Lois Lerner takes five-Lerner Testifies

DailyCaller-GTrotter
As a public service, I am presenting this transcript of the testimony we could have heard from the IRS official in charge of tax-exempt organizations.
After testifying before the House Oversight Committee that she did nothing wrong, IRS tax-exempt organizations director Lois Lerner said that she would not “answer any questions or testify about the subject matter of the committee’s meeting.”
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa pointedly told Lerner that she is uniquely able to provide testimony on how and why the IRS targeted conservative groups. Lerner took five, as criminal lawyers say. She responded by invoking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to answer any of the committee’s questions.

Imagine how the questioning could have unfolded on national television:
Q. “Are you the head and director of the IRS tax-exempt organizations division, and were you given that job because you are experienced and knowledgeable about the Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(4), which governs tax-exempt entities for social, welfare, grassroots and other lobbying or issue membership organizations?”
A. “On the advice of counsel, I decline to answer any questions before this committee on the grounds that the information I provide may tend to incriminate me.”
Q. “You are the head of the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division, and yet you cannot tell this committee whether you are familiar with the laws that you administer, laws that result in compulsory payment of money upon pain of criminal liability?”
A. “I decline to answer.”

Q. “Do you know what 501(c)(4) organizations are permitted to do?”
A. “I decline to answer.”
Q. “Are you aware that 501(c)(4) organizations may publicly educate on policy issues? That the law permits them to engage in direct lobbying? That they may mobilize their members for grassroots lobbying and campaign purposes? That they may make candidate-related expenses?”
A. “I decline to answer.”

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20 amazing bikini bodies to get you in the Memorial Day spirit [SLIDESHOW]

DailyCaller Memorial Day weekend officially kicks off summer beach season, and that can only mean three things: burgers, beer and bikinis!

If you are lucky enough to live somewhere warm or to jet off to beach vacation, then what are you doing looking at this? Go outside, for crying out loud!

But if you are unfortunate enough to be on the East Coast, where it is cold, rainy and downright dreary, check out these 20 amazing bikini bodies. It should cheer you right up.
For slide show click HERE

Obama tries Again to nominate top lawyer Solomon to embattled Labor Relations Board

                            SHAW-Another Obama pick  Crooked lawyer 'Laughs' Solomon


FoxNews

President Obama is trying once again to get the Senate to sign off on his pick for top lawyer of the National Labor Relations Board.
Obama is re-nominating the agency's Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to serve as the top NLRB lawyer  for a four-year term.
Solomon is perhaps best known for signing off on an unfair labor practice complaint the agency filed against Boeing Co. in a union dispute, setting off months of backlash from Republicans and business groups who said the agency exceeded its authority and was trying to bolster labor unions, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Boeing denied any wrongdoing, and the case was eventually settled.
Solomon has been serving as acting counsel since June 2010. The president had nominated him once before, in January 2011, but the Senate didn’t act.
The president announced the Solomon re-nomination late Thursday, at the same time he nominated State Department official Victoria Nuland to be an assistant secretary of state.

Nuland is the former agency spokeswoman who was involved in changing the Obama administration’s early explanation of how four Americans were killed in a September 2012 attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

Solomon found himself in more hot water last year when the NLRB inspector general found he violated the agency’s ethics standards by participating in a case involving a company in which he had a financial stake.
Solomon, through his attorney at the time, denied any ethics breach.
House Republicans who disclosed the report called it “serious” and said they’d assess the need for action though there hasn’t been any since then.

Solomon also riled officials in several states when he threatened to file lawsuits against them to challenge the legality of state constitutional amendments that required workers hold a secret-ballot election to decide whether to unionize a company. The agency lost one such suit it eventually filed against Arizona.
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Who is Michael Adebolajo-- the bloody, cleaver-wielding man tied to the gory London attack?

CNN
One was a "nice guy," who was "friendly and very polite" and "just wanted to help everybody."

Then there was the "crazed ... animal" -- someone who'd brutally hack to death a man in broad daylight on the streets of London, then tried to justify it and suggested there was more violence to come.

Two vastly descriptions, for one person: Michael Adebolajo.

While British police have not named any of the men arrested in connection with Wednesday's gory slaying of British soldier Lee Rigby, one of them didn't hide his identity at the time. 

That man -- toting a meat cleaver and large kitchen knife in his bloody hands -- sought out a cell phone camera minutes after the attack to justify what he and another man allegedly had just done.

"The only reason we killed this man ... is because Muslims are dying daily," he said in a video later aired by CNN affiliate ITN. "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

He was not done. The man insisted British people should force their government to remove troops from "our lands" -- an apparent reference to largely Islamic countries like Iraq and Afghanistan -- or else they'd see more bloodshed.

"You will never be safe," he said.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified the man of this video as Adebolajo. He hasn't been heard from in public since he made those remarks, as Rigby's mutilated body lay behind him.

He and the 22-year-old with him rushed at armed police when they arrived at the site of the attack on southeast London's Woolwich neighborhood. Both were wounded by gunfire, and are now under guard in South London hospitals.

Others, though, have spoken about the 28-year-old Adebolajo -- explaining who he was and, in some cases, why he allegedly did what he did.

"He was dedicated to Islam and wanted to put himself at its service and defend it," said one of his former associates in Al-Muhajiroun, a British group of Islamic extremists virulently opposed to UK intervention in Iraq and openly supportive of al Qaeda.

Read ,see more

Justice Department defends journalist email search

Reuters
The Justice Department said on Friday that senior officials including Attorney General Eric Holder vetted a decision to search an email account belonging to a Fox News reporter whose story on North Korea prompted a leak investigation.
In a statement emailed to Reuters, the department said the search warrant for the reporter's email account followed all laws and policies and won the independent approval of a federal magistrate judge.
The May 2010 search warrant for a Google email account belonging to James Rosen was revealed on Monday by The Washington Post and drew immediate concern from journalists because it describes Rosen as a suspected "co-conspirator" in the leak of secret government information.
Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said in a statement on Thursday that the Obama administration was attempting to intimidate Fox News and its employees.

Rosen's alleged source, former State Department analyst Stephen Kim, is scheduled to go to trial as soon as next year on charges that he violated an anti-espionage law. Rosen was not charged.
Prompted by the Rosen search and a separate seizure of Associated Press phone records, President Barack Obama said on Thursday that Holder would begin a new review of Justice Department procedures related to media records.

The latest Justice Department statement said the highest levels of the department were involved in the search warrant used in Kim's case. The process included discussions Holder took part in, according to the statement.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay reviewed and issued the search warrant at the department's request.

GOP Lawmakers hear Complaints about Wider Abuses from IRS

TheHill
Several Republicans say their constituents have come to them with examples of Internal Revenue Service intimidation that goes beyond the agency's targeting of conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate say they’ve been told of other examples of bullying since the IRS apologized for targeting Tea Party groups.

“Oh, there's a slew of them,” said Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. He said several lawmakers on the panel had been given tips about over-aggressive actions by the IRS. Tiberi is one of several lawmakers who went public this week with allegations of wider abuses by the IRS. He and the other officials acknowledged the complaints from their constituents could be true or false, and said that they intended to look into the matters.

"I'm certainly going to spend a lot of time looking into it,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, who heard complaints from constituents who claimed they were audited by the IRS after making substantial donations to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.

The complaints come amid a wide-ranging scandal at the IRS, where a government watchdog report found some conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status were subjected to broader scrutiny because of their politics. IRS officials subjected groups with the words “Tea Party,” for example, to heavier scrutiny.

In an interview with The Hill, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said his office had receiving an influx of stories about the IRS abusing its power. He said he'd just begun to review the claims.
“Well there are some really funny things that are going on,” Hatch said. “We're currently just looking at all of that. I mean look, let's face it, the agency is not exactly being run the way it should be run.”

Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) office set up a web page encouraging constituents to come forward with examples of the IRS targeting Texans.
Drew Brandewie, communications director for Cornyn, says the response has been “alarming.”
“In the short time since it was launched, we’ve received nearly 60 stories of the IRS targeting Texans for their political beliefs, and it is not limited to just tea party members,” Brandewie said in an email to The Hill.
“Texans who have donated to conservative causes as far back as 2008 have told us they believe they’ve been targeted, citing excessive paperwork, lengthy interviews, intimidating communications from agents, and even audits of their small businesses.

These include Texans who donated to Sarah Palin in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012, and to groups like Freedomworks and the Heritage Foundation.”

In an interview, Cornyn said some of the claims might not end up being true, but that they need to be investigated given the IRS’s acknowledged action

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Infiltration? The Alarming Details Surrounding Alleged Hezbollah Member’s Arrest in Texas

TheBlaze

The FBI recently arrested a San Antonio man on charges that he lied to gain entry into the U.S. and then attempted to obtain a sensitive position at the Department of Defense.

The man, identified as Wissam Allouce, 44, appeared in court for an initial hearing on Friday afternoon, the San Antonio Express-News reports. He supposedly shook his head as U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad read the charges against him in a federal indictment. The judge ordered Allouche be held pending a bail hearing and his arraignment, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

FBI special agent Erik Vasys said the man “allegedly tried to cover up his affiliation with Hezbollah.”“It is believed he was looking to secure a sensitive position with the U.S. government at some point,” he added.

The federal indictment revealed Allouche had married a U.S. citizen and was going through the naturalization process when he was arrested. When asked by officials if he had ever been associated with a terrorist organization, he replied no. That apparently turned out to be a lie.

According to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, he was a militant with the Amal militia in Lebanon in the early to mid-1980s. He was reportedly captured as a Israeli prisoner of war, but was later released to become a commander of the Amal militia.

“News reports at the time said Hezbollah was formed by religious members of the Amal movement,” the Express-News notes.

In addition to lying about his terror ties, Allouche is also accused of lying about his relationship with his ex-wife. He falsely claimed on his application forms in 2009 that he and his wife were married and living together for the past three years. In reality, they had no lived together since May 2007 and they filed for divorce in December of 2007.

Last but not least, Allouche is accused of making a false statement on Oct. 14, 2009, on a questionnaire required to obtain security clearance from the Defense Department. The indictment says he allegedly claimed to never have participated in militias for paramilitary groups. However, the document did not say what position he was applying for or why.

Allouche faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Revealed: Obama Donor Sat in on IG Interviews with IRS Employees

Breitbart
On Wednesday, House hearings on the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) political targeting of conservative groups uncovered a startling revelation about the interview process used to construct the Inspector General’s report: Obama donor-Holly Paz-turned-IRS director of tax exempt organizations  Paz sat in on 36 of 41 interviews with IRS employees.
“Why was Holly Paz... in almost all of the interviews you conducted?” asked Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). “Why would you have someone from the IRS in those meetings? Is that proper protocol?”
“I am unaware of it,” said Inspector General J. Russell George. “This is the first I’ve heard this.”
George then requested time to research the revelation. “This is the first time that I was made aware of this,” said George.
George then clarified he and his agency performed an audit, not an investigation. 
“The operative word, Mr. Chairman, is audit,” said George. “It was not conducted as an investigation.”

Still, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) seemed unsettled that Paz was allowed to sit in on the IG’s interviews of IRS employees. 
“Usually when you are conducting an investigation—I know this was an audit, I got that—you want to keep your witnesses separate because you’re in search of the truth and you are trying to make sure there’s no advantage of a person hearing what somebody else said,” said Cummings. “That’s pretty standard procedure.”
George ultimately conceded to Cummings that, “in hindsight, given this matter, obviously this seems somewhat unusual. I need to do a little more research.”
Cummings pressed on, suggesting that Paz’s reason for sitting in on interviews may have been to protect herself or the IRS.
“It sounded like Ms. Paz felt like she needed to be in the room because she wanted to be able to defend herself—or the agency, I don’t know—based on what may have been said or the information gathered in that interview,” said Cummings.
“But again, hindsight is 20/20, sir,” said George.
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) read testimony from Paz. Issa said Paz claimed the IG auditors left the room for a short time at the end of each interview so investigators could ask any additional questions.
Issa said Paz claimed either she or the recently removed IRS director of the tax-exempt unit, Lois Lerner, brokered the unusual interview scheme.
“Yes I believe... I can’t remember if I made the request or Lois Lerner made the request,” said Paz. “But we discussed that in order for the IRS to be able respond to the report we had to understand what information TIGTA [Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration] had and what they were being told.”
In 2008, Holly Paz donated $2,000 to the Obama campaign.

Obama DOJ Fought to Keep Search of Rosen Emails Secret

Breitbart
Late on Friday, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reported that the Obama administration did not merely greenlight a search warrant on Fox News reporter James Rosen’s email account – it “fought” to prevent Rosen from learning about it. Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the US attorney prosecuting former State Department advisor and alleged leaker Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, asked a judge to prevent Rosen from learning about the search and seizure of his emails.

Machen wrote hat emails “are commonly used by subjects or targets of the criminal investigation at issue, and the e-mail evidence derived from those compelled disclosures frequently forms the core of the Government’s evidence supporting criminal charges.”

Machen said that such secrecy should continue indefinitely, since “some investigations are continued for many years because, while the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring charges, it is sufficient to have identified criminal subjects and/or criminal activity serious enough to justify continuation of the investigation.”

Not only did Machen want to ensure that the news of the search didn’t get out via the government; he asked that Google be ordered not to let Rosen know about the email seizures. Machen also wanted the ability to search his emails from time to time.

The search warrant itself was wildly overbroad, asking for access to “Records or information related to the state of mind of any individuals seeking the disclosure or receipt of classified, intelligence and/or national defense information.”

Two judges refused Machen. Finally, the chief judge in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia gave Machen what he wanted.

Examiner Editorial: Questions for Nancy DeParle on the IRS scandal

WExaminer
When Douglas Shulman was asked Wednesday by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., for some of the "many reasons" he might visit the White House 118 times during his tenure at the IRS, the tax agency's former commissioner displayed a profound disrespect for Congress by hastily replying, "the Easter Egg Roll with my kids." The flash of disdain in his facial expression and tone of voice suggest Shulman was not at that point merely seeking to leaven an otherwise tense situation with a little soft humor.
To be sure, Shulman hastened to follow his insult with a more serious list of reasons for his multiple visits, which totaled 129 in 2010 and 2011, not the widely reported 118, according to Earl Glynn, special projects coordinator of WatchdogLabs.org. 
Shulman's additional reasons are portrayed as revolving around planning the central role to be performed by IRS under Obamacare. There is a surface plausibility to that explanation because topping the list of senior Obama advisers with whom Shulman met was Nancy DeParle, then-director of the White House Office of Health Reform and later deputy chief of staff for policy, and her special assistant, Sarah Fenn. According to Glynn's analysis of the White House visitors logs, Shulman met with DeParle and/or Fenn at least 94 times.

 It is important to note that DeParle was not simply a health care-focused policy wonk, but rather a veteran government operative serving Democratic presidents. Prior to working in the Obama White House, DeParle was director of the Health Care Financing Administration under President Clinton and also worked for him at the Office of Management and Budget. She is, to be sure, best known for her role in the Obamacare campaign, including her "Internet Brigade" idea. That was to be a taxpayer-funded swarm of Internet-based snitches dedicated to exposing and opposing those judged to be spreading "disinformation about health insurance reform

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Some wonder if IRS scandal began with Goolsbee remark on Koch Taxes

WexaminerTreasury Department investigators completed but never released a 2011 law enforcement probe of White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, The Washington Examiner has learned.

The investigation by the Treasury Department Inspector-General for Tax Administration was sparked by Goolsbee's remarks during an Aug. 27, 2010, White House news briefing in which he appeared to possess confidential tax information on Koch Industries, the private conglomerate controlled by the Koch brothers, Charles and David.

"So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multi-billion dollar business," Goolsbee said.
It is illegal for government officials to make public confidential tax information. Goolsbee was chief White House economist at the time.

The Kochs have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into conservative and libertarian campaigns and causes, and are often invoked by President Obama and other liberal Democrats as poster boys for political abuses bred by "too much money in politics."
Six Republican senators requested the IG probe to determine if confidential tax records of individuals viewed by Obama as enemies were being passed around among senior staffers in the White House.
In the Aug. 10, 2011, email obtained by The Washington Examiner, Treasury Special Agent Daniel K. Carney said "the final report relative to the investigation of Austan Goolsbee's press conference remark is completed, has gone through all the approval processes."
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VIDEO--Teachers union vows to oust Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel.

WExaminer
Another epic showdown between a local government leader and a public-sector union? Looks like it will happen. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis has vowed to take down Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

The historic vote on Wednesday to shutter 50 schools has served as a rallying point for the Chicago Teachers Union as its president vows to field a challenger against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2015 re-election.
But while nine aldermen showed up at the Chicago Board of Education meeting to criticize the school closings, just one referred to Emanuel at all.
CTU President Karen Lewis said redemption for Wednesday’s vote could come only at the ballot box.
“Clearly, we have to change the political landscape in the city,” Lewis said. “We have to go back to old-style democracy.” (Emphasis added.)

The union announced that it’s hosting the first in a series of training sessions Thursday for volunteers to register 100,000 new voters.

The Huffington Post details their organizing efforts:

The union’s plan includes ramping up political activity for the purpose of ousting Emanuel, though the plans don’t stop with the mayor: The CTU has also vowed to dismantle the mayoral-appointed school board and replace it with an elected one.
Lewis told NPR the “cowboy-mentality” of how the mayor wields power over the school board is “out of control.”
“We’re starting our deputy registration, and we will be registering voters across the city,” Lewis said.
True to their word, the union already has a voter registration scheduled for Thursday at South Side church in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood.

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Obama Promotes Benghazi Terrorism Talking Points editor to Assistant Secretary of State

 DailyCaller
The woman responsible for completely removing references to terrorism from the Benghazi talking points has been nominated by President Obama to become an assistant secretary of state.

Victoria Nuland — the State Department spokeswoman who famously altered the talking points regarding the Sept. 11, 2012 attack — will become assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs if the nomination clears the Senate.

It’s a toxic nomination for the president to put forward, particularly as congressional Republicans hammer the administration for failures in readiness and response to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Nuland is a central character in those criticisms, having expressed “serious concerns” about any mention of terrorism.
Four Americans died in the terror attack, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

Note-Photo by SHAW.

McCain, Graham rush to defend Obama State Dept. nominee linked to Benghazi

 

Village idiots McCain and Graham

TheHill
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Friday offered a preemptive defense of President Obama's nominee to head European affairs at the State Department amid concerns about her role in the Benghazi talking points.
Obama nominated former State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland for the post on Thursday, just as news broke that House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) had asked that she be deposed by his committee. In a joint statement praising Nuland, the two longtime critics of the administration's handling of Benghazi highlighted Nuland's experience serving as principal deputy foreign policy adviser to then-Vice President Cheney and U.S. ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush.
“Ambassador Victoria Nuland has a long and distinguished record of service to our nation in both Republican and Democrat Administrations,” they wrote. “She is knowledgeable and well-versed on the major foreign policy issues as well as respected by foreign policy experts in both parties. We look forward to her upcoming confirmation hearings in the United States Senate.”

The statement comes as Nuland's role in crafting the talking points that cost U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice a shot at becoming secretary of State has only recently come to light. Other vocal critics of the administration's response to last year's terrorist attack – notably Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) – may yet decide to block her long-expected nomination.

According to internal documents released by the White House last week, Nuland raised concerns about blaming the attack on al Qaeda linked militants, saying she had “serious concerns” about lawmakers “making assertions to the media that we ourselves are not making because we don’t want to prejudice the investigation.”

She also urged the talking points' drafters to remove references to warnings of past attacks on the mission, saying those references could be used by lawmakers to attack the State Department.
“The penultimate point,” she wrote, “could be abused by Members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings so why do we want to feed that either? Concerned…"

Republican lawmakers wary of need for special prosecutor in IRS scandal

                                                 we will wait just this much longer

TheHill
Congressional Republicans are skeptical the IRS’s treatment of conservative groups warrants a special prosecutor, fearing that step could limit their own investigation into the agency.

GOP lawmakers stress that with just one inspector general's report and three hearings in the rearview mirror, it’s too early to lean on a special counsel and that calling for the Justice Department to act should be a last resort.

“When I can’t do my job because I lack the authority or cooperation, I’ll seek additional remedies,” House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday.

Top Republicans in both chambers – including Wimps Speaker John Boehner (Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top GOP member on the Senate Finance Committee – have sounded similar notes on the prospect of a special counsel.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) also thinks the special counsel chatter is a bit hasty, a committee aide said, and others in the Republican conference say their own investigations are just heating up.
Both tax-writing panels, House Ways and Means and Senate Finance, and House Oversight are continuing their probes into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
“There will be more hearings coming,” said Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), who heads the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee and was an early critic of the IRS’s handling of Tea Party groups. “I think it’s premature.”
The GOP’s current skepticism over a special counsel comes as lawmakers in the party are weighing how to handle a handful of investigations of President Obama’s administration, including the aftermath of last year’s terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
New developments in the IRS case are coming by the day.
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