May 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Rand Paul Stands Up Against Government Greed

Featured image The Senate Subcommittee on Investigations is holding a hearing this morning on Apple’s tax avoidance strategies. Rand Paul set the ringmasters back on their heels with an opening statement that questioned the whole rationale for the hearing. Here is Paul’s opening statement: For those who lack the patience to watch it (that often describes me when it comes to videos), here is the transcript, supplied by Paul’s office: I am »
May 21, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Live from the Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute

Featured imageAt the moment I am listening to the ostentatiously liberal Judge Mark Bennett of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa summarize the Supreme Court’s employment law decisions of the past year. Judge Bennett wants us to know that he has got his mind right (i.e., left), and how. I understood that from his disparagement of the conservative Supreme Court justices as “the usual suspects.” That »
May 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Will Team Amnesty prevail?

Featured imageWhile attention is focused on various Obama administration scandals, the Schumer-Rubio immigration reform legislation keeps chugging along in the Senate. What are the prospects for enacting this law, or some similar version? I believe the Senate is likely to pass Schumer-Rubio. All or nearly all of the Senate Democrats will vote for it. That’s 55 votes or close to it. The four Republican members of the Gang of Eight – »
May 21, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Waiting for a Tornado of Speculation

Featured imageThe news broadcasts of the Oklahoma tornado disaster that I saw last night and this morning were thankfully free of speculation that this tornado is proof of—wait for it—global warming, and therefore one more reason to hand over control of our energy sector to environmentalists.  I am certain this will come from the usual people starting today, but for now, note the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin discounting the thesis: »
May 21, 2013 — Scott Johnson

In search of an honest liberal journalist

Featured imageHaving lived through the Watergate scandal and the impeachment of President Nixon, I recall that one conservative journalist stood out from the pack. As the Washington columnist for National Review, George Will regularly exposed the Nixon administration’s lines of defense as the lies that they were. He distinguished himself both for his merciless analytical rigor and his skills as an anatomist. Will was in the infancy of his now long »
May 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Senate Committee Poised to Beat Up On Apple

Featured imageSteve wrote this morning about a hearing being held this week by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in which Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, will testify tomorrow. The subcommittee apparently is trying to highlight supposed tax avoidance on the part of American companies, as the Associated Press reports: Apple Inc. employs a group of affiliate companies located outside the United States to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income »
May 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Hillary Clinton’s designated Benghazi scapegoat speaks out

Featured imageA few days ago, we posted a poem written by Raymond Maxwell, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Maghreb (North Africa) Affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs, whom Hillary Clinton placed on “administrative leave” (months of it, with no end in sight) in response to the Benghazi attack. Maxwell has now written a second poem which I will print below. Maxwell has also responded to his removal »
May 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

GOP’s emerging IRS scandal narrative isn’t compelling

Featured imageEliana Johnson correctly identifies the emerging GOP narrative about President Obama’s relationship to the IRS scandal. The president, we are told, has fostered a “culture of intimidation” that encourages the vilification of one’s political opponents, thus inducing bureaucrats to target those whom the president has demonized. I understand why the GOP is pressing this line. So far, it lacks evidence of White House involvement in the scandal, but wants to »
May 20, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Live from the Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute

Featured imageI’m attending the two-day Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute in St. Paul this year. It’s a great program that attracts leading practitioners from all around the country. I have attended several times in years past, but this year I’m here because I need the continuing legal education credits (including Minnesota’s offensive get-your-mind right elimination-of-bias requirement) before June 30. The institute program draws a large audience which begins with plenary sessions »
May 20, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Where was Obama?

Featured imageThe Wall Street Journal reports that the White House counsel was advised of the Inspector General’s audit findings weeks ago. Doug Ross has compiled a useful IRS scandal timeline into which this latest tidbit fits. A friend with substantial experience as a chief executive officer looks back on what we have learned to date about the IRS harassment of Obama administration political opponents. He raises the issue of executive responsibility: »
May 20, 2013 — Scott Johnson

What about the video?

Featured imageWhat is the provenance of the Muhammad video in the Benghazi talking points? Our inability to answer the question is in itself a clue. Steve Hayes follows the paper trail and reconstructs what his reporting has revealed to date in the Weekly Standard article “What about the video?” Steve characterizes the attribution of causal effect to the video a “quadruple bank shot,” but leaves open the question of who was »
May 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Conservatives Unite Against Immigration Bill

Featured imageA group of conservatives that includes Paul and me have signed a letter opposing the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. I didn’t contribute to drafting the letter, but I was proud to sign it because it sets out the key arguments against the proposal in a powerful and easily understandable way. The group is called the Coalition Against S. 744, and the letter is titled “The Wrong Way to Reform »
May 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker

DOJ’s Fox News Surveillance: Legitimate Leak Investigation, Or Outrageous Violation of the First Amendment?

Featured imageYesterday the Washington Post broke an explosive story: as part of a leak investigation, the Department of Justice obtained access to Fox News reporter James Rosen’s email account, without giving notice of such access to Rosen, Fox or anyone else: When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving »
May 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Connecting the dots on the video

Featured imageAs Scott discussed earlier today, the absence of any reference in the Benghazi talking points to the Muhammad video has raised a new set of questions about the scandal. Among the questions are: (1) why isn’t the video mentioned in the talking points and (2) how, given the video’s absence therein, did it become the centerpiece of subsequent explanations of the attack, including Susan Rice’s. As to the first question, »
May 20, 2013 — Steven Hayward

The Other Tax Hearing to Watch This Week

Featured imageI’ve expressed my puzzlement and disappointment here before about how Apple, like so much of Silicon Valley, is reflexively liberal in its politics.  So it is with some curiosity that I note the story out last week about how Apple CEO Tim Cook was trying to “get out ahead” on the story of his appearance before a Senate committee tomorrow in Washington where he will essentially be called unpatriotic—by both »
May 20, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Bill Cosby, Vindicated . . . By the Obamas?

Featured imageCast your mind back about ten years or so to a series of speeches that got Bill Cosby in a lot of trouble, especially his 2004 speech to the NAACP Awards dinner.  The Cos took aim at dysfunctions in the black community . . . and he was slammed for “blaming the victim” and taking focus away from white racism.  Here’s an extended excerpt: Ladies and gentlemen, I really have to »
May 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

No tears for Piers

Featured imageIn early March, I wrote a post called “Tears for Piers” about the meltdown of Piers Morgan on Fox Soccer Channel as he watched Arsenal, the soccer team he supports, lose to Tottenham Hotspur, the club’s North London rival. In a tirade the sophistication of which failed to meet the standards of a 3:00 a.m. sports call-in show, Morgan castigated Arsenal’s long-time, hugely-successful manager, Arsene Wenger. He concluded by advising »