What’s interesting in the news today?
We have a lot today, so I’ll try to be brief.
First a story on just a few of the many heroes who aided their neighbors after the tornado in Oklahoma.
‘When the need is there, we step up’, from NBCNews
There’s plenty of other related stories at the link.
The tornado that left a path of destruction in Oklahoma was an EF-5, from APNews
Of course he offers a lame excuse about pre-written remarks. It was just a coincidence that it was while Oklahoma was being hit. Sure.
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Which is why this isn’t at all surprising.
IRS official Lois Lerner to invoke Fifth Amendment at hearing, from NBCNews
Meanwhile the shady non-profit run by the President’s half brother certainly appears to have actually warranted further questioning, yet for obvious reasons they weren’t.
Nope, nothing to see here. Just move along.
And just as a reminder, let’s not forget that the White House had others aiding their efforts. And this was right around when it all started. These folks encouraged exactly what the IRS did.
Durbin Asked IRS’ Shulman to Probe ‘Several’ Conservative 501(c)(4) Groups in 2010, from PJMedia
And in a related story…
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It’s getting hard to hear with all these whistles blowing. Yes. More.
In a related story…
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Meanwhile one of the few mainstream reporters actually doing her job on the many Obama scandals has had her computer compromised. She got the same treatment as Fox reporters. And this was way back during Fast and Furious. They’ve been operating like this for a long time.
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So what’s an embattled President to do? Why call in the troops for a good old-fashioned propaganda meeting of course.
Liberal Bloggers, Columnists Seen In West Wing For WH Meeting…, from WeaselZippers
In other words…. JournoListers to the rescue!
And in case you’re wondering, they’re gonna blame campaign finance laws for the IRS scandal and attempt to use this to push for new restrictive laws that will do the same thing. Just watch. In fact, this coordinated effort between Dems and their propagandists has already started.
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In other news….
Senate panel OKs tax-welfare benefits for newly legal immigrants, from TheWashingtonTimes
This next one probably helps explain why Obama’s foreign policy is such a disaster.
Dems Who Do Campaign Time Get Prime State Department Spots, from PJMedia
Don’t bother asking Holder about this one. From what I’ve seen and heard from him, he doesn’t know anything about anything. He’ll tell you so himself. Repeatedly.
Here’s the PDF in question, from LibertyCounsel. And yeah, it’s as PC pathetic as you can get.
LGBT Inclusion at Work: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers
Wandering Views 
I go back about 16 years when a gay woman I worked with told the story of working at another job. Her boss found out she was gay. She was worried and went to him and asked if he was going to fire her. He told her no, when he fired her it would be because of her smart *$$ mouth and to get back to work. She worked for him another year and left for a better position. We don’t need training on how to work with special groups. Sometimes you hold the door open for someone in a wheelchair, NOT because they are ina chair but because you would hold it open for anyone else. Because I have been a mother with a stroller I run to help another mother I see fighting a door and a stroller. You just do what you would do for any other person out there and don’t give special favor or treatment because they are “different”. I would find that demeaning.
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Kim, that’s the problem I see in Anti-bullying programs in schools. They seemed to be bent on making everyone agree rather than teach how to disagree civilly.
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Looks like DHS is now used to protect the Infernal Revenue Service:
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DrivesGuy,
Yeah, just like Bush did to all those anti-war protesters…..
Oh wait, that never happened.
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Those look like some of those right-wing, Tea Party, anti-govt terrorists DHS is always fretting over. Quite a dangerous looking bunch huh? 🙄
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Lets not forget all the Vietnam Vets, AJ. Yours truly is considered a potential domestic terrorist. Why you say? Because we fought against communists. Sad day for America. Khrushchev once said that America would fall to communism without Russia firing a shot. With all the IRS scandals, the efforts by the Obama administration to seize our weapons all the while arming the DHS will 6 billion rounds of ammunition, America has now become the old Soviet Union.
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How Okies handle disasters.
http://www.newsok.com/article/3828453
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NYT weighs in on the administration & freedom of the press:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/05/ny-times-editorial-board-obama-administration-threatening-164544.html
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Donna,
Blind squirrel, nut, and all that.
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Yes Please!
And this from a Dem.
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A gruesome story out of the UK.
A BIG FAT CONTENT WARNING!
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/05/22/british-soldier-beheaded-in-london-by-attackers-shouting-allahu-akhbar/
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And yeah, just like I said, and right on cue……
After their meeting at the WH last night, The Journo-listers have spoken as one. And Lois Lerner goes under the bus. Next up, turning the meme to campaign finance.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/liberals-turn-lois-lerner-irs_728803.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#
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What amazes me is that with the scapegoats they’ve chosen, they ensured the goats would retire comfortably for their silence. The director from last week did his part and played dumb. Lerner pleads the 5th. And the next one will be another former director who has also played dumb. He actually expects folks to believe that during the his 118 visits to the WH during the time frame, that he never once mentioned it to the President. Apparently they think everyone is a low-info voter.
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See also,
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/heads-wont-roll-at-the-irs-91714.html
“Lawmakers pressing for more heads to roll at the Internal Revenue Service are going to be disappointed.
“Why weren’t more people fired?” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) demanded at a hearing Tuesday on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, channeling the frustration of his colleagues.”
“Turns out it’s not so easy.
In fact, it appears that no one has been formally reprimanded and a spokesperson for the union representing IRS workers said it hasn’t been called to help any employees yet. Most employees involved in the targeting program are covered by protections for federal workers that could drag out the termination process.”
So they plead the 5th, and what are we gonna do about it?
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From yesterday;
kbells — I mentioned Robertson not because I associated the charlatan with anyone here — I happen to think most if not all of you are too intelligent to be fooled by him, rather I was surprised he was willing to insult not just the people of New Orleans, New York and south Florida but also people who may be considered his base. He has truly jumped the shark.
kbells/donna — most of the commentary on leftist sites seem to be focused on the hypocrisy of the two OK senators who voted against relief for Hurricane Sandy and Katrina and are constantly voting against funding for FEMA yet are the first in line for cash.
I rarely read the comments under new articles/commentary. I have a low opinion of the human race in general and don’t need any confirmation by reading internet comments.
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Many are calling for Robertson to retire from the public stage.
For good reason. Pay no attention to the man.
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AJ — you asked…..
In the post WWI, the red scare and Palmer raids resulted in mass arrests and subsequent deportations of immigrants and citizens alike. Eugene Debs had to run his presidential campaign from jail. During the “red decade” of the 20’s and 30’s, the IWW and other leftist groups including the Socialist party were either banned or infiltrated, harassed, and under surveillance. Although the FBI was formed to combat interstate crime which flourished during the Prohibtion era, Hoover quickly took up the anti-communist crusade. He backed off very little during WWII but kept track of communists even at that time. The father of the nuclear Robert Oppenheimer almost lost his security clearance simply because he was friends of friends who were ex-members of the communist party.
In 1956 Cointelpro was formed and until 1971 would spend most of its time engaged in fighting groups it deemed against national security. Measures included discrediting targets through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; and illegal violence, including assassination. Groups included communists, socialists, civil rights leaders (including MLK), NAACP, SCLC, AIM, student groups, anti-Vietnam protesters, “new” left groups, women’s rights groups, and even individuals like Albert Einstein were watched. About 15% of their time was spent watching the “right” …. the KKK and State Rights’ groups. During this period, Hoover personally coordinated his prosecution of student radicals in the California university system to match Regan’s governor electoral needs.
Despite the official end of the Cointelpro program in 1971, the FBI and other federal agencies continued to watch leftist subversives. Friends in the 80s recounted to me being interrogated at the US border because of their political party membership (the modestly left NDP) and their intent in the US to attend a political or civil rights conference. The anti-globalization movement and later the anti-war both report having meetings monitored, mail opened and groups infiltrated. Many groups reported agent provocateurs who would deliberately start a violent confrontation with police to give the police an excuse to then arrest all protestors. This happened in Pittsburgh, Miami and New York in the 90s and 00s. These agents start a confrontation and then are allowed to disappear behind police lines.
The Occupy movement crack down was coordinated by the FBI and carried out by local police. After the initial crackdown, groups continued to be under FBI surveillance and subject to harassment. Along with Occupy harassment, the main contributor to wikileaks, Bradley Manning continues to live in solitary confinement still awaiting trail and legal assistance years after the leak.
Due to the anarchist nature of the American left (there’s a liberatarian streak on both the left and right in US politics), very few groups incorporate themselves and apply for tax free status. They rightly view this as opening themselves up to more harassment something tea party activists are now learning.
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Maher had a pertinent comment … you form an anti-tax movement, incorporate yourselves and then don’t expect the tax collectors to investigate you?? He’s right, it may not make it right but there is some naivete on the part of tea partiers.
Left groups have already started to point at Citizens United and campaign financing as part of the problem. And they have a point — citizens united forced the IRS to distinguish groups formed to advance “social welfare” and groups to advance a political agenda. Since they need to distinguish between the two, you’ve just given a federal agency who already has enough power even more justification to turn people and their organizations upside down.
Here’s Maher (who’s no friend of Obama btw);
The real scandal, Maher argued, was campaign financing.”This is the result of Citizens United,” Maher said. “We gave the IRS a task they shouldn’t have: to try to tell whether these people are ‘political’ or ‘a social welfare group.’ Now, they were plainly trying to cheat — as liberal groups do, too.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/17/maher-irs-targeting-tea-partiers-is-like-when-a-cop-gets-shot/
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HRW, about yout friends being interogated at the US border, a friend of mine and his father were harrased at the Canadian border over guns they didn’t have. The guard kept asking them if they had any guns. They kept telling him no. Finally they figured out why and told him they left them home. Why? Mississippi plates.
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HRW,
So nothing from the IRS targeting anyone. Most of those are the FBI, and they weren’t nearly as widespread as this. We have the IRS harrassing over 500 groups. There’s nothing that compares. And most everything tou named was from 50+ years ago. You include the anarchists, yet Bush gave them and the rest of the left free reign to protest, and they did. As for Occupy, take that up with Obama, since it was his IRS, just like now.
You can keep ignoring the obvious, but I’ll just keep showing it. If the last few days have shown anything, it’s a coordinated effort from the top down. That’s unprecedented.
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HRW
“Left groups have already started to point at Citizens United and campaign financing as part of the problem. And they have a point — citizens united forced the IRS to distinguish groups formed to advance “social welfare” and groups to advance a political agenda. Since they need to distinguish between the two, you’ve just given a federal agency who already has enough power even more justification to turn people and their organizations upside down.
Here’s Maher (who’s no friend of Obama btw);
The real scandal, Maher argued, was campaign financing.”This is the result of Citizens United,” Maher said. “We gave the IRS a task they shouldn’t have: to try to tell whether these people are ‘political’ or ‘a social welfare group.’ Now, they were plainly trying to cheat — as liberal groups do, too.”
Of course they are. It’s Journo-listing. They all work from the same script, which as I’ve shown you, the WH writes. I predicted this exactly, and they delivered.
Now as for this beauty…
“Here’s Maher (who’s no friend of Obama btw);”
😆 Yes I’m laughing. No friend of Obama? Really? So explain why he donated a million to Obama’s Super Pac then.
That’s a lulu there. 🙄
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