Chris Wallace Grills Dan Pfeiffer Over Benghazi Emails, Talking Points

Obama, Umbrellas and the Marines: A Contrasting Image

U.S. AIRWAYS EXPRESS / PIEDMONT Dash-8-100 BELLY LANDING NEWARK 5

ABC NEWS: IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

From: ABC NEWS

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.

“Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”

Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.

“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated. “I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also reacted to the revelation late Thursday, stating the news was “stunning, just stunning.”

Muslims Demand Germany "Make Islam Equal to Christianity"

From: The Gatestone Institute

A major conference on German-Muslim relations has ended in failure after Muslims attending the event refused to acknowledge the government's concerns about the threats to security posed by radical Islam.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich had wanted the eighth annual German Islam Conference, held in Berlin on May 7, to focus on finding ways the government could work together with "moderate" Muslims in Germany to combat Islamism and extremism.

But Muslims attending the gathering were apparently offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent, and demanded instead that the German government take steps to make "Islam equal to Christianity" in Germany.

The German Islam Conference was launched by former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in 2006, and has been billed as the "central forum for dialogue" between German politicians and representatives of the estimated 4.3 million Muslims now living in Germany.

The stated aim of the annual event -- where Muslim organizations and individuals are invited to sit at the table with representatives from federal, state and local government -- is to promote Muslim integration into German society.

This year's event was focused around three main themes: institutional cooperation between Muslims and the German state; gender equality as a common value, and prevention of extremism, radicalization and social polarization.

Muslims attending the conference evidently wanted to focus only on the first theme, which included "promoting the introduction of comprehensive Islamic religious instruction in public schools, including through conferences and publications." Although the government has already made many concessions in this regard, Muslims complained about German "interference" in selecting the teachers who provide Islam training in German schools.

In respect to the second theme -- gender equality -- the German government had hoped to find solutions to the problems of honor violence and forced marriage. But Muslims refused even to acknowledge any connection between Islam and forced marriage. Instead, they managed to turn the gender issue on its head by demanding that German employers promise not to discriminate against Muslim women who want to wear burkas to work.

The third theme -- the prevention of Islamic extremism and radicalization -- undoubtedly caused the most controversy at this year's conference.

Interior Minister Friedrich had been hoping to enlist the support and cooperation of Muslims at the conference to help in the fight against the radicalization of young Muslims in Germany.

OBAMA SCANDAL UPDATE LINKS

IRS Source: Gee, it was only two "low level" employees targeting Conservative Groups

FOX: More than 500 Conservative Groups targeted by the IRS

IRS Inspector General Blames "Ineffective Management" for Scandal

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Eric Holder Can't Remember When He Recused Himself

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Speaker Boehner On IRS Scandal: "Who's Going To Jail"?

Steven Hayes: Jake Tapper Given Incomplete Emails On Benghazi

Eric Holder Calls Darrell Issa Shameful After Refusing to Provide Documents

Is Glenn Beck like A Broken Clock?

The IRS Wants YOU to Share EVERYTHING

Prominent Catholic Prof. Claims IRS Audited Her After Speaking Out Against Obama

Seven Democrats Sent Letters To IRS Demanding Scrutiny of the Tea Party

IRS ordered conservative education to turn over a list of high school and college students it trained

Good Samaritans Sued In New Hampshire

From: WMUR Home

The city of Keene is accusing a group that feeds parking meters of harassing parking enforcement officers.

Garret Ean, who is involved with Free Keene and other Free State groups, is one of six people named in a lawsuit filed by Keene. Ean and his group of friends call themselves Robin Hood of Keene. They walk the city streets with rolls of dimes and fill parking meters that are about to expire.

"We found that people really appreciate it when you save them from a ticket when you fill their meters," Ean said.

But in its lawsuit, the city accused the group of harassing officers and interfering with their work.

Ean's group records its time on the streets and posts the videos online. In the videos, two or three people can often be seen following the enforcement officers and recording as they look for expired meters.

The city said one enforcement officer suffered stress and anxiety from the group's actions and even experienced heart palpitations.

"I'm not trying to cause anybody medical issues," Ean said. "I feel it's unfortunate if that is the case. I hope there is some way that can be alleviated for him, but I know myself personally, I have been nothing but positive and trying to keep a good demeanor with all of the enforcers."

The lawsuit asks that members of the group stay at least 50 feet away from enforcement officers.

EPA Waiver Bias Against Conservatives

From: Competetive Enterprise Institute 

It’s not just the IRS that treats groups on the right differently from the rest. According to documents obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency is in on it too.
Public records produced by EPA in response to a lawsuit filed by CEI under the Freedom of Information Act illustrate a pattern of making it far more difficult for limited-government groups – in particular those who argue for more freedom and less EPA – to access public records.

Such groups are precisely those Congress and courts made clear FOIA was intended to protect from fees being used as a hurdle to obtaining information, without prejudice as to their perspective. Worse, CEI has now obtained proof of the spectacularly disparate nature of the practice, specifically revealing extraordinarily favorable treatment of the same green groups it’s been shown to be collaborating with on its agenda.

FOIA is clear that public interest groups who, by trade, obtain and broadly disseminate “government” information to the public are the intended beneficiaries of its provision for waiving fees. EPA routinely grants such fee waivers to its favored left-wing groups who demand a more intrusive and powerful EPA, but systematically denies waivers for groups on the right, according to research compiled by CEI Senior Fellow Christopher Horner, author of "The Liberal War on Transparency."

In a review of letters granting or denying fee waivers granted at the “initial determination” stage from January 2012 to this Spring, Horner found green groups, such as the National Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and EarthJustice, had their fees waived in 75 out of 82 cases. Meanwhile, EPA effectively or expressly denied Horner’s request for fee waivers in 14 of 15 FOIA requests over this same time.¹

Moreover, every denial Horner appealed was overturned. “That these denials are ritually overturned on appeal, not after I presented any new evidence or made any new point, but simply restated what was a detailed and heavily sourced legal document to begin with, reaffirms the illegitimacy of these hurdles EPA places in the way of those who cause it problems.” Horner said. “EPA’s practice is to take care of its friends and impose ridiculous obstacles to deny problematic parties’ requests for information.”

The numbers for a sampling of comparable “national” groups are mind-boggling. Of Sierra Club’s 15 requests, EPA granted 11. And Sierra Club received the harshest of treatments. In fact, EPA granted 19 of NRDC’s 20 requests and 17 of EarthJustice’s 19 requests. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility went a perfect 17-for-17. The Waterkeeper Alliance had all three of its requests granted, Greenpeace and the Southern Environmental Law Center each were 2-for-2, the Center for Biological Diversity 4-for-4.

That is, these green pressure groups encountered a cooperative EPA 92 percent of the time, but Horner’s requests on behalf of CEI and the American Tradition Institute were rejected more than 93 percent of the time.

EPA documents also showed Judicial Watch and the National Center for Public Policy Research each went 2-for-4, the Franklin Center had both its requests denied, and the Institute for Energy Research was denied in its only foray.

CEI has been recognized as a media outlet by federal and state agencies, so it is worth noting liberal media outlets, such as National Public Radio (7-for-7), ProPublica (3-for-3), the Nation and InsideClimateNews – all had all their requests granted over the same period.

“This is as clear an example of disparate treatment as the IRS’ hurdles selectively imposed upon groups with names ominously reflecting an interest in, say, a less intrusive or biased federal government,” said Horner. “This demonstrates a clear pattern of favoritism for allied groups and a concerted campaign to make life more difficult for those deemed unfriendly. The left hand of big government reaches out to its far-left hand at every turn. Argue against more of the same, however, and prepare to be treated as if you have fewer rights.”

In the Wrong Neighborhood?

From: WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge

 

Life Site News: Abortionist twisted heads off living babies, say nurses (Video)

From: LifeSiteNews.com

An abortionist who is now facing a criminal investigation would regularly allow late-term babies to be born alive, then twist their heads off with his bare hands, according to a videotaped interview conducted by three of his employees.

“Most of the time the fetus [sic] would come all the way out before he either cut the spinal cord or introduced one of the instruments into the soft-spot of the fetus in order to kill the fetus,” said Deborah Edge, one of the employees. “Either that or twisting the head off the neck with his own bare hands.”

“Most of the time we'd see...the fetus would come all the way out, and of course the fetus was still alive,” she said, adding that the doctor's assistants could see the newborns breathing.

The abortionist also suffocated babies by putting his finger down their windpipes, and placed living babies inside trash bags.

Life Dynamics, Inc., conducted an interview with three female employees of a late-term abortion facility on May 3. The employees' names were released, but the facility's location – and the abortionist's name – is being withheld because it is an ongoing investigation. Life Dynamics revealed only that the facility is not located in Pennsylvania.

The footage proves the murders perpetrated inside Kermit Gosnell's West Philadelphia "house of horrors" were anything but anomalous, the organization stated in a press release.

“I think every morning I saw several of them,” Edge said. Of 20 babies aborted in a day, three-to-four were “completely delivered” before being murdered.

One baby, whom the doctor believed had died, was born alive, opened its eyes, and clutched the abortionist's finger, as if to stop him.


Live births were common inside and outside his offices, the three women said.

Krystal Rodriguez said she witnessed another baby born alive on the facility's hallway floor. The abortionist “put it in a trash bag,” she said.

“On some occasions, we had women that were, the fetuses were falling into the toilet,” Edge said.
Once, a baby who was intended to be aborted in his office was delivered in a McDonald's toilet and left to die.

“They stopped there in the morning, and the fetus was left in the toilet,” Edge said. “No one ever found out whose fetus it was, but it was one of his patients. We knew it...she was supposed to be in the clinic.”

The doctor showed disregard for the patients' safety, as well. Rodriguez said the doctor would sometimes insert the instruments through the woman's stomach, if it was the easiest way to kill the baby.

Edge said she routinely observed the doctor “hurting patients on the table” and not telling victims of botched abortions that he had lacerated their cervixes or uteruses.

“If he had a patients that asked a lot of questions, he would prefer for them to be put to sleep,” said Gigi Aguilar, a third employee.

“The women who go there had no idea what they were getting themselves into,” Deborah said.

“During Gosnell’s trial, it became clear that organizations like Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and others within the pro-choice community were fully aware of what Gosnell was doing -- but they kept quiet because this was a rock they did not want the public looking under, said Mark Crutcher, who founded Life Dynamics in 1992. "What they knew, and wanted to keep hidden, was that everything being done at this abortion clinic was within the standard operating procedures for every other abortion clinic in the country."

As of the filming, the abortion facility remains open to the public. 

Julian Bond: Targeting Tea Party 'Legitimate'

Rush Limbaugh: I Live In Obama's Head

IRS Was Targeting Conservatives In 2010

From: ABC NEWS

The targeting of conservatives by the IRS started earlier and was more extensive than the IRS acknowledged last week, according to a draft IRS inspector general report obtained by ABC News.

As we reported on “Good Morning America” this morning, the IRS began targeting “Tea Party or similar organizations” in March 2010. That was when the Cincinnati-based IRS unit responsible for overseeing the applications for tax exempt status starting using the phrases “Tea Party,” “patriots” and “9/12″ to search for applications warranting greater scrutiny.

During this first phase, 10 Tea Party cases were identified. By April of 2010, 18 Tea Party organizations were targeted, including three that had already been approved for tax-exempt status.

By June 2011, the unit had flagged over 100 Tea Party-related applications and the criteria used to scrutinize organizations had grown considerably, flagging not just “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in group names, but also groups that were working on issues like “government debt,” “taxes” and even organizations making statements that “criticize how the country is being run.”

The report, done by the Inspector General for the IRS, also shows that senior IRS officials in Washington was aware of what was going on as early as August 4, 2011 when, according to the report, the IRS chief counsel held a meeting with the IRS’s Rulings and Agreements unit “so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue.”
 

A saint-making record is also a diplomatic headache for Pope Francis

From: NBC NEWS.com

Pope Francis canonized more than 800 Catholics in Saint Peter’s Square Sunday – the largest number to be elevated to sainthood at once in the history of the Catholic Church.

The choice of some of the new saints was also striking, touching on the already-fragile relationship between Christianity and Islam.

The new saints included hundreds of laymen from the southern Italian port town of Otranto who were slain in the 15th century by the invading Ottoman Turkish army after they refused to convert to Islam.

In 1480, after conquering Constantinople – modern day Istanbul - the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed II planned to invade Rome, and Otranto became his army’s port of entrance into Italy.The local population fought back in a week-long siege, putting up a brave but hopeless resistance. When Ottoman soldiers finally overrun the town, they were ordered to kill every man over the age of 15 who refused to convert to Islam.

More than 800 resisted, locking themselves up into the town’s Cathedral. Their ringleader, local shoemaker Antonio Primaldo, was first to be beheaded. According  to local legend, his headless body remained standing until the last of his fellow townspeople was killed.

Since then, Primaldo and his townsfolk, who chose to die rather than betray their Catholic faith, have been hailed as martyrs. Their bones and skulls – proudly on display behind glass walls in the Cathedral of Otranto – are well-known Catholic relics and a popular pilgrimage destination.

But the choice to highlight their sacrifice may put a strain on the already fragile relationship between the Catholic Church and Islam.

Ever since his election, Pope Francis has called for greater dialogue between Christianity and other religions, in particular Islam. And so far, he has acted on that promise. He washed the feet of a young Muslim woman jailed in a juvenile prison on Ash Wednesday, and reached out to the many “Muslim brothers and sisters” during his first Good Friday procession.

So why risk creating yet another inter-faith row with a celebration which some in the Muslim world may be seen as a provocation?

The answer is that it wasn’t Pope Francis’ choice in the first place. The decision to canonize the hundreds of Otranto martyrs was rubber-stamped by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, on Feb. 11 - the same day he announced his resignation.

It was a departing act of a pontiff that had become concerned about the mounting discrimination suffered by Christian minorities living in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab spring.

Pope Francis shares his predecessor’s concern. “By venerating the martyrs of Otranto” he said at Sunday’s canonization mass, “We ask God to protect the many Christians who in these times, and in many parts of the world, are still victims of violence”.

The Vatican’s relationship with Islam took a nosedive in 2006 when Benedict – now the Pope Emeritus - enraged Muslims by quoting the 14^th-century byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiogolos, who said: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

It was an uncomfortable parting gift for his successor, who now faces an uphill struggle to rekindle ties with Islam.

Americans Who Favor Stricter Gun Control Believe Gun Crime Has Increased

From: Reason.com

According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 64 percent of Americans who favor stricter gun control laws in the United States also have the misperception that gun crime has gone up in the past 20 years. A plurality (43 percent) of those who oppose stricter gun control say gun crime has decreased.

Interestingly, 54 percent of Democrats think gun crime has increased in the US over the past 20 years, compared to 29 percent of Republicans and 25 percent of Independents.

Recent reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Pew Research Center shows gun crime has significantly declined since the 1990s. NPR writes:

"Firearm-related homicides dropped from 18,253 homicides in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011," according to a report by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, "and nonfatal firearm crimes dropped from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 in 2011.

There were seven gun homicides per 100,000 people in 1993, the Pew Research Center study says, which dropped to 3.6 gun deaths in 2010. The study relied in part on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Obama, Clinton, Rice 'All Told Me About The Reason This Happened Was the Video’

From: CNS News

The mother of diplomat Sean Smith, who was killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2012, said that at her son’s memorial service President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Ambassador Susan Rice told her that the attack occurred because of an anti-Muslim video, although evidence now shows the White House was told by the CIA “that Islamic extremists with ties to al Qaeda participated in the attack” and that the agency never mentioned a “video.”

It is also now known that White House and State Department officials edited the talking points provided by the CIA to remove any references to the al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia and earlier warnings from the agency about terrorist threats against the Benghazi compound. The talking points, in their various versions, never mentioned the anti-Muslim video touted by the president, Clinton and Rice.

Sean Smith, killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack, was 34 years old and worked for the U.S. Foreign Service as an Information Management Officer. He was married and had two children.  The memorial service for Smith and the other three Americans killed occurred on Sept. 14 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama spoke at the service.

Sean Smith’s mother, Pat Smith, was interviewed on The O’Reilly Factor on May 9 about congressional hearings into the attack and new testimony by whistleblowers about what happened on Sept. 11, 2012.

Part of the exchange between host Bill O’Reilly and Pat Smith about events at the memorial service  is presented below:

Bill O’Reilly: “Did Hillary Clinton say anything to you? Did President Obama, did they say anything to you on that day?”

Pat Smith: “Oh yes, they all told me about the reason that this happened was the video. Every one of them told me that.”

O’Reilly: “They actually told you it was the video? Both Secretary of State Clinton and the president told you it was the videotape?"

Pat Smith: “Yes, they actually did, and Susan Rice also.”

O’Reilly: “Face to face?”

Pat Smith: “Nose to nose. I was with – they were hugging me."

O’Reilly: “And that was 3 days after the attack, correct? The 14th?"

Pat Smith: “Well, whenever it was – it was at the ceremony [at Andrews Air Force base].”

O’Reilly: “September 14, three days after the attack.”

While the talking points used by the Obama administration do not mention a video, Secretary Clinton did issue a statement on Sept. 11, while the attack was still ongoing in Benghazi, stating that, “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”

When CNSNews.com asked the State Department who gave Clinton that information, while the Benghazi attack was still unfolding, spokesman Patrick Ventrell would not answer.

Pat Smith: "Our Government Does Not Care About Us"