News of the Week for March 15th, 2015
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Obama Scandals
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton corresponded via her personal email
President Barack Obama communicated via email with Hillary Clinton while she used her personal email, according to the White House.
Obama adviser behind leak of Hillary Clinton’s email scandal
It’s the vast left-wing conspiracy. Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett leaked to the press details of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state, sources tell me.
Gun Rights
LaPierre: ‘Next 700 days are the most dangerous’ for 2nd Amendment
The National Rifle Association is warning that the administration’s plan to ban one type of AR-15 ammo is just the first step in taking away all hunting rounds, a backdoor bid to impose national gun control.
Judge Denies Stay in Handgun Transfer Ban Case
Will Judge O’Connor’s latest ruling against ATF lead to another ammo ban?
INDIANA COURT: Yes, the “Castle Doctrine” applies to defending yourself against police who enter your home illegally, too.
That seems right. Here’s the full opinion.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The Ludic Fallacy in Modern American Climate Science
When the Model Becomes Skynet the Truth Is Indecipherable
Fellow Slams The Royal Society as Nothing But a Lobby Group for Climate Change
The Royal Society has jeopardised both its purpose and integrity by becoming a lobbyist for the climate change industry, a Fellow of the Society has said. Writing for the Mail on Sunday, Professor Michael Kelly has said that the Society has become dogmatic in its support for man-made global warming theory, ignoring the complexities of the science. He has also accused Britain of “leading the world in climate change hypocrisy.”
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Washington state’s ObamaCare exchange faces funding shortfall
The Washington Health Benefit Exchange call center in Spokane is so busy that staffing has been quadrupled, with the center receiving up to 10,000 calls a day. The problem is not enough of those callers are actually signing up for insurance.
War & Terror
Republican Senators Write to Iran: Deal With Obama Can Be Revoked
A group of nearly 50 Republican senators have written a letter to Iran to explain how the U.S. Constitution works. The letter is “An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Jean-Claude Juncker calls for EU army
European commission president says this military development would persuade Russia the bloc is serious about defending its values
Bloc Québécois website hacked, replaced with Islamist message
Website taken over briefly by organization calling itself the United Islamic Cyber Force
VA manager mocks veteran suicides
Systemic problems with Veterans Affairs? What systemic problems? One medical center in Indiana is drawing exactly the type of attention they don’t need in the current era of scandals, thanks to a worker who thought it would be funny to send around a “joke” email over the holidays which wasn’t very funny. In it, she includes pictures which appear to mock veterans with psychological problems using a toy elf who begs for medication and appears to kill himself.
Egyptian President El-Sisi Offers Help on Radical Islam
Could Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi be the Ronald Reagan of the Middle East?
Why China Will Lose the War It is Planning
How do we know the war is coming in the first place? Because the advertising for it is out. Amongst plenty of other evidence, one Chinese front organisation conducted a poll on Australian attitudes to the ANZUS treaty and a Chinese attack on Japan. Why would they conduct such a poll unless they are going to attack Japan? Not that they were interested in the results as such. They just wanted to be able to publicize the poll in order to try to keep Australia on the sidelines of their war.
Islamic State: Melbourne teen Jake Bilardi in suicide attack
The blog has emerged today amid unconfirmed reports Bilardi, 18, carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq overnight while fighting with IS.
Agent ‘working for Canadian intelligence’ arrested in Turkey for allegedly helping 3 Brit girls join ISIS
The foreign spy arrested on suspicion of helping three British schoolgirls travel to Syria to join the Islamic State was working for the Canadian intelligence service, it has been reported.
Islamic State “using chlorine gas” in Iraq roadside bombs
Ahmed Maher reports on the latest weapon in Islamic State’s arsenal
NHS doctor who fled UK to become senior Taliban commander is linked to school massacre of 132 children ‘killed in Pakistan’
Dr Mirza Tariq Ali killed in an operation involving Pakistan security forces
How Northern Nigeria’s Violent History Explains Boko Haram
Long before this extremist group arose, other radicals terrorized the region, British former administrator says.
What Can the Middle Ages Teach Us About US Naval Strategy?
The history of European chivalry offers valuable insights for analyzing the Sino-US naval competition.
Iraqi Kurds Claim Islamic State Group Used Chemical Weapons
Kurdish authorities in Iraq said Saturday they have evidence that the Islamic State group used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against peshmerga fighters, the latest alleged atrocity carried out by the extremist organization now under attack in Tikrit.
Suicide bombers kill 14 people outside Pakistani churches
Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers exploded themselves near two churches in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday as worshippers were gathered inside, killing 14 people, officials said, in the latest attack against religious minorities in the increasingly fractured country.
National
IG Audit: 6.5 Million People With Active Social Security Numbers Are 112 or Older
Many people are living longer, but not to age 112 or beyond — except in the records of the Social Security Administration.
Barron’s AP Test Prep Guide: Clarence Thomas Is A Fascist In League With KKK
The latest version of a top-selling study guide for the Advanced Placement European History exam explains the French Revolution with a chart which identifies Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a fascist and pairs him with the Ku Klux Klan.
SCOTUS throws out Notre Dame contraception mandate ruling
Last year the Seventh Circuit Court ruled against Notre Dame in a case where the university objected to the contraception mandate in Obamacare. It appeared to be a bit of a side step at the time, not speaking directly to the constitutionality of the mandate, but rather arguing simultaneously that Notre Dame had failed to show sufficient burden or damages from the mandate and that the actual parties providing the services in question were not part of the suit.
Planet Fitness cancels woman’s membership after her complaints of transgender woman in locker room
A Midland County woman’s gym membership was canceled after she refused to stop telling fellow gym members “a man” was using the woman’s locker room.
Paper Tigress
Mrs. Clinton turned over printouts, not emails.
Clinton foundation received up to $81m from clients of controversial HSBC bank
Leaked files reveal identities of wealthy donors with accounts in Geneva
Star Wars gets first official lesbian character
Star Wars is getting its first lesbian character. Paul S Kemp has revealed that he is adding the mystery woman to his upcoming novel Lords of the Sith, the next instalment in the official sci-fi canon due out on 28 April.
NYT Columnist Disses GOPs as Not Being Able to Find Iran on Map While NYT Can’t Find Iran on Map
The Twittersphere exploded with condemnation and defense of freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for leading the letter of 47 GOP senators to Iran’s leadership — explaining how Congress works and how that jeopardizes their imminent pact with President Obama. A fair share of the criticism painted Cotton, a combat veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a backwoods yokel who must not even know Middle East geography
UCI Paper: U.S. Flag Tied to ‘Histories of Exclusion and Violence’
The official newspaper of the University of California Irvine (UCI), New University, has confirmed reporting by Breitbart News last weekend that a vote by the Associated Students (ASUCI) to remove the American flag from the lobby of their building was to avoid “triggering” a negative emotional response among illegal immigrants.
Illinois high school principal defends ‘black students only’ event
A black high school principal in Oak Park, Illinois, is defending his decision to hold an event for “black students only,” so that they could safely discuss race issues without the presence of white people.
Here Are Hillary’s Lies
Note that the only press at this event was the typical international, UN crowd, who are generally softer and really Hate Republicans. The first question posed to her, from a Turkish reporter, was “if you were a man, would all this fuss being made.” (sic)
Hillary’s Top Two Aides Used Personal Email at State Department
Stephen F. Hayes reported on Fox News that Hillary Clinton’s top two aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, used personal emails while working for the secretary of state at the State Department
AP sues State Department, seeking access to Clinton records
The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
Suspicious Fires Twice Destroyed Key Sharpton Records
And he didn’t comply with tax and campaign filing requirements.
Clinton was required to sign document claiming she turned over emails in 2013
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, like all departing federal employees, was required to fill out and sign a separation statement affirming that she had turned over all classified and other government documents, including all emails dealing with official business.
Trevor Loudon tells enthralled Marin County audience that victory in 2016 requires uniting and inspiring conservative base
Loudon spoke today to a sold-out room of Marin County conservatives anxious to hear the truth about the Democrat party and to get a prescription for the path to victory in 2016. Trevor, a dynamic speaker from New Zealand, loves America both because of gratitude and hope. He’s grateful to America because it was American sailors and Marines who fought so valiantly against the Japanese at Midway, Guadalcanal, and so many other battles in the Pacific, saving New Zealand from being conquered by Japan.
Clinton hides emails from period when account was reportedly unencrypted
Since the revelations involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server exploded last week, questions have swirled regarding her account’s level of information security. “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” Clinton averred at a brief press conference on Tuesday.
Police seek suspects in Ferguson, Missouri, police “ambush”
Two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, were shot and wounded in what officials called an ambush early on Thursday, in the latest spasm of violence arising from months of tension between African-Americans and the city’s mostly white police force.
Title II, net neutrality “Open Internet” FCC order published in full
The US Federal Communications Commission has published its new Open Internet order, also known as net neutrality, in full. The document spells out specifically which aspects of the 80-year-old Title II concept will be applied to Internet Service Providers, as well as specifics of the net neutrality order.
Ferguson Protest Leader: “White Supremacists Shot Ferguson Officers”…
Black supremacists… fixed that for you, Bassem.
No one read Hillary emails before destruction
How did Hillary Clinton know that the tens of thousands of emails from her time in office she ordered destroyed were personal? Did she or even her staff scroll through her sent items scanning emails about “yoga routines” or “family vacations” before deleting them? Nope. No one looked at them. The Clinton campaign said those emails that did not crop up in a keyword search performed by her team were automatically deleted. No eyes. No one to be subpoenaed. Just highlight all and press delete. That method seems better for missing emails than to finding them. And it would sound reckless and haphazard coming from another politician. In this case, though it sounds like a woman covering her tracks in preparation for a long and bloody legal fight over subpoenas to come.
Hackers, probing Clinton server, cite security lapses
Stirred by the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, a determined band of hackers, IT bloggers, and systems analysts have trained their specialized talents and state-of-the-art software on clintonemail.com, the domain under which Clinton established multiple private email accounts, and uncovered serious lapses in security, according to data shared with Fox News.
State Department: Oh, by the way, Hillary used a private Blackberry too, not a secure government-issued one; Update: No one read Hillary’s e-mails before deletion?
Via the Free Beacon, maybe she figured that since foreign hackers were already reading her e-mails through her private server, there was no point in locking down her Blackberry either. Two words for Boehner and the House GOP: Preemptive impeachment.
The FAA Says You Can’t Post Drone Videos on YouTube
If you fly a drone and post footage on YouTube, you could end up with a letter from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FCC’s New Internet Rules Put the FCC in Charge of the Internet
New net neutrality rules give the agency veto power over ISP innovations.
16-year Old Girl Claims Former President Bill Clinton is Her Father
A 16-year old girl has presented a paternity action lawsuit this morning, before an Arkansas state court, alleging that the former president of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, is her biological father.
FCC Cites Soros-Funded, Neo-Marxist-Founded Group 46 TIMES In New Regs
New internet regulations finally released by the Federal Communications Commission make 46 references to a group funded by billionaire George Soros and co-founded by a neo-Marxist.
Top 5 Times the Dems Sabotaged Republican Foreign Policy
“Tehran Tom’s” actions aren’t exactly “unprecedented”
New Hampshire’s first transgender lawmaker charged in bomb threat
Nashua police say bomb threat called into Southern New Hampshire Medical Center
Oklahoma Democrat Wants Christian Businesses To Identify Themselves With Notices In Windows
I’m sure the last group to try this thought they were justified as well…
A Horrifying, $1000 Pre-School For Adults
New Yorkers come from across the city to Michelle Joni’s Brooklyn apartment to finger paint, sing, snack and nap. The new concept has attracted photographers, authors and even high-flying corporate lawyers who want to connect with their inner child.
Valerie Jarrett Leaked Hillary’s Private Email Use to Press
Vengeful Obama confidante Valeria Jarrett went through back channels to leak Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to the press, an explosive new report reveals.
Tom Cotton defends his letter
Senator Tom Cotton appeared on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer this morning. Schieffer grilled Senator Cotton about the letter he drafted setting forth the basic constitutional principles applicable to the deal in process with Iran.
Carville: Hillary Didn’t Want Congress “Rifling Through Her Emails”
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” long-time Clinton ally James Carville admitted Hillary’s private email system being designed to intentionally frustrate congressional oversight.
Economy & Taxes
DOOM: I make the cloak of sorrow
Welcome to the DOOM Room, hepcats and kittens. It’s the only club in town that serves brown liquor and bad news in equal portions. Here’s three fingers of catastrophe in a short glass. Drink responsibly.
Oregon To Be First In Nation To Implement Per-Mile Road Tax Program
With EVs and other fuel-efficient vehicles saving consumers money at the pump, Oregon will be the first to issue a per-mile road tax to refill its coffers.
What does middle class mean?
“Middle-class economics” has been a focal point of President Obama’s latest economic proposals. What does it mean to be middle class? The March issue of AEI’s Political Report examines how Americans define “middle class” in terms of income and lifestyle, who identifies as belonging in the middle class, what economic challenges this class faces, and who Americans think best helps the middle class overcome those challenges.
The rich are richer and the poor are getting… richer!
“The rich are richer and the poor are poorer”, says the Left-of-Centre British newspaper, The Independent, on its front page. That phrase is so common, so facile, so glib, that it is almost a truism. Except that it’s not true.
Restaurants in Seattle Going Dark as $15 an Hour Minimum Wage Looms
I like this simple, elegant explanation from Reason’s Ronald Bailey about the value of labor and the minimum wage
Sir Elton John Calls For Boycott Of Dolce Gabbana After Gay Families Branded “Synthetic”
Sir Elton John has called for a boycott of the designer clothing brand Dolce Gabbana after its owners called children born through IVF “synthetic”. Openly gay business partners Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana had already attacked gay marriage but this week extended their objection to the children of gay couples.
White students banned from student union-funded “anti-racism” event at Ryerson University
Two white students were barred from a meeting of the Racialized Students’ Collective March 11.
International
U.S. declares Venezuela a national security threat, sanctions top officials’
The United States on Monday declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the oil-rich country in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.
Artificial Skull Implanted in 5-yr-old
A private hospital here conducted a rare artificial skull implant surgery on a five year old girl.
Sir Terry Pratchett, renowned fantasy author, dies aged 66
Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author and creator of the Discworld series, has died aged 66, eight years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
How the Euro killed democracy
from Daniel Hannan, MEP
13-Year-Old’s Rape Case Dismissed Because Her Body Is “Well-Developed”
A Swedish court acquitted a 27-year-old man of raping a 13-year-old girl because she looked older. Add this to similar cases in the U.S. and U.K., and we’ve got a sickening problem.
Opinion
You Will Be Made To Accept
A bit of a deviation from Erick’s noted mantra, but hey, we’re all deviants at some level. Except for this guy, apparently…
A Dumb Playbook Written by Out-of-Touch Dinosaurs
In case you were wondering where Republicans in Congress would do for an encore after having completely dispirited and depressed their voting base in less than 60 days by flubbing a slam dunk abortion bill and passing a clean DHS funding bill without anything more than a token fight over Obama’s executive amnesty, well, you’re going to want to sit down because Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)See Full Scorecard67% and his crack crew are ready to knock your socks off
The Modern Education System is Anti-Boy
Boys are falling behind in school—performing poorly, some even dropping out—but it’s not all the fault of boys themselves, according to a new report by OECD, a French think tank.
Banning the American flag? Why UC Irvine flap might be glimpse of future.
The controversial decision by the UC Irvine student body government to ban the American flag – as well as all other flags – speaks to broader generational shifts in views of patriotism. The decision has since been overturned.
How Do Boys Cope with a Female-Dominant Environment?
I often think about this question, and I saw a letter over at Alphagameplan blog from a father wondering how his lone son in a family with four girls could deal
Libertarian Populism Isn’t Really Libertarian Or Populist
Here’s the fundamental paradox of libertarian populism: the more libertarian it becomes, the less populist it is.
Laughing at the Death of our Republic
I’m glad that we can still laugh at the death of the American Republic.
Democrats: we were wrong about that whole dissent being patriotic thing
Actually dissent is treason
Our Moral Superiors< This was a comment I wrote on a previous post
No, a public university may not expel students for racist speech [UPDATED in light of the students’ expulsion]
Oklahoma University president David Boren said, “If I’m allowed to, these students will face suspension or expulsion.” [UPDATE: The president has indeed expelled two of the students.] But he is not, I think, allowed to do that.
What speech is going to justify expulsion next, if the OU / SAE expulsion is accepted as proper?
University of Oklahoma President David Boren has expelled two students for leading a racist chant. These students’ speech was indeed quite repugnant, but for reasons I discuss here, it’s protected by the First Amendment.
The Iran Letter and the Logan Act
The second-day story about the letter by 47 Republican Senators to the government of Iran that Jack’s discussed here and here has shifted to whether these Senators have violated the Logan Act–as Peter Spiro suggested in this post over at Opinio Juris. Before folks get too carried away with this idea, let me offer three significant caveats about the Logan Act–each of which are rather significant legal–and not just political–obstacles to any prosecution thereunder.
Why and how e-mails matter (clintonemail.com)
Over a period of nearly 16 years — since mid-1999 — I have been retained repeatedly as a consulting and/or testifying expert in litigation involving information technology (IT). Roughly half of my cases involved troubled or failed IT projects involving two or more parties; roughly half are intellectual property disputes (patent, trade secret, copyright); and the rest are a scattering of other topics (computer document forensics, licensing practices and interpretation, computer security, algorithmic analysis, and so on).
Tom Cotton Should’ve Reminded Kerry Of All HIS Inappropriate Contacts With Foreign Leaders
During yesterday’s Senate foreign relations committee hearing Secretary of State John Kerry gave a five minute speech expressing his outrage about the open letter from 47 Republican lawmakers to Iran’s leaders, even though Kerry himself has made a career of inappropriate meetings with foreign leaders.
Highly Problematic: Men Who Hold Doors for Women
Gee, didn’t we resolve this one by the end of the 1970s? I thought even the most strident of feminists eventually came to the conclusion that they liked having doors held open for them by men. Are we going to refight this backwater skirmish in the culture war yet again?
Andrew Klavan: Magical Leftist Thinking
In which our host explores the art of illusion and the Vegas-style magical thinking of the progressive left.
The Identity Politics Left’s Effort to Reshape Their World
I noticed the other day on Twitter that someone I had never interacted with—indeed, had never even heard of before—had blocked me. I’ve seen this happen a couple of times and have never remarked on it because, well, Twitter is a weird place. And it seems even more narcissistic than usual to complain about being blocked by a stranger. But I make a general effort not to antagonize people by tagging them in tweets, so I was kind of curious as to why this had happened.
Treason You Say?!
A petition was filed on March 9th to the White House citing 47 US Senators including former OIF/OEF Veteran Senator Tom Cotton for an open letter he wrote to Iran which was signed by 46 others.
The Cost of Relativism
One of America’s leading political scientists, Robert Putnam, has just come out with a book called “Our Kids” about the growing chasm between those who live in college-educated America and those who live in high-school-educated America. It’s got a definitive collection of data about this divide.
How Barack Obama Undercut Bush Administration’s Nuclear Negotiations With Iran
In 2008, the Bush administration, along with the “six powers,” was negotiating with Iran concerning that country’s nuclear arms program. The Bush administration’s objective was to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. On July 20, 2008, the New York Times headlined: “Nuclear Talks With Iran End in a Deadlock.” What caused the talks to founder?
Refugee From Communist China: Common Core Is Commie Core
If only in terms of body count, the regime of Mao Zedong was the most tyrannical in human history. Lily Tang Williams managed to survive it and escape to America.
Extremist LGBT Agenda Dominates CA New Public School Curriculum
Major changes are being proposed to the California History-Social Science Curriculum “Frameworks” through an administrative process that is getting no attention.
ACLU: Um, Okay, I Guess We Have to Admit the OU SAE Expulsions are Completely Unconstitutional
I don’t know what’s happening to this country, when even the ACLU is getting behind Speech Purges, and only comes out against them when they’re embarrassed into doing so.
After destroying the American family, the left is still not happy
The one thing the American left is excellent at is mucking up systems that function reasonably well the demanding that the government, which mucked things up, step in and fix things.
Facing facts on the pill and the poor
Another bit of social-policy “wisdom” turns out to be false: Providing poor women with greater access to birth control doesn’t mean they’ll have fewer unplanned births.
The Tom Cotton letter usefully highlights Leftist stupidity
I side with the people who think that Tom Cotton and the 46 senators who joined with him in an open letter to apprise the Iranians about the way our Constitutional system works did the world a great service. As I’ll discuss at greater length below, the letter is a simple, beautifully written exposition about the American Constitution and its effects. In addition, it’s a wonderful honey pot for calling stupid Progressives out of their dark caves and exposing their ignorance to bright sunlight.
Fundamental Concepts – Eyes Wide Shut
This is something that’s happened to me a couple of times in the past few weeks. What is it about Progs in that they can’t seem to simply discuss issues? Now, I’m not talking about arguing, arguing can be unpleasant, and if someone doesn’t want to subject themselves to that, fine. I’m also not talking about yelling, screaming, insulting, mobbing or any of the other juvenile behaviors that are Twitter’s stock in trade. No, I’m just talking about discussing issues and events with someone who has a different point of view or opinion. For example, just this week I had the following conversation on Twitter with someone who was using the 47traitors hashtag.
In the Future, Everyone Will Be a Victim
If you’re a University of Texas girl with blue hair and “queer social issues,” the sisters of Gamma Rho Lambda are there for you
The 19th Paragraph: Feminism’s Eternal Quest for the Great White Defendant
A “diverse community” with a problem of “gang violence” and a public high school where two-thirds of students are Latino? After starting with the 19th paragraph, let’s go back up to read the top of the story
What Patrick Moynihan knew about the importance of two parents
In the mid-1960s, a social scientist noted something ominous that came to be called “Moynihan’s Scissors”: Two lines on a graph crossed, replicating the blades of a scissors. The descending line charted the decline in the minority male unemployment rate. The ascending line charted the simultaneous rise of new welfare cases.
A mad world run by fools
For those of you who are not conservatives, I’d like to give you a glimpse into what its like to live in today’s world. For those of you who are, maybe this will help you clarify and think through some things you face and frustrations you feel.
Jessica Valenti coughs up a ball of full retard
Poor Jess had to activate both her brain cells to explain how wearing a hateful shirt doesn’t mean she hates men, and she does that by …. wait for it … explaining why it’s okay that she hates men.
And you thought your vote counted?
“Elections have consequences …” President Obama likes to tell Republicans, especially after he just won one. But not in Nevada. Not any more.
