IRS’s Lerner Had History of Harassment, Inappropriate Religious Inquiries at FEC (+videos)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteBy Mark Hemingway. Perhaps no other IRS official is more intimately associated with the tax agency’s growing scandal than Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division. Since admitting the IRS harassed hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups for over two years, Lerner has been criticized for a number of untruths—including the revelation that she apparently lied about planting a question at an American Bar Association conference where she first publicly acknowledged IRS misconduct…

[P]rior to joining the IRS, Lerner’s tenure as head of the Enforcement Office at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was marked by what appears to be politically motivated harassment of conservative groups.

Lerner was appointed head of the FEC’s enforcement division in 1986 and stayed in that position until 2001. In the late 1990s, the FEC launched an onerous investigation of the Christian Coalition, ultimately costing the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours in lost work. The investigation was notable because the FEC alleged that the Christian Coalition was coordinating issue advocacy expenditures with a number of candidates for office. Aside from lacking proof this was happening, it was an open question whether the FEC had the authority to bring these charges.

James Bopp Jr., who was lead counsel for the Christian Coalition at the time, tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD the Christian Coalition investigation was egregious and uncalled for. “We felt we were being singled out, because when you handle a case with 81 depositions you have a pretty good argument you’re getting special treatment. Eighty-one depositions! Eighty-one! From Ralph Reed’s former part-time secretary to George H.W. Bush. It was mind blowing,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Lois Lerner: ‘I have not done anything wrong’ at IRS

By Susan Ferrechio. The head of the Internal Revenue Service division that targeted conservative groups told a congressional committee Wednesday that she did nothing wrong and is not to blame for the wrongdoing, but then invoked her Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination and refused to answer lawmakers’ questions.

Lois Lerner was a witness lawmakers hoped would help finally answer the fundamental questions about who authorized the IRS to target the Tea Party and other conservative groups opposed to President Obama ahead of last year’s election.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., dismissed Lerner from the hearing after she invoked the Fifth Amendment. He said he may recall Lerner to testify at a future hearing, saying she may have waived her Fifth Amendment rights when she first delivered an opening statement proclaiming her innocence. To force Lerner to return and testify, Issa refused to adjourn the hearing at the end of the day, instead gaveling it into recess.

“I am looking into the possibility of recalling her,” Issa said. Read more from this story HERE.

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Rep. Gowdy Grills Former IRS Commissioner

Islamic Fundamentalists Attempt Beheading of British Soldier in London in Broad Daylight (+videos)

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Photo Credit: ITV NewsClutching a bloodied meat cleaver, the suspected killer who executed a soldier on a crowded street declared: ‘you and your kids will be next’.

In a chilling rant captured on camera, the knife-wielding man declared: ‘The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers.’

The man who launched the terrifying diatribe in Woolwich, south-east London, is believed to be Michael Adebolajo, who has been identified on Twitter and web forums as one of the two people arrested.

He added, in the video obtained by ITV News: ‘Remove your governments – they don’t care about you. You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start bursting our guns? You think politicians are going to die?

Yesterday the serviceman, wearing a Help for Heroes top, was run down by a car before being brutally attacked in Woolwich, just 200 yards from the barracks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Ted Cruz: ‘I Don’t Trust Republicans’

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Photo Credit: YouTubeSen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that he doesn’t trust members of his own party to negotiate a budget conference report.

Cruz’s remark came after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he thought it was “bizarre” that a member of his own party was objecting to forming a conference committee with the House to work out a budget.

McCain said the objections suggested Senate Republicans didn’t trust House Republicans to hold the party line in negotiations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill Drafted In Secret Would Block Release Of Some Newtown Massacre Records (+video)

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Photo Credit: dipfanThe staffs of the state’s top prosecutor and the governor’s office have been working in secret with General Assembly leaders on legislation to withhold records related to the police investigation into the Dec. 14 Newtown elementary school massacre — including victims’ photos, tapes of 911 calls, and possibly more.

The behind-the-scenes legislative effort came to light Tuesday when The Courant obtained a copy of an email by a top assistant to Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, Timothy J. Sugrue. Sugrue, an assistant state’s attorney, discussed options considered so far, including blocking release of statements “made by a minor.”

“There is complete agreement regarding photos etc., and audio tapes, although the act may allow the disclosure of audio transcripts,” Sugrue wrote to Kane, two other Kane subordinates and to Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky, who is directing the investigation of the killings.

The bill that’s being crafted has not been handled under routine legislative procedures — it hasn’t gone through the committee process, which includes a public hearing, for example. Sugrue’s email Tuesday indicated that a draft of the bill was being worked on by leaders in both the House and Senate, and might be ready as soon as the end of the day.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrat: There Will be “Hell to Pay” if IRS Doesn’t Stop Stonewalling (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeAt a House Oversight Committee hearing today, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass) said that, if IRS officials continue to dodge questions, the committee have no choice but to get a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the scandal.

Rep. Lynch warned that, if that’s the case, there “will be hell to pay.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Former IRS Head Can’t Describe 1st or 2nd Amendments of Constitution (+video)

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Photo Credit: APThings got awkward during the House Oversight Committee’s second IRS hearing on Wednesday when Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI), while seemingly making a larger point, couldn’t get former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman to acknowledge certain amendments to the Constitution…

“You know those amendments. The Constitutional amendments,” Bentivolio said matter of factly. “You know the First, you know the Second, and you know the 19th.”

“I don’t necessarily have the Constitution memorized, sir.”

“Okay, well, they’re pretty general in what each one is. Like the First Amendment is the freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment, right?”

“I really can’t recite the Constitution, sir,” Shulman concluded.

Read more from this story HERE.

Heartwarming Video: Tornado Survivor Finds Dog During TV Interview

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Photo Credit: CBS NewsAn elderly woman whose home was destroyed by the Oklahoma tornado found her pet dog among the rubble during a live TV interview.

The footage of Barbara Garcia came as fellow survivors began reliving the terror they felt while winds of up to 200mph obliterated their neighborhoods.

Mrs Garcia was standing among the twisted wreckage of her home as she was interviewed about her experiences by a reporter from CBS.

“I was sitting on the stool holding my dog,” she said.

“This was the game plan all through the years, to go in that little bathroom (together). I rolled around a little bit and when it stopped I was right there (and) that stove cooker is what I saw.

Read more from this story HERE.

Suspicions Confirmed: IRS Planted Question, Intended to Reveal Illegal Targeting. Now the Question is, ‘Why?’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: TownHallOne of the bizarre permutations of the ongoing IRS scandal is the manner in which the agency made the story public. As you’ll recall, the revelation came in the form of IRS official Lois Lerner’s response to a question asked at a public Q&A session with the American Bar Association.

National Review’s Kevin Williamson quickly surmised that the question itself may have been coordinated in advance to give the appearance of an “unplanned,” and therefore forthright, public mea culpa. His suspicions were confirmed by acting IRS commissioner Stephen Miller during last week’s House hearings.

The source of the supposedly impromptu question has since copped to her role in the scheme as well. But what remained unresolved, though, was the issue of who dreamed up the secretive plan. Until today. Take it away, Stephen Miller:

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Dem Tells Sen. Mike Lee That He’s Acting Like a ‘Dictator’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeSen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., scolded Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, for acting like a “dictator” by demanding that Senate Democrats promise not to raise the debt limit during conference meetings with House Republicans.

“We don’t have kings anymore,” Landrieu said in response to Lee on the Senate floor this afternoon. “We don’t have dictators anymore. We don’t have people with special powers . . . not anyone in this chamber is entitled to write the budget exactly the way they want it.”

Lee took to the floor to oppose moving to a budget conference between House and Senate lawmakers that could be used to raise the debt ceiling.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fort Hood Shooting Victims Struggle While Defendant Draws Big Salary (+video)

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Photo Credit: Bell County Sheriff’s Office handout/ReutersSoldiers wounded in the Fort Hood shooting spree in November 2009 have a new problem on their hands: getting the shooting’s classification changed from “workplace violence” to “combat related.”

As reported by Dallas-Fort Worth’s NBC 5 Investigates, the injured soldiers are struggling to pay their bills. Because the government doesn’t classify the shooting as an act of combat or terror, those injured don’t receive additional pay or Purple Hearts.

Receiving the “pay and medical benefits earned by those wounded in combat” would be a big help to these soldiers and their families, reports NBC 5.

Adding to the soldiers’ concerns: Major Nidal Hasan, the man charged in the shootings, continues to be paid his salary and has earned more than $278,000 since the shooting, which resulted in 13 deaths and 32 injuries.

The news team reported that the Department of Defense confirmed that Hasan has continued to receive his salary because he has not yet been proved guilty. The salary rule is documented in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (That Hasan would still receive his pay was first reported in 2011.)

Read more from this story HERE.