Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Mea Culpa -- The second incident referred to below was by Kelly O'Donnell, not Norah O'Donnell. My mistake, corrected below. The point remains the same.

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This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:

Tonight is a first. Two plays of the race card by a single person in a single week each of which would have been worth a spotlight.

It's Norah O'Donnell, Norah Kelly O'Donnell night. The night we demonstrate that whatever was left of the MSNBC franchise, and O'Donnell's integrity as a reporter, now is gone.

Game One

At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich commented that “shooting three-point shots may be clever, but it doesn’t put anybody to work.” Speaking of the President’s basketball skills, Gingrich continued: "What we need is a President, not an athlete. We need somebody who actually focuses on getting people back to work.” The next morning, on the MSNBC Morning Joe show, O’Donnell accused Gingrich of using racist imagery, which even was too much for the rest of the MSNBC crew:

But I’m not sure what he means by this particular soundbite and I think it’s open to some criticism because it suggests that the President is an athlete and some people may suggest, you know, because all black people are good athletes. I mean that’s what it sort of sounds like to me.

Game Two

[Kelly] O'Donnell attended a Tea Party rally on April 15. What possibly could go wrong?

She saw a black man. That is not permitted, in MSNBC's view, at a Tea Party rally.

So O'Donnell asked him the only question which makes sense in the world of MSNBC: "What is the world are you doing here, don't you know it's dangerous for people like you around all these angry white people?" (not an exact quote, my paraphrase). The exact quote was as follows:

“There aren't a lot of African-American men at these events ... Have you ever felt uncomfortable?”

The response must have blown her mind:

“No, no, these are my people, Americans.”

Perhaps a better question from O'Donnell would have been:

"There aren't a lot of African-Americans at MSNBC ... Would you feel uncomfortable around Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Rachel Madow, Ed (whatever his last name is) and me?

(h/t HotAir)

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Dana Lithwick asks What Are Liberal Law Students So Sad About? Her conclusion is that liberal law students are sad because their liberal legal heroes can't seem to get on the Supreme Court:

Since it's April, and America's law students have nothing else to do (kidding!), I've done a bunch of talks with student groups and classes in recent weeks. One of the most notable things about these events is the extent to which progressive students, faced with a Supreme Court vacancy, a Democratic president, and a Democratic Congress, are bordering on despair.... It's awfully hard to be inspired when your heroes are benched before the game even begins.

I understand the feeling. I never recovered from Robert Bork being Borked by a Senator who left a girl to die in a watery ditch at the side of the road and never spent a day in jail, while spending the rest of his life lecturing conservatives about compassion and decency. But that's just me.

I have some alternative views as to why liberal law students are so sad:

1. Conservatives are happier than liberals in general. It's the nature of the universe.
2. Religious people are happier than non-religious people, and conservatives are more religious than liberals.
3. The Big Law model is failing, which means that liberal law students cannot do pro bono work for Gitmo detainees while getting paid $160k a year right out of law school.
4. Liberal legal heroes are not that heroic because in a law school almost everyone is liberal; it's about as hard as riding first class on a frequent flyer upgrade. By contrast, being conservative in a law school requires the right stuff, much like test pilots, the Mercury astronauts, and the people who walked on the Moon.
5. Far more people self-identify as conservative than liberal, and leaving the liberal law school cocoon sucks.
6. Law schools cannot change the first 5 reasons.

There may be other reasons, but these are a good start. I'm open to other suggestions.

Smile!

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In the company of Obama supporters, it's called "inventing" oneself:

Look at how much Barack Obama had to figure out. I mean, he’s born who he is, he can look in the mirror; but it must have been extraordinarily confusing to have this father who was a ghost, a myth, a collection of stories that he barely knew, and by the way, were highly unreliable. He spent 10 days with his father during his conscious life. He grew up in Honolulu and went to a highly privileged school where there were a couple of other black students, and in a place with no black people around, except for the occasional soldier on the basketball court or at a party. So, where does he get it from? He watches TV, he reads books; I mean, it’s a really mystifying, difficult thing....

[He] left Occidental College, which is near Pasadena, to get to Columbia University because it is closer to an urban centre and closer to an African American population. And where does he go after that? The south side of Chicago. And that is where he comes alive. That is where he finds a sense of purpose and identification and all those things we know. He chose a very definite way of being.

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A rumor -- apparently denied -- that possible (likely?) Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is gay set the White House on a "scorched earth" attack on CBS News, where the rumor was reported in a blog. The reaction in the left-wing blogosphere has been equally hysterical.

A few key points.

First, the left has a long history of outing (allegedly) gay Republicans. One of the leading left-wing bloggers, John Aravosis, who runs AmericaBlog, made his name by outing Republicans, including defending attempts to force then RNC Chair Ken Melman to declare whether he was gay (I have no idea if he was, and I don't care). The film Outrage attempted to out conservatives who it alleged were gay. When it suited their purposes, bloggers like Aravosis did not hesitate to spread rumors that Condoleezza Rice was gay.

The hypocrisy of the left on the subject of outing never ceases to amaze.

Second, a general policy against "outing" creates a tension where the person is being nominated to the highest court in the land with a lifetime appointment. The issue is not sexual preference, but the public's right to know who the person is. We would not hesitate to demand disclosure of the name and biography of a spouse or heterosexual "significant other" to see if there were any potential issues or conflicts which would affect the nomination process. Should the standard be any different for Elena Kagan?

Third, it is curious that those objecting to the Kagan rumor seem to treat an accusation of being gay as a slur. One John Aravosis notes the irony and says he is neutral as to whether such reaction by the White House and other Democrats reflects homophobia.

I don't know if I would support Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. I'll wait to learn more about her. If she's gay, so be it, but I will not treat that fact or rumor as a slur. And I'll hold her to the same level of disclosure of personal relationships that we would expect of any other nominee.

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Underfunded state retirement systems are one of the greatest problems facing states. There does not seem to be a way out, as municipal and teachers' unions are loathe to negotiate substantial reforms and state governments simply do not have the money to meet unsustainable promises.

An interesting case was just handed down in federal court in Rhode Island, which may provide a legal path for state governments to modify retiree benefits through legislation.

The gist of the decision is that once a union contract has expired, the state may have the right to alter retiree benefits promised under such contract. To oversimplify a bit, once the contract is over, the contractual rights under the contract are over.

The full case decision in Rhode Island Council 94 v. State of Rhode Island is embedded below. Here is a summary as reported in The Providence Journal, Judge sides with R.I. on retiree health benefits:

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith has upheld the state’s trimming of health-care benefits for state employees who retire early.

Governor Carcieri on Thursday proclaimed the decision “a victory for all taxpayers” that affirms state officials’ legal authority to better align employee benefits with what the government can afford.

“It was a huge cost-saver to the state,” said Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe. A savings estimate was not immediately available.

But Kenneth DeLorenzo, executive director of the employees labor union, Rhode Island Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, denounced the decision as a historic repudiation of the state’s obligations to its employees.

Council 94 had sued to block implementation of the law on state-subsidized health-care benefits — a law that Judge Smith described as an attempt by the state amid a fiscal crisis in 2008 “to tighten its belt” by reducing the amount it spends on those benefits.

In a decision entered Tuesday, Smith rejected claims by the union that the reduction in benefits violated employee rights under the contract clauses of the Rhode Island and U.S. Constitutions. Contrary to the union claims, he said, no enforceable contract exists for retiree health benefits under the state’s past practice regarding retirees, the negotiated collective-bargaining agreement between Council 94 and the state, state statute and common law.

At the time the law took effect, on Oct. 1, 2008, the collective-bargaining agreement had expired and pronounced by the governor to have been “terminated” — an important legal distinction, according to the judge.

Council 94 contended that the agreement’s provision for retiree health benefits nevertheless remained in force. The judge said no.

This case certainly will be appealed, because it has tremendous implications nationwide.

While there certainly were nuances specific to the Rhode Island laws and union contracts at issue, the case provides a potential pathway for beleaguered states to address unsustainable retiree benefits through legislation.

At a minimum, the case gives states greater negotiating leverage to call the bluff of unions which consider their contracts insulated from the economic troubles facing the states.

Ri Council 94 v State of Rhode Island

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Two weeks ago, unemployment numbers were released supposedly showing a jobs recovery, leading the New York Times and others to cheer how we had turned the corner. Steve Benen at Washington Monthly declared that this was a "breakthrough month" (rah-rah).

As I discussed at the time, even the NY Times had to admit (several paragraphs into its article) that the numbers were skewed by census temporary hiring and weather-related changes.

Not surprisingly, the numbers just released show that unemployment claims "unexpectedly" rose again:

New weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 24,000 to 484,000 last week, the government said this morning, increasing worries that high unemployment will stick around for a long time.

Forecasters had expected the new jobless claims number to come in at 430,000.

The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility in the number, rose by 7,500 last week to 457,750.

Continuing claims rose from 4.57 million to 4.64 million.

Not so rah-rah.

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A poll released by McLaughlin & Associates claims that the American Jewish love affair with Obama is fading:

According to the 2008 exit polls, Barack Obama won 78% to 21% among Jewish voters. Now, in the second year of Obama’s presidency, only 42% of voters would re-elect him, while the plurality (46%) would consider voting for someone else.

I don't believe it.

As in, I do not think it is accurate.

There is no Obamamania like the American Jewish Obamamania. The Reform Judaism movement practically was a division of Obama for America.

Thousand of years of undeserved self-imposed guilt trips culminated in the Mother of All Guilt Trips, also known as the 2008 election.

Oh, how the Jewish community kvelled when Obama won. The Mother of All Kvells.

I never could explain it in any rational terms. If was as if electing someone who worshiped in Jeremiah Wright's church and hung out with anti-Israel academics would ... well, like I said, I never could explain it in rational terms.

Anyone with a knowledge of pathological psychology who can tell me the term to describe someone who falls in love with someone who doesn't love them back?

"Glutton for punishment" comes to mind, but there must be a more precise term.

Maybe things are changing. Maybe the way Obama pissed all over Bibi Netanyahu was the wake up call. Maybe the Jewish community simply is falling into line with national averages, the well-known "return to sanity" phenomenon.

Maybe. But I'll need a lot more proof than one poll.

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Accusing Israel of indirectly killing American soldiers is the newest and most pernicious argument of the anti-Israeli left, traditional Arabists in government, and now, the Executive Branch of the United States government.

As detailed here before, the argument goes that because the people who kill American soldiers hate Israel, Israel is the cause of the killing.

As reported by the New York Times today, this argument now is rolling off the lips of Obama himself:

When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a “vital national security interest of the United States,” he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests....

Mr. Obama said conflicts like the one in the Middle East ended up “costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure” — drawing an explicit link between the Israeli-Palestinian strife and the safety of American soldiers as they battle Islamic extremism and terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

There is no logic to such argument. The people who kill American soldiers also hate us, regardless of what Israel does or does not do.

The people who kill American soldiers, depending upon which group it is, also object to the presence of American soldiers in Muslim lands such as Saudi Arabia, to the occupation of Andalusia by Christians Spaniards, to the publishing of cartoons in Denmark, to the lack of Sharia law in Europe, and so on and so on.

Even if Israel retreated to the pre-1967 borders, thus leaving it exposed militarily, the people who hate Israel would not stop hating Israel.

What doesn't Obama understand when Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, al-Qaeda and others demand the elimination of Israel, when Muslim clerics preach that Jews are the children of monkeys and pigs, when Palestinians in the West Bank celebrate suicide bombers and teach hatred of Jews in their classrooms?

It's not about where the border is drawn. Only the elimination of Israel will suffice.

So where does appeasement of the haters lead us?

Achieving a "lasting peace" in the Middle East has been a long time goal of U.S. policy, and criticizing Israeli settlements is nothing new. To pursue such policies is not to be "anti-Israel."

But we are at a whole new level when we seek to blame Israel for the deaths of American soldiers. It is a blood libel, plain and simple.

Our only true friend in the Middle East has become our enemy, the killer of American soldiers by its mere will to survive.

Finding demons is the stock-in-trade of this administration. I called them on it at the beginning of the Obama presidency, Barack Got Enemy.

Whether it is the "rich," the insurance companies, the "lobbyists," the "extremist" and "dangerous" Tea Parties, or whomever, there always is an enemy against whom a policy is directed.

Now that enemy is the sole democratic outpost in a sea of intolerance, dictatorships, and Islamic fundamentalism.

None of this is a surprise to those of us who were honest in the run-up to the 2008 election. I saw it coming, based on the people with whom Obama had surrounded himself, and his style of campaigning.

I do not believe that Obama wants to destroy Israel. I do believe that Obama wants to bring Israel down a few notches, end the historic special relationship as he did with Britain, and use Israel as a pawn in Obama's vainglorious escapade to make people like us.

Some President you elected, American Jewish community.

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• Syria dialogue going, Syria Gave Scuds to Hezbollah, U.S. Says
• New era of openness going, Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit
• Support for freedom-loving peoples going, At nuclear summit, Obama snubs an ally

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Barack Obama has a long history as President of bowing to foreign leaders, the latest being the President of China.

Media Matters, which has a good roundup of reaction, says there is a "tired obsession with Obama's supposed 'bowing.'"

I assume the defense is that Obama is not expressing subservience, but rather, being multi-culturally sensitive, and acting out of respect for other cultures.

Does Obama ask himself the following question:

"If bowing is a sign of respect, why don't these leaders bow to me?"

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New Year, same plans to crash Tea Parties in order to create a pretext for the non-stop Democratic smear machine which seeks to paint all opposition to Obama's agenda as racist and extremist.

We saw this last April, as I documented in my post When Fascism Comes To America, It Will Look Like Tea Party Crashers.

Now it's activist Jason Levin, and even AP is reporting on it:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Opponents of the fiscally conservative tea party movement say they plan to infiltrate and dismantle the political group by trying to make its members appear to be racist, homophobic and moronic.

Jason Levin, creator of http://www.crashtheteaparty.org, said Monday the group has 65 leaders in major cities across the country who are trying to recruit members to infiltrate tea party events for April 15—tax filing day, when tea party groups across the country are planning to gather and protest high taxes....

"Do I think every member of the tea party is a homophobe, racist or a moron? No, absolutely not," Levin said. "Do I think most of them are homophobes, racists or morons? Absolutely."

Bob Owens at Pajamas Media has more background on the person behind the effort:

When contacted by Pajamas Media, Levin confirmed his involvement in the effort, stating, “Our stated intentions, or ‘manifesto’ as some of the conservative bloggers have called it is absolutely sincere.” He claimed to have operatives in tea party groups in every major city.

What are the doughboys afraid of?

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Someone, somewhere is stoking the notion of Sheldon Whitehouse for the Supreme Court spot being vacated by John Paul Stevens. From the Providence Journal:

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat, has appeared on some early lists of prospects whom President Obama may consider - or is being urged to consider - to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

In an item published on-line within hours of the Stevens announcement Friday, liberal blogger Paul Abrams put Whitehouse at the top of a list that the Huffington Post dubbed "Superb 'Out of the Box' Suggestions'' for the nomination.

Abrams declared that Whitehouse, a former Rhode Island attorney general, has "the sharpest mind in the Senate.'' Lawyers who present oral arguments in Supreme Court cases "would have to triple their preparation to meet his withering questioning,'' Abrams wrote. That was an apparent reference to the senator's work posing questions to witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Also on Friday, Time magazine's Web page listed Whitehouse - along with fellow Sen. Amy Klobuchar, another Judiciary Committee Democrat elected in 2006 - among more than a dozen second-tier prospects for the high court.

Saturday's Washington Post likewise put Whitehouse, Klobuchar and Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick under the heading of "politicians mentioned'' for the job.

Here is why it will not happen:



On the other hand, it would make for a really fun summer. So bring it on.

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The ruling Labour Party in Britain has used its control of the National Health Service to help its campaign for the May 6 general election, via the Times of London:

Labour was today caught up in a new row over its use of personal data after e-mailing NHS professionals using their work addresses to ask for their support.

The move emerged after the party had been criticised for delivering campaign leaflets on the party’s cancer policy to 250,000 women, some of whom had the disease.

The postcards, produced by Tangent, which works for the Labour Party, said that the Tories would scrap a Labour guarantee that patients would see a cancer specialist within two weeks.

One of those who received the latest communication, a doctor, has complained that senior Labour figures are trying to pressure her into publicly backing the party against her will.

It's a good thing nothing like that could happen here:

The White House on Monday shut down an email account set up to collect tips from Americans on "fishy" claims about President Barack Obama's health-care plan, as congressional Republicans raised new concerns about why some Americans received an unsolicited email from the White House last week.

The White House shut down an email account "flag(at)whitehouse.gov" as congressional Republicans and bloggers continued to raise questions about why Obama officials were collecting negative statements made by ordinary Americans about the president's health care plan and what the administration was planning to do with the information it gathered.

[Special shout-out to the first person who correctly identifies the allusion in the post title.]

Update: That did not take long, special shout out to Jeff Peterson from Austin, Texas, who e-mailed me as follows:

"Newman!" - "Threatening comment to Jerry: "When you control the mail, you control . . . information!" (Not as funny as his description of why employees go postal: "Because the mail never stops!" etc.). But still very good."

Commenter Yaacov David Shulman obviously is more well-read and literate than I am, and is not addicted to Seinfeld re-runs, pointing out the similarity to a statement in the book 1984, by George Orwell: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past."

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The more I learn about the people on board the Polish presidential plane which crashed outside Smolensk, the more I understand the depth of the tragedy for Poland.

Killed in the plane crash alongside Polish President Lech Kaczynski was Anna Walentynowicz.

Prior to the crash I was not familiar with Walentynowicz. Now I am, and I am beginning to understand.

Walentynowicz was to the Solidarity Movement in Poland what Rosa Parks was to the black civil rights movement in the U.S.

As Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus was a spark in the fight against segregation, so too Walentynowicz's refusal to accept her firing at a shipyard was the spark which led to strikes and the eventual collapse of the communist government.

Here is an excerpt from her obituary in the Times of London:

Anna Walentynowicz was born in 1929 in Rowne, in northern Poland, close to the Baltic coast. She was orphaned during the Second World War and in her youth joined the Polish Communist Party, which came to power with Soviet backing in 1947. She started work at the Lenin Shipyard as a welder in 1950.

But Walentynowicz soon became disillusioned with the corrupt and undemocratic way in which the shipyard was run. She is reported to have spoken out for the first time when one of her bosses stole money belonging to employees and used it to take part in a lottery.

By the mid-1970s, Walentynowicz — by now a crane operator — was firmly on the communists’ radar as a “political agitator”. She repeatedly raised workers’ demands and organised work-to-rules and began editing an illegal newspaper, even distributing it to her employers at the yard.

In 1978, she became a founding member of a Committee for Free Trade Unions set up in Gdansk. The shipyard responded by attempting to have Walentynowicz declared mentally insane, and she had to use the courts to fight to hold on to her job.

Her vindictive sacking in August 1980 was ostensibly because of her participation in illegal trade union activity, but was immediately seen by her fellow workers as the victimisation of a “model worker devoted to others”.

As a result of the strike not only was Walentynowicz reinstated, but further action led to the historic Gdansk Agreement with the communists and the formation of the independent Solidarity trade union. Within two years the union had ten million members.

The photo above right shows Walentynowicz with Lech Walesa.

What a loss.

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In early March I wrote how the Southern Poverty Law Center had exaggerated regarding the alleged presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Rhode Island as part of SPLC's report on a "surge" of hate groups.

Specifically, I pointed out that SPLC claimed the Ku Klux Klan was active in North Providence. Being from Rhode Island, and never having heard of any such group or any Klan activity at all, I expressed doubt about the accuracy of SPLC's accusation, The Klan In Rhode Island? SPLC Exaggerates Again.

In response to that post, several readers from Rhode Island confirmed that they too had not heard of any Klan activity. One reader even contacted SPLC for proof, but never received a response.

As far as I or anyone else was able to determine, other than a single reference to such a Klan group in North Providence on a website, and a supposed P.O. Box, there was no evidence of such group in Rhode Island, much less any public activity by such group.

The Providence Journal, which interviewed me on the subject, writes today that the police in North Providence investigated the Klan, and also could find no evidence of such a group in North Providence (emphasis mine):

According to the [SPLC] report, the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has a post office box in North Providence.

North Providence Police Capt. Paul Ricci said he investigated the Klan group a year ago, “but it didn’t lead anywhere.” The police looked for a Klansman supposedly named Cole Thornton, until they discovered Thornton was the name of the gunslinger played by John Wayne in the film, “El Dorado.”

“We’ve had no contact with the Klan,” he said.

I doubt this will move SPLC to retract its accusation about the Klan presence in Rhode Island. Indeed, as reported by the ProJo, Mark Potok of SPLC is sticking by the allegations of Klan activity in Rhode Island:

“We’ve been doing this for a very long time,” he said. “And we do it very carefully.”

As I made clear in my original post, and reiterated to the Projo, the exaggeration by SPLC is harmful in the fight against hate groups, akin to the tale of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. As quoted in the Projo today:

But critics say the report exaggerates the threat of hate groups in places like Rhode Island.

“They may do thorough research on some groups, but on others they take the easy route,” and rely on questionable sources like web sites, said William A. Jacobson, a Barrington resident and law professor at the Cornell Law School in Ithaca, N.Y.

“They say there are three hate groups in Rhode Island, but as far as I can tell, they don’t exist,” he said. “I don’t dispute there are hate groups out there. But we have no way of knowing which ones are dangerous –– and which ones are pixels on a web site.”

Striking the supposed North Providence Klan group from the SPLC list merely because it did not actually operate would mean that the number of hate groups was dropping, and that would not make for good headlines or help drum up contributions.

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