Amid Scandals, White House Announces Star-Studded Concert in East Room (+video)

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Photo Credit: APAmid sequester and scandal in Washington, the White House announced Friday that the president and first lady will be hosting another concert as part of their “In Performance at the White House” series later this month.

The event will be held in the East Room of the White House and honor singer and songwriter Carole King, who will be awarded the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. King will be the first woman to receive the award, the White House noted in their announcement.

The program — to be streamed on the White House website and broadcast on PBS stations the evening of May 28 — will also feature performances by Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, James Taylor, Trisha Yearwood and King herself.

In 2002, Carole King sang “You’ve Got a Friend” for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at a warming-relations dinner in Havana.

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This Is No Ordinary Scandal

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Photo Credit: APPolitical abuse of the IRS threatens the basic integrity of our government.

By Peggy Noonan. We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they’re seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration’s credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don’t look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone.

Something big has shifted. The standing of the administration has changed. As always it comes down to trust. Do you trust the president’s answers when he’s pressed on an uncomfortable story? Do you trust his people to be sober and fair-minded as they go about their work? Do you trust the IRS and the Justice Department? You do not.

The president, as usual, acts as if all of this is totally unconnected to him. He’s shocked, it’s unacceptable, he’ll get to the bottom of it. He read about it in the papers, just like you.

But he is not unconnected, he is not a bystander. This is his administration. Those are his executive agencies. He runs the IRS and the Justice Department.

A president sets a mood, a tone. He establishes an atmosphere. If he is arrogant, arrogance spreads. If he is too partisan, too disrespecting of political adversaries, that spreads too. Presidents always undo themselves and then blame it on the third guy in the last row in the sleepy agency across town. Read more from this story HERE.

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President Asterisk: Why the Obama IRS scandal may be worse than “a cancer on the presidency.”

By James Taranto. No one can deny that Barack Obama is a highly skilled politician, at least by the measure of election outcomes. His record is undefeated, save for an ill-advised 2000 primary challenge to an entrenched incumbent congressman. His 2008 presidential victory, after a fraction of a term in the U.S. Senate, was especially dazzling. It disproved those who said that Hillary Clinton was invincible, that a left-wing Democrat couldn’t win, and that America wasn’t ready for a black president.

No one can deny that Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire were highly skilled athletes. But their accomplishments are forever tainted by their use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The use of the Internal Revenue Service’s coercive power to suppress dissent against Obama is the political equivalent of steroids. The history books should record Obama’s re-election with an asterisk to indicate that it was achieved with the help of illicit means.

The Weekly Standard notes that NBC’s Lisa Myers “reported this morning that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election”:

The IRS commissioner “has known for at least a year that this was going on,” said Myers, “and that this had happened. And did he share any of that information with the White House? But even more importantly, Congress is going to ask him, why did you mislead us for an entire year? Members of Congress were saying conservatives are being targeted. What’s going on here? The IRS denied it. Then when–after these officials are briefed by the [inspector general] that this is going on, they don’t disclose it. In fact, the commissioner sent a letter to Congress in September on this subject and did not reveal this. Imagine if we–if you can–what would have happened if this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different.”

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Homeland Security Guidelines Advise Deference to Pro-Shariah Muslim Supremacists

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Photo Credit: APThe Department of Homeland Security, which under Secretary Janet Napolitano has shown a keen interest in monitoring and warning about outspoken conservatives, takes a very different approach in monitoring political Islamists, according to a 2011 memo on protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists.

In a checklist obtained by The Daily Caller entitled “Countering Violent Extremism Dos and Don’ts” the DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties notifies local and national law enforcement officials that it is Obama administration policy to consider specifically Islamic criticism of the American system of government legitimate.

This policy stands in stark contrast to the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis’ 2009 memo “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” [pdf], which warned of the dangers posed by pro-life advocates, critics of same-sex marriage and groups concerned with abiding by the U.S. Constitution, among others.

The advice of the Dos and Don’ts list is far more conciliatory. “Don’t use training that equates radical thought, religious expression, freedom to protest, or other constitutionally-protected activity, including disliking the U.S. government without being violent,” the manual’s authors write in a section on training being “sensitive to constitutional values.”

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9/11 Military Force Bill to Authorize Drone Strikes For Another 20 Years

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Photo Credit: APThe fight against al-Qaida could continue for another 20 years, a top Pentagon official told Congress Thursday as the administration warned against any changes to the 2001 law giving the president broad authority to use military force in the war on terror.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Assistant Defense Secretary Michael Sheehan said the Authorization for the Use of Military Force bill passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks still serves its purpose and will continue to be effective until al-Qaida is in “the ash heap of history.”

“In my judgment, this is going to go on for quite a while, yes, beyond the second term of the president . . . I think it’s at least 10 to 20 years, ” Sheehan told the panel.

Many lawmakers, however, have questioned whether the military force authorization bill should be rewritten, or perhaps even thrown out, given the increased use of drone strikes in places that some say are not true war zones. President Barack Obama has pledged to be more transparent about the drone program, which has included the use of nearly 400 CIA and military drone strikes, reports the Washington Post. But Sheehan told lawmakers that there are still no geographic boundaries on future drone use, noting that they would continue to take place anywhere that al-Qaida or other terrorist groups are considered a threat to U.S. national security interests.

Sen. John McCain called Sheehan’s testimony on drone policy and the use of force military force bill “disturbing.”

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Pakistani Doctor Who Helped Get Bin Laden Was Denied US Asylum By Obama Admin.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe jailed doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted by a tribal court on bogus charges, according to a classified Pakistani government report.

Portions of the voluminous 357-page Abbottobad Commission Report, which has yet to be made public and were obtained exclusively by Fox News, acknowledge Dr. Shakil Afridi’s conviction last year by a government-sponsored Jirga has undermined Pakistan’s credibility. The report calls for Afridi to be given a new trial.

The report also claims Afridi joined the CIA search for Bin Laden five years ago, while he was staying in the U.S. with a cousin. According to the report, Afridi applied for asylum after a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, stepped up its operations in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt.

Afridi was reportedly kidnapped by the group in 2008 and released after his family paid a $10,000 ransom. After helping the CIA pinpoint the terror mastermind just prior to the 2011 raid in which Navy SEALs killed Bin laden, Afridi was arrested and convicted by the tribal court of colluding with Lashkar-e-Islam.

The State Department declined to comment on the report’s claims that Afridi had applied for asylum while staying in the U.S.

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Gun Ranges Now Forced to Ration Due to Extreme Ammo Shortages

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerGun ranges are being forced to implement rationing policies in order to keep enough ammunition to meet some customer demand due to a prolonged ammunition shortage the likes of which many industry employees say they have never seen.

Blue Ridge Arsenal Inc. in Chantilly, Va. is one such range. For the last few months, they have limited customers to one ammunition box per shooting lane, no matter the number of people shooting on one lane. Up to four people are permitted to shoot per lane.

“I never thought I would see the day in America when stores could not keep .22 ammo on the shelves,” an employee of Blue Ridge Arsenal, who wished not to be named, told The Daily Caller. “I have never seen anything like this.”

Efforts to enact more restrictive gun-control legislation and reports of the government purchasing mass quantities of ammunition have compounded to spark a mass increase in demand for guns and ammunition.

The shortage and ensuing policy at Blue Ridge Arsenal has resulted in a decline in customers, particularly during the week.

“During the daytime Monday through Thursday, I’ll be lucky to see a handful of people shooting,” the employee detailed. “The weekends pick up significantly, but there are a lot of law enforcement officers shooting.”

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Obama Pick to Replace Holder Assails House GOP on Obamacare

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Photo Credit: WEBN-TVMassachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, reported to be President Obama’s pick to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, has attacked House Republican foes of Obamacare, raising new questions about the politicization of the Justice Department.

Patrick signed a Democratic National Committee letter blasting the House GOP’s Thursday vote to repeal the president’s health care reform. The Democratic-controlled Senate is not expected to follow suit.

In his letter he accused the Republicans of playing to their extreme wing. “Yesterday, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to repeal Obamacare for the 37th time — just to appease their extreme right-wing base,” said Patrick, an Obama ally.

“They just want to do whatever they can to block, repeal, or damage Obamacare — just to block the president’s agenda,” he added.

The Chicago Sun-Times, which has deep sources in the administration, reported that Patrick is Obama’s pick to replace the embattled Holder. His Justice Department has been slapped by critics for politicizing policies including efforts to block voter identification programs.

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Cornel West: “You Can Get Killed Out Here Trying to Tell the Truth!”

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Photo Credit: APAs big banks and corporations grab more power and government heightens control and surveillance, confronting those at the top is getting to be a dangerous proposition. As Cornel West put it bluntly, “You can get killed out here trying to tell the truth.”

For the last year, a partnership between the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), a New York–based think tank, and Union Theological Seminary (UTS) has produced a series of rich conversations about economics, society and the human spirit. Tuesday night, West and INET Executive Director Robert Johnson sat down together in a packed chapel at UTS in New York to talk about the pain caused by financial predators and the frightening trend of creeping authoritarianism. Union Theological Seminary president Dr. Serene Jones moderated a discussion which ranged from love to finance to the economics of Jesus.

Johnson, who had recently led a meeting of major financial executives in London, noted that the Big Boys are aware that they are no longer gods in the public view, but demons. “They are scared,” said Johnson. But that doesn’t seem to have curbed much of their predatory behavior, so the question of how to change their ways remains urgent. “Do you create institutions to constrain sinful, greedy, avaricious and delusional individuals?” asked the economist. “Or do you, like the Buddhists suggest, seek to change that greedy, aggressive, delusion character …?” West and Jones quickly answered “both,” but Johnson said he’s leaning toward the Buddhists on this one. Multinational corporations, he warned, are so “large, sophisticated, and capable” that the regulators simply can’t keep up. You have to “get inside the hearts” of these leaders, he argued, and somehow create a sense of moral accountability — a process that Johnson believed would be both difficult and painful. He likened it to the shattering soul-searching of a blues musician. (Johnson, in addition to being an economist, has worked in the music industry.)

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Administration Getting Caught in its Own Tangled Web of Deceit – the White House Been Lying Through its Teeth

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Photo Credit: Irish CentralJournalist Bernie Goldberg, a newsman with CBS for 28 years, wrote a book that best describes the Obama administrations treatment by the main stream media. The title, “A Slobbering Love Affair,” describes how the media has fawned over President Obama.

An excerpt from the book jacket best describes it:

“From the day Barack Obama announced his candidacy to the moment he took the oath of office, the mainstream media fawned over him like love-struck school girls. Even worse, this time they went beyond media bias to media activism.”

But this week saw a chink in that journalistic love affair as one scandal after another descended upon the White House. There was no place for the media to run, no place to hide, as facts behind these scandals descended upon them…..They had to start looking into the swamp that was enveloping the White House and they didn’t like what they found.

For eight months, the main stream media pretty much ignored the attack on our Benghazi consulate and basically reported the “facts” about the travesty as conveyed to them by White House press spokesman, Jay Carney and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

But explosive testimony from eyewitnesses last week in front of Congress, as well as revelations of previously undisclosed emails, show that Carney was brazenly lying through his teeth about material facts relating to the attack. See: Jay Carney Benghazi untruths. It also revealed what Ambassador Susan Rice told the American public was a compete falsehood. See Rice loses credibility

The media got a huge slap in the face with these revelations and started to report on the many unanswered questions still remaining on this unfolding Benghazi scandal.

But to add insult to injury, three other scandals were revealed to the media that cut to their heart.

It was revealed the Justice Dept had been looking at the phone records of many Associated Press reporters and even had seized records from the Congressional cloakroom. This gives the Justice Dept. access to journalist’s source of information inside the Congress and elsewhere and has a chilling effect on the right of a free press. Anyone that was giving the Associated Press inside information on the Obama administrations malfeasance by phone has now been outed.

When Attorney General Holder was asked about this huge violation of the 1st Amendment, he did his usual bob and weave and said “I know nothing of the facts” and he had “recused” himself from the case. Although, he doesn’t recall exactly when he did “recuse” and there is no paper evidence of it. See Holder denies knowledge in AP scandal

At about the same time another bombshell of scandal erupted on the White House steps when it was revealed the IRS had been specifically targeting right leaning organizations and donors, probably one of the worst abuses a government can do to its citizens. Of course when President Obama was asked directly about his knowledge of this scandal his answer was, he learned about it in the news. See Obama answer to IRS abuse in the article in PJ Media.

But facts are starting to add up that the White House knew long ago about this IRS targeting of conservatives, possibly as far back as 2010.

But even more abuse of power by the administration was revealed this week, which should have made headline news, but was suppressed by other emerging scandals. In the House Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency, was accused of exempting left-leaning political groups and green energy producers from various fees and fines that it routinely assesses to right-learning groups.

According to Congressman Whitfield who chairs the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy & Power,: “The EPA has a pattern of conduct in which this administration rewards its friends and punishes its opponents.” See the excellent story on this in The Hill.

There is much more emerging almost on a daily basis that points to an administration that holds itself above the very law it has sworn to uphold. It is also evident that it is used to getting away with it because a systematic lack of journalistic curiosity by the media has allowed them to. A lazy media who found it easier to accept at face value the explanation of the Whitehouse talking points, rather than digging in to fact check.

If they had bothered to pay attention, many of these scandals were already simmering, just waiting to bubble to the surface if a curious reporter had bothered to check.

Perhaps these and other unfolding scandals will finally wake up the main stream press.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

France’s Hollande Seeks Formation of Single European Government

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Photo Credit: APFrench President Francois Hollande called on Thursday for an economic government in the eurozone that would have its own budget, the right to issue debt, a harmonized tax system, and a full-time president.

Speaking at a news conference marking his first year in office, a day after economic data showed France had slipped back into recession, the Socialist leader said he sought to create a full political European Union (EU) within two years.

His proposals seemed likely to encounter stiff resistance from Germany, Europe’s leading power, which opposes mutualizing debt among European states and is reluctant to give the eurozone its own secretariat or create new divisions in the EU, of which 10 countries are not in the 17-nation single currency.

It also comes as Britain’s government faces growing domestic pressure to hold a referendum on leaving the bloc.

“My initiative has four points that I am putting to our partners. The first is to create an economic government with the eurozone countries which would meet every month with a real president appointed for a long period and who would be devoted to this task,” Hollande said.

Read more from this story HERE.