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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration Tuesday launched a bid to rein in the use of tax-exempt groups for political campaigning. The effort is an attempt to reduce the role of loosely regulated big-money political outfits like GOP political guru Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the pro-Obama Priorities USA. The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department said they want to prohibit such groups from using ‘‘candidate-related political activity’’ like running ads, registering voters or distributing campaign literature as activities that qualify them to be tax-exempt ‘‘social welfare’’ organizations.

On Thursday, Don Imus, whom MSNBC fired in 2007 after he referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos" on the network, said he could not believe MSNBC President Phil Griffin is going to keep Martin Bashir on the air after he suggested someone should urinate or defecate in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's mouth.

“I told you so!” The temptation to say just that is big after George Zimmerman’s arrest Monday on charges of aggravated assault, including pointing a gun at his girlfriend. This week’s arrest comes on the heels of his former wife calling police to report Zimmerman had threatened her with a gun. Four months ago a jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. There was not enough evidence to show that Zimmerman was not acting in self-defense. But now what we are seeing is a pattern emerging showing Zimmerman as a...

(CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Trey Radel was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor cocaine possession -- a charge that authorities say came after he bought a small amount of cocaine in a sting in the nation's capital last month. Radel, a 37-year-old first-term Republican from Florida, said at his sentencing in D.C. Superior Court that he plans to enter an inpatient drug treatment program in Naples, Florida. It wasn't immediately clear how long he would be in treatment. A tea party favorite, Radel was elected last year to represent southwest Florida's 19th Congressional District....

<p>"Go to the dictionary, & look up the 'C' word, … next 2 the definition … you’ll see a pic of Sarah Palin! No … wait … she’s under dumb C word," the singer tweeted.</p> <p>Cher was taking heat from right-wing media on Monday after she presumably called Sarah Palin a "dumb c---" and members of the Tea Party "jihadists."</p>

Yesterday, the House Homeland Security Committee published a video on their Youtube page highlighting a portion of the committee questioning Roberta Stempfley, acting assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber-security and Communications, who confirmed at least 16 attacks on the Affordable Care Act’s portal Healthcare.gov website in 2013. Roberta Stempfley highlighted one successful attack that is designed to deny access to the website called a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. A DDoS attack is designed to make a network unavailable to intended users, generally through a concerted effort to disrupt service such as repeatedly accessing...

Mr. Obama took ownership and said he would fix the cancellation problem – giving the Democrats some cover. As for me, I don’t doubt for a moment that the nation will survive if some Democrats lose in 2014 because they worked to fix the law. Anyone remember when some politicians were courageous? “And, to the Republicans, the Constitution mandates Congress to make policy, not gloat and mock. Obamacare is after all a program originated under Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that is being implemented by an African-American president that they love to hate. I will wait to see if...

Senator Elizabeth Warren got on the Senate floor on Wednesday to charge that her Republican colleagues are still so bitter about the election results last year, they are doing everything within their power to “nullify” the results of that election by fighting President Obama at every turn, including filibustering Cabinet and judicial nominees. Warren reminded Republican senators that they may hate the policies Obama’s pushed for, but he ran for reelection on them and won handily. Warren called them out in particular for blocking Obama’s nominees to fill the vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court, explaining that this is a...

SANTA CRUZ -- Life is a little easier for UC Santa Cruz junior Mireya Mateo, thanks to UCSC Dreamweavers, a volunteer program supporting undocumented students. Mateo, who is undocumented, said when she started college her financial picture was daunting. "It would hit me towards the end of the quarter when I had to pay for school, plus midterms and finals," Mateo said. "I couldn't concentrate on my studies and I didn't want to let my parents know I didn't have any money." What changed the game, said Mateo, was the passage of the California DREAM Act in July 2011, which...

As NewsBusters has been reporting, CBS News has been one of the press outlets totally willing to expose the disaster that is the ObamaCare rollout. On Monday, Sharyl Attkisson did a fabulous report on the CBS Evening News revealing that “four days before the launch the government took an unusual step: it granted itself a waiver to launch the website with a level of uncertainty deemed as a high security risk” (video follows with transcript and commentary)...

Bill de Blasio’s wife opened up about falling in love with a man after years of identifying as a lesbian and their life as a “very conventional, unconventional couple” in a candid interview released Thursday. Chirlane McCray, 58, said her relationship with de Blasio was made possible “by putting aside the assumptions I had about the form and package my love would come in.” The interview, with Essence magazine, comes 34 years after McCray penned a groundbreaking 1979 essay for Essence entitled, “I Am a Lesbian,” about coming out as a gay black woman. A dozen years later, in 1991,...

Rafael Cruz, the father of Senator Ted Cruz, is a political activist in his own right. One of his favorite targets seems to be President Barack Obama whom he says should go “back to Kenya.”(19:20) Which seems to be a mix of both birtherism and general racism. But Rafael Cruz’s fringe political views go further than believing the president was born in another country, they also include the belief that his son – and all true Christians – are anointed by God to take the country back. In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to...

As CNN points out, that is simply false: Sebelius is actually legally allowed to get insurance over the exchange but she would have to forego the employer contribution to her premiums. In the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, that employer contribution accounts for a majority of her premiums. In order to get a private health insurance plan through Obamacare, Sebelius would have to pass up what surely amounts to more than $10,000 in annual compensation.

Cruz said in an interview with Fusion that because his mother is an American citizen he is a citizen as well. "I was a U.S. Citizen by birth and beyond that I'm going to leave it to others to worry about...legal consequences", he said.

A chemistry teacher in northwest Indiana has been fired and criminally charged because he allegedly ferried a group of students to a strip club and gave them beer and hard liquor inside his home. The sacked teacher, Travis Lechien, had taught for a decade at Hanover Central High School in the exurbs of Chicago, reports local NBC affiliate WMAQ. He was also a volleyball coach and a sponsor of many after-school activities. Lechien, 32, had been suspended without pay since Sept. 10 before he was fired. Previously, the school board had refused to accept his attempt to resign. “We take...

The House Oversight Committee wants to find out why the Park Service behaved so bizarrely. ... Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a former prosecutor, almost drove National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis into incoherence with his relentless questioning. Gowdy wanted to know why Jarvis had allowed “pot-smoking” Occupy Wall Street protesters to camp overnight illegally in Washington’s McPherson Square park for 100 days, yet put up barricades to keep veterans out of war memorials on the first day of the shutdown. By not issuing a single citation to the Occupy campers, Gowdy argued, the Park Service was treating them...

Nothing says “patriot” like waving around the Battle Flag of the Confederacy in front of the White House.I’m still trying to wrap my head around this scene: Yesterday, in Washington, a group of angry white people—it was billed as the “Million Vet March” but numbered in the hundreds, maybe the thousands, and who knows how many were actual veterans—led by Tea Party-aligned Texas senator Ted Cruz and former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, marched on the Lincoln and World War II memorials, tearing down the barricades and demanding that President Obama reopen these sites, which, of course, are closed because...

At a tea party rally in Washington Sunday billed as the “Million Vet March,” one idiot decided to bring Confederate flag, which was enough for liberals to paint the entire Republican Party as racist.

I have no idea what this tastes like. But I can tell you this much: it’s tasteless. And offensive.Once again, popular culture deals with Christianity in a way it would never deal with any other major religion.From CNN’s Beliefs blog: A Chicago restaurant is pushing the boundaries of poor taste with its October Burger of the Month.Kuma’s Corner, a heavy-metal themed joint with an “Eat beef; bang your head” ethos, says its new burger is an homage to Ghost, a Swedish band that performs satanic songs in Catholic clerical garb.“The Ghost” burger features a “Communion wafer garnish,” a white, unleavened...

Kaitlyn Hunt will stay in jail until mid-December.A Florida teen accused of having sex with her underage girlfriend accepted a plea deal Thursday that her attorney says is in her best interest. Kaitlyn Hunt, 19, pleaded no contest to battery, interference with child custody and contributing to the dependency of a child. Hunt was charged in February with having sex with a 14-year-old female schoolmate. Hunt was 18 at the time. A previous plea deal was withdrawn in August following allegations that Hunt exchanged thousands of texts with the girl and sent her nude photos. A judge revoked her bond,...