Free Republic

The attorney for Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, signaled Wednesday that his client will not comply with a request to testify on Capitol Hill next week. Attorney William Taylor said Lerner, who resigned last year as the agency’s tax-exempt organizations chief, will return and testify only if compelled by a federal court or if given immunity for her testimony. Taylor stated his position in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was responding to a letter Tuesday from Issa saying, in part, that Lerner’s testimony...

...For eight years, I had been a professor at Brigham Young University... I looked down on Christians...They had part of the gospel, but I had the fullness of it. I kept the laws and ordinances of Mormonism. Three weeks before the end of his two-year mission, Micah called to tell us he was being sent home early—a horrific disgrace in Mormon culture. He had been reading the New Testament. There he encountered a different Jesus than the one I was taught about in Mormonism—a God of grace, not of works, so that no one can boast... To a roomful of...

The European parliament is lining up Edward Snowden to give evidence by video link this month, in spite of resistance by British Conservatives, a Green MEP has announced. Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green MEP, said parliamentarians wanted Snowden to appear before the assembly's committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs (LIBE). Albrecht said it would represent a great success for the parliament's investigation into mass surveillance of EU citizens. He said: "Half a year after the first publications from his collection of numerous NSA documents, the truth of which has not so far been refuted, there are still...

Report: Americans left unprepared for defense Vid at link

New classified testimony on Benghazi by five CIA employees shows the administration's initial narrative about a protest gone awry was "indefensible," according to a lawmaker who took part in two classified sessions before the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News that witnesses described how five mortars rained down on the CIA annex over 90 seconds during the attack -- with three direct hits. King argued that the details raise more questions about why the administration initially claimed the attack sprung from a protest over an anti-Islam film – a narrative officials later abandoned. **SNIP** Fox News...

CBS News reports that the Obama Administration was warned before al-Qaeda attacked the Consulate in Benghazi. Al-Qaeda had posted its three top targets in Libya on its website. These targets were the Red Cross, the British, and then the Americans in Benghazi. By July of 2012 the first two targets had already been hit. In the summer of 2012, Lieutenant Colonel Andy Wood, one of the top American security officials in Libya, warned both Ambassador Stevens and the State Department that Benghazi would be next. The CBS revelations were dismissed as “Monday morning quarterbacking” by Secretary of State John Kerry....

One evening several years ago, I was laying upon my bed almost ready for sleep after my quiet and silent prayer that I have been practicing for many years. Then, this presence came hovering over my body, filling it with warmth and a very real feeling of well being and love. It was not a dream and was the most wonderful sensation I have ever had. Far surpassing any drug induced feeling of happiness that I and many were prone to seek in our troubled childhoods. No, this was the rel deal and had a wordless telepathic message: I had...

On Tuesday, William W. Taylor III, attorney for Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the Tea Party targeting scandal who invoked her Fifth amendment rights before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on May 22, set forward his client's hard line conditions to return and testify openly before the committee."They can obtain her testimony tomorrow by doing it the easy way … immunity. That’s the way to resolve all of this," he told Politico.Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was unimpressed. "We hope she comes in and gives us the truth...

"The IRS Contracts with Strong Castle, Inc." Witnesses: Ms. Beth Tucker Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support Internal Revenue Service Mr. Michael Chodos Associate Administrator Office of Entrepreneurial Development U.S. Small Business Administration Mr. Brad Flohr Senior Advisor for Compensation Service, Veterans Benefits Administration U.S. Veterans Administration Mr. Gregory Roseman Deputy Director, Enterprise Networks and Tier Systems Support Internal Revenue Service Mr. William A. Sisk Deputy Commissioner Federal Acquisition Service General Services Administration Mr. Braulio Castillo President and Chief Executive Officer Strong Castle, Inc.

“In a major blow for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman case, a judge on Saturday barred the testimony of two audio experts who suggested that a taped 911 call indicated Trayvon Martin was crying out for help during the violent struggle that ended with a gunshot,”

The Supreme Court says prosecutors can use a person’s silence against them if it comes before he's told of his right to remain silent. The 5-4 ruling comes in the case of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of a 1992 murder. During police questioning, and before he was arrested or read his Miranda rights, Salinas answered some questions but did not answer when asked if a shotgun he had access to would match up with the murder weapon. Prosecutors in Texas used his silence on that question in convicting him of murder, saying it helped demonstrate his guilt. Salinas appealed,...

Republican leaders of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday accused Attorney General Eric Holder of having "something to hide," after the Justice Department issued a formal defense of his questionable testimony on reporter surveillance -- a defense Republicans rejected as inadequate. "This response is insulting and further proof that Attorney General Holder refuses to hold himself accountable," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said. Holder was facing a Wednesday deadline, set by the committee, to explain his May 15 testimony. At the time, the attorney general said under oath he knew nothing of the "potential prosecution" of the press. Days later, it...

So, this is NJ huh? Second Amendment activist, James Kaleda, was forcefully removed from a hearing on a new gun control bill in NJ during his testimony. I guess this is how they handle dissent in NJ, remove it from the building with armed guards.

All hail the truth tellers... The US Consulate was attacked by 60+ armed men and hit by mortars aimed with military precision- everybody and his dog on the ground in Benghazi that night knew it was an organized terrorist attack. Former deputy chief of mission in Libya Greg Hicks said there was no protest whatsoever in Benghazi, and in his opinion absolutely no Libyan public awareness the YouTube clip existed- a 'non-event'. Hicks also testified that he briefed Hillary on Benghazi that night, yet she continued to blame the anti-Islam video, as did Susan Rice. He went on to say...

(Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday. The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

Lynn Woolsey, phone home. The former North Bay congresswoman is one of six former members of Congress taking testimony at a public hearing this week at the National Press Club on what the U.S. government really knows about extraterrestrial life. Yes. Really. "The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race will attempt to accomplish what the Congress has failed to do for forty-five years -- seek out the facts surrounding the most important issue of this or any other time," according to the hearing's website. Also plumbing the final frontier's mysteries this week are former...

I just wanted to share with you my story of grace so you can more fully understand why we do what we do. Rob Sivulka is definitely more on the truth end of things and I am on the grace end, but whatever the approach our goal is the same. I pray that you would read my testimony and not go by emotions, but by the facts. I know some of what I say will well up anger or frustration in some of you (it did in me when I was first confronted that Mormons are not Christian), but please...

The following are excerpts from the testimony of David Hardy, a scholar who has written extensively on gun control legislation. The entire testimony is contained in an PDF file here. What is an "Assault Rifle? “Assault Rifles” The very term “semiautomatic assault rifle” is internally contradictory. In World War II, rifles of standard military power could not be made full automatic, because the recoil (“kick”) was too powerful. The “assault rifle” concept involved cutting the cartridge’s power, and thus its recoil, in half, so that it could be controlled in full automatic fire. An assault rifle redesigned to be semiautomatic...

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security no longer uses control of the actual border as a measure of how well the Border Patrol is doing its job, according to written testimony released today by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO said that by the end of fiscal 2010, the Border Patrol had been able secure “operational control” of only 44 percent of the U.S.-Mexico border. Then, with 56 percent of the border not under “operation control,” DHS simply stopped using “operational control” as a measure of the Border Patrol’s performance. Since then, DHS has counted the number of...

General Robert H. Barrow, 27th Commandant of the Marine Corps testimony before the SASC on Women in Combat. June 1991.