Video: John McCain Alleges ‘Massive Cover-Up’ on Benghazi, Asks David Gregory – ‘Do You Care Whether Four Americans Died?’

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The extent to which GOP lawmakers are ridiculed by the MSM for trying to get to the bottom of Benghazi is unbelievable. If you missed Sen. McCain on Meet the Press today with David Gregory, it’s well worth watching now.

After explaining to Gregory that there are still a number of unanswered questions regarding Benghazi, McCain concludes by saying there’ s been a massive cover-up. Gregory is confused: “A massive cover-up of what?”

The crux of the interview, however, came when McCain asked Gregory whether he even cared that four Americans died (transcript via NewsBusters):

JOHN MCCAIN: I’m asking you, do you care– I– I’m– I’m asking you, do you care whether four Americans died? Or do you– the reasons for that? And– and shouldn’t pe– people be held accountable for the fact that four Americans died–

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Woman Killed In Chicago Hours After Her Sister Sat Behind Obama On Stage

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesAn 18-year-old Chicago woman was shot and killed Friday night, just hours after her younger sister sat onstage behind President Barack Obama as he spoke about gun violence.

Janay Mcfarlane was visiting friends and family when she was shot once in the head around 11:30 p.m. Friday in North Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The bullet had been meant for a friend, said her mother, Angela Blakely. Mcfarlane had a 3-month-old son.

“I really feel like somebody cut a part of my heart out,” Blakely said. Hours before the slaying, Mcfarlane’s 14-year-old sister Destini was part of a group of teens who sat onstage behind the president when he delivered remarks at Hyde Park Career Academy.

“Barack Obama said teenagers are killing each other,” Destini Mcfarlane told the Sun-Times Saturday. “He was saying we need to cut down on street violence.”

Mcfarlane’s murder was apparently separate from the four shootings that took place in Chicago within a 90-minute period after Obama left. Those shootings occurred between about 5:55 p.m. and 7:20 p.m.; Mcfarlane was killed several hours later.

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Lobbyists Use Campaign-Style Opposition Research to Turn Tables on Rivals

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photo credit: glyn lowe photoworksIf a lobbying campaign is war, then opposition research is the equivalent of elite special forces.

K Street deploys all sorts of quiet, behind-the-scenes tactics and troops to influence legislation and policy. The most clandestine and high-risk is the use of political-style operatives to dig up dirt on foes.

“Oppo” can discredit, distract and neutralize an opponent. That can be particularly dangerous when the target is a sitting member of Congress. Leave too many footprints, and the effort can boomerang.

Perhaps that’s why former Missouri state lawmaker John Hancock, president and CEO of the Strategy Group for Research, won’t discuss any of his K Street clients. He doesn’t have to because his type of work isn’t covered by lobbying disclosure laws. But the former lobbyist says it’s a growing part of his business.

“Digging in trash cans, we don’t do that,” Hancock said. “We’ve taken some of the principles on the research side that we have traditionally applied to political campaigns and made them available to the government relations industry.”

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Kodiak Man Arrested in Killings of Two Coast Guard Workers

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photo credit: jkbrooks85ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A former coworker has been arrested for fatally shooting two U.S. Coast Guard employees last year on Kodiak Island in Alaska, federal officials said on Friday.

James Michael Wells of Kodiak will appear in federal court sometime next week in Anchorage to face charges of killing Coast Guard electricians Mate First Class James Hopkins and retired Chief Boatswain’s Mate Richard Belisle, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Hopkins and Belisle were shot dead on April 12 at the Coast Guard’s communications station on Kodiak Island, part of the large Coast Guard base complex on that Alaska island. Hopkins was an enlisted Guard member and Belisle was a civilian employee.

Wells, a civilian, worked with the victims in 2011 at a Coast Guard project on Shemya Island in the Aleutians, according to the Coast Guard.

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EPA Corruption and Scandal

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photo credit: wallygThe EPA and Ms. Lisa Jackson, its chief, have committed extensive violations of law that should receive in-depth scrutiny from Congress, law enforcement and the American people. Yes the Obama administration has yet another serious scandal on their hands. The scandal features a fantasy administrator, ‘Richard Windsor’, and ‘his’ email account. The account was established and used by Ms. Jackson to camouflage controversial EPA processes, discussions, decisions and accountability. To date the known evidence suggests violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), mail and wire fraud laws. Additionally it surfaces another example of the Obama administration’s epidemic chicanery with the law, Congress and the Constitution and another failure to keep faith with the American people.

Upon closer inspection the EPA like the GSA and other Obama administration agencies, demonstrates a lack of managerial/administrative control. It also exhibited a culture of obfuscation, malfeasance and corruption that did not blossom overnight. And like other Obama scandals, the mainstream media has again decided to cover it with their much practiced three monkey act.

For perspective a little recent history is in order. Lisa Jackson, who is departing the EPA, stated in November of 2011 that “…What EPA’s role is to do is to level the playing field so that pollution costs are not exported to the population but rather companies have to look at pollution potential of any fuel or any process or any plant or utility when their making investment decisions.”

Simply translated Ms. Jackson makes clear that her job and the EPA’s are to hurt companies/industries that produce energy counter to the wishes of the Obama administration (and the left’s agenda). Ms. Jackson also demonstrates a very low economic IQ, since higher costs incurred by energy companies will be passed to end users/consumers.

Coupling her statement with President Obama’s pronouncement of a year ago, i.e. “Where Congress is not willing to act, we’re going to go ahead and do it ourselves”… exposes his strategy to “legislate” by regulation and executive order (with Jackson and the heads of other agencies helping). Although Obama indicated it would be “nice” to work with Congress, his intentions are to evade the two centuries-old legislative process of the Constitution and impose his will on all Americans. The EPA under Jackson has become a key bludgeon in this political and ideological power grab and has used illegal methods in the effort.

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Levin: US Gov’t Buying Up Billions Of Rounds Of Ammo, Preparing For Societal Collapse (+audio)

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerOn Friday’s night broadcast of his radio show, Mark Levin speculated that the federal government is stockpiling ammunition to ensure the rule of law in the event of a total societal and economic collapse.

On Feb. 8, Investor’s Business Daily editorial writer Andrew Malcolm penned a piece about the Department of Homeland Security amassing what he called “sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times –including illegal immigrants,” or more than 1.6 billion bullets.

“I’m going to tell you what I think is going on,” Levin said. “I don’t think insurrection. Law enforcement and national security agencies — they play out multiple scenarios. They simulate multiple scenarios. I’ll tell you what I think they’re simulating: the collapse of our financial system, the collapse of our society and the potential for widespread violence, looting, killing in the streets, because that’s what happens when an economy collapses.”

“I’m not talking about a recession,” Levin continued. “I’m talking about a collapse when people are desperate, when they can’t food and clothing, when they have no way of going from place to place, when they can’t protective themselves. There aren’t enough police officers on the face of the Earth to adequately handle a situation like that.”

The conservative talker and author of “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America” based his hypothesis on his time in the Reagan Justice Department.

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No End To ObamaCare’s Hostility Towards Religion

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photo credit: fibonacci blueThe Obama administration is trying to convince us it has softened its contraceptive mandate, partly in an effort to calm opposition from the religious community. But the threat to religious liberty is as virulent as ever.

The administration has not budged on its plan to require that female workers and college students have free access to “reproductive services,” including sterilization procedures, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs.

And religious organizations still will pay, albeit indirectly, for the services the government is mandating. Further, thousands of private companies will be forced to pay directly for practices they abhor, in clear violation of their religious liberty.

This is not an acceptable “accommodation,” as the administration argues. Under the rule proposed on Friday, most religiously-affiliated organizations can apply to be exempt from the ObamaCare mandate.

Initially, the administration proposed exempting only churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship. But after 44 lawsuits were filed across the country by and on behalf of nonexempt hospitals, colleges, charitable organizations and others, the administration relaxed the definition in its new proposal.

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Brennan Sidesteps Query on Drone Kills in U.S.

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Photo Credit: meeshypants In written answers to Senate Intelligence Committee questions released Friday, CIA director nominee John Brennan would not say whether the U.S. could conduct drone strikes inside the United States — only that it did not intend to do so.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has placed a hold on Brennan’s nomination pending an answer to the question of when the government can use lethal force to target a U.S. citizen within the United States. Brennan, as the top White House counterterrorism and homeland security adviser to President Barack Obama, has guided administration policy on the use of drones on foreign battlefields.

Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Brennan in written follow-up questions to his Feb. 7 confirmation hearing, “Could the administration carry out drone strikes inside the United States?”

Brennan answered, “This administration has not carried out drone strikes inside the United States and has no intention of doing so.”

Nor did Brennan answer who precisely makes final determination within the administration about whether a U.S. citizen who is targeted for death as a suspected terrorist is actually a senior operational leader of al-Qaida, or if that person poses an imminent threat. Those are two of the standards outlined in a Justice Department legal opinion for proceeding with a targeted killing against a U.S. citizen.

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Video: Surveillance Camera Captures The Dramatic Moment When A Security Guard Used An AR-15 To Fend Off Armed Hold Up

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Photo Credit: WJBK-TVDramatic surveillance footage out of the Detroit area shows the heart-stopping moment when a gun-wielding couple stormed into a tax business and started shooting — and a security guard pulled out an AR-15 and drove them away.

The security guard suffered a non-life-threatening wound to the leg and the suspects got away, but otherwise no one was seriously injured in the shootout.

It happened Thursday at a converted home business in Inkster, Mich. A man and woman armed with handguns showed up at the door and announced a holdup, despite the security vehicle parked outside, WJBK-TV reported. The receptionist had gone up to greet them, with the business owner sitting in a chair in the corner. Surveillance footage shows the male suspect pointing a gun at the receptionist’s head, and the security guard scrambling in the back office for the rifle.

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Feds OK First Burial Of A Veteran’s Same-Sex Spouse In A National Cemetery

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Photo Credit: The U.S. Army The government has cleared the first burial of a same-sex spouse of a veteran in a national cemetery, but it’s far from certain how easy it will be for other gay military couples to win the same benefit.

Who gets buried where is one of the practical decisions that the federal government is grappling with following repeal of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy.

At first glance, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s decision to grant burial to a same-sex spouse in Oregon represents a big departure from past federal policy. In 2004, the VA warned the state of Massachusetts that burying the same-sex spouse of a veteran in a state veterans’ cemetery could lead to the federal government taking back nearly $12 million in grant money.

Then in 2008, the National Cemetery Association published a directive stating that individuals in same-sex civil unions or marriage are not eligible for burial in a national cemetery or state veterans cemetery that received federal money. Those directives were based on the language of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines a spouse as a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife. The law is being challenged before the Supreme Court.

Then along came retired Lt. Col. Linda Campbell and her spouse, Nancy Lynchild. Campbell, with help from Oregon officials, pressed the VA to allow Lynchild to be buried at the VA’s Willamette National Cemetery.

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