PAP Headlines Edition

Lois Lerner Might Be In Big Legal Trouble

Posted at 9:16 on May 23, 2013 by tom vorenberg
It couldn’t happen to a nicer person! That is our feeling toward Lois Lerner, the lady in charge of denying tax-exempt status to conservative, Tea Party and patriot groups while green lighting progressive and Obama supporting groups. If she is held in contempt, could that exact enough pressure on her to make her flip? Can she be the reason for Obama’s downfall? Does she know where her instructions came from? Will the Republicans push hard enough to mak...
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Lerner’s Media Stunt Likely Waived Fifth Amendment Rights

Posted at 9:16 on May 23, 2013
Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS tax-exempt division during the now infamous period of targeting conservatives, asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Then she pulled a political stunt before the cameras–but doing so might have cost her the immunity that she might desperately need to stay out of federal prison. The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment includes the Self-Incrimination Clause, providing that no one can be compelled to give testimony that cou...

Western Civilization Dumber Than 100 Years Ago

Posted at 9:16 on May 23, 2013
A new study may stimulate the old adage of respecting your elders; it says the general level of intelligence in the Western Hemisphere has declined since the Victorian Era. The study claims the IQ numbers a...

Pickering, Issa reach agreement on testimony

Posted at 9:16 on May 23, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
Wonderful thing, subpoenas. Since the appearance of three State Department whistleblowers, House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa and former Ambassador Thomas Pickering have engaged in a public war of words over the investigation into Benghazi.  Issa wanted Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen, who co-...

Where The Suburbs Don’t Meet Utopia

Posted at 9:16 on May 23, 2013 by Andrew Sullivan
Pivoting off Dreher’s recent musings on the suburbs, Alan Jacobs considers our dissatisfaction with them: Suburbs are diverse not just in age but also in population density. There are no “empty” suburbs, of course, or else they wouldn’t be suburb...

Finally: Tax-Dodging, Union-Busting, Subprime Mortgage Banker Hauled Before Congress

Posted at 8:45 on May 23, 2013
The Senate will finally confront one of the architects of the subprime mortgage crisis today, hauling a tax-dodging, union-busting, bank-breaking, billionaire member of the “one percent” before the Senate Commerce Committee… to consider her confirmation as Secretary of Commerce in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. In the ...

We’re The Fairest Of Them All

Posted at 8:45 on May 23, 2013 by Andrew Sullivan
Last month a reader asked for a study to test the premise of a Cool Ad Watch in which Dove reassures us that we are more beautiful than we think. Here’s one: The researchers took pictures of study participants and, using a computerized procedure, produced more attractive and less...

Judge Davis and the Muslim-American muddle

Posted at 8:16 on May 23, 2013 by Scott Johnson
(Scott Johnson) Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, numbering at least 25,000. If it takes a village, we have a couple. Yet we know amazingly little about the Somali community, probably because we are afraid to ask the relevant questions. We know they are mostly Muslim — we can see the hijabs, we are familiar with the many local contr...

IRS audited 69% of filers claiming adoption tax credit

Posted at 8:15 on May 23, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
And it cost you and me over two million dollars in interest. Mary Katharine linked this yesterday in her post on Rep. Stephen Lynch’s unmistakable anger over the corruption at the IRS, but it’s worth a long look on its own, too.  National Review’s David French, an...

Disorder Disorder, Ctd

Posted at 8:15 on May 23, 2013 by Andrew Sullivan
A reader writes: Allen Frances bemoaned, “About half of Americans already qualify for a mental disorder at some point in their lives.” Roughly 100% of Americans already “qualify for” a somatic disorder at some point in their lives.  Does that mean we have too many somatic disorders on the books?...

Letters From Oklahoma

Posted at 7:45 on May 23, 2013 by Andrew Sullivan
Massive Tornado Causes Large Swath Of Destruction In Suburban Moore, Oklahoma A reader writes: I live in Moore about a block south of the corner of SW 19th and S Santa Fe, less than 2 miles south of where Plaza Towers ...

Obama’s Energy Secretary Says Climate Change Not Debatable

Posted at 7:15 on May 23, 2013
Ernest Moniz, Barack Obama’s new Secretary of Energy, is making it clear there is no room for dissent regarding climate change. Speaking to his department’s employees after he was sworn in, Moniz said, “Let ...

Ted Cruz: I Don’t Trust Washington Republicans

Posted at 7:15 on May 23, 2013
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he did not trust House and Senate Republicans in budget negotiations with Democrats. The conservative Senator said he would object to sending the Senate budget to conference unless the conferees promised not to raise the debt ceiling.   “Let me be clear, I don’t tr...

PART IV: Liberal Science v. Conservative Science = Abject Idiocy

Posted at 5:16 on May 23, 2013 by SJ Reidhead
Screen Shot 2013-05-20 at 1.56.04 AMWhat The Pink Flamingo has noticed is that NO ONE is dealing with the geological record and ...

Tech at Night: Keep government from micromanaging, to prevent the next ECPA mess.

Posted at 4:15 on May 23, 2013
Tech at Night Unnecessary legislation watch: House Democrats (and a Republican) want to meddle in the matter of employer access to Facebook. Sure, a lot of people aren’t smart about Facebook, but that’s no...

Property Tax Relief Passes in Iowa Statehouse

Posted at 3:45 on May 23, 2013 by Caffeinated Thoughts
6551514893_b84003ea12DES MOINES – Senate File 295, the largest property tax cut in Iowa history, passed the I...

Jason Glass to Leave the Iowa Department of Education

Posted at 2:16 on May 23, 2013 by Shane Vander Hart
Jason GlassJason Glass, the Director of the Iowa Department of Education, was...

IRS Audited 90 Percent of Returns Claiming Adoption Tax Credit

Posted at 1:45 on May 23, 2013
According to Taxpayer Advocate Services, the Internal Revenue Service has not just targeted conservative non-profits – it’s targeted adoptive parents. A full 90 percent of returns claiming an adoption tax credit were audited in 2012; 69 percent of adop...

Report: Broke LA Mayor Villaraigosa Asked O’Reilly for Fox News Job

Posted at 1:45 on May 23, 2013
In a comprehensive profile of outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A. Weekly reveals that the former Democratic National Convention chairman has solicited Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for a job. According to the article: He had fervently...

Did Lois Lerner waive her Fifth Amendment protection?

Posted at 1:45 on May 23, 2013 by Paul Mirengoff
(Paul Mirengoff) William Taylor III, the lawyer Lois Lerner selected to represent her before the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, is part of a firm that’s about as tight with the Obama administration as it could be. According to Washingtonian Magazine, the firm, a boutique litigation shop called Zuckerman Spaede...