A Terror Attack in Paris; Perpetrators Still at Large

Today on NRO

JONAH GOLDBERG: Mike Huckabee's 'exploration' announcement is good news for the former Florida governor. Why Is Jeb Bush Smiling?

JOEL GEHRKE: Boehner's opponents waited till the last minute to marshal an attack on his leadership. Anatomy of a Failed Coup.

RYAN LOVELACE: Tom Coburn's final oversight report shows a DHS that's wasteful, prone to corruption, and unable to keep us safe. The Disturbing Coburn Report.

TIMOTHY WHEELER: In his confirmation hearing, Vivek Murphy promised he wouldn't preach gun control, but his record suggests he might not keep his word. The Surgeon General's Gun Problem.

SLIDESHOW: Snow and Ice Festival.

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

January 07, 2015

A Terror Attack in Paris; Perpetrators Still at Large

Our first major barbaric outrage of the year?

At least 12 people are dead after three hooded gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs attacked the headquarters of a French satirical magazine and opened fire on journalists and police guards.

The three men -- who a police union spokesman described as "commandos" – are now on the run after walking into the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris's 11th arrondissement at about midday on Wednesday and fleeing in a getaway car driven by a fourth.

The death toll includes 10 journalists and two police officers.

Rocco Contento, a spokesman for the Unité police union, said "it was a real butchery" in the building. He said the Charlie Hebdo offices were guarded and protection increased in recent weeks because of fresh threats against the magazine, but the attackers had entered the building intending to kill.

Charlie Hebdo's offices were firebombed in 2011 after a spoof issue featuring a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover.

Contento said the attackers had got into a getaway car driven by a fourth man on fleeing the building and drove to Port de Pantin in north-east Paris, where they abandoned the first car and hijacked a second – turning the driver out into the road.

The French president, François Hollande, headed to the scene of the attack and the government said it was raising the security level to the highest notch. "This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," he told reporters.

AFP reports that the attackers shouted, "We have avenged the Prophet."

VA Hospitals? Hey, That's a 2014 Story, Pal, Old News

This is not surprising. The media's lack of interest isn't surprising, either:

Concerned Veterans for America called on President Obama to visit the scandal-plagued Phoenix VA hospital during his visit to Arizona on Thursday. While in Arizona, President Obama is delivering a speech at Central High School -- which is only a mile away from the Phoenix VA hospital.

Since the wait list scandal broke at the Phoenix VA hospital and evolved into a national scandal that revealed the poor state of veterans healthcare in America, President Obama has not visited a single VA hospital to see firsthand how the VA is failing to serve our nation's veterans. Worse, President Obama has not lived up to his campaign promises to fix the VA for our nation's veterans; instead, problems at the VA have only gotten worse under his watch.

Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, issued the following statement in advance of President Obama's visit to Phoenix, Arizona:

"The Phoenix VA was ground zero in the secret wait list scandal that eventually revealed massive fraud and the deaths of dozens — if not hundreds — of veterans due to delayed health care at VA facilities across the country."

"If President Obama wanted to get the ground truth — and send a signal of strong leadership — he would take the time to visit the Phoenix VA hospital during his forthcoming trip to that neighborhood. Unfortunately, President Obama has yet to show leadership in the fight to reform and fix the VA. Instead, members of his administration have repeatedly tried to downplay the scandal — going so far as to whitewash reports on the deaths of veterans as the result of the use secret wait lists, including at the Phoenix VA hospital."

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said yesterday the president is not going to be visiting that VA hospital during his trip.

Look Who's Criticizing Mass Incarceration!

Guess who wrote this:

Overcriminalization has led to the mass incarceration of those ensnared by our criminal justice system, even though such imprisonment does not always enhance public safety. Indeed, more than half of federal inmates are nonviolent drug offenders. Enforcing so many victimless crimes inevitably leads to conflict between our citizens and law enforcement. As we have seen all too often, it can place our police officers in harm's way, leading to tragic consequences for all involved.

How did we get in this situation? It began with well-intentioned lawmakers who went overboard trying to solve perceived or actual problems. Congress creates, on average, more than 50 new criminal laws each year. Over time, this has translated into more than 4,500 federal criminal laws spread across 27,000 pages of the United States federal code. (This number does not include the thousands of criminal penalties in federal regulations.) As a result, the United States is the world's largest jailer — first in the world for total number imprisoned and first among industrialized nations in the rate of incarceration. The United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, but houses around 25 percent of the world's prisoners.

We have paid a heavy price for mass incarceration and could benefit by reversing this trend. It has been estimated that at least 53 percent of those entering prison were living at or below the U.S. poverty line when their sentence began. Incarceration leads to a 40 percent decrease in annual earnings, reduced job tenure and higher unemployment.

That is noted bogeyman of America's liberals,Charles G. Koch, chairman of the Board and CEO, Koch Industries, Inc. along with Mark V. Holden, general counsel and senior vice president, Koch Industries, Inc.

ADDENDA: Over on the NRO home page, I take a look at Barack Obama's attitudes towards negotiations, and why Republicans find Vice President Biden a better deal-making partner.

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A Terror Attack in Paris; Perpetrators Still at Large

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