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Dictionary of the People

Washington Free Beacon, by Robert Charette Original Article

Posted By: PChristopher- 5/22/2013 1:33:04 AM Post Reply

The U.S. court system is built upon the Sixth Amendment, which entitles Americans to a fair and speedy trial with an impartial jury. And now, thanks to the increasing use of Urban Dictionary in our courts, Americans also enjoy the right to a trial in the slang of their choosing. How else could county court handle a dispute between two “ratchets?” (Snip) Understandably, the legal use of a website that allows its users to crowdsouce the definitions of “twerking” and “Eskimo brother” can be polarizing.

IRS´ last two commissioners deny
lying; official to take the 5th

Los Angeles Times, by Joseph Tanfani* Original Article

Posted By: earlybird- 5/21/2013 11:17:34 PM Post Reply

WASHINGTON — As the Internal Revenue Service´s last two directors struggled to provide answers Tuesday about the agency´s improper scrutiny of conservative groups, a lawyer for another key IRS official said she would invoke the 5th Amendment rather than answer questions about the screening and why she didn´t tell Congress about it. Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, will assert her right against self-incrimination during her scheduled appearance Wednesday before the House oversight panel.

Petraeus’s role in drafting Benghazi
talking points raises questions

Washington Post, by Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 11:03:01 PM Post Reply

The controversy over the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi attack last year began at a meeting over coffee on Capitol Hill three days after the assault. It was at this informal session with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the ranking Democrat asked David H. Petraeus, who was CIA director at the time, to ensure that committee members did not inadvertently disclose classified information when talking to the news media about the attack. “We had some new members on the committee, and we knew the press would be very aggressive on this, so we didn’t want

With more clarity, White House
adds to confusion on IRS

Washington Post, by Dan Balz Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 10:59:54 PM Post Reply

It is never good for an administration when a front-page newspaper article about an ongoing controversy begins as follows: “The White House offered a new account Monday of how and when it learned .?.?. ” That’s what readers of The Post awoke to on Tuesday. In trying to contain the controversy and protect President Obama, White House officials have only added to questions about what happened. Until this week, the story of how White House officials learned that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting conservative groups was fairly straightforward. White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was notified in late April

In AP, Rosen investigations,
government makes
criminals of reporters

Washington Post, by Dana Milbank Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 10:56:21 PM Post Reply

There are various reasons you might not care about the Obama administration’s spying on journalist James Rosen and labeling him a “co-conspirator and/or aider and abettor” in an espionage case. Liberals may not be particularly bothered because the targeted journalist works for Fox News. Conservatives may not be concerned because of their antipathy toward the news media generally. And the general public certainly doesn’t have much patience for journalists’ whining. But here’s why you should care — and why this case, along with the administration’s broad snooping into Associated Press phone records, is more serious than the other supposed

White House meltdown: A truth deficit

Washington Post, by Jennifer Rubin Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 10:53:11 PM Post Reply

There seems to be bipartisan consensus that whatever the White House is doing to fend off scandal is making things worse. Howard Fineman sounds a lot like Right Turn these days: “White House aides are tempting fate with their reluctant, piecemeal and contradictory disclosures of what they knew and when they knew it, especially about a report on the Internal Revenue Service’s 18-month effort to target tea party and other conservative groups for special scrutiny.” The constantly shifting stories from Jay Carney and the IRS dissembling and pleas of ignorance only heighten concern that there has been serious wrongdoing.

A Crack in the IRS Dam

Power Line, by John Hinderaker Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 10:50:44 PM Post Reply

The dam protecting the IRS scandal began to crack today when Lois Lerner, the IRS official who announced, and apologized for, the improper singling out of conservative-leaning organizations by IRS employees under her command, announced through her criminal defense lawyer that she will not testify as scheduled tomorrow before the House Oversight Committee. Rather, she will assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. This marks an enormous milestone in the IRS investigation. It can now be taken as more or less established that crimes were committed by Obama administration employees. Lerner’s lawyer tried to minimize the significance

On Leno: Kids Ask Obama
the Darndest Questions

Newsbusters, by Geoffrey Dickens Original Article

Posted By: JoniTx- 5/21/2013 10:36:55 PM Post Reply

Ever since he announced he was stepping down as Tonight Show host Jay Leno has seemingly been harder on Barack Obama. Well on Monday´s Tonight Show with Jay Leno that trend continued as Leno featured a clip of schoolchildren peppering the President with the tough questions that the press should be hammering him with on a daily basis. Watch and laugh. (Video after the jump)-JAY LENO: Actually President Obama made a surprise visit to a school in Baltimore on Friday. And these kids, you know these little kids are so much more sophisticated nowadays.

Sources challenge White House claim
of all-hands-on-deck pursuit of
Benghazi suspects

Fox News, by Adam Housley Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 10:32:50 PM Post Reply

U.S. military sources serving in North Africa are challenging the latest White House claim that the administration is applying "all the resources" at its disposal to bring the Benghazi attackers to justice, charging instead that the Obama administration knows who is responsible but is not acting. "They have let it slip by because of politics, and now we´ve taken all the correlation we had and dropped the ball because of risk (aversion) -- and now the security in Libya is more fragile than ever," one U.S. special operator told Fox News. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity,

Your Move, Media: The Obama
Administration Dares The
Press To Respond To
Intimidation Tactics

Mediaite, by Noah Rothman Original Article

Posted By: JoniTx- 5/21/2013 10:30:01 PM Post Reply

These are historic and troubling times. The unprecedented and brazen efforts by high-ranking elements within the Obama administration to silence whistleblowers and intimidate any reporters that would speak with them have starkly framed the choice the political press now faces. The administration has thrown the gauntlet down before the media with their display of abject disregard for the watchdog Fourth Estate. To the White House’s chagrin, the media will respond. In a two-fold assault on the freedom of the press, President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice has been implicated in efforts designed to intimidate both the press and

Democratic senator apologizes
for citing Okla. tornadoes in
climate change speech

Fox News, by Staff Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 10:22:45 PM Post Reply

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has apologized for remarks Monday in which he linked Oklahoma "cyclones" to climate change while berating Republicans for their stance on the issue -- around the time a massive tornado killed dozens in that state. A Whitehouse spokesman said Tuesday the politically charged remarks were pre-written as part of the senator’s weekly Senate floor speech on climate change. “Tragically and unbeknownst to the senator at the time, a series of tornadoes were hitting Oklahoma at the same moment he gave his remarks,” the spokesman said.

Fox’s Bret Baier Reveals That
DOJ Also Seized Phone Records
For James Rosen’s Parents

Mediaite, by Noah Rothman Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 10:00:02 PM Post Reply

During a panel discussion on the Department of Justice seizing the phone records of Fox News’ James Rosen, Bret Baier revealed that the seizure included the phone records of Rosen’s parents. The entire panel agreed the scandal was an outrage, with Kirsten Powers pointing out that there have been a number of high-profile leaks from the Obama administration, but the only ones they seem interested in going after are the ones that make them look bad. Charles Krauthammer found it amazing that the government would make such a “huge assault on the first amendment” in trying to

Journalism advocates call
leak investigations chilling

USA Today, by Aamer Madhani & Kevin Johnson Original Article

Posted By: JoniTx- 5/21/2013 9:54:02 PM Post Reply

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department says it hasn´t prosecuted journalists for obtaining or publishing classified information and has no plans to. But open government and journalism advocates say the aggressive investigations of classified leaks by government officials under the Obama administration´s watch are having a chilling effect on news organizations´ ability to play a watchdog role. The renewed criticism of the Obama administration comes after new revelations that federal authorities secretly obtained the e-mails and tracked the movements of Fox News reporter James Rosen

‘Yes we can’ chant breaks
out as Senate panel passes
immigration bill

Daily Caller [Washington DC], by Jeff Poor Original Article

Posted By: JoniTx- 5/21/2013 9:46:10 PM Post Reply

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of a sweeping immigration bill was expected. But the explosion of chants of “Yes we can! Yes we can!” and “Leahy! Leahy!” came as a surprise. The “Gang of Eight” bill passed by a wide 13-5 margin early Tuesday evening. Amid the cheering, Democratic committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont could be seen motioning spectators to come up and participate in the celebration. The “Yes we can” chant was made popular by then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential run.

Progressives for Sale

Washington Free Beacon, by Bill McMorris Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 9:37:17 PM Post Reply

A liberal think tank with close ties to the Obama administration took money from General Motors and other businesses it did not disclose while campaigning for policies benefitting those companies, according to The Nation magazine. Members of the “Business Alliance” of the Center for American Progress (CAP) include bailed out car company GM, unsafe Bangladeshi factory utilizer Walmart, and embattled solar energy company First Solar, according to a membership list obtained by the liberal magazine. CAP, whose chairman is Democratic Party power player John Podesta, was a major proponent of the auto bailout, which used

‘Rosen’s in the Wind!’

National Review Online, by Jonah Goldberg Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 9:29:36 PM Post Reply

John Podhoretz has a good column today on the Obama administration’s travails. I did not know this bit until I read the column: Even more startling, the search warrant makes clear that the FBI already had everything it needed on the leaker, as the request for a search warrant features quotes from an interview that were tantamount to a confession. It asked that the warrant be sealed — in other words, that Rosen not be told — because knowledge might “cause subjects to flee”! Imagine it: Rosen, an on-air reporter

All of Obama´s Scandals Are
Ultimately About Information Control

National Review Online, by Jim Geraghty Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 9:26:54 PM Post Reply

There’s really no reason for the press to suggest that the recent slew of scandals involving the Obama administration — Benghazi, the AP phone-record seizure, the snooping in James Rosen’s e-mail, the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, and so on — are a confusing jumble. There is a very clear thread running through all of the administration’s actions: The U.S. deputy chief of mission in Libya, Gregory Hicks, says that he was told not to speak to a member of Congress about Benghazi without a State Department lawyer present, that he received a phone call from Hillary Clinton’s

McCain Finds Paul´s Defense
of Apple ´Offensive´

Breitbart´s Big Government, by Mike Flynn Original Article

Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/21/2013 9:23:07 PM Post Reply

On Tuesday, KY Sen. Rand Paul launched a spirited defense of Apple, whose tax strategies were subject to a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "I frankly think the committee should apologize to Apple," Paul said. Paul went on to accuse the committee of "bullying" one of America´s greatest companies, prompting Sen. John McCain to quickly defend the inquiry and say that Paul´s remarks were "frankly, offensive." On Monday, the committee released a report alleging that Apple improperly sheltered $44 billion in profits overseas. Sheltering profits outside the United States

U.S. ´Dedicates´ New $133 Million
Embassy in Bujumbura, Burundi

Weekly Standard, by Daniel Halper Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 9:18:31 PM Post Reply

The State Department today announced the dedication of a new "environmentally-sustainable" embassy in Bujumbura, Burundi. The cost of the building project is $133 million. "In an important symbol of America’s commitment to an enduring friendship with the Republic of Burundi, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi, Dawn M. Liberi, dedicated the new U.S. Embassy in Bujumbura today," reads the State Department press release. "Occupying a 10-acre site near the city center in Kigobe, the $133 million multi-building complex provides a state-of-the-art, environmentally-sustainable workplace for embassy personnel. "Perkins + Will of Washington, D.C.

Liberal Juan Williams: ‘Journalism
Has Been Criminalized’ by DOJ

Cybercast News Service, by Taylor Knopf Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 9:09:56 PM Post Reply

Juan Williams, a liberal commentator and a Fox News Channel contributor, criticized the Department of Justice (DOJ) for “criminalizing journalism,” when asked about Fox’s Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen being labeled as a possible co-conspirator in a government leak investigation. “I think what you’ve got here is a situation where somehow, now, journalism has been criminalized, especially in this Rosen case,” Williams said on Fox & Friends on Tuesday. “There’s just no justification for somehow making it out that a reporter, who is trying to cultivate a source, by doing so is a co-conspirator in terms

Senate Dem tells Tea Partier that
he’s acting like a ‘dictator’

Washington Examiner, by Joel Gehrke Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 9:02:50 PM Post Reply

Sen. 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

Obama administration
threatens Keystone veto

Washington Times, by Stephen Dinan Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 8:55:28 PM Post Reply

The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto a House bill designed to approve building the Keystone pipeline, saying President Obama should have final say over the controversial project to bring oil from Canada to the U.S. “Because [the bill] seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether cross-border pipelines are in the national interest by removing the presidential permitting requirement for the Keystone XL pipeline project, if presented to the president, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill,” the White House budget office said in a statement of policy.

IRS Offices Closed in Northern
Arizona on Day of Tea Party Protests

Townhall, by Katie Pavlich Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 8:49:11 PM Post Reply

IRS offices in Flagstaff and Prescott, Ariz. were temporarily closed Tuesday as protests of IRS offices around the country were planned by Tea Party activists. "They have a notice up that says ´temporarily closed," said Tom Case, a Lake Havasu resident.Case drove three hours and 200 miles Tuesday with his wife to participate in the IRS protest of the Flagstaff office, located at 1633 S. Plaza Way. This was going to be Case´s first rally. "I follow the politics of the Tea Party, I´m not necessarily a hardcore tea party person," Case said. "This IRS thing to me is

Taking the Fifth -- What It
Does (& Doesn´t Do) for Lerner

Townhall, by Carol Platt Liebau Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 8:36:48 PM Post Reply

Tomorrow, Lois Lerner -- director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS when all the targeting occurred -- is going to come to Capitol Hill and take the Fifth Amendment. It will be quite a spectacle. As a matter of law, a jury cannot use someone´s invocation of the Fifth Amendment as evidence of guilt. But we are not in a court of law -- we are in the court of public opinion, as everyone in The White House knows, and Lerner wouldn´t be taking the Fifth unless she was in danger of prosecution . . . or

Three Labor Unions, Including
Teamsters, Want ObamaCare Repealed;
When Will Media Report?

NewsBusters, by Matt Vespa Original Article

Posted By: KarenJ1- 5/21/2013 8:28:00 PM Post Reply

As the media, by and large, ignores the train wreck that is on the horizon with ObamaCare, yet another union has jumped ship on the president’s health care overhaul. Back in April, you may recall, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers officially said thanks but no thanks to the president’s plan. Well, now, a major labor union in the grocery industry is balking at the policy. According to The Hill: The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president —

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