Free Republic

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he believes President Barack Obama owes the American public explanations for both the seizure of Associated Press phone records by the Department of Justice and the IRS targeting of conservative groups. “I don’t think anyone truly believes that the president has given us a sufficient answer for America, much less the press,” Rangel said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I think this is just the beginning and the whole idea of comparing this with Nixon, I really think is just, it doesn’t make much sense. But the president has to come forward and share...

Give me a break! Repeal this criminal monstrosity! NOW!! Obviously, the government is waaaay too big to control. Cut it back. Drastically (per the U.S, Constitution)!!

Press Secretary Jay Carney defended the Obama administration as it faces scrutiny for the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. Today on The Five, Eric Bolling voiced his concern, saying, “2011, I was pretty vocal against four more years of President Obama. […] I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not but I did get an IRS audit in 2012 for my 2011 tax returns. I’m not sure if there’s any correlation.”

Washington - U.S. lawmakers accused the Obama administration on Wednesday of trampling on free speech rights and evading questions about the Justice Department's secret seizure of Associated Press telephone records. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, testifying before a House of Representatives panel, provided limited responses on the issue, noting he had been recused from the probe into a government leak that led to the records seizure.

I had the same thought as Matt Lewis when reading through the news this morning. There’s too much smoke now from the IRS, DOJ/AP, and Benghazi scandals to pretend there’s no fire. If you’re sympathetic to O, it’s time to shift messages from “what fire?” to “Obama should have done more to put out these fires set by other people,” which conveniently leaves Bambi in the virtuous role of firefighter. It’s a classic plea bargain: He’s guilty of negligence, maybe, but of nothing more serious. Lewis: The media is helping. Obama isn’t a bad guy, he’s merely out of the...

<p>President Obama says Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has requested and received the resignation of acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, after critical report on targeting of conservative groups.</p>

Often a phenomenon of bad marriages, “selective deafness” is when one hears only what is convenient. The same failing manifests itself in government when politicians and judges hear the Constitution talk only when it sings their tune. Worse still, sometimes these people behave as if the document says things it doesn’t. This is the equivalent of hearing things. Kansas governor Sam Brownback heard something recently. He received a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder stating that Kansas’ newly enacted legislation prohibiting government agents from enforcing federal gun laws in the state “directly conflicts with federal law and is therefore unconstitutional.”...

Scandal: Senate Democrats, including supporters of the Disclose Act, provided the names of groups they wanted targeted in a taxpayer-funded witch hunt overseen by an IRS employee and Obama campaign donor. Using the Citizens United case as a pretext, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on July 27, 2012, wrote IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to investigate 12 conservative groups he accused of violating their tax-exempt status and engaging in coordinated political activity. The groups Levin asked to be targeted for special scrutiny were Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Priorities U.S.A., Americans Elect, American Action Network, Americans for Prosperity, American Future Fund, Americans...

Tyranny: Perhaps the most sinister aspect of the president's parade of scandals is that just days before they broke, he mocked as paranoid those concerned about government excesses. On May 5, while giving the commencement address at Ohio State University, President Obama advised graduates to put all their trust in government and reject those shrill "voices" that say it's the source of our problems. Ignore these limited-government types, he told the class of 2013, who warn "tyranny lurks just around the corner." Only, Obama himself has proved our fears are well-founded. Government, particularly governance by this rogue regime, needs more...

Boy, oh boy. What many called the worst week yet for the Obama White House has spilled over into another, with news that the Department of Justice secretly obtained telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors to root out the cause of a (rare unwanted) leak of national security information. Is it a fishing expedition, a witch hunt or something in between? Time will tell — if, that is, anyone ever comes forward with an explanation. Whether on Fast and Furious or Benghazi, the typical M.O. of the administration has been to slow-play answers and hope that we all...

Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) repeatedly pressed the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax-exempt status of specific conservative nonprofit organizations in letters to then-IRS commissioner Doug Shulman and director Lois Lerner in 2012.

The recent wave of left-wing discussion panels calling for the Redskins to change their name seems to have died off, but not everyone has given up hope. Paul Woody of the Richmond Times-Dispatch identifies himself as someone who would like to see it change. To bolster his case, he went to speak to leaders from three different Virginia tribes of Native Americans. Give Woody credit for bringing back the results, because none of the Native Americans he spoke to are offended by it.

Lerner also reportedly fast-tracked an approval for a foundation operated by President Obama's half brother, taking the extraordinary step of granting it retroactive tax-free status. "Seventy-five organizations effected" - That number almost immediately swelled to 300. Now it's closer to 500:

Several well-known religious organizations say they were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, including the ministry founded by famed evangelist Billy Graham and a 180-year-old Baptist newspaper, Fox News has learned.Among the ministries targeted are the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse and the Biblical Recorder – the newspaper of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. The revelations seem to indicate the IRS was targeting more than just Tea Party groups and conservative political organizations.“I am bringing this to your attention because I believe that someone in the Administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us,” wrote Franklin Graham in...

When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train. 'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.' That question was part of the tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letter to Kevin Kookogey. founder...

One of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). NOM, a pro-traditional marriage organization, claims the IRS leaked their 2008 confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012. At that time, Joe Solmonese, a left-wing activist and Huffington Post contributor, was the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Solmonese was also a 2012 Obama campaign co-chairman. Both the Huffington Post's...

CNN’s Drew Griffin broke into Wolf Blitzer‘s Newsroom report Wednesday afternoon to reveal new information about the investigation into the IRS’ admission that they targeted conservatives during the 2012 election year. Griffin said a Congressional source told him that the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steven Miller, has identified two “rogue” employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office, who he characterized as “off the reservation.” The commissioner reportedly said the two, as yet unnamed, employees were “principally responsible for overly aggressive handling of Tea Party requests for tax exempt status over the past two years.” Another source, according to Griffin, said...

With Washington gripped by a trio of exploding scandals – from Benghazi to government spying on news outlets, to thug tactics by the IRS – Senate Democrats seem to be hoping that if they just yell loud enough, voters will overlook a key role they played in at least one of them. The pols quickly sensed the political toxicity associated with Friday's admission by the IRS that they selectively targeted conservative organizations for special government scrutiny, and so Democrats didn't waste any time springing into action. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, for example, vowed congressional hearings and...

Could the twin eruption of the Benghazi and IRS scandals over the past few days derail the Obama administration’s gun control agenda, despite the insistence of Vice President Joe Biden that at least four U.S. Senators are willing to revive gun regulation proposals on Capitol Hill? On a political scale, it's a cataclysm on par with the Mount St. Helens eruption a generation ago. However, President Obama reportedly said Monday morning that the IRS revelation is an "outrage" and he called the Benghazi flap a "politicdal sideshow" according to a report in the Seatte Times. He wants the IRS abusers...

Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.