◼ We learned late last week that the IRS specifically targeted conservative groups for political purposes starting in 2011, but they aren't the only federal agency that has abused its power to do so. As a reminder, here's a compilation of just some of the ways conservatives, "tea party groups," and "patriots" have been targeted. - Katie Pavlich/Townhall
◼ There’s quite a bit there, and there’s this and that and these and those. - American Elephant
There’s Benghazi... The Internal Revenue Service... The Justice Department... Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been denied additional funding for the roll out of ObamaCare by Congress, which presumably thinks they’ve spent enough already. So she is soliciting donations to help promote ObamaCare... The Environmental Protective Service (EPA) is facing a number of lawsuits filed to release the emails sent privately, against the law, (transparency) to conduct EPA business out of the public eye. There seems to be a long list of officials conducting public work from personal accounts... The Institute for Energy Research (IER) has reported that the most recent analysis shows that the Obama administration has created only 2,298 permanent green jobs, which used data from the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office to reach this conclusion... There's Pigford...
◼ President Obama’s disastrous political week - Chris Cillizza/Washington Post
It’s only Tuesday. But President Obama is already in the midst of one of the worst weeks, politically speaking, of his presidency — besieged by an burgeoning scandal at the Internal Revenue Service, revelations that the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records of reporters at the Associated Press and ongoing Republican criticism over the terrorist attack in Benghazi last fall....
The cumulative weight of the series of stories, of course, is, potentially, the most dangerous thing of all for the Obama Administration. Group Benghazi, the IRS and the AP into a single narrative and it reads something like this: The government knows better than you. As a result, the government can do whatever it likes.
“This is Big Brother come to life and a witch hunt to prevent Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wrote in a letter to President Obama on Tuesday morning.
While Jindal and Walker were referencing the IRS scandal in particular, their quote could also speak to the broader problem the Obama Administration is facing right now. The idea of a government run amok, believing in its infallibility and broadly-defined right to do what it wants when it wants is a dangerous one for this President (or any president).
Jon Stewart: Barack Into Darkness:
◼ Benghazi: Son Of Watergate? - Cal Thomas/Chicago Tribune
◼ In IRS scandal, echoes of Watergate - George F. Will/Washington Post
Carney: We had no knowledge of the DOJ's "ongoing criminal investigation."
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 14, 2013
◼ Inside the AP: Fear, determination - Dylan Byers, Katie Glueck/Politico
Reporters across The Associated Press are outraged over the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of staff phone records - and they say such an intrusion could chill their relationships with confidential sources.
In conversations with POLITICO on Tuesday, several AP staffers in Washington, D.C., described feelings of anger and frustration with the DOJ and with the Obama administration in general....
The AP employees interviewed by POLITICO did not want to be identified because, according to several sources, at least some journalists have been asked not to speak to the press. Early Tuesday afternoon, an individual at the AP Washington bureau who identified himself as the facilities manager told POLITICO to stop questioning reporters outside the office and address questions to corporate communications....
President Parties with Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel at Harvey Weinstein's Home...
Blames Rush Limbaugh...
◼ OBAMA'S SIGNATURE MOVE: UNSEALING PRIVATE RECORDS
