The Front Page Cover "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Nuremberg's complicated lessons,
70 years later
Noah Feldman.
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
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nObama Proves He's the Greatest Windbag in the World 
At a time when he has degraded America's standing as a super power, Barack nObama still sees himself as a super president. How super? During the opening remarks at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris Monday, nObama spoke for 14 minutes, delivering his full, prepared speech. Problem was, every other leader — 150 world leaders in all, including the likes of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping — kept their remarks to the three-minute time limit. But nObama forged ahead, ignoring the beeps every few seconds reminding him to wrap it up. Surely his staff received the memo that every other leader in the world would speak for three minutes. "Barack nObama has gotten so used to breaking rules here in America, he just can't help himself," Gary Bauer wrote. "Not even when he is in other nations." Indeed, it wasn't the only communication blunder Mr. Hope 'n' Change™ made in the hours after touching down in Paris. As commentator Charles Hurt noted, nObama stumbled through a press conference peppering the reporters with about 330 'um's, 'uh's and 'ahh's and countless sentence fragments. Thus goes America's "great orator." And to think this summit lasts for 12 days.
-The Patriot Post
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Even the State Department Can't List Hilly's Achievements
What were Hilly Clinton's accomplishments while at the State Department? Well, she traveled a lot but other than that, she never can seem to actually list anything. Neither, apparently, can the State Department. As part of its latest Hilly email dump this week, one email stood out. Philippe Reines, Clinton's spokesman, sent an email to her chief of staff, which was then forwarded to Hilly herself. It's subject line: Achievements. The body contains a four-point bulleted list of Clinton's supposed achievements, but the released version contains only the bullets, not the points. The State Department evoked exemption (b)(5) of the federal FOIA so as to redact Clinton's actual achievements. (By the way, the total of emails in the Clinton trove illegally containing classified information is now up to 999. Hence a lot more redacting.) So, as you can see below, we're actually left with a very accurate picture of Clinton's achievements while running the State Department.
Another way to look at it is a blank bullet point for each of the lives lost in the Benghazi attacks... -The Patriot Post
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Court Throws Out Suit to Dismantle Memorial Cross in MD
Judge Deborah Chasanow, a federal judge in Maryland, rejected a suit by the American Humanist Association Monday that tried to dismantle a 40-foot cross honoring the veterans who fought and died during World War I. Despite the accusations, Chasanow — a Clinton appointee, by the way — ruled that the Bladensburg Peace Cross in Maryland predominantly fulfilled a secular purpose, which was to invoke the thousands of crosses under which American soldiers lie buried. "Although the record indicates that there were three isolated religious services held at the Monument," Chasanow wrote, "the predominant and nearly exclusive use of the Monument has been for annual commemorative events held on Memorial Day and Veterans Day." This suit was reminiscent of the fight over the memorial cross at Mount Soledadin San Diego, which was targeted for removal by those that wanted to strip every hint and inference of Christianity from the public square. Heritage Foundation's Hans von Spakovsky wrote of the Bladensburg Peace Cross, "The plaintiffs in this case, in essence, wanted to destroy a 90-year-old memorial to fallen soldiers based on thoughtless, vain, and shallow motives that are an insult to the sacrifices of brave Americans." Like their intellectual siblings in higher education, it sounds like these cross-phobic humanists need some "safe spaces. -The Patriot Post
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Distrust in Government at Historic Highs Under nObama Back in 2008, candidate Barack nObama boasted, “Generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth.” Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Back then, much of America was swooning over the charismatic, hopeful rhetoric of an inexperienced senator from Illinois. nObama, having clinched the Democrat Party nomination for president, spoke the words above to throngs of cheering, weeping supporters, who sincerely believed this community organizer with no prior executive experience would completely change the face of politics for decades to come.
Alas, the Progressive Pied Piper, the great nObamessiah, has been exposed as a naked emperor.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center found Americans’ trust in government is at “historic lows," with an anemic 19% saying they trust government to do the right thing always or most of the time (11% for Republican/leaning, and 26% for Democrats/leaning). The fact that barely a quarter of Democrats trust government is shocking, considering their standard-bearer, nObama, has had virtually free reign to do as he pleased for the last seven years. How is it that nObama has managed to implement nearly everything he wanted from the progressives’ wish list, yet trust in government has decreased?
The answer, of course, is that the larger and more powerful government grows, the more inept, sluggardly and corrupt it becomes. Businesses that are run inefficiently shutter. Yet government, never punished for its failures, has no natural incentive to improve (indeed, the biggest failures are usually rewarded with more power and more money). It becomes a breeding ground for slothful public “servants” and petty tyrants. -The Patriot Post
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Remember AFDI on #GivingTuesday
{Robert Spencer} ~ No one but AFDI is taking the fight to the enemies of freedom, challenging their steady encroachments on free speech and free expression... Emboldened in this age of nObama, the forces of darkness and hatred are working hard to erode the ability of free people to take a public stand against an increasingly authoritarian and oppressive left. Lots of people are talking about the American left’s ever-growing hatred for America and opposition to freedom — but only at AFDI are we doing something about it. We’re fighting for the right to tell the truth and counter deceptive Islamic supremacist propaganda in Boston, New York, Seattle, and all over the nation..
nObama chastises Americans in Paris using lie, say police officers
{Jim Kouri CPP} ~ During his press conference in Paris, France, President Barack nObama told reporters and tens of billions of people worldwide that the mass killings that periodically occur in the United States don’t occur in other countries... But a number of working and retired police officers told the Conservative Base that his statement is nothing more than a failed president chastising his own country with a lie. “With respect to Planned Parenthood, obviously, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted,” nObama said during his visit to Paris for a Climate Change Summit. “I mean, I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn’t happen in other countries.” “Does President nObama and his White House live under rock? The very city they were visiting was struck with a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks. The majority of 130 deaths were in mass shooting,” said a police officer who is often assigned to presidential motorcades. “And before that, the French were attacked in January by Islamists angry with the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and they left 12 people dead including two police officers. That’s the incident in which nObama was the only major leader to fail to show support in Paris with the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, Israel, and Russia,” said the officer, who requested anonymity..
As Hilly Runs, Marine Will Be Ousted for Emailing Classified
{Michael Hamilton} ~ A Marine and U.S. Naval Academy graduate who self-reported that he improperly stored classified documents will be separated from the Marine Corps Reserve following a decision by Assistant Navy Secretary Juan Garcia, the Washington Post reported Monday... Maj. Jason Brezler's emails warned officials about the corruption, including homosexual pedophilia, of an Afghan police chief named Anwar Jan, whose servant later killed three Marines and wounded a fourth. According to the Post: Brezler’s case first came to light after he sent an e-mail with a couple classified documents attached to Marines in Afghanistan about Jan. Brezler was deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, and had worked successfully to have Jan removed from power in another district, Now Zad. Brezler self-reported his spillage of classified information afterward, and the service found that he had been keeping it on an unsecured hard drive..
Austrian Joins ISIS, Becomes Postergirl, Gets Beaten to Death
{Trifecta} ~ Samra was a normal girl living in a normal Austrian town. But then she became a poster girl for joining ISIS... only to be beaten to death. How did things even get to this point? Join Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott as they evaluate a bigger picture of today’s young people..
Ex-CIA: “Environment” to Blame for Our ISIS Strategy
{totalconservative.com} ~ According to former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell, President nObama is too concerned about damaging the environment to strike ISIS the way we need to... “Prior to Paris,” Morell said in an interview with Charlie Rose, “there seemed to have been a judgement that, look we don’t want to destroy these oil tankers because that’s infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore and it’s going to create environmental damage.” ISIS is currently supporting their burgeoning caliphate by selling oil on the black market. Some estimates suggest that they are making more than $500 million annually from this sole source of income. And instead of destroying the oil wells, we’re trying to target individual trucks because we don’t want to cause a lot of harm to the beautiful Iraqi countryside. That’s like worrying about an asbestos leak when you’re currently engulfed in flames.
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Jeff Sessions Destroys Open Borders, Anti-American Senate Agitator
{rickwells.us} ~ On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings were held based upon a stated intention to examine An oversight hearing to examine the Administration’s alien removal policies, policies that one is compelled to ask, based upon the reality of the current situation, whether or not exist in any form these days... The phony baloney blowhard and open borders agitator, Sen Dick Durbin, engages Senator Jeff Sessions in some insultingly transparent and patronizing false claims regarding the 2013 open borders “gang of eight traitors” amnesty bill. The liberal senator attempts to portray the terrible piece of garbage legislation that he and his seven traitorous counterparts, including Marco Rubio, tried to slide past the American people as something that had merit. It did not, it was a complete sellout of the American people of the nature that has become more obvious but no less offensive as time has passed under the royal nObama dress shoes. http://rickwells.us/archives/23084.
NBC/WSJ Pollster Leaked Findings to Hilly in Effusive Email
{Bill McMorris} ~ The man who helps produce one of the most influential polling operations in the country leaked poll results to Hilly Clinton’s team in an effusive email, according to newly released records from the State Department... Peter Hart, founder of Hart Research, sent an email to a Clinton staffer as she prepared to end her term as secretary of state. He advertised the email as “Sensational Clinton Numbers coming tonight on NBC/WSJ survey.” The email highlighted her favorability ratings after overseeing foreign policy during President nObama’s first term. “We will be releasing a special early set of numbers on the performance of Secretary of State Hilly Clinton. Her approval rating is 69% and disapproval is 25%,” Hart said. “Comparing to all the other Secretaries where there are numbers on approval—she ranks higher than Henry Kissinger, John Foster Dulles, and George C. Marshall. Only Colin Powell had a higher score. Congratulations!!!” http://freebeacon.com/politics/nbcwsj-pollster-leaked-findings-to-hillary-in-effusive-email/.
More Than 179,000 Criminal Illegal Immigrants Roaming Free in U.S.
{Adam Kredo} ~ More than 179,000 illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes, including violent ones, continue to roam free across the United States... with reports indicating that these illegal immigrants commit new crimes “every day,” according to lawmakers and the director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE. Sarah Saldana, ICE’s director, disclosed to Congress on Wednesday that the agency is apprehending and removing fewer illegal immigrants than in past years. Somewhere around 179,029 “undocumented criminals with final orders of removal” from the United States currently remain at large across the country and are essentially untraceable, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who disclosed these numbers during a Wednesday hearing. The total number of criminal illegal aliens in the United States is in the millions. http://freebeacon.com/issues/congress-more-than-179000-criminal-illegal-immigrants-roaming-free-in-u-s/.
nObama’s Dithering Strengthened ISIS, New Replacement Butcher...
Someone has to be the sickest of the sick; the most perverted of deviant perverts, the pig at the top of the pile, the ISIS guy that cuts people’s heads off on video “for a living.”... Since one of the rare, token successes of the caliphate-enabling nObama regime was to kill Jihadi John, just prior to the declaration that ISIS was contained and the subsequent murder of 130 in Paris, the help wanted sign was hanging in Hell. They now seem to have found their “man.” Just as surely as if he were holding the knife himself, Hussein nObama is responsible for the death of this latest victim, the first by the new murderous front man. nObama’s strategy has been one of ISIS growth and enabling. He’s foregone ground troops save the handful five or six, each a copy which was one of the “Six Million Dollar Men” that we trained to be our proxy ground force. He’s made it a practice to fly sorties of which three-fourths returned with their armaments still attached, and refused to arm the legitimate Kurdish forces while throwing money and arms at anyone who might even accidentally engage a member of Assad’s military..
NYT, Sputnik Agree with Hoekstra's 'Architects of Disaster'
{Pete Hoekstra} ~ The New York Times and the Russian state news agency Sputnik agree with my new book, Architects of Disaster: The Destruction of Libya... which posits that President nObama's and former Secretary of State Hilly Clinton's signature foreign policy achievement success is an abject failure. Who would have ever thought that the New York Times and a Russian state-controlled media outlet would find common ground on such a controversial subject? Only Clinton – the eternal optimist who orchestrated Muammar Gaddafi's murder and the inevitable Democratic nominee for president – continues to believe in the triumph of the operation. She said in the most recent Democratic debate that "We didn't put a single boot on the ground, and Gaddafi was deposed. The Libyans turned out for one of the most successful, fairest elections that any Arab country has had. They elected moderate leaders.".
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Nuremberg's complicated lessons,
70 years later
Noah Feldman.
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Today we often think of the Nuremberg trials as having been about the Holocaust. But in fact the prosecution team, led by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson and including British, French and Russian lawyers, focused on the theory that Germany's crime was to have engaged in "aggressive war."
Today we often think of the Nuremberg trials as having been about the Holocaust. But in fact the prosecution team, led by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson and including British, French and Russian lawyers, focused on the theory that Germany's crime was to have engaged in "aggressive war."
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There were multiple problems with treating the Holocaust as a crime in itself. The full scale of the murder was not yet understood. None of the Allies wanted to make it appear that they had sacrificed and fought World War II on behalf of Jews, which in any case would've been false. And there was no clear rule of international law that made it a crime to discriminate against your own citizens. Segregation was still constitutional in the U.S., making it particularly awkward for the Americans to treat Nazi anti-Semitism as a matter for outsiders to judge. In the end, the way the prosecutors could incorporate crimes against Jews and others was to say they were adjunct to the crime of aggressive war.
There were multiple problems with treating the Holocaust as a crime in itself. The full scale of the murder was not yet understood. None of the Allies wanted to make it appear that they had sacrificed and fought World War II on behalf of Jews, which in any case would've been false. And there was no clear rule of international law that made it a crime to discriminate against your own citizens. Segregation was still constitutional in the U.S., making it particularly awkward for the Americans to treat Nazi anti-Semitism as a matter for outsiders to judge. In the end, the way the prosecutors could incorporate crimes against Jews and others was to say they were adjunct to the crime of aggressive war.
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It fell to Jackson to explain to the International Military Tribunal how, exactly, the Nazis were guilty of crimes under international law. Jackson had been a skilled trial lawyer and an extraordinarily successful solicitor general, having argued the Franklin Roosevelt administration's cases before the Supreme Court. You can watch excerpts online, and they reveal the confidence of his oratorical style.
It fell to Jackson to explain to the International Military Tribunal how, exactly, the Nazis were guilty of crimes under international law. Jackson had been a skilled trial lawyer and an extraordinarily successful solicitor general, having argued the Franklin Roosevelt administration's cases before the Supreme Court. You can watch excerpts online, and they reveal the confidence of his oratorical style.
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Yet in a formal legal sense, Jackson's case suffered from notable weaknesses. There was no single principle or treaty of international law that made it a crime to start a war, aggressive or otherwise.
Yet in a formal legal sense, Jackson's case suffered from notable weaknesses. There was no single principle or treaty of international law that made it a crime to start a war, aggressive or otherwise.
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One treaty, the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, condemned war as a "solution of international controversies." Its signatories, including Germany, renounced war "as an instrument of national policy." But to condemn something or renounce it is not the same in law as making it a crime.
One treaty, the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, condemned war as a "solution of international controversies." Its signatories, including Germany, renounced war "as an instrument of national policy." But to condemn something or renounce it is not the same in law as making it a crime.
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In his address, the opening statement of the trials, Jackson first tried to finesse the issue by claiming that aggressive war had been outlawed by the custom of nations, reflected in gradually emerging international consensus. His punchline was that, although the "world's statesmen" had been "less explicit than we might have hoped," nevertheless, "the 1920s did outlaw aggressive war."
In his address, the opening statement of the trials, Jackson first tried to finesse the issue by claiming that aggressive war had been outlawed by the custom of nations, reflected in gradually emerging international consensus. His punchline was that, although the "world's statesmen" had been "less explicit than we might have hoped," nevertheless, "the 1920s did outlaw aggressive war."
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The trouble with this line of argument was that Germany was a member of that community of nations, and it plainly hadn't gotten the memo. Custom was supposed to reflect the universal practice of civilized nations. All Jackson had to say in response was that if Germany had failed to understand that custom, so much the worse for it.
The trouble with this line of argument was that Germany was a member of that community of nations, and it plainly hadn't gotten the memo. Custom was supposed to reflect the universal practice of civilized nations. All Jackson had to say in response was that if Germany had failed to understand that custom, so much the worse for it.
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Realizing the difficulty of his position, Jackson made a second, distinct argument -- one of remarkable brilliance, as well as remarkable honesty. He told the tribunal that perhaps it was true that the Nazis hadn't committed a crime under international laws that existed before the war, and were therefore now being tried under a brand-new law. Even if the law was new, Jackson insisted, "I still do not shrink from demanding its strict application by the tribunal."
Realizing the difficulty of his position, Jackson made a second, distinct argument -- one of remarkable brilliance, as well as remarkable honesty. He told the tribunal that perhaps it was true that the Nazis hadn't committed a crime under international laws that existed before the war, and were therefore now being tried under a brand-new law. Even if the law was new, Jackson insisted, "I still do not shrink from demanding its strict application by the tribunal."
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Jackson had a clear reason for why the tribunal should apply law to the Nazis, even if that law was being invented for the occasion: It was necessary to try the Nazis to advance the rule of law itself.
Jackson had a clear reason for why the tribunal should apply law to the Nazis, even if that law was being invented for the occasion: It was necessary to try the Nazis to advance the rule of law itself.
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Innocent people had died fighting the Nazis, and so it followed, Jackson claimed, that the law itself could be advanced by executing guilty ones such as the Nazis. "I cannot subscribe to the perverted reasoning," he said, "that progress in the law may never be made at the price of morally guilty lives."
Innocent people had died fighting the Nazis, and so it followed, Jackson claimed, that the law itself could be advanced by executing guilty ones such as the Nazis. "I cannot subscribe to the perverted reasoning," he said, "that progress in the law may never be made at the price of morally guilty lives."
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All this, Jackson insisted, was a matter of simple logic: "The common sense of mankind demands the law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people."
All this, Jackson insisted, was a matter of simple logic: "The common sense of mankind demands the law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people."
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Jackson was saying that, in the wake of World War II, law itself as a tool of civilization was at stake. If the law could not be used to try to punish Nazis, it was essentially useless. Therefore, law must be used -- regardless of the technicalities.
Jackson was saying that, in the wake of World War II, law itself as a tool of civilization was at stake. If the law could not be used to try to punish Nazis, it was essentially useless. Therefore, law must be used -- regardless of the technicalities.
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The tribunal accepted Jackson's relentlessly pragmatic logic. It, too, had no better answer to the core problem of whether existing law justified the trials. In essence, Nuremberg became a long-term gamble on whether the rule of law could actually be advanced by breaking the core legal principle that no one should be punished without having violated identifiable legal rules.
The tribunal accepted Jackson's relentlessly pragmatic logic. It, too, had no better answer to the core problem of whether existing law justified the trials. In essence, Nuremberg became a long-term gamble on whether the rule of law could actually be advanced by breaking the core legal principle that no one should be punished without having violated identifiable legal rules.
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The effort had prominent critics. Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, observing the events from Washington, wrote to a friend that "Jackson is away conducting his high-grade lynching party in Nuremberg." Stone clarified: "I don't mind what he does to the Nazis, but I hate to see the pretense that he is running a court and proceeding according to common law. This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas." The chief justice was privately condemning the tribunal as victors' justice.
The effort had prominent critics. Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, observing the events from Washington, wrote to a friend that "Jackson is away conducting his high-grade lynching party in Nuremberg." Stone clarified: "I don't mind what he does to the Nazis, but I hate to see the pretense that he is running a court and proceeding according to common law. This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas." The chief justice was privately condemning the tribunal as victors' justice.
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Yet at the distance of 70 years, it's possible to say that Jackson's Nuremberg wager paid off. Today we imagine the trials as a vindication of the rule of law, precisely as Jackson intended. The legal technicalities are largely forgotten, or they have been transformed through our retrospective belief that because the Holocaust should have been the focus of the trials, it was.
Yet at the distance of 70 years, it's possible to say that Jackson's Nuremberg wager paid off. Today we imagine the trials as a vindication of the rule of law, precisely as Jackson intended. The legal technicalities are largely forgotten, or they have been transformed through our retrospective belief that because the Holocaust should have been the focus of the trials, it was.
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Nuremberg, then, deviated from the rule of law to strengthen the rule of law. If that makes you queasy, it's a sign you have a well-developed sense of justice, even toward moral monsters. You might not think the experiment should be repeated. But secretly, you probably are happy about the outcome. I know I am.
Nuremberg, then, deviated from the rule of law to strengthen the rule of law. If that makes you queasy, it's a sign you have a well-developed sense of justice, even toward moral monsters. You might not think the experiment should be repeated. But secretly, you probably are happy about the outcome. I know I am.
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