Massive Underwater Volcano Discovered off the Coast of Southeast Alaska

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Photo Credit: Forest Service Geologist Jim BaichtalAbout 10,000 years ago, give or take a couple thousand years, a volcano blew its top in the middle of Behm Canal. The crater is still there, covered by 150 feet or so of ocean. But when the volcano exploded many thousands of years ago, it was not underwater. That’s what makes it so interesting.

Well, that and the fact that nobody currently living knew it was even there until just a few weeks ago.

U.S. Forest Service Geologist Jim Baichtal, who is based on Prince of Wales Island, and Anchorage USGS geologist Sue Karl were looking at some hydrographic surveys, something geologists tend to do.

When we were done, I noticed the area from Thorne Arm to Rudyerd had been surveyed,” Baichtal said. “I zoomed in and there was this large… some kind of volcano, and two other dome-like structures.”

Karl added that, “This new NOAA survey allowed us to see things that people had never seen before.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Holder Backing Into Corner, Blasts Issa’s Conduct as “Unacceptable” and “Shameful” (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeDuring a House Judiciary Committee hearing today, a visibly agitated Eric Holder blasted Rep. Darrell Issa’s conduct as “unacceptable” and “shameful.”

As Holder continued to mouth off to Rep. Issa, Issa tried to gain control, asking the chairman to shut Holder up.

Holder responded, “No, no, no, that’s – I am not going to stop talking now.”

Holder, perhaps one of the most integrity-challenged attorney generals in recent US history then had the gall to say, “It is inappropriate and too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress. It is unacceptable. And it’s shameful.”

President Obama’s Allies do More Damage in Days Than GOP Did in Four Years

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In a matter of days, the Obama administration has done something that the president’s political opponents have failed to do over four and a half years: inflicted serious damage to President Obama’s public standing.

Obama has throughout his presidency aggressively combated GOP criticism — on issues large and small — mocking the attacks as political theater short on facts.

But with his own administration now embroiled in a flurry of controversies, including IRS mistreatment of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s secret monitoring of journalists’ phones, the president is coming across not as a forceful defender but as a bystander who claims he didn’t know what the people who work for him were doing. That posture, analysts said, will fuel public cynicism toward government and stoke fears of a White House in crisis.

“The Benghazi, IRS and Associated Press stories have a common thread: They deal with how policy is administered,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who focuses on White House communication. “Management has been a weak point for the president from early in his administration. That is why these stories hit so hard. He has not been ahead of events but rather has had to rely on news organizations to inform him of what is going on in his own administration.”

But administration officials on Wednesday were still trying to deflect blame from the president, despite a battering in the media and on Capitol Hill.

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Eric Holder: Subpoenas For Hundreds Of Journalist Phone Records May Be Okay

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Photo Credit: AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyAttorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that he may be comfortable with subpoenaing the phone records of hundreds of journalists if warranted by the facts of a hypothetical case.

“In a hypothetical situation, we’re gonna go after and subpoena hundreds of phone lines, phone records for journalists. Does that offend you as an American?” Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) asked Holder.

“It would depend on the facts. You’d have to know what the facts were and why the actions were taken,” Holder responded.

But Holder insisted that his Justice Department “does not want to have its actions chill sources” or “have a negative impact on the newsgathering abilities” of reporters.

Holder was sharply questioned by members of Congress from both sides of the aisle about the Justice Department’s subpoena of Associated Press phone records as part of a probe into a national security leak. Holder revealed that he had voluntarily turned over his own phone records as part of the same investigation.

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Benghazi Fallout: Will Susan Rice be on the Chopping Block?

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Photo Credit: The CableInsiders with ties to the Obama administration tell The Cable that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has become the heir apparent to National Security Advisor Tom Donilon — a post at the epicenter of foreign-policy decision making and arguably more influential than secretary of state, a job for which she withdrew her candidacy last fall amid severe political pressure.

“It’s definitely happening,” a source who recently spoke with Rice told The Cable. “She is sure she is coming and so too her husband and closest friends.”

“Susan is a very likely candidate to replace him whenever he would choose to leave,” agreed Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Obama and counselor at the Washington Institute. “She is close to the president, has the credentials, and has a breadth of experience.”

Both sources said the timing of succession was uncertain. “I don’t believe Tom Donilon is about to leave but would be surprised if he were to remain for the whole second term,” Ross said. “But in answer to your question, [Rice’s appointment] is very logical.”

Rice’s candidacy for secretary of state imploded in November after she recited talking points about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi on five Sunday talk shows that turned out to be erroneous.

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IRS Exec Got $42k in Bonuses in Three Years

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Photo Credit: ThinkstockLois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.

That figure was included in data provided by the IRS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Washington Examiner. Lerner is director of the IRS exempt organizations division, which processes and approves or denies applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Lerner received $17,220 for 2010, $14,691 for 2011 and $10,620 for 2012, the most recent year for which the IRS said data was available. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Ousts Acting IRS Head After Agency is Caught Targeting Conservatives (+video)

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama on Wednesday forced out the acting director of the Internal Revenue Service and pledged to work with Congress as it investigates why the tax agency was inappropriately targeting conservative groups that opposed Obama and other Democrats.

IRS Acting Director Steven Miller was asked to resign less than a week after the public learned that the agency was giving closer scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and delaying approval of their status change.

“Americans are right to be angry about it — and I’m angry about it,” Obama said during a hastily scheduled briefing in the East Room of the White House. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

Miller’s firing and the administration’s decision earlier Wednesday to release scores of emails about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, marked the start of a what promises to be an extensive damage-control campaign by the White House to quell criticisms over a trio of controversies, including the IRS probing of conservative groups, the Justice Department’s spying on journalists and claims that the president misled the nation about the nature of the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks that left an ambassador and three others dead.

Obama said other changes will be made at the IRS to prevent similar abuses in the future, but said nothing about additional firings.

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Sen. Lee: ‘We are No Longer Citizens but Subjects’

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Photo Credit: APAs all 45 GOP senators united Wednesday in a letter to President Obama demanding cooperation with congressional investigations into the IRS scandal, outspoken conservative Sen. Mike Lee said that the combined IRS and Benghazi affairs and the seizure of Associated Press source files prove the government is abusive and unresponsive.

“When an agency like the IRS can single out Tea Party groups; or the Department of Justice can monitor reporters’ conversations; or HHS regulators can openly extort the regulated; and there are no consequences — we are no longer citizens but subjects,” said Lee, the first Tea Party-backed senator to come to Washington.

And Lee said that the government is bad no matter who is in charge.

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Rand Paul: Obama “Drunk on Power” (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeSenator Rand Paul hits a home run in this interview with Sean Hannity last night. Sen. Paul describes Obama’s presidency as “failing.” He also says that the President is “drunk with power.”

Hannity also asks about Paul’s presidential ambitions and discusses the broadening Internal Revenue Service scandal.

Report: Boehner Trying to Move Gun Control Bill in the House

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House Republicans are not ruling out passing gun legislation this year, according to a key GOP lawmaker.

The collapse of gun control in the Senate last month led many on and off Capitol Hill to believe the issue would not be revived in this Congress.

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told The Hill on Friday that he’s had “a lot of discussions” with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on guns. Goodlatte suggested the Speaker is more involved in the behind-the-scenes wrangling of how to move a gun bill than the Ohio Republican has let on in public.

“We are trying to improve the system to keep people who are barred under the law from owning firearms, from getting access to them. We don’t think the things that were proposed in the Senate do that. So we have not backed away from trying to figure out how to improve that, but we’ve made no decisions yet about what to do,” Goodlatte explained.

Goodlatte, serving his first year as the head of the Judiciary panel, pointed out that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System needs to be reauthorized before year’s end. The reauthorization could be the vehicle through which the GOP tackles the highly charged issue. Goodlatte, who has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA), said earlier this year he wants to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

Read more from this story HERE.