http://newmediajournal.us/ NewMediaJournal en-us contact@newmediajournal.us Copyright 2013 webZine 2013-05-20T22:53:37+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9392 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9392#When:10:00:47Z President Obama's top lawyer was notified in April that the Treasury Department's inspector general had finished an audit of the Internal Revenue Service and uncovered the targeting of conservative groups, according to a report. The Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that a senior administration official said White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler learned about the inspector general's conclusions during the week of April 22, including that IRS agents had directed unfair scrutiny towards Tea Party groups and others who were seeking tax exemption. Obama press secretary Jay Carney had previously acknowledged that the counsel's office knew that the audit had been completed in April. The report that White House lawyers may have known the report's findings weeks before they became public will likely fuel GOP questions about when other senior administration officials first learned about the scandal and if the president should have been notified sooner. President Obama has said he first learned about the IRS misconduct when the public did, on May 10. Headline 2013-05-20T10:00:47+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9365 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9365#When:22:13:15Z The recent “scandals” plaguing the Obama Administration serve to illustrate that nothing lasts forever. The honeymoon with the mainstream media has ended after a record run and their steamroller approach to Washington politics has hit a “bump in the road,” and one they cannot circumvent. This moment in time presents some golden opportunities for those of us who identify it as one of vulnerability for those who quest to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” But in every golden opportunity exists some danger. And while we of the constitutional and conservative bent never cease to protest this truth, it is a truth nevertheless. We could be winning a baseball game by 15 runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and find a way to lose by 3. While all the so-called “Republican strategists” and conservative pundits debate the depth of the Obama Administration’s “evil deeds,” and while everyone in the conservative blogosphere is screeching “impeachment” at the top of their cyber-lungs, we who possess level heads; who deal in facts and realism instead of emotion and appearance, understand that the probability of impeachment is next to zero. Editorials 2013-05-16T22:13:15+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9391 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9391#When:09:59:06Z Republican lawmakers are launching an investigation into claims that the Environmental Protection Agency, while giving preferential treatment to environmental groups, made it harder for conservative groups to obtain government records. "According to documents obtained by the Committees, EPA readily granted FOIA fee waivers for environmental allies, effectively subsidizing them, while denying fee waivers and making the FOIA process more difficult for states and conservative groups," wrote Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Darrell Issa and Sens. David Vitter, Chuck Grassley and Jim Inhofe in a letter to the EPA. Citing a report by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Republicans are asking the EPA to hand over all Freedom of Information Act fee waiver requests, responses to requests, and FOIA officer training materials since the beginning of the Obama administration. The Fifth Column 2013-05-20T09:59:06+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9393 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9393#When:09:58:25Z The Senate's immigration bill will raise national security risks and the Obama administration will do little more than "rubber-stamp" illegal immigrants into the program, endangering Americans, says the labor union representing the 12,000 employees who will have to approve the applications. Kenneth Palinkas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents officers and staff at US Citizenship & Immigration Services, will deliver a damning critique of the Senate bill Monday. His statement goes well beyond the current debate, portraying an agency intent on approving as many illegal immigrants as possible. "The culture at USCIS encourages all applications to be approved, discouraging proper investigation into red flags and discouraging the denial of any applications," his remarks say. "USCIS has been turned into an 'approval machine.'" Government and Politics 2013-05-20T09:58:25+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9395 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9395#When:09:57:42Z Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are headed for a showdown over Richard Cordray, the man responsible for implementing major elements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) will call for a vote this coming week on Cordray, who is serving as the recess-appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Democrats are aiming to have the vote to formally confirm him as director on Thursday. Senate Republicans, however, say they will filibuster Cordray unless changes are made to the bureau, which is charged with enforcing consumer financial protection laws. Republicans want it made more accountable to Congress. Democrats argue that blocking a nominee to extract changes to the law is an abuse of the Senate’s filibuster rule, and say the so-called nuclear option is back on the table. Government and Politics 2013-05-20T09:57:42+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9396 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9396#When:09:56:55Z Washington, DC, has failed to remove from its voting rolls as many as 13,000 former residents who years ago moved to Prince George's County and cast ballots there, making fraud by voting in two jurisdictions as easy as going to the polls in their old neighborhoods, a review of records shows. In dozens of cases, names are listed as voting in both jurisdictions in the November presidential election. Provided a subset of the names, DC pulled paper records and said most did not vote, but that other voters accidentally associated their ballots with the former residents' names instead of their own. For others listed as voting in both jurisdictions, they had no such explanation. Democrats who have been deeply active for decades in the community of black, middle-class residents said Prince George's County residents casting double votes is an open secret. National and Local 2013-05-20T09:56:55+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9394 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9394#When:09:55:08Z A wave of car bombs and shootings killed at least 70 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq Monday, escalating fears of a return to widespread sectarian bloodletting in the country. The attacks, some of which hit market places and crowded bus stops during the morning rush hour, pushed the death toll in Iraq since Wednesday to more than 200. The bloodshed over the past week has been reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shiites that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007. Tensions have been worsening since Iraq's minority Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government. The mass demonstrations, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23. Islamist Terrorism 2013-05-20T09:55:08+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9384 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9384#When:10:00:38Z On May 19, the United States hit its debt ceiling after adding $300 billion in more debt since lawmakers suspended the ceiling in February. But the cash won't run dry until at least Labor Day, according to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose department can employ a variety of cash management tools to continue spending beyond the official debt deadline. Congress last hit the debt ceiling in January. The President and Congress then decided to "suspend" the debt limit through May 18. This is the first time that lawmakers adopted a debt ceiling date instead of a dollar amount. The Congressional Budget Office explains: "On May 19, the debt limit will be raised to its previous value--$16.394 trillion--plus the amount of borrowing that occurred while the limit was suspended," (that is, from early February to May 18). Government and Politics 2013-05-19T10:00:38+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9386 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9386#When:09:59:00Z Associated Press President Gary Pruitt said Sunday the Justice Department sent a strong – and negative- message to future sources that the government would go after them if they spoke to the press. It's a move Pruitt called not only unconstitutional, but said it damaged the ideal of a free press in the country. "It will hurt," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We're already seeing some impact. Officials are saying they're reluctant to talk." The Justice Department sought phone records for a two-month period from more than 20 phone lines in four bureaus, including Washington and New York. "Their rules require them to come to us first," Pruitt said. But the Justice Department maintains that telling the AP would have posed a threat to their investigation. Holder said he had recused himself from the AP investigation. The Fifth Column 2013-05-19T09:59:00+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9383 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9383#When:09:58:14Z Four trustees of Detroit's two public pension funds are heading to a Hawaiian beach resort this weekend with their $22,000 tab paid for by the funds, which are mired in claims of mismanagement and said to be at least $600 million underfunded. Trustees say the conference provides the education they need to manage complex investments for the funds' retirees and beneficiaries. But other major public pension systems, including the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions, avoided sending their officials to Hawaii because of concerns the exotic locale sends the wrong message at a time when pensions nationwide are contemplating or implementing reduced benefits to cope with rising retirement costs and shaky investment returns. Records show the expenses cover airfare, lodging at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu, registration fees, and a per diem. National and Local 2013-05-19T09:58:14+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9381 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9381#When:09:57:30Z Amid growing concern over the use of drones by police and government officials for surveillance, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to limit the use of unmanned surveillance "eyes in the sky" aircraft. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), along with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), is sponsoring legislation that would codify due process protections for Americans in cases involving drones and make flying armed drones in the U.S. sky illegal. Sensenbrenner believes it is necessary to develop new standards to address the privacy issues associated with use of drones — which can be as small as a bird and as large as a plane. "Every advancement in crime fighting technology, from wiretaps to DNA, has resulted in courts carving out the Constitutional limits within which the police operate," Sensenbrenner said. National and Local 2013-05-19T09:57:30+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9382 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9382#When:09:56:43Z The jailed doctor who helped the US track down Usama bin Laden was convicted by a tribal court on bogus charges, according to a classified Pakistani government report. Portions of the voluminous 357-page Abbottobad Commission Report, which has yet to be made public and were obtained exclusively by FOX News, acknowledge Dr. Shakil Afridi's conviction last year by a government-sponsored Jirga has undermined Pakistan's credibility. The report calls for Afridi to be given a new trial. The report also claims Afridi joined the CIA search for Bin Laden five years ago, while he was staying in the US with a cousin. According to the report, Afridi applied for asylum after a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, stepped up its operations in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. Afridi was reportedly kidnapped by the group in 2008 and released after his family paid a $10,000 ransom. Islamist Terrorism 2013-05-19T09:56:43+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9387 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9387#When:09:00:13Z I hear many conservatives these days talking about following the example of their forbears who escaped tyranny in Europe by fleeing to America. They're reading books about a quieter, more stress-free life in Costa Rica, Ecuador, or Panama. At the other end of the spectrum we have those who've given up on the idea that Republicans will ever have the guts to go toe-to-toe with Obama and his criminal gang. They're in a stand-and-fight mode, hoping either for secession or a second American civil war. I tend to find myself in both camps, depending on what day it is, but allow me to offer a heretofore overlooked theory that may cause us all to reconsider. As political pundits speculate about the possibility of a Hillary Clinton run for the White House in 2016, it becomes clearer and clearer that, beginning sometime prior to 2008, Democrats made a critical strategic decision. Since they were unlikely to ever again elect a president based on ideology... because it simply is not possible to ram a blatantly liberal agenda down the throats of a population that is largely conservative... they concluded that the only way they could win back the White House was by engaging in political "gimmickry." Analysis 2013-05-20T09:00:13+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9388 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9388#When:08:59:48Z The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic, established and governed by its Constitution. The first three articles of the United States Constitution establish and grant specific powers to three branches of government: Article 1 establishes the Senate and House of Representatives, and limits their power; Article 2 establishes the Office of the President, defines his or her responsibilities and establishes criteria for a person to hold the office; and, Article 3 establishes one Supreme Court and inferior courts established by Congress. This article is concerned with Article 2, Section 2., "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States; ..." Section 2., clearly states the president's primary duty is Commander in Chief of the US military. His or her primary duty is protecting the nation. Current US policy regarding an attack on US diplomatic facilities, citizens or property in a foreign country requires the president's authorization to use military force to stop such an attack and prevent further attacks. Analysis 2013-05-20T08:59:48+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9389 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9389#When:08:58:50Z France is a democratically unstable country. In two hundred and twenty years, she underwent eleven regime changes, and has seen innumerable riots. But in the past, rioters were carriers of hopes and dreams, even if their hopes and dreams were often tinged with illusion. Today, hopes and dreams are essentially absent. Pessimism among the French is frighteningly massive: Seventy-one percent of the French think that the future will be much worse than the present. France is a country where belief in a providential man capable of rehabilitating the country and able to deal with chaotic situations has persistently permeated citizens' minds. Napoleon the First remains a virtually undisputed hero, although he sowed war throughout Europe; Marshal Petain keeps many admirers; General de Gaulle is often presented as a man who liberated France largely alone and "restored pride." Today, there is no one to play this role. No other leader of national stature has emerged, and those who rise and protest, no matter who they are and what they think, have no leader. Analysis 2013-05-20T08:58:50+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9390 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9390#When:08:57:22Z The foreign policy of President Barak Obama regarding Syria is in question. Russia and Iran back President Bashar al Assad. Turkey and the US call for his voluntary resignation. Secretary of State John Kerry stated a goal of decisions by mutual consent between the Assad Regime and rebel groups. This seems like Humpty Dumpty putting all of the pieces back together again. Syria is an Arab country bordered by Israel, the Mediterranean, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. It is in the cradle of civilization. Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Scholars believe that writing was invented in Syria around 2,000 BC. The Hebrew Bible refers to 17,000 tablets; the source of the Semitic language and later the basis for the Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic languages. Alexander the Great ended centuries of battles. Pompey and the Romans followed, Christianity spread. Islamic fighters arrived in 632 AD. Christians and Islamics co-existed for centuries. When Caliphs began to destroy churches, Crusaders arrived. Analysis 2013-05-20T08:57:22+00:00 http://www.newmediajournal.us/mobile/nmjradio.htm