Breaking: New Crop of Benghazi Whistle-Blowers Will Testify on Obama’s Missiles to Al-Qaeda Program -- By Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit

In January Senator Rand Paul accused the Obama Administration of a cover-up for running guns to terrorist groups in Libya and the region.
Via Hannity:



Hillary Clinton admitted in testimony that terrorists used weapons from Libya in the attack gas plant attack in Algeria.

Now, more Benghazi whistle-blowers are reportedly ready to testify on Obama’s missiles to Al-Qaeda program.

PJ Media reported:

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon.

These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law.

According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel.

Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.

Hillary Clinton still wanted to proceed because, in part, as one of the diplomats said, she wanted “to overthrow Gaddafi on the cheap.”

This left Stevens in the position of having to clean up the scandalous enterprise when it became clear that the “insurgents” actually were al-Qaeda – indeed, in the view of one of the diplomats, the same group that attacked the consulate and ended up killing Stevens.

The former diplomat who spoke with PJ Media regarded the whole enterprise as totally amateurish and likened it to the Mike Nichols film Charlie Wilson’s War about a clueless congressman who supplies Stingers to the Afghan guerrillas. “It’s as if Hillary and the others just watched that movie and said ‘Hey, let’s do that!’” the diplomat said.

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Hillary Clinton’s designated Benghazi scapegoat speaks out -- By Paul Mirengoff, Powerline

A few days ago, we posted a poem written by Raymond Maxwell, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Maghreb (North Africa) Affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs, whom Hillary Clinton placed on “administrative leave” (months of it, with no end in sight) in response to the Benghazi attack. Maxwell has now written a second poem which I will print below.

Maxwell has also responded to his removal with prose. Specifically, he has provided an interview to Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast.

Maxwell accuses Clinton’s team of scapegoating him for the failures that led to the death of four Americans in Benghazi. He told Rogin: ““I had no involvement to any degree with decisions on security and the funding of security at our diplomatic mission in Benghazi.”

Maxwell also says that nobody from the State Department has ever told him why he has been disciplined. He has never been granted access to the classified portion of the ARB report, where all of the details regarding personnel failures leading up to Benghazi are set forth. Maxwell also says he has never been shown any evidence or witness testimony linking him to the Benghazi incident.

The Daily Beast’s sources say, however, that Maxwell was identified in the ARB report as not having read daily classified briefings. Maxwell is said to have admitted not doing so. But the ARB apparently stopped short of saying that Maxwell committed misconduct or breached a duty, either by not reading the briefings or otherwise.

....


And, as noted, he continues to write poetry about Benghazigate. Here is his latest, called “Trapped in a Purgatory of Their Own Conceit”:

Trapped in a purgatory
of their own conceit…

The web of lies they weave
gets tighter and tighter
in its deceit
until it bottoms out -
at a very low frequency -
and implodes.

It may be just a matter of perception –
they can’t undo their wrongs
for fear it’d undermine their
perceived authority –
an authority they think they require
to stay in charge.

Yet all the while,
the more they talk,
the more they lie,
and the deeper down the hole they go.

There’s nothing I need to go back to -
nothing to re-litigate -
nothing to defend -
and certainly nothing to prove
to the unworthy.

Just wait…
just wait and feed them rope.

(Click link below to read more)
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Illegal Alien Rapes Baltimore Girl 1 Year after City Becomes Sanctuary -- By Corruption Chronicles, Judicial Watch

A year after Baltimore’s mayor signed an order officially converting the city into a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, federal authorities announce the arrest of an undocumented Ecuadorian national “wanted for the brutal rape of a 9-year-old girl.”

It marks the latest in a series of heartbreaking examples involving an illegal alien haven blowing up in a local government’s face. We’ve seen this nationwide in municipalities that enable illegal immigrants to commit atrocious crimes by protecting them from the feds. There are too many cases to list here, but examples include a Salvadoran gangbanger who murdered a father and his two sons in San Francisco, an illegal alien member of a notoriously violent street gang who killed a high school football star in Los Angeles and a Bolivian with an extensive criminal record who killed a nun while driving drunk in Virginia.

In each case, the illegal immigrant was protected by a sanctuary city that shielded him from deportation. Judicial Watch investigated all of the incidents and obtained public records from the various agencies involved in the cases, which occurred years apart. JW has also sued the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for banning officers from inquiring about a suspect’s immigration status, a policy that clearly played a role in the prep football standout’s murder because the gangbanger had an extensive criminal record and should have been deported.

 Now Maryland’s largest city is experiencing firsthand the tragic consequences of providing sanctuary for illegal immigrants. This month Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that a 31-year-old Ecuadorian named Henry Estrella-Cordova was arrested in Silver Spring because he’s a suspect in “an extremely violent rape against a 9-year-old child” in Baltimore. Estrella-Cordova entered the United States illegally at an unknown place and at an unknown time more than a year ago, according to ICE.

Perhaps he was attracted to the area after hearing about Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s sanctuary order, which is supposed to help Baltimore recruit 10,000 families in a decade. That’s why last spring Rawlings-Blake signed the measure prohibiting police and social agencies from asking anyone about their immigration status. The order also prohibits city funds, resources or personnel from investigating individuals suspected of violating federal immigration law.

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Watchdog: Federal contractor overpaid millions in living expenses on DOE project -- By Edward Felker, The Washington Guardian

The Energy Department paid the builder of its planned weapon-grade plutonium reprocessing plant millions of dollars in taxpayer money for unnecessary employee living expenses, government auditors concluded Monday.

The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is already projected to run over budget by an estimated $3 billion, dwarfing the $3.7 million in unnecessary expenses found by department Inspector General Gregory Friedman. Still, he criticized the department for not fully monitoring spending by its main contractor, Shaw AREVA MOX Services.

The department's National Nuclear Security Administration "unnecessarily paid as much as $3.7 million to MOX Services for staff augmentation subcontractor temporary living expenses that could have been devoted to other critical mission areas or, returned to the taxpayers," Friedman reported.

He was referring to subcontracts made to bring in professional, technical and administrative employees by Shaw AREVA because of the shortage of skilled workers near the federal Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The company until 2007 limited temporary employee assignments to one year and capped payment for associated living and travel expenses. In 2008, as costs and assignments exceeded those limits, it canceled the cost ceiling and extended the allowable duration.

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Glenn Beck -- WH spokesperson stumped: Where was Obama on night of Benghazi attack?

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Federal Scandals Should Increase Our Skepticism of the Gang of Eight -- By Fred Bauer, National Review

Proponents of “comprehensive immigration reform” are professing some giddiness over the scandalmania of the past few weeks. The Daily Beast quotes Frank Sharry, a dogmatic supporter of “reform,” as saying the following: ”We hope there’s a fourth scandal . . . While all of this goes on, we’re just plugging along on this under the radar.”

Sharry’s statement reflects the concerns of some Gang of Eight skeptics, who worry that the recent media spotlight on scandals will end up aiding the passage of the Gang of Eight bill. The scandal coverage sucks up oxygen in the media, potentially limiting the ability of grassroots opponents of the Gang’s proposal to mobilize popular sentiment. These scandals also give prominent supporters of immigration “reform” cover with the conservative base. Senator Rubio can attack the administration over various scandals, ingratiating himself with the grassroots and compensating for his willingness to work with administration allies on immigration. There’s a reason why Senator Rubio’s chief of staff ended his vacation from Twitter (and unprotected his tweets) a couple weeks ago in order to post tweet after tweet about the scandals du jour.

However, the scandals of the present moment are not distinct from immigration reform. As Mark Krikorian noted the other day, the Gang of Eight bill as it currently stands is an endorsement of centralized bureaucratic powers. As the IRS and other scandals raise some concerns about centralized government agencies, the bill’s various provisions – from its guest-worker plan to its “trust us” approach to enforcement – are a vote of great confidence in big bureaucracy.

Furthermore, if it is true that these current scandals represent significant overreach by the executive or incompetence on his watch, it is rather hard to see the case for rewarding that executive with perhaps the top item on his legislative wish-list.

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'The Loop' Never Extends All the Way to the Oval Office .-- By Jim Geraghty, National Review

 Hey, I’m Just the President, Nobody Ever Tells Me Anything Around Here.

Let me get this straight: to hear Jay Carney tell it, the president is pleased that no one in his senior staff told him that the IRS was targeting his political enemies?

Senior White House officials, including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, learned last month about a review by the Treasury Department’s inspector general into whether the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, but they did not inform President Obama, the White House said Monday.

The acknowledgement is the White House’s latest disclosure in a piecemeal, sometimes confusing release of details concerning the extent to which White House officials knew of the IG’s findings that IRS officials engaged in the “inappropriate” targeting of conservative non-profits for heightened scrutiny. Previously, the White House said counsel Kathryn Ruemmler did not learn about the final results of the investigation until the week of April 22^nd, and had not disclosed that McDonough and other aides had also been told about the investigation. On Monday, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said a member of Ruemmler’s staff learned of the probe the week of April 16; Ruemmler learned of the investigation on April 24th; and after that point she informed the chief of staff and other aides about the probe’s findings.

The White House has said President Obama did not learn of the IRS’s actions until he saw news reports on the matter earlier this month.

Carney’s spiel included the explanation, “No one in this building intervened in an ongoing independent investigation or did anything that could be seen as intervening.” But a desire to not interfere with the investigation doesn’t quite explain why no one thought that the president ought to be informed about a major scandal of the IRS targeting his political enemies.

Doesn’t it bother Obama to learn about these things from the press? Doesn’t he chew anybody out?

Gabe Malor: “I want to know the names of the folks who get to decide what Obama doesn’t need to know. What are their credentials? Who elected them?”

We’ve seen the “senior administrative staff never mentions major, controversial problem to man in charge of the organization until it blows up on the front pages” playbook before. This is precisely the explanation that we were handed for “Fast and Furious” and how Eric Holder never learned about what was going on until Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was murdered with a weapon from that program.

Time and again, information and warnings about the operation’s enormous risks flow from Arizona to Washington … and suddenly, mysteriously, stop just short of Holder.

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Threat from Within -- U.S. military braced for surge in Taliban ‘insider’ attacks after recent statement -- By Bill Gertz, The Washington Free Beacon

Taliban insurgents recently vowed to carry out new “infiltration” attacks aimed at killing and demoralizing U.S., allied, and Afghan military forces as part of the spring military offensive, according to U.S. officials.

The expected increase in what the Pentagon calls “insider” attacks by Taliban sympathizers or infiltrators followed an April 27 statement by the Islamist terror group.

It was the first time the Taliban identified insider attacks as a key tactic.

U.S. military officials have said the Taliban shifted to insider attacks as U.S. and allied forces became more adept at countering improvised explosive devices—deadly roadside bombs that have killed and injured hundreds during the 12-year war.

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Speaks said the military is aware of the threat.

“As we approach the traditional fighting season, the frequency of insider attacks is likely to increase,” Speaks said. “But we will not allow this insidious tactic to erode our will to complete the mission or hinder our partnership with the [Afghan National Security Forces] in defeating those who threaten Afghanistan’s future.”

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Conservatives Concerned About Immigration -- More than 60 leaders sign letter pushing Republicans in Senate to kill bill -- By Alana Goodman, The Washington Free Beacon

A coalition of over 60 prominent conservative leaders has “serious concerns” about the proposed Senate immigration reform legislation, according to a letter that will be released on Tuesday.

A wide range of right-leaning opinion-makers, including National Review editor Rich Lowry, conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, and Newsweek contributing editor David Frum signed the open letter, which was organized by the Eagle Forum.

The coalition called the proposed law “bloated and unwieldy along the lines of Obamacare or Dodd-Frank,” and cited concerns about its potential impact on U.S. job seekers and national security.

“Reforming our immigration system is an important priority. But S.744 is such a defective measure that it would do more harm than good,” wrote the coalition. “We urge you to vote against it and against any cloture vote to bring up the bill. Only then can a constructive, measured debate take place on how to improve America’s immigration policy.”

Dozens of local activist leaders also signed onto the letter.

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Obamacare Causes Surge in Breast Pump Sales -- By The Washington Free Beacon Staff

Consumers subsidize 'free' breast pumps through higher premiums

The Affordable Care Act is causing a surge in breast pump sales, CNN Money reports.

Demand for breast pumps is particularly strong because of a provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring insurance providers to cover breast pumps and visits to lactation consultants at no cost to the patient.

 However, critics have countered that the benefit for mothers is not exactly “free.”

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Schumer gives GOP ‘pass’ to vote against benefits for immigrants -- By Byron York, The Washington Examiner

One of the defining features of the Senate Judiciary Committee meetings considering amendments to the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill is that the two Republican Gang members on the committee — Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake — have often sided with unanimous Democrats to vote down GOP amendments. There have been reports that the bipartisan Gang has met before each session to consider which amendments are acceptable and which are not. The result of those meetings was dramatically in evidence Monday afternoon.

The committee was considering an amendment from Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, an opponent of the comprehensive immigration reform proposal, that would forbid newly-legalized immigrants from receiving Earned Income Tax Credit payments. Under Sessions’ amendment, those payments would be limited to citizens and legal permanent residents of the United States. Formerly-illegal immigrants in provisional status — known as RPI in the bill — would not be eligible for earned income payments.

“EITC is generally available to anyone that has a Social Security number,” Sessions told the committee.  “As these [registered provisional immigrants] are all established and get a Social Security number, they will qualify, it appears, under the law, for earned income tax credit. I’m not sure the sponsors understood that, because they’ve insisted that RPI aliens will not receive any federal benefits under the bill. But [the Gang bill] would grant such benefits to millions and be a substantial burden on our country’s finances…”

The situation was potentially embarrassing for Graham and Flake, who might not want to explain to their constituents that their bill gave federal benefits to newly-legalized immigrants. So it appears that the Gang had met and Democrats had given the two Republicans permission to support Sessions’ amendment. As the clerk was calling the roll for votes (at about 3:05 in the video), Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, the de facto leader of the Gang, was heard turning to an aide and asking, “Do our Republicans have a pass on this one, if they want? Yes.”

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IRS targeted conservative college interns -- By Patrick Howley, The Daily Caller

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanded information about conservative groups’ college-aged interns, prompting outrage from one of the country’s top conservative activist organizations and leading one former intern to wonder whether his family’s pizza parlor would be endangered.

The IRS requested, in an audit, the names of the conservative Leadership Institute’s 2008 interns, as well as specific information about their internship work and where the interns were employed in 2012, according to a document request the IRS sent to the Leadership Institute, dated February 14, 2012.

 The IRS requested:

“Copies of applications for internships and summer programs; to include: lists of those selected for internships and students in 2008.
– In regards to such internships, please provide information regarding where the interns physically worked and how the placement was arranged.
– After completing internships and courses, where were the students and interns employed?”

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Culture of Intimidation -- By Ben Shapiro, Breitbart

With new reports today that the Obama Department of Justice leaked documents intended to smear a whistleblower in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, it is now more obvious than ever that this administration has, in the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), created a “culture of intimidation” that stretches from the White House down to myriad agencies of the executive branch.

President Obama: From his language suggesting targeting of enemies to his officials’ attempts to castigate Tea Partiers as economic terrorists, President Obama has presided over an administration that sees his political opponents as unworthy and nasty. Early in his administration, Obama threatened CEOs of banks, “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” The White House's regular meetings with non-profit hit group Media Matters are often designed to help target conservative media ranging from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh. Whether he’s urging supporters to bring guns to a fight or suggesting that his enemies are in thrall to the gun lobby at the expense of children, President Obama’s tactics of intimidation have become commonplace. The Obama campaign singled out Mitt Romney donors for special censure, suggesting that they were lawbreakers. Not coincidentally, many of those donors ended up on the wrong end of Obama administration legal scrutiny, including megadonors like Frank Vandersloot.

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DOJ Chases Fox Reporter, Ignores White House Leaks -- By Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart

The media and the public are aghast at the way the Obama administration has treated Fox News reporter James Rosen like a criminal, merely for reporting on North Korea using State Department sources.

The press gave White House spokesperson Jay Carney a hard time today. One question they seemed to miss, however, is why the Department of Justice has done nothing about the White House's own security leaks.

Recall that less than a year ago, Democrats and Republicans were both alarmed by a series of leaks by the White House that were clearly intended to burnish President Barack Obama's national security credentials.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed the finger directly at the White House: ‘‘I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks."

Former aide to Jimmy Carter Pat Caddell even named the person who he believed was the likely source of the leaks: National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. And yet nothing--as far as we know--was done to investigate.

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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Urged Feds to Investigate True the Vote in 2010 -- By Brandon Darby, Breitbart

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate election integrity org True the Vote and its associated Tea Party group, King Street Patriots, immediately before the IRS and DOJ began targeting the group in June 2010.

Rep. Jackson Lee sent a letter to Holder which alleged that True the Vote was intimidating voters and their election monitors were crossing the line in unspecified “instances” of voter intimidation. The letter went on to directly assert that the “alleged events” were factual and that the True the Vote effort was behind the crimes. The letter offered no documented instances or data of any kind.

Letter to AG Holder Regarding Voter Intimidation in Houston

The letter, titled “Voter Intimidation in Houston, Texas and Request for DOJ Poll Monitors to Be Sent,” urged Holder to investigate with his DOJ and stated, “As a senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee, I urge you to order an immediate investigation into these incidents, and call for the Department of Justice to send poll monitors to Harris County immediately to ensure a safe and neutral voting environment during the November 2 election.”

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Uh-Oh: Hillary's Benghazi Scapegoat Speaks Out -- By John Sexton, Breitbart

The Daily Beast reports that one of the Benghazi fall guys is refusing to take the fall.

Raymond Maxwell was put on indefinite leave by the State Department after its Administrative Review Board (ARB) investigation of Benghazi for reasons that are still unknown to him. The person he claims made the decision to cast him out was Cheryl Mills--Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff and counsel at the State Department.

It is the second time Mills' name has turned up during scrutiny of the State Department's response to the attack.

According to a new report by Josh Rogin: "On the day after the unclassified version of the ARB’s report was released in December, Mills called Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Beth Jones and directed her to have Maxwell leave his job immediately."

Maxwell has now been sitting at home waiting for some formal action on his case for five months. And because he has not been fired, he cannot contest his treatment.

The question Maxwell wants answered is why was he kicked out of his job--Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs--while his supervisor, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Beth Jones, was not. In effect, Maxwell has been punished for something in which he had no involvement. He claims to have made no decisions with regard to security in Libya.

He is speaking out now, he tells the Daily Beast, "to restore my honor."

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IRS targeted and leaked info about a group I am affiliated with -- By Christian Whiton, Fox News

As Congress and the public struggle to comprehend the scandals rocking the Obama administration, it is important not to overlook a common thread linking all of the misconduct: the administration’s paranoia that voters would see it as weak on national defense.

For having the temerity to raise questions about U.S. policy toward terrorists and Iran, Israel and North Korea, the Obama IRS targeted a non-partisan group with which I am affiliated and illegally leaked its confidential information.

The White House’s paranoia about public perceptions of foreign threats also drove its scandalous surveillance of Associated Press (AP) reporters.

It is also at the heart of the cover-up over the attack in Benghazi that resulted in the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Secure America Now, on whose advisory board I serve, has criticized and supported politicians of all political stripes.

For example, the organization critiqued the Republican governor of New Jersey when he derided the New York Police Department’s monitoring of suspected terrorists. And the non-partisan organization criticized the independent mayor of New York for supporting the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero.

Secure America Now also posed questions about the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism and other national security issues.

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D.C. mayor was in on David Gregory coverup in Part III of investigation -- By Emily Miller, The Washington Times

Since D.C. officials refused to turn over any documents about their investigation and decision not to prosecute NBC News’ David Gregory, we have to depend on the Freedom of Information Act to force transparency. Mayor Vincent Gray’s office, however, responded to my request by deflecting. It turned out, he was hiding information.

On March 11, I sent a detailed request to FOIA Officer Mikelle DeVillier in the Executive Office of the Mayor. I asked for all documents about Mr. Gregory’s possession of an illegal 30-round magazine. Government agencies are required to respond to a FOIA request within 15 working days.

Ms. DeVillier used every hour of that time frame, responding to me on April 1.  “These are not the type of documents generally maintained by the Executive Office of the Mayor,” she wrote. “Based upon the information requested, and my familiarity with the various District agencies, this request would be more properly directed to [Metropolitan Police Department] and the [Office of the Attorney General].”

This appeared to be just passing the buck, but the next part made me realize the agencies were all in cahoots.

“However, it has come to my attention that this request was also previously submitted, by you, to the aforementioned agencies.” Ms. DeVillier wrote. “It is my understanding that MPD and OAG will respond to your FOIA request.”

In fact, the FOIA requests to the two agencies and the mayor’s office asked for different documents. I deliberately sent them separately to see if one would hand over a document that another would not and to track who was in communications with NBC and its representatives.

I replied to Ms. DeVillier the same day. “It does not answer my request to know if the mayor's office has any documents related to this case. Has his office been in contact with NBC, OAG or MPD on any of the matters listed in my request?”

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A personal, pro-family account of the horrors of being targeted by IRS -- By Rebecca Hagelin, The Washington Times

Who knew that I would be a victim of the oppressive attacks of the IRS on people of conservative values and Christian faith. But I have, and it is a personal stinging reminder of how terribly close we are to losing all of our freedoms. Like many readers of my column, I have been watching accelerated attacks against constitutional government, free speech, free markets and freedom of religion. You name it, we have lost much over the past few years.

Even so, I wasn't expecting that I would be caught up in the latest scandal to rock the Obama administration. But I am not surprised to find out that Obama, et al. are pinning the Nazi-like tactics on government bureaucrats deep in the bowels of the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS last week offered a tepid apology for "inappropriate" actions by two low-level employees in Cincinnati, who subjected "about 75" conservative organizations to "extra inquiry" before deciding their eligibility for tax-exempt status. Ho-hum. Just a case of well-meaning bureaucratic excess, right?

No way.

Here is what the IRS really did: Employees in at least three offices singled out and harassed up to 500 groups that favor limited government, oppose abortion, and reflect conservative and/or Christian ideals and values.

I serve on the board of directors of one such group: Family Talk Action, a Christian ministry that was formed for the purpose of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ; of providing Christ-oriented advice and education to parents and children; and of speaking to cultural issues that affect the family. Well-known psychologist, author and family advocate James C. Dobson serves as Family Talk Action's president and CEO and is the primary host of the radio show "FamilyTalk." (You can hear "FamilyTalk" at drjamesdobson.org.)

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Mr. Obama and his scandals -- Editorial, The Washington Times

It’s showtime at last in the mainstream media

With each developing scandal, the picture of an arrogant administration abusing its power grows clearer.

The Justice Department leaks documents to attack a whistleblower on the Fast and Furious case. The Internal Revenue Service begins targeting conservative political and religious groups a day after an officer of the union representing IRS employees meets with President Obama. The Justice Department, it now turns out, hasn't limited its snooping to The Associated Press, but has included Fox News, the administration's archnemesis in the electronic media.

Each blockbuster revelation builds upon the previous in a story so compelling that even the most servile lapdogs in the Washington press begins to stir from a five-year slumber and return to their proper role as watchdogs. It's too soon to talk impeachment, or even to hint at it, but nothing should stop Republicans from taking a seat and enjoying the spectacle.

Gary Pruitt, the CEO of The Associated Press explained to CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday why he thinks the Justice Department began spying on his reporters. The White House "was misleading the American public" by denying an attempted Islamic terrorism plot on the first anniversary of death of Osama bin Laden. The Associated Press was about to go to press with the story.

For five days, the news agency waited for national security concerns to dissipate, and then went with the story. Mr. Pruitt was told the White House was disappointed because it wanted to take credit for foiling the plot; if true, the administration would look like it's retaliating against the AP for "scooping" the president. No judge ever reviewed the secret Justice Department subpoena for the AP's phone records. "The message being sent is," said Mr. Pruitt, "if you talk to the press, we're going to go after you."

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The truth about big government -- At last, an Obama adviser lets slip the obvious -- By Warren L. Dean, Jr., The Washington Times

(Illustration by Alexander Hunter, The Washington Times)

There is an old proverb that goes something like this: From the mouths of babes and drunks comes the truth. It is pretty dated. If you were to create that proverb today, you might have to include politicians and their advisers. You never know what they are going to say next, and at times it can be pretty revealing.

Take David Axelrod, one of President Obama's most amusing spinners. He recently opined — if that is the right term — that the government the president leads is so "vast" that the president cannot be expected to know, much less be accountable for, what goes on in it. Imagine that. This is the same man who wants to grow that same government and to give the same agency that prompted his remarks — the Internal Revenue Service — much more authority over those same Americans it has already abused. So the IRS will not only enforce American political conformity, it will soon enforce American health care as well. If, however, government is already too "vast" to be managed by the official elected by the people for that purpose, then it should have less, not more, responsibility. For once, Mr. Axelrod said something that is authentically true. He has conceded that the government is too big.

Presumably, Mr. Axelrod is neither a babe nor a drunk. He is a political adviser, and in an effort to spin a way for the president out of a scandal, he admitted something that most thinking Americans already know: The president of the United States is incapable of understanding or managing the vast government he inherited, much less the vastly greater government he favors. We do know that he sets the tone for the government, and the president did make a sport of bashing the conservative targets of the IRS during that period. The proposition that the president is not accountable for the IRS when it steps over the line is a sobering one.

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Why the IRS cannot be reformed -- By Richard Rahn, The Washington Times

Imprecise tax laws leave room for agency abuse and corruption


Every few years, at least from the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, there is a scandal involving abuse of power at the Internal Revenue Service. We are again in the midst of one of these periodic abuse scandals, with many solemn promises that the problems will be corrected and will not happen again. As always, the rhetoric is far from the reality for two basic reasons. The first is the nature of the income tax, which, by definition, is subjective in its interpretation of the definition of "income" and thus subject to abuse. The second is the type of person that the IRS attracts as an employee.

A substantial (and ever-growing) portion of the income-tax code and IRS regulations are devoted to trying to define income. This may seem simple, but consider a business that operates in numerous states and countries and has many product lines. Beginning accounting students learn that business profit or income is equal to net revenue minus expenses. Yet, it is almost impossible to precisely define what is and is not a legitimate expense. What is the proper rate of depreciation for each and every item the business uses? How should a company allocate business revenue and expenses among many taxing jurisdictions? Different countries, states and localities often have conflicting standards, definitions and laws. The never-ending definitional problems provide full employment for tax lawyers and accountants, and they create a costly burden on businesses. These costs are passed along in lower wages for workers and higher prices for consumers.

Economic income is defined differently than taxable income. As a result, most companies are required by law to keep a separate set of books to comply both with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and IRS regulations — and often other sets of books to comply with the regulations of foreign countries.

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A Crisis of Authority -- By James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal

The deeper meaning of the Obama scandals.

(text from within article)


What if we're wrong? What if the country collectively shrugs, loses interest in politics, and goes on with life? Then we really will be like China--or worse. In his Saturday column, the New York Times's Charles Blow, who at 42 is just under a decade younger than Obama, shows us where the corruption of moral authority leads.

He begins by asserting that the Obama scandals are failing to "resonate" with the public. That claim is based on a single opinion poll, so it may prove evanescent even if true. But Blow's explanation of this purported fact is chilling:

As for Tea Party groups that received extra scrutiny from the I.R.S., an Associated Press-GfK poll released last month found that fewer than a fourth of Americans say they support the group. The Tea Party may well be passé. . . .

So an unpopular movement applied for tax-exempt status under conditions made possible by an unpopular court decision, in order to influence politics with unfathomable amounts money from unnamed donors? Good luck gaining sympathy for that.

This passage exemplifies the moral and intellectual decadence of the 21st-century left. A comparison to one of Blow's Times predecessors will illustrate why. Anthony Lewis, who retired in 2001 and died this March two days shy of his 86th birthday, was insufferably smug too. But it is impossible to imagine him crowing over the persecution of an out-group because it is unpopular.
 
One common argument against such persecution is a slippery-slope appeal to self-interest: You may be next. That's the gist of the famous Martin Niemöller poem:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent,
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent,
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak up,
because I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one
left to speak out.

The analogy isn't precise. When the U.S. government came for the Tea Party, Blow's colleagues on the Times editorial board did speak out--in support of its IRS effort. But what happens when they come for the mainstream media? Then, the editorial board speaks out. But Blow remains blasé:

It is clear that the Justice Department overreached on the Associated Press scandal and that its strong-arm tactics are likely to have a chilling effect. But Americans are not big fans of mass media. A November Gallup poll found that only a fourth of Americans rate the honesty and ethical standards of journalists highly. Even bankers ranked higher.

Not only is Blow untroubled by abuses of power at the expense of an out-group he loathes, but he's only mildly bothered by what he considers an abuse of power against his own kind, mainstream journalists. The next step after the corruption of authority, it would seem, is uncritical submission to it.

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The IRS and the Drive to Stop Free Speech -- By David B. Rivkin, Jr. and Lee A. Casey, The Wall Street Journal

Such a scandal was bound to happen after the government started trying to rule the expression of political views.


The unfolding IRS scandal is a symptom, not the disease.For decades, campaign-finance reform zealots have sought to limit core political speech through spending limits and disclosure requirements. More recently, they have claimed that it is wrong and dangerous for tax-exempt entities to engage in political speech.

The Obama administration shares these views, especially when conservative, small-government organizations are involved, and the IRS clearly got the message. While the agency must be investigated and reformed, the ultimate cure for these abuses is to unshackle political speech by all groups, including tax-exempt ones, from arbitrary and unconstitutional government regulation.

Beginning in March 2010, the IRS engaged in an unprecedented campaign of harassment against conservative groups, either through denials or delays in approving their tax-exempt-status applications, or through endless and burdensome audits.

In notable contrast, liberal and "progressive" organizations got approvals with remarkable speed. The most conspicuous example involves the Barack H. Obama Foundation, which was approved as tax exempt within a month by the then-head of the IRS tax-exempt branch, Lois Lerner. From media reports and firsthand accounts, we also know that the IRS disproportionately audited donors to conservative causes and leaked confidential tax information concerning conservative groups in violation of federal law.

This IRS politicization is not an isolated problem. It is an inevitable result of the broader efforts to regulate and, in fact, suppress political speech.

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A Journalist 'Co-Conspirator' -- Review & Outlook, The Wall Street Journal

The feds accuse a Fox reporter of criminal behavior for doing his job.

Ok, we've learned our lesson. Last week we tried to give the Obama Administration the benefit of the doubt over its far-reaching secret subpoenas to the Associated Press, and now we learn that was the least of its offenses against a free press. No attempt to be generous to this crowd goes unpunished.

The latest news, disclosed by the Washington Post on Monday, is that the Justice Department targeted a Fox News reporter as a potential "co-conspirator" in a leak probe. The feds have charged intelligence analyst Stephen Jin-Woo Kim with disclosing classified information to Fox reporter James Rosen. That's not a surprise considering that this Administration has prosecuted more national-security cases than any in recent history.

The shock is that as part of its probe the Administration sought and obtained a warrant to search Mr. Rosen's personal email account. And it justified such a sweeping secret search by telling the judge that Mr. Rosen was part of the conspiracy merely because he acted like a journalist.

In a May 2010 affidavit in support of obtaining the Gmail search warrant, FBI agent Reginald Reyes declared that "there is probable cause to believe that the Reporter has committed or is committing a violation" of the Espionage Act of 1917 "as an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator." The Reporter here is Mr. Rosen.

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