Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

'Intersectionality' - The Destructive Ideology Balkanizing the Country

Virginia Becomes Latest Blue State in Push to Bypass Electoral College

Iconic Leftist Hampshire College Permanently Closing at End of the Year

Battered Obama Supporter Syndrome — The Phone Records Grabber Episode

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 34 Comments

You know the story. The government is grabbing all your phone records. In a previously secret order obtained by Obama: The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court...

Wikileaker Bradley Manning’s Former Army Supervisors Testify on Day Three of Trial

Posted by Mandy Nagy on June 05, 2013 4 Comments

Day three in the military trial of Bradley Manning continued today, with testimony from the accused Wikileaker’s former Army supervisor and an Army specialist who was Manning’s team leader at Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq. Some of the testimony focused on Private First Class Manning’s...

Getting to Murder 2: Finding George Zimmerman’s “Depraved Mind”

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 05, 2013 28 Comments

Hey folks, As the Professor announced this past Sunday, I will be covering the Zimmerman trial (starting Monday, June 10) nearly-live right here on Legal Insurrection. My commitment is to provide reality-based analysis, without the speculation, spin, and snark we’ve seen too much of already. In this...

Mideast Media Sampler – 06/05/2013 – Erdogan’s straits

Posted by David Gerstman on June 05, 2013 8 Comments

1) Talkin' Turkey Claire Berlinski provides the recent background for the foment going on in Turkey: Of late, almost every sector of the electorate has felt unease about one part or another of Erdoğan’s agenda. Restrictive new alcohol legislation, rammed through parliament, as usual, with contempt for...

Does the Gang of 8 Bill have the votes?

Posted by Mandy Nagy on June 05, 2013 22 Comments

Goal: Pass it at any cost?...

Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna to be Honored at Suffolk U. Commencement

American U. Law School Chooses Progressive Caucus Member Jamie Raskin as Commencement Speaker

Arizona State U. Faculty Refuse to Vote on Proposal to Ban Land Acknowledgments at Meetings

Kansas Governor Signs Bill Banning the Requirement of DEI-CRT Courses at Public Colleges

Yale College Republicans President Alleges Bias Against Conservatives in Admissions

Ball State U. Settles With Employee Fired for Comments About Charlie Kirk

One year ago – WALKER WINS!

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 4 Comments

One year ago last night Scott Walker won the recall election and Republicans kept control of the state Senate despite recall attempts. It was a long, strange trip. If you were here that night you would have experienced the camaraderie of other readers on our live...

#Qusayr falls to Hezbollah, part of negotiated deal?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 5 Comments

After three weeks of often intense artillery barrages and air strikes, Hezbollah took over Qusayr near the border with Lebanon. While the Syrian government is proclaiming victory, the Syrian government was the tale on the dog -- it was a Hezbollah operation. But NOW Lebanon reports the...

Breaking – Strong advocate of “mea culpa” foreign policy to be nominated for U.N. Ambassador

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 15 Comments

In addition to appointing Susan Rice as National Security Adviser, for which no Senate confirmation is needed, Obama will be nominating Samantha Power to be U.N. Ambassador. Power has a problematic history. She is a strong advocate of the "mea culpa" foreign policy -- in...

Breaking – Woman who at best was clueless dupe in major scandal promoted to National Security Adviser

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 19 Comments

AP reports: President Barack Obama's top national security adviser Tom Donilon is resigning and will be replaced by U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, marking a significant shakeup to the White House foreign policy team. The position does not require Senate confirmation. What a joke. Rice, then...

Extremist ideas too “political” for 501(c)(4) status

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2013 4 Comments

From Linda, spotted in Manchester, TN, near the forum at which government officials were speaking as to whether criticism of Islam could be a civil rights violation and the free speech counter-protest over the attempt to criminalize speech and shut down political discourse. Because the photo was at...

IRS Special Victims Unit victims testify

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2013 22 Comments

The House Ways and Means Committee held hearings today at which victims of IRS targeting testified. Here are some of the highlights:

Ex-Hacker Adrian Lamo Testifies on Day Two of Bradley Manning Trial

Posted by Mandy Nagy on June 04, 2013 7 Comments

Day two in the military trial of Bradley Manning continued today. While much of the day’s events are reported to have focused on chain-of-custody issues and other evidentiary matters, one notable highlight was the testimony of the man who first alerted authorities to the extensive leak...

Mideast Media Sampler – 06/04/2013 – Songs in the Keys of Right

Posted by David Gerstman on June 04, 2013 4 Comments

1) Music lives in Israel Arsen Ostrovsky interviewed Zubin Mehta about performing Israel: According to Mehta, "it's hard to find an emblem of cultural, national pride that burns as bright as Israel's success in classical music." He adds "the amount of culture going on in a small...

Chris Christie calls for Special Election in October to fill Lautenberg seat

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2013 22 Comments

He just held a news conference. He could have appointed someone to serve until 2014. Instead, the election will be October 16, 2014. The primaries will be August 13. He would not comment on who he would appoint to serve until then. I don't understand all...

Qusayr meat grinder continues

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2013 2 Comments

On May 23 I wondered Will Qusayr be Hezbollah’s Stalingrad? It's hard to know what really is going on, with pro-Assad forces claiming great progress while rebel supporters claim they are hanging on and receiving reinforcements. There has been a mostly futile attempt to gain world...

With Cosponsor.gov, Eric Cantor joins growing crowd of marketer-legislators

Posted by Anne Segal on June 04, 2013 9 Comments

Noticed the trend of legislators going beyond issuing press releases and fully embracing social media to distribute and market their point-of-view? Rep. Darrell Issa has been especially active in marketing himself and his committee's activities, including design-heavy graphics and an active twitter account. Today Rep. Eric Cantor's...

The myth of Andrew Breitbart’s “deceptively edited” Shirley Sherrod tape lives on at Slate.com

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2013 15 Comments

Saw this over at Instapundit (emphasis mine): ANN ALTHOUSE: George Packer’s Unfair Attack on Andrew Breitbart. Well, Andrew’s been dead over a year. So I guess Packer feels safe now. The “deceptively edited video” claim is false, of course. Althouse links to this post at Slate.com, The Citizen...