Israel and the Middle East Peace Process.
...
Posted by Mandy Nagy
on August 14, 201314 Comments
As the defense neared the end of its side in the sentencing phase of Bradley Manning's trial, the convicted Wikileaker spoke to the court himself today. In an unsworn statement, he began with an apology, saying, "I am sorry that my actions hurt people; I...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 14, 201356 Comments
We don't actually know that Megyn Kelly is replacing Sean Hannity, even if the Drudge scoop is true that Kelly is taking the 9 p.m. slot at Fox News. Hannity may be moving to another prime time slot, or there may be some out-of-the-box schedule...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 14, 201328 Comments
What with the damn rodeo clown getting fired, banned, and the whole association subject to sensitivity training for the offense of clowning around at the expense of the President.
What with the long history of rodeo and other clowns mocking presidents at public events (even down to the...
It appears Israel is gearing up for its own citizen army to defend itself - on social media.
From the Jerusalem Post's article, Government to use citizens as army in social media war:
The Prime Minister’s Office has a far-reaching plan to utilize students and other supporters...
Has politics become so divisive that a new intolerance keeps left and right from connecting emotionally?
Research purports to show that left and right are that different, according to this post at NPR titled For Democrats And Republicans, It's Happily (N)ever After:
Political preferences seem to come...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 14, 201312 Comments
NOTE - This post will be updated throughout the day, with "breaking" news at the top, other updates below, and the live streams at the bottom:UPDATE 8/14/2013 at 10:10am ET:
A month-long state of emergency has been declared.
https://twitter.com/AP/status/367644219391102978
https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/367675743289245696
https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/367683057022562306
Overnight the Egyptian military attacked Muslim Brotherhood protesters encamped in Cairo. There are reports of dozens, maybe hundreds dead. (Live video and Twitter feeds at bottom of post.)
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/367754493636521984
In turn, Muslim Brotherhood supporters around the country have turned on the Christian population, including burning churches.
https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/367586159116816384
https://twitter.com/EIPR/status/367592909517770753
https://twitter.com/RanyaKhalifa/status/367573102609195010
https://twitter.com/DaliaEzzat_/statuses/367838401317195776
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 14, 20139 Comments
From Pete, spotted outside Tacoma, WA:
Prof. Jacobson,
Thought you would enjoy the photo and I read you on a daily basis.
Thanks for all your work.
I can't tell what the sticker next to the "Steady Hand" says:
...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 13, 201315 Comments
Mahmoud Abbas joined others in welcoming home heroic axe murderers of elderly people sitting on benches, knife and pruning shear murderers of hikers and bus passengers, and other assorted miscreants.
It's not easy to watch these celebrations, but it is necessary to do so in order to understand the culture of incitement that pervades Palestinian society and is the main obstacle to peace:
MORE VIDEOS HERE
https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/367422567767748608
https://twitter.com/Rushdibbc/status/367399847965376512
Part of the celebration was for Palestinians to throw rocks:
Posted by Mandy Nagy
on August 13, 201311 Comments
Earlier this afternoon in a post that featured an interview with Lavabit's owner on his abrupt decision to shutdown his encrypted email service, I also mentioned the shutdown of Silent Circle's secure email service, Silent Mail.
As good luck in timing would have it, ZDNet has...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 13, 2013150 Comments
The analysis of the Natural Born Citizen clause in the Constitution as it applies to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
I promised to do this long ago, and did the research with the assistance of a former student, but couldn't bring myself to actually write it...
Posted by Mandy Nagy
on August 13, 201319 Comments
Late last week, we reported that Ladar Levison, the founder of encrypted email service provider Lavabit, abruptly shut down his service without notice, leaving only a cryptic message for users and visitors to the company’s website as to the reasons behind his decision.
While Levison explained...