Tag Archives: John McCain

May 14, 2013 · 7:55 AM

Tea Partyers threaten lawsuit against the IRS

Tea Partyers threaten lawsuit against the IRS

The irony here is that every tax exemption [501(c)] application “looked at” by the IRS was ultimately approved, so I’m wondering where’s the “injury or damage required to file a lawsuit?  It appears that some Tea Party factions are are not satisfied with the favorable outcome and may possibly seek damages from the IRS…

Salon

“We are looking at it pretty seriously,” said an attorney representing six groups allegedly targeted by the IRS

A group of Tea Partyers is threatening to sue the IRS for targeting conservative groups that tried to file for tax-exempt status, after the agency admitted last week that it scrutinized groups with “Tea Party” or “patriot” in the name.

Politico reports that an attorney representing six groups, including Combat Veterans Training Group and TheTeaParty.net, said that his clients are seriously considering a lawsuit. “We are looking at it pretty seriously,” Dan Backer told Politico. “Given the sheer scope of maleficence at the IRS, there may be a legal recourse.”

The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 27 other Tea Party groups that allege targeting by the IRS, has written to the agency demanding that 10 of its clients now be approved for tax-exempt status.

From Eric Lach at TPM:

Of the 27 groups represented by the Jay Sekulow-led ACLJ, 15 have been granted tax-exempt status, 10 groups’ statuses are pending, and two groups have withdrawn their applications out of “frustration.” In its letter to the IRS on Monday, the ACLJ demanded that the IRS “approve immediately, and without further delay, the pending requests for either 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax exempt status of the following organizations: Albuquerque Tea Party, Allen Area Patriots, Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots, Greenwich Tea Party Patriots, Laurens County Tea Party, Linchpins of Liberty, Myrtle Beach Tea Patty, North East Tarrant Tea Party, Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now (PECAN), and Unite in Action.”

In addition to the IRS’ admission on Friday, an inspector general report set to be released this week will reportedly show that the agency targeted a much broader range of conservative groups than it admitted, including those that strongly criticized the government.

Members of Congress have called for swift action in response to the allegations, and so far the House Committee on Ways and Means has announced that it will hold a hearing on it this Friday, May 17. Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich, and John McCain, R-Ariz., who sit on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said that their committee would also be mounting an investigation.

One Republican member of the House has also introduced legislation that would criminalize political bias in the IRS, with penalties of a a $5,000 fine, five years in prison, or both. And Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced that he will be introducing the Senate version of the legislation to stop the IRS from “abusing its powers to violate first amendment rights,” according to a press release.

“A government organization like the IRS discriminating against political organizations is an outrageous abuse of power, and the American people have every right to demand answers and accountability,” said Rubio in a statement. “Those responsible individuals should face all appropriate punishment available under current law, and all organizations and individuals who engage in political speech and expression should be protected against this kind of discriminatory behavior in the future.”

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April 28, 2013 · 6:13 PM

Watch: White House Correspondents Dinner Awesome Spoof Of ‘House of Cards’

Post image for Watch: White House Correspondents Dinner Awesome Spoof Of ‘House of Cards’

The New Civil Rights Movement

The White House Correspondents Dinner featured an awesome spoof of the Netflix series, “House of Cards,” which features Kevin Spacey as the House Majority Whip, but also, cameos of John McCain, Valerie Jarrett, BuzzFeed’s editor Ben Smith, Steny Hoyer, Kevin McCarthy, New York City’s Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Politico’s Chief White House Correspondent Mike Allen.

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April 9, 2013 · 3:10 PM

Top Republican: Conservatives Are Too Scared To Debate Popular Gun Safety Bill

No surprise there…

Think Progress

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling for conservative to allow a vote on gun safety legislation, telling CBS’ This Morning on Tuesday, “we have not seen the final draft of the legislation that was produced…I think it deserves an vote up or down.”

But 14 Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) — have pledged to filibuster any comprehensive gun safety legislation, though all refused to appear on CBS to discuss their opposition, Norah O’Donnell reported. Gun advocates are running online campaigns calling on lawmakers to prevent the package from ever being considered, though a vote on the motion to proceed to the legislation could occur on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) — one of the only Republicans in the House to support the gun package — added that the filibuster effort is “wrong” and “makes it seem like they’re afraid of something.” “I don’t know what they’re afraid of, but if they’re so sure of their position, let it come to a debate,” King said on CNN.

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have also condemned the obstruction, arguing that the measure should come to a vote since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will allow senators to offer amendments to the legislation. The bill will expand restrictions against gun trafficking, invest in school safety and provide for universal background checks of all gun purchases, though the final version of that provision is still being negotiated. Polls indicate that more than 90 percent of Americans support background checks on all gun purchases.

“They’re not just saying they’ll vote no on ideas that almost all Americans support,” Obama said Monday of the filibuster threat during a speech in Connecticut. “They’re saying they’ll do everything they can to even prevent any votes on these provisions. They’re saying your opinion doesn’t matter, and that’s not right.” Some pundits are making a similar case, arguing that the party is undermining its rebranding effort and siding with “rapists” and criminals in the gun debate.

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April 3, 2013 · 11:35 AM

Obama’s trash-talkers

Personally, I’m glad these fellows are no longer affiliated with the White House.  This way they can speak their mind without negative ramifications that might affect their former boss, President Barack Obama.  

Politico

A week after leaving the White House earlier this year, David Plouffe took to his new Twitter account to announce that he thinks Karl Rove’s credibility is shot and his understanding of the electorate is “stupefyingly” dumb.

Tommy Vietor, another Obama ex-White House veteran, hit Twitter to offer his own measured critique about a tweet by Sen. John McCain concerning a new documentary on the Benghazi attacks —“disgusting, shameless,” Vietor said.

And former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau evidently didn’t think much about a tweet from columnist Ron Fournier of National Journal that compared White House aide Dan Pfeiffer to Rush Limbaugh. “You’re joking, right?” Favreau tweeted in response. “Otherwise, you’ve just won the Nobel Prize of False Equivalence.”

Twitter is aflame these days with high-ranking former Obama aides. Liberated from any official constraints, overflowing with opinions and no small measure of old resentments at political foes and the news media, they are letting the world know what they really think — and seemingly enjoying themselves to no end while doing so.

In the process, they are offering an unequaled window into the culture of the Obama West Wing. The brash, argumentative, sarcastic, often humorous, never-in-doubt ethos long familiar to reporters and other Washington operatives can now be followed by everyone in real time.

The Twitter alumni network has a distinctly male cast — it also includes Jon Lovett, Bill Burton, Ben LaBolt and even David Axelrod — and their frat-house banter serves a dual purpose for the Obama White House. It is an influential surrogate group, shaping the national debate while offering a relief valve for the pent-up frustrations of current administration officials.

“Twitter offers a window into the internal frustrations of an administration and the arguments people make on the inside. So it’s not surprising that people coming out of this White House are skeptical of Washington, Congress and the media,” Lovett, a former White House speechwriter, told POLITICO. “If there was Twitter when John Adams was president, ex-John Adams staffers would probably have let loose on Thomas Jefferson.”

But of course, there wasn’t Twitter when John Adams was president, nor was Twitter an influential medium during the tenure of President George W. Bush. President Obama’s aides are the first to leave a White House in the age of social media. Where former administration staffers took their newfound freedom to cable news or the pages of an inside-the-White-House tell-all, Obama staffers are voicing their grievances — and building their post-White House brands — through social media.

Peter Baker, a New York Times White House correspondent who has covered the past three administrations, said in an interview that much of what he is reading from the Obamaites has a familiar ring. The message is “about scoring points. … There’s no break between elections any more: When you read these feeds, you feel like you’re in September or October of an even-numbered year, not the spring of an odd-numbered year. They’re jabbing each other over perceived slights and sins. It’s all about jousting.”

“For the first couple weeks there was a feeling of being unleashed,” Favreau told POLITICO. “Tommy and I were at an airport waiting for a flight, and we were both in a Twitter fight with someone. After about an hour, we looked up from ours phones and said, ‘We have to stop.’”

Continue reading here…

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April 2, 2013 · 12:02 PM

Inside the NRA’s Koch-Funded Dark Money Campaign

Man holding guns

Illustration: Mark Matcho

Anything that’s “Koch-funded” implies dark money…

Mother Jones

“This election is going to be won on the ground,” Chris Cox, the National Rifle Association’s top lobbyist, told me early last year as the gun lobby prepared to launch its all-out campaign to defeat Barack Obama. Historically, pro-gun voters have favored Republicans by a margin of 2- or 3-to-1, but that only matters if they vote. And, Cox stressed, millions of gun owners were not registered yet.

The NRA’s get-out-the-vote effort, its most ambitious ever, would target gun owners from all angles. Its field workers would register them at gun shows and gun shops in battleground states such as Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. The NRA spent millions on TV spots; one seven-figure ad buy last October attacked the president for “chipping away” at Second Amendment rights, urging Americans to “defend freedom.” Chuck Norris, a spokesman for the NRA’s Trigger the Vote campaign, warned apathetic gun owners, “I’ll come looking for the people who sat this election out.”

Mobilizing the NRA’s estimated 4 million members ”is always a critical part of the equation for us on the Republican side,” says Charlie Black, a veteran GOP operative who was an adviser to Mitt Romney’s and Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaigns.

But 2012 was different: The NRA wasn’t simply reaching out to its core constituency—it was reeling in big checks from conservative funders eager to take advantage of its grassroots muscle. The arrangement was mutually beneficial: The NRA burnished its reputation as a political force to be reckoned with, while donors invested in the kind of all-out GOTV effort they had once expected from the Republican Party itself.

Continue reading…

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March 28, 2013 · 6:36 AM

Thursday Blog Roundup – 3-28-2013

Danged Fence Incident
At border, McCain survives incident where woman climbs a fence. Per McCain: “Inciden..

The Day In 100 Seconds
Highlights from DOMA’s day in the Supreme Court. Full-size version…

10 Things to Know for Thursday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be t..

Ashley Judd will not run for Senate
After months of speculation and a barrage of Republican attacks , Ashley Judd has de..

Gun Control Poised to Fail Yet Again
Stu Rothenberg : “Whether you are a staunch supporter of the National Rifle Associat..

Documents on 2011 Giffords Shooting Are Released
A release of records sheds light on the behavior of Jared L. Loughner, who killed 6 p..

Where Are The Media’s Iraq War Boosters 10 Years Later?
On the tenth anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq,  Media Matters &..

Barack Obama’s economic legacy: His four must-have items
Privatized “Medicare expansion”. Benefits cuts for SS & Medicare. Keystone. TPP…

Stephen Colbert needles Sen. Saxby Chambliss on gay marriage
As the Supreme Court weighs two laws on same-sex marriage, Sen. Saxby Chambliss find..

5 Social Conservatives Threatening To Leave The GOP Over Marriage Equa..
Shortly before the US Supreme Court heard arguments to strike down

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March 11, 2013 · 5:53 AM

Obama jokes about press, GOP and himself

barack-obama

President Obama leave the Gridiron Dinner Friday, March 9th.

I’m a bit late with this particular story but after finally reading about it, I decided to share.   According to various press reports, this president can really deliver a punchline…

USA Today – The Oval

Did you hear the one about President Obama, Sen. John McCain, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel?

“These days, John McCain and I are spending so much time together that he told me we were becoming friends,” Obama told member of the Gridiron press club during its annual dinner Saturday night.

“I said, ‘John, stop — Chuck Hagel warned me how this ends up!’”

Appearing at the white-tie dinner in which politicians and journalists make fun of each other, Obama cracked wise about politics, the news media, the sequester and even about himself.

“My joke writers have been placed on furlough,” Obama began. “I know a lot of you reported that no one will feel any immediate impact because of the sequester — well, you’re about to find out how wrong you are.”

He added: “Of course, there’s one thing in Washington that didn’t get cut — the length of this dinner. Yet more proof that the sequester makes no sense.”

Other topics covered by Obama and his substitute joke writers:

Complaints by reporters: “Some of you have said that I’m ignoring the Washington press corps — that we’re too controlling. You know what, you were right. I was wrong and I want to apologize in a video you can watch exclusively at whitehouse.gov.”

His agenda: “I have my top advisers working around the clock. After all, my March Madness bracket isn’t going to fill itself out. And don’t worry — there is an entire team in the situation room as we speak, planning my next golf outing, right now at this moment.”

His skeet-shooting photo: “Of course, maintaining credibility in this cynical atmosphere is harder than ever — incredibly challenging. My administration recently put out a photo of me skeet shooting and even that wasn’t enough for some people. Next week, we’re releasing a photo of me clinging to religion.”

Changes in his administration: “With all these new faces, it’s hard to keep track of who is in, who is out. And I know it’s difficult for you guys as reporters. But I can offer you an easy way of remembering the new team. If Ted Cruz calls somebody a communist, then you know they’re in my Cabinet.”

Vice President Biden: “Look, it’s no secret that my vice president is still ambitious. But let’s face it, his age is an issue. Just the other day, I had to take Joe aside and say, ‘Joe, you are way too young to be the pope. … You can’t do it. You’ve got to mature a little bit.’”

The press: “I know that there are people who get frustrated with the way journalism is practiced these days. And sometimes those people are me. But the truth is, our country needs you and our democracy needs you.”

Obama wrapped up by making fun of his recent mix-up of Star Wars and Star Trek:

“In the words of one of my favorite Star Trek characters — Capt. James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise — ‘may the force be with you.’”

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March 7, 2013 · 6:04 PM

John McCain And Lindsey Graham Just Ripped Into Rand Paul On The Senate Floor

McCain Senate

Looks like there’s a battle brewing in Congress between the old guard and the new guard.

Business Insider

U.S. Sen. John McCain blasted fellow Republican Rand Paul on the Senate floor this morning for his 13-hour filibuster to block John Brennan‘s confirmation as CIA Director.

“Calm down, Senator,” McCain said, in an apostrophe to Paul. “The U.S. government cannot randomly target U.S. citizens.”

In his filibuster Wednesday, Paul criticized the White House over its drone policies, and for refusing to rule out military strikes against U.S. citizens on American soil.

McCain, a staunch foreign policy hawk, said Thursday that Paul’s warnings that the U.S. could target “Jane Fonda” or “people in cafes” bring the debate into the “realm of the ridiculous.”

“If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids,” McCain said, adding: “I don’t think what happened yesterday is helpful to the American people.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) echoed these criticisms, adding that he was “disappointed” in the 13 Republican Senators who supported Paul’s filibuster last night.

Graham later told reporters that he will vote to confirm Brennan as a result of the filibuster.

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February 26, 2013 · 7:40 PM

Chuck Hagel Confirmed By Senate As Obama’s Secretary Of Defense

Next…

Now on to the next manufactured crisis…oh, that would be the sequester fiasco.

Huffington Post

The U.S. Senate confirmed former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as President Barack Obama’s next secretary of defense by a 58 to 41 vote Tuesday, marking an end to one of the most drawn-out fights for a president’s Cabinet pick.

The opposition to Hagel melted away Tuesday after the Presidents’ Day recess, with the Senate moving earlier in the day to end debate on his nomination by a 71-27 margin, and 18 Republicans voting in favor. On Feb. 14, Republicans succeeded in maintaining an unprecedented filibuster against the nominee.

Four Republican senators voted for Hagel: Sens. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Mike Johanns (Neb.) and Rand Paul (Ky.)

Paul’s vote was most surprising because he had voted against cloture earlier Tuesday, moving to continue the debate on Hagel’s nomination. He had also said previously that Hagel had provided incomplete financial information since he left the Senate.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday the time had come. “The questions had been answered and it’s time for a vote,” he said.

Hagel will follow Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, coming into office just as across-the-board cuts are set to hit the Pentagon on March 1 as a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a strong supporter of Hagel, defended the confirmation process. “This has not been that long a process on Hagel, by the way,” he said. “There was no more that needed to be brought out,” he noted, adding that Hagel had provided senators with his speeches and financial disclosure. “The fact that people around here are allowed to talk until 60 people decide to vote is the Senate rules.”

Hagel has been under fire during the confirmation process for his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, criticism of the Israeli lobby’s influence in Washington and past statements on Iran. Hagel also didn’t do himself any favors by performing poorly in his confirmation hearing.

Some Senate Republicans have spoken harshly about Hagel throughout the debate. McCain, once close with Hagel and one of the 18 Republicans to vote in favor of ending debate earlier Tuesday, had heated exchanges with him over the troop surge in Iraq. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took his opposition further, accusing Hagel of taking money from North Korea and Saudi Arabia. GOP-leaning outside groups also attacked Hagel over his past statements on Israel.

That opposition campaign seemed to peter out Tuesday.

“They were so far over the top,” said Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). “There were so many false, inaccurate statements that basically they ended up hurting themselves as much as helping themselves.”

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February 18, 2013 · 6:23 AM

Gingrich: Republicans Will Oppose Any Immigration Plan Backed By Obama Because They Hate Obama

Someone dragged Newt Gingrich from behind the woodwork to give his opinion on immigration issues.  This time, there might even be a modicum of truth to what he’s saying…

Think Progress

During an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) admitted that Republicans are likely to oppose any immigration reform proposal introduced by President Obama because they personally dislike the Commander-in-Chief.

“An Obama plan led and driven by Obama in this atmosphere with the level of hostility towards the president and the way he goads the hostility I think is very hard to imagine that bill, that his bill is going to pass the House,” Gingrich said. “I think that negotiated with a Senate immigration bill that has to have bipartisan support could actually get to the president’s desk.”

The Senate-backed framework for immigration reform, which enhances security on the border and includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, shares many similarities with Obama’s own proposal, though the president has repeatedly said that if Congress fails to make progress, he will introduce his own reform legislation.

That plan, obtained by USA Today, “mirrors many provisions of the bipartisan 2007 bill” spearheaded by Ted Kennedy and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and would allow unauthorized immigrants “to become legal permanent residents within eight years.” “The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years,” the paper reports.

Despite its bipartisan nature, the draft proposal was immediately panned by Republicans. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) — a member of the Senate group working towards producing comprehensive legislation — called it “dead on arrival,” while Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said it demonstrated that Obama is “looking for a partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution.”

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