Free Republic

WASHINGTON—Mounting scandals at the Internal Revenue Service are jeopardizing critical funding for the agency as it gears up to play a big role in President Barack Obama's health care law. Obama sought a significant budget increase for the IRS for next year, when the agency will start doling out subsidies to help people buy health insurance on state-based exchanges. Congressional Republicans, however, see management problems at the IRS as an opportunity to limit the agency's funding just as it is trying to put in place the massive new law. Republicans have been fighting the health care law ever since Democrats...

During his radio broadcast today on The Blaze network, conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck promised some big news would rock this "country in the next 24 hours" and "take down pretty much the whole power structure" (video below). .... Excerpt only.

Lost amidst the White House he-said-she-said of finger pointing, scandal, incompetence, venality, hubris, vanity, error, greed, gluttony, embarrassment, cover up, stupidity,  amateur bungling, brownnosing, grandstanding, photo-opting and hearings as the result of a few minor mistakes made by the Obama administration- an administration which rode roughshod over a several outdated laws, certain small parts of the Bill of Rights written by irrelevant white dudes; an administration that got people killed, violated civil rights, harassed government employees, ignored it’s basic responsibilities and common sense- are these small, little, niggling details: The folks in charge are freaking hypocrites; and because the are...

New York State has made it clear that it believes that only police officers can be trusted with magazines that hold more than seven rounds. A Nassau County police officer recently fired eight rounds at an armed individual who was menacing him and a hostage, with the result that the hostage died.

(A billboard on I-75 in Ocala) An anti-immigration reform group has put up a billboard on I-75 in Ocala attacking Sen. Marco Rubio for promoting "amnesty." "When 20 million American citizens and legal workers are unemployed or desperately trying to find full time jobs it is both callous and irresponsible for Florida Senator Marco to sponsor an immigration bill that will flood the labor market with 33 million foreign workers over the next ten years," said Jack Oliver of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. Oliver is citing a study prepared for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who has been the leading...

The division of the Internal Revenue Service that improperly scrutinized the tax-exempt status of conservative groups sent confidential information on 31 conservative groups to the well-funded liberal nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica, according to a revelation made by ProPublica Monday. “The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year,” according to the ProPublica report. “In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications...

May 12, 2013 Darrell Issa: House Oversight Committee to depose Pickering and Mullen over Benghazi Twitchy Staff Darrell Issa reports that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which he chairs, will depose Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen over Benghazi....

Someone stopped by searching for “gun use in self defense.” They did not find it where they were sent, because firing a gun in self defense is not the same thing as crimes prevented by a gun. Since most crimes prevented by the presence or the possible presence of a gun are only known to the perpetrator, the place to start is with criminals. Who are hard to pin down unless they are already in prison. From the standpoint of an inmate being surveyed on how often he, or sometimes she, committed a crime, how they selected victims and so...

WESLACO - Rio Grande Valley police departments no longer will have direct access to their counterparts on the south side of the border. The Mexican government said it will limit the information it shares with U.S. law enforcement agencies. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration said all information will be disseminated through the ministry of interior in Mexico City. The announcement is a 180-degree turn from the open dialogue both nations had on law enforcement. The change likely will delay investigations Valley lawmen said. "It'll still trickle down to us. It might be a little slower, but we'll still get...

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) accused U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack of knowing that women and minority farmers fraudulently claimed discrimination to receive taxpayer-funded settlements, and they knowingly initiated more programs to facilitate more of these payments. "It is my sense they know what they are doing," King said on "Breitbart News Sunday" on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125. "That's a heavy statement, but they knew what they were doing. They knew these were fraudulent claims." King said as he "watched the actions of the USDA" under Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and the Justice Department under Attorney...

Not a single word in the 844-page "Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act" introduced by Senator Marco Rubio and the "Gang of Eight" addresses the controversial practice of "birthright citizenship." Birthright citizenship is the common description given to the automatic grant of U.S. citizenship to babies born in the U.S. regardless of the citizenship status of the parents. Many experts agree with the verdict of law professor Lino Graglia -- that the practice generates "perhaps the greatest possible inducement to illegal entry." The failure of Congress to confront the subject is nothing new. The "four pillars" of the...

If you're like me, your college alumni association floods your inbox with email invitations to contribute, often adding invites to football games and lectures by famous alums or popular professors. Except for the moment when an appeal made directly by an administrator turned out to be a multi-page swoon over Obama, most of these imprecations are politically content-free and were designed to play on my nostalgic memories of a college as it once was, not as it is today. Both my husband and I are very grateful to our university. Without scholarships neither of us would have had an opportunity...

We know what liberals with power over other people think their job is...so this is pretty self explanatory...

Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former secretary of State Hillary Clinton, might make it a political trifecta for the Clinton dynasty. The former first daughter who currently works as a "special correspondent" with NBC, told that station in an interview on Monday that if she feels at some point in her life that she could make an impact on America, she would consider running for political office. "Right now, I'm grateful to live in a city and a state and a country where I strongly support my mayor, my governor, my president and my senators...

<p>The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has posted mug shots of 35 educators booked for allegedly colluding to raise standardized test scores.</p> <p>A 73-year-old principal, a middle school secretary, elementary school teachers, and other school workers are accused of being behind the nation's biggest cheating scandal.</p>

Inspired by this post at Newsbusters. The joke is not new by any means, but it's really remarkable that a major pop culture figure like Jay Leno was willing to use it.

On Tuesday night The Denver Post editorial board hosts a public forum on gun legislation at the national level. U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter, State Sen. Kevin Lundberg, and Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith are among the scheduled panelists. During the question and answer period a concerned Denver citizen asked Democratic Representative DeGette how he was supposed to defend himself under the new Colorado gun laws. DeGette smirked and mocked the senior citizen saying, “The good news for you, you live in Denver. The Denver PD would be there within minutes. (laughing) You’d probably be dead anyway.” Really?...

Before it has even gone into effect the gun-control law championed by Governor Andrew Cuomo has run into insurmountable problems. Under the law it is illegal for anyone in the state to have a weapon with a magazine that holds more than seven bullets. Aside from converting the majority of the state’s gun owners into criminals virtually overnight, hardly any seven bullet magazines are available. Rather than admit this law is infeasible, Cuomo is pressing the legislature to amend it to allow larger magazines, but forbid anyone from loading more than seven bullets in them. Skeptics wondering how law enforcement...

The civil rights group ColorOfChange would like to see Cops put behind bars. ColorOfChange has asked Fox not to renew its unscripted law-enforcement show and is calling upon advertisers to withdraw support, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. On Wednesday morning, the group is sending supporters an email in which it asks them to sign a petition to that effect. "Although marketed as unbiased, Cops actually offers a highly filtered version of crime and the criminal justice system — a 'reality' where the police are always competent, crime-solving heroes and where the bad boys always get caught," the email reads...

The top U.S. immigration enforcement official acknowledged Thursday that the Obama administration has in fact released thousands of illegal immigrants from local jails over the last month despite prior claims that the release was only in the hundreds. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton, at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing, said the agency released a total of 2,228 illegal immigrants from local jails "throughout the country" between Feb. 9 and March 1 for "solely budgetary reasons." For the first time, he explained the kinds of detainees that were sprung from local jails -- he said they included detainees held...