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The Justice Department is pressing the State Department to designate Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group alleged to be responsible for hundreds of deaths, as a "foreign terrorist organization," according to a document obtained by Reuters. Lisa Monaco, head of the Justice Department's national security division, sent a letter in January to State Department counter-terrorism chief Daniel Benjamin requesting that Boko Haram, also known as the "Nigerian Taliban," be put on the list. A Congressional source said that in the last few days, State Department representatives have lobbied Congress to try to stop legislation which would force the administration to...

The Talk Shows March 23rd, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former President Jimmy Carter; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Mitt Romney; Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Tom Cole, R-Okla.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser; Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

"All governments lie," the late muckraker I.F. "Izzy" Stone used to preach. Let's add this: They also deny. Denial of access is a government lie in and of itself -- especially when a bureaucrat tells the public it has no right to view the writings of top officials, particularly when those officials are in trouble. A pair of recent controversies shows how quickly governments become recalcitrant for fear of embarrassment, denying access to information that may further public understanding and full accountability. In one, lawyers have denied access to records involving a California power couple, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and...

Can't tell you more, you have to be there! Do NOT miss tonight's show. No joke. 646 478 5613 Call in between 8 pm and 10 pm est.

While the WikiLeaks story is rocking the world on an international scale, another troubling story rocks the Republican Party. We've covered the subject of the Philadelphia Republican Party's acts of downright corruption in the past few weeks. The person who spear-headed the dishonesty and formed his own group of loyal but dissident Conservatives is a man named Kevin Kelly. Kelly says he's just a "regular Philly guy who is lucky enough" to be the Chairman and founder of Loyal Opposition. After Kelly had an arranged meeting with the leadership of Republican City Committee in 2003, it became obvious the mainstream...

Vice President Joe Biden visited Delaware County this week, stumping for Democratic congressional candidate Bryan Lentz. In his remarks, Biden blamed the Bush Administration for the nations’ economic woes, further chastising the GOP for not “getting it.” As far as not getting it, it remained unclear as to which Bush Administration Biden was referring. But why stop at Bush I? Why not blame Nixon and Cal Coolidge, too? The Veep, in an attempt to rally his troops, emphatically stated that those reports (READ: every single poll) predicting the death of the Democratic Party are “greatly exaggerated,” and that his arty...

Breaking News link http://grassrootspa.com/

Pennsylvania Democrats helped gather signatures to put a birther on the ballot in the race to replace Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak. At issue is the role played by the campaign of state Rep. Bryan Lentz, the Democratic nominee in the open 7th District, which allegedly provided petition-gathering assistance to Jim Schneller, a tea party activist who once filed suit against the state of Pennsylvania demanding that President Obama present his birth certificate. According to documents from the secretary of state's office provided by the campaign of Lentz’s GOP opponent, former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan, Schneller needed 4,200 signatures to make...

[...] And the newest candidate, Jim Schneller, a conservative who could siphon votes away from Republican Patrick Meehan this fall, has Democrats to thank for almost half his nearly 8,000 signatures, according to Meehan's campaign. Democratic volunteers, including campaign workers for the Democratic candidate, Bryan Lentz, collected 3,800 signatures for Schneller. The campaign made no attempts to hide its involvement; Colleen Guiney, chairwoman of the Swarthmore Democrats and a woman whom Lentz this year called his most prolific signature-getter, was just one of the Democrats to circulate petitions for Schneller. The move is not illegal, although some in political circles...

Citing multiple irregularities in this week's election of party leaders, a couple of dissident Philadelphia Republicans want the Republican State Committee to void Vito Canuso's re-election as city GOP chairman. Kevin J. Kelly, a newly elected State Committee member and outspoken critic of the local Republican organization, and his attorney, Matthew Wolfe, the Republican leader of University City's 27th Ward, filed a formal petition yesterday contending that Canuso violated state election laws and the party's own bylaws when ward leaders convened Wednesday night to elect a citywide leadership slate. If all the legal issues had been properly handled, the petition...

A Republican ward leader, claiming internal party shenanigans, has petitioned the GOP State Committee to overturn a vote Wednesday that allowed Michael Meehan to retain control over the city party. Kevin Kelly, leader of the 22d Ward in West Mount Airy, on Friday handed the 162-page petition to Pennsylvania Republican Chairman Robert Gleason at the state committee's summer meeting in Hershey, according to Kelly's attorney. At a raucous city Republican Party meeting Wednesday night, ward leaders were asked to vote on either retaining Vito F. Canuso Jr. as city chairman or elevating Al Schmidt to the position. Though Canuso is...

The political fight for control of Philadelphia's Republican Party almost came to blows Wednesday night after a raucous meeting of party leaders kept longtime GOP chief Michael Meehan in charge. But 14 ward leaders who showed up at the United Republican Club in Kensington were either not admitted to the meeting or not allowed to vote for leadership of the Republican City Committee, according to Al Schmidt. Schmidt, who has been battling Meehan for control of the city party, vowed legal action against GOP leaders if the disenfranchised ward leaders were not allowed to vote. "All we want is an...

The city's Republican organization re-elected most of its current leadership last night, but with levels of controversy and opposition not seen over the last 50 years. About a dozen of the Republican ward leaders elected Monday night were barred from attending the reorganization meeting at the United Republican Club in Kensington, or were kicked out of the meeting after it began, with no substantive explanations. Meanwhile, about 30 protesters stood outside in the rain, many of them holding signs that attacked the current party hierarchy, led by general counsel Michael P. Meehan. Toward the end of a 90- minute meeting,...

To the wacky tales of Philadelphia politics, add that of LaMott Ebron . A 22-year-old African American elated and inspired by the election of President Obama, Ebron decided to run for office - as a Republican. Not long after offering himself as a candidate for party committeeman in the May 18 election, he received a subpoena at his Nicetown home notifying him that someone he had never heard of was trying to kick him off the ballot. It turned out that the challenger, Michael Gilliland, did not live at the address listed on the challenge, which ended in late March....

On Tuesday, February 16, 2010 a big, but little understood, political decision will be made. It involves the Republican City Committee, a group whose choices aren’t often heard about in a town where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 6-1. The issue involves control of the local party, which ultimately impacts how and whether the GOP can emerge as a potent force. Some frustrated local Republicans, backed by state Republican party chair Rob Gleason, are anxious to reinvent Philadelphia’s GOP. This could threaten the grip of local Republican leaders, especially the party’s real boss, legal counsel Michael Meehan, the third...

ABATTLE OVER leadership of the city's Republican Party is rapidly intensifying, the stakes growing to include control of the party's main patronage source, the Philadelphia Parking Authority. For now, the Parking Authority is strongly in the grip of the GOP's current leader, general counsel Michael P. Meehan. A loyal Meehan ally, Republican ward leader Vincent Fenerty Jr., became the authority's executive director four years ago despite evidence that Fenerty illegally pressured rank-and-file workers to make political contributions to the city Republican organization. But the terms of two Parking Authority board members are expiring this summer. The fight over their potential...

But here’s where the insidious part comes in. Look at the photo… Watch the embedded video in the link above… Listen to Meehan’s apology. Last evening I was a little too aggressive in the confusion of trying to help the Attorney General get to her car and catch a flight. Given all that, Coakley has the gall to say “I didn’t see what happened so I can’t say.” So, IMHO, here are the possible explanations...

. . . "The BBG works to promote freedom and stop abuse of the press overseas. What kind of message does that send dictators in Iran and Venezuela if the U.S. promotes someone caught on tape assaulting reporters?" . . .

As you may have heard, a Dem staffer helping the Martha Coakley campaign was caught on video shoving a Weekly Standard reporter, prompting an explosion of outrage from national Republicans and the right-wing media, who alleged bullying and intimidation. Now the staffer, Michael Meehan, sends over a statement admitting error (though not conceding bullying) and saying he also apologized directly to the Standard reporter, John McCormack:

Legal Insurrection has up a link (rec'd notice by Twitter, I have been following Prof. Jacobson) that the 'shover' (caught on tape lst night) Michael P. Meehan is an Obama appointee to the Broadcasting Board of Governors.