Free Republic

White House officials are pledging that President Obama will deliver a “non-traditional” State of the Union address in January, the last time he will deliver the annual speech as president. The address will still be given in the Capitol before joint session of Congress. But instead of rattling off a laundry list of proposals for lawmakers to consider, a senior White House official said the president will take a “big picture approach to some of the challenges and opportunities that we face” as a country. The plan is a recognition of the limits Obama faces during his final year in...

A timeline of Internal Revenue Service activities that was developed by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and provided to congressional staff indicates that early last year—as the nation was headed toward a presidential election—the IRS issued a “be on the lookout order” (BOLO) for officials in its “Determinations Unit” to ferret out for heightened scrutiny organizations applying for tax exempt status that were involved in educating Americans “on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.” The inspector general’s timeline indicates that as early as March 2010 the IRS’ “Determinations Unit” had begun targeting for special scrutiny organizations that used...