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Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: Red in the Face The State Department is pushing back against allegations that it, in essence, apologized to China over potential human rights violations here in the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner told reporters Friday in a discussion about human rights, the U.S. delegation brought up Arizona's new immigration law, calling it a "troubling trend in our society." Both of Arizona's Republican senators demanded a retraction and apology from Posner, calling his remarks particularly offensive. And Indiana Republican Congressman Dan Burton slammed the comments made to what he called "one...

LAREDO, Texas -- The white tents that sit here on the very edge of the U.S border, with Mexico a literal stone’s throw away, represent one of the jewels in the crown of the Trump administration’s recent efforts to get a grip on the immigration crisis. They are the temporary courtrooms set up as part of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) -- known colloquially as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. That policy, established earlier this year, involves sending migrants who are trying to claim asylum back to Mexico during their proceedings -- instead of releasing them into the U.S. while...

Terry Nichols, Philippines, bombs, etc. See Mark Tapscott here: “Before Able Danger and Mohamed Atta, There Was Murrah Building Bombing and Hussain Al-Hussaini; Journalist Uncovers OKC Links to 9/11, which links to this L.A. Weekly article: “The Rohrabacher Test: Congressman questions Terry Nichols about Oklahoma City bombing”. The Mark Tapscott link also has a comprehensive statement from Jayna Davis, who has pursued this story for ten long years and has now written a book entitled “The Third Terrorist”. One interesting quote — among many — in the L.A. Weekly piece is from Richard Clarke: Clarke wrote that the theory of...

Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner sees “absolutely no value” in studying the U.S. Constitution because “eighteenth-century guys” couldn’t have possibly foreseen the culture and technology of today. In a recent op-ed for Slate, Judge Posner, a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, argued that the original Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the post–Civil War amendments “do not speak to today.” “I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries — well,...

Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced his retirement Friday afternoon, affording President Donald Trump the opportunity to replace a legal titan on the Chicago-based federal appeals court. Posner subscribes to a method of judging called “pragmatism,” which seeks to balance the equities of each case and conform judicial rulings to the social, political, and economic arrangements of the times. He touted his commitment to pragmatism in announcing his retirement.

A rare full-court session of a U.S. appeals court in Chicago heard arguments Wednesday on whether protections under a 1964 Civil Rights Act should be expanded to cover workplace discrimination against LGBT employees, as hopes dim among some gay rights activists that the question will be resolved in their favor following Republican election victories. Several of the 11 judges at the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals signaled they are ready to enter what would be a historic ruling broadening the scope the 52-year-old landmark law, with the court directing the toughest questions during the hourlong hearing at a lawyer...

Judge Richard A. Posner, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, has published an op-ed at Slate declaring that the U.S. Constitution is a waste of time. Posner writes: And on another note about academia and practical law, I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries—well, just a little more than two centuries, and of course...

You knew this was coming. It was inevitable. We have seen it before. When the Obama Administration blamed the Benghazi jihad attack on a video about Muhammad, there were calls in the mainstream media for restrictions on the freedom of speech.

The U.S. National Security Agency should have an unlimited ability to collect digital information in the name of protecting the country against terrorism and other threats, an influential federal judge said during a debate on privacy. "I think privacy is actually overvalued," Judge Richard Posner, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, said during a conference about privacy and cybercrime in Washington, D.C., Thursday. "Much of what passes for the name of privacy is really just trying to conceal the disreputable parts of your conduct," Posner added. "Privacy is mainly about trying to improve your social and...

A conservative federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan said in an interview published Thursday that the Republican Party has gone “goofy” and that “these right-wingers who are blasting [Chief Justice John] Roberts are making a very serious mistake.” “I mean, what would you do if you were Roberts?” Judge Richard Posner, of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told NPR. “All of a sudden you find out that the people that you thought were your friends have turned against you, they despise you, they mistreat you, they leak to the press, what do you do? Do you become more...

From www.takebackthememorial.org Today's Must Read From 9/11 Familes for a Safe & Strong America: Forsaking the public trust at Ground Zero: Bernstein to move IFC 20 feet east, take artifacts from the memorial site, and use 9/11's heroes as drawing cards The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has repeatedly failed the trust the American people placed in it. Either knowingly or with a lack of due diligence, the LMDC allowed a political ideolog to become a key member of the boards overseeing the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero. Further, the LMDC has allowed him to turn the gateway cultural center to...

The Bush Administration, especially in the person of Vice President Cheney, had an expansive view of presidential authority. It was articulated as an interpretation of the Constitution, in particular Article II, which is about the presidency. Truman similarly took an expansive view of presidential authority when he seized the steel industry during the Korean War, but the seizure was overturned by the Supreme Court. (The Bush Administration had a mixed record in the Supreme Court in defending its expansive view of presidential authority, which centered on antiterrorist policy.) Clinton used administrative regulation to try to get around the Republican Congress...

State Department functionary Michael Posner is either dumb or deluded. He's the fellow who earlier this month drew obnoxious moral parallels between US and Chinese human-rights records -- and he's still at it. "Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy's problems, but you raise your own," he had said -- referencing, among other things, Arizona's new immigration law. Arizona wants federal immigration laws enforced, you see, and the Chinese violently oppress Tibetan and Muslim minorities and force North Korean refugees back home to face certain death. To...

WASHINGTON — A top US diplomat who reportedly compared a tough new immigration law in Arizona to China's rights record must retract his "offensive" remark and apologize, the state's two US senators demanded Tuesday. Republican Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain accused Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner of implying that the Arizona measure "is morally equivalent to China's persistent pattern of abuse and repression of its people." The letter from McCain and Kyl, obtained by AFP, cited a media report that Posner had called Arizona's controversial immigration measure part of "a troubling trend in our society" during recent US-China...

Back in 1984, when the late Jeane J. Kirkpatrick gave her famous "Blame America First" speech to the Republican National Convention, liberals at least waited for something bad to happen before blaming America. Today, Obama Democrats have now mastered the treacherous art of the pre-emptive global apology. Foggy Bottom is crammed with so many "human rights" zealots embarrassed by the country they serve that the State Department mission statement should be replaced with a condolence card. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner is probably not the first Obama State Department official...

Diplomacy: The administration's apology tour continues with a mea culpa to the world's worst human-rights violator for Arizona's enforcement of U.S. immigration law. You'd think Tiananmen Square was in Phoenix. In talks last week with China on the subject of human rights, the U.S. delegation volunteered how sorry we were for Arizona's decision to protect its citizens and its border against illegal immigration — the operative word being "illegal." You would assume the Chinese broached the subject to blunt any criticism of their policies and record. But our delegates beat them to it by groveling on their own initiative in...

There they go again -- bashing America on the world stage. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner reports that in recent talks with China, US officials put America's human-rights record on a par with Beijing's. "Part of a mature [US-Chinese] relationship is that you have an open discussion, where you not only raise the other guy's problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it, about your own [problems]," Posner said. "We did plenty of that." Moreover, he said, "experts from the US side" talked about America's "treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context." They...

So the US goes to China to discuss human rights violations...And what does the blame America first crowd do first? Apologize for Arizona....to the Chinese! QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own...

Actually, I phrased the title question wrong. Question: Who the hell is Michael Posner, and why the hell is he apologizing to China?! Answer: Michael Posner is the former head agitator at the transnationalist Human Rights First, who represents the textbook State Department mindset of pandering to the worst America-bashers without hesitation or shame. Foggy Bottom isn’t just stuck on stupid. It’s stuck on American self-sabotage. Longtime readers of this blog will recall that Posner had a significant role in the attempted George Soros-ization of Ground Zero in 2005. Moreover, Discover The Networks reports: Michael Posner has been the executive...

The Associated Press is reporting that the United States and China have not reached a major breakthrough Friday after only their second round of talks about human rights since 2002. President Obama is pushing China to treat its citizens better. However, they can’t push too hard because they need Chinese support on Iranian and North Korean nuclear standoffs, climate change and other initiatives the administration can’t carry out on its own. So, ask yourself what our President is willing to do to smooth relations between China and the United States and your most likely answer is...roll over and give them...