Joel B. Pollak - Page 290

en. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the darling of the American left, has endorsed California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who announced her bid for retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat earlier this week. Warren is the left’s new rising star, pitching old-style liberalism to a base eager to transcend the frustrations of the Obama presidency.

It is common for White House spokespeople to spin the facts–to find the interpretation that best flatters the president. It is rare, but not unheard of, for White House spokespeople to lie about facts that are not yet fully known to the public. It is extraordinary for White House spokespeople to lie about facts that everyone already knows. Yet that is exactly what Josh Earnest did on Tuesday, when trying to explain why the Obama administration strains to avoid mentioning radical Islam.

A Canadian newspaper has a new answer to the thorny editorial question of whether to reprint controversial cartoons of Muhammad, such as those that appear in France’s Charlie Hebdo: invite readers to “connect the dots” and draw Muhammad themselves.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have secured his re-election in March with a strong display on the world stage at last weekend’s anti-terror march in Paris. Though his critics on the left accused Bibi of exploiting the tragedy, and said that he drew attention to himself, Netanyahu bolstered his image as a world leader, and a steady hand in turbulent times. With the Obama administration absent from the march, he also–once again–struck a contrast in Israel’s favor.

After sitting out the “#HandsUpDontShoot” and “#BlackLivesMatter” demonstrations, Obama and Holder were not going to be caught on camera attending a “#JeSuisCharlie” rally in Paris, no matter how many other world leaders were going to be there in solidarity with the French people, with the Jewish people, or with freedom of expression in general.

Five people were reportedly shot in the wee hours of Sunday morning near a Chris Brown concert in San Jose, California. The rapper tweeted that he was unharmed, and all five victims are expected to survive.

On Sunday, as world leaders gathered for an anti-terror rally in Paris, France, the Obama administration announced that it would convene a global “Summit on Countering Violent Extremism” on Feb. 18. The White House released a statement describing the summit agenda, which failed to mention Islam, radical Islam, or anything related to the actual ideology motivating the Paris attacks.

As millions gather in Paris to protest against terrorism and for free speech and tolerance, the French consulate in San Francisco will host a solidarity rally on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Civic Center Plaza. The rally will honor the victims at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket, where Islamic radicals killed 12 and four, respectively, last week.

Attorney General Eric Holder will be representing the United States at Sunday afternoon’s rally against terrorism in Paris, France, according to news reports. President Barack Obama has no public events scheduled, and Secretary of State John Kerry is on a trip to India.

In the book, Dershowitz argues that the main reason terrorism continues is that it tends to be rewarded, even by the nations that fight it hardest. He cites France as an example of a “capitulating” nation–one that breaks international unity against terrorism by cutting deals with terrorist organizations in the hope that its own citizens will be left alone in the future.

Kuwaiti singer Ema Shah has condemned this week’s terror attack in Paris against the staff of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, known for its controversial cartoons.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters on Friday in New York that the terror attacks in Paris, in which radical Muslims targeted a Jewish supermarket and a newspaper that had mocked Muhammad, were “criminality” that had nothing to do with religion.

Gloria Allred, the attorney representing several of the women who have accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault, said Wednesday that Cosby should follow the example of Alan Dershowitz and waive all statute of limitations defenses if he truly believes

Attorney Alan Dershowitz continues his fight against Bradley Edwards and Paul Cassell, the lawyers whose client, “Jane Doe #3,” has accused him of rape in a court case challenging the terms of a plea bargain between the federal government and Dershowitz’s former

By deflecting attention from the cartoons, Klein is actually trying to protect Western ideas about the state, the individual, and freedom. Yet he cannot bring himself to identify the threat to those ideas, because doing so would mean admitting that the multicultural project, to which the left is politically wedded, has failed.

I don’t much feel like re-posting the Muhammad cartoons for which Charlie Hebdo became famous. It’s not a matter of fear, or political correctness. A decade ago, I was living in the heart of the Muslim community in Cape Town, writing articles against fundamentalism and in defense of the U.S. and Israel even while I enjoyed breaking Ramadan fasts with friends and neighbors. I did so at some considerable risk to my personal safety. I was lucky to meet religious Muslims who wanted nothing to do with violence–and it is precisely because of those relationships that I choose not to offend, even while standing with Charlie Hebdo.

Hundreds of demonstrators poured into the streets across California in spontaneous protests against the Islamist attack on the offices of satirical newspaper “Charlie Hebdo” on Wednesday, which claimed the lives of 12 journalists, cartoonists, security personnel and police officers. The demonstrators expressed their solidarity with the newspaper, with the French people, with freedom of expression–and against radical Islam.

In chess, blunders are noted with a “?” and major blunders with a “??”. However, the decision by lawyers Bradley J. Edwards and Paul G. Cassell to sue Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz for defamation would deserve a third

You do not need to know–or even like–Dershowitz to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he is not guilty of the terrible crime of which he has accused in this tabloid scandal.

President Barack Obama has made it clear that a nuclear deal with Iran is one of his top priorities this year. Disarmament has, in fact, been the only constant in his foreign policy, not just since taking office in 2009 but since his college days at Columbia. Yet as negotiations have broken one deadline after another, America’s allies–especially Israel and Saudi Arabia–have become alarmed, fearing a weak deal that will leave Iran on the cusp of nuclear armament. Five key foreign policy blunders reinforced those fears.

The White House has hosted serial race-baiter Al Sharpton dozens of times, and has followed his cues in racially divisive controversies from the Trayvon Martin shooting to the ongoing “Black Lives Matter” protests, which have led to retaliatory violence against police across the nation. Moreover, President Barack Obama himself spent twenty years in the pews of the church of Jeremiah Wright in Chicago, enduring Wright’s racist sermons without comment or complaint, and contributing thousands of dollars to Wright’s fundraising efforts

Recalling his father’s inauguration as governor 56 years ago, Brown said that many of the same challenges still persist, including discrimination, education, and air pollution. “These problems–they never completely go away.”

The Obama administration might indeed allow a UN Security Council resolution on a Palestinian state to pass, provided some wording could be found that would accommodate the terms of Resolutions 242 and 338, which encourage a negotiated peace.

California Governor Jerry Brown is set to be sworn in for his fourth term at the state capitol today, and will combine the ceremony with his annual ‘State of the State’ address. The governor won re-election comfortably in November, and

Health care expert Tevi Troy, writing in the new issue of Commentary, predicts that 2015 will be the worst year for Obamacare yet–not just because the steady (and delayed) implementation of the law will arouse new opposition, but because the Congress that takes office this week was partly elected on the basis of broad public opposition to the law.

Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Ambassador Samantha Power are being credited for their efforts in lobbying members of the UN Security Council to vote against a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood. Yet if they had been on top of their game, the vote never would have been held.

The honorable resignation is a lost art in American politics. Most politicians are determined to cling to power, regardless of the cost to their reputation, their party’s standing, or their broader ideals. Scalise could have resigned with dignity, affirming the principle that even fleeting association with racism and antisemitism will not be tolerated in the Republican Party.

National Public Radio aired a remarkable interview on Sunday’s Weekend Edition with Allan Edwards, a Presbyterian pastor who is gay, yet lives a heterosexual life. The conversation between NPR’s Renee Montaigne and Edwards–and his wife–sheds light on an often overlooked constituency in the debate over gay marriage.

When the next crisis hits–some financial shock, say, or another drought–we may well wish California had suffered more gridlock and enjoyed less consensus.

The Landmark Legal Foundation, the conservative public interest law firm founded by talk radio host (and former Reagan administration official) Mark Levin, filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief this week at the U.S. Supreme Court in King v. Burwell, which could decide the fate of Obamacare.

While the convention speech is notable for its focus on the division between rich and poor, the Iona College is remarkable for its emphasis on a common question facing members of a prosperous society. What is the purpose of wealth, Cuomo asked, if it does not provide happiness?

The Steve Scalise controversy had a fairly simple resolution. When the accusation had emerged that he had spoken in 2002 to a white supremacist group associated with former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, he ought to have stepped aside temporarily and asked the House Republican leadership to conduct a full investigation. That would have confirmed that Republicans would not permit anyone to lead the party who kept such associations, and without punishing Scalise before the facts were known.

Cold weather and irrepressible holiday cheer kept “Black Lives Matter” protests small at New Year’s Eve celebrations across campus on Wednesday evening. Organizers across California contented themselves with the fact that they had staged demonstrations at all. (Photo: @Cassandra / Twitter)

The federal government has found Harvard Law School to be in violation of Title IX over its policy on sexual assault, and the school has agreed to revise its policies. In a statement Tuesday, Harvard University and Harvard Law School said that they have been “pro-active” in revising their sexual assault policies ahead of the resolution of the controversy, which was reached last week in a formal agreement with the U.S. Department of Education.

The Sacramento Bee published an editorial Wednesday in which it criticizes California Republican Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader in the U.S. House, for defending Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) over allegations that he addressed a gathering associated with white supremacist David Duke in 2012. (Scalise has apologized quickly, though it is not clear whether he knew about the group’s beliefs or if he even addressed the group at all.)

As 2014 draws to a close, Californians are planning for the years ahead. And while 2015 looks to have a promising start–a growing economy, drought relief, and some balance in the state legislature–many questions lie ahead. Here are the top 5.