Free Republic

But officials admit new program could just create more corruptionStrengthening Kenya’s county governments, at cost to U.S. taxpayers of millions of dollars, could spark the redistribution of political power across the African republic, whose national government is viewed as one of the most notoriously corrupt in the world. Efforts to bring about such decentralization, however, may inadvertently create 47 equally corrupt county systems, the Obama administration has acknowledged. Obama, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, nonetheless intends to dole out upwards of $50 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to help the Kenyans get it right, according to contracting documents...

The White House's chief lawyer learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups, a senior White House official said Sunday. That disclosure has prompted a debate over whether the president should have been notified at that time. In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general's report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that "a small number of line IRS...

The audience rose to its feet after Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn.) chided Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller about the Internal Revenue Service’s treatment of taxpayers at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday. The hearing focused on the agency’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, including those with names that included “tea party” or “patriot.” “You get a letter from you folks, or a phone call, it’s with terror that you look at it, and now this kind of reconfirms that—you know what—they can do almost anything they want, to anybody they want, anytime they...

Two members of Congress are asking if the Treasury Department disproportionately targeted more Republican or conservative owned auto dealerships during the government-lead restructuring of General Motors in 2009. Breitbart.com reported today that Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) released a letter asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents regarding the process and methodology that determined which GM dealerships were closed.

IT GETS WORSE! The Obama IRS demanded that several Tea Party groups provide back-end access to their websites. From reliable sources: This happened to several Tea Party groups! The source has this in writing. It states they wanted access to everything the members had access to, which would be chats, email, contact information, etc. The group raised less than $600. She was targeted as early as October 2010....

By Jon Cassidy | Watchdog.org HOUSTON — Since filing for tax exemption at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2010, the founders of True the Vote, a Houston-based group that tries to prevent elections fraud, have been overwhelmed with scrutiny from a host of government agencies, in particular, by the Internal Revenue Service. . TRUE THE VOTE: Catherine Engelbrecht’s organization has revealed multiple cases of voters casting ballots in two states in the same election. Catherine and Bryan Englebrecht have suffered through 18 separate encounters with five government agencies, from surprise audits to FBI visits to never-ending demands for paperwork. The government...

CNN’s Drew Griffin broke into Wolf Blitzer‘s Newsroom report Wednesday afternoon to reveal new information about the investigation into the IRS’ admission that they targeted conservatives during the 2012 election year. Griffin said a Congressional source told him that the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steven Miller, has identified two “rogue” employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office, who he characterized as “off the reservation.” The commissioner reportedly said the two, as yet unnamed, employees were “principally responsible for overly aggressive handling of Tea Party requests for tax exempt status over the past two years.” Another source, according to Griffin, said...

... putting Benghazi, the IRS's Tea Party targeting and the Justice Department's leak-hunting seizure of Associated Press phone records in the same basket is like comparing a mirage to a dishwasher to a diamond. There is no common thread. Benghazi is a scam, not a scandal. It began as a political ploy during the 2012 presidential campaign. Republicans tried to pin a cover-up on the President.... The Justice Department's secret seizure of AP phone records is more a policy dispute than a scandal..... The irs's targeting of Tea Party groups is, however, an actual full-blown scandal. In fact, it is...

Who is on your list of corrupt officials that deserve jail time and why?

Boy, oh boy. What many called the worst week yet for the Obama White House has spilled over into another, with news that the Department of Justice secretly obtained telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors to root out the cause of a (rare unwanted) leak of national security information. Is it a fishing expedition, a witch hunt or something in between? Time will tell — if, that is, anyone ever comes forward with an explanation. Whether on Fast and Furious or Benghazi, the typical M.O. of the administration has been to slow-play answers and hope that we all...

Today at a Department Of Justice press conference Attorney General Eric Holder said he has no problem without letting the Associate Press answer the charges of a leak endangering national security.

She loves the IRS.

The IRS denies having conducted a partisan witch-hunt against tea-party groups in the run-up to the 2012 election, arguing that its improper targeting of conservative groups was the result of a series of procedural errors rather than a political attack with malice aforethought.But the IRS is keeping the relevant evidence secret, so you will just have to take the agency’s word for it.Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of handling tax-exempt organizations, made what appeared to be an impromptu confession Friday during a tax conference hosted by the American Bar Association, saying that groups with the words “tea...

Joe Biden says the president of the United States is preparing to take "executive actions" to deal with guns. BuzzFeed reports: Vice President Biden told White House allies in the gun control fight Thursday that President Obama will be announcing new executive actions on gun violence in the days after the Senate voted down a gun violence bill. On a conference call with "stakeholders," Biden told gun control advocates that the fight is not over and that eventual action on gun control will come. Press were not invited to the conference call; a participant provided BuzzFeed with access. "Look I...

CNSNews.com) - Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a report documenting attempted abuses of federal power by the Obama administration on Tuesday, saying the administration “knows virtually no bounds.”

These are trying times. Never in the history of this country have we been so weakened and polarized by what many view as deliberate government policy. Now anti-gunners in the U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, and legislatures across the country are seeking to exploit the Newtown tragedy to promote their “gun control” agenda that envisions federal, universal background checks on gun purchases, and that could lead to gun registration and confiscation. At the same time, the increasing militarization of law enforcement, most visibly demonstrated by the growing use of massive, SWAT-type raids on businesses and individuals, sometimes with federal

BROOKLYN (CN) - NYPD officers pepper-sprayed three little children, including 2-year- and 5-month old babies, because they thought the kids' mom jumped a subway fare, the family claims in court. Marilyn Taylor sued New York City, the NYPD and Officers Maripily Clase, Suranjit Dey and Jermaine Hodge in Federal Court, for herself, her three children and their father. Taylor claims that she and her kids were preparing to board a Manhattan-bound L train on Aug. 9. She was pushing her 2-year-old in a stroller and holding her 4-year-old's hand. The father, Dehaven McClain, carried the 5-month-old close to his chest....

It’s no surprise that among the first questions White House Press Secretary Jay Carney received at today’s press briefing was one that concerned a recently-leaked Justice Department memo that offered justification for killing U.S. citizens abroad in predator drone attacks. Carney began by clarifying that the memo in question was an “unclassified document” prepared for members of Congress. “The president takes his responsibilities very seriously,” Carney said. “And first and foremost that’s his responsibility to protect the United States.” He continued by saying that the president is dedicated to

Freshman Republican Rep. Steve Stockman (Texas) on Monday said he would "seek to thwart" executive action by President Obama in regard to gun laws by any means necessary, even if it means "filing articles of impeachment." ....... Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/277021-gop-rep-threatens-obama-with-impeachment-over-gun-action#ixzz2Hz2ZtaWO

Cornered by reporters with video cameras, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to President Obama's reelection campaign, attempted to defend the kill list...The second notable statement concerns the killing of 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.. ADAMSON: ...It's an American citizen that is being targeted without due process, without trial. And, he's underage. He's a minor. GIBBS: I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well being of their children. I don't think becoming an al Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about...

A New York police detective shot and killed an unarmed man, whose hands, a witness said, were on the steering wheel of his Honda, after he had been pulled over early Thursday for cutting off two police trucks on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, the authorities said....The shooting, which occurred at 5:15 a.m., was the latest in a series of episodes in which police officers fatally shot or wounded civilians...A passenger in Mr. Polanco’s car, Diane Deferrari, said in a phone interview Thursday night that just before pulling the car over, officers appeared irate that Mr. Polanco had cut...

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.Keep reading...

A powerful New York politician claims she was just speaking as a private citizen when she tried to run Chick-fil-A out of town, but she used her official letterhead and even invoked her position as City Council speaker to apply pressure on the embattled chicken chain. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has mayoral aspirations, sent a letter to New York University president John Sexton on Saturday asking the school to immediately end their contract with the fast food restaurant. The Atlanta-based company's sole New York City outlet is in the school's food court. "I write as the...

The Obama administration said Monday it is suspending existing agreements with Arizona police over enforcement of federal immigration laws, and said it has issued a directive telling federal authorities to decline many of the calls reporting illegal immigrants that the Homeland Security Department may get from Arizona police. Administration officials, speaking on condition they not be named, told reporters they expect to see an increase in the number of calls they get from Arizona police — but that won’t change President Obama’s decision to limit whom the government actually tries to detain and deport. “We will not be issuing detainers...

Yesterday, I was pretty excited about today’s scheduled House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, “EPA Priorities and Practices,” at which the former EPA regional administrator Al Armendariz was supposed to appear to explain his unique philosophy of enforcement. But then, all of my hopes were dashed — dashed! — when Energy & Commerce made this announcement late last night: WASHINGTON, DC – With less than 24 hours until he was scheduled to testify in front of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, former Regional Administrator for EPA Region 6 Al Armendariz has notified the committee that he will not appear at...

CBS/AP) BOSTON - President John F. Kennedy's only surviving child is celebrating what would have been his 95th birthday this month by honoring three Iowa judges who were ousted after the court unanimously decided to legalize same-sex marriages. . . . The three judges will receive a sterling silver ship's lantern symbolizing a beacon of hope. The award, which was designed by Kennedy's husband, Edwin Schlossberg, and crafted by Tiffany & Co., resembles one belonging to the U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship, the USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides."

Prosecutors no longer thinking that Mike McQueary saw Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in a Penn State locker room the night before spring break in 2002. Instead, new evidence shows what McQueary saw really happened in February 2001, the attorney general's office said in court paperwork filed today. In the motion, the prosecutor allude that the change does not affect the allegations of a crime. Also today, prosecutors responded to a request by Sandusky's attorney, Joe Amendola, for more evidence to be turned over before trial. The judge is expected to rule on that request at a Wednesday court...

Americans must ask themselves whether Eric Holder and black leaders indeed fear the New Black Panther Party, as they all refuse to condemn their rhetoric and tactics in the last few weeks. The Trayvon Martin Case is the latest in a long list of incidents into which the New Black Panther Party has injected itself, but nothing has measured up to its latest tactics, which include placing a bounty on George Zimmerman’s head with the qualifier "dead or alive." It would seems to the most independent of observers that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in his refusal to condemn this...

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) called President Obama a "bully" Wednesday at an event in South Carolina for his targeted remarks about the Supreme Court.

President Obama's Rose Garden remarks yesterday on the Supreme Court are shameful, a blot on his presidency. "Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," As a purported constitutional law lecturer, President Obama is fully aware that laws passed by democratically elected majorities (that's how laws are made) are overturned by the Supreme Court on a regular basis. His claim of a sizable majority is false when it comes to the House, where the...

An explosion on Monday rocked the suburban Atlanta home of a man known for his fight to keep chickens on his property, and emergency officials say a body was found inside. Marshals had been on the scene for about two hours trying to evict Andrew Wordes, who's known as the "Chicken Man," when the explosion happened around 12:45 p.m., said Antonio Johnson of the Fulton County marshal's office. Minutes before the explosion, Wordes told them to leave the property that was in foreclosure. Other than the body found inside the house, which officials did not immediately identify, no one was...

The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 16, 2012 Executive Order -- National Defense Resources Preparedness EXECUTIVE ORDER NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: PART I - PURPOSE, POLICY, AND IMPLEMENTATION Section 101. Purpose....

In a display of the arrogance of power for which the left have become so well known, Democrat El Paso Mayor John Cook decided not only to overrule the results of a 2010 ballot decision, he is hoping to jail those who dared circulate a recall petition in response to his contempt for the will of the voters. In 2009, Mayor Cook and a majority of the El Paso city council decided that health insurance benefits should be provided for unmarried and homosexual “partners” of city employees, at taxpayer expense of course. Church groups and others opposed to the decision...

The lead investigator in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s review of the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate today unloaded a bombshell about the case: that he was told by sources members of the media were threatened with federal investigations should they continue to report on the birth certificate issue. Lead investigator Mike Zullo told WND that as he was preparing information to be presented to the public “it was clear that the mainstream media was not going to be in attendance” at the sheriff’s scheduled new conference, where he revealed facts suggesting both fraud and forgery in the image of a...

This is a story about a young and impressionable female intern in the White House -- a virgin, with girlish dreams about princes and presidents. Young girls are trained to marry the wealthiest or most powerful man on the block. When the prince comes calling, few young girls can resist this opportunity. However, they are not the ones who are abusing power and betraying both youth and a wife. That would be the prince or president himself. And no, I am not talking about Monica Lewinsky in the Clinton White House. I am talking, sadly, about the recent revelations by...

Congressman Jeff Landry (R-LA) has just introduced the Executive Appointment Reform Act to reverse the Constitutional damage President Obama has done with his unprecedented “recess” appointments. Contact your Representative today by calling (202) 224-3121 to urge them to cosponsor and support Rep. Landry's Executive Appointment Reform Act and stand against President Obama’s abuse of the recess appointment process. The text of Rep. Landry's letter to his colleagues in the United States House of Representatives is below:

Monterey biologist accused of feeding whale SAN FRANCISCO ---- A marine biologist who runs popular whale-watching tours on California's Monterey Bay has been indicted for violating federal laws that protect marine mammals. Nancy Black, a marine scientist whose work has been featured on PBS, National Geographic and Animal Planet, was charged Wednesday with four violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Her attorneys countered the charges by arguing that her interactions with the creatures were legal scientific research. She was accused of feeding killer whales in 2005 during a research trip, and misleading investigators by editing video footage of her...

Monterey biologist accused of feeding whale SAN FRANCISCO ---- A marine biologist who runs popular whale-watching tours on California's Monterey Bay has been indicted for violating federal laws that protect marine mammals. Nancy Black, a marine scientist whose work has been featured on PBS, National Geographic and Animal Planet, was charged Wednesday with four violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Her attorneys countered the charges by arguing that her interactions with the creatures were legal scientific research. She was accused of feeding killer whales in 2005 during a research trip, and misleading investigators by editing video footage of her...

The US government has been slowly eradicating the Posse Commitatus Act of 1878. That act banned the US government from using the US military in domestic law enforcement. Over the past few decades the US government has repeatedly violated the act. However, many Republicans have insisted that the Posse Comitatus Act needs to be respected to protect the rights of American Citizens. South Carolina's left-wing Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, however, is supporting provisions to eradicate Posse Commitatus and dramatically expand the powers of the Federal government. The US Senate Armed Forces Committee, led by Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain...

All those Occupiers holding their “End the War!” signs better march on over to the White House. President Obama just announced he’s sending U.S. troops to central Africa to fight something called “the Lord’s Resistance Army.” The letter to House GOP Speaker John Boehner: TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE October 14, 2011 Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:) For more than two decades, the Lord’s Resistance...On October 12, the initial team of U.S. military personnel with appropriate combat equipment deployed to Uganda....

A police officer has been fired after allegedly losing his temper at a cook-off and throwing a tear gas grenade at a rival team - many of whom were military amputees. Mike Hamby, 52, could face criminal charges for the drunken attack, which happened at this year's Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo BBQ Cook-Off in Texas. Several members of the team were left vomiting and with burning eyes after Hamby, an officer with 30 years service, allegedly flung a military-style 'clear-out' grenade into their tent. Hamby, who was off-duty, had been drinking before the incident in February, according to police...

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis man who was charged after he refused to give police video of an arrest he captured on his cellphone has been acquitted. Willie King, 66, was standing on his neighbor's property in the 3900 block of North Whittier Place as he recorded officers arresting a man on Feb. 18. "I heard the neighbors screaming and hollering about the police. (They said) 'You all get off of him. He's already in handcuffs. Why are you doing this?' " King said. "I just got my camera out, put it on record, walked over to my neighbor's house and...

Hazard Police arrested one woman Tuesday as part of an undercover investigation into prostitution in the downtown area. Nannie “Missy” Adams, 33, of Leatherwood, is facing one count of prostitution after police say she offered to perform sexual acts on an undercover officer with Kentucky Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) in return for $40. She was additionally charged with loitering for prostitution purposes. Rest of story at link