What’s interesting in the news today?

President Obama took bi-partisan heat this Memorial Day for the backlog on veterans disability and benefits claims. Jon Stewart and Fox are hitting him from all sides. Even Bob Beckel is calling for the resignation of the head of the VA. A little bit of CONTENT WARNING! for the Stewart material for some bleeped cussing. Be sure to watch the video at this link. From Mediaite

“Typically, when the hosts of Fox News’ The Five play a clip of Jon Stewart, it’s used to demonstrate everything that’s wrong with the liberal, mainstream media. But for Memorial Day, the show decided to open with a segment from The Daily Show they could all get behind.

The clip in question came from the most recent installment of Stewart’s consistent attacks against the Department of Veteran Affairs’ benefits claims backlog.

Eric Bolling, who has had his disagreements with Stewart in the past, gave him credit for “very outspoken on this issue.” He reserved his criticism for President Obama, who “literally said we have to fix this” but “then he doesn’t do anything.”

The bipartisan nature of the issue extended to Bob Beckel, who was even more furious than Bolling over the VA’s apparent inability to process its benefit requests. Calling the situation “disgraceful” and “unacceptable,” he advocated for department head Eric Shinseki‘s resignation

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On this one, I have to agree with Michelle Malkin. This is a really bad idea. From TownHall

“Gird your loins, America. President Obama intends to empty out Guantanamo Bay and send scores of suspected Muslim terror operatives back to their jihadist-coddling native countries. Goaded by anti-war activists and soft-on-terror attorneys (including those from Attorney General Eric Holder’s former private law firm), Obama announced Thursday that he’ll lift a ban on sending up to 90 Yemeni detainees home and will initiate other stalled transfers out of the compound.

This radical appeasement of Obama’s left flank is a surefire recipe for more Benghazis, more U.S.S. Coles and more innocent lives at risk.

A little more than three years ago, the White House assured Americans that it would not release Yemeni detainees back to their al-Qaida-infested land. In January 2010, international press outlets reported that at least a dozen former Guantanamo Bay prisoners had rejoined al-Qaida to fight in Yemen. Yemen was also the terror training ground of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the jihadist who attempted to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day in 2009.”

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The White House’s least favorite journalist. Well, other than everybody at Fox. 🙂  From Politico

“The Obama administration won’t answer the CBS News correspondent’s questions  because her investigations — into Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Solyndra — often  reflect negatively on it. Some colleagues at CBS News, where she has worked for  two decades and earned multiple Emmy awards, dismiss her work because they  perceive a political agenda. And now, she says, someone may have hacked into her  computers.

Attkisson’s one piece of solace may come from finally gaining some like-minded  colleagues in the media. For years, Attkisson has been one of the few mainstream  reporters pursuing critical stories about the Obama administration. Today, as “scandal season” takes hold in Washington, she has seen her longstanding  skepticism of the White House and the Justice Department become the conventional  attitude among a formerly deferential Beltway press corps.

Attkisson is a dogged reporter, driven by a strong skepticism of government.  Producers at CBS News once nicknamed her “Pit Bull,” a source said, because she  gets on a story and won’t let go. But that is seen as both a strength and a  weakness. Her drive can produce great journalism, but it can also cause her to  push stories to the point that colleagues — especially those of a more  progressive bent — suspect a political agenda.”

Sure they do, because it doesn’t match their political agenda. 🙄

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Senator Durbin is finally fessing up to encouraging the IRS to target conservative groups. Of course along with a lame attempt to justify it. Funny, Obama for America didn’t concern him though. From RealClearPolitics

“SEN. DICK DURBIN: I can just tell you flat-out why I did it. Because that Crossroads organization was boasting about how much money they were raising as a 501(c)(4). Let’s get back to the basics. Citizens United really unleashed hundreds if not thousands of organizations seeking tax-exempt status to play in political campaigns. The law we wrote as Congress said that they had to exclusively be engaged in social welfare and not politics and campaigning. And, so, here is the IRS trying to decide whether or not these organizations really comply with the law. Crossroads was exhibit A. They were boastful about how much money they were going to raise and beat Democrats with.”

And……? OfA was bragging about breaking records for money raised. Yet you didn’t seem concerned with that.

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They targeted the  NY Times too? From YahooNews

“The New York Times reports the Department of Justice investigated national security leaks given to Times reporter David Sanger over his story last year about the Stuxnet virus by pulling all the email and phone records of government officials who communicated with the reporter. Last summer, Sanger reported the U.S. helped develop the Stuxnet virus and used it to attack Iran, becoming the first country to carry out a sustained cyber attack with the intent of destroying another country’s infrastructure. The was some hoopla and a hullaballoo about leaks and DOJ investigations, the Associated Press case, and now a year later we’re finding out just how far things went.”

Here’s a related story. Like Holder’s supposed recusal letter, it disappeared. From Reuters

“News Corp said on Monday it is still reviewing whether it has any record of a notification from the United States government involving a subpoena for a Fox News reporter’s phone records.

The media conglomerate was responding to the Justice Department, which said it told News Corp about the seizure of phone records for James Rosen, a reporter with Fox News, in August 2010.

“While we don’t take issue with the DOJ’s account that they sent a notice to News Corp, we do not have a record of ever having received it,” said News Corp spokesman Nathaniel Brown, who added the company is looking into the matter.

Fox News, which is owned by News Corp, has said it never received a notification from the government.”

Maybe he’s using invisible ink. 🙂

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A horrible story of abuse is finally coming to light in NY. The elite Horace Mann Prep School has released a statement admitting to years of sexual abuse by teachers and staff. There are at least 31 kids involved, many now grown. From TheNYPost.

With a CONTENT WARNING! for adult subject matter.

“The elite Horace Mann prep school today apologized for decades of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of teachers and administrators and pledged reforms to improve student safety, in its first public comments addressing the sex scandal.”

“The elite Bronx prep school has been accused of turning a blind eye to sex assaults on at least 31 children between 1962 and 1996. In today’s statement, the school admitted that “former teachers and administrators in fact did abuse, in various degrees,students.””

“Other survivors are pressuring lawmakers in Albany to approve a bill that would allow molested students to sue schools well after the statute of limitations has expired. Currently, the statue prevents adults who were sexually abused as kids from filing claims after they turn 23.”

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