Sunday, May 19, 2013

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Parking fees fight at Calif. state beaches heat up
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Associated Press, by Alicia Chang
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Posted By: NorthernDog- 5/18/2013 10:56:10 PM
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LOS ANGELES -- flocking to Southern California beaches are used to feeding the meter or paying a parking attendant. Not so along the less developed north coast where it´s customary to ditch cars on the shoulder of Highway 1 to surf, swim or picnic. That sandy line that long defined the state´s disparate beach culture may soon fade. In search of new revenue, the state parks system is eyeing parking fees for parts of the Northern California shoreline where none existed or considering hiking rates to visit popular beaches south of Los Angeles during peak periods.
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Michelle Obama criticizes the worship of celebrities, sports stars
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The Hill, by Emily Goodin
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Posted By: Desert Fox- 5/18/2013 10:39:03 PM
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Michelle Obama on Friday urged black youth to stay in school instead of dropping out to become a "baller or a rapper." The first lady, speaking to graduates at Bowie State University, a historically black college, criticized the worship of sports stars and celebrities. "Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching TV," she said of black youth. "Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper."
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Why Andrew Breitbart Walked into the Fire with Sarah Palin
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Breitbart´s Big Government, by Andrew Marcus
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Posted By: Desert Fox- 5/18/2013 10:18:30 PM
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Whenever Andrew Breitbart saw that somebody was being unfairly maligned by the institutional Left, he became that person´s stalwart defender. Sarah Palin, perhaps more than any other person in recent history, endured the full weight of what Breitbart called the "Democrat-media complex," and so Sarah Palin had no more fierce a defender than Andrew Breitbart. He never explicitly endorsed her for President--Breitbart, as a rule, didn´t endorse candidates. He wasn´t a policy wonk, nor did he enjoy punditry--Breitbart´s sights were consistently set on the media. He understood how the media can shape, influence, or
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SAS troops capture Taliban commander
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Daily Express [UK], by Marco Giannangeli
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Posted By: Attercliffe- 5/18/2013 10:08:43 PM
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The insurgent leader, who has not been named for operational reasons, commanded seven groups of Taliban fighters and bombers across southern Afghanistan. The dawn raid, carried out with Afghan forces, took place in the Marjah region near Nad-e-Ali, close to the British base in Lashkar Gah. It is believed the Taliban leader, who sources confirmed had regularly travelled between Helmand and Pakistan, had been hunted for a year after being linked to at least three other attacks. Corporal William Savage, Fusilier Samuel Flint of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland and Private Robert Hetherington, of the 7th Battalion, Royal
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Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income: paper
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Reuters, by Leigh Thomas
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Posted By: Desert Fox- 5/18/2013 9:53:43 PM
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More than 8,000 French households´ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data. The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million). President Francois Hollande´s Socialist government imposed the tax surcharge last year, shortly after taking office, to offset the impact of a rebate scheme created by its conservative predecessor to cap an individual´s overall taxation at 50 percent of income.
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Retired officer is charged with rape
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Associated Press, by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: earlybird- 5/18/2013 9:49:24 PM
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A former Philadelphia police officer, once hailed as a hero and given a seat next to the first lady at a 2009 speech by President Obama, has been arrested and charged with rape and other crimes. Authorities allege that Richard DeCoatsworth left a party with two females early Thursday and took them to another location, where they allege that he produced a handgun and “forced the two females to engage in the use of narcotics and sexual acts.”(Snip)DeCoatsworth was hailed as a hero after he was shot in the face during a traffic stop in September 2007 but still
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IG letter to Geithner: Targeting not among top concerns
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CNN, by Jessica Yellin
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Posted By: earlybird- 5/18/2013 9:36:47 PM
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Treasury officials were made aware in June 2012 that the IRS inspector general was reviewing the office that handles tax-exempt applications, but a letter from October shows that the inspector general did not highlight the audit as a top concern for the agency. In a memo dated October 15, 2012, to then-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about IRS challenges for 2013, Inspector General J. Russell George noted other problem areas, but made no mention of the investigation taking place at the time of the agency´s intense scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
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IRS breaks the rules
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Boston Herald, by Editorial
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Posted By: earlybird- 5/18/2013 9:17:25 PM
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It eventually comes down to who — who at the IRS was responsible for targeting conservative and Tea Party groups for special scrutiny. Because, after all, you can’t put a “system” in jail. You can’t put a report in prison. You can’t indict a department for corruption. At the end of the day it’s people who are responsible for using the enormous powers of the Internal Revenue Service to go after other people and groups because of their political beliefs. U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told the tale of one of his constituents who applied for tax-exempt status for her Tea Party group in July 2010.
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Should we be worried about cyberterrorism? Without a doubt
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Daily Inter Lake [Kalispell MT], by Frank Miele
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Posted By: davesenior- 5/18/2013 9:15:14 PM
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On Monday May 6, I stumbled across an Internet news story in the Washington Times about a threatened cyberterror attack that was scheduled to occur on Tuesday, May 7.According to this story by Shaun Waterman, the Department of Homeland Security had sent a bulletin to “the private sector” [SNIP] I am not a bank, a major corporation or a government agency, so although I found the story interesting, I promptly put it out of my mind—at least until I woke up the following morning, May 7, and discovered that my Internet service was down
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After ravages of flesh-eating bacteria, Aimee Copeland uses new bionic hands
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CNN, by Michael Martinez
Original Article
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Posted By: earlybird- 5/18/2013 9:08:41 PM
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Flesh-eating bacteria amputee Aimee Copeland now uses the latest technology in prosthetic hands to chop vegetables, pick up tiny items like Skittles, and comb and iron press her hair. With the bionic hands, Copeland is looking forward to cleaning her house -- she´s a neat freak, she tells CNN -- and cooking her own food. She´s something of a foodie but has been able to eat only microwaveable foods, she adds. (Snip)"It just mimics so well a natural hand that it really just reminds me of before the accident, how I would have done things,"
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Evidence emerges that Obama administration official knew of IRS targeting during 2012 campaign
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CBS News, by Margaret Brennan
Original Article
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Posted By: earlybird- 5/18/2013 9:01:39 PM
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WASHINGTON - There were new questions Saturday night concerning if anyone in the White House was aware of the IRS´ targeting of conservative groups. Inspector General Russell George said he informed a deputy at the Treasury Department in June of 2012 about the probe into the IRS. The Treasury Department confirmed the timeline but said they did not know the details of the investigation until last week.(Snip)Marcus Owens ran the tax-exempt division at the IRS for 10 years. He said it isn´t difficult to figure out who´s doing what at the agency.
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Camelot Is Burning
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Breitbart´s Big Government, by Christopher Burton
Original Article
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Posted By: mitzi- 5/18/2013 8:16:11 PM
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It began in earnest last Friday. A flash mob of latte drinking, tofu eating media that has done its best to quell, rather than fan the flames of truth, turned on one of their own. Jay Carney lay bludgeoned at the base of the podium, a victim of friendly fire. Ironically, the attack was reminiscent of the one in Benghazi he has repeatedly denied the Administration he represents bears any responsibility for. “Changed twelve times?!” came the cries. And with good reason. We were misled; no, lied to.
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Update: Car hits crowd of hikers; at least 50 injured, 4 seriously hurt
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Herald Courier [Bristol VA], by Kevin Castle
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Posted By: JoniTx- 5/18/2013 7:45:59 PM
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DAMASCUS, Va - At least 50 people were injured Saturday after a car struck a crowd of hikers in the Appalachian Trail Days parade in Damascus. A Virginia State Police reconstruction team has closed off the bridge where the incident happened and is investigating it as a crime scene. According to authorities, a green Cadillac was traveling on Route 91 in Damascus around 2:15 p.m. when his vehicle cut through a nearby car wash located off Third Street, where the parade was taking place. The car then went around several vehicles in the parade and plowed
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Outgoing IRS Chief: Taxes Voluntary
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Breitbart´s Big Government, by William Bigelow
Original Article
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Posted By: mitzi- 5/18/2013 7:25:51 PM
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On Friday, former acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller, testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, said that America’s tax system is “voluntary.” During the hearing, Rep. Devin Nunes (D-CA) said in passing that the U.S. tax code is a "voluntary system." Miller simply responded, "Agreed." This line has been used before by none other than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Interviewed by Jan Helfeld in 2008, this is how the conversation went: Helfeld: If the government is in the business of forcefully taking money from some people in order to provide welfare benefits to others,
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Three Cheers for Tesla
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Power Line, by John Hinderaker
Original Article
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Posted By: Dreadnought- 5/18/2013 6:26:59 PM
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I have always been skeptical of electric vehicles, mostly because of my perception that electric car makers are more interested in subsisting on government subsidies than in competing on a level playing field for my business. So I was intrigued when I got an email this morning from Jeff Evanson, Tesla Motors’ Vice-President of investor relations. Evanson, a long-time Power Line reader, pointed out that the company raised over $1 billion last week, and will use a portion of those proceeds to pay off its loan with the Department of Energy ahead of schedule. This will make Tesla
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Lew asks Congress for debt increase, says it’s ´not open to debate´
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The Hill, by Peter Schoeder
Original Article
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Posted By: DW626- 5/18/2013 6:12:33 PM
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Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday urged congressional leaders to raise the debt limit and insisted that the White House is not going to negotiate over the increase because lawmakers have "no choice." "We will not negotiate over the debt limit," Lew wrote. "The creditworthiness of the United States is non-negotiable. The question of whether the country must pay obligations it has already incurred is not open to debate." Lew said that while President Obama is willing to discuss plans to reduce the nation´s deficit with Congress, those talks must be kept separate from any effort to raise the nation´s debt cap.
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Witch-Hunting Returns to Massachusetts
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American Thinker, by Robert Weissberg
Original Article
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Posted By: DW626- 5/18/2013 5:50:13 PM
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By all accounts, today´s college campuses grow more intolerant by the day. We move closer to the old Soviet Empire, where political dissidents risked the gulag for even joking about Marxism. In the U.S., however, the hate crimes concern anything that touches on race, ethnicity, gender differences, diversity, and sexuality (see here and here). Even an old-fashioned ethnic joke almost guarantees mandatory counseling. Skeptics need only look at the pervasiveness of campus speech codes, coerced sensitivity training, the mandatory injection of multicultural propaganda into courses, and other top-down censorship.
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Obama invokes his fatherless childhood at stop in Baltimore
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Politico, by Jennifer Epstein
Original Article
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Posted By: JoniTx- 5/18/2013 5:48:01 PM
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President Obama spoke of the importance of fathers to their sons on Friday after a young man he met at a community center in Baltimore mentioned wanting to provide for his sons. “You know, one of the biggest challenges – I grew up without a father,” Obama said at the Center for Urban Families, which serves fathers and their families. A man named Marcus Dixon had just told him about the center´s key role in helping him learn to provide for his family after being released from jail. "You know, I always tell people that, as great and heroic
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IRS targeting overlooked biggest players in outside political spending
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Associated Press, by Staff
Original Article
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Posted By: JoniTx- 5/18/2013 5:35:30 PM
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WASHINGTON There´s an irony in the Internal Revenue Service´s crackdown on conservative groups. The nation´s tax agency has admitted to inappropriately scrutinizing smaller tea party organizations that applied for tax-exempt status. But the IRS largely maintained a hands-off policy with the much larger, big-budget organizations on the left and right that were most influential in the 2012 elections and are organized under a section of the tax code that allows them to hide their donors. "The IRS goes AWOL when wealthy and powerful forces want to break the law in order to hide their
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Applications for Tax-Exempt Status Were Down When IRS Began Targeting Tea Party
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Breitbart Big Government, by Mike Flynn
Original Article
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Posted By: earlybird- 5/18/2013 5:22:58 PM
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In House testimony Friday, former Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller explained that the IRS mistakes in handling applications for non-profit status from tea party groups were due, in large part, to a flood of applications following the Citizens United decision. Miller said the targeting was a botched attempt to centralize the process to account for the increased workload. There were fewer applications in 2010, when the IRS began targeting conservative groups, than the year before, however. (Snip)Moreover, the IRS reportedly abandoned the targeting in early 2012. It presumably had little trouble handling the increased number of applicants
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Bomber Command veterans boycotting ´insulting´ award
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Telegraph(UK), by Jasper Copping
Original Article
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Posted By: tocsin- 5/18/2013 5:20:33 PM
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Earlier this year, the Government launched the clasp for those who had taken part in the air offensive during the Second World War, but stopped short of awarding a medal, as campaigners had been calling for. But figures suggest that barely half of those eligible for the lesser award have so far applied, with veterans snubbing the “pathetic” award. (snip)only a clasp, rather than a medal, as “cheese-paringly” mean, adding: “What did those men do except lay down their lives for their duty? My father would have been raging – I know that to be sure.”
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Noted Catholic Scholar Claims IRS Audit Triggered by Criticism of Obama
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Breitbart´s Big Government, by Dr. Susan Berry
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Posted By: mitzi- 5/18/2013 3:53:34 PM
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Anne Hendershott, an eloquent opponent of the Obama administration, states that she has reason to believe she was targeted by the IRS for an audit following publications that were critical of President Obama and Catholics who supported him. Aleteia, a Catholic publication, reports that Hendershott, a Catholic scholar, sociology professor at Franciscan University at Steubenville, Ohio, and columnist for the Wall St. Journal, may have been harassed by the IRS for specifically opposing the policies of the Obama administration. “I have no proof of it being a political audit,” Hendershott said. “Only the curious circumstance surrounding it.
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The unsung British hero with his own Schindler’s List
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Telegrah (UK), by Neil Tweedie
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Posted By: FlyRight- 5/18/2013 3:35:37 PM
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The birthday party will be modest and understated, in keeping with the man. Sir Nicholas Winton is 104 tomorrow and naturally some of his children will be there to wish him well. Not only his blood offspring but those known as Winton’s Children – the ones he saved from near-certain death three-quarters of a century ago. Nicholas – Nicky – Winton hates to be thought of as a hero, hates being compared with Oskar Schindler or Raoul Wallenberg, but he nevertheless deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.
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Obama’s trust-in-government deficit
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Washington Post, by Dan Balz
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Posted By: BuckeyeRon- 5/18/2013 3:27:32 PM
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Whatever else happens as a result of the multiple controversies that have engulfed the administration, one thing is clear: President Obama has failed to meet one of the most important goals he set out when he was first elected, which was to demonstrate that activist government could also be smart government. (Snip) As he put it then: “I think what you saw in this election was people saying, ‘Yes, we don’t want some big, bureaucratic, ever-expanding state. On the other hand, we don’t want a state that’s dysfunctional, that doesn’t believe in its mission, that can’t carry out
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McCaskill Calls For Firing Of All Involved In IRS Targeting Scandal
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KMOX [St, Louis], by Staff
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Posted By: BuckeyeRon- 5/18/2013 2:46:31 PM
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Washington – Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, issued a video statement Friday in response to reports that the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeted conservative nonprofit groups. (Snip) “There’s a reason Lady Justice wears a blindfold in America. That is because in America, we don’t apply the law based on who you are, who you know, or what you believe. We apply the law equally.” “We should not only fire the head of the IRS, which has occurred, but we’ve got to go down the line and find every single person who had anything to do with this and make sure
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