‘We Have a Problem with You, and You Have a Problem Maintaining Your Credibility’: House Republicans Slam IRS Commissioner as They Subpoena a White House Lawyer in ‘Missing Emails’ Case

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Photo Credit: APRepublicans dropped a hammer on IRS Commissioner John Koskinen during a testy hearing covering the disappearance of emails tied to the agency’s tea party targeting scandal.

The emails, covering the period January 2009 to April 2011, belonged to embattled former official Lois Lerner and could shed light on whether an expansive scheme to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny was guided by members of Congress or administration officials outside the IRS.

‘The committee requested all of Lois Lerner’s emails over a year ago,’ said House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa. ‘And we subpoenaed the emails in August 2013 and again in February 2014. … You worked to cover up the fact they were missing and only came forward to fess up on a Friday afternoon after you had been caught red-handed.’

‘You personally did not cause the targeting,’ he told Koskinen, referring to the tea party scandal. ‘You personally did not destroy the emails. But by your actions and your deception, you now own this scandal.’

‘We have a problem with you,’ Issa sniped at the front end of a three-hour, 36-minute ordeal, ‘and you have a problem maintaining your credibility.’

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Isis Hoodies and T-Shirts For Sale Online As Islamist ‘Brand’ Goes Global

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Photo Credit: IBTimesIts social media savvy has made Isis a “terror brand” to rival al-Qaida, with supporters worldwide following the brutal exploits of the Islamist group through its Twitter updates or even downloading the group’s own app.

Now supporters can show their loyalty to the group by sporting a T-shirt or hoodie emblazoned with the group’s black and white jihadist logo, after the items went on sale on Facebook.

The T-shirts, which are being sold on Indonesia-based websites, cost as little as $7 to $13, and have been on sale for several months, reports Vocativ.

With more than 9,000 likes on Facebook, retailer Zirah Moslem on its website calls itself a purveyor of “Islamic style” and sells clothing that promotes a range of Islamist groups.

In one design, emblazoned with the slogan “Mujahideen Around the World/ United We Stand”, figures wearing keffiyeh and brandishing weapons pose like characters on a Hollywood movie poster.

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S.D. Republican Party Calls for Obama Impeachment

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Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

The resolution says Obama has “violated his oath of office in numerous ways.” It specifically cites the release of five Taliban combatants in a trade for captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, Obama’s statement that people could keep insurance companies, and recent EPA regulations on power plants.

“Therefore, be it resolved that the South Dakota Republican Party calls on our U.S. Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States,” the resolution reads.

Allen Unruh of Sioux Falls sponsored the resolution.

“I’ve got a thick book on impeachable offenses of the president,” Unruh said, calling on South Dakota to “send a symbolic message that liberty shall be the law of the land.”

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Mexico’s World Cup Coach Defends Homophobic Chant

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Photo Credit: Ian MacNicol / Getty ImagesMexico coach Miguel Herrera downplayed a homophobic chant that Mexican fans hurl at opposing goalkeepers during matches, arguing that it’s just a “folksy” part of the game, and is not being used in discriminatory fashion.

Herrera told Mexico’s Radio Red on Friday that fans who chant the word “puto” during Mexico games are not attempting to offend homosexuals.

“This is something that’s used to pressure the opposing team’s goalie…it’s something that we’re not really worried about,” Herrera said from Mexico’s training camp in Brazil.

“FIFA should be worried about more serious things,” the Mexican coach added in his interview with Radio Red.

Puto translates roughly into faggot, in English, though in Mexico the word is also used to describe someone who is cowardly.

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The Establishment’s Conspiracy to Silence Conservatives Could Destroy Our Country

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Photo Credit: APThe establishment – defined less by party than by power – is using every weapon it has to shut you up, to marginalize you, and to beat you into submission. In the short term it may work. In the long term it promises disaster.

The key to any democratic republic is legitimacy. If the system allows a full and fair airing of different views before a decision is made, groups that lose the debate will accept the decision. You are disappointed if the other side won fair and square. But you are furious if the other side cheated.

And all the other side does today is cheat. Worse, it does so with a mindless cynicism, having discovered that if other elements of the establishment play along – like a mainstream media that refuses to perform its accountability function – then there are no immediate consequences. Over time, this risks of alienating nearly half of our citizens.

Sometimes the establishment cheats subtly. It can take the form of mockery, like when the President tried to belittle into silence the millions of Americans who doubt the climate change scam for believing that if the globe was really warming then the globe would actually be getting warmer.

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Remember The Student Who Wanted To Wear His Uniform To Graduation?

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views A Marine who made headlines last year when he was not allowed to wear his uniform for his high school graduation has been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal Brandon Garabrant, 19, graduated from Marine Corps bootcamp the same day as his high school graduation in June 2013. It was his desire to wear his uniform in lieu of a graduation gown.

ConVal High School rejected his request, and Garabrant had to wear his uniform under his graduation cap and gown.

Principal Brian Pickering said the policy was in place so Garabrant would not be singled-out from his classmates at an event meant to celebrate the accomplishments of the entire class.

Upon hearing of Garabrant’s death, principal Pickering told WMUR9, “We are all shocked and deeply saddened by his passing and we are incredibly grateful for his service to our country.”

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Justice Department Reportedly Nears Settlement with BNP Paribas Over Sanctions Violations

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / CHARLES PLATIAUU.S. prosecutors and BNP Paribas have reached an agreement on the general outline of a deal that would require France’s largest lender to pay between $8 billion and $9 billion in fines for allegedly covering up $30 billion in transactions that violate U.S. sanctions, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal would also require BNP plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and a temporary ban on making transactions in U.S. dollars.

Prosecutors claim that BNP used regional overseas banks between 2002 and 2007 to route funds linked to companies and government agencies based in Sudan. The Journal reports that most of the transactions were related to oil deals. In 2007, the bank announced that it would no longer do business in Sudan, which was being accused by the U.S. and its allies of committing genocide in that country’s Darfur region.

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Lawmakers Visit Marine Held in Mexico, Say Sergeant ‘Needs to Come’

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Photo Credit: Fox News Two Republican lawmakers visited a Marine sergeant held in a Mexican jail Saturday, with one of them saying that the serviceman “needs to come home.”

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., visited Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi at the El Hongo II prison in Tecate, Mexico. Tahmooressi has been held there since March on gun charges after he accidentally crossed over the Mexican border with three legally purchased guns in his pickup truck. Tahmooressi, who suffers from PTSD, served two tours in Afghanistan.

“I found him to be in good spirits, but this visit confirmed my belief that Sgt. Tahmooressi … needs to come home,” Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “While I remain respectful of Mexico’s laws, today after I thanked him for his dedicated service, I assured Sgt. Tahmooressi that I will continue working to secure his release so that he can begin needed treatment for his PTSD.”

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STRIKE BACK: A Graphic Tale

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Based in part upon “Politician, Heal Thyself” by Jon Gabriel and illustrated by our summer intern@BiffSpackle.

You can help right now by gifting Chris McDaniel in Mississippi. He’s locked in a neck-and-neck race with a 42-year politician by the name of Thad Cochran, the favorite of Mitch McConnell and the Amnesty crowd at the Chamber of Crony Capitalism.

The race is deadlocked. You can help right now.

You and I have a lot of work to do. But we’re up to it. We’re Americans.

Child Immigrants Can Legally Stay in the US for Years

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Photo Credit: AP / Ross D. Franklin, PoolThousands of immigrant children fleeing poverty and violence in Central America to cross alone into the United States can live in American cities, attend public schools and possibly work here for years without consequences.

The chief reasons are an overburdened, deeply flawed system of immigration courts and a 2002 law intended to protect children’s welfare, an Associated Press investigation finds.

Driving the dramatic increases in these immigrants is the recognition throughout Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that children who make the dangerous trip can effectively remain in the U.S. for years before facing even a moderate risk of deportation.

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