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Obama ex-aide: Why Liberals Should Back Gorsuch

Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal says the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, an extraordinary judge and man, to the Supreme Court is the first thing President Trumps done right. Writing in The New York Times, the former Obama official says that if the Senate confirms anyone for the seat, Gorsuch should be at the top of the list. Though theyre on opposite political sides, Katyal says Gorsuch brings a sense of fairness and decency to the job, and a temperament that suits the nations highest court. Moreover, Gorsuch would help to restore confidence in the rule of law and not compromise principle to favor the president who appointed him.

Foreign desk: Dont Ignore New Fighting in Ukraine

The frozen conflict in East Ukraine is growing hot again, notes Noah Rothman at Commentary. Since Sunday, eight Ukrainian soldiers have been killed with another 26 wounded, plus unspecified civilian casualties, in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-supported forces. Yet this has been met with stony silence from a distracted political class in the United States, which he calls a grave mistake because the fighting may be a prelude to something with more immediate repercussions for global peace and stability. Donald Trumps campaign statements may have given Vladimir Putin the idea that a Trump administration will provide him with new latitude and renewed freedom of action. So we ignore whats happening in Ukraine at our own peril.

Security expert: Spare Us Irans Pieties on Immigration

Even as America launches into a robust debate on immigration policy, the last thing we need is the voice of Tehrans terror-sponsoring regime insinuating itself, says Claudia Rosett at PJ Media. But thats exactly what Irans foreign minister, Javad Zarif, [is] trying to do by calling Trumps executive order a great gift to extremists. Says Rosett: Lets be clear on whats really going on here. Zarif, while presenting himself as an enemy of extremists, is a prominent official voice of an Iranian regime that has ranked for years as the Middle Easts biggest Old Boys Club of extremism. Indeed, Irans Islamic Republic, from the year of its inception right up to the present, has made a practice of seizing and holding Americans as de facto hostages, for which the Obama administration paid $1.7 billion ransom.

From the right: Trumps Wrong, But Libs Are Hypocrites

President Trumps executive order on immigration is both ham-handed and under-inclusive, not to mention terrible public relations for America, says Dan McLaughlin at National Review, but it is also not the dangerous and radical departure from US policy that his liberal critics make it out to be. Fact is, the United States in general, and the Obama administration in particular, never had an open-borders policy for all refugees from everywhere, so overwrought rhetoric about Trump ripping down Lady Libertys promise means comparing him to an ideal state that never existed. Moreover, liberals were silent when then-President Obama effectively discriminated against persecuted religious-minority Christians from Syria (even while explicitly admitting that ISIS was pursuing a policy of genocide against Syrian Christians).

Sports watch: Longer NFL Season Would Be Safer

The National Football League has announced a $100 million initiative to study and combat Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Thats commendable, but the sad reality is that it is not nearly enough to combat a player safety problem that threatens the very existence of the league, contend Ike Brannon and Travis Reuther at The Weekly Standard. They suggest lengthening the NFL season without more games by simply adding three additional bye weeks. That would improve player health to some extent, since the downtime would give players a chance to better recover between games. Another upside: Increased TV rights would bring in an added $1.3 billion in revenue.

Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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Liberals should back Gorsuch, beware new Ukraine fighting and other notable comments - New York Post

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Posted: Feb 01, 2017 12:01 AM

One of the nastiest more recent liberal events was the Occupy movement around the nation. During Occupy protests, there were rapes, assaults, robberies and holdups. These people publicly defecated and urinated on police cars. The mess they left after their demonstrations can be described as no more than a pigsty. Does anybody recall any Democratic official, from the president on down, admonishing them to behave? Contrast their behavior with that of tea party protesters. Tea partyers didn't set fires, stone police or engage in the other kinds of despicable behavior the liberal Democrats did. On top of that, they left the areas where they protested clean.

Ask yourself whether you have ever seen Republicans/conservatives rioting, turning over police cars, looting, setting places of business on fire and shouting obscenities while marching. Have you ever seen conservatives marching with chants calling for the murder of police officers? You may have heard liberals yelling, "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!" In fact, virtually all of the violence against police -- whether it's throwing stones, ambushing or murdering -- is committed by liberals or people who'd identify as Democrats. The fact of the matter is that if we were to examine criminality in America -- whether talking about murderers, muggers or prisoners -- it would be dominated by people who would be described as liberals, Democrats and Hillary Clinton supporters.

Democrats and liberals accuse Republicans of conducting a war on women. Assault, rape and murder are the worst things that can be done to a woman. I would bet a lot of money that most of the assaults, rapes and murders of women are done by people who identify as liberals, and if they voted or had a party affiliation, it would be Democratic.

One of the most glaring examples of how liberals are held to lower standards comes when we look at what they control. The nation's most dangerous big cities in 2012 were Detroit, Oakland, St. Louis, Memphis, Stockton, Birmingham, Baltimore, Cleveland, Atlanta and Milwaukee. The most common characteristic of these cities is that for decades, all of them have been run by Democratic and presumably liberal administrations. Some cities -- such as Detroit, Buffalo, Newark and Philadelphia -- haven't elected a Republican mayor for more than a half-century. It's not just personal safety. These Democratic-controlled cities have the poorest-quality public education despite the fact that they have large and growing school budgets. Most of these dangerous cities have suffered massive decreases in population. Some observers have suggested that racism has caused white flight to the suburbs. But these observers ignore the fact that black flight has become increasingly significant. It turns out that black people do not like to be mugged and live in unsafe neighborhoods any more than white people.

Republicans and conservatives, including President Trump, should not gripe or whine about different treatment by the liberal media. Magnanimity commands that we have compassion and try to understand our fallen brethren. We should make every effort to sell them on the moral superiority of personal liberty and its main ingredient -- limited government.

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Lower Conduct Standards for Liberals - Townhall

OTTAWA The Liberal government is breaking its promise to change Canadas voting system, though just yesterday it was stringing along opposition parties with hopes for collaboration.

New Democrat Nathan Cullen met with new minister Karina Gould Tuesday, and told the National Post she seemed keen and open to collaboration with all parties. She told him, he said, that she was considering his idea for parties to co-draft electoral reform legislation.

At the time, he said it might be a good sign that Gould seemed so curious about other parties positions.

Less than a day later, Cullen was standing outside the House of Commons calling her boss Justin Trudeau an outright liar.

Without warning Wednesday, Liberals dropped the bomb, in Goulds ministerial mandate letter, that they wont change how Canadians vote despite a black-and-white election promise and months of studies and consultations.

What Mr. Trudeau proved himself today was to be a liar, Cullen said, accusing the prime minister of a lack of courage for not making the announcement himself. It puts into question any commitment, any promise Mr. Trudeau makes or has made in the past.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Gould, who recently replaced predecessor Maryam Monsef, sidestepped questions about why the governments online survey (MyDemocracy.ca) didnt specifically ask Canadians about whether they want reform, or what type of voting system they prefer.

Our view has always been clear. Major reforms to the electoral system, major changes of this magnitude, should not be made if they lack the broad support of Canadians, she said.

But as Green Party leader Elizabeth May pointed out in question period, the need for broad support did not enter into the Liberals public statements until well after they were elected. Why was that never mentioned in any promise or mandate? she asked.

May and Cullen were on a special parliamentary committee that studied electoral reform last summer and fall. It found about 90 per cent of the experts it heard from, and almost 90 per cent of people who attended town halls, supported proportional systems.

For the Liberals to say thats not enough of a consensus clearly shows the stupidity and the arrogance and the entitlement, in fact, that somehow because theyre Liberals they can get away with making that kind of argument, Cullen said.

Those numbers only reflect the views of people who were plugged-in enough to the conversation that they showed up to town halls or sought out consultations. But random polling also suggests support for reform.

An EKOS Politics poll of 1,622 Canadians in October found 51 per cent of Canadians felt the electoral system should be changed, and 59 per cent felt electoral reform is something the Liberal Party campaigned on, so they should deliver on this promise though 57 per cent agreed its too important to be rushed.

In a second phase of that research, with 688 respondents drawn from the original sample, pollsters found 62 per cent of people would move ahead with replacing first-past-the-post, and 63 per cent would prefer proportional representation over a preferential, or ranked, ballot.

An Angus Reid Institute poll of 1,516 Canadians found two types of proportional systems, including mixed-member proportional one that includes local representation would be competitive versus first-past-the-post. The poll, released at the end of November, also found 75 per cent of people would want a referendum on any major changes the desire for which was a sticking point with Conservatives throughout the debate over reform.

Liberals said repeatedly during the election campaign, in their platform and in their first throne speech that the 2015 election would be the last using first-past-the-post.

I have long preferred a preferential ballot, the members opposite wanted proportional representation, the official opposition wanted a referendum. There is no consensus. There is no clear path forward, Trudeau said. I am not going to do something that is wrong for Canadians just to tick a box on an electoral platform.

In Cullens view, it seemed like the strategy became that once Mr. Trudeau wasnt going to get his way, his exact system, well then clearly they had to kill the whole process dead.

Email: mdsmith@postmedia.com | Twitter: mariedanielles

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Liberals break electoral reform promise less than a day after signalling collaboration with opposition - National Post

Malcolm Turnbull is depicted on a GetUp billboard with Pauline Hanson that asks why the Liberal party wont stand up to racism. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

GetUp has taken aim at Malcolm Turnbull, depicting him on a poster with Pauline Hanson asking why the Liberals wont stand up to racism.

The billboard, to be rolled out in multicultural electorates in western Sydney and Melbourne from Thursday, is part of the activist groups racial justice campaign, including its efforts to retain prohibitions on speech that insults, offends, humiliates or intimidates based on a persons race.

But despite the majority of formal submissions opposing the repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, the freedom of speech inquiry considering the provision has been inundated with 7,775 form letters in favour of repeal.

GetUps human rights director, Shen Narayanasamy, criticised the prime minister on his weak response to Donald Trumps executive order temporarily banning travel from a group of majority-Muslim countries and accused him of cosying up to One Nation.

The Coalition is trying to make short-term gains from Trump-style divisiveness but we are determined to show that there are long-term electoral costs associated with victimising minorities.

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Turnbull was asked why the Liberals in Western Australia appeared to be preparing to swap preferences with One Nation and whether the party would preference the rightwing nationalists at the federal level.

He said WA preferences were a matter for the state division and the federal Liberal party was prepared to work with all parties in the parliament, including One Nation.

But it is the freedom of speech inquiry, which held public hearings this week, that is the explicit focus of Get Ups billboards with the messages Why wont the Liberals stand up to racism? and #HandsOff18C.

The Australian newspaper, the Institute of Public Affairs and the far right of the Liberal-National party have worked themselves into a lather to defend peoples right to be racist, Narayanasamy said.

She said watering down or removing section 18C would be outright permission for racial abuse. This is a country where almost a third of the population are from a non-Anglocentric background. For most Australians, theres little demand for the right to be a bigot.

However, if you are a person of colour or one of Australias first peoples, this is a serious issue which impacts your quality of life.

The freedom of speech inquiry received 11,500 items from the public, including about 9,100 form letters, 1,300 pieces of correspondence and at least 200 formal submissions.

According to the committees website, 7,775 of the 9,100 form letters were for 18C to be repealed in its entirety, a campaign orchestrated by the Australian Taxpayers Alliance.

The letter claims 18C restricts an individuals ability to engage in lively and forthright debate. It notes that, since it was introduced in 1995, 2,109 complaints have been made and almost 100 have ended up in federal courts.

The process chills speech by requiring defendants to spend time, energy and money defending themselves for their speech and the potential exists for lives to be ruined even if they are ultimately vindicated in the courts, it said.

In its submission to the inquiry, the Institute of Public Affairs called for repeal of section 18C, arguing it infringed freedom of speech and there is no right not to be offended.

The IPA suggested that section 18C harmed social cohesion because people with racist attitudes were more likely to feel better if allowed to be wrong and then corrected by the words and example of others, than if silenced and left to stew in resentment.

It said while humiliation and intimidation are arguably justifiable restrictions on freedom of expression, those were prohibited by other laws.

Amnesty International, academics and the journalists union told the inquiry that laws restricting information about national security and immigration detention were a greater threat to freedom than race-speech laws.

Many organisations supported retaining 18C on the basis it struck the right balance between freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.

These included the Victorian government, the Refugee Council, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Reconciliation Australia, the Australian Lawyers Alliance, the Arab Council of Australia and the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia.

A popular compromise position was to replacing the terms offend and insult with vilify, which was backed by Monash Universitys Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the Australian Industry Group.

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Malcolm Turnbull targeted by GetUp ad accusing Liberals of failing to oppose racism - The Guardian

Aint no tea party. Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

For American liberals, checking the news has become an act of masochism. To scroll through your Facebook feed is to be reminded that a racist clown has the nuclear codes; America is soul-sick; and the moral arc of the universe bends toward the sun swallowing the Earth.

Even when the monotonous parade of terrible developments is broken up by a feel-good story, the effect can feel akin to lighting a single stick of incense in a room where Steve Bannons morning breath is forever flowing through the vents.

Take the protests that broke out at airports all across the country last weekend. The Trump administration came for the refugees, and the American people spoke out. At JFK International in New York, thousands gathered outside Terminal 4 to show their support for those being detained. Within hours, a court order had provided a measure of relief to a small subset of those affected by the White Houses mindless cruelty.

As the protestors celebrated, it was possible to believe that the authors of this fiasco might pay dearly for it.

And then, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 49 percent of Americans agreed with Trumps executive order, while only 41 percent disagreed.

So, no question, the state of the union is weak as hell. The stench of Bannon breath is overwhelming. But theres reason to think that the seeds those protestors planted will eventually allow liberals to smell the flowers.

The first wave of anti-Trump actions may not have freed America from the spell of post-9/11, anti-Muslim fearmongering. But it did inspire Democrats to increase their political involvement while also securing more than twice as much popular support as the tea party had in April 2010.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 57 percent of the public heard a lot about the Womens March a result that suggests the anti-Trump demonstrators attracted as much attention in a single day of protests as the tea party movement did through months of organizing and demonstrations. Polls from Pew Research Center in 2010 found that just 31 percent of voters had heard a lot about the right-wing movement in March of that year, with awareness of the group reaching a peak of 54 percent, just before the midterm elections in October.

And the Womens March didnt just make a bigger impression than the tea party they also made a better one.

As liberals are painfully aware, being more popular with the public is no guarantee of electoral success. After all, nonvoters are disproportionately Democratic. To make America already great again, liberals wont just need to win over a majority of voters theyll also need to mobilize them, starting in the 2018 midterms.

But the Post poll has excellent news on that front, too: 40 percent of Democratic women say they plan to get more involved in political causes this year. Only 25 percent of all American adults, and 27 percent of Democratic men (sigh), say the same. Democrats under 50 particularly those who lean left are also planning to step up their game in large numbers.

The tea party had some advantages that the anti-Trump left lacks among them, the Koch networks vast resources and the fact that conservative, white, middle-class retirees have more free time to spend on politics than your average, non-old Democrat.

But todays left has its own strengths. Its enemy is the least popular new president in American history; it has years of organizing by Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and other Obama-era social movements to build on; and its policy goals are more appealing and coherent than Keep the government out of my Medicare.

Theres a lot of bad news coming down the pike. But if liberals can find in it cause for mobilization instead of demoralization theyll have a lot of happy headlines to read in November 2018.

Its official: Americas top diplomat is now Vladimir Putins favorite Exxon CEO!

Prime Minister Theresa May is one step closer to meeting her March 2017 deadline.

One vote away from keeping the billionaire heiress to the Amway fortune from becoming Education Secretary.

A week after Trump signed his executive order calling for its construction to be completed.

Starting with President Trumps Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Trumps nominee would be the 34th Episcopalian to serve on the Court. But its been a while.

Henry VIIIs powerful adviser did change history. But he also came to a bad end.

He previously clerked for current Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The Womens March is twice as popular as the tea party once was and Democratic women are increasing their political engagement in large numbers.

After a Democratic boycott, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee changed the rules so they could advance the cabinet nominees by themselves.

Thats not the America I believe in. Thats not who we are.

On Prospect Park West.

Trump hasnt put an official spokesperson on the network in weeks.

He declared hes dismantling Obamacare, building a wall, and ending sanctuary cities, but that doesnt necessarily mean it will happen.

An administration official said Harley-Davidson didnt want to deal with demonstrators, but the company denied that.

Progressives are demanding that Senate Democrats do everything they can to block Gorsuch, though hell almost certainly wind up on the Court.

If they dont make him change the rules, hell make them do it, then blame them.

His nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is a natural successor on the Supreme Court.

A draft executive order would allow the government to deport visa holders who receive public benefits.

A meet the breeds event.

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This Poll Is the Best News Liberals Have Had In a Long Time - New York Magazine