70 House GOP Members in Showdown With Boehner Over Amnesty Bill (+video)

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Seventy House Republicans are planning a politically risky showdown with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to try to force additional debate on an immigration bill they say will mean amnesty for illegal immigrants and have dire consequences for the country.

The 70 members are petitioning for a special Republican conference meeting on the bill, a “highly unusual” move to go head-to-head with the speaker, according to Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Steve King (Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (Texas), who are serving as spokespersons for the group.

Bachmann, King and Gohmert told TheBlaze the group is invoking the Hastert Rule: requiring support from a majority of the majority to bring a bill forward.

The petition is expected to go to the House leadership on Friday, but it’s possible some signatories might remove their names due to political risk, or that Boehner could head off the challenge by striking a deal. Going against leadership in such a way could have harsh political consequences for the signatories, including retaliation such as permanently getting passed over for chairmanship positions…

Boehner is on a tight schedule for getting immigration reform passed in the House, predicting this week that Congress could finalize a bill for President Barack Obama’s signature by the end of the year. Any major challenge could ignite pushback from the American public that could force lawmakers to scrap the bill, as happened in the 2007 immigration effort.

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FBI Director Dropping the Ball on IRS Investigation, Defends NSA (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News

The country’s top investigator seemed to be in the dark Thursday when pressed to provide details of the IRS investigation into the tax agency’s targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, seemed to rattle FBI Director Robert Mueller for not knowing the specifics surrounding the IRS probe.

“You’ve had a month now to investigate,” Jordan said. “This has been the biggest story in the country and you can’t even tell me who the lead investigator is. You can’t tell me the actions the inspector general took which are not typically how investigations are done. You can’t tell me if that’s appropriate or not. This is not speculation. This is what happened.”

Mueller repeatedly declined to answer Jordan’s questions, saying he couldn’t because the investigation was ongoing or that he’d have to get back to the lawmakers with answers.

When Jordan asked again,” Can you tell me who the lead investigator is?” Mueller responded, “Off the top of my head, no.”

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Geography Fail: Sen. Landrieu Says South Dakota Borders Canada in Anti-Border Fence Speech

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Photo Credit: John Orrell

On Thursday, South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune proposed an amendment that would require 350 miles of double-layer fencing before any legalization illegal immigrants can begin. That double-layer fencing in his proposal was part of the 700 miles already required by a 2006 law, where only 36 miles have been completed.

Then, according to the amendment, the other 350 miles must be completed before any green cards could be issued to those in the country illegally. But that amendment offered by the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the third-highest ranking position in the Senate GOP caucus, had one vociferous opponent in Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Immediately after Thune spoke on his amendment on the Senate floor, Landrieu took to the floor, but had a misstep with the facts in speech, particularly with regards to geography.

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Journalist Behind NSA Story Calls out Flip-Flopping Liberal Media Now ‘Cheerleaders’ for Domestic Spying (+video)

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Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the recent stories about massive NSA spying, isn’t taking kindly to a number of liberal media types who appear suddenly and oddly sympathetic to our collective lack of privacy.

Greenwald told Business Insider that the likes of Time magazine’s Joe Klein and The New Yorker‘s Jeffrey Toobin, among others, have become NSA apologists for “principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic” reasons.

“I’m not surprised,” Greenwald said in an email to Business Insider. “I’ve been amazed and disappointed for a long time at how the most slavishly partisan media Democrats who pretended to care so much about these issues when doing so helped undermine George Bush are now the loudest apologists and cheerleaders for these very same policies.

“If they started a club called Liberal Pundits to Defend the National Security State, no auditorium in the country would be large enough to accommodate them.

“To call them principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic is to be overly generous.”

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Wisconsin Senate Descends into Chaos During Debate Over Abortion Bill (+video)

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Photo Credit: Raw Story

The debate over a bill requiring women to undergo an ultrasound procedure before being permitted to have an abortion resulted in an explosive shouting match on the floor of the Wisconsin Senate Wednesday.

State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D) began by reading various letters from her constituents complaining about the adverse affects the proposed legislation may have on women and victims of rape.

Vinehout’s argument was rebutted by her Republican colleague state Sen. Mary Lazich, who pointed out that victims of rape and incest are exempted in the anti-abortion legislation. She dismissed Vinehout’s argument as “theatrics”…

“They make that decision, it’s over! It’s over in a few minutes,” she said. “And then later on they can live with the fact that they terminated their pregnancy and it was the best thing for them or they killed their child and they made a horrific decision and they regret it and they wish they never would have done it.”

Following Lazich’s comments, Senate President Mike Ellis ( R) called for a vote on the bill despite efforts by Senate Democrats to extend the debate. The move resulted in chaos on the Senate floor.

See what happened here:

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Ted Cruz Says he Suffers From Obamaphobia (+video)

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Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz admitted Wednesday to suffering from a case of “Obamaphobia.”

Cruz’s playful admission was made in response to Democratic New Jersey senator Bob Menendez’s assertion Tuesday that Cruz, who might stand in the way of the Gang of 8′s immigration bill, must suffer from the ailment.

“I think he has Obamaphobia,” Menendez said. “The reality is that it is the ‘Gang of Eight’ that came together — four Democrats, four Republicans — and said that we need a path to citizenship.”

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Veteran’s Antique Guns Confiscated After Visit to His Therapist (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Arthur Lovi, 72, is in an ongoing legal battle with authorities after his antique guns were confiscated following a controversial session he had with a therapist.

His counselor claims that, during the appointment, he threatened a doctor who, years ago, treated his deceased wife. After the session in question, she called the Arlington Heights police in Illinois to report his controversial comments. While reporting the incident, she also told authorities that she didn’t think it was a viable threat and that he wasn’t a danger to himself or others…

In addition to sharing this emotional pain with the therapist, he detailed memories that haunted him from an Air Force crash he was involved in back in the 1960s, the drowning death of his granddaughter years later and the loss of his son-in-law to a drug overdose, among other tragedies…

The therapist’s call to authorities sparked yet more pain for Lovi. Police contacted the grieving widower following the therapist’s report and asked whether he had any weapons. The retiree explained that he had three antique firearms (one was a 100-year-old musket). While he claims he had never fired the guns, what happened next may be surprising…

The Daily Herald explains: “…that night about 11 p.m. there was a knock at Lovi’s door. His son answered and saw four or five police officers standing outside [and Lovi’s guns were confiscated].”

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Ron Paul: I’m Worried that the Government Might Kill Edward Snowden With a Drone (+video)

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During an interview with FOX Business, former Rep. Ron Paul explained that he was concerned about the well-being of National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

“I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile,” Paul explained. “I mean we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed, but the gentlemen is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.”

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Boehner Calls NSA Leaker a “Traitor” (+video)

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House Speaker John Boehner today called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a “traitor” who put Americans at risk by releasing classified information to the media.

“He’s a traitor,” the highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives said in an extensive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it’s a giant violation of the law.”

Boehner endorsed President Obama’s characterization of two programs, which allow the NSA to gather information about phone calls made in the U.S. as well as information on foreign suspects collected from major internet companies, as critical to the government’s ability to fight terrorism. He said that there are “clear safeguards” built into the programs to protect Americans.

“The president outlined last week that these were important national security programs to help keep Americans safe, and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face,” Boehner said. “The president also outlined that there are appropriate safeguards in place to make sure that there’s no snooping, if you will, on Americans here at home.”

Snowden, a 29-year-old contractor with the National Security Agency, admitted that he was the source of several leaks of top secret NSA documents to the British paper, The Guardian, and the Washington Post.

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US State Department in Crisis: “Endemic” Sexual Assaults, Prostitution by Clinton’s Security Detail, Unnamed Ambassador Implicated (+video)

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Photo Credit: Medill DC

Uncovered documents show the U.S. State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal behavior ranging from sexual assaults to an underground drug ring.

CBS News reports that is has unearthed documents from the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), an internal watchdog agency, that implicate the State Department in a series of misconducts worldwide.

The memo, reported by CBS News’ John Miller, cited eight specific examples, including allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” with foreign nationals hired as embassy guards and the charge and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries” — a problem the report says was “endemic.”

Former State Department internal investigator Aurelia Fedenisn told CBS News, “We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases.”

Often times, other DSS agents were simply told to back off of investigations of high-ranking State Department members. Fedenisn told CBS that “hostile intelligence services” allow criminal behavior to continue.

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