Their ruse is dependent upon you not knowing…..

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Internal Revenue Service says an official at the center of the agency’s tea party scandal is retiring.
Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status from 2010 to 2012.
Lerner first disclosed the targeting at a law conference in May, when she was asked a planted question about IRS treatment of political groups. Less than two weeks later, she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, citing her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.
Republicans in Congress have repeatedly called for her to be fired.  (read more)

(Via UK Daily Mail)  Americans were injured in a terror attack by  as many as 10 gunmen at a Nairobi, Kenya, shopping center that has left at least  40 people dead and as many as 300 injured – a female Canadian diplomat and a  pregnant popular Kenyan radio journalist are among the dead.
The US State Department has confirmed that  four Americans were hurt in the mass shooting Saturday in a statement issued  from the US Embassy in Nairobi, but declined to give names or an exact number of  Americans hurt. Americans are not  believed to be among the dead at this time. The dead range in ages from two to  78-years-old, according to a Kenyan government official. Five hostages were  released around 2am local time.

American Elaine Dang, 26, [pictured above] has been identified  as one of the Americans injured in the brutal terror attack.  (continue reading)
NYT Photojournalist on the scene:

[…]  The mall is Nairobi’s most high-end shopping center, completely up to Western standards, with movie theaters, nice cafes, supermarkets and a casino. Pretty much anything you need. I’ve been there, so I knew the layout inside.  (pictures and first hand account – CLICK HERE)

The Daily Caller has an interesting article highlighting how many fake, or fraudulent followers of President Obama exist on social media.

An incredibly high percentage of President Obama’s Twitter followers are fake, while the opposite is true for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
According to the Twitter analytics application, Status People, 55 percent of President Obama’s 36,802,378 Twitter followers — or approximately 20,240,107 followers — are fake.
A ‘fake follower,’ according to Status People, is a spam account following the user. During the presidential election season, candidates’ Twitter accounts came under public scrutiny for possibly purchasing followers to try to bolster their social media credibility.
Twenty-four percent of Obama’s Twitter followers are inactive, and only 21 percent — or approximately 7,728,499 followers — are real.  (continue reading)

…. Politico is actually wondering why Dear Leader, despite his magnificence, has not been able to turn public opinion around on anything.   Nothing, nada, zippo, zilch….
Perhaps, just perhaps, they are awakening to the reality that Obama has led an entire life without accomplishing ANYTHING outside of his own personal life.   The only thing Barack Obama, as an individual, has accomplished from birth to today is exactly NOTHING.   That’s really what was at the center of his “you didn’t build that” remark.  It’s the only sentiment he can relate to because he has never *created* anything himself.
Nothing except a fabricated ruse.

This is actually one of the most significant D’oh type discussions you can have when talking with a rabid progressive.   If you quietly, and deliberately, pose the question:  What has Barack Obama ever actually -as an individual- accomplished ?  You will be met with silence.
(Via Politico)  “The meh of a salesman” – Barack Obama has still never really sold the American people on anything but himself. (more…)

Travelling to a college campus to ask opinions of President Obama. The students still worship Dear Leader, he’s all cool and stuff, or something. But ask a simple question and watch what happens:

Citing gross and severe malicious prosecution by the Eric Holder “Civil Rights” DOJ in their efforts to prosecute law enforcement following Hurricane Katrina, a federal judge has thrown out the convictions and ordered new trials.
(New Orleans)  For many metro area residents, the day when former police officers were convicted for their roles in gunning down unarmed people on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina marked a cathartic moment.

On Tuesday, however, a federal judge toppled those hard-won convictions, not citing faulty evidence, but because of the “grotesque” conduct of prosecutors who never even talked to the jury.
In an order upending one of the region’s most important civil rights cases in years, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt granted a new trial for five former New Orleans Police Department officers convicted in the Danziger Bridge shooting and the subsequent cover-up.
In a 129-page order that blasted former prosecutors in then-U.S. Attorney Jim Letten’s office, Engelhardt pointed to “unprecedented events and acts” that “has taken the court on a legal odyssey unlike any other.”
[scribd id=169257319 key=key-2bwm8fit9bk7lrsg6zww mode=scroll]
The order granted a new trial for former police officers Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso as well as Arthur Kaufman, who was convicted of orchestrating the cover-up after being assigned to investigate the shooting. (more…)

Something really odd just came on the radar.    Let me begin by saying it’s probably nothing, just a mere coincidence – but odd nonetheless.
2 years ago a local library finished upgrading to computer based reference material.   As a shot in the dark I called and asked if I could buy all the reference cards, along with the wonderful little wooden 3×5 drawers they were all in.  They said yes, and so I did.
I use the blank back of the alphabetized cards to jot down new reference material.   Names in the news, countries, events, places, etc
As I was putting one back from research into the La Belle nightclub bombing, something struck me as oddly connected.   An hour later and I find myself sitting at a desk looking at 20 to 30 reference cards that all seem to associate.    Again, it’s probably nothing, but…. (more…)

Think about this carefully.    President Obama will negotiate with the al-Qaeda Taliban in Afghanistan; he will support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt;  he has officially engaged in negotiations with Vladimir Putin (Russia) over Syria;  he has proclaimed a diplomatic approach toward Syrian WMD and even Iranian nuclear ambitions,…
….. but he calls any congressional member who would advocate for a balanced budget, reductions in size of government, or fiscal prudence, “Terrorists”.
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama warned Republicans in Congress on Monday that he will not negotiate over an extension of the U.S. debt ceiling as part of a budget battle that will soon dominate Washington, with a deadline fast approaching.

MORE SPENDING

Pivoting to domestic policy after devoting weeks to the crisis in Syria, Obama scolded his political opponents for threatening a government shutdown and attempting to attach conditions to funding the budget for the 2014 fiscal year that begins October 1. (more…)

Willing, and arguably desperate to get out from under his own inept Syrian bus, Dear Leader proclaims victory and moves along.   Next Up – Asia
The White House on Saturday released a statement from President Obama after it was announced that Secretary of State John Kerry had helped broker a deal with Russia for the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons.

Here’s the full statement:

“I welcome the progress made between the United States and Russia through our talks in Geneva, which represents an important, concrete step toward the goal of moving Syria’s chemical weapons under international control so that they may ultimately be destroyed. This framework provides the opportunity for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons in a transparent, expeditious, and verifiable manner, which could end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but to the region and the world. The international community expects the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments. (more…)