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Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed on October 13, 2011, in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter.

Snip: We have been importing jihadists for years now with Muslim immigration programs under the Refugee Resettlement program, diversity visas and religious visas. The Refugee Council USA says: “The U.S. has historically maintained a policy of admitting refugees of special humanitarian concern into the country.” Yet what that means in practice is very different from what most Americans would expect. It’s always a shock to people when they first find out how Refugee Resettlement works. Instead of giving refuge to the religious minorities that are persecuted, oppressed and subjugated under the Shariah, we are opening the floodgates to Islamic supremacists...

A recent military report on sexual assault in the military shocked many in Washington and around the nation, but a leading expert on military personnel revealed the prevalence of men assaulting other men is one of the major headlines in this study. The extended analysis of the report first appeared in Monday’s edition of the the Washington Times. The Defense Department survey of sexual assault in the military during fiscal 2012 estimated 26,000 assaults took place in the armed forces. Nearly 3,000 of them were formally reported. Just more than 6 percent of women reported being victims of assault and...

"Some people dislike gays. Others dislike guns. We should not base our laws on personal dislikes," reads one adA new campaign cropping up around Washington state is intended to strike a chord with gay and lesbian gun owners by comparing gun control to anti-LGBT discrimination.The illustrated posters feature slogans like, “We won our right to marry, now it’s time to defend our right! And we sure as hell aren’t going to take shit from homophobes in the process!� and, “Some people dislike gays. Others dislike guns. We should not base our laws on personal dislikes.�A QR code on the ads...

With unrelenting determination, we should help fellow citizens understand why the concept of "one nation under God" is essential to preserving America. At an ever accelerating pace, we are tolerating one set of rules for "ordinary" citizens and a separate set of rules for "elite officials" intent on lording over the ordinary. If allowed to continue, these double standards will be the demise of our republic. America is based on a total rejection of the British caste system that respected heredity and rewarded royalty. The old adage that it's impolite to discuss religion or politics in public is a damnable...

The idea that this targeting practice was isolated in some off-shoot Ohio office was preposterous from the beginning. Even if no other office were involved, Cincinnati is the central office for clearing tax-exempt applications and has been since the late ’90s. Its location in Cincinnati just gave apologists a convenient way to imply it was not involved in carrying out a national policy.Since the early days of this scandal, we’ve learned, even if it was buried in the Style section of the Washington Post, there was a “directive.�Now, National Review‘s Eliana Johnson reports there was guidance from Washington’s Technical Unit...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, which voted overwhelmingly to arm elements of the Syrian opposition in a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). "This is an important moment," Paul said, addressing his Senate colleagues. "You will be funding, today, the allies of al Qaeda. It's an irony you cannot overcome." The legislation, which would authorize the shipment of arms and military training to rebels "that have gone through a thorough vetting process," passed in a bipartisan 15-3 vote. Paul offered an amendment that would strike the...

No dissenter can ever rest assured he is safe from the arbitrary power of the IRS.The Internal Revenue Service has been caught engaging in political profiling while processing applications for tax-exempt status. In this case it was against organizations with “tea-party” or “patriot ” in their names and other right-wing groups. Next time it could be libertarian or left-wing antiwar and pro-civil-liberties groups. No dissenter can ever rest assured he is safe from the arbitrary power of the IRS.Nothing will have been learned from this scandal if all that happens is the firing of some IRS administrators and the issuance of new guidelines...

Coburn is sticking to his fiscally conservative principles, even after a twister killed at least 24 of his constituents On Tuesday morning, emergency responders began dealing with the aftermath of a tornado that killed at least 24 people in Moore, Okla., and injured at least 140 more. The White House has announced that "the administration and FEMA stand ready to provide all available assistance in response to the severe weather." However, one of the state's two Republican senators, Tom Coburn, wants to put a stipulation on that offer: No federal aid without corresponding federal budget cuts.

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...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Over 150 conservative leaders, groups and grassroots activists have signed an open letter opposing the Senate immigration reform bill. “We write to express our serious concerns regarding the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, S. 744. We oppose this bill and urge you to vote against it when it comes to the Senate floor,” the letter to be released Tuesday and obtained by The Daily Caller reads. ”No matter how well intentioned, the Schumer-Rubio bill suffers from fundamental design flaws that make it unsalvageable. Many of us support various parts of the legislation, but the overall package is so unsatisfactory that...

Given last week's revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, it's worth recalling President Obama's Ohio State University commencement address. The president decried "voices" warning "that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner." It's no longer lurking. It's here. Testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee by the outgoing acting IRS commissioner, Steve Miller, as well as numerous statements by individuals claiming they have been harassed and intimidated by IRS agents, reveal a government agency out of control, or more precisely, under the control of political hacks. It's doubtful this was a freelance operation....

How often do we see Kirsten Powers, Eugene Robinson, and Brit Hume agree on a major issue? Not often, but when the government violates the First Amendment and in particular on reporting, probably more often than not. Let’s start with the least surprising criticism, which comes from Brit Hume, former Fox anchor and colleague of James Rosen, who was investigated as a co-conspirator in an espionage case for doing what reporters in Washington do all the time. Hume argues that the Obama administration’s actions speak a lot louder than their words about respecting the freedom of the press:CLICK ABOVE LINK...

After years of contentious debate and stonewalling on behalf of gun rights advocacy groups, microstamping is now a reality in the Golden State. California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced on Friday that a 2007 microstamping bill signed into law by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could finally be enforced because the private patents that precluded the law from taking effect had expired. “The patents have been cleared, which means that this very important technology will help us as law enforcement in identifying and locating people who have illegally used firearms,” Harris said at a Los Angeles news conference. For clarification, gun...

Enough! For many years, the American Left has and continues to shamelessly abuse the American people; slandering, beating up and bullying them into submission by using the easily proven false narrative that America is a racist nation. In other words, the Left recklessly and unfairly plays the Race Card. Why? The Left has great disdain for traditional American values and desires to transform America into it's dreamed Socialist/Progressive utopia. Calling an opponent to the Left's agenda “racist” typically frightens and shuts them down. On behalf of my decent and hard-working fellow Americans, I demand an apology from the NAACP, the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: It took five minutes. Five minutes. It only took five minutes before the Democrat Party politicized the tornado in Oklahoma. They politicize everything, folks. They rub their hands together in glee when there is a natural disaster that they think they can spin in such a way as to advance their political agenda. If any of you doubt that global warming is a political issue and not a science issue, then you must open your mind and consider why in the world, ask yourself, why in the world, five minutes after the news hits of this horrible...

On the bright, beautiful, and crisp fall day that was early morning, September 11, 2001, few Americans were familiar with stealth jihad, or considered Islamic terrorism a threat to America. Yet, there was a voice crying in the wilderness, warning of a danger that already existed here. That voice belonged to Steven Emerson, whose documentary film titled Jihad in America was aired by PBS on November 21, 1994. Islamic militant groups in America, including CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) began their protestations and intimidation even before the broadcast date. Since the airing, the use of intimidation has been ramped...

Will Rogers, the great humorist, once said, “If you ever injected truth into politics, you would have no politics.” If you injected truth into the teleprompter during one of Obama’s speeches, there would be nothing left but an empty chair. Fourteen days after the September 11, 2012 attacks, Obama appeared at the United Nations to deliver a eulogy for the man he had not troubled to save and to declare that the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Obama denounced the “crude and disgusting video” that had “sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world” and...

A new poll finds that a majority of Americans believes the Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal was an intentional effort to harass conservative political groups. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday, 56 percent said the IRS use of higher scrutiny on Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status was a deliberate move, with 31 percent calling it an “administrative mistake.” A strong majority, 74 percent, said the IRS moves were inappropriate to 20 percent who said they were appropriate. Fifty-one percent also said they believe those actions were illegal to 44 who said they were inappropriate but not against...

WASHINGTON — Ranking Member Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, didn’t mince words. He said IRS’s decision not to notify Congress of the agency’s targeting of tea party groups was “a lie by omission” and that the man in charge at the time just “sat on that guilty knowledge.” Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Steve Miller replied, “Mr. Hatch, I did not lie.” But during Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing Hatch insisted Miller knew there was a list IRS officials were using to target conservatives when he failed to inform Congress of the abuse. Hatch said “you knew what was...

Internal Revenue Service managers and workers involved in the Obama administration’s targeting of conservative groups were engaged in criminal activity, and should face those charges in court, according to one of the organizations in the program’s bull’s-eye. “We believe the IRS has been involved in criminal activity,” said Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. “When a government office abuses its power to access personal financial records, then uses that information as a tool for revenge, we have reached a new low in American politics.” The AFA Tuesday called for charges to be filed against all of those involved...

McClatchy Newspapers has an excellent story on immigration today, reporting on how farmers are framing the debate to their representatives: Walk the aisles of any neighborhood grocery store today and you’re as likely to find tomatoes picked in Sinaloa, Mexico, as Central California or oranges from Sao Paulo, Brazil, as Bradenton, Fla.Farmers across the country warn that shoppers will find even more imported food on their store shelves if Congress fails to pass immigration legislation that would guarantee them enough workers to milk their cows and harvest their fruits and vegetables.“The bottom line is people need to decide whether...

The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet. Opposition to the new law has simmered in upstate areas since Cuomo signed the law in January. Many county sheriffs oppose it, particularly its expanded definition of banned assault weapons, and have spoken out around the state. In January, the New York State Sheriffs' Association wrote Cuomo with an analysis, and later suggested tweaks. Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the...

Organizers mobilizing for demonstrations Tuesday at agency buildings Prompted by the admission by the Internal Revenue Service that tea-party groups and other conservative organizations seeking non-profit, tax-exempt status were targets of discrimination, the tea-party movement is mobilizing like-minded citizens to hold demonstrations in front of IRS buildings across the nation at noon, local time, Tuesday. “I’ll bet this is gonna be huge,” said talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh on his show Monday. “It’s entirely possible that people are going to see once again just how big and how deep the tea party is.” Nothing tells the story of the tea-party movement...

The opening day excuse for the IRS targeting conservative groups requesting tax exempt status was that the IRS was facing an unusual influx of applicants. But that turns out not to have been the case. Applications for tax exempt 501 groups didn’t surge in 2010. In fact, the number of applicants was down in every category from 2009. The new line on the scandal is that it was a product of poor management, incompetence, and a struggling, understaffed agency. Here, for example, is The New York Times, in a reported piece from yesterday: “Overseen by a revolving cast of midlevel...

The outspoken conservative Republican has won the state GOP nomination also accuses Democrats of ‘saturating the black community with ridiculous lies.’ E. W. Jackson delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for Lt. Gov. at the Virginia Republican convention in Richmond, Va., Saturday, May 18. He calls the Democratic party “anti-God.” The conservative Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Virginia once compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and has made several other inflammatory statements that are likely to play into the state’s competitive race for governor. E.W. Jackson, a black pastor and attorney with a reputation for...

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An all-too-familiar scene was enacted on the campus of Swarthmore College during a meeting on May 4 to discuss demands by student activists for the college to divest itself of its investments in companies that deal in fossil fuels. As a speaker was beginning a presentation to show how many millions of dollars such a disinvestment would cost the college, student activists invaded the meeting, seized the microphone, and shouted down a student who rose in the audience to object. Although there were professors and administrators in the room — including the college president — apparently nobody had the guts...

To understand the current state of the gun-ban crowd’s “conversation” about destroying the Second Amendment, it boils down to this: insanity versus sanity. With the horrific series of mass murders culminating in the cold-blooded killing of children and teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last December, this latest iteration of “gun control” is entirely directed at making the sane pay the price for unthinkable acts committed by the insane. It is the root of the civil disarmament movement in America today.The Sandy Hook rampage was the evil work of an individual who was clearly insane. There...

The foreign-headquartered company that recently purchased the leading U.S. electronic voting firm is boasting that it was highlighted in a report on how technology is making the election process more efficient, secure, transparent, accessible and reliable. The report, WND has learned, was authored by a firm with links to billionaire activist George Soros. The information comes after WND reported two weeks ago that SCYTL recently acquired the software division of a non-profit election organization tied to Soros’ Open Society Institute. Yesterday, WND reported SCYTL announced its technology will be deployed at more U.S. jurisdictions ahead of the 2014 midterm elections....

USBC News Wire- According to a post via Twitter by a Columnist with the Washington Times, aides in the scandal-ridden Obama administration are “terrified” by information being closely guarded by the White House. Joseph Curl says that a CIA source has told him that the increasingly withdrawn Obama Administration’s most recent scandal, involving the monitoring of Fox News reporter James Rosen’s email account, “goes much deeper.” He goes on to say, in future posts, that “only a few in WH know that ‘something’ — ‘It’s been deep sixed, like Osama bin Laden.’” Mr. Curl’s ominous revelations via twitter...

The release of evidence in George Zimmerman’s murder trial quickly made a mockery of his second-degree murder charges, and threw a further layer of shame upon media and political opportunists who misrepresented a tragic, but fairly straightforward, case of lethal force employed in self-defense. It is remarkable to take stock of this evidence and realize that it supports every single aspect of Zimmerman’s statement to the police. His injuries are consistent with his account of physical assault by Trayvon Martin. Martin’s gunshot wound occurred at the very short range described by Zimmerman, demolishing fantasies about a racist mall-cop wannabe stalking...

Snip: Pfeiffer clarified, “He was talking to his national security staff, his National Security Council – people who would keep him up to date as these things were happening.” “Was he in the situation room?” Wallace asked. “I don’t remember what room he was in that night,” said Pfeiffer. “That’s a largely irrelevant fact.” No, it is not irrelevant at all. I cannot say for sure where Obama was that evening, but if the night of July 17, 1996, set a precedent, Obama was likely in the White House family quarters. For the record, at 8:35 p.m. on that turbulent...

S. 122: Fair Tax Act of 2013 Summary: A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States. More info ... http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s113-122 93% support out of 836 votes as of this post.

How ought Republicans to respond to the growing list of indefensible abuses of power by Barack Obama? Consider what he has done. Obama has created the virtual equivalent of an "enemies list" and used the federal government to persecute these opponents of his plans. Obama has repeatedly and transparently lied to the American people about the misdeeds of his lackeys and his knowledge of those misdeeds. Obama has hidden behind a gaggle of subordinates whose responses to questions sound like the "...to the best of my knowledge at this point in time..." mantra which Richard Nixon's lieutenants recited when called...

Conservatives and Republicans would be unwise to pursue President Obama's impeachment as my colleague Bruce Walker today argues. The odds are the effort would backfire, and there is a much more important goal that should be at the center of our political strategy: sweeping Democrats out of office in 2014 and 2016 in numbers sufficient to enact structural reforms, including replacement of the tax system and junking the IRS and outlawing public employee unions. President Obama is handing his opponents the means, if only they have the wit to pursue the bigger goal. ..... Somewhere along the line, Hillary and...

Ball State University, a public institution in Muncie, Indiana, is purportedly looking into claims that a course centered around the subjects of creationism and intelligent design constitutes a violation of the separation of church and state. The college purportedly began its investigation after the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a church-state separatist group, sent a letter of complaint regarding physics and astronomy professor Eric Hedin. Hedin’s offense? He apparently encourages students to read books by scientists, journalists and proponents who embrace intelligent design. The description of his course, as reported by World on Campus, claims that students will “investigate physical...

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was originally established to protect American citizens from the federal use of military troops to enforce and execute the laws of the land unless expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. Since then, for over a century, this task has fallen upon local and federal law enforcement. But with the War on Terror taking center stage in the United States for the last decade, elements within the government have been working tirelessly to expand the mission of the US military on the domestic front. First, they passed the Patriot Act, which gave the government...

the source URL gives one example http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=73735 here is an internal U.S. Navy expression of same at a particular command: All – Diversity represents one of our greatest strengths and we must strive to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to reach their potential. Each year, in the month of May, we recognize the importance of inclusion in building a brighter future by celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of Asians and Pacific Islanders. During the observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we celebrate the cultural traditions, ancestry, native languages, and unique contributions provided by individuals who represent more...

A top liberal SuperPAC in the 2012 election had undisclosed financial ties to the private equity firm Bain Capital — something that some people close to the group say interfered with its core mission of attacking Bain veteran Mitt Romney’s business record. American Bridge 21st Century PAC was launched in 2012 as part of a multi-pronged Democratic effort to define and defeat the Republican nominee, a project of David Brock, a former conservative reporter best known as the founder of the liberal media monitoring group Media Matters. By last January, it had amassed a vast store of opposition research, most...

Another small town in rural America is putting its foot down and making a statement about the importance of one’s right to keep and bear arms. Nucla, Colorado, a town located approximately 50 miles south of Grand Junction, is taking a cue from Nelson, Georgia, and mandating that each head of household keep a firearm for self-defense. Earlier this month, by a vote of 5-1, the Nucla community council passed it’s own version of Nelson’s Family Protection Ordinance,” which reads: In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect...

The president appeared at many rallies on behalf of additional gun control laws with parents of children murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. I have a question for those who agree with the president's use of these suffering souls. How would you react if a pro-death penalty president travelled across the country with parents of murdered children -- on behalf of capital punishment? After all, outside of strongly liberal locales, the great majority of parents whose children have been murdered support the death penalty for murder. And more than a few of these parents who do live...

The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet. (...) Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the meeting said. The group included Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss. "We didn't get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration," Moss said. "When we got there, we never...

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. The IRS crackdown on tax-exemption approvals for conservative groups was directed at nonprofit social-welfare groups, often called 501(c)(4)s after the Internal Revenue Code section granting them tax-exempt status. Such groups do not have to disclose their donors and are exempt from most taxation, although donations to them generally aren't tax deductible. Social-welfare organizations are permitted to engage in a range of political activities promoting their causes or beliefs, so long as these activities aren't their...

In other news, our wonderful Austin police chief has come out with his opinion that citizens who do not agree with him are 'lying extremists with undeveloped brains'. Art Acevedo, the political hack that he is, basically insults people who disagree with his opinion that universal background checks should be mandatory. I find it rather interesting that the sheriffs around the country, who are accountable to the citizens, are generally against new gun legislation that imposes greater hardship on said citizens, while the police chiefs, who are politicians only accountable to other politicians, seem to love the idea of greater...

The timeline for when senior White House officials knew about the IRS scandal seems to be shifting. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the president’s counsel was told on April 24 about the preliminary findings of an IRS audit that showed tax officials unfairly targeted Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. Carney had previously said that White House counsel did not have any details about the IRS probe and was given a generic heads up that one was being conducted. Senior legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was told about the audit on April 24, Carney said Monday....

Now that one Pennsylvania university has decided to allow guns on its grounds -- in limited circumstances -- it's possible that other schools may follow suit. Penn State does not allow students to possess any type of weapons on campus. But supporters of the "concealed carry" concept think it's an idea whose time has come. Kutztown University, one of the 14 state-owned universities in Pennsylvania, recently decided that students may carry guns in some instances. According to Kutztown University President F. Javier Cevallos, attorneys advised the school that, "a blanket prohibition against the possession of weapons on campus is legally...

On Sunday, President Obama gave a commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta. “Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man,” he told the graduates. “Be the best husband to your wife, or boyfriend to your partner, or father to your children that you can be.” That’s what Obama said, according to the New York Times, USA Today, Politico, and dozens of other news organizations. But Obama never uttered those words. Here’s what he actually said: “Be the best husband to your wife, or your boyfriend, or your partner.” That’s not a small difference in wording....

THREE Fox News staffers were monitored by DOJ. WOW. WOW. WOW.— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 20, 2013 Whoa.Drip, drip, drip.Megyn Kelly is reporting that it was not just James Rosen who was targeted by Obama’s Department of Justice. @MegynKelly on @FoxNews now reporting not just Rosen targed by DoJ; 3 Fox News staffers.— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) May 20, 2013 Not just one! Three Fox News staffers in DoJ sites reports @megynkelly #fb— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) May 20, 2013 Now @megynkelly reporting @JamesRosenFNC, another FNC reporter and producer were targeted by DOJ— Andy Lancaster (@andylancaster) May 20, 2013 Evidently, two...