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Dems Hurting Minorities

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As we demonstrated in our article of May 16, 2012, True Champions of American Blacks, the Democratic Party has a long history of doing everything in its power to curtail the advancement of America’s minorities. This destructive assault is well documented in this video>.

What began as a decades-long violent opposition to American blacks and other ethnic and religious minorities (Germans, Italians, Catholics, Mormons, etc.) was eventually transformed into an exploitation campaign wherein blacks and other minorities were converted to a voting coalition with the sudden and wholesale “adoption” of them by the Democratic Party. Indeed, the same party that had blocked voting and civil rights acts fought for by the Republicans in Congress and the White House, now pretended to be the friends and advocates of minorities, promising them social and economic elevation and fulfillment of the American dream—in exchange for their votes and their autonomy.

As a direct result of Democratic policies, American blacks were immediately forced into lifetime welfare status and herded into ghettos called government housing. For decades our black brothers and sisters have endured an assault on their spirit that few could survive, and we have seen the results in cyclical poverty, tens of millions of abortions, the breakdown of the black American family, the wholesale dependency on drugs and alcohol, etc.

We saw a government sign the other day that explained to park visitors that by giving the bears handouts, it would make them dependent on handouts and destroy their ability to provide for themselves and to thrive. This sign was printed by the same government that has made an entire race of Americans entirely dependent on its handouts, and has re-enslaved them in the process.

“We liberals made a terrible mistake, going back 30 years ago. We made a dependent society because we thought we were doing the right thing. We had things like public housing, and we had welfare payments, and all that bred dependence.” Bob Beckel, Liberal Commentator.

So what has the Democratic Party done for American blacks and Hispanics lately?

Since Barack Hussein Obama and his Democrats entirely took over the government just 4 years ago, the average American family has lost 40% of its wealth and assets (worse for minorities), with 11 million family homes sinking into the quicksand of foreclosure during Obama’s tenure in office, and the rate climbing fast in 2012, much more of the remaining wealth will be destroyed by the time the next president takes the oath of office.

Since taking office Obama has seen the addition of over 6 million Americans to the poverty rolls, with those on food stamps doubling to 47 million, and unemployment averaging 9%–15.5% if you figure in those who have dropped off the rolls after their 99 weeks of benefits expired and they just gave up.

Which Americans are bearing the brunt of Obama’s socialist takeover? American minorities, of course.

Under Obama we are now suffering the highest, longest-running unemployment rate since the Great Depression. The average unemployment rate under George Bush was 5.2%, and candidate Obama blasted him for that number. President Obama promised Americans that if they would support his $900 billion spending stimulus package, unemployment would sink to less than 5.6%. As with every leftist promise, it was a lie.

Here are some real world numbers of the past 3.5 years that the president can’t spin:

  • Women in poverty has skyrocketed to 17,000,000, up 800,000
  • 7,500,000 women are in extreme poverty,
  • 25% of Hispanic women are in poverty
  • 2,500,000 women over 65 are in poverty
  • Most of the job losses under Obama have been women (780,000), who have now left the workforce
  • Official black unemployment rates are 14.4 (actually much higher)
  • Official black youth unemployment rates are 40%
  • Official Hispanic unemployment rates are 11 (actually much higher)

Every week the “New Jobs” reports come out, and with fanfare the administration announces a number like 80,000, which is actually a seasonally adjusted number, not reflective of the reality of the dismal job market, and most of which are mere temp jobs, not career positions with benefits. Those numbers are quietly downgraded every week, uncovered by the mainstream media.

What’s worse, is that population growth demands 200,000 new jobs, just to keep up with the expanding workforce. Obama’s tiresome whining that it is a republican economy, not his, is belied by George Bush’s low unemployment rates, not to mention Ronald Reagan’s million job a month growth at this point in his administration, in a much smaller population and following the horrific economic crash under President Carter and his Democrats.

American Blacks and Hispanics have been led down a dangerous path by the Pied Pipers of the left. Their only hope for a brighter future is to reject the new plantation bosses of the Democratic Party and to move to traditional American values and politics, which provide personal liberty and economic freedom for all.

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Congress Presses EPA on ‘Bias’ Against Conservative Groups

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epa_biasDozens of Republican lawmakers have joined in accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of “apparent bias” against conservative groups following a claim that it routinely showed favoritism to liberal organizations.

The allegations were first made by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. It claimed the EPA was not being fair as it weighed whether to charge fees to groups seeking information via Freedom of Information Act requests.

Its research showed liberal groups have their fees for documents waived about 90 percent of the time, while conservative groups are denied fee waivers about 90 percent of the time.

“This activity calls into question the objectivity of the FOIA employees at EPA and undermines public confidence in an agency that is charged with protecting our air and water,” a group of nearly three dozen House Republicans wrote in a letter to EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe.

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said in a separate statement that the findings are “not a coincidence” and track with the kind of targeting conducted by the IRS against conservative groups.

“Politics should not play a role in approving or denying fee waivers, and the EPA clearly crossed the line by injecting bias and favoritism into their decision making process,” he said.

In the letter, he and other lawmakers asked a string of questions on the EPA policy governing fee waivers, including who is in charge of that determination.

The letter follows efforts by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to probe the allegations.

Perciasepe told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 16 that “our policy is to treat everybody the same,” and the agency is considering pursuing an investigation.

In a statement to Fox News, the EPA said: “The Office of Inspector General received from the Environmental Protection Agency the official request to look into this matter just over a week ago, so the request is currently under review by the OIG at this early stage.”

Published June 08, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Eric Shawn contributed to this report.

Tea Party Groups Make Gains Against ‘ObamaCore’ Education Program

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IRS Political Groups RalliesTea Party groups are barnstorming state capitals across the country to stop an Obama administration-backed initiative to impose federal math and English education standards on public schools.

Though conservatives have long argued that state and local officials can best make decisions on K-12 education, the Tea Party’s opposition to the federal program — Common Core State Standards — represents a pivot for the movement, which started in 2009 to promote lower taxes and smaller government. And they are making gains, as some states consider putting the program on hold.

“We have a renewed sense of vigor,” Lee Ann Burkholder, founder of the 9/12 Patriots in York, Pa., told FoxNews.com. “And when it comes to your kids or grandkids, people really get fired up.”

The Tea Party is already riled up following revelations that the IRS had been singling out its groups over the past few years.

On the education issue, Burkholder said her group held a meeting this spring that attracted 400 people, double the usual number. The meeting was followed by a bus trip to the state capital in which members wore matching T-shirts and pressed their case to lawmakers.

Groups have pressured state legislatures and school boards from Michigan to Georgia to drop their support or defund the bipartisan-backed program they’ve dubbed “ObamaCore,” putting heat on Republican governors in particular. It’s not so much the actual standards they object to but the fact that it’s coming from Washington as opposed to the state level, and could lead to tracking student data across the country.

Lawmakers, include several seeking reelection, have taken notice, especially after hearing about Tea Party groups vowing to back challengers to those who continue to support Common Core.

Seven state legislatures purportedly have proposed legislation to at least delay implementation. And two states with Republican governors — Indiana and Pennsylvania — have put the program on hold.

In addition, Georgia Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, up for reelection in 2014, issued an executive order last month titled Reaffirming State Sovereignty over Education that in part said: “No educational standards shall be imposed on Georgia by the federal government.”

Deal later told The Washington Post: “We didn’t see it coming with the intensity that it is, apparently all across the country.”

Common Core was designed by governors and state education officials with input from teachers and others, with much of its funding coming from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

So far, 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the standards, which are scheduled to go into effect next year.

The Tea Party effort got a boost when FreedomWorks got involved.

The well-funded national group has devoted a variety of resources to raising awareness about the issue, an effort that includes putting several information pages on its website and hosting a national teleconference Wednesday night.

“Common Core dictates what (teachers) teach, how they teach it and when they teach it,” Whitney Neal, a FreedomWorks grassroots organizer, said. “Every child is treated the same.”

However, Common Core states the program only sets standards for math and English language arts, not a national curriculum, and says teachers play a big role.

“Local teachers, principals, superintendents and others will decide how the standards are to be met,” the group says on its website. “Teachers will continue to devise lesson plans and tailor instruction to the individual needs of the students in their classrooms.”

Neal and others suggest states were pigeonholed into accepting the program so they could get much-needed Race to the Top education grants in Obama’s 2009 stimulus package. And they are concerned about the gathering of student-assessment data for comparison among students, schools, districts and states.

“It’s very creepy,” Neal said.

Potential 2016 presidential candidate and former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush has landed in the middle of the controversy.

A champion of education reform, including support of home schooling and school vouchers, he has essentially asked lawmakers to resist the Tea Party pressure.

“The Common Cause State Standards are clear and straight forward,” he told business leaders last month in Michigan. “Do not pull back. Please do not pull back from high, lofty standards.”

By Joseph Weber / Published June 07, 2013 / FoxNews.com

NY Times Editorial: Administration Has ‘Lost All Credibility’

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ny-times-obamaThe New York Times editorial board, which twice endorsed President Obama and has championed many planks of his agenda, on Thursday turned on the president over the government’s mass collection of phone data — saying the administration has “lost all credibility.”

The grey lady’s editorial section lately has shown frustration with the administration’s civil liberties record. It has criticized the escalation of the lethal drone program, and it lashed out after the Justice Department acknowledged seizing reporters’ phone records last month.

The report that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from millions of Verizon subscribers appeared to be the last straw.

An editorial published late Thursday said the administration was using the “same platitude” it uses in every case of overreach — that “terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us.”

The editorial continued: “Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility.”

The editorial board claimed Obama “is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it.”

The language was a far cry from the Times’ Oct. 23, 2008, endorsement of then-candidate Obama. At the time, the Times praised Obama’s “cool head and sound judgment,” and said he was “putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle voiced concern on Thursday about the records collection effort. It was first reported by The Guardian newspaper, which obtained a copy of a secret court order allowing the government to collect phone call information – though not monitor the calls themselves — directly from Verizon. Civil liberties-conscious lawmakers like Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cried foul, as did the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lawmakers in the loop on the program tried to assuage concerns, however. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who lead the Senate intelligence committee, defended the program as necessary to keep the country safe.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest also said there is “extensive oversight” on such activity.

“The order reprinted overnight does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls. The information acquired does not include the content of any communications or the name of any subscriber. It relates exclusively to call details, such as a telephone number or the length of a telephone call,” he said.

The Times editorial described this explanation as “lame” — “as though there would be the slightest difficulty in matching numbers to names.”

“Essentially, the administration is saying that without any individual suspicion of wrongdoing, the government is allowed to know who Americans are calling every time they make a phone call, for how long they talk and from where,” the Times editorial board wrote.

The Times editorial board has long opposed The Patriot Act, which was the legal basis for the records collection, and reiterated that opposition in light of the latest revelations.

But the law’s author, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said Thursday that this application of the law was “never the intent.”

Published June 06, 2013 / FoxNews.com

EPA Faces Probe For Targeting Conservative Groups

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epaIt’s not just the IRS.

A second federal agency is facing a probe and accusations of political bias over its alleged targeting of conservative groups.

The allegations concern the Environmental Protection Agency, which is being accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests — allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones.

The allegations are under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is also holding hearings on the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups.

“I don’t think it is fair at all. It is not fair to the American taxpayer — the American taxpayer should expect and demand that the EPA treats everyone equally in regard to these requests,” said Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “This cannot be tolerated. As we see more federal agencies with this kind of bias, it is and should be a concern for all of us.”

Research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank, claims that the political bias is routine when it comes to deciding which groups are charged fees. Christopher Horner, senior fellow at CEI, said liberal groups have their fees for documents waived about 90 percent of the time, in contrast with conservative groups that it claims are denied fee waivers about 90 percent of the time.

“The idea is to throw hurdles in our way,” charged Horner, who says he decided to look into the fee structure after the EPA repeatedly turned down his group for waivers.

“In 20 cases of ours, since the beginning of last year, we were expressly denied, or denied by them simply refusing to respond, in 18 out of 20 cases,” said Horner, explaining that the batting percentage for fees waived in favor of liberal groups is overwhelming.

“Earth Justice was batting 17 out of 19, the Sierra Club was the worst, at 70 percent granted, 11 out of 15. You add up some other groups and we found that 75 out of 82 groups granted, because these are the groups that the EPA has decided are the favored groups.”

The EPA has denied any favoritism.

Acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 16 that “our policy is to treat everybody the same,” and the agency is considering pursuing an investigation.

In a statement to Fox News, the EPA said: “The Office of Inspector General received from the Environmental Protection Agency the official request to look into this matter just over a week ago, so the request is currently under review by the OIG at this early stage.”

But Horner, who has studied federal government agency practices as the author of “The Liberal War on Transparency: Confessions of a Freedom of Information ‘Criminal,'” says that charging fees or denying information requests is a underhanded method that government agencies use to try and stymie the free flow of information or political dissent.

“This is no different than denying a group that you don’t agree with … whether you are the IRS or the EPA, their tax-exempt status,” said Horner.

“You’re talking about essentially making or breaking them, or at a minimum, snuffing out their ability to pursue their objectives.”
Murphy said treating groups differently is simply not right.

“We are hoping that the acting administrator of the EPA can already send a message out to his people that this will not be tolerated,” Murphy said. “It is wrong. Similar with the people with the IRS who testified that, ‘well some of things may not be illegal,’ they can still be wrong. People expect their government to not be acting in these ways, but to be fair and just and truthful in these informational quests and in their investigations.”

By Eric Shawn / Published June 04, 2013 / FoxNews.com

IRS Victims to Testify Before Congress

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irs_victimsConservative groups who claim they were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service are getting their say on Capitol Hill as hearings on the growing agency scandals continue Tuesday.The hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee will feature leaders of groups allegedly targeted by the IRS, including several Tea Party groups and an anti-gay marriage organization that has claimed its donor details were inappropriately released.

Several of the six groups scheduled to testify say their applications for tax-exempt status were delayed while agents asked intrusive questions that the IRS has since acknowledged were inappropriate.

At a hearing Monday, the watchdog who exposed the IRS’ targeting testified nobody in the Ohio office being blamed for the scandal would tell his investigators who directed the program, as the new IRS chief vowed to “get to the bottom” of that growing question.

Nearly a month after the scandal broke, the issue of who directed agents in Cincinnati to single out Tea Party and other groups is perhaps the most glaring unanswered question. Inspector General J. Russell George, at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing, revealed Monday that his audit of the agency tried — unsuccessfully — to get to the root of the targeting.

“We did pose that question and no one would acknowledge who, if anyone, provided that direction,” he said.

Danny Werfel, testifying for the first time in his new role as acting IRS commissioner, acknowledged: “We have to get to the bottom of it.” However, he also said he has not yet asked who ordered the program.

George later testified that the scandal itself is “unprecedented.” He cited past attempts by the Nixon administration to use the IRS for inappropriate purposes, but said this program was unprecedented.

The two officials testified as Republican lawmakers voiced skepticism that the program started and ended with a few low-level staffers in Cincinnati. Fueling the skepticism, partial transcripts released over the weekend of an interview with an IRS field agent in that division showed the agent claiming Washington guided the program.

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said “we will not rest” until they find out who is responsible.

Though George has been repeatedly pressed by Democrats to say that higher-ups were not involved, he stressed Monday that the issue of political appointees’ involvement was “not the focus of our audit.” George said there’s no evidence of White House involvement, but added “I cannot say that” about the possibility of IRS appointee involvement.

The IRS is now under fire for a pair of controversies — the targeting program, but also a forthcoming inspector general report expected to show the agency spent roughly $50 million on conferences from 2010 to 2012.

Republican leaders of the appropriations subcommittee holding Monday’s hearing made clear that the two scandals will result in the agency’s budget being put under the microscope.

Rogers said the committee might even consider placing “conditions” on the agency’s budget allowing Congress to monitor its spending. He said he’s “absolutely appalled” by the conference spending.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., head of the subcommittee hosting the hearing, said Congress will “have to think very carefully about the amount of money that we provide to the IRS.”

He noted that the agency has requested $12.9 billion for 2014 — or $1 billion more than it got for 2013.

“We cannot in good conscience continue to provide hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars and have them use those funds to abuse the rights of American citizens,” he said.

Werfel acknowledged that the public trust “has been violated,” and said he is committed to restoring it.

Democratic Rep. Jose Serrano, though, cautioned against cutting funding to the IRS. The New York lawmaker said doing so is “asking for more trouble,” though he blasted the IRS program as inappropriate.

Meanwhile, the White House on Monday stood by claims that administration officials were not involved in the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday the administration is “concerned” about both the conference spending and the targeting program. But he defended the administration following claims by an unnamed IRS employee that the targeting program was directed by Washington.

The inspector general, Carney said, “both in testimony and in his report, found no evidence that outsiders — those outside the IRS — influenced the behavior that took place there.”

He said: “That is the conclusion of the independent inspector general. And we certainly have seen no other evidence to contradict that.”

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Sunday called Carney a “paid liar” as he discussed the IRS situation. Carney, though, said Monday he’s “not going to get into a back-and-forth with” Issa.

Published June 04, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report

Socialism vs Capitalism

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socialismThere is a growing divide in the United States, as there is throughout the world, regarding the role of governments in economies.

Following the phenomenal success of “The American Experiment” of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, the world saw the rise of socialism in the early part of the Twentieth Century, when the economies of China and Russia were usurped by the mass murder of many millions of their citizens who owned or produced more than the bare minimum.

This “redistribution” of wealth was sold to the common people as “fairness,” and the Red Army was simultaneously forgiven its atrocities as the blood of millions stained the Eastern Hemisphere.

After World War II, less militaristic forms of socialism spread to the west, first in Europe, then to Banana Republics where dictators quickly rose to power on the backs of local revolutionaries they slew once “independence” was gained.

To understand Socialism, we should contrast it with its opposing economic system—Capitalism. Capitalism is a system where individuality reigns supreme, and independent persons utilize whatever resources they can develop, individually or in a voluntary aggregate, to generate the production of goods and services, which are sold to others who need them as an unhampered market requires. This is the system that catapulted America to world leadership in mere decades.

Socialism, on the other hand, is a system where government officials dictate every aspect of economic production and distribution. Government bureaucrats ascertain and determine what products will be produced, which services will be required, and which people will provide them. Socialism decries individualism, citing the accumulation of economic and social power into the hands of a few as a natural result of unbridled performance.

Socialism was proved a flawed system when those nations who had adopted it collapsed under their own weight, or as in the case of China, moved toward capitalism to save their faltering economies. The social impact on the citizens of those countries was much worse than the economic difficulties created by centralized control, however. The concentration of wealth and power under capitalism was eclipsed under socialism, where a mere handful dictated terms of life to the masses and lived like potentates compared with the working class.

Leftists in the U.S. have long eyed the wealth produced by America’s economic engine and have waged a hundred year war to siphon its prosperity off to socialistic programs. Indeed, power has shifted from the individual American to state and federal bureaucracies as individual liberties have been subordinated to government institutions through burdensome taxation and regulation. This loss of individual liberties has been accomplished in the name of “fairness” by the same methods employed in China and the U.S.S.R., only on a slower course.

socialism_white_housePresident Barack Hussein Obama outlines in his own autobiographies his affinity with socialism, and his disdain for what he terms colonialists (essentially, America’s founders). He has surrounded himself with socialists and communists his entire life, including during his presidency. His open agenda has been to subordinate and nationalize large portions of the American economy, and his insatiable appetite for spending the money of his fellow Americans, present and future, knows no practical bounds.

Obama, and all of those on the left who fantasize about a socialistic utopia covering our once-great land, should take some lessons in reality from history—recent at that. Lacking the wisdom to do that, they should reconsider the sage words of U.K.’s former Prime Minister:

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” ― Margaret Thatcher

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IRS Conference Spending Under Fire

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Lawmakers Trying To Avert Fiscal Cliff To Prevent Short-Term Shock To The EconomyA government watchdog has found that the Internal Revenue Service spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012, a House committee said Sunday.

The chairman of that committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., also released excerpts of congressional investigators’ interviews with employees of the IRS office in Cincinnati. Issa said the interviews indicated the employees were directed by Washington to subject tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status to tough scrutiny.

The excerpts provided no direct evidence that Washington had ordered that screening. The top Democrat on that panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, contested that, saying none of the employees interviewed have so far identified any IRS officials in Washington as ordering that targeting.

The conference spending included $4 million for an August 2010 gathering in Anaheim, Calif., for which the agency did not negotiate lower room rates, even though that is standard government practice, according to a statement by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Instead, some of the 2,600 attendees received benefits, including baseball tickets and stays in presidential suites that normally cost $1,500 to $3,500 per night. In addition, 15 outside speakers were paid a total of $135,000 in fees, with one paid $17,000 to talk about “leadership through art,” the House committee said.

The report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general, set to be released Tuesday, comes as the IRS already is facing bipartisan criticism after agency officials disclosed they had targeted tea party and other conservative groups.

Agency officials and the Obama administration have said that treatment was inappropriate, but the political tempest is showing no signs of ebbing and has put the White House on the defensive.

Three congressional committees are investigating, a Justice Department criminal investigation is under way, President Barack Obama has replaced the IRS’ acting commissioner and two other top officials have stepped aside.

The Treasury Department released a statement Sunday saying the administration “has already taken aggressive and dramatic action to reduce conference spending.”

IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said Sunday that spending on large agency conferences with 50 or more participants fell from $37.6 million in the 2010 budget year to $4.9 million in 2012. The government’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1 the previous calendar year.

On Friday, the new acting commissioner, Danny Werfel, released a statement on the forthcoming report criticizing the Anaheim meeting.

“This conference is an unfortunate vestige from a prior era,” Werfel said. “While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred.”

Issa’s committee also released excerpts from interviews congressional investigators conducted last week with two IRS employees from the agency’s Cincinnati office. The excerpts omitted the names of those interviewed and provided no specifics about individuals in Washington who may have been involved.

One of the IRS employees said in an excerpt that they were told by a supervisor that the need to collect the reports came from Washington, and said that in early 2010 the Cincinnati office had sent copies of seven of the cases to Washington.

The other said “all my direction” came from an official the transcript said was in Washington.

One of the workers also expressed skepticism that the Cincinnati office originated the screening without direction from Washington, according to the excerpts.

Appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Issa said this conflicted with White House comments that have referred to misconduct by IRS workers in Cincinnati. Without naming White House spokesman Jay Carney, Issa said the administration’s “paid liar, their spokesperson” is “still making up things about what happens in calling this local rogue.”

He added, “This is a problem that was coordinated in all likelihood right out of Washington headquarters and we’re getting to proving it.”

In briefings with reporters, Carney has not referred to the Cincinnati IRS office as “rogue.”

“He’s good at throwing out outlandish charges but it’s unclear what he’s saying he lied about,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said of Issa’s remark.

Cummings said Issa’s comments conflicted with a Treasury inspector general’s report that provided no evidence that the Cincinnati office received orders on targeting from anyone else.

“Rather than lobbing unsubstantiated conclusions on national television for political reasons, we need to work in a bipartisan way to follow the facts where they lead,” Cummings said.

The interviews with IRS employees were conducted by Republican and Democratic aides on Issa’s committee and also involved aides from both parties from the House Ways and Means Committee.

One of the employees was a lower-level worker while the other was higher-ranked, said one congressional aide, but the committee did not release their names or titles.

The IRS Cincinnati office handles applications from around the country for tax-exempt status. A Treasury inspector general’s report in May said employees there began searching for applications from tea party and conservative groups in their hunt for organizations that primarily do work related to election campaigns.

That May report blamed “ineffective management” for letting that screening occur for more than 18 months between 2010 and 2012. But that report — and three hearings by congressional committees — have produced no specific evidence that the Cincinnati workers were ordered by anyone in Washington to target conservatives.

The latest report on IRS conferences will be the subject of a hearing Thursday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Karen Kraushaar, spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office, said public discussion of a report before it is released “serves no purpose and should generally be avoided.”

Werfel is scheduled to make his first congressional appearance as acting commissioner Monday when he appears before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

According to congressional aides briefed by the inspector general’s office, the IRS did not formally seek competitive bids for the city where the agency’s 2010 conference was held, for the event planner who assisted the agency, or for the speakers.

The aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a confidential congressional briefing, said other benefits given to some attendees at the Anaheim IRS conference included vouchers for free drinks and some tickets to attend Angels baseball games.

Two videos produced by the IRS were shown at the Anaheim conference. In one, agency employees did a parody of “Star Trek” while dressed like the TV show’s characters; the second shows more than a dozen IRS workers dancing on a stage. The two videos cost the agency more than $50,000 to make, aides said.

The lecturer who spoke about leadership through art produced six paintings of subjects that included Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jordan, the rock singer Bono and the Statue of Liberty, the aides said.

Published June 02, 2013 / Associated Press

IRS Agent Says Order to Flag Tea Party Came From DC

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irs_official_pleasds_fifthInterviews with a regional IRS agent involved in the agency targeting Tea Party groups for additional vetting appear to contradict the White House assertion that rogue agents, not the administration, were behind the effort, according to partial transcripts released Sunday by the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee.

The agent in the Cincinnati office, where the targeting took place, told congressional investigators that he or she was told in March 2010 by a supervisor to search for Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status and that “Washington, D.C., wanted some cases.”

The agent said that by April the office had held up roughly 40 cases and at least seven were sent to Washington. In addition, the agent said, a second IRS employee asked for information on two other specific applicants in which Washington was interested.

When asked by congressional investigators about allegations and press reports about two agents in Cincinnati essentially being responsible for the targeting, the agent responded: “It’s impossible. As an agent we are controlled by many, many people. We have to submit many, many reports. So the chance of two agents being rogue and doing things like that could never happen. … They were basically throwing us underneath the bus.”

The administration has denied involvement in the scandal, repeatedly saying it was limited to only the two Cincinnati agents.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has appeared to give conflicting statements on the scandal, including whether top White House officials knew only of the inspector general’s probe into the targeting of politically conservative groups or if they were told about the bombshell findings when briefed in late April.

Carney also said the top officials decided not to tell President Obama to avoid any possibility of the White House interfering in the investigation.

On Sunday, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Affair Committee, accused Carney of being untruthful about the scandal.

“Their paid liar, their spokesperson … he’s still making up things about what happened and calling this a local rogue,” Issa said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The congressman also provided the network with a copy of the transcript in which the agent said he or she followed directions from Washington. However, when asked if the Tea Party scrutiny came directly from Washington, the agency said “I believe so.”

Officials have also said the targeting was not politically motivated, though it appeared to last until nearly the end of the 2012 election cycle and did not appear to target liberal-leaning political groups.

At least three congressional committees are already investigating the scandal, which widened last week to include revelations about the agency spending roughly $60,000 on team-building videos that spoofed the TV shows “Star Trek” and “Gilligan’s Island.” New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has vowed to conduct a full investigation.

In addition, the Treasury Department’s inspector general released a preliminary report this weekend that shows the IRS spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees from 2010 to 2012, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with the full report to be released later this week.

Steve Miller, the acting IRS director when the scandal broke, resigned May 15 after Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asked for his resignation.

IRS Chief Shulman Visited White House 157 Times During Tea Party Scrutinizing

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irs_visit_white_houseThe former head of the IRS visited the White House more times than any Cabinet member, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller, raising questions about the nature of those visits — particularly around the time the agency was targeting conservative groups.

The Caller analysis of White House visitor logs showed former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times under the Obama administration.

Even Attorney General Eric Holder, one of Obama’s closest allies, visited only 62 times according to the records.

The records may not reflect every single visit, as some officials do not have to sign in every time they come to the White House.

But they could lend weight to concerns voiced by lawmakers at a hearing last week about the frequency of Shulman’s White House contact. During the time period when the IRS was singling out Tea Party and other groups for extra vetting — as they applied for tax-exempt status — Shulman visited the White House 118 times.

Asked to explain the visits, Shulman gave lawmakers a list of possible reasons.

“The Easter Egg roll with my kids … questions about the administratibility of tax policy … our budget, us helping the Department of Education streamline application processes for financial aid,” he said.

According to the Caller analysis, no other top official logged more than 100 visits.

The official with the next-highest number of visits — close to 90 — was Rebecca Blank, former deputy secretary and now acting secretary of the Commerce Department. Next in line was Thomas Perez, a top Justice Department official who has since been nominated to lead the Labor Department.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner each logged fewer than 50 visits.

Former IRS officials have testified that the scrutiny of conservative groups, while inappropriate, was not politically motivated.

Published May 30, 2013 / FoxNews.com

VOTER FRAUD – 25 PERCENT OF OHIO VOTERS DON’T EXIST?

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voter-fraudIn the eight months since Human Events and The Columbus Dispatch reported that several counties in the major Swing State have voter rolls that boast literally 110 percent voter registration, the Obama-Holder Justice Department has yet to investigate the widespread voter fraud that is occurring in particularly Left-leaning districts.

Human Events reported:

“In two counties, the number of registered voters actually exceeds the voting age population: Northwestern Ohio’s Wood County shows 109 registered voters for every 100 eligible, while in Lawrence County along the Ohio River it’s a mere 104 registered per 100 eligible.”

Human Events also said that, an additional “31 more counties report over 90 percent voter registration, which is a good 20 percent higher than the national average.” 

Furthermore, the Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted, said that he sent Attorney General Holder a letter in February of 2012, which warned him that “Common sense says that the odds of voter fraud increase the longer these ineligible voters are allowed to populate our rolls… I simply cannot accept that.”

Holder, nor anyone under his command, got back to the Secretary of State before the state turned Obama-Blue in November of 2012.  The Justice Department still has yet to respond.

john hustedMeanwhile, voter fraud continues to be a major issue in Ohio and around the country as a whole.

Human Events said that nationally, “The Pew Center for the States estimates about 24 million ineligible voter registrations, including more than 1.8 million dead people listed as voters; about 2.75 million with voter registrations in more than one state; and about 12 million voter records with incorrect addresses.”

While these numbers are staggering, what is even more shocking is that despite the Justice Department being made aware of these facts, Eric Holder still opposes a national requirement for voters to show ID in order to cast their ballot.

People have to present ID to cash a check, buy a beer, test drive a car, and sign their children out when they get picked up for day care.

Why does Eric Holder think casting a ballot to elect local, state, and national leaders is so much less significant?

By Joe Calandra Jr.

Tea Party Groups Sue Over Targeting

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Lerner_IRS_FifthWASHINGTON –  A Washington advocacy group filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the IRS and top Obama administration officials on behalf of 25 Tea Party-related groups, marking the biggest lawsuit to date over the tax agency’s practice of targeting conservatives for additional scrutiny.

The 29-page lawsuit named Attorney General Eric Holder, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and several IRS officials — including Lois Lerner, the division director who refused to testify before Congress last week. The suit claims the constitutional rights of 25 Tea Party and other conservative groups were violated when tax workers singled them out for a drawn-out vetting process.

The American Center for Law and Justice is arguing that the Obama administration overstepped its authority and violated the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act as well as the IRS’ own rules and regulations.

“The whole timeline and the whole narrative that the White House has put forth does not hold up to the truth,” ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow told Fox News on Wednesday.

In its suit, the ACLJ wants the government to admit wrongdoing. The suit also seeks to protect the groups from future IRS retaliation as well as compensatory and punitive monetary damages.

“The IRS and the federal government are not going to get away with this unlawful targeting of conservative groups,” Sekulow said later in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “As this unconstitutional scheme continues even today, the only way to stop this flagrant and arrogant abuse of our clients’ rights is to file a federal lawsuit, which we have done.”

Sekulow says the suit is intended to “send a very powerful message to the IRS and the Obama administration.”

Emails to the White House and IRS for comment were not immediately returned. Administration officials have said that while the additional scrutiny was inappropriate it was not partisan and therefore no laws were broken.

Allegations that the IRS had been targeting conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status date back years but a government watchdog report released this month backed up the claims.

The White House has spent most of the last two weeks trying to contain the fallout from the scandal. Multiple congressional panels are currently investigating the allegations. The Justice Department has also launched its own investigation into whether the IRS broke the rules.

By last Friday, two of the agency’s top tax officials had been ousted from the agency. One was outgoing acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who was named in the suit. Another official, Lerner, the director of the division that singled out the conservative groups, was placed on leave — apparently after she refused to resign. She, too, was named in the suit.

Lerner last week invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to testify.

Separately, last week two other Tea Party-related groups filed lawsuits against the IRS.

On May 20, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots filed the first federal suit against the national tax agency. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Cincinnati, seeks group status for “all conservative and libertarian groups targeted for additional scrutiny” between March 2010 and May 2013. It’s also seeking unspecified monetary damages for the alleged violation of its constitutional rights and the costs associated with trying to comply with IRS demands.

The lawsuit is being backed by Citizens for Self-Governance, a group launched by Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler.

Meckler claims that IRS agents demanded massive amounts of disclosure of information not authorized by the Internal Revenue Code or any other federal law. The suit alleges that the tactic was used to delay or dissuade conservative groups from going through with their applications.
The IRS acknowledged that employees at its Cincinnati office had targeted conservative groups, creating massive amounts of paperwork or rejecting applications altogether.

On May 21, Texas-based True the Vote, filed its own suit against the IRS and is demanding the government admit its mistake, grant the group tax-exempt status and pay for thousands of dollars in damages the group says it suffered.

Published May 29, 2013 / FoxNews.com

FEELING THE HEAT: Liberal Attorney Joins Calls For Holder to Be ‘Fired’

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eric-holderTop Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee openly challenged Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday over his testimony two weeks ago in which he claimed to be unaware of any “potential prosecution” of the press, despite knowing about an investigation that targeted a Fox News reporter.

Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., R-Wis., voiced “great concern” in a letter to Holder. They asked a litany of questions about the department’s dealings with the press, and pointedly alleged that the Fox News case “contradicts” his testimony at a May 15 hearing.

“It is imperative that the Committee, the Congress, and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement,” they wrote.

The letter comes a day after the committee confirmed it was looking into Holder’s testimony. Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, Holder insisted that “the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material” is not something he was involved in or knew about.

But days later, it emerged that the Justice Department obtained access to the emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen — after filing an affidavit that accused him of being a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in the leak of sensitive material regarding North Korea. Rosen was never charged, and never prosecuted. But he was effectively accused of violating the federal Espionage Act.

“The media reports and statements issued by the Department regarding the search warrants for Mr. Rosen’s emails appear to be at odds with your sworn testimony before the Committee,” Goodlatte and Sensenbrenner wrote in the letter Wednesday. They did not accuse Holder of committing perjury, but noted he was “under oath.”

Among other questions, they asked Holder how he could claim to have never heard of the potential prosecution of the press. And they asked him to clarify whether he “personally approved” the search warrant request.

The top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, said Tuesday, though, he thinks Holder “was forthright and did not mislead the Committee.”

“Certainly, there are policy disagreements as to how the First Amendment should apply to these series of leak investigations being conducted by the Justice Department, and that is and should be an area for the Committee to consider.  However, there is no need to turn a policy disagreement into allegations of misconduct,” he said.

Holder could argue that, in fact, Rosen was never prosecuted — and so his testimony was not misleading.

A federal law enforcement official said last week that the department had to establish probable cause in the affidavit in order to obtain the search warrant, per the terms of the Privacy Protection Act.

“Saying that there is probable cause to believe that someone has committed a crime and actually charging the person with that crime are two very different things,” the official said.

Meanwhile, one of the country’s most prominent liberal legal scholars called Wednesday for Holder to be “fired,” joining the growing list of left-leaning pundits slamming his department’s pursuit of journalists’ phone and email records.

Jonathan Turley, an attorney and law professor at George Washington University, hammered Holder in a USA Today column Wednesday. He charged that Holder has “supervised a comprehensive erosion of privacy rights, press freedom and due process,” aided by Democrats who looked the other way.

But in the wake of the reporter records scandal, Democrats are starting to join with Republicans in questioning whether Holder continues to be the right man to lead the Department of Justice in President Obama’s second term.

Turley, in his column, referenced a recent call by the Republican National Committee chairman for Holder’s resignation. “Unlike the head of the RNC, I am neither a Republican nor conservative, and I believe Holder should be fired,” Turley wrote.

While Democrats largely defended Holder when his department came under fire for the botched anti-gunrunning sting Operation Fast and Furious, they’ve been less forgiving over the move this year to seize two months of phone records from Associated Press offices. That bombshell was compounded by the revelation that the department seized phone and email records for Fox News offices. The scandal grew as the department acknowledged Friday that Holder was involved in the court document that accused Rosen of being a likely criminal “co-conspirator,” as part of the department’s successful argument for obtaining a search warrant for Rosen’s emails.

According to a report in The Daily Beast, aides say Holder has started to feel regret for the investigations. Under Obama’s direction, he is starting a review of DOJ policies and meeting with representatives from the media.

A Justice Department official said Wednesday that Holder will hold meetings with several Washington bureau chiefs of national news organizations over the next two days.

“These meetings will begin a series of discussions that will continue to take place over the coming weeks. During these sessions, the Attorney General will engage with a diverse and representative group of news media organizations, including print, wires, radio, television, online media and news and trade associations,” the official said.

Turley, in his column, scoffed at this course of action, since Holder was involved in the surveillance — at least the surveillance involving Fox News — in the first place. “Such an inquiry offers no reason to trust its conclusions,” Turley wrote.

He described Holder as a trusted Obama “sin eater,” swallowing the worst criticisms to shield the president.

“Indeed, these sins should be fatal for any attorney general,” Turley wrote.

Published May 29, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Rep. Michele Bachmann Says She Will Not Run for Re-election in 2014

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michele_bachmanCongresswoman Michele Bachmann says she will not run for re-election in 2014, ending her tenure as the representative from Minnesota’s sixth congressional district after four terms.In a video released on her website early Wednesday, the Tea Party favorite says that, in her opinion, if presidents can only serve eight years that length of time is sufficient for her to serve in Congress.

Bachmann claims her decision was not influenced by concerns that she would not be re-elected, or by recent inquiries into her 2012 presidential campaign.

In January, a former Bachmann aide filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming Bachmann made improper payments to an Iowa state senator who was the state chairman of her 2012 presidential run. The aide, Peter Waldron, also accused Bachmann of other FEC violations.

Bachmann says she considered not running again for her House seat in 2012 after her failed presidential bid, but felt another Republican candidate would not have enough time to adequately prepare for the race.

“I will continue to work overtime for the next 18 months in Congress defending the same constitutional conservative values we have worked so hard on together,” Bachmann says in the video.

Bachmann had given few clues she was considering leaving Congress. Her fundraising operation was churning out the regular pitches for the small-dollar donations that Bachmann corralled so well over the years, and she had an ad running on Twin Cities television talking about her role in opposing President Obama’s health law.

As for her plans beyond Congress, Bachmann said, “There is no future option or opportunity, be it directly in the political arena or otherwise, that I won’t be giving serious consideration if it can help save and protect our great nation.”

Published May 29, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report

California Dems Aim to Curb Oil Bonanza With Anti-Fracking Bills

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cal_frackingCalifornia is on the verge of a new gold rush. Expanded hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — at the Monterey Shale formation is sparking estimates that 15 billion barrels of oil could be accessed, along with millions of jobs and huge contributions to the domestic energy supply.Even the state’s green-friendly Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, says “the potential is extraordinary.”But standing in the way is a flurry of anti-fracking bills. At last count, 10 were on the table, all introduced by Democrats seeking tighter controls over the controversial technology.Some of the measures take aim at how crude is extracted from rock layers beyond the reach of conventional drilling.Others call for full disclosure of what chemicals are used in the high-pressure process, how they’re removed, and where they’re stored.California State Sen. Fran Pavley, a longtime environmental activist, is pushing for a fracking moratorium until more studies are done on the potential risks, particularly to the groundwater supply.

“With hydraulic fracturing, hundreds of gallons of water, laced with chemicals, sand … can go horizontally underground. … We don’t know enough,” she said.

Fracking has been around in California for decades. It’s a standard step in oil drilling, and while health problems have been reported in states like Colorado and Pennsylvania, the technology has a clean safety record in the Golden State. But critics argue it’s virtually impossible to know exactly where, or how often, fracking operations are occurring.

“Companies aren’t required to report fracking to anyone — not the state or the federal government,” said Patrick Sullivan, with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Some have made their fracking public, but they certainly don’t have to.”

Even so, supporters say bills seeking more studies and rules are, at this point, premature — and could jeopardize a potential bonanza.

“Why would you want to curtail energy production, with a technology that has proved to be safe, and (deny) the folks in the regions of the state where those benefits are going to accrue? That just doesn’t make any sense,” argued Tupper Hull, with the Western States Petroleum Association.

At public workshops, state regulators who oversee drilling in California are outlining their own preliminary rules. They argue once they’re formally approved, these rules will make anti-fracking laws unnecessary.

But some legislators aren’t convinced those regulations will be enough, as energy companies aggressively eye the vast Monterey Shale, and the promise of the biggest boom ever in this oil-rich state.

By Claudia Cowan / Published May 28, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Lawmakers facing recall bids over strict gun laws in Colorado

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Daniel WhiteCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –  A Democratic campaign office here usually would be quiet this time of year, a few weeks after the state’s legislature wrapped up work and lawmakers headed off to summer vacations.

But even though it’s not an election year, the office is in full campaign mode, with volunteers working the phones and reviewing maps in anticipation of a new front of modern campaigning — the recall phase.

A handful of Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado face recall petition efforts in what looks to be the first wave of fallout over legislative votes to limit gun rights. In an era in which recall efforts are booming, from governor’s offices down to town councils and school boards, the Colorado efforts will serve as the first test of gun-rights groups’ ability to punish elected officials who expanded gun control laws after last year’s Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., shooting massacres.

In Colorado, gun-rights activists wasted no time seeking recalls to oust state Senate President John Morse and three other Democratic lawmakers. The targeted lawmakers weren’t necessarily the main advocates for ratcheting back gun rights, but all come from districts with enough Republicans to give opponents hope they can boot out the Democrats and replace them with lawmakers friendlier to guns. Colorado is the only state outside the East Coast to have adopted significant statewide gun controls this year.

“Colorado seems to be the testing ground for some of the gun measures, so this has national implications,” said Victor Head, a plumber from Pueblo who is organizing a recall attempt against a Democratic senator.

Two of four recall efforts in Colorado already have evaporated from lack of support. But in Colorado Springs, Morse opponents are piling up signatures in gun shops and outside libraries and grocery stores. The National Rifle Association sent a political mailer saying it was coordinating the recall effort with local groups, though the local recall petitioners have denied that. The NRA did not return calls for comment on their involvement in the Colorado Springs effort.

Morse has mounted a campaign to urge voters not to sign petitions. In an indication of the national stakes, that push is largely funded by a $20,000 contribution from a national progressive group called America Votes. The Morse campaign said the donation came through the group’s local Colorado office.

The recall group’s main funding comes from a $14,000 contribution from a nonprofit run by a local conservative consultant, Laura Carno. She said that contribution was made possible by some out-of-state donors.

“People in other states that are further down this road, like New York and Massachusetts, are calling up and saying `What can we do to help?”‘ Carno said. “This isn’t what Colorado stands for.”

In an interview, Morse seemed resigned to facing a recall vote after signatures are verified. He believes national gun-rights supporters are using his district to make a national statement about the political peril officials face if they take on gun control.

“That’s what’s going on here. They want to take out the Senate president,” Morse said.

The organizer of the Morse recall effort, Anthony Garcia, didn’t disagree. Garcia doesn’t live in Morse’s district but in the northern Colorado town of Brighton. Garcia said Morse was targeted not just because of his votes for gun control but because he’s a prominent Democrat from a competitive district.

“It’s as much about saying Colorado is angry as it is about getting one guy out,” Garcia said. “Legislators need to know when citizens are outraged that they can’t ignore the people.”

Immediate accountability seems to be a common thread in recall attempts, said Joshua Spivak, who tracks recall elections nationwide at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in New York. Technology makes it easier to organize, Spivak said, and modern-day voters watching political activity in real time on Twitter and TV aren’t content to wait until another election to show their displeasure when they feel ignored.

Spivak said at least 169 officials at all levels of government faced recalls last year, up from 151 the year before. The number this year could go even higher, he said.

Technology isn’t the only explanation.

“The other reason,” Spivak said, “is that they succeed.”

Most recalls actually fail, as in the case last year of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who survived a recall election after attacking collective bargaining rights for state employees. But compared with re-election campaigns, when incumbents face up to 75 percent likelihood of winning, Spivak said recall elections have a much lower rate of success for incumbents.

In Colorado last year, seven recall efforts made it to ballots, all local races, Spivak said. Of those seven, two officials were ousted and two more resigned.

Nationwide, 108 recalled officials last year lost or left office after a recall. That makes the recall a powerful tool — and one likely to be used more often, Spivak said.

Back in Colorado Springs, a couple of Morse opponents defended the recall attempt as the best way for citizens to keep their representatives accountable.

“I believe in gun rights. And he didn’t listen. He’s supposed to represent the people, and when he doesn’t do that, what are supposed to do? Nothing?” asked Bianca McCarl, a 40-year-old merchandiser who is supporting Morse’s recall.

Assuming the Morse recall goes to ballots, with an election to be held by late summer, the incumbent holds a slight party registration advantage in the district. He believes most voters liked his gun votes.

He’s counting on the support from voters like Joan Muir, a retiree who placed a pro-Morse sticker on her car bumper after seeing other cars carrying messages calling for his ouster. In an interview, Muir said she was dismayed by the recall campaign.

“I live here. I’m for gun control,” Muri said. “I don’t care for guns, period, so they don’t speak for all of us when they say Morse didn’t listen to the people.”

Published May 28, 2013 / Associated Press

Dem Unions Split from President on ObamaCare

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Obamacare_UnionsLabor unions that have solidly backed President Obama are splitting with him over ObamaCare — with one calling for the “repeal or complete reform” of the president’s signature health-care law.

Union leaders argue insurance costs for millions of workers will increase under the president’s health-care plan so they might have to drop their existing plan, despite Obama promising the opposite.

Their primary concern is the multi-employer or so-called Taft-Hartley plans that cover unionized workers in retail, construction, transportation and other industries that frequently use seasonal and temporary employment.

The union leaders say the roughly 20 million people covered by the plans will likely have higher premiums because the Affordable Care Act does not include tax subsidies for them.

However, workers seeking coverage in the upcoming, state-based marketplaces for insurance, known as exchanges, can qualify for subsidies.

Union leaders are now hearkening back to what Obama repeatedly said starting in 2009: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”

Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, wrote in a recent op-ed that that scenario “is not going to be true for millions of workers now” and the realization “makes an untruth out of what the president said.”

The plans are jointly administered by unions and smaller employers that pool resources to offer continuous coverage, even during periods of unemployment.

The union plans were already more costly to run than traditional single-employer health plans. And the Affordable Care Act only added to the cost by mandating essentially all plans cover dependents up to age 26, eliminate annual or lifetime coverage limits and extend coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

“We’re concerned that employers will be increasingly tempted to drop coverage through our plans and let our members fend for themselves on the health exchanges,” said David Treanor, director of health care initiatives at the Operating Engineers union.

Other unions expressing their concerns include the hotel workers union UNITE HERE, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, according to The Hill newspaper.

They are joined in such concerns by at least two congressional Democrats, House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland, and retiring Montana Sen. Max Baucus.

Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, recently said implementing the law could be a “train wreck.”

The bulk of the law is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

Bob Laszewski, a health care industry consultant, said the real fear among unions is that many labor contracts are already very expensive and now employers are going to have an alternative to very expensive labor health benefits.

“If the workers can get benefits that are as good through ObamaCare in the exchanges, then why do you need the union?” Laszewski said. “In my mind, what the unions are fearing is that workers for the first time can get very good health benefits for a subsidized cost someplace other than the employer.”

However, Laszewski said it was unlikely employers would drop the union plans immediately because they are subject to ongoing collective bargaining agreements.

Labor unions have been among the president’s closest allies, spending millions of dollars to help him win re-election and help Democrats keep their majority in the Senate. The wrangling over health care comes as the 2014 elections near and union membership steadily declines amid attacks on public employee unions in state legislatures in Wisconsin and elsewhere across the country.

Union officials have been working with the administration for more than a year to try to get a regulatory fix that would allow low-income workers in their plans to receive subsidies. But after months of negotiations, labor leaders say they have been told it won’t happen.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman declined to discuss the specifics of negotiations but said the law helps bring down costs and improve quality of care.

In addition, union officials also reportedly met privately this month with Senate Democratic leaders to discuss the issue.

Unions say their health care plans in many cases offer better coverage with broader doctors’ networks and lower premiums than what would be available in the exchanges, particularly when it comes to part-time workers.

Unions backed the health care legislation because they expected it to curb inflation in health coverage, reduce the number of uninsured Americans and level the playing field for companies that were already providing quality benefits. While unions knew there were lingering issues after the law passed, they believed those could be fixed through rulemaking.

“In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer-sponsored coverage could keep it,” Kinsey Robinson, president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, said last month. “I am therefore calling for repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act.”

Published May 25, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this story.

IRS Official Waived Rights to 5th by Making Statement of Innocence, Headed Back to Testify

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Lerner_IRS_FifthHouse Republicans are considering trying to haul back into the hearing room the embattled IRS official who refused to testify Wednesday, claiming she may have inadvertently waived her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent by delivering an opening statement.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division which oversaw the controversial targeting of conservative groups, caused confusion on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning when she — according to some lawmakers — tried to have it both ways. She pleaded the Fifth, saying she would refuse to answer questions from a House committee probing the IRS program. But before she did so, she delivered a defiant opening statement declaring she had done nothing wrong.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, questioned whether she had “effectively waived” her rights, but ultimately dismissed her from the hearing room. But Issa and others are now strongly considering trying to call her back.

“If you could do it the way she wants to do it, then every defendant would come, say ‘I didn’t rob the bank, and I’m not going to answer the prosecutor’s questions,'” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Fox News. “So we’d all in life like to get out our version without having to answer anyone else’s questions. It’s just not fair. And I don’t think it’s legal.”

Issa made clear by the end of Wednesday’s hearing that he was strongly considering calling Lerner back.

“I must consider this, so although I excuse Ms. Lerner, subject to a recall, I am looking into the possibility of recalling her and insisting that she answer questions in light of a waiver,” Issa said.

He said for that reason, the hearing would stand in recess, but not be adjourned.

In her opening statement, Lerner asserted her innocence.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

Lerner is represented by lawyer William W. Taylor, who is noted for winning a dismissal of all charges against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a high-profile sexual assault case.

It’s unclear whether Lerner can avoid another round of questioning by the committee.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee who was as tough as any Republican on the IRS witnesses Wednesday, said he thought Lerner was still in her right to refuse to answer questions.

“I’d like to see (hearings) run like a federal court. Unfortunately, this is not a federal court and she does have a right,” Cummings said Wednesday. “And we have to adhere to that.”

Former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, who stayed to testify Wednesday, endured a tough round of questioning for the second day in a row. Lawmakers were visibly frustrated as he struggled to explain why he didn’t notify Congress after learning of the practice last year.

But lawmakers are itching to question Lerner, having aired a string of complaints about her own failure to notify Congress.

Lerner touched off the public controversy when, at an American Bar Association conference this month, she apologized for the IRS’ practice of targeting conservative organizations for additional scrutiny. It was the first time the agency acknowledged the practice.

She said she hadn’t revealed the information sooner, because she was never asked. But just two days before the ABA conference, Lerner was specifically asked about the investigation.

Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., who had asked her about it, later called her answer evasive.

“The bottom line is you cannot lie to Congress, and you cannot be evasive, you cannot try to mislead Congress,” he said.

Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com

DOJ Seized Phone Records for Fox News Reporter, and Parents

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james-rosenNewly uncovered court documents reveal the Justice Department seized records of several Fox News phone lines as part of a leak investigation — even listing a number that, according to one source, matches the home phone number of a reporter’s parents.

The seizure was ordered in addition to a court-approved search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s personal emails. In the affidavit seeking that warrant, an FBI agent called Rosen a likely criminal “co-conspirator,” citing a wartime law called the Espionage Act.

Rosen was not charged, but his movements and conversations were tracked. A source close to the leak investigation confirmed to Fox News that the government obtained phone records for several numbers that match Fox News numbers out of the Washington bureau.

Further, the source confirmed to Fox News that one number listed matched the number for Rosen’s parents in Staten Island.

Rosen’s father, attorney Myron Rosen, told FoxNews.com he found the records seizure to be “downright ludicrous.”

“My son and his wife call us all the time, and we talk about grandchildren,” he said. “We don’t talk about nuclear proliferation.”

He continued: “The fact that they had our phone records, it shows how crazy they are, how desperate.”

The government began to push back Wednesday on some of the information circulating about the case. The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr., who is prosecuting the case, stressed in a statement Wednesday that his office “did not wiretap the phones of any reporter or news organization” or “monitor or track the phone calls of any reporter’s parents.”

“We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when grand jury subpoenas are issued for phone records of media organizations, and strive to strike the proper balance between the public’s interest in the free flow of information and the public’s interest in the protection of national security and the effective enforcement of our criminal laws,” the statement said.

Asked about the documents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told Fox News earlier that he “can’t comment on an ongoing criminal investigation.”

The documents filed in October 2011 appear to show exchanges that match the specific locations of Fox News’ White House, Pentagon, State Department and other operations. The last four digits of each of the phone numbers listed are redacted in the government filing.

Among the numbers listed were several that start with the area code and exchange, 202-824 — which is an area code and exchange for the Fox News Washington bureau.

The phone information was included in a long list of numbers, email addresses and other details that prosecutors shared with defense attorneys shortly after the alleged leaker was indicted. The document said the government had already obtained a trove of material from the defendant, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, including his passport applications, State Department badge records, emails, computer and hard drive.

Click to read the documents.

Meanwhile, the White House Correspondents’ Association spoke out on incidents involving two news organizations. The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of phone records from the Associated Press and obtained a search warrant for the personal emails of Fox News’ James Rosen. The information about the phone records was uncovered Tuesday.

In the latter case, an FBI agent also claimed in an affidavit that Rosen was possibly a criminal “co-conspirator.”

Though no charges were brought against Rosen, the White House Correspondents’ Association said no journalist should even face that threat for doing their job.

“Reporters should never be threatened with prosecution for the simple act of doing their jobs,” the WHCA said in a statement Tuesday. “The problem is that in two recent cases, one involving Fox News’ James Rosen and the other focused on the Associated Press, serious questions have been raised about whether our government has gotten far too aggressive in its monitoring of reporters’ movements, phone records, and even personal email.”

The statement went on: “We do not know all of the facts in these cases, so we will just say this in general: Our country was founded on the principle of freedom of the press and nothing is more sacred to our profession. So we stand in strong solidarity with our colleagues who have been scrutinized. And in terms of the administration, ultimately what will matter more in all of these cases is action not words.”

Earlier, Carney said President Obama believes reporters shouldn’t be prosecuted for doing their jobs. The association said it agreed.

The WHCA’s board is led by Fox News’ Ed Henry.

The statement comes after court documents showed the Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about Rosen’s conversations and visits to the State Department. This included a search warrant for his personal emails.

In an affidavit, an FBI agent claimed there’s evidence the Fox News correspondent broke the law, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”

Michael Clemente, Fox News’ executive vice president of news, defended Rosen in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter,” Clemente said. “In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

In the case involving Rosen, a government adviser was accused of leaking information after a 2009 story was published online which said North Korea planned to respond to looming U.N. sanctions with another nuclear test.

Rosen said Monday that “as a reporter, I always honor the confidentiality of my dealings with all of my sources.”

The Department of Justice said in a statement that “leaks of classified information to the press can pose a serious risk of harm to our national security and it is important that we pursue these matters using appropriate law enforcement tools.”

The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia also said the government, before seeking approval for the search warrant, “exhausted all reasonable non-media alternatives for collecting this evidence.”

Click for more from The New Yorker.

Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Bret Baier and FoxNews.com’s Judson Berger contributed to this report.

IRS Official Who Refused to Testify Facing Scrutiny Over Scandal, Past

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irs_official_pleasds_fifthThe IRS official who refused to testify at a House hearing Wednesday has become a key focus of the congressional investigations into the IRS practice of singling out conservative groups.

Now under the protection of her lawyers and the Fifth Amendment, Lois Lerner is facing a maelstrom of controversy.

Members of Congress are calling her evasive, and question why she didn’t reveal the program sooner — plus her history at the Federal Elections Commission is coming under scrutiny.

Lerner touched off the public controversy when, at an American Bar Association conference earlier this month, she apologized for the IRS’ practice of targeting conservative organizations for additional scrutiny. It was the first time the agency acknowledged the practice.

“They used names like Tea Party or patriots … and they selected cases simply because the application had those names in the title,” she admitted.

She said she hadn’t revealed the information sooner, because she was never asked. But just two days before the ABA  conference, Lerner was  specifically asked about the investigation.

Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., asked her if she could “comment briefly on the status on the IRS investigation into these political not-for-profits.”

She said: “Well there’s a questionnaire that began this discussion and there’s also a questionnaire out there that is seeking info from 501 c3,4,5 organizations.”

Crowley later called her answer evasive.

“The bottom line is you cannot lie to Congress, and you cannot be evasive, you cannot try to mislead Congress,” he said.

In the 1990’s, Lerner also served as chief of enforcement at the Federal Elections Commission.

Under her direction, the FEC undertook the largest enforcement action in its history — suing the Christian Coalition for violating campaign laws. The Christian Coalition won, but in one deposition, FEC lawyers asked a defendant if televangelist Pat Robertson prayed for him.

James Bopp, the Christian Coalition’s lawyer, said he was “shocked and appalled” by that.

“Both political activity and religious activity are specifically protected by the First Amendment,” he said.

When Bopp learned years later that Lerner had been promoted to an IRS position, he became concerned.

“She was in effect being promoted for what she had done at the Federal Election Commission and now was going to be expected … to replicate that at the IRS and now we know that’s exactly what happened,” he said.

Lerner is represented by lawyer William W. Taylor, who is noted for winning a dismissal of all charges against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a high-profile sexual assault case.

Lerner said at Wednesday’s hearing that she had done nothing wrong.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

By Doug McKelway / Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com

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