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YOU SPELLED TRAITOR WRONG: The Wall Street Journal editors on “President Guantanamo.”

President Obama rode into the White House vilifying George W. Bush’s “unchecked presidential power” and “ignoring the law when it is inconvenient,” as he put it in 2007. Yet now Mr. Obama is poised to exceed any executive action his predecessor so much as contemplated as he may shut down Guantanamo Bay in defiance of inconvenient laws he signed. . . .

With the end of his tenure in sight, the President is now looking for legal excuses to close the prison without Congressional approval. Since the KSM fiasco in 2009, Congresses run by Democrats and Republicans have specified in defense bills that no Treasury money may be used to transfer or maintain detainees to the U.S. The prohibitions in the most recent defense legislation—which passed the Senate 91-3 and the House 370-58—are the strongest ever.

Yet the Pentagon may soon announce a plan to transfer the remaining 107 dangerous combatants that no other country will accept to a domestic facility such as Fort Leavenworth or the Colorado supermax. Amid Mr. Obama’s many executive rewrites on carbon, ObamaCare and labor this flouting of the law would be the worst.

Mr. Obama’s legal surrogates including former White House counsel Gregory Craig now argue that Congress’s spending restrictions are unconstitutional. They claim the executive has exclusive Article II powers as Commander in Chief over the tactical conduct of war and diplomacy, including the custody of detainees.

But control over wartime prisoners is divided between the President and legislature. The Constitution vests Congress with the power to “make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water,” and not even the most zealous unitary executive theorists read the Captures Clause out of Article I. Congress cannot micromanage military operations, but it has a constitutional role in regulating them.

In 2009 Office of Legal Counsel chief Steven Bradbury wrote an opinion disavowing the legal argument Mr. Craig is now promoting, and Mr. Obama has abided by Congress’s restrictions for seven years. No current emergency justifies ignoring Congress, as Mr. Obama claimed when he traded five Taliban for Bowe Bergdahl in violation of a prisoner swap law.

With this President, it’s not the Constitution that defines his power; it’s what he can get away with.  

SO, BASICALLY, HE WANTS TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT: Obama: I’m thinking I’ll spend my last year in office focused on gun control. Well, his position as ex-President is probably more important if Hillary isn’t in the White House. And she’d be more likely to prosecute Obama Administration wrongdoing than a Republican President, probably. Except maybe for Ted Cruz.

CAMPUS BREAKDOWN (CONT’D): Did UT-Austin students who disrupted Israel Studies event violate campus code? Shutting down other people’s speech isn’t free speech, it’s bullying. Don’t just listen to me — ask President Obama.

IS SHE TRYING TO TELL US THAT RAPE IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED? ‘Mattress Girl’ to participate in TEDx talk on ‘socially-constructed borders.’

4 UNBIGOTED REASONS TO BE WARY OF SYRIAN REFUGEES: Ian Tuttle at NRO explains why today’s Syrian refugees are not analogous to 1939’s Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, contrary to the assertions of liberal/progressive pundits:

The first, and most obvious, difference: There was no international conspiracy of German Jews in the 1930s attempting to carry out daily attacks on civilians on several continents. No self-identifying Jews in the early 20th century were randomly massacring European citizens in magazine offices and concert halls . . . .

On a related note, the sympathies of Syrian Muslims are more diverse than those of Nazi-era German Jews. A recent Arab Opinion Index poll of 900 Syrian refugees found that one in eight hold a “to some extent”-positive view of the Islamic State (another 4 percent said that they did not know or refused to answer). A non-trivial minority of refugees who support a murderous, metastatic caliphate is a reason for serious concern. No 13 percent of Jews looked favorably upon the Nazi party.

Third, European Jews in the early 20th century were more amenable to assimilation than are Syrian Muslims in the early 21st.  . . .

Finally: Jewish refugees — for example, those in the SS St. Louis — were coming from Germany (or Nazi-controlled Austria or Czechoslovakia), but most Syrian refugees seeking entry into the United States have already found refuge elsewhere. . . .

Asylum is not a blanket solution to every refugee situation that arises around the globe.  It makes sense in certain contexts, but not in others. One size does not fit all, and employing such reasoned judgment is not tantamount to bigotry. Playing the xenophobia card is (as usual) a distraction from the actual facts and issue.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage GT Makes You Feel Like James Bond.

At the new PJ Media — Q Branch labored long and hard on this top secret project.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: No, The Refugees Fleeing Syria Aren’t Like Jews Fleeing Nazi Germany.

WHY DIGITAL PICTURES OF PROPELLERS look so weird.

TERROR AT THE MALL: A riveting HBO documentary on the 2013 al-Shabaab attack on a Nairobi shopping mall, using security camera footage to tell the story. [jwplayer mediaid=”219215″]

OUR ENEMIES TAKE GLAMOUR SERIOUSLY: We need to as well. ICYMI, my column from January is still relevant.

Confronting Islamic State requires an exercise largely unfamiliar to the American military’s hardheaded pragmatists: thinking carefully about the elusive, seductive magic of glamour. Making that task all the more difficult, it also demands recognizing the allure of ideas and images that baffle, offend or horrify most Westerners. As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, glamour is in the mind of the audience….

Making Islamic State look fearsome and successful — countering its glamour with horror — only serves to heighten the movement’s allure. To dissuade potential recruits, something more banal is required. What glamorous visions of jihadi glory obscure isn’t violence. It’s drudgery, subordination, infighting, hypocrisy and general messiness.

Read the rest here.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 923.

UH OH: Could Democrats Break Ranks on the Refugee Fight?

After the slaughter in Paris, the Obama administration’s plan for refugee resettlement has become a flashpoint. GOP governors across the country—plus, recently, the Democratic governor of New Hampshire—have said they would not help resettle refugees in their states unless further security precautions are taken. At the same time, liberals—from pundits to the president—have derided Republicans as xenophobic monsters with an unusual level of cynicism and condescension.

If Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader in waiting, does end up defecting from the liberal line on this question, that could inspire more open opposition within the president’s own party. While GOP governors don’t technically have the power to halt refugee resettlement, Congress does have the potential to make resettlement much more difficult. But even if he doesn’t come down one way or the other, Schumer’s ambivalence (and he has surely been talking to constituents and looking at polls) shows that caution about the administration’s refugee policy isn’t as confined to the anti-immigrant right, despite what many liberal commentators seem to believe.

Hey, even the folks at Mother Jones have figured that out.

WILL OBAMA CALL HIM A SCAREDY-CAT XENOPHOBE LIKE HE DID THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS? Schumer: Refugee pause may be necessary.

Related: Obama Continues Angry Rant Against Republicans For Blocking Refugees.

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THE HILL: Obama comes under criticism from Dems over Paris rhetoric.

Influential liberal columnists and Democratic strategists say Obama came off as condescending and scornful during his press conference in Antalya, Turkey — missing an opportunity to show strength and leadership in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“I don’t want him shooting from the hip and making empty threats, but I think he could have done a better job in articulating the anger that many people feel toward what happened in not only Paris but Beirut as well,” said Democratic strategist Jim Manley, a former adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“What happened in Paris and in Beirut is going to require an aggressive response.”

Those comments echoed Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson’s assessment that Obama’s tone “was all wrong” in addressing the Paris attacks.

Typically an Obama ally, Robinson in a column published on Tuesday wrote that “at times he was patronizing, at other times he seemed annoyed and almost dismissive.”

“That’s not the tone you want to strike to the public, that’s not the tone you want to send to our allies and enemies,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. . . .

Monday’s press conference was the latest of a string of comments from Obama that have sparked concern among his fellow Democrats — including the president’s remark last week that ISIS has been geographically “contained.”

They should be concerned. He’s blowing it.

JOHN KERRY, DISPLAYING THE MANLY FIRMNESS AND STRONG MORAL COMPASS FOR WHICH HE HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN: John Kerry on Paris: At least with the Charlie Hebdo attack, there was a legitimacy, I mean rationale, to it.

Really, these are the people we have in charge of things.

DARTMOUTH’S PRESIDENT PHILIP HANLON isn’t upset about the disruptive, abusive protests in the Baker Library. “The tone is almost jaunty. President Hanlon apparently didn’t see anything in the video that ruffled his feathers. He suggests that the behavior on display comported with campus norms. He seems to think that our sources of information are limited to college officials. He thinks we are oblivious to the reporting of the Dartmouth Review in ‘Eyes wide open at the protest’ (and more here). He treats us as though we are poorly informed and none too bright. All in all, a performance that fails the occasion and deepens Dartmouth’s disgrace.”

Perhaps this whole thing is a right-wing false flag provokatsiya operation, designed to discredit the Ivy League. I submit that if it were, it would proceed in exactly the same way that it has.

IF THE CATCHPHRASE IS TO “BELIEVE THE VICTIMS” TO RESPECT THEIR AUTONOMY, SHOULDN’T WE BELIEVE THE NON-VICTIMS, TOO? Surveyors baffled when students don’t see themselves as sex assault victims.

Several months ago, the University of Michigan released a flawed survey claiming 22.5 percent of undergrad women at the university had been sexually assaulted. That’s not actually the case — the study, like others, offered a broad definition of sexual assault guaranteed to elicit a high response.

Now, the researcher behind that survey is saying he was surprised that the number one write-in response from students as to why they didn’t report the alleged sexual assault to an official was because “it was no big deal.”

Note how “no big deal” wasn’t an official survey response, students actually had to write that into the survey. This is common in campus sexual assault surveys. Researchers determine whether a response means someone was sexually assaulted, even if the respondent does not believe they were.

In most other studies, the number one official response given by students who didn’t report was that the incident was “not serious enough” to warrant a campus investigation.

So here we have students being labeled as victims who don’t believe they are victims.

Flawed surveys like the one at Michigan lead to policies that eviscerate due process rights for accused students as part of a witch hunt to rid campuses of allegedly high levels of sexual assault. The hysteria has led to lawsuits from accused students, including one from Michigan. That student reached a settlement with the school which included the school throwing out a “responsible” finding against him, in exchange for him not returning to the school.

That student’s case was representative of many of the sexual assault claims on college campuses. The student was accused after his accuser got into his bed with him and the two began kissing. This led to sex so loud the accused’s roommate sent a text telling them they were being “abnoxtiously [sic] loud.” The accuser’s roommate filed an affidavit saying the accuser only made her allegation after her mother found a diary detailing the sexual encounter.

Not a victim.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law Schools Are Admitting More At-Risk Students.

Related: After 58% Decline In Enrollment, Seton Hall Law School Adapts To New Market.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Trey Gowdy To IRS: How Much More Evidence Could You Need?

BOWLING FOR BATACLAN: Michael Moore on Paris Attacks: We Must Find a ‘Place of Peace.’

THIS DUMB IDEA IS ROLLED OUT AFTER EVERY TERROR ATTACK, EVEN THOUGH THERE’S NEVER ANY EVIDENCE THAT IT WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE: Senators want to give government access to encrypted communications to combat terrorism.

I don’t trust them, and figure that encryption backdoors are more likely to be used in routine criminal cases, and for spying on political opponents. I wish I trusted our authorities more here, but I don’t.

AND WE’RE PRETTY MUCH DOING THEM ALL, NATCH: 16 Of The Worst Ways To Respond To ISIS’ Paris Attack.

Plus, from Stephen Green: “The MSM is always happy to change the subject away from one uncomfortable to the President, and has been busy since yesterday changing the subject from the very real and immediate evil that is ISIS, to the unlikely evil of Americans just up and killing random Muslims as payback for Paris.”