State Sen. Chris McDaniel Keeps Legal Challenge Open — #MSSen

At the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, "McDaniel still pondering challenge: Spokesman Noel Fritsch hangs up when reached by phone about McDaniel's next move:

The day after incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran won the GOP primary runoff, challenger Chris McDaniel had not conceded and said his team would be looking at voting irregularities “in coming days” to determine whether to challenge the results.

McDaniel’s campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch, reached by phone late Wednesday morning, promptly hung up without answering questions about McDaniel’s next move but later issued a written statement from McDaniel. McDaniel also appeared on the Sean Hannity radio show.

Cochran, in unofficial results, defeated McDaniel with 190,633 votes to 184,260, or 51 percent to 49 percent on Tuesday.  Cochran spokesman Jordan Russell said: “We are moving forward. The election is over, and now it’s time to get ready for November. Chris McDaniel, his campaign and his supporters ran a great race. They have a lot to be proud of.”

McDaniel says Cochran’s campaign brought in Democrats to steal the GOP primary. He told Hannity he might launch a court challenge on “a civil conspiracy to violate state law.” In his written statement he said, “After we have examined the data we will make a decision about whether and how to proceed.”

Asked by Hannity whether he could support Cochran if he remains the nominee or mend fences with the state Republican establishment, McDaniel said he has been praying about it.

“It’s too early right now to get those raw emotions out of the way,” McDaniel told Hannity. “... They used everything from the race card to food stamps to saying I would shut down public education. ... I’ve fought for this (Republican Party) all my life, but they abandoned us, made fun of us and ridiculed us and brought in 35,000 Democrats to beat us.”

More.

And listen to the interview at the Right Scoop, "Chris McDaniel: “We’re not going to concede right now, we’re going to investigate”."

Milly Dowler Sister's Message for Prime Minister David Cameron

It's Gemma Dowler, older sister of Milly, in a video message for the prime minister:



Background here, "Britain's News of the World Scandal."

And at the New York Times, "Ex-Tabloid Executive Acquitted in British Phone Hacking Case."

German National Football Team Ready to Break U.S. Hearts

After that last game against Portugal I confess I'm interested in tomorrow's game. Unfortunately for the U.S., it's gonna be brutal.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Deep Germany Ready to Break U.S. Hearts: U.S. Manager Klinsmann, Players Prepared For Clash":

Gleeful members of the U.S. soccer bandwagon: Brace yourselves for a bucket of cold water called Germany.

Those ever-disciplined lads in white and black have a way of crushing supposedly ascendant soccer nations. They care little about whether their opponent is a host nation, a higher-ranked favorite or a big lovable puppy enjoying its first love affair with the game.

Germany breaks hearts.

"The expectations are simple: They've always got to win it," U.S. head coach and former German superstar Jurgen Klinsmann said Tuesday before training. "They live with that; they get along with that, so they can embrace those expectations within the inner circle as well. And that's how they prepare and start the tournament, and go from game to game. (See a profile of the German team.)

"So their consistency is really something that they're really known for. Obviously their spirit is always going into the last second of the game, to turn things around, fighting until the last moment."

There is consistency in sports and then there is Die Mannschaft, as the team is known...

Keep reading.

Supreme Court Rules Against #Aereo Streaming TV Service

At Ars Technica, "Supreme Court puts Aereo out of business," and the Los Angeles Times, "Supreme Court rules against upstart Aereo TV service in copyright case."

Also at the New York Times, "Aereo Loses at Supreme Court, in Victory for TV Broadcasters":

WASHINGTON — Aereo made an all-or-nothing bet. The digital start-up threatened to upend the media industry and transform the way people watch television.

It likely will end up with nothing.

In a case with far-reaching implications for the entertainment and technology business, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Aereo, a television streaming service, had violated copyright laws by capturing broadcast signals on miniature antennas and delivering them to subscribers for a fee.

The 6 to 3 decision handed a major victory to the broadcast networks, which argued that Aereo’s business model was no more than a high-tech approach for stealing their content.

The justices’ ruling leaves the current broadcast model intact while imperiling Aereo’s viability as a business, just two years after a team of engineers, lawyers, marketers and even an Olympic medalist came together with a vision to provide a new viewing service that “enables choice and freedom.”

Broadcasters applauded the ruling, and shares in the media groups shot up on Wednesday.

“For two years they have been in existence, trying to hurt our business,” Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS, said in a telephone interview. “They fought the good fight. They lost. Time to move on.”

Chet Kanojia, Aereo’s founder and chief executive, said in a statement that the ruling was a “massive setback” for consumers and “sends a chilling message to the technology industry.”

Aereo had previously said it had “no Plan B” if it lost in court. On Wednesday, Mr. Kanojia said that “our work is not done” and that Aereo would continue to “fight to create innovative technologies,” but he did not specifically say how the company would move forward. Analysts and legal experts said Aereo was left with few options in an opinion that rejected all of its major arguments.

"No Plan B"? Ouch.

Continue reading.

Also at SCOTUS Blog, "Opinion analysis: A clever new technology thwarted — for now," and "But what about the “cloud”? The Aereo argument in Plain English."

#ISIS Jihadists Claim Baghdad Will Fall 'In Less Than One Month...'

A great report, at the BBC, "Baghdad will fall 'in less than one month', according to Sunni insurgents in Iraq."

Supreme Court Rejects Warrantless Cellphone Searches — #4a

We watched Damon Root's Reason TV discussion of this case in my classes last semester. I knew the Court would overturn the convictions as violations of the Fourth Amendment.

And now at the New York Times, "Major Ruling Shields Privacy of Cellphones: Supreme Court Says Phones Can’t Be Searched Without a Warrant":

WASHINGTON — In a sweeping victory for privacy rights in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that the police need warrants to search the cellphones of people they arrest.

While the decision will offer protection to the 12 million people arrested every year, many for minor crimes, its impact will most likely be much broader. The ruling almost certainly also applies to searches of tablet and laptop computers, and its reasoning may apply to searches of homes and businesses and of information held by third parties like phone companies.

“This is a bold opinion,” said Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. “It is the first computer-search case, and it says we are in a new digital age. You can’t apply the old rules anymore.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the court, was keenly alert to the central role that cellphones play in contemporary life. They are, he said, “such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.”

But he added that old principles required that their contents be protected from routine searches. One of the driving forces behind the American Revolution, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, was revulsion against “general warrants,” which “allowed British officers to rummage through homes in an unrestrained search for evidence of criminal activity.”

“The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand,” the chief justice wrote, “does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the founders fought.”

More.

Also at SCOTUS Blog, "Get a warrant! Today’s cellphone privacy decision in Plain English," and "Opinion analysis: Broad cloak of privacy for cellphones."

Criminal Illegal Alien 'Stash Houses' Thrive Along Texas-Mexico Border

At WSJ, "Immigrant 'Stash Houses' Thrive Along Texas-Mexico Border: Some Smugglers Cram 100 or More Migrants Into a Decrepit House":

SAN JUAN, Texas—Sgt. Rolando Garcia sat in a surveillance van earlier this month, staking out a white wooden house surrounded by sprawling cactus in this city of 35,000 residents near the U.S.-Mexico border.

He wasn't looking for signs of drugs or weapons, but for evidence that it was a stash house packed with illegal immigrants, the hottest illicit commodity for smugglers on the Texas border.

Human smuggling is nothing new along the U.S.-Mexico boundary, but federal, state and local officials report a rise in Texas in recent months, as thousands of Central Americans sneak into the country—including many unaccompanied children. The migrants are overwhelming authorities along the Rio Grande.

The criminal networks being uncovered in Texas involve large groups of immigrants—and increasingly brazen smugglers. They often hold migrants hostage and threaten them with brutality if their friends or relatives don't produce extra money to release them, authorities said. Sometime, they kidnap migrants from rival smuggling gangs.

Earlier this month, San Juan police found 43 people trapped inside one suspected stash house. The migrants claimed that their captors threatened to electrocute them if they tried to escape, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

"We don't enforce immigration law, but we're obligated to intervene," said Sgt. Garcia, who said his department is now getting five to six calls a day about suspected stash houses. It has busted 21 such houses in the past nine months, four more than in the previous 12 months.

More.

Ashley Salazar for Playboy Mexico

A Latin lovely.

At Egotastic!, "Ashley Salazar Poses in Playboy Mexico."

Rush Limbaugh: 'Black Uncle Tom Voters' Boosted Thad Cochran — #MSSen

The full transcript from Rush, "Thad Cochran's Coalition of the Lied To."



EARLIER: "The Bottom Line on Mississippi's GOP Runoff Primary — #MSSen."

The Bottom Line on Mississippi's GOP Runoff Primary — #MSSen

Here's Jonathan Tobin, in all his usual perspicacity, "Contentions Will GOP Regret Torching Miss. Tea Party?":

Cochran’s ability to turn out black Democrats in huge numbers to offset his unpopularity among members of his own party in an open primary state could also be interpreted as a triumph for GOP outreach. For a party that desperately needs more minority support, some may argue that Cochran’s tactic of paying black political organizers to persuade hard-core Democrats to vote in a Republican primary is a sign that African-Americans can be enticed to support a GOP candidate under some circumstances.

While that is a rather dubious assumption, the bottom line about the Mississippi primary is that the Tea Party got out-organized, out-spent and outflanked by an incumbent. Cochran was able to use support from the party establishment, business, and local constituencies who were influenced by the senator’s ability to manipulate the federal budget. That bought him a win in a primary that should have been dominated by the highly motivated conservative activists who wanted to retire him.

But the general satisfaction among establishment Republicans today needs to be tempered by the knowledge that what Cochran did in Mississippi may hurt the party in ways they may not quite understand...

Continue reading.

Tobin's right to indicate that the establishment is burning its bridges to the conservative base, and perhaps irreparably.

On that, especially, see Erick Erickson, "The Marionettes Remain Uncut."

Yet, all of this overlooks the illegal nature of Cochran's win last night. Follow Charles C. Johnson for all the latest on this, and more. That's the bottom line:

Here's your proof of mass voter fraud, people bragging about illegal votes, bribes... in #mssen pic.twitter.com/QaifWx0S3V

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

It's bullshit that McDaniel won't challenge #mssen results. I heard it from the source. Tell that to the face of any "reporter" who lies.

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

Superintendents all over #MS sent out letters to staff warning of McDaniel win, lying about cuts to education. #mssen pic.twitter.com/yp5hUnBFke

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

The amazing @jason_howerton publishes this & gave me shout out. Rush Limbaugh weighs in, too. #mssen http://t.co/1eF1hrFEpE

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

Many people have asked me this. I have not taken a penny from #McDaniel campaign & would not take anything if offered. Period. #mssen

— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 25, 2014

#ISIS Developing Non-Metallic Explosives to Smuggle on Planes in New Wave of Islamic Terrorism

A chilling report from Pierre Thomas, at ABC News:



Linked by Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Terror warning: Syria fighters with U.S. passports and non-metallic bombs bound for America?" Thanks!

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: 'Air Power Alone' Won't Stop #ISIS

Peters argues that we don't need boots on the ground in Iraq at this point, but the White House is deluded if it thinks a few airstrikes on #ISIS conveys is going to reverse the total meltdown in the Middle East. Most importantly, yeah, we need something resembling "whack-a-mole." In other words, the only thing that will stop the jihadists is killing them.

Watch:

'Loose Federalism' in #Iraq

From Gerald Seib, at the Wall Street Journal, "How the White House Pictures Success in Iraq."

#Hannity: Dick Cheney on Obama's Handling of #Iraq

It's Obama who's decimated U.S. defense and national security.

VIDEO: Chris McDaniel GOP Runoff Election Night Speech — #MSSen

At C-SPAN, "Chris McDaniel Primary Night Speech."

And ICYMI: "State Sen. Chris McDaniel Won't Concede to Decrepit Race-Baiting Incumbent Thad Cochran — #MSSen."

State Sen. Chris McDaniel Won't Concede to Decrepit Race-Baiting Incumbent Thad Cochran — #MSSen

The GOP runoff election in Mississippi was a nail-biter by all accounts, and extremely fascinating to follow on Twitter in real time:

#MSSen keeps freakin' tightening.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 25, 2014

But in the end it's becoming increasingly clear that this was no normal come-from-behind win for the incumbent Thad Cochran:

Decrepit race-baiter Thad Cochran edges tea party's Chris McDaniel in #MSSen. http://t.co/BFGoO0covM
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 25, 2014

Twitchy has the key tweets, "Miss. Senate primary: Pro Cochran ads accuse McDaniel, tea party of racism [pics, audio]."

Radio ad says Tea Party wants to send blacks back to the "good old bad days" #mssen https://t.co/85Yhzg7FId
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 24, 2014

I'd like to know how widespread were these smears. Alleged, racist flyers were distributed, robo-calls along the same lines were reported, and most of all is that wildly inflammatory and racist radio spot, which if true is absolutely mind-boggling for mud-slinging Machiavellianism.

We'll certainly know more about this tomorrow, because challenger Chris McDaniel refuses to concede.

Defiant Chris McDaniel declines to concede in speech to supporters http://t.co/1xzGCCS3Fu | Getty pic.twitter.com/CNgfQUTOR8
— POLITICO (@politico) June 25, 2014

Expect updates...

VIDEO: Iraq Army Beefs-Up Defenses as #ISIS Threatens to Encircle Baghdad

At Boston.com, "Iraq's Army Repels ISIL Attack West of Baghdad," and Egypt's Daily News, "Iraq battles militant onslaught as Kerry presses unity."

And at McClatchy, "Islamist fighters reportedly attempting to encircle Baghdad":

IRBIL, IRAQ — Iraq’s dire situation has gone from bad dream to nightmare in two weeks of fighting that have seen Sunni Muslim gunmen assert control over a growing area, including, Kurdish officials said Tuesday, at least two towns that lie on a crucial supply route linking Baghdad, the capital, with the mostly Shiite Muslim south.

The fall of towns in an area that American troops knew as the “triangle of death” because of its propensity for violence provided an ominous signal, the Kurdish officials said, that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its Sunni allies are working to encircle Baghdad.

“The picture is no longer scary,” said Shafin Dizayee, the spokesman for the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil. “It has become close to a nightmare scenario, where we see Daash expanding and taking control of its borders.” “Daash” is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.  Another Kurdish official, Jabbar Yawar, the spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga militia, said ISIS fighters apparently had seized control of the towns of Iskandariya and Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, and were reported in some instances to be just six miles from Baghdad.

“This area controls access to southern Iraq, and it appears as if they might try to push into Baghdad or even south towards the city of Hilla,” he said.  Southern Iraq is mostly Shiite, and it supports the embattled government of Prime Minister Nouri al Malaki. Thousands of young men from the south have flocked to Baghdad to bolster the flagging army, and many observers have assumed that the flow of southern militiamen would help stem an ISIS advance that’s captured much of northern and central Iraq in the weeks since the city of Mosul fell under ISIS control June 10.

But the loss of the southern approaches to the capital would change that calculus and add to the sense that Baghdad was gradually being isolated. On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers lost control of the last major crossing point to Syria, while gunmen allied with ISIS took control Monday of Tirbil, Iraq’s only land crossing to Jordan. Anbar province, to Baghdad’s west, has been largely under ISIS’s sway since last year, and the group is now contesting government forces in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, to the capital’s north and east.

More.

Check back for more breaking Iraq coverage throughout the night.

As Syrian Airstrikes Hit #ISIS in Iraq, Video Shows Homicide Bomber Preparing Attack in #Aleppo

Via Reuters, "'Oh God, I have no one left'."

And at the Wall Street Journal, "Syrian Warplanes Strike in Western Iraq, Killing at Least 50 People Second Consecutive Day of Airstrikes by Syria Is Aimed at Shoring Up Iraqi Armed Forces," and Inland Empire News, "Syrian Jets Target Iraqi Insurgents":

BAGHDAD--Syrian warplanes struck targets in the western Iraqi province of Anbar on Tuesday, killing at least 50 people as foreign allies of Baghdad's Shiite-dominated government sought to shore up the crumbling Iraqi armed forces and curb the advances of Sunni insurgents.

More than 132 other people were also wounded when bombs hit the municipal building, a market and a bank in the district of Al Rutba, according to a provincial official and Mohammed Al Qubaisi, a doctor in the district's main hospital.

It was the second consecutive day of airstrikes by Syria, which has joined Iran in coming to the aid of the embattled Baghdad government. Tehran has deployed special forces to help protect the capital and the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, which Shiites revere.

In recent days, Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have seized key towns in Anbar province, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, giving them unchecked sway over hundreds of miles of territory spanning the Iraqi-Syrian border as they fight to carve out an Islamic emirate.

Abdullah Al Shimmari, the member of the Anbar Tribal Military Council, which is aligned with ISIS, denounced Syrian-Iranian involvement in Iraq and vowed retaliation. "We are now facing aggressive Iranian attacks at Arab hands," Mr. Al Shimmari said. "Our response to that will be soon."

As foreign supporters of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki undertook to buttress his government, the country's local tribal leaders emerged further as key political players in helping to stem bloodshed and restore a modicum of stability in areas of Iraq once controlled by Baghdad.

In the western city of Haditha, tribal leaders were in talks on Tuesday with ISIS militants to negotiate the surrender of Iraqi security forces and to prevent damage to a nearby dam on the Euphrates that generates hydroelectric power for large parts of the country.

ISIS controls towns to the east and west of Haditha, leaving the city and the troops deployed there virtually surrounded. The rebels were demanding the turnover of dozens of veterans of the U.S.-sponsored forces, known collectively as the Awakening movement, that successfully repelled al Qaeda fighters in 2007 and 2008, local security sources said.

The mediation in Haditha was taking place only hours after local tribal leaders negotiated the peaceful surrender of the last of the Iraqi soldiers trapped in the oil refinery at Beiji. The agreement between tribal sheiks and ISIS fighters, reached late Monday, ensured the safe passage of government soldiers from Iraq's largest oil refinery, which fell under the militants' control over the weekend, a tribal leader in Beiji said by telephone.

As government troops surrendered their weapons to ISIS and left for the semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region, Sunni militants celebrated at the plant and in the nearby town of Beiji, shooting their rifles into the air and using loudspeakers to proclaim their victory, residents said...

#Iraq Parties Pressure Nouri al-Maliki to Step Down

At the Wall Street Journal, "Iraqi Parties Pressure Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Step Down: Search for Alternative to Prime Minister Grows; He Pledges to Form New Government":

BAGHDAD—Iraqi parties raised pressure on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down, as the U.S. said it drew pledges from the embattled leader and other top Iraqi politicians to begin forming a new government by July 1.

The Obama administration is betting that a new more conciliatory leadership—with or without Mr. Maliki—that unifies Iraq's sparring sectarian parties will help neutralize the mounting threat posed by Islamist insurgents in Iraq by undercutting their political support.

U.S. and Iraqi officials met in Baghdad on Monday as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, made further alarming advances across Iraq.

On Monday, the Sunni extremists launched an attack on a police convoy just 20 miles from Baghdad's center that left at least 81 people dead, a day after they captured nearly all of Iraq's remaining border crossings with neighboring Jordan and Syria.

"This is clearly a moment when the stakes for Iraq's future could not be clearer," Secretary of State John Kerry said after meeting with Mr. Maliki in Baghdad. "[ISIS's] campaign of terror, their grotesque acts of violence and repressive ideology pose a grave danger to Iraq's future."

Mr. Kerry said President Barack Obama maintained the right to strike ISIS targets at any time now that the U.S. military moved military assets into the region, including U.S. aircraft carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf.  Still, some U.S. officials were skeptical that Mr. Maliki or other Iraqi politicians would respect the July deadline or whether the leader intended to even follow the political process in a quest for a third term...

More.

Nearly 6-in-10 Americans Disapprove of Obama's Handling of Foreign Policy

At the New York Times, "Poll Finds Dissatisfaction Over Iraq" (at Memeornandum).

Poll Finds Majority of 58% Disapproves Obama's Handling of Foreign Policy. #Iraq http://t.co/6rocZ8Kdeh

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 24, 2014