(The Cable)  Insiders with ties to the Obama administration tell The Cable that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has become the heir apparent to National Security Advisor Tom Donilon – a post at the epicenter of foreign-policy decision making and arguably more influential than secretary of state, a job for which she withdrew her candidacy last fall amid severe political pressure.

“It’s definitely happening,” a source who recently spoke with Rice told The Cable. “She is sure she is coming and so too her husband and closest friends.”

(more…)

(Via Slate)  If you are a customer of Verizon Wireless, you might want to consider switching carriers in light of the Associated Press phone snooping scandal.

When the feds came knocking for AP journalists’ call records last year, Verizon apparently turned the data over with no questions asked. The New York Times, citing an AP employee, reported Tuesday that at least two of the reporters’ personal cellphone records “were provided to the government by Verizon Wireless without any attempt to obtain permission to tell them so the reporters could ask a court to quash the subpoena.” (more…)

Many people have been wondering exactly what was the reason the Eric Holder DOJ used their power to peer into the Associated Press.    Some water-carrying progressives have been claiming the “danger” to national security was so great, the overreaching self-approved subpoena to track 20 phone lines of 100+ reporters was excusable.

Not.Even.Close.  As it turns out, the issue was one of the DOJ retaliating against the AP over the AP decision to ignore a White House request to withhold information for 24 hours just to benefit their ongoing narrative.

AP’s story about the foiled plot was at odds with the calming message the White House had been conveying on the eve of the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.  (link)

As the Washington Post outlines;  The DOJ tracking was retaliation for the AP not holding their story for an additional DAY: (more…)

This has all the indicators of reaching the West Wing. Prior Democrats in Congress had espoused the IRS *should* take this approach. With such blatant admissions in 2010, and even 2011 after they lost the House they continued the approach, this is going to be VERY difficult for the administration to firewall.

GOOD GRIEF – Unbelievable stuff from that questioning session today in congress.

Attorney General, Eric Holder, claims he recused himself from the decision making surrounding the wiretapping of more than 100 Associated Press reporters and 20+ phone lines.   However, he states we need to take his word for it because there is nothing documented which provides support for his self-recusal claim.

Not only that, he claims he doesn’t even know “WHEN” he recused himself, and further states he never notified anyone of the recusal itself – nor did he notify the White House. (more…)

Only 100 pages?   No-way this is all of them.   They begin on 9/14/12?   Where’s the prior ones?    What questions do you identify?

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PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia abortion doctor was sentenced Wednesday to a third life term for killing an aborted baby that he described as so big it could “walk to the bus.”

Dr. Kermit Gosnell was convicted this week of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies born alive, then stabbed with scissors. He was given two life sentences Tuesday in a deal with prosecutors that spared him a potential death sentence, and the third sentence was handed down Wednesday.

Gosnell was also sentenced to 2  1/2 to five years in prison for the 2009 overdose death of a patient. The sentences are consecutive, meaning Gosnell, 72, will spend the rest of his life in prison.  (read more)

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Former Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been spared the death sentence by choosing to forego an appeal.

In exchange for giving up that appeal, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office agreed to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Gosnell was found guilty of first-degree murder on Monday in the deaths of three babies. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of former patient Karnamaya Mongar and 229 counts of violating Pennsylvania abortion laws.

The 72-year-old owner of the Women’s Medical Society, the West Philadelphia clinic where the crimes happened, was set to be sentenced next Tuesday.  (continue reading)

……Obama said this:  “Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.  Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works; they’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.”

Now Consider: (more…)

You know when the President sends out an official announcement at 8:30pm that a  general sense of the pending sh!tstorm is looming far closer than the horizon.

So close in fact it is quite possible the nucleus of the scandal will be tracked to the West Wing of 1600.

Earlier yesterday, prior to the official Inspector General report release,  ABC Newser Trey Hardin directly asked White House Spokesman Jay Carney:

Trey Hardin: “I will tell you this on the IRS front. I’ve worked in this town for over 20 years in the White House and on Capitol Hill and I can say with a very strong sense of certainty that there are people very close to this president that not only knew what the IRS were doing but authorized it. It simply just does not happen at an agency level like that without political advisers likely in the West Wing certainly connected to the president’s ongoing campaign organization.”  (link)

Notably, Jay Carney never disputed this assertion.   Bad sign. (more…)

In 2010 Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) together with six other members of congress demanded the IRS take a political approach to target Conservative and Tea Party groups.

Today, the consequences to these “Democrat” congressional demands are in the forefront.  Every.Single.Conservative and Tea Party Group was targeted.   EVERY ONE for two years.

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