Free Republic

ARMED DHS GUARDS GREETED TEA PARTY PROTESTERS TODAY AT THE ST. LOUIS IRS RALLY– No sign of the Light-Armored Tanks yet… But there were DHS vehicles parked outside the IRS office just in case the Tea Party protesters got violent. Alex Cohen holds a Gadsden flag at the IRS building. It was his first Tea Party rally. Over 300 Tea Party protesters turned out for the rally against IRS harassment and intimidation. Tea Party protesters at the St. Louis-Town and Country IRS protest today wore targets on their backs. There were plenty of American and Gadsden flags at the rally....

Conservatives and Republicans would be unwise to pursue President Obama's impeachment as my colleague Bruce Walker today argues. The odds are the effort would backfire, and there is a much more important goal that should be at the center of our political strategy: sweeping Democrats out of office in 2014 and 2016 in numbers sufficient to enact structural reforms, including replacement of the tax system and junking the IRS and outlawing public employee unions. President Obama is handing his opponents the means, if only they have the wit to pursue the bigger goal. ..... Somewhere along the line, Hillary and...

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon. These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law. According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in...

While many Americans were tuned into news coverage of the massive damage from tornadoes ravaging the state of Oklahoma, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse took to the Senate floor to rail against his Republican colleagues for denying the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Whitehouse spent 15 minutes chastising GOP senators and justified his remarks by alluding to states that seek federal assistance in the wake of natural disasters. “So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate...

Senior members of the Church of Scotland voted Monday to let some congregations choose ministers who are in same-sex relationships — an important compromise that must still pass further hurdles before it can become church law. The church's General Assembly backed a motion affirming a traditional conservative view on homosexuality, but permitted liberal congregations to ordain openly gay men or women if they wish. The assembly's vote would require the approval of next year's General Assembly as well as votes by the church's regional presbyteries to become law. The process is complicated, and is expected to take at least two...

Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer said it's an "irrelevant fact" where the president physically was during the Benghazi terror attack on September 11, 2012. Host Chris Wallace reminds Pfeiffer that Obama didn't really talk with Secretary Clinton, Secretary Panetta, or Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that night. "He was talking to his national security staff," Pfeiffer insists. Asked about whether the president entered the Situation Room, Pfeiffer says, "I don't remember what room the president was in on that night, and that's a largely irrelevant fact." Pfeiffer then argues that Wallace's questions about the president's handling of...

Then in one of the best displays of civil disobedience I’ve ever seen, the entire audience recited the pledge of allegiance, while most of the lawmakers remained seated. This is one to share. Patriotism is ALIVE in America.

The IRS targeting Tea Party groups and other conservative-leaning political organizations has reignited calls for reform and the argument among Capitol Hill Republicans that the federal government has become too big and out of control. Among those leading the calls for reform is Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee, which held a hearing on the scandal five days after the targeting was made public and two days after the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller. “This systemic abuse cannot be fixed with just one resignation,” Camp said at the start of the...

A young hunter in Texas has bagged the largest alligator ever certified in the state, weighing 800 pounds and measuring 14 feet, 3 inches. For Braxton Bielski, 18, it was a dream come true because he had grown up with a fascination for dinosaurs and always wanted to hunt prehistoric-looking alligators, sometimes referred to as “living dinosaurs.”

When Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach served as a dog handler in Afghanistan, he told the yellow lab who was his constant companion that he'd look her up when he returned home. "I promised her if we made it out of alive, I'd do whatever it took to find her," Gundlach said. On Friday, he made good on that vow with help from some sentimental state officials in Iowa who know how to pull off a surprise.

Former White House Counsel during the Clinton Administration, Lanny Davis, is calling for the resignation of Obama White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. Davis joined Brian Wilson on "Mornings on the Mall" on WMAL in Washington DC Friday morning and discussed the unfolding scandals of the Obama White House. Davis focused mostly on the IRS scandal and the fact that the White House counsel's office reportedly knew about the Inspector General's investigation into harassment of conservative groups, since April. Davis contends that if this is true and Ms. Ruemmler chose to not inform President Obama of the investigation and the possible...

"Thousands of anti-gay protestors, including Orthodox priests, occupied a central street in Georgia's capital Friday, with some threatening to lash with stinging neddles any participate in a gay pride parade which was take place there".

<p>TBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- Thousands of anti-gay protesters, including Orthodox priests, occupied a central street in Georgia's capital Friday, with some threatening to lash with stinging nettles any participant in a gay pride parade which was to take place there.</p>

The State Department, under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, created an arrangement for her longtime aide and confidante Huma Abedin to work for private clients as a consultant while serving as a top adviser in the department. Connect with NYTMetro Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for news and conversation. Ms. Abedin did not disclose the arrangement — or how much income she earned — on her financial report. It requires officials to make public any significant sources of income. The disclosure of the agreement that Ms. Abedin made with the State Department comes as her husband, former...

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation. Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation. Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. ... Ingram ... is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office...

By 2030, roughly two-thirds of the world’s middle class will be in the Asia Pacific region, largely in China, according to a report by Ernst & Young. Currently at around 150 million people, the Chinese middle class is expected to reach 1 billion. Representing a $250 billion market for American companies today, according to the U.S.-China Business Council estimates the country, it’s worth noting the American companies that can take advantage of the enormous opportunity. Some of the nation’s biggest brands have already managed to be the Chinese market leaders in their particular segments. Apple sells more tablets than any...

The Inspector General of the Treasury reported this week that the IRS began applying extra scrutiny and conducting harassment of Obama administration opponents as early as March 2010. However, for at least two pro-life groups, that scrutiny appears to have started a year earlier. Joel Gehrke reports that one group was told its tax-exempt application depended not on promising to stay out of electoral politics, but on pledging not to protest Planned Parenthood — a prominent supporter of Barack Obama: IRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according...

First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper. Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the government says it will import 50m rolls to boost supplies. That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday. "This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in Caracas.

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -FOX19 has exclusively learned that as many as four people may be the first Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees to face disciplinary action, and possibly even criminal charges, for allegedly targeting Tea Party and Liberty groups applying for non-profit status.

About an hour ago, Jason Smith’s campaign reported receiving the endorsement of Governor Palin: “Jason has worked tirelessly to build on the foundation of his humble beginnings and is a responsible and respected leader in the Show Me State. In Washington DC, Jason will maintain that innate sense of his community and will bring his commonsense conservatism to the halls of Congress. Jason recognizes that government is the problem, not the solution. He will protect our 2nd Amendment rights and work to promote a culture of life. We must all work together to send Mr. Smith to Washington on June...

In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve nonprofit status for a new conservative watchdog group. He submitted the paperwork to the IRS in July 2011 for a research site called Media Trackers, which calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog dedicated to promoting accountability in the media and government." Although the site has investigated Republicans like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the site's organizers are unapologetically conservative. Eight months passed without word from the agency about the group's application, Ryun...

BELCHERTOWN (CBS) – Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir. State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates. Update: MWRA: Quabbin Reservoir Water Safe The Quabbin, in Belchertown, is one of the country’s largest man-made public water supplies. Boston’s drinking water comes from the Quabbin and the Wachusett Reservoirs. State Police say there were no warrants or advisories on any of the...

In a groundbreaking resolution, the Los Angeles Unified District school board voted Tuesday to ban suspensions for “willful defiance,” making it the first district in the state to do so. This decision will stop suspensions for a variety of misbehaviors—anything from mouthing off to teachers, eating food in the classroom, or violating the school dress code—which critics have maintained are too broad and arbitrarily enforced. Instead, starting next year, principals will install alternative disciplinary measures while students remain in school. The ban in LAUSD, the second largest school district in the country, marks a major shift from a zero-tolerance policy...

BELCHERTOWN (CBS) – Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir. State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates.

The press and the left. But Lisa Myers repeats herself. Seriously, though, Myers did make a stunning admission along such lines on today's Morning Joe? H/t NB reader Pam. Describing the harm done to President Obama by the AP spying scandal, NBC senior investigate correspondent Myers said the effect of the scandal has been to turn "one [sic] of the President's most important constituencies, the press and the left, against him." Did Myers make a double Freudian slip in describing the press and the left as "one" and the press as an Obama constituency? View the video here.

When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train. 'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.' That question was part of the tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letter to Kevin Kookogey. founder...

*Noted professor and sociologist Dr. Anne Hendershott claims IRS may have targeted her with a 2010 audit *IRS demanded to know which groups paid her and “what their politics were” *Hendershott believes her articles critical of President Barack Obama’s policies and George Soros’ funding of liberal Catholic groups may have spawned the IRS audit *Audit was emotionally and financially expensive and scared the professor into silenceIn the midst of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal, individuals and groups, alike, are continuing to come forward with ever-startling allegations. On Wednesday, Dr. Anne Hendershott, a devout Catholic and a noted sociologist,...

When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train. 'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.' That question was part of the tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letter to Kevin Kookogey. founder...

“Hunchback of Notre Dame” star Bette Midler declared that she loves the Internal Revenue Service for targeting the tax-exempt status of conservative groups. “I LOVE THE IRS!!! HOW CAN A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION BE CALLED A NON-PROFIT THAT PROMOTES GENERAL WELFARE??,” Midler tweeted in all caps Monday. The IRS apologized Friday for improperly giving extra scrutiny to the tax-exempt status of conservative nonprofit groups — a confession White House press secretary Jay Carney said President Barack Obama would find “outrageous” if confirmed by an independent report. Midler, an Obama supporter who has previously tweeted that “Obama inherited this [economic] mess, he...

Tyler Weyer and his fellow seniors at Republic High School began considering possible commencement speakers last fall. Confronting them was the reality that the most likely speaker would be a popular teacher or a standout community member. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But Weyer had a crazy thought. “I said, ‘Hey, let’s just get Sarah Palin,’ ” said Weyer, the 17-year-old senior class president at Republic High. It was kind of a joke, at least at first. But soon Weyer had taken the lead on an aggressive social media campaign that … just got Sarah Palin. The former...

Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family’s international humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, said that the IRS notified the organizations in September that it was conducting a “review” of their activities for tax year 2010. With the IRS admitting it gave extra scrutiny to conservative political organizations, Graham says he now believes that the review was part of an Obama administration effort of “targeting and attempting to intimidate us.” ~~snip~~ “While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing...

Cleta Mitchell, one of Washington’s most respected elections attorneys, told Newsmax she has tangible proof that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were fully aware of the agency's campaign to target conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, despite their denials. And she thinks the president knew about the practice too. If proven, she said, it could be an impeachable offense. Mitchell, in an interview with Newsmax TV on Tuesday, said she was told by a Cincinnati IRS agent that applications by two of her conservative clients were being processed by—and would ultimately be approved or denied—in Washington. She said she also is...

Larry Connors, a veteran local news anchor at KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis, says that the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting him since an April 2012 interview he conducted with President Obama -- a fact that he dismissed as coincidence until the recent reports about the IRS targeting conservative groups. "Shortly after I did my April 2012 interview with President Obama, my wife, friends and some viewers suggested that I might need to watch out for the IRS. I don't accept 'conspiracy theories', but I do know that almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me,"...

The Internal Revenue Service wrote to the Richmond Tea Party last year demanding to know the names of all its financial donors and volunteers, as part of a 55-question inquisition into its application for tax-exempt status, MailOnline has learned. The agency wanted to know 'the names of the donors, contributors, and grantors' for every year 'from inception to the present.' It also demanded 'the amounts of each of the donations, contributions, and grants and the dates you received them.' 'How did you use these donations, contributions, and grants?' the IRS asked. 'Provide the details

President Obama’s second-term campaign slogan was “Forward,” but instead we’ve got cover-ups, congressional investigations and the government persecution of political opponents and reporters. That sounds like “backward” to me. All the way to, say, 1972. Who would have guessed that just a few months into his second term, President Obama would be compared to Tricky Dick. And by a liberal Massachusetts Democrat — U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano. Republicans could not even have scripted this one. The agency most hated by voters, the Internal Revenue Service, admits to going on a Nixonian witch hunt against Tea Party and conservative groups during...

The daughter of House Speaker John Boehner has tied the knot with her Jamaican-born love in an intimate sunset ceremony set amid a lush Florida garden. Lindsay Marie Boehner, 35, married construction worker Dominic Lakhan in a flowing white strapless gown that showed off a huge tattoo etched across her arm. Her 38-year-old groom looked smart in a grey suit with his waist-length dreadlocks on display as he waited for Boehner to walk Lindsay down the aisle at Sundy House in Delray Beach on Friday. The couple said their vows with the House Speaker looking proudly on - despite the...

<p>Looks Like DOJ HAS BEEN TAPPING AP NEWS TELEPHONE LINES TO DISCOVER THEIR CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES IN CONGRESS!</p> <p>The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.</p>

President Obama’s second-term campaign slogan was “Forward,” but instead we’ve got cover-ups, congressional investigations and the government persecution of political opponents and reporters. That sounds like “backward” to me. All the way to, say, 1972. Who would have guessed that just a few months into his second term, President Obama would be compared to Tricky Dick. And by a liberal Massachusetts Democrat — U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano. Republicans could not even have scripted this one. The agency most hated by voters, the Internal Revenue Service, admits to going on a Nixonian witch hunt against Tea Party and conservative groups during...

Reports this morning indicate the jury in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell is hung on two counts, but reports do not indicate which ones. The jury has indicated that it has reached verdicts on 261 other counts. Judge Minehart took less than five minutes to instruct the jury to go back and reconsider the two hung charges and attempt to come to a consensus without violating anyone’s conscience. He told them that their disagreement is a sign that they are taking the case seriously, according to reporters inside the courtroom. If verdicts cannot be reached, the judge...

ROME, May 13, 2013 – In the preaching of Pope Francis, there is one subject that returns with surprising frequency: the devil. It is a frequency on a par with that with which the same subject recurs in the New Testament. But in spite of this, the surprise remains. If for no other reason than that with his continual references to the devil, pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio parts ways with the current preaching in the Church, which is silent about the devil or reduces him to a metaphor. In fact, the minimization of the devil is so widespread that...

The Internal Revenue Service under the Obama administration – described by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as the “most feared government agency” – admitted Friday it targeted conservative and tea-party groups during last year’s election because of their politics. Bachmann, a former tax attorney, told WND in an interview the IRS admission means the credibility of the 2012 election is in doubt. Americans, she said, should be wondering whether Obamacare, which is to be enforced by the IRS, will target conservative voices opposed to President Obama with delays or denials of medical care. But why would an administration ever confess to...

LONDON, May 8, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A proposal by a leading pro-abortion lawyer to lower the age of sexual consent from 16 to 13 to protect “old men” who molest young people from legal “persecution,” is being met with outrage in the UK. “I do not support the persecution of old men,” Barbara Hewson wrote recently in Spiked online magazine. “England has a long history of do-gooders seeking to stamp out their version of sexual misconduct by force of the criminal law.” (Barbara Hewson) Hewson, who made her name leading an international campaign to overturn the pro-life provision in Ireland’s...

When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story. ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called on the president to release interagency emails detailing the response to the attack in Benghazi and the administration's potential role in changing the talking points about the attack "so we can get to the truth of what happened." He also promised "There's going to be more hearings" on the subject. click to watch video.

WORCESTER - The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been laid to rest somewhere outside of Massachusetts, according to a funeral home official briefed on the situation. Worcester police said the remains of the 26-year-old have been “entombed.’’ The official said that the remains of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber were removed sometime before midnight Wednesday from the Graham Putnam & ­Mahoney Funeral Parlors where his body has been since last Friday. The burial location was approved by Ruslan Tsarni, the suspected terrorist’s uncle who has represented the family as he and funeral home director Peter Stefan tried to find a...

Jodi Arias says she would rather receive the death penalty than a long prison sentence after she was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday, calling death "the ultimate freedom." In an exclusive interview with MyFoxPhoenix.com, Arias says she was shocked by the verdict. "I think I just went blank," Arias said. "I just feel overwhelmed. I think I just need to take it a day at a time. It was unexpected for me. There was no premeditation on my part." Arias spent 18 days on the stand sharing intimate, emotional and oftentimes X-rated details of her life before a rapt television...

The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control — and, if necessary, launch — nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit’s launch skills. The group’s deputy commander said it is suffering “rot” within its ranks.

A source with intimate information about the events that happened on the ground in Benghazi the night the U.S. Consulate and the CIA annex was attacked by terrorists told Breitbart News that, ultimately, only the President of the United States, or someone acting on his authority, could have prevented Special Forces either on the ground or nearby from helping those Americans who were under deadly assault.

The future just got a lot scarier. A Texas company is set to release blueprints for making a plastic gun with a 3-D printer — a development Sen. Chuck Schumer called “stomach-churning” Sunday. Defense Distributed, a collective of gun access advocates headed by self-described “free-market anarchist” Cody Wilson, has announced it made such an untraceable gun with the new plastic-making technology. The nonprofit Texas group intends to post blueprints for “The Liberator” (pictured) online this week. The Liberator may look like a toy, but “this gun can fire regular bullets,” Schumer said, calling for legislation outlawing the technology’s weapons potential....