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The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee communicated through phone calls and text messages last spring with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch in order to gain access to Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the salacious and unverified anti-Trump dossier. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) texted back and forth with lobbyist Adam Waldman, who runs the Endeavor Group -- which has ties to (surprise!) Hillary Clinton -- while leading the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to Russia with his Republican colleague North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.In one text to the lobbyist, the senator expressed a desire...

In response to an inquiry about unaccompanied minors from one of its school divisions, Virginia’s Department of Education issued a memo this month reminding its 132 divisions about their obligation to educate all children. According to the memo, under federal and Virginia law, the state expects that many of the unaccompanied minors who enroll in public school will be considered “homeless.” “In addition, division superintendents cannot exclude from school attendance those homeless children who do not provide the requisite health or immunization information required of other students,” the memo continued. Full title: Immigrant Children to Be Classified as 'Homeless' to...

6 days before tax day liberal Christmas in 2013 Lois Lerner was emailing with one of her fellow cronies and warning them to be careful, “we need to be cautious about what we say in emails”.

An email recently released by the House Oversight Committee shows IRS official Sarah Ingram was pretty excited about President Obama publicly speaking out against conservative groups with "secret donors." The email was sent from Ingram to Lois Lerner and others inside the tax agency after a glowing piece was published in the New York Times about the IRS and the trouble it was having with new tax exempt applicants and groups in light of the 2010 Citizen's United ruling. "The 'secret donor' theme will continue -- see Obama salvo and today's Diane Reeham (sp). At least SS started the idea...

This week's episode:  Spending enormous resources on a program to reduce X, and then not tracking (or even putting in place a mechanism to track) whether X was reduced as promised.   James Taranto quoting the National Journal quoting Administration officials: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the health care law will reduce the number of uninsured people by about 24 million over the next few years, and that about 6 million previously uninsured people will gain coverage through the law's exchanges this year. So, is enrollment on track to meet that goal? Overall enrollment is looking pretty decent, but...

A week ago today Sheriff Joe Arpaio held a press conference to report the preliminary findings of the Cold Case Posse. Mike Zullo, commander of the posse, reported that they had found probable cause for fraud and forgery of Obama's long-form birth certificate and draft registration, and that the posse was recommending a full criminal investigation. Sheriff Arpaio said the investigation would continue but that he would have to decide who, if anybody, to refer the case to for additional follow-up. Those who perpetrated the forgeries and fraud defrauded the people of Maricopa County, Arizona. Arpaio has jurisdiction to investigate...

Where's the paper trail on this guy Obama's writing? I've published a dozen novels and half a dozen nonfiction books and edited newspapers and magazines (I'm not a real journalist, honest. I used to be that way, but I'm just a fella now). Done some ghosting and teaching of writing, too. Nobody, but nobody publishes a polished memoir, let alone two (and forget that it's by the age 47 at that), until there's been a few signs of brilliance earlier. Where's the early signs of writing genius? The college literary magazine? Freelance pieces? Poetry? Fiction? Works that didn't sell so...

"...If anyone is still puzzled about the facts, in fact I have never been a Muslim. We had to send CNN to look at the school that I attended in Indonesia where kids were wearing short pants and listening to ipods to indicate that this was not a madrassa but was a secular school in Indonesia..." ~ Barack Obama, 24 February 2008 In a recent episode of Saturday Night Live that featured a parody of a Clinton Obama debate, a faux Campbell Brown chirped "Like nearly everyone in the news media, the three of us are totally in the tank...

WASHINGTON – Just 10 days before Americans vote in midterm congressional elections that could result in a historic shift of power, the federal government is investigating whether anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may control the company that operates electronic voting machines in 17 states. Many questions have been raised about the reliability of the new machines, which leave no paper trails for the purposes of recounts. But now federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled by the Castroite revolutionary leader of Venezuela who denounced President Bush as Satan in his most recent United...

Pa. Sued Over Electronic Voting Machines Voter advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to stop Pennsylvania counties from using "paperless" electronic voting machines, saying that such systems leave no paper record that could be used in the event of a recount, audit or other problem. The suit asks the state's Commonwealth Court to decertify machines used in 58 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. The other counties use optical scanning systems, in which voters fill in bubbles on paper forms that are counted in scanning machines; the plaintiffs say such systems should be in use statewide. "Whatever the initial promise may have...

Harriet Miers has now withdrawn as a nominee for the Supreme Court. No one of the attacks against her would have been sufficient to cause withdrawal. Instead, she suffered the death of a thousand cuts. Who will be the new nominee, and how will she answer the inevitable attacks against her? Yes, “her.” I expect the President to nominate another woman to replace Justice O’Connor, whose resignation is conditional on confirmation of her replacement. Here’s my prediction of the new nominee’s opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee: Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee: We have now had, in short...

Miers seems to have a paper trail on abortion: ( SEE HERE : http://presidentaristotle.blogspot.com/2005/10/case-for-miers-when-things-look-blurry.html) 4. Miers’ paper trail: abortion 4.1: In 1989, she contributed $150 to Texans for Life. 95% of those who contribute to pro-life groups seek to reverse Roe v. Wade; there’s no reason to think Miers is an exception. 4.2: When she ran for Dallas City Council, she openly identified herself as pro-life. Her campaign manager has since called her “on the extreme end of the anti-choice movement". 4.3: She became head of the Texas Bar in 1992-93, and used her position to lobby against the ABA’s...

Bush recoils from greatness By Pat Buchanan Oct 3, 2005 Syndicated columnist Handed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to return the Supreme Court to constitutionalism, George W. Bush passed over a dozen of the finest jurists of his day -- to name his personal lawyer. In a decision deeply disheartening to those who invested such hopes in him, Bush may have tossed away his and our last chance to roll back the social revolution imposed upon us by our judicial dictatorship since the days of Earl Warren. This is not to disparage Harriet Miers. From all accounts, she is a gracious lady...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An electronic voting system with a paper trail that was used in Nevada elections last year became the first approved for use in California on Friday. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certified the Sequoia Voting Systems machine for use after Jan. 1, 2006. The machine prints a paper record of a voter's choices, which the voter can inspect through a screen for accuracy. If the paper record is correct and approved by the voter, it winds into the machine. If incorrect, the vote can be voided. San Bernardino County tested the Oakland-based company's machine in one precinct...

The paper trail: GO HERE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/graphics/cbsdocs_091804.html

Bush Air National Guard Documents Could Be Intentional Hit On Kerry Despite Dan Rather’s insistence on conducting what amounts to his last stand (he’ll be “urged” by CBS to pack it in after yet another scandal), the alleged Air national Guard documents are beginning to look like sucker bait that Rather took hook, line and sinker. And that sucker bait came from the left, it appears. The problem with the documents is that many aspects of the “facts” are too easy to disprove and may have intentionally been planted to implode Kerry’s credibility and campaign. Consider the fact that the...

SACRAMENTO - The Senate on Wednesday revived an effort to require a paper trail to ensure that electronic voting machines aren't tampered with and accurately record voter preferences. Meanwhile, the Assembly approved a bill that would create a state conservancy to help protect the Sierra Nevada from overdevelopment, and the Senate passed legislation requiring economic impact reports before local governments approve Wal-Mart-like superstores. The Senate also approved a bill by Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, that would require that all touch-screen voting machines used after Jan. 1, 2006, give voters paper receipts verifying how they voted. The machines would also have...

CBS radio news broadcast this morning is pressuring the Department of Justice to remove the Gorelick and Mary Jo White, etc. memos from their web site. They claimed that yesterday the president expressed his displeasure at those memos having been released.

WEST PALM BEACH -- Florida's voting machines came under attack again Monday when a lawmaker sued state election supervisors because new ballot counters lack a paper trail needed for possible recounts. Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said voters need to be assured every vote is counted, particularly in close races where a manual recount is required by law. "Why doesn't Gov. Bush simply say, "Let's improve our Florida election system even more than we've done so, provide for certainty and provide for security and in case something goes wrong, have a back up?'" Wexler said moments after filing the lawsuit...

The moment John Kerry began to seem like the candidate to watch in the Iowa caucuses, the campaigns of his Democratic rivals Howard Dean and Richard A. Gephardt swiftly used a handful of Mr. Kerry's decade-old Senate votes and statements against ethanol and agricultural subsidies to attack him as not supportive of Iowa's essential industry. Now that his opponents are moving even more aggressively to slow Mr. Kerry's rise, his 19-year voting record as the junior senator from Massachusetts could loom as his greatest political vulnerability, among Democrats and Republicans alike. The sheer length of Mr. Kerry's service means that...