Dole to GOP: They Ought to Put a Sign Up That Says ‘Closed for Repairs Until New Year’s Day’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole had harsh words for today’s GOP on this weekend’s “Fox News Sunday.”

Dole told host Chris Wallace that his party needs to focus on “positive agendas.”

“I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says closed for repairs until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas,” Dole said.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Pushes for Independent Investigations of DOJ, IRS

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Photo Credit: J. Scott ApplewhiteSenators say Holder can’t ‘review’ himself on news media snooping

By David Eldridge. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s direct involvement in the Justice Department’s decisions to spy on the press should disqualify him from heading any review of the unfolding controversy, Republicans said Sunday.

Questions have been raised about the attorney general’s role in two Justice Department investigations of leaks, one involving a massive seizure of Associated Press phone records and another an aggressive probe of Fox News reporter James Rosen’s private emails.

According to multiple media reports, Mr. Holder personally approved targeting Mr. Rosen. He earlier told Congress that he had recused himself from the decision to seize AP phone records.

President Obama, responding to critics from both parties who say the Justice Department is undermining press freedoms, said Thursday he has directed Mr. Holder to lead a “review.” That idea has been flatly rejected by Republicans, several of whom voiced their objections on Sunday’s political talk shows.

“A total conflict of interest,” Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said Sunday on CBS‘ “Face the Nation.” Read more from this story HERE.

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GOP reiterates push for independent IRS investigation

By Valerie Richardson. Republicans ramped up calls Sunday for an independent investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny.

“This really does call for a special counsel,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, on “Fox News Sunday.” “The culture of going after tea party groups that were on the president’s case about ‘Obamacare’ did not accidentally happen. I think it comes from the top with the tone.”

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, reiterated his call for a special counsel to investigate the scandal, warning that President Obama risks losing his “moral authority” as the nation’s leader unless he shows that he’s taking the problem seriously.

“I think the constellation of these three scandals ongoing really takes away from the president’s moral authority to lead the nation,” Mr. Paul said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he’s really losing the moral authority to lead this nation. And he really needs to put a stop to this. I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat; nobody likes to see the opposite party punishing you for your political beliefs, using the power of government to do so.”

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, defended a letter he wrote to the IRS in October 2010 asking the agency to look into the tax-exempt status of Crossroads GPS, a group founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove. Read more from this story HERE.

Murdered U.S. Ambassador Stevens a Muslim?

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Photo Credit: WNDMurdered U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had a “very romantic relationship” with Islam, according to a Libyan official who was a personal friend to the late American representative to Benghazi.

“What I am saying is that his Excellency, the late ambassador, had a very personal private matter, a very romantic relationship with the mystical side of Islam,” stated Sabri Malek, the spokesman for the Democratic Party in Libya, in an interview today.

Malek was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio.

Continued Malek: “Many Westerners find themselves converging on a romantic relationship with the mystical side of Islam. Sufism, it’s a very unique corridor. It allows you to find out more beyond your ego fears. So that kind of mysticism was very attractive to the ambassador.

“And he indulged through various Sufi channels,” said Malek. “Because Libya is one of the richest North African states in the source of such schools.”

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Misleads Again: IRS Misconduct Didn’t End in 2012

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Photo Credit: National Review ‘The misconduct had stopped in May of 2012,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Monday about the IRS’s improper targeting of conservative groups. Not so, say two D.C. attorneys, each representing a number of conservative groups that — after years of waiting and countless rounds of invasive questions — have yet to receive recognition from the IRS.

The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands of the nation’s tax authority continued long past the White House’s purported end date — and, for a number of them, continues still. Of the 27 organizations the ACLJ has represented to date, ten still have not received approval, two years after applying. Two others gave up.

Take the Albuquerque Tea Party. In December 2009, it applied for 501(c)(4) status, which would exempt the group from corporate taxes but does not make donations tax deductible). Its application is still pending — and the group received a letter from the IRS promising its status was “currently being reviewed” just one month ago.

Linchpins of Liberty, a Tennessee-based conservative leadership-development organization, applied to the IRS for tax-exempt status in January 2011. Two years later, their application is still pending as well — and the IRS sent its most recent dilatory letter on May 6 of this year, four days before the agency admitted its political targeting and a full year after the White House claimed the activity had ceased.

Says Sekulow, “Without question, the IRS misconduct of harassing and abusing our clients was still in high gear from May 2012 through May of this year. . . . To suggest this tactic ended a year ago is not only offensive, but it is simply inaccurate as well.”

Read more from this story HERE.

George Bush’s Former Secretary of State Impressed with Obama’s Performance (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube Colin Powell, who backed Obama in both 2008 and 2012, hits most of the major points important to RINO’s in this interview.

The good leftist he is, Powell talks about how he supports the amnesty bill and hopes Obama’s efforts in that area succeed.

Finally, Powell – like Obama’s buddy Rahm Emanuel – regrets letting a good crisis go to waste. He suggests that Obama screwed up in not immediately pushing for gun control immediately after Newtown:

Horror in Mexico: US Mother Jailed For Drugs Found Under Her Seat on Public Bus (+video)

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Photo Credit: schlaegerA Goodyear couple traveled to Mexico last week to attend a family funeral…

The wife is in a Mexican jail right now accused of smuggling marijuana…

The couple, with seven children and two grandchildren between them, were on their way back to Arizona [on a Mexican bus] after attending a funeral for Yanira Maldonado’s aunt.

“They interviewed several of the other passengers and after about 2 1/2 hours they came to him [Gary] and said unfortunately some of these drugs were found under your seat and you’re under arrest,” Klippel said.

After arresting Gary Maldonado, Mexican officials said they’d made a mistake – that marijuana was actually found underneath Yanira Maldonado’s seat and an empty seat next to her.

Read more from this story HERE.

Massive Protests Against Homosexual Marriage in Paris

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Photo Credit: independent.co.ukEarlier about 400,000 people, including many children, had defied warnings of possible far-right violence and marched in peaceful protest against France’s newly enacted law permitting same-sex marriage. Twenty members of a xenophobic far-right group, “Génération Identitaire”, clambered on to the roof terrace of the headquarters of the Socialist party during the afternoon and unfurled a banner calling for the resignation of President François Hollande. They were rapidly dislodged and arrested by police.

Even before the violence broke out, the government said that there had been 96 arrests, mostly for possession of weapons.

The “marriage-for-all” law, allowing gay couples to marry in town halls and adopt children, passed its final legal and constitutional hurdles earlier this month.

The first officially recognised same-sex marriage in France will take place between two men in Montpellier on Wednesday.

The passage of the law, and warnings of possible violence, had been expected to dampen the ardour of protesters for what was billed as the “last demonstration” in a series of half a dozen large rallies that began in December. Police put the turn-out at 150,000. The organisers claimed 1,000,000. Other organisers estimated over 400,000, which seemed closest to the mark.

Read more from this story HERE.

Google Glass and Other Devices Promise to Erase What Little Privacy We Have Left

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Photo Credit: Pam Berry/The Boston GlobeLast year, after Google unveiled its wearable computer, I had a brief opportunity to test it and was awe-struck by the potential of this technology.

A few months later, at a work-related party, I saw several people wearing Glass, their cameras hovering above their eyes as we talked. I was startled by how much Glass invades people’s privacy, leaving them two choices: stare at a camera that is constantly staring back at them, or leave the room.

This is not just a Google issue. Other gadgets have plenty of privacy-invading potential. Memoto, a tiny, automatic camera that looks like a pin you can wear on a shirt, can snap two photos a minute and later upload it to an online service. The makers of the device boast that it comes with one year of free storage and call it “a searchable and shareable photographic memory.”

Apple is also working on wearable computing products, filing numerous patents for a “heads-up display” and camera. The company is also expected to release an iWatch later this year. And several other start-ups in Silicon Valley are building products that are designed to capture photos of people’s lives.

But what about people who don’t want to be recorded? Don’t they get a say?

Deal with it, wearable computer advocates say.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Tradition of Sacrifice, From Yorktown to Ramadi

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Photo Credit: Getty Images In 2006, my SEAL Task Unit deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. Among the rubble-pile buildings, bomb craters and burned-out hulks of vehicles, we experienced firsthand the harsh realities of war. We fought alongside the U.S. Army’s Ready First Brigade of the First Armored Division to take Ramadi back from a brutal and determined insurgency.

Combat is hard. It is alarmingly violent, ear-shattering, dirty, exhausting and ugly. It is marked by chaos and confusion and self-doubt. But combat also highlights the determination and sacrifice—and courage—of those who persevere. Through such times, an unbreakable bond is formed with brothers-in-arms.

Those bonds were tested greatly as our task unit suffered the first SEAL casualties of the Iraq War: Marc Lee and Mike Monsoor. Later, Ryan Job died of wounds received in combat. These men were three of the most talented and capable SEALs I have known. They were also loyal friends. Their loss is deeply personal to their families and to their SEAL teammates. As Marc’s and Ryan’s platoon commander, I bear the crushing burden of responsibility. I will forever wish that I could somehow take their place.

As a result, Memorial Day is deeply personal—to me, as it is to any veteran, to any military family. It is a time of mixed emotion: solemn reflection and mourning, honor and admiration for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

Let’s remember on Memorial Day—and every other day, for that matter—that America did not become a nation without a fight.

Read more from this story HERE.

Where’s the Global Warming? Upstate New York Gets 3 Feet of Snow

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Photo Credit: APA Memorial Day weekend storm has dropped three feet of snow on a New York ski mountain near the Vermont border.

Whiteface Mountain spokesman Jon Lundin says 36 inches of white powder has blanketed the nearly 5,000-foot tall mountain in the Adirondacks. That has forced the Olympic Regional Development Authority to close Whiteface Veteran’s Memorial Highway on the backside of the

Lundin says the snow began lightly falling Saturday and steadily dropped Sunday, finishing in the evening.

Read more from this story HERE.