May 31, 2013

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) Says John McCain Was Partly Responsible For The Benghazi Terror Attacks

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) accused Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Wednesday of being complicit in the terror attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year and the deaths of four Americans, including the late Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney asked Gohmert on Gaffney’s radio show this week what he thought of McCain’s recent trip to Syria — which Gaffney described as McCain “hobnobbing with Jihadists” — and wondered whether “we’re going to get a proper investigation of the Benghazi-Gate scandal,” a “scandal” Gaffney said he believes “Sen. McCain’s bad advice got us into.” Gohmert agreed that McCain is to blame for Benghazi because McCain supported and advocated for the U.S. led war in Libya that ultimately helped Libyan rebels oust Muammar Qaddafi:

GAFFNEY: Two episodes that are on our mind, one is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been in Syria recently hobnobbing with Jihadists about the necessity of the United States of not only continuing to support them in various ways but to fund them and to arm them and basically to start using its military forces to protect them. I’d like to get your thoughts on that sir as well as your current thinking about whether we’re going to get a proper investigation of the Benghazi-Gate scandal, one of the imbroglios that I believe Sen. McCain’s bad advice got us into previously


GOHMERT: Yeah and then we know if it had not been for Sen. McCain and President Obama being for what we knew at the time included al-Qaeda in the rebel forces then we would still have a U.S. ambassador and three others alive today because Benghazi would not have happened. But by giving power to the rebel forces that included al Qaeda that brought that whole mess about and helped create problems in Tunisia and Algeria. So I’m not sure what to think about his going to Syria. If history is any lesson the people he met with he wants us to help should be very careful about what Sen. McCain’s support could mean for them.


Audio interview and full transcript available at link:

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/31/2087561/gohmert-mccain-benghazi/?mobile=nc

May 27, 2013

British Channel 4 documentary/docudrama on the life and works of leftwing folks singer Phil Ochs

Philip David Ochs (/ˈoʊks/; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and distinctive voice. He wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and released eight albums in his lifetime.

Ochs performed at many political events, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career, in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City's Town Hall and Carnegie Hall. Politically, Ochs described himself as a "left social democrat" who became an "early revolutionary" after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to a police riot, which had a profound effect on his state of mind.[1]

After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s. He eventually succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and took his own life in 1976.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Ochs




Part 1



Part 2



Part 3




Part 4

May 26, 2013

Fox New's campaign to revoke Media Matters tax exempt status.

As if we needed any more proof of the hypocrisy that is Fox News, our friends at News Corpse have dug up an interesting tidbit. It seems the folks over at Fox were in love with the IRS a couple of years ago. The same network that is up in arms over this whole IRS “scandal” was all palsy-walsy with them when they wanted to attack a non-profit that they disagreed with.

In July of 2011, Fox was on a campaign to have Media Matters‘ non-profit status revoked. That’s right, the agency that they are pushing as totalitarian, bent on revenge against conservative and tea party groups, the agency that is a threat to America and freedomz!! Turns out that, two years ago, this same agency was a tool for Fox to use to persecute a group that made it their business to expose the lies and misrepresentations that make up most (if not all) of Fox‘s broadcast material.


Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/25/fox-making-hay-over-irs-scandal-but-forget-when-they-asked-it-to-do-the-same-thing-video/#ixzz2UMJuCMkj

May 24, 2013

Liberal Caller Punks Rush Limbaugh Regarding Ronald Reagan's Conservatism

May 21, 2013

At least 20 children are among the 51 people killed after a tornado slammed Oklahoma

By TIM TALLEY

The Associated Press

MOORE, Okla. —

A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph. At least 51 people were killed, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise. Monday night, the state medical examiner's office said at least 20 of those who died were children.

More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 50 children. And search-and-rescue efforts were to continue throughout the night.

Tiffany Thronesberry said she heard from her mother, Barbara Jarrell, shortly after the tornado.

"I got a phone call from her screaming, 'Help! Help! I can't breathe. My house is on top of me!'" Thronesberry said.

Thronesberry hurried to her mother's house, where first responders had already pulled her out. Her mother was hospitalized for treatment of cuts and bruises.

Rescuers launched a desperate rescue effort at the school, pulling children from heaps of debris and carrying them to a triage center.

http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/indiana/tornadoes-slam-plains-midwest-1-dead-in-okla/nXw3f/

May 14, 2013

Obama Has 'No Patience' for IRS' Targeting Conservatives

PHOTO: President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

By ABBY D. PHILLIP (@abbydphillip)

May 13, 2013

President Obama said today he has "no patience" for reports that the Internal Revenue Service singled out conservative groups for additional scrutiny, promising accountability if allegations of political motivations at the agency turn out to be true.

"So we'll wait and see what exactly all the details and the facts are," Obama said at a news conference. "But I've got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it. And we'll make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this."

But trouble appears to be brewing for the Obama administration as allegations emerge that the IRS engaged in wide-spread targeting of conservative groups for several years, in many cases delaying the groups' applications for tax-exempt status.

"People have to be confident that they are ... applying the laws in a nonpartisan way," Obama said today.

Click here to watch President Obama condemn the 'outrageous' controversy at the IRS.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/president-obama-irs-targeting-conservative-tea-party-groups-19169511




http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-patience-irs-targeting-conservatives/story?id=19168977#.UZIwNDpApdg

May 14, 2013

President Obama and Virginia leaders bash IRS targeting of conservative groups

Source: The News Virginian


President Barack Obama said Monday he will not tolerate political bias at the Internal Revenue Service and promised to get to the bottom of the agency's admitted targeting of conservative groups.

"You don't want the IRS ever being perceived to be biased and anything less than neutral in terms of how they operate,'' Obama said. The president said "I've got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it, and we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this."

Virginia U.S. Sen. Mark Warner called the efforts of the IRS "appalling'' and "completely unacceptable." "We need a quick but thorough investigation, and those who are found to have been responsible for this betrayal of the public trust should be fired,'' Warner said.

Virginia U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said "there's no excuse for ideological discrimination in our system." He said swift action is needed by the Obama administration and said appropriate safeguards should be established "to prevent this from ever happening again."

While the IRS apologized on Friday for what it described as the targeting by low-level employees, a draft report by a watchdog group obtained by the Associated Press indicates the agency knew about targeting two years ago.


Read more: http://www.dailyprogress.com/newsvirginian/news/president-virginia-leaders-bash-irs-targeting-of-conservative-groups/article_2046690e-bc27-11e2-9658-001a4bcf6878.html

May 14, 2013

Uneven I.R.S. Scrutiny Seen in Political Spending by Big Tax-Exempt Groups

Source: NEW YORK TIMES


By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: May 13, 2013

Over the last two years, government watchdog groups filed more than a dozen complaints with the Internal Revenue Service seeking inquiries into whether large nonprofit organizations like those founded by the Republican political operative Karl Rove and former Obama administration aides had violated their tax-exempt status by spending tens of millions of dollars on political advertising.

The I.R.S. never responded.

During the same period, the agency singled out dozens of Tea Party-inspired groups that had applied for I.R.S. recognition, officials acknowledged on Friday, subjecting them to rounds of detailed questioning about their political activities. None of those groups were big spenders on political advertising; most were local Tea Party organizations with shoestring budgets.

For the I.R.S.’s bipartisan legion of critics, the agency’s record has underscored its contradictory and seemingly confused response to the fastest-growing corner in the world of unlimited political spending: tax-exempt groups that have paid for at least half a billion dollars in campaign ads during the last two election cycles.

The I.R.S. has done little to regulate a flood of political spending by larger groups — like Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, co-founded by Mr. Rove, and Priorities USA, with close ties to President Obama — as well as Republican leaders in Congress and other elected officials. And an agency that is supposed to stay as far away from partisan politics as possible has been left in charge — almost by accident — of regulating a huge amount of election spending.

“We’ve complained about a few big fish and we’ve heard nothing from the I.R.S.,” said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, which filed many of the complaints with the agency. “We would far rather see scrutiny of these big fish — the groups that spent hundreds of millions of dollars to influence elections — than to see the resources spent on hundreds of small groups that appeared to spend very little on elections.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/politics/irs-ignored-complaints-on-political-spending-by-big-tax-exempt-groups-watchdog-groups-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

May 13, 2013

Should IRS be able to target groups for extra scrutiny on the basis of their political leanings?

May 13, 2013

39 percent of people who think Benghazi is the biggest scandal ever don't even know where it is

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By the way, the poll also showed most Americans trust Hillary Clinton over Republicans on Benghazi, by a 49-39 margin.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/13/1208779/-39-percent-of-people-who-think-Benghazi-is-the-biggest-scandal-ever-don-t-even-know-where-it-is