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White House Blows Top CIA Official’s Cover

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Photo Credit: WikimediaIn an embarrassing flub, the Obama administration accidentally revealed the name of the CIA’s top official in Afghanistan in an email to thousands of journalists during the president’s surprise Memorial Day weekend trip to Bagram Air Field.

The officer’s name — identified as “chief of station” in Kabul — was included by U.S. embassy staff on a list of 15 senior American officials who met with President Obama during the Saturday visit. The list was sent to a Washington Post reporter who was representing the news media, who then sent it out to the White House “press pool” list, which contains as many as 6,000 recipients.

The Associated Press is withholding the officer’s name at the request of the Obama administration, who said its publication could put his life and those of his family members in danger. A Google search appears to reveal the name of the officer’s wife and other personal details.

White House officials realized the error after the Post reporter notified them, and sent out a new list without the station chief’s name. Other major news organizations, including the Post, also agreed not to publish the officer’s name.

The reporter who distributes the pool report sends it to the White House to be checked for factual accuracy and then forwarded to the thousands of journalists on the email distribution list, so in this case the White House failed on at least two occasions to recognize that the CIA official’s name was being revealed and circulated so broadly.

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Scientists Rebut White House Global Warming Claims

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Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo & VideoA group of independent scientists, economists, and meteorologists has issued a pointed response to the scientific foundation of the Obama administration’s claims that humans are drastically changing the climate by burning fossil fuels.

With expertise in multiple disciplines, including climate research, weather modeling, physics, geology, statistical analysis, engineering, and economics, the 15 signers make the case that the foundation of the White House National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a “masterpiece of marketing” that crumbles like a “house of cards” under the weight of real-world evidence.

“They promote their ‘Climate Models’ as a reliable way to predict the future climate. But these models dramatically fail basic verification tests. Nowhere do they admit to these well-known failures. Instead, we are led to believe that their climate models are close to perfection,” assert the scientists.

The 829-page NCA report was released on May 6 and was characterized by administration officials as “the most comprehensive, authoritative, transparent scientific report on U.S. climate change impacts ever generated.”

The administration seized on the NCA findings as justification for its push to further regulate the fossil-fuel industry and to bolster alternative green-energy sources.

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Issa: White House Warned YouTube Over Anti-Islam Video During Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: APRepublican Rep. Darrell Issa claimed that an email he’s reviewed shows the White House decided to reach out to YouTube within hours of the Benghazi terror attack, to warn the website about the consequences of posting an anti-Islam video.

The email would suggest the White House was connecting the attack to the video almost from the outset — though their initial claim that the attack sprung out of protests over the film would later be proven false.

According to Issa, who discussed excerpts from the otherwise classified emails on Wednesday, the email was sent at 9:11 p.m. ET on Sept. 11 to the Diplomatic Security Command Center.

According to Issa, the email said: “White House is reaching out to UTube to advise ramifications of the posting of the Pastor Jon Video.”

Issa said this email is “troubling” because it “contradicts” White House claims that the faulty storyline on the video was drawn from the intelligence community’s talking points.

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Report: White House Aide Linked to Al-Qaida Funder

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

There is a troubling common thread that links Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff to the current special assistant to the National Security Council chief of staff of the military’s Islamic chaplain program.

The thread is more radical than the Muslim Brotherhood. It is the Muslim World League, a group accused of financing al-Qaida fronts. The organization’s offshoots have been declared official terrorist organizations by both the State Department and the United Nations.

Yet despite the troubling facts, Muslim World League-linked individuals have been in key national security positions and are currently helping to run the military’s chaplain program.

The case of Mehdi K. Alhassani, special assistant to the Office of the Chief of Staff of the National Security Council, drew attention last week in the blogosphere after former PLO operative Walid Shoebat reported on Alhassani’s ties to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups.

Alhassani’s name emerged in an administration email made public last week as part of a Judicial Watch lawsuit. The email was sent three days after the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack to Alhassani and other officials from Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communication.

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John Cornyn Calls for Broad Probe into Obamacare Spending, Fundraising

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is calling for a broad investigation into spending and fundraising to help promote Obamacare after a report released Monday raised new questions about the White House’s involvement in persuading private entities to donate to the effort.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, released a report Monday on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ fundraising on behalf of Enroll America, a nonprofit founded by former Obama campaign and White House staffers, to help boost enrollment in the federal exchanges.

When looking into the fundraising issue, the GAO interviewed a representative from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who said a White House aide during a discussion in 2012 sought a “significant contribution” for Enroll America and said other similar enrollment nonprofits would likely need $30 million to finance a national Obamacare promotional effort.

The White House stresses that the aide, identified only as the deputy assistant to the president for health policy, did not ask for a specific dollar donation and denies the mention of the need for $30 million to finance a private national Obamacare public-relations campaign.

Jeanne Lambrew has been serving in that position since March 2011, according to a report in the Washington Post.

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Ben Carson: White House Wanted Apology for ‘Offending’ Obama (+video)

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Photo Credit: The Daily Caller / Grae Stafford

Photo Credit: The Daily Caller / Grae Stafford

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson says the White House wanted him to apologize for “offending” President Obama after he famously delivered a conservative message at the National Prayer Breakfast last year.

Carson, the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, recalls the events surrounding his 2013 speech in his new book, One Nation: What We Can All Do To Save America’s Future. The Daily Caller obtained an advance copy of the book, which is set for release May 20.

“He did not appear to be hostile or angry,” Carson writes of Obama, “but within a matter of minutes after the conclusion of the program, I received a call from some of the prayer breakfast organizers saying that the White House was upset and requesting that I call the president and apologize for offending him. I said that I did not think that he was offended and that I didn’t think that such a call was warranted.”

Conservatives rallied around Carson last year after his remarks, made from a podium as Obama sat just feet away. In his speech, he railed against “political correctness” and offered specific ideas for health care reform.

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Newly Released Clinton Document Describes Internet as ‘Right Wing’ Tool of ‘Conspiracy Commerce’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

The White House counsel’s office and Democratic National Committee produced the report, which explains how “Republican staffers surf the Internet,” and describes it as “one of the major and most dynamic modes of communication.”

“The Internet can link people, groups and organizations together instantly,” the report reads. “Moreover, it allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated data and information to be located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized upon the internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information.”

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Issa: IRS Probe Will Continue Despite White House Roadblocks

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Photo Credit: Reuters / Landov

Photo Credit: Reuters / Landov

Rep. Darrell Issa said on Thursday that the congressional investigation into the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS will proceed despite any obstacles from embattled former supervisor Lois Lerner or the Obama administration.

“Whether Lois Lerner breaks her silence and testifies or is simply held to account when the full House of Representatives votes her in contempt, this president has been put on notice that the targeting investigation will move forward,” Issa said in an op-ed piece in the Orange County Register. “Try as this administration might, this investigation will not go away until we get the full truth.”

Issa, the two-term California Republican, is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The panel has been investigating the targeting scandal of tea party, conservative, and religious groups starting in 2010 through the 2012 presidential election.

The scandal led to Lerner’s suspension and retirement last year — and several other Internal Revenue Service employees have been fired or put on administrative leave. Others face congressional investigation.

Lerner was also held in contempt by Issa’s committee after twice invoking the Fifth Amendment in questioning on the scandal.

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Obama Sets Record: Highest Number of Regs on the Books in a Year

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Anyone wondering why the U.S. economy can’t seem to grow at its usual pace should examine one product category where production is booming: federal regulation.

Washington set a new record in 2013 by issuing final rules consuming 26,417 pages in the Federal Register. While plenty of government employees deserve credit for this milestone, leadership matters. And by this measure President Obama has never been surpassed in the Oval Office.

The latest rule-making tally comes from the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews, who on April 29 will publish his annual review of federal regulation in “Ten Thousand Commandments.” This is important work because politicians and the media treat regulation as a largely cost-free public good. Mr. Crews knows better.

Congress may be mired in gridlock, but the federal bureaucracy is busier than ever. In 2013 the Federal Register contained 3,659 “final” rules, which means they now must be obeyed, and 2,594 proposed rules on their way to becoming orders from political headquarters.

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Governors Erupt in Partisan Dispute at White House

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles DharapakThe nation’s governors emerged from a meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday claiming harmony, only to immediately break into an on-camera partisan feud in front of the West Wing.

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal lashed out first, saying if Obama were serious about growing the economy he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline project and take other executive actions.

Instead, Jindal said, Obama “seems to be waving the white flag of surrender” on the economy by focusing on raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10, up from $7.25. “The Obama economy is now the minimum wage economy. I think we can do better than that,” Jindal said.

Jindal’s statements were the kind that Republicans often make on television appearances or at partisan events, but don’t usually come from potential presidential candidates standing yards from the Oval Office. Other governors had been instead expressing wide agreement and appreciation for the president’s time. As Jindal spoke, some of his colleagues began shaking their heads, and Hawaii Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie began audibly mumbling to others around him.

Connecticut Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy took over the microphone from Jindal and responded sharply, “Wait a second, until a few moments ago we were going down a pretty cooperative road. So let me just say that we don’t all agree that moving Canadian oil through the United States is necessarily the best thing for the United States economy.”

Read more this story HERE.