IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBy John Parkinson and Steven Portnoy. The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer. Read more from this story HERE.

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IRS Grilled Tea Party Groups on Relationship to True the Vote

By Brandon Darby. At least two Texas Tea Party groups have reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned them on their relationship to the election integrity organization True the Vote and its parent group, the King Street Patriots Tea Party.

True the Vote was created by the Houston-based King Street Patriots Tea Party group, and both groups were founded and led by Catherine Engelbrecht.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Robert Gonzalez of the Houston, TX area Clear Lake Tea Party revealed that he and his wife Lisa received the same type of probing and scrutinizing questions as other Tea Party and conservative groups, but theirs came with a specific question about one of Engelbrecht’s groups.

“The IRS wanted to know what our relationship was to ‘King City Patriots,’ but it was clear they meant Catherine Engelbrecht’s ‘King Street Patriots,’” said Gonzalez. “My wife Lisa founded this Tea Party, and of course we knew Catherine; everyone does. But to be specifically questioned by the federal government about her? If we had not previously known her, we would have thought she was of questionable character or something by them asking that,” he added.

Julie McCarty, president of the NE Tarrant Tea Party, another Tea Party leader from the Dallas, TX area, said she was also probed by the IRS about one of Engelbrecht’s efforts. “In the probing questions we received from the IRS, there was a question specifically asking us about our relationship to one of Catherine’s and True the Vote’s efforts named Verify the Recall,” said McCarty. Read more from this story HERE.

After IRS, Benghazi, Should I Trust Government?

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Photo Credit: AFPBlogger and professor Daniel Drezner tweeted over the weekend: “So, in all, this has been a pretty crappy week for people who dislike conspiracy theories.” Well, yes.

The week started out with President Obama disparaging those who worried about tyranny as conspiracy theorists, and telling college students to reject them:

“Still, you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.”

The rest of the week consisted of scandal after scandal, suggesting that maybe our government is . . . a sham with which Obama, at least, can’t be trusted.

Generating the most bipartisan outrage were the revelations that IRS agents went after Tea Party groups for political reasons. And — despite repeated denials to Congress — it turns out that senior IRS officials knew as far back as 2011. As the editors of The Washington Post commented:

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressman to Holder: ‘Throw the President Under the Bus’

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Photo Credit: Breitbart In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) unloaded on Attorney General Eric Holder, offering up the possibility that the nation’s top law enforcement official may turn on President Barack Obama and shed light on one or several of the many scandals facing the White House.

“Here’s your chance, Eric: You can throw the president under the bus, too, just like he’s going to throw you under the bus,” Gosar, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in the phone interview.

Gosar has previously called for Holder’s resignation. He introduced a resolution, which attracted many cosponsors, demanding Holder’s immediate resignation as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. He told Breitbart News he is currently “pushing” his resolution calling for Holder’s immediate resignation “hard.”

“We want his job,” Gosar said. “We have had renewed interest already.”

Calls for Holder’s resignation have resurfaced in recent days, and mainstream media outlets have come to call Obama’s top cop “embattled.” A report from the Chicago Sun Times suggests that President Obama is considering naming Deval Patrick, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, to replace Holder. Patrick’s name has been mentioned for other cabinet positions, including Attorney General.

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Ignores Abortion Doc Who Killed Babies With His Bare Hands (+video)

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Photo Credit: Life NewsThe name Kermit Gosnell has become familiar to most Americans because of the gruesome abortions and infanticides that resulted a jury finding him guilty on three counts of first-degree murder. The mainstream media either ignored Gosnell’s murder trial or barely reported on it.

This week, LifeNews exposed a second Kermit Gosnell — Douglas Karpen — who, like the Philadelphia-based abortion practitioner, is also killing babies born alive after botched abortions. Unlike Gosnell, who killed babies by jamming medical scissors into their necks at his Houston abortion clinic, former employees of Karpen testify he goes one shocking step further, he kills the babies wit his bare hands by twisting their necks execution style.

Thus, far, the mainstream media hasn’t touched the Karpen expose’ outside of Texas-based news outlets, according to Google and Yahoo News searches.

Read more from this story HERE.

ICE Admits Hundreds of Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Records Released

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Photo Credit: Reuters Hundreds of illegal immigrants with criminal records were released earlier this year as the Obama administration prepared for budget cuts, according to newly released data that challenged claims the program involved “low-risk” individuals.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released the figures to two top senators, after a three-month delay and under the threat of congressional subpoenas.

Of the 2,226 detainees that were released in February, the department revealed, “622 have been identified as having some type of criminal conviction.”

A statement from Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., who received the stats, said 32 of them had multiple felony convictions. The department then “re-apprehended” 24 of those, the senators said, after realizing the “seriousness” of their crimes.

McCain called for those responsible to be punished.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Votes to Fully Repeal Obamacare

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.

With implementation of Obamacare set to begin later this year, the vote is largely symbolic. The Senate is highly unlikely to even take up a vote on repeal.

The House voted for repeal 229-195, with votes cast almost entirely down party lines. Two Democrats voted with Republicans in favor of repeal: Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah and Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.

This is the third time the House has voted to fully repeal Obamacare, and there have been a number of other votes to repeal parts of it — 37 votes in total.

Boehner explained last week that he was holding the vote again because new members had been asking for the opportunity to vote on repeal.

Read more from this story HERE.

Holder Doesn’t Know If Anyone Ever Prosecuted Under Born Alive Infant Protection Act (+video)

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Photo Credit: Penny StarrAttorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday he did not know whether there has been even one prosecution under the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

“Have you ever enforced this law even one time?” Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) asked Holder during a House Judiciary Committee hearing after referencing abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted of three counts of first degree counts murder in the deaths of three babies whose spinal cords were severed after they were born alive.

“I don’t know,” Holder replied.

Franks described how the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, enacted in 2002, “provides that all federal protections … for persons apply to every infant born alive.”

“So will you enforce the Born Alive Infant Protection Act as attorney general, and will you consider carefully what’s happening in clinics across the country like happened in the clinic that Kermit Gosnell ran?” Franks asked.

Holder revealed that not only is he the father of three children, but his wife is an OBGYN, who is “very accomplished in her field,” so he shared “many” of the concerns that Franks had.

Read more from this story HERE.

Syrian Rebels Post Grisly Execution Video

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Photo Credit: YouTubeA gruesome video (warning: graphic content) posted Wednesday shows Syrian rebels in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor invoking sharia law as they sentence soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad to death. The soldiers, kneeling and blindfolded, are then shot in the back of the head by a rebel whose face is hidden by a black balaclava.

The executioners claim to belong to the al-Nursa Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), a Syrian rebel cell associated with al-Qaeda, Reuters reported Thursday.

With the civil war in Syria between Assad’s forces and myriad insurgent groups entering its third year, and as both sides struggle for the upper hand in media coverage, increasingly unpalatable videos have been surfacing that expose the war at its most brutal.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pope Francis Urges Global Leaders to End ‘Tyranny’ of Money

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Photo Credit: Reuters He said free-market capitalism had created a “tyranny” and that human beings were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.

Money should be made to “serve” people, not to “rule” them, he said, calling for a more ethical financial system and curbs on financial speculation.

Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow “absolute autonomy”, in order to provide “for the common good”.

The gap between rich and poor was growing and the “joy of life” was diminishing in many developed countries, the Argentinian Pope said, two months after he was elected as the successor to Benedict XVI.

“While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling,” said Francis, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires visited slums, opted to live in a modest flat rather than an opulent Church residence and went to work by bus.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Breaches Marine Corps Umbrella Protocol (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerThe commander in chief of the American armed forces today forced a violation of Marine Corps regulations, so he wouldn’t get wet.

According to Marine Corps regulation MCO P1020.34F of the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations chapter 3, a male Marine is not allowed to carry an umbrella while in uniform. There is no provision in the Marine Corps uniform regulation guidelines that allows a male Marine to carry an umbrella.

Nevertheless, during a press conference under a light drizzle with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan this morning, President Obama allowed the First Head to be protected from the elements by an umbrella held by a male Marine corporal.

The relevant portion of the regulation reads, “3035. UMBRELLAS (Female Marines). Female Marines may carry an all-black, plain standard or collapsible umbrella at their option during inclement weather with the service and dress uniforms. It will be carried in the left hand so that the hand salute can be properly rendered…

Read more from this story HERE.