Ken's Comments

A few thoughts here: 1. Donald Trump was right.  In the debate he said the President could have called in Apple and worked this out.   2. That fits in with this point - both the FBI and Apple made a mistake making this a public spectacle.  The FBI should have done this outside of Federal Court - perhaps in the FISA court or in some other way.  They should not have brought action in a way that the press could learn of this.  Similarly Apple should not have made this into the big deal it is.   If this could have been done as a one time arrangement without anyone knowing of it, all of Apple's concerns about this code leaking out and the privacy of others being at risk would be substantially mitigated. 3. Apple's legal position is not that strong.  The owner of the phone has consented to it being unlocked.  The Federal Government went to court and got a warrant based on a reasonable suspicion that the phone contains information on othe...

Further on the debate over whether the Republicans should consider a Supreme Court nominee submitted by President Obama to replace Justice Scalia. Seems that in 2006, then Senator Obama called on his colleagues in the Democrat majority to not consider appointees offered by President Bush.  A full 2 years prior to the end of President Bush's term in office. In 1988 and 1992, then Senator Joe Biden, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, killed many appointees offered by Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively. http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tom-blumer/2016/02/27/washposts-thiessen-biden-blocked-federal-court-nominations-en-masse My position remains the same as before.  To have my respect, if an elected official takes a position for or against considering judicial nominees they need to remain consistent regardless of the party to which the President belongs. Personally, I don't favor a total ban on consideration of a nominee just because it is the President's la...

Past quotes from Hillary Clinton have come forth that could demolish her support from the African-American community, assuming they get reported and assuming the African-American community cares (I'll blog on that another time). Her specific comments: "They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'super-predators,' " Hillary Clinton said then. "No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel." This came to the public's attention because a young African American woman brought it up at a $500 per person fundraiser Ms. Clinton was having.  She and a friend paid to get in, then put up a banner with part of that quote and asked Ms. Clinton to explain it.  The video is quite popular now. See the video and some really good contextual commentary by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k4nmRZx9nc   The background - in 1996, Ms. Clinton ...

In the latest example of college students being denied the opportunity to hear Conservative views, Ben Shapiro tried to give a presentation on the campus of California State University - Los Angeles and was blocked by liberals, including representatives of Black Lives Matter. Stuart Varney's observation after playing some clips:  " There was a lot of pushing, shoving, screaming, yelling — racism from the left and bigotry from the left and neo-fascist tactics from the left ." http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/matthew-balan/2016/02/26/stuart-varney-spotlights-far-left-mob-disrupting-ben-shapiro-event At the same event, a female reporter was assaulted three times. Adelle Nazarian of Breitbart News was attacked by three different individuals attempting to keep her from recording what was going on outside the event. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/26/adelle-nazarian-breitbart-reporter-assaulted-three/ A search of the LA Times, the Washington Post, NY...

This will be a problem for the Democrats throughout the primary process and it will become enormous if Hillary does not win the popular vote outright.  What I am talking about are the "Super Delegates" of the Democrat party.  These are party insiders who get to vote on the Democrat Presidential nominee without being selected by the voters during the primary process. Right now these delegates are going overwhelmingly to Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders is energizing a lot of new voters, calling for a Political Revolution, and railing against Washington and Wall Street.  How disenchanted will those voters be if Bernie Sanders loses because political insiders, not chosen by voters, give the nomination to Hillary Clinton? http://news.yahoo.com/despite-nh-loss-dem-insiders-boost-clintons-delegate-180158606--election.html#

The Daily Beast is hardly a conservative publication but here they uncover the story about how the Democrats "allow" the military to vote during their caucuses. The method used?  Military personnel have to find a private (i.e. non-government phone) and call long distance at their own cost to a specific number.  The individual military member must then stay on the line until the vote is cast, however long that may take, at which time they can vote over the phone.  They are not reimbursed for the cost of the call. Remember the Bush versus Gore election and the hubbub in Florida?  Democrats tried to get military votes excluded in the Florida election then also. What do the Democrats have against allowing the Military to vote? Isn't this the same party that was up in arms over simply requiring voters to show ID at the polls? http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/18/nevada-democrats-screw-military-voters.html Here are the specific instructions from on...

Republicans call for the next President to appoint the replacement for Justice Scalia.  Know why they want to do that?  Politics?  Nope.  They want a Conservative on the Court?  Nope. They said that because they are racists.  Yep.  That's the case being made now. Oppose President Obama on anything and the only reason you are doing so is because you are a racist. People wonder why President Obama could not find common ground with the Republicans.  Perhaps it is because there is no respect for the opinions expressed by Republicans.  If you believe every opposition is racist and not because there are valid reasons for disagreement then it is hard to find common ground. http://www.gopusa.com/?p=5848?omhide=true http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/02/hillary-clinton-implies-racism-to-blame-for-republicans-effort-to-block-obama-supreme-court-pick.html/