Border Stat Posted, and Then Removed

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Photo Credit: ERIC GAY / AP

Photo Credit: ERIC GAY / AP

Most of the people the Border Patrol stopped from sneaking into the country last year were from countries other than Mexico, according to agency statistics, a shift that might have provided fodder for politicians leading up to Tuesday’s election.

But they didn’t get much of a chance. The Border Patrol’s annual statistics were posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site for about five hours on Oct. 10, then taken down.

Now some are questioning whether that decision was an example of the Obama administration playing politics with public information.

Even before Tuesday, the administration said it was waiting until after the elections to deal with immigration reform so that any losses would not be blamed on the Democrats’ proposal. For some, removing the apprehension statistics — which both parties could use to criticize U.S. immigration laws — was a political move.

“It worries me that they may have been taken down for purely political reasons,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). “If the information is ready, it should be made available.”

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IRS Admits it Has Not Looked for Lerner’s Missing Emails on IRS Computer Servers

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Photo Credit: AP / Carolyn Kaster

Photo Credit: AP / Carolyn Kaster

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attorneys have admitted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the IRS failed to search any of its standard computer systems for Lois Lerner’s missing emails, according to the government watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Lerner was the director of the Exempt Organizations Unit at the IRS, responsible for reviewing the tax exemption applications of Tea Party and conservative groups. Many of those applications were delayed for years, allegedly in an effort to prevent those groups from participating fully in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Documents, including emails, have been sought by congressional investigators since May 2013.

In June 2014, the IRS disclosed to Congress that Lerner’s computer had apparently crashed and her emails from January 2009 to April 2011 were lost. Then in August, a Justice Department attorney admitted that the federal government maintains a back-up system for all computer records and the emails potentially could be recovered.

The latest revelations about the IRS not even looking for Lerner’s emails on IRS computer systems came about because of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to force testimony and document production from the agency regarding the “lost and/or destroyed” records on the targeting of Tea Party groups.

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More Than 600 US Military Reported Chemical Exposure in Iraq, Pentagon Acknowledges

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Photo Credit: Michael Reynolds / European Pressphoto Agency

Photo Credit: Michael Reynolds / European Pressphoto Agency

More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say.

The Pentagon’s disclosure abruptly changed the scale and potential costs of the United States’ encounters with abandoned chemical weapons during the occupation of Iraq, episodes the military had for more than a decade kept from view.

This previously untold chapter of the occupation became public after an investigation by The New York Times revealed last month that although troops did not find an active weapons of mass destruction program, they did encounter degraded chemical weapons from the 1980s that had been hidden in caches or used in makeshift bombs.

The Times initially disclosed 17 cases of American service members who were injured by sarin or a sulfur mustard agent. And since the report was published last month, more service members have come forward, pushing the number who were exposed to chemical agents to more than 25. But an internal review of Pentagon records ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has now uncovered that hundreds of troops told the military they believe they were exposed, officials said.

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Amazing: Civil War Hero to Finally Receive Medal of Honor

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

The Battle of Gettysburg has been inscribed in the hearts of all Americans. From curious schoolchildren to the most distinguished scholars, it is as well-known as any battle in American history.

It was, after all, the turning point of the war, and its bloody aftermath a belated – and hopeful – sign that the insurrectionists could be defeated. After years of military setbacks and incompetence in the field, General Robert E. Lee had finally been thwarted. Momentum, it seemed, had shifted.

But victory did not come easily. Several months after the battle ended, for example, President Abraham Lincoln was invited and attended the dedication ceremony at Gettysburg to honor all those who–as he put it–“gave their lives” in defense of the Union. On those hallowed grounds, he spoke movingly about their heroism and sacrifice.

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” he declared. “But it can never forget what they did here.”

And of course, it never did. Nor did the U.S. government.

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Michael Brown's Mother Named As Robbery Attacker

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Photo Credit: Smoking Gun

Photo Credit: Smoking Gun

A police report detailing a fight last month between members of Michael Brown’s family over the sale of commemorative t-shirts identifies the late teenager’s mother as one of the “attackers” who beat and robbed vendors selling the merchandise from a tent in a Ferguson, Missouri parking lot.

A copy of the Ferguson Police Department report was provided yesterday by city attorney Stephanie Karr. When TSG requested the document two weeks ago, Karr noted that Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, was “described in the report” and had “specifically requested that the report be withheld from the media.”

Karr added, “Knowing this, do you still want a copy of the report?”

The violent October 18 ransacking–which police have classified as felony armed robbery–remains under active investigation, said Karr. “No charges have been filed yet and no decision about charges will be made until the investigation is concluded,” the lawyer told TSG yesterday.

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WATCH: Country Music Zings Democrats For Being Losers

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Last night at the Country Music Awards, hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley zinged Democrats for losing the U.S. Senate earlier this week and the crowd went wild.

“I’m pretty sure that’s why the democrats lost the Senate.”

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Naval Special Warfare Leadership Responds to ‘The Shooter’ and Mark Owen

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SEAL-nsw-warcom-losey-brianThe senior leadership of the Navy’s SEAL community—the commander and force master chief of Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC)—have officially, and preemptively, responded to the upcoming Fox News appearance on November 11 and 12 of a former SEAL Team Six member, labeled in an Esquire Magazine article as ‘The Shooter,’ who appeared in the press claiming to have been the operator who shot Usama Bin Ladin in the 2011 raid that killed the Al-Qaeda leader.

In a letter signed by both the senior commander and enlisted man of Naval Special Warfare Command, the SEAL leadership emphasized that the majority of SEALs spend each day living up to the label “quiet professionals.” Unspoken is the implication that the former SEAL, who is in fact, former Red Squadron SEAL Robert O’Neill, is seeking notoriety for his own story.

The two SEAL leaders go on to point out that members of the Naval Special Warfare community not only serve alongside other U.S. military members, but also other U.S. government agencies and foreign allies. “Little individual credit” is ever given, according to the letter, due to the “nature of our profession.” The two also point out the years of hard work that go into operations like the one that targeted Bin Ladin, seemingly defying one or two individual shooters’ claims on the glory and fame that result from the success of such a mission.

The point they make is that it took so much more than the final trigger pull to kill Bin Ladin, so why should one SEAL assume the moniker, “The One Who Killed bin Ladin?”

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DHS: Hackers Infected Nation's Infrastructure With Malware, "Poised to Cause Economic Catastrophe"

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A destructive “Trojan Horse” malware program has penetrated the software that runs much of the nation’s critical infrastructure and is poised to cause an economic catastrophe, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

National Security sources told ABC News there is evidence that the malware was inserted by hackers believed to be sponsored by the Russian government, and is a very serious threat.

The hacked software is used to control complex industrial operations like oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines and even some nuclear plants. Shutting down or damaging any of these vital public utilities could severely impact hundreds of thousands of Americans.

DHS said in a bulletin that the hacking campaign has been ongoing since 2011, but no attempt has been made to activate the malware to “damage, modify, or otherwise disrupt” the industrial control process. So while U.S. officials recently became aware the penetration, they don’t know where or when it may be unleashed.

DHS sources told ABC News they think this is no random attack and they fear that the Russians have torn a page from the old, Cold War playbook, and have placed the malware in key U.S. systems as a threat, and/or as a deterrent to a U.S. cyber-attack on Russian systems – mutually assured destruction.

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Marriage Wins Big in Election 2014

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Photo Credit: Brian Hawkins Photography / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Brian Hawkins Photography / Creative Commons

It was a great night for supporters of marriage Tuesday as support for traditional marriage was a key issue in numerous races across the country. The National Organization for Marriage Victory Fund was active in many of these races and our efforts have been rewarded. This success has strong implications for future electoral contests, including the 2016 presidential race.

Our two most prominent efforts to influence Senate contests were in North Carolina and Arkansas. The NOM Victory Fund spent over $200,000 in these races on television ads, direct mail and grassroots outreach to mobilize marriage supporters.

When our TV ad and mailer hit in North Carolina, Thom Tillis trailed Kay Hagan by 2-3 points. Within days, we helped bring the race into a tie, and then working along with NC Values Coalition (which co-sponsored the ads and with whom we worked to pass the state’s marriage amendment in 2012) we helped mobilize grassroots marriage supporters to get to the polls. In what many consider the biggest upset of the night, Thom Tillis defeated Kay Hagan by two points, and marriage helped make the difference.

Arkansas was also a race where marriage made a difference. When our TV ad began airing, marriage champion Tom Cotton led incumbent Mark Pryor by 7 points. Cotton ended up winning by seventeen points! Clearly, our advertising and grassroots efforts in that state helped to boost his margin of victory.

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Arizona Voters Approve Proposition to Reject Federal Acts

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11042014_election-arizona-122[Tuesday], voters in Arizona approved a ballot measure that follows James Madison’s advice to stop federal overreach. With 80% reporting, the tally held steady and increasing at 51-49%.

Approved was Proposition 122, a state constitutional amendment that enshrines the anti-commandeering doctrine in the state constitution. The language amends the state constitution to give Arizona the ability to “exercise its sovereign authority to restrict the actions of its personnel and the use of its financial resources to purposes that are consistent with the Constitution.”

This language is consistent with the advice of James Madison, who wrote in Federalist #46:

Should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States, which would seldom fail to be the case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the people; their repugnance and, perhaps, refusal to co-operate with the officers of the Union; the frowns of the executive magistracy of the State; the embarrassments created by legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any State, difficulties not to be despised; would form, in a large State, very serious impediments; and where the sentiments of several adjoining States happened to be in unison, would present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter. [emphasis added]

The amendment language mirrors the well-established legal doctrine of anti-commandeering. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government cannot force states to help implement or enforce and federal act or program.It rests primarily on four SCOTUS cases – Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), New York v. US (1992), Printz v. US (1997) and National Federation of Businesses v. Sebelius (2012).

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