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Issa: Jay Carney is the administration’s “paid liar” on the IRS scandal
Issa on CNN on Sunday morning, in which he called out the Obama administration’s dismissive attempts to downplay and mislead on the real and coordinated nature of the Internal Revenue Service’s especial targeting of conservative groups. As Ed pointed out yesterday, the administration’s attempts to quell the bipartisan outrage with claims that merely “a few,” low level, and most definitely rogue IRS employees were involved in those seedy political machinations turned out to be, oh, you know, just a casual 88 employees at the least, no big deal or anything. Rep. Issa isn’t at all convinced that this entire scandal wasn’t the result of some distinct nudges straight from Washington, no matter how much they send out White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to spin tales to the contrary, and his committee isn’t planning on letting up. Via NRO:
Gun Shop Allegedly Banned From Partcipating in Popular Store’s Contest: ‘Entry Contains Content That Promotes…Firearms’
Gun Shop Allegedly Banned From Partcipating in Popular Store’s Contest: ‘Entry Contains Content That Promotes…Firearms’
“We are never spending a dime in that store again and would encourage you to do the same.”
Maple Creek Gunsmithing, a firearms store in Fremont, Nebraska, is claiming that Staples, the popular office supply chain, rejected a recent contest application from the shop — because Maple Creek sells guns.
The store, which is owned by Travis Vonseggern and Bill Jackson, recently applied for Staples’ PUSH It Forward Contest, an opportunity for small businesses to win cash to help pay for online marketing efforts. But Vonseggern and Jackson were purportedly sent a message explaining that they are ineligible.
The alleged rejection e-mail that was sent by Staples and subsequently published on the Maple Creek Gunsmithing Facebook page reads:
We’re sorry, but your small business entry into the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest has been rejected* for the following reason(s):
Entry contains content that promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing); promotes any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous; promotes any particular political agenda or message; is obscene or offensive; or endorses any form of hate or hate group.
Please visit the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest if you wish to submit a new entry for your small business.
In a separate message, the gun shop owners described the disqualification and noted their dissatisfaction with Staples’ decision. In addition to decrying the rejection, Maple Creek Gunsmithing pledged to not do business with the chain again — and encouraged others to join in on the boycott.
The owners even put out a call to the community, asking for fans to suggest local office supply stores that they can do business with in the future.
“They went as far to say that they lump us in with illegal drug use. Wow we spent a ton of money with them and this is the support we get,” the post reads. “We are never spending a dime in that store again and would encourage you to do the same.”
Labor big a real heavy sleeper..ZZZZZZZZZ
Just another doze at the office for union’s …..$$ ‘scarf-&-snore’ prez $$
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Union fat cat Mark Rosenthal spends more time sleeping at his desk than organizing labor, a series of damning photos reveals.
The 400-pound president of Local 983 of District Council 37 — the city’s largest blue-collar municipal-workers union — often downs a huge meal, then drops into dreamland in the early afternoon, members of the union’s executive board told The Post.
IT’S A DREAM JOB: Mark Rosenthal, who pulls in $156,000 a year as head of Local 983 of District Council 37, nods off at his desk during one of a series of postlunch naps that have outraged members of the union’s executive board.
“He eats lunch when he arrives at work at 2 p.m. Then, like clockwork, he goes to sleep with a cup of soda on the table and the straw in it,” said Marvin Robbins, a union vice president.
“Then he wakes up, looks at his watch and says, ‘I have to get out before the traffic gets bad.’ He’s usually out by 4 p.m. after being at the office two hours.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/labor_big_real_heavy_sleeper_jl3C7gI710FI3XqpEl5o3O
Lois Lerner Directly Involved in IRS Targeting, Letters Show
A series of letters suggests that senior IRS official Lois Lerner was directly involved in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups as recently as April 2012, more than nine months after she first learned of the activity.
Lerner, the director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Washington, D.C., signed cover letters to 15 conservative organizations currently represented by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) between in March and April of 2012. The letters, such as this one sent to the Ohio Liberty Council on March 16, 2012, informed the groups applying for tax-exempt status that the IRS was “unable to make a final determination on your exempt status without additional information,” and included a list of detailed questions of the kind that a Treasury inspector general’s audit found to be inappropriate. Some of the groups to which Lerner sent letters are still awaiting approval.
Lerner has denied involvement in the targeting, which she has blamed on a few “front-line people” in the agency’s Cincinnati field office. “I have not done anything wrong,” she told members of the House oversight committee on Wednesday. However, she then refused to answer any questions, citing protection under the Fifth Amendment. She has since been placed on (paid) administrative leave, and the committee may call her to testify again.
“One thing is clear: this correspondence shows [Lerner’s] direct involvement in the scheme,” wrote Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ. “Further, sending a letter from the top person in the IRS Exempt Organization division to a small Tea Party group also underscores the intimidation used in this targeting ploy.”
The letters coincide with former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman’s March 2012 testimony before Congress, in which he said there was “absolutely no targeting” of conservative groups at the agency. Months later, an internal IRS investigation concluded that the agency had engaged in such targeting. Obama-administration officials have insisted the targeting stopped in May 2012, although a number of ACLJ clients have received similar requests for information from the IRS within the past year, according to chief counsel Jay Sekulow.
Ted Cruz: “I Don’t Trust Republicans.”
Ted Cruz: “I Don’t Trust Republicans.”
Stephen King said: “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
We are a world of liars; a Mecca to deceivers; living to eke out inches simply to get ahead. Once there–in a comfortable position–we lie even more, so that we may stay in that position. The reason we have Presidential term limits is because of this very human compulsion to lie. We have term limits because power is a strong tonic that, once taken, invigorates the user, and can compel them to do whatever it takes to stay in power.
Trust is a fool’s gambit. Well, blind trust. Proficient liars—the best of which are in the political world—use blind trust to take advantage of Americans every day. These lies pour from the mouths of Democrats and Republicans like water from the mouth of a river. These lies are never ending. As Reagan said: we must trust, but verify. We must make ourselves good students of character, so that we may see through deception, and find the honest politicians. Difficult as it may be to believe, they do truly exist.
Something I appreciate about Ted Cruz is that he is completely unafraid of offending his own Party. Not only is he articulate, but he stand on his convictions with an unwavering commitment. He gives a killer cross-examination (Dianne Feinstein) and he has a scalpel tongue, slicing apart his opponent’s arguments with surgical precision.
In the vein of offending his own Party, Cruz recently objected to his own Party forming a committee to hash out a budget. According to The Hill:
“Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he thought it was ‘bizarre’ that a member of his own party was objecting to forming a conference committee with the House to work out a budget.”
McCain said: “Isn’t it a little bizarre, this whole exercise? What we’re saying is that we don’t trust our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol.”
In response to this, Cruz said:
“The senior senator of Arizona urged senators to trust House Republicans…and frankly, I don’t trust Republicans…It’s the leaders of both parties that got us in this mess…A lot of Republicans were complicit in this spending spree.”
What Cruz said has extraordinary resonance for two reasons. One, he is exactly correct regarding Republicans being complicit in spending us to death. Two, he is unafraid of distancing himself from the Party that could very well have to support him in the 2016 Presidential race.
This lack of fear shows a maturity, and an understanding that doing what’s right isn’t about following Party lines; it’s about the truth; no matter the response. Ted Cruz represents an ideal of the Republican Party; an expectation that is often spoken of, but rarely met. Cruz is a rare brand, and we need to support him with everything we have.
In 2016, the Democrats and many Republicans will try to keep us in the dark; Cruz is the point of light toward which we can walk. Trust, but verify. So far, my trust in Cruz has been validated.
http://lastresistance.com/2159/ted-cruz-i-dont-trust-republicans/
We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you’
‘We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you’: What man holding bloody cleaver said after ‘hacking soldier in Help For Heroes T-shirt to death just yards from Woolwich barracks’
- Man tells camera: ‘I apologise that women had to witness this today’
- Soldier attacked with meat cleavers and knives in Woolwich, SE London
- Eyewitness says: ‘They were hacking at him, chopping him, cutting him’
- Two suspects waited until police arrived before trying to attack them
- Prime Minister David Cameron described the killing as ‘truly shocking’
- Cobra meeting hears there are strong indications it was terrorist incident
- Suspects used ‘a number of weapons’ in attack, Metropolitan Police say
- Muslim Council: Act will no doubt heighten tensions on British streets
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329089/Woolwich-attack-Two-men-hack-soldier-wearing-Help-Heroes-T-shirt-death-machetes-suspected-terror-attack.html#ixzz2U482rYV0
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United States Attorney General Eric Holder:.”I Know Nothink!
“I was not the person involved in that decision, I was recused in that matter.”
“I do not know, however, with regard to this particular case, why that was or was not done.”
“I simply do not have a factual basis for answering that question.”
“Again, Mr. Chairman, I don’t know.”
“I assume he was, but I don’t know.”
“I don’t know what has happened in this matter.”
“This is both an ongoing matter and an ongoing matter about which I know nothing.”
TOP IRS OFFICIAL TO TAKE THE FIFTH …
WASHINGTON — A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.
Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening — or why she didn’t disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
PHOTOS: President Obama’s past
“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.
Taylor, a criminal defense attorney from the Washington firm Zuckerman Spaeder, said that the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation, and that the House committee has asked Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year.
Since Lerner won’t answer questions, Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” There was no immediate word whether the committee will grant her request.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-top-irs-official-fifth-amendment-20130521,0,6645565.story
CBSNEWS reporter: My computers hacked, too…
Sharyl Attkisson‘s computers compromised..
Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative reporter, says that her personal and work computers have been compromised and are under investigation.
“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public.”
In an earlier interview with WPHT Philadelphia, Attkisson said that though she did not know the full details of the intrustion, “there could be some relationship between these things and what’s happened to James [Rosen],” the Fox News reporter who became the subject of a Justice Dept. investigation after reporting on CIA intelligence about North Korea in 2009.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/sharyl-attkissons-computers-compromised-164456.html
Accused Fort Hood Shooter Paid $278,000 While Awaiting Trial
Accused Fort Hood Shooter Paid $278,000 While Awaiting Trial.
WTF?
The Department of Defense confirms to NBC 5 Investigates that accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has now been paid more than $278,000 since the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting that left 13 dead 32 injured. The Army said under the Military Code of Justice, Hasan’s salary cannot be suspended unless he is proven guilty.
If Hasan had been a civilian defense department employee, NBC 5 Investigates has learned, the Army could have suspended his pay after just seven days.
Personnel rules for most civilian government workers allow for “indefinite suspensions” in cases “when the agency has reasonable cause to believe that the employee has committed a crime for which a sentence of imprisonment may be imposed.”
Meanwhile, more than three years later soldiers wounded in the mass shooting are fighting to receive the same pay and medical benefits given to those wounded in combat.
Retired Army Spc. Logan Burnett, a reservist who, in 2009, was soon to be deployed to Iraq, was shot three times when a gunman opened fire inside the Army Deployment Center.
“I honestly thought I was going to die in that building,” said Burnett. “Just blood everywhere and then the thought of — that’s my blood everywhere.”
Burnett nearly died. He’s had more than a dozen surgeries since the shooting, and says post-traumatic stress still keeps him up at night.
Burnett is now fighting a new battle; only this one is against the U.S. Army.
The Army has not classified the wounds of the Ft. Hood victims as “combat related” and declines to label the shooting a “terrorist attack”,
The “combat related” designation is an important one, for without it Burnett and other shooting victims are not given combat-related pay, they are not eligible for Purple Heart retirement or medical benefits given to other soldiers wounded either at war or during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon.
As a result, Burnett, his wife Torey, and the families of other Fort Hood victims miss out on thousands of dollars of potential benefits and pay every year.
Fox News James Rosen, criminal ‘co-conspirator’?
Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen, calling him a criminal ‘co-conspirator’
The Justice Department, already under fire for seizing AP phone records, also viewed e-mails of Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen, calling him a criminal ‘co-conspirator’ for his reporting. Fox News responded: ‘We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what until now has always been a free press.’
The Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about a Fox News correspondent’s conversations and visits as part of an investigation into a possible leak, The Washington Post reported Monday
— in the latest example of the government seizing records of journalists.
This follows the charge that the department secretly obtained two months of phone records from Associated Press journalists as part of a separate leak probe. The department in this case, though, went a step further, as an FBI agent reportedly claimed there’s evidence the journalist in question — Fox News’ James Rosen — broke the law “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”
That detail would potentially send the case into unprecedented territory. No reporter has been prosecuted for seeking information. Such cases often target the suspected leaker, but not the journalist who published sensitive or classified information.
Michael Clemente, Fox News’ executive vice president of news, defended Rosen in a statement issued Monday afternoon.
“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter,” Clemente said. “In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”
Obama’s Gestapo..Snooped on Top Fox News Reporter..
A story posted by The Washington Post on Sunday Evening will stir new debate and review over the tactics used by the Obama administration to monitor how journalists interact with government sources.
The reporter in focus — James Rosen a top Washington Correspondent for Fox News.
The case begins back in 2009. The Post’s Ann E. Marimow:
When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.
They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.
