Congressional Report: Obama Weaponized IRS Against Conservatives

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

By Pete Kasperowicz. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will release a report Tuesday that finds the Obama White House has turned the IRS into a political organization that has spent years attacking conservative groups.

“The Internal Revenue Service has compromised its traditional position as an independent tax administrator,” the report found. “The IRS’s inability to keep politics out of objective decisions about interpretation of the tax code damaged its primary function: an apolitical tax collector that Americans can trust to treat them fairly”. . .

The decision to target conservative groups was followed by later decisions to cover it up, and blame lower level workers for the initiative.

The report also blamed Obamacare, which gave the IRS a key role in implementing Obama’s health program, for turning the IRS into an arm of the White House, when it should have remained independent.

“Evidence shows an IRS responsive to the partisan policy objectives of the White House and an IRS leadership that coordinates with political appointees of the Obama administration,” it found. It said efforts to cover up the scandal were ultimately led by Obama himself. (Read more about how Obama has used the IRS against conservatives HERE)
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GOP report: Top IRS official considered admitting targeting before 2012 election — but didn’t

By FoxNews.com. A top IRS official considered going public with the agency’s targeting of conservative groups at a hearing just months before the 2012 presidential election but ultimately decided against revealing the bombshell news, according to a new report from a GOP-led House committee.

Then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller wrote in an email in June 2012, about a month before a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, that he was weighing whether to testify to “put a stake” in the “c4” issue — apparently a reference to allegations about politics playing a role in the agency’s denial of tax-exempt, 501(c)(4) status to conservative-leaning groups.

“I am beginning to wonder whether I should do [the hearing] and affirmatively use it to put a stake in politics and c4,” Miller told his chief of staff, Nikole Flax, in a June 2012 email obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Miller ultimately testified at the July 25 hearing but never revealed his knowledge of the misconduct.

“Because he did not, he did a great disservice to the American taxpayers,” the House oversight committee report states. (Read more from this story HERE)

Intelligence Officials Say Obama Nominee Stole CIA Documents

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StarzakThe Obama administration’s nominee for a senior legal position at the Pentagon is one of the congressional staffers accused by Republicans and intelligence officials of stealing classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency, Fox News has learned — and the controversy could imperil her shot at a major career promotion.

Sources on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community say Alissa Starzak, a majority staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) who has been nominated for the position of general counsel to the U.S. Army, is one of two SSCI employees accused by the panel’s Republicans, and by career intelligence officers, of having “stolen” the so-called Panetta Review: a classified study of the agency’s treatment of detainees prepared by former CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Starzak is a former assistant general counsel for CIA and, more recently, a deputy general counsel at the Defense Department for legislative affairs. She was nominated for the Army’s general counsel position in July of this year. With an eye on the clock, as the Senate prepares to revert to Republican control early next year, the Armed Services Committee approved Starzak’s nomination — without a recorded vote — on Dec. 9. But the nomination expired a week later, and must now be re-submitted to the committee, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as its likely chairman, in the next session of Congress.

Read more from the story alleging the Obama nominee stole CIA documents HERE.

EPA Can't Regulate Lead Bullets, Says Federal Court

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Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan

Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan

Hunters, hold your fire — the Environmental Protection Agency won’t regulate your bullets.

A federal appeals court denied a lawsuit Tuesday by environmental groups that the EPA must use the Toxic Substances Control Act regulate lead used in shells and cartridges.

“We agree with EPA that it lacks statutory authority to regulate the type of spent bullets and shot identified in the environmental groups’ petition,” Judge David Tatel wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Environmental groups had sued the agency to do so, saying spent lead ammunition posed an “unreasonable risk of injury” to wildlife and humans who would eat the animals they kill. The groups rejected the EPA’s assertion that it lacked the authority to do so.

Read more from this story HERE.

New York Cop Killer's Islamic Roots Ignored by MSM

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Brinsley[The New York City cop killer’s] Islamic roots have so far received little attention.

[Ismaaiyl] Brinsley, who had been in and out of jail much of his adult life, mostly in Ohio and Georgia, left behind numerous social media accounts, including a Facebook account under the name “Bleau Barracuda” . . .

Brinsley posted several videos on [his YouTube] account. Besides the visit to prayer at Masjid At Taqwa [mosque], Brinsley filmed himself getting searched for drugs on a bus; recorded a conversation about cocaine; and filmed a Muslim burial service.

An Internet search shows Brinsley went by the alias “Interstate Brinsley” on other social media sites. That alias is linked to Minc and Co., a company operated by Brinsley that, according to a Twitter account for the company, produced sexually-themed t-shirts.

The video Brinsley posted of Masjid At Taqwa on Feb. 28, 2013 is entitled “Time to pray in Brooklyn,” and it shows Brinsley walking down a Brooklyn street as a call to prayer is heard being broadcast from the Brooklyn-based mosque.

Read more from this story HERE.

NLRB Opens Door for SEIU at McDonalds

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mcdonalds_muslimThe National Labor Relations Board took another step toward eliminating the franchise business model on Friday, opening the doors for unionization at some of America’s largest employers.

The agency’s top prosecutor, former union attorney Richard Griffin, is holding McDonalds responsible for alleged labor violations perpetrated by its franchisees, overturning decades of precedent.

“The complaints allege that McDonald’s USA, LLC and certain franchisees violated the rights of employees working at McDonald’s restaurants at various locations around the country by, among other things, making statements and taking actions against them for engaging in activities aimed at improving their wages and working conditions, including participating in nationwide fast food worker protests about their terms and conditions of employment during the past two years,” the agency said in a release.

Franchisors such as McDonald’s charge employers fees to operate under its corporate umbrella, but individual entrepreneurs manage business decisions, such as scheduling and pay, individually. Holding McDonalds liable for the actions of other actors threatens to undo the entire business model, according to Robert Cresanti, vice president of the International Franchising Association.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a small business person who has just invested their life savings in a new franchise,”Cresanti said. “Now they no longer own their business as a group of unelected government bureaucrats have just jeopardized whether they control their employees or not.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Armed Homeowners Protect Their Own, Kill Intruders

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Sheriff: Man Who Killed Would-Be Home Intruder ‘Acted Lawfully’

By WFAA. A man who repeatedly rang a doorbell and knocked on a front door was fatally shot Friday morning by the homeowner after the two fought in a yard, authorities said Friday. . .

The incident occurred about 4 a.m. Friday in the Shale Creek neighborhood just off Texas 114 in rural Wise County near the Wise and Denton county line.

“The homeowner armed himself and went outside,” Walker said. “That’s when he saw a man trying to jump a fence that was between his house and his neighbor’s home”. . .

“They fought briefly,” Walker said. “At some point, [Rigtrup] backed away from the man and told him he was armed. The man kept saying he needed to get inside of the house.”

Rigtrup – who had his wife and 14-year-old daughter inside the home – fired one shot at Crandall’s chest, killing him, Walker said. Police found him dead on the front porch. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Homeowner Shoots Home Invader Holding Gun To Woman’s Neck

By Chuck Ross. A suspect in an armed home invasion is dead after he was confronted by an armed homeowner.

Two men began knocking on the front door of a North Memphis, Tenn. home on Tuesday. When a woman answered, the men barged in, and one of them — identified as 22-year-old Nico Carlisle — held a gun to the woman’s neck.

A male homeowner also inside the house heard the commotion, retrieved his own handgun, and fired several shots at the two men, hitting and killing Carlisle. (Read more about how armed homeowners protect themselves HERE)

Abandoned by Democrats, Obama Enlisting GOP Help to Pass Trans Pacific Partnership

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Multinational corporation background conceptPresident Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives.

It also will test his willingness to buck his own party in pursuit of a legacy-burnishing achievement. Already, fellow Democrats are accusing him of abandoning past promises on trade and potentially undermining his domestic priority of reducing income inequality. . .

The administration is moving aggressively in hopes of wrapping up negotiations by the middle of next year on a 12-nation free-trade pact in the Asia-Pacific region before the politics become even more daunting ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign. . .

At issue is Obama’s support for the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would establish the world’s largest free-trade zone. The administration has touted the deal as a way to boost U.S. exports to Asia at a time when the United States faces increasing competition from China.

The TPP aims to lower tariffs, establish guidelines on patents and copyrights, and level competition for international companies that compete with ­government-backed businesses. The first major test could come next month, when Senate Republicans are expected to put forward legislation that would grant U.S. trade negotiators “fast-track authority” to reach final terms that could not be changed by Congress before an up-or-down vote. (Read more about how Obama intends to pass Trans Pacific Partnership HERE)

Read more about what the TPP is HERE and HERE.

Fallout From Obama's Illegal Amnesty Continues: $50 Million Spent on New Immigration Workers

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Photo Credit: Fibonacci blue

Photo Credit: Fibonacci blue

By Brian Hughes. The Obama administration is spending nearly $50 million to hire and house 1,000 new federal workers to process immigration cases after President Obama announced that he would unilaterally protect up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

The Citizenship and Immigration Services agency will devote $40 million to annual salaries and almost $8 million a year to the lease of a new building just outside Washington, in which employees will review the claims of illegal immigrants who apply for newly protected status, according to the New York Times.

In recent weeks, critics have warned that Obama’s executive action would further increase the federal bureaucracy, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the expansion of immigration services. (Read more from this story regarding additional costs of Obama’s illegal amnesty HERE)

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More Waste: Environmental Protection Agency Overpaid $1 Million for Call Center

By Sarah Westwood. Government investigators believe Environmental Protection Agency officials may have paid a contractor nearly $1 million more than they should have for operating a telephone hotline that processed fewer calls than claimed.

The EPA inspector general said it received a hotline tip about possible contract fraud in its information office. That office handles inquiries from the general public and internal EPA customers, using a contractor to provide call center services.

At one point, the agency relied on the number of calls and emails the center was receiving to approve a jump in prices. At another, the agency cited the number of reported issues, which could have been the subject of multiple calls or emails to justify lower prices.

The inconsistent decision-making “increases the risk that the EPA may be overcharged for call center services,” the IG said.

The EPA was also spending more than it was making on the call center. Losing money prompted the agency to use the number of issues, not the volume of calls, as an excuse to lower its contract price even though the call volume had not fallen below the minimum levels needed to make such a change. (Read more from this story HERE)

Booting SGT Bergdahl Out of the Army Proving to be Difficult

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Getting Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl out of the Army is not going to be easy.

As Army leaders consider how to handle the former Taliban captive who is accused of misconduct, their options are narrowed by an obscure personnel regulation: Because the former prisoner of war’s term of enlistment expired during his five years in captivity, the Army must now grant him an honorable discharge or launch a court-martial.

“We’re in an all-or-nothing situation,” said Jeffrey Addicott, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and judge advocate who served as a legal adviser to the Army Special Forces and now teaches law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in Texas.

The Army announced Monday that the investigation of Bergdahl has been forwarded to a top general, or convening authority, to take “appropriate action.”

For now Bergdahl, 28, remains assigned to a desk job at an Army headquarters unit in San Antonio. The Army declined to release any details of the six-month investigation into the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.

Man Jailed for Videotaping Cops Wins Lawsuit

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cellphone recording copsAn Orlando man jailed for filming a police officer got more than his phone back.

Alberto Troche, who sued Orlando police for wrongfully jailing him and taking his phone, received $15,000 in a settlement, the Orlando Sentinel reported this week.

According to the lawsuit, Troche saw police arresting a man late one night in December of last year. Based on cries of pain from the man being arrested, Troche thought police were using excessive force and pulled out his phone to record. Several others did the same.

Police arrested Troche for recording the officers. Troche claimed he stood 10-15 feet away from the arrest and never interfered. He spent 15 hours in custody and didn’t get his phone back for three weeks.

In a video of the incident, police can be heard yelling at an indignant crowd. Police threaten to take their cell phones because they were recording, and then appeared to confiscate cell phones. They claimed the phones were needed for evidence. (Read more about what happened after Mr. Troche was confronted for videotaping cops HERE)

Watch man get arrested for videotaping police HERE.