With the NSA phone log warrant story taking all the headlines and pundit breath, the previous "controversies" surrounding the Obama administration have taken a back seat. It's time to revisit one of them: the "IRS/Tea Party" "scandal". To hear Republicans and FOX "News" tell it, the president conspired with the IRS to target Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status.

The initial question, of course, is: WHY should a blatantly political organization be granted tax-exempt status in the first place under a designation reserved for social welfare groups (which are the antithesis of what the Tea Party and Republicans stand for)? I am not the only person to ask that question:
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92 comments (Latest Comment: 06/10/2013 22:52:04 by wickedpam)

Good Morning.

It's been almost a year.

You all know the tale - over the weekend of June 23 last year, my appendix decided that redundancy was enough and it had to leave. Of course, they found some bad Juju in there.

So, emergency surgery, chemotherapy, and pretty much a year of convalescence.
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5 comments (Latest Comment: 06/09/2013 13:29:23 by velveeta jones)

The latest "scandal-du-jour" that is meant to taint the Obama presidency and/or lead to impeachment hearings shall be known as "the phone tapping scandal". Apparently, the FBI requested that Verizon provide phone call logs for every call its customers make. Is this oogy? Yes. Did this come from the White House? We don't know. Is this legal? Apparently.
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102 comments (Latest Comment: 06/07/2013 00:04:54 by Will in Chicago)

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,258th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,229
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,091

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$1, 444, 914, 400, 000 .00

We've got a mixed bag this morning...and yet, there's a certain "sameness" to these stories - things we've been following for months and years. Some things never change, but this time it's an unfortunate reflection of the current leadership situation, I would think.
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72 comments (Latest Comment: 06/05/2013 00:32:54 by livingonli)

Let's face it, the smartest people tend to be Republicans. It's time to face facts and either join up, or dumb down. Or, if you are burdened by being of the female variety, you can become either a home-maker or a stripper; depending on your looks and abilities.

If you watched the movie Lincoln that gave Daniel Day-Lewis his 99th Best Actor Award you know just how brilliant Republicons are! Not just smart, also compassionate, kind and generous, brave, witty, and fair-minded. Just like Abe Lincoln and Jesus.
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2 comments (Latest Comment: 06/02/2013 17:06:40 by livingonli)