While it is conceivable that a smaller organization might use a UPS address, what is more questionable is giving an address where they have never been, apparently.

Via Daily Caller: 

The “charity” run by President Barack Obama’s half-brother that was fast-tracked for IRS tax-exempt status is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website.

The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based.

The Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama.

As first reported by The Daily Caller, the foundation was speedily approved for IRS exemption by Lois Lerner, the IRS senior official at the center of the targeting of conservative organizations that have waited over two years to receive tax exempt status.

The charity was even given retroactive tax-exempt status despite never having bothered to apply for it. And its history of soliciting donations before receiving tax-exempt status was apparently overlooked.

Keep reading…

Somewhere there’s a jail cell with Lerner’s name on it.

Via Weekly Standard:

Perhaps no other IRS official is more intimately associated with the tax agency’s growing scandal than Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division. Since admitting the IRS harassed hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups for over two years, Lerner has been criticized for a number of untruths—including the revelation that she apparently lied about planting a question at an American Bar Association conference where she first publicly acknowledged IRS misconduct.

Still, Lerner has her defenders in the government and the media. Shortly after the scandal broke,The Daily Beast  published an article headlined “IRS Scandal’s Central Figure, Lois Lerner, Described as ‘Apolitical.’” Insisting Lerner, and the IRS more broadly, were not not politically motivated has been a central contention of those trying to minimize the impact of the scandal.

The trouble with this defense is that, prior to joining the IRS, Lerner’s tenure as head of the Enforcement Office at the Federal Election Commisson (FEC) was marked by what appears to be politically motivated harassment of conservative groups.

Lerner was appointed head of the FEC’s enforcement division in 1986 and stayed in that position until 2001. In the late 1990s, the FEC launched an onerous investigation of the Christian Coalition, ultimately costing the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours in lost work. The investigation was notable because the FEC alleged that the Christian Coalition was coordinating issue advocacy expenditures with a number of candidates for office. Aside from lacking proof this was happening, it was an open question whether the FEC had the authority to bring these charges.

 Keep reading…

Via Raw Story:

A young Tunisian activist who sparked controversy in March by posting topless pictures of herself online has been arrested for allegedly making “immoral gestures,” the interior ministry said on Monday.

“The young girl was placed under arrest yesterday (Sunday) in Kairouan… because of immoral gestures,” ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told a news conference, without elaborating.

“Our society is Muslim and we do not accept this marginal behaviour,” he said.

In videos posted on the Internet, the activist known by the pseudonym of Amina Tyler was in Kairouan where Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia was to have held a congress on Sunday that was prevented by security forces.

The teenager is seen having painted the word “Femen” on a wall near the mosque which was to have been the venue for the gathering.

So incredibly dumb it’s giving me a headache.

Muslims to Tea Party: Welcome to our world — CNN

Reports that the Internal revenue Service has been targeting Tea Party-affiliated nonprofit organizations has grabbed headlines, but should come as no surprise. In part because of ten years of expanding government powers, much of it under the guise of national security, selective enforcement of the law has increasingly become a norm rather than an aberration.

But some in the Muslim community might have a question – why are conservatives so surprised (and outraged) by this news when Muslim nonprofits and their leaders have been under intense scrutiny for over a decade? And when so many Muslim groups and individuals have faced scrutiny simply for the religion they follow? [...]

While some may see the case of Muslim organizations and Tea Party affiliated groups as different, the same principles are involved – the uneven application of the law and discriminatory treatment directed at a minority. In one case the minority is targeted for its faith, while in another they are targeted for their politics.

But something I find troubling is that for the largely white, conservative, anti-government Tea Partiers and their supporters it is apparently acceptable to target legal immigrants or first generation American Muslims in the name of national security, even as any singling out based on political affiliation is treated as an outrage.

HT: Newsbusters

Note to Sheldon Whitehouse: You’re an even bigger assh*le than originally believed.

(CNN) — At least 51 people — including seven children at an elementary school — were killed when a massive tornado struck an area outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, officials said.

Seven children were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, a police official said. Emergency personnel were scouring the school’s rubble Monday evening, video from CNN affiliate KFOR showed. The footage also showed a number of other leveled buildings.

The tornado was estimated to be at least 2 miles wide at one point as it moved through Moore, in the southern part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, KFOR reported. Video from CNN affiliates showed a funnel cloud stretching from the sky to the ground, kicking up debris.

Via LWJ:

The US launched its second drone strike in Yemen in four days, killing two members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in an area in the central part of the country.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers launched missiles at the two fighters “as they left a farm on a motorbike” in the Khobza area of Baydah province today, AFP reported.

Two members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were killed in the airstrike. The Yemeni military identified the fighters as Abd Rabbo Mokbal Mohammed Jarallah al Zouba and Abbad Mossad Abbad Khobzi.

AQAP has increased its presence in Baydah province over the past several years, and the US has pursued the terror group with drone strikes. On May 28, 2012, the US targeted Kaid al Dhahab, AQAP’s emir in the province, and his brother Nabil, who is also a senior leader in the terror group, in a strike in the town of Rada’a.

I can’t think of anything that doesn’t involve curse words to describe Whitehouse and his comments so I’ll just leave it at this.

Via Daily Caller:

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 cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

Keep reading…

Via LifeNews:

As families and schoolchildren hunkered down in storm shelters to avoid a massive tornado today near Oklahoma City, a liberal “comedian” found time to use the disaster to attack conservatives.

Keep reading…

After being ripped by both right and left on Twitter she offered this apology:

But they’ll probably vote Democrat, and that’s all the left really cares about.

Via Washington Secrets:

The Senate “Gang of Eight’s” immigration reform bill goes so easy on illegal immigrants involved in crime that nearly half of those kicked out of the country in the past six months for criminal acts would be allowed to stay and qualify for legal status, according to a new analysis.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the immigration reform package targets illegals with a long rap sheet, while those with fewer crimes on their record are considered safe enough to get legal status.

To size up the impact of the pending legislation, the group compared the legislation with ICE’s Secure Communities program which alerts Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a known non-citizen is arrested.

Keep reading…

Nobody messes with the left’s religion.

Via The Hill:

Democrats in the House and Senate are looking to stop what they say are deceptive advertising practices by anti-abortion health clinics that imply they offer abortion services, but instead encourage birth and promote adoption.

The legislation is aimed at crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which are clinics often set up by a church or other anti-abortion groups. Democrats in Congress and other pro-abortion groups say these clinics are known to indicate they can perform abortions in order to attract pregnant women patients, and then try to convince them to carry their babies to term.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the House sponsor of the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act (H.R. 2030), said CPCs should not be allowed to deceive women who are seeking information about their pregnancy.

“Women shouldn’t be deliberately misled or coerced when they seek legitimate medical services,” she said when she introduced the bill last week. “While I will defend crisis centers’ First Amendment rights even though I disagree with their view of abortion, those that practice bait-and-switch should be held accountable so that pregnant women are not deceived at an extremely vulnerable time in their lives.”

Keep reading…

So Planned Parenthood lets a stranger sign off on a 12-year-old girl’s abortion and they didn’t have a problem with this?

EVERSON – An Everson man who impregnated a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion must serve a six-year prison sentence, then leave the country.

Luis Gonzalez-Jose, 31, raped the girl at a home in rural Whatcom County while her mother was in the shower, according to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court.

He brought the girl to a Planned Parenthood clinic in August 2012. She told staff members that her 14-year-old boyfriend impregnated her, but she couldn’t give the boy’s name or address.

Six weeks after the abortion, the girl told a detective how she had really become pregnant. Gonzalez-Jose had insisted “it would be best for her” to not have the baby, according to the documents.

The department evaluator agreed with the plea bargain, recommending a sentence of six years and eight months in prison, but only on the condition that Gonzalez-Jose can never return to the United States afterward. Otherwise, the report stated, a longer sentence would be appropriate.

Even the BBC acknowledged today there has been zero global warming since 1998.

Via Junk Science:

From Obama’s commencement address at Morehouse College:

“And there’s still a lot more work to be done to make our economy more energy-efficient, to make sure that we’re dealing with serious issues like climate change. When I look at Arthur’s incredible kids and grandkids, I’m thinking, just like I’m thinking about when I see Malia and Sasha — I want to make sure that 30 years from now, 40 years from now, when they’re with their kids and their grandkids, that they’ve got a planet that isn’t in chaos because of decisions that we made or decisions that we failed to make. We’ve got a lot more work to do there.”

The Obama regime would have made great Nazis.

Via Politico:

A federal judge in Washington ruled in 2010 that the Justice Department was not required by law to notify Fox reporter James Rosen that prosecutors had obtained his emails in connection with an investigation into a leak about North Korean plans to test a nuclear weapon.

In September 2010, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth overruled the conclusion of federal magistrate John Facciola that Rosen—whose Gmail account was searched—was entitled by law to be informed.

Prosecutors contended that under the statute used to get Rosen’s emails, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, they were not required to provide any notice of the search.

In his decision (posted here), Lamberth said the usual search warrant notification provisions apply, but found they were “satisfied by leaving a copy of the warrant with a third-party ISP [internet service provider].” That made the notification sort of a moot point, since Google got the warrant in the first place.

“The government has no further obligation to notify the subscriber of the e-mail account at issue,” Lamberth wrote.

Crazy to say the least.

Obama’s gestapo.

Via ABC News:

…. IRS headquarters in Washington denied that a no-talk rule was official policy because, after all, agency staffers still have a constitutional right to talk to whomever they want.

“Our policy is that press inbounds (queries) are referred to the press office,” a spokesman said. “But people have First Amendment rights, they are entitled to speak.”

Asked whether employees were reminded of the official media policy this week, the spokesman said “no.”

Not so, said IRS folks in Ohio.

One of them, who asked not be named, told ABC News that security guards did remind employees of the official policy not to talk with the press – a warning cemented by the punch line “or risk losing our jobs.”

On Thursday morning, after news that Miller was sacked, two ABC News journalists walked into the Peck Federal Building in Cincinnati looking for answers. The newsmen were screened at the door by security. They emptied their pockets as instructed, removed their belts, then went through the metal detectors.

We wanted to ask who about made the decisions in the unit and when the profiling started. And whether those decision makers been identified yet.

But the answers – like the people involved – remained elusive.

As we traveled the public hallways of the building – watched over by security cameras – an armed uniformed police officer with the Federal Protective Service followed us. We were looking for a particular office—of someone who would not want to be seen talking to reporters–but chose to bypass it because of our official babysitter.

Asked why we were being escorted in a public building, the officer identified himself as Insp. Mike Finkelstein and said he was only trying to make sure that the newsmen were not a “nuisance.” He brushed aside further questions. The cop said a supervisor would call to explain.

One of the reporters wanted to know if the act of following the journalists was an effort intended to scare off any federal employee who might have considered speaking to the press. That’s sure what it looked like; and, even if that wasn’t the goal, it was the effect.

As of Friday night, no supervisor had called back.

Keep reading…

HT: Dan Riehl

Racists! Wait, Morehouse is a black college.

Via Free Beacon:

Fox 5 Atlanta reports on President Obama’s commencement speech at Morehouse College on Sunday which left attendees in the rain for several hours.

For security purposes, attendees were not allowed to bring in umbrellas on the cold, rainy day for the President’s address outdoors.

Many decided to leave early and skip the President’s speech, while others were forced to sit in the bad weather for hours.

“We are being grateful to hear the President give the address, but we’d rather not get sick.”

“Everybody has the nice clothes and nice shoes, so several wanted to leave after it started storming. You know, you feel icky. Unfortunately we weren’t able to leave.”

Keep reading…

I’m sure the Euro-weenies were impressed.

Via The Hill:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius praised the Affordable Care Act in Europe Monday as a major step forward for universal healthcare coverage.

Sebelius invoked the law during a trip to Geneva, where she represented the United States at the World Health Assembly.

In a speech, President Obama’s top health official characterized the Affordable Care Act as part of a global movement toward better health through government-led reform.

“Advancing the health of our nations is a fundamental commitment we make to all our people,” Sebelius told the assembly.

“Expanding access to health coverage has been a cornerstone goal of President Obama’s vision for strengthening opportunity for everyone.”

Curl’s source called today’s Fox News scandal last week.

Tamerlan’s buddies?

Makhachkala, Dagestan (CNN) – At least four people are dead and 44 are injured after two bombs exploded Monday in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region, the Ministry of Health’s website says.

Thirty-one of the injured were hospitalized, it says.

The incident — which occurred in Makhachkala, capital of the semi-autonomous republic of Dagestan — also caused significant damage. Security officials say they believe law enforcement officers may have been the target because the explosion occurred outside a local marshal’s building.

One car bomb was discovered by a police patrol, who called in a unit to defuse it. Before that could be done, the bomb went off, but the explosion was minor, security officials said. Then, as a crowd of people gathered, a second, more powerful device detonated, causing the casualties.

An Islamic insurgency has taken hold in the North Caucasus and there is a strong presence of Islamic militants fighting Moscow’s rule.

Jaw dropping.

Via Mediaite

Update: Keep those in Oklahoma in your thoughts and prayers.

Gross.

PATERSON — The raising of a flag at City Hall on Sunday was like any of the dozen or so similar events held in the city each year in a nod to its diversity.

Except it wasn’t.

That’s because the flag raised — for the first time in Paterson, and possibly at any city hall in the United States — was Palestinian. Symbols or assertions of Palestinian statehood are fraught with political sensitivities, and Khader Abuassab, the event’s organizer, said he received harassing phone calls before Sunday’s event.

But no problems were on display Sunday when the flag was raised in the rain before elected officials and about 150 people. People cheered, danced, shared sweets and shouted, “Long Live Palestine.”

“Palestine is our country and we are proud of that,” said Clifton resident Salwa Ramadan. “We’re happy [to be] recognized finally.”

Paterson had never held the event because no one had asked, Mayor Jeffery Jones said. The mayor read a proclamation proclaiming May 19 as Palestinian American Day in the city and honoring the group’s heritage and contributions.

He said he wasn’t concerned with potential political backlash.

“If they’re citizens of the city of Paterson, they have every right to raise the flag,” Jones said. “There’s nothing that precludes them as long as they follow the process.” Turks, Haitians, Peruvians and other groups have had had their flags raised at City Hall.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin, D-Clifton, showed up — with Pascrell presenting a letter of Special Congressional Recognition and Giblin presenting an Assembly resolution marking the event.

HT: Iwin

War on women.

Via Weekly Standard:

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused to criticize Iran for excluding women candidates from the upcoming “election” there. The remarkable exchange, which concludes with Psaki saying this(“We want this [election] to be free and fair. There’s a lot of ways to, of course, define that.”) happened at Friday’s press briefing.

Keep reading…

Impressive considering the MSM still overwhelmingly portrays the tea party as being filled with evil racists.

Washington (CNN) - As a major tea party group plans protests Tuesday at Internal Revenue Service offices across the country Tuesday, a new national poll indicates that the IRS controversy has given the four-year-old movement a shot in the arm.

The week-and-a-half-old controversy, which involves the IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups which were seeking tax exempt status, has dominated headlines and put the White House on the defensive.

And according to a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday, it’s also boosted the favorable rating for the tea party movement. Thirty-seven percent of people questioned said they see the tea party in a favorable light, up nine percentage points from CNN’s March poll. But a plurality still view the movement unfavorably.

“Politically, the group that may have benefitted the most from last week’s news is the tea party movement, which may be getting something akin to a ‘sympathy vote’ for being targeted by the highly unpopular IRS,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The 37% favorable rating for tea party is just one point shy of their all-time high in CNN polling, which they reached twice in 2010, during the heyday of the movement.

Too funny! Wait, he’s serious?

As of now the U.S. is $16.8 trillion in debt.

Via The Hill:

The United States bumped up against its borrowing limit Sunday, forcing the Treasury Department to employ “extraordinary measures” to make sure the government keeps paying its bills.

After a brief hiatus, the nation’s debt limit has returned as a major hurdle for Washington to overcome, and one that will play a central role in fiscal fights heading into the fall.

Congress agreed to suspend the nation’s $16.4 trillion borrowing limit the last time they approached it, at the beginning of the year. But that suspension expired May 19.

The latest numbers from the Treasury Department indicate that the overall debt of the United States swelled by about $300 billion during the period of the suspension, and now totals roughly $16.7 trillion.