Archive for 2016
January 20, 2016
“REFORMS.” The Hill: How durable are Obama’s gun reforms?
Earlier this month, President Obama announced that he was taking a series of executive actions to attempt to restrict the sale of guns. The reaction on the presidential campaign trail was predictable. The president was denounced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as a tyrant who was usurping his constitutional authority. Numerous candidates pledged to reverse all of the measures enacted by the president.
Much of the media coverage of the president’s actions (and much of the political response) lumped all of the gun control measures together. But in reality, the president’s announcement contained a variety of different policy instruments. Some of these will be easy to reverse by a new president in 2017 who might favor easy access to guns. Others will be a bit more long-lasting. The actions by the president can be divided into four categories.
I’d like to see the Republican Congress take a bigger hand in promoting firearms rights.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Obama Goes After Petraeus To Send A Chicago-Style Message. “Generals have had a rough go during Obama’s terms. As this president hollowed out the U.S. military, an unusual number of senior officers have retired, under pressure or frustration. In some cases, like Gen. Stanley McChrystal, they’ve been cashiered outright for candor. . . . The real goal is a Chicago-style warning flare to any retiring military to keep your mouth shut. And don’t testify before the Benghazi committee, as Petraeus just did.”
The thing is, Obama’s gone in a year. The rest of us will still be here, and judging.
REMINDING VOTERS OF HILLARY’S DISMAL RECORD:
Doug Truax, a West Point grad, Army veteran and former Senate candidate from Illinois, is putting more than $390,000 toward an initial 60-second ad. He will be aided by Richard Grenell, a foreign policy expert who served in the State Department from 2001 to 2008. This first ad will run beginning tomorrow for 10 days in the District, New Hampshire and South Carolina and will include a “significant” digital and social media ad buy.
The first ad takes up Benghazi, reminding voters : “About an hour after the attack began, Hillary Clinton tells her daughter the truth. It was an ‘Al Qaeda like group.’ Then she tells the Egyptian Prime Minister the truth, too. It was a terrorist attack — not related to any YouTube video.” The ad goes on to bash her for purportedly lying to the families of those killed. “As the bodies of murdered Americans are returning to grieving families, Clinton lies to them and again blames a video.” Clips of former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice — who was sent out to spin the attack on the first Sunday following 9/11/12 — focus on the anti-Islamic video. The announcer ends the ad: “In the heat of a political campaign, Clinton lied to protect her job. She even lied to families of our heroes. And she wants to lead our country?”
Video at the link.
ROGER SIMON: What Happens if Hillary Isn’t Indicted? “The most obvious part is that the rule of law will have, for all intents and purposes, ended in the United States. Equal justice flew out the window. How does the public react to that?”
JUST ONE MORE YEAR. . . .
OLDEST CHRISTIAN MONASTERY IN IRAQ destroyed by ISIS:
For 1,400 years the compound survived assaults by nature and man, standing as a place of worship recently for U.S. troops. In earlier centuries, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches and prayed in the cool chapel. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of Christ’s name, were carved near the entrance.
Now satellite photos obtained exclusively by The Associated Press confirm the worst fears of church authorities and preservationists — St. Elijah’s Monastery of Mosul has been completely wiped out.
Middle Eastern Christians increasingly face a grim choice between conversion to Islam, ethnic cleansing, or death — and almost nobody wants to talk about it.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED.
Shot:
Chaser:
The media made Obama in their image in 2008 — as Obama himself admitted, “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” Concurrently, the media made Palin a household name by giving her the full Alinsky-style othering treatment to aide in his victory, thus causing sympathetic conservatives to rally to her support, after seeing how the DNC-MSM routinely attempts to destroy all prominent women and minorities who dare wander off the leftwing plantation. (Notice how Paul Ryan never received anywhere near the demonization in 2012 that Palin received from the press in 2008.) The media also opened the door to reality TV candidates such as Trump, by endorsing a candidate with as little political (let alone real world) experience as Obama in 2008, because of his superstar aura and television-friendly persona. As the above tweet illustrates, Trump is in so many ways, the second coming of Obama, or at least his Mirror Universe doppleganger, which is obvious to anyone who doesn’t have to keep repressing how he got Obama so wrong in 2008.
Endorsing Trump gets Palin back into the spotlight, increases Trump’s bona fides with lots of conservatives and blue collar voters, and as Glenn noted yesterday, is a way for her to stick it to the GOPe, who never had her back in the fall of 2008 and afterwards. And it’s possibly a ticket to a cabinet position as well. This doesn’t exactly require complex rocket surgery to parse out.
JOURNALISTS ARE CONCERNED OVER A PROPOSED ‘RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM REGISTRY LAW’ IN SOUTH CAROLINA. Which is odd, since “all this new law does is create a database of names. There’s not even a waiting period or a prohibition against assault-journalists! And from the little we know about the law, it still allows Americans on the terror no-fly list to still publish their opinions. So, what’s the big deal?”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: ‘There’s Something Deeply Sad’ About The AALS Hiring Unpaid Law Student Interns.
The Association of American Law Schools wants to employ several law students, who will “work on research and writing projects related to [the Association’s] mission of improving legal education.” In particular, students will have the opportunity to work on projects related to “the value of a U.S. legal education” and “financial aid for law students.” There’s just one catch: These are unpaid internships.
There’s something deeply sad about unpaid student interns working to showcase the value of their education. Even law schools pay their research assistants.
Ouch.
WITH GREAT DIFFICULTY: And apparently blood, sweat and tears. How was the Revolutionary War paid for?
YES, BUT THEY WERE ON DRUGS: How People In The 60’s Thought We’d Dance In The Future.
IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY SHE WAS FICTIONAL: Buffy turns 35 today. Here’s a list of her birthday catastrophes.
MINORITIES SHOULDN’T JOIN THE BULLIES: It never ends well. Why lefty Israel-bashing is bad for the gays.
SHOULDN’T WE JUDGE PEOPLE ON THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTERS: Racial bean-counting is making schools unsafe.
WHAT A SURPRISE: The other refugees: Why Jews are leaving Europe. Have you seen my shocked face?
NEVER TRUST OUR CORRUPT PRESS: The hype about how Trump could win: what are the facts?
AH, BUT TEACHERS HAVE UNIONS, DOCTORS DON’T: Shouldn’t Bernie Sanders Want to Underpay Teachers?
IF THEY DIDN’T HAVE DOUBLE STANDARDS, THEY WOULDN’T HAVE ANY AT ALL: Flint v. Chicago — Democrats’ dirty double standard.
IF THE CAP FITS, WEAR IT: New York liberals insulted by ‘liberal’ label. This is why they keep changing their label, like a bad Chinese restaurant. Progressives/liberals/leftists/etc. It never occurs to them it’s what the label refers to that is the problem and not the label. At least, for entertainment’s sake, they could name themselves like bad Chinese movies, instead: Porgressives II, Son of Marx, This Time It’s Comedic!
UNEXPECTEDLY: Lookit my shocked face! Obama’s prisoner swap will help Iran arm Assad, Hezbollah.
NO. THEY’RE LITTLE GOLD STATUETTES: The voters otoh are hollywood liberals, so for the majority of them the answer is probably yes. Are the Academy Awards Racist?
ACTUALLY I’M GETTING TIRED OF THE RACE-CHANGING THING. IT’S A STUPID GIMMICK, BUT YES: Nancy Drew Can Be Any Race—But Not Any Age.
NOT ONE I WANT TO QUIT: A Kind of Addiction.