April 29, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Former federal prosecutor Bill Otis graciously quotes my latest reflections on the Mirandizing of the Boston Marathon terrorist and adds some thoughts of his own. Bill says that, if the Justice Department was concerned that 16 hours of interrogating Tsarnaev without a Miranda warning was pushing the outer limits of the Quarles exception for emergency questioning, the concern was undertandable: I am not aware of a case in which any
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April 29, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Fox News has two related stories regarding State Department and CIA employees who reportedly have information they wish to offer about the Obama administration’s conduct in relation to the Benghazi attack. According to a lawyer for one of these whistleblowers, the information pertains to (1) the State Department’s failure, prior to the attack, to provide proper security despite warnings that should have led to a security beef-up (2) the government’s
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April 29, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that the defense cuts mandated by the sequester are proving to be a “paradox” for the left. Keith Ellison, the ultra-leftist congressman from Minnesota, says he “feels torn” by the cuts because they further his goal of reducing the money available to the military, but contradict his goal of maximizing government spending. When in doubt, the left these days will tend to opt for government spending,
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April 29, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is as perplexed as I am about the circumstances associated with the Mirandization of the surviving Tsarnaev terrorist. Accordingly, he has written a letter to Eric Holder posing questions for the Attorney General. Concerned that the interrogation of Tsarnaev may have been “conducted in a manner that prematurely cut off a lawful, ongoing FBI interview to collect public safety information,” Rogers tells
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April 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
That’s the question posed on Fox Sunday News by Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House homeland security committee. McCaul stated: “I think the experts all agree that there is someone who did train these two individuals.” It’s easy to understand this consensus. The Tsarnaev brothers had a fairly sophisticated operation — seemingly beyond what they could have picked up solely from the do-it-yourself websites they apparently frequented. But if
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April 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Aquille Carr is a 5’7″ (maybe) high school point guard. He’s nicknamed “the Crime Stopper” because during his games in a tough area of Baltimore, Carr’s must-see play was said to bring a halt to crime. Today, in a less impressive feat, Carr was “the blog stopper” as far as I’m concerned. That is, I put blogging and all other pursuits aside to watch Carr play in a high school
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April 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I have never practiced criminal law (except briefly at the international level) and have not studied it since 1974. Thus, like most Americans, much of what I think I know about criminal procedure comes from watching television and movies. My viewing experience does not include any instances in which a judge read a criminal defendant his or her Miranda warning in the middle of police interrogation. Thus, I was shocked
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April 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
This week, Rep. Dr. Michael Burgess (R-Tex) introduced H.R.1705, a bill to amend the U.S. Code to provide for certain forms of physical therapy under TRICARE, the military’s health care program. Our friend Rep. Tom Cotton is co-sponsoring the legislation. H.R. 1705, also known as “Kaitlyn’s Law,” would make sure that Tricare covers doctor-prescribed therapeutic exercises or therapeutic activities. When the doctors and therapists treating a patient covered by TRICARE
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April 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, Eric Holder had this to say to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund: Creating a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in this country is essential. The way we treat our friends and neighbors who are undocumented–by creating a mechanism for them to earn citizenship and move out of the shadows — transcends the issue of immigration status. This is a
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April 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Jennifer Rubin argues that Ronald Reagan’s mythical status “has become a burden for the modern GOP.” “The old guard,” she says, “has become convinced that Reagan’s solutions to the problems of his time were the essence of conservatism — not simply conservative ideas appropriate for that era.” As a result, Republicans have lost their ability to connect with average Americans at an emotional level. Rubin is sore that, for the
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April 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Chuck Hagel has announced that the United States believes, “with varying degrees of confidence” that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its people. Taken literally, Hagel’s statement makes no sense. No one — and no entity — can believe something with varying degrees of confidence. What Hagel means, I assume, is that the relevant players within our government believe that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against
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April 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Congress rarely comes together across party lines these days, but bipartisan consensus has emerged over the unsuitability of Obamacare’s insurance exchanges. Politico reports that Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join under Obamacare. The talks are said to involve Harry Reid, John Boehner, other top lawmakers, and the Obama administration.
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April 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
A federal judge has found that a suit by federal immigration agents seeking to block President Obama’s deferred-deportation initiative is likely to succeed on the merits. The initiative in question, which was announced by Obama and Janet Napolitano last year, allows a deferral of the deportation of illegal aliens if they came to the country under the age of 16, are in school or have obtained a high school diploma,
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April 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, as John noted, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and four other House committees provided a report to GOP members on the investigations into the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi on 9/11 of last year. The report shows that the Obama administration continuously denied requests for additional security prior to the attacks, and then attempted to hide responsibility for those decisions. Today, the heads of the
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April 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
On Monday, the literal answer was: alongside left-wing Congressman and longtime amnesty advocate Luis Gutierrez at a rally held by a Hispanic activist group: Appearing at the Erie Neighborhood House and a City Club of Chicago lunch with the Democrat, Ryan forcefully pushed back on conservatives like former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who think opening the gates to legalizing undocumented immigrants will plunge the nation
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April 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yes, for the reasons set forth below, via Eliana Johnson and Mediaite. When Rubio was running for the Senate in 2009, he told a Florida political blogger that, with regard to immigration, “the most important thing we need to do is enforce our existing laws.” He added: If you go to people and say: “Look, well you’ve been here for so long that even though you broke the law we’re
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April 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Janet Napolitano is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the comprehensive immigration bill. Naturally, she supports this legislation, which is a crucial element of her boss’s agenda. In response to questioning from Sen. Cornyn, Napolitano has admitted that the “90 percent effectiveness rate” standard cannot reliably be calculated because we don’t know who is crossing the border undetected. Yet the 90 percent effectiveness rate is a key criterion for
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