Doug Ross: BUSTED: The Complete IRS Scandal Timeline in Spreadsheet Format

Say Anything: IRS Claims Leak Of Conservative Group Tax Info To Left-Wing Group Was “Inadvertant”

Fire Andrea Mitchell: The nine lies of IRS official Lois Lerner

Conservatives 4 Palin: IRS Rep Told Dr. James Dobson His Application Was Rejected Because He Had Been ‘Critical Of The President’

Scared Monkeys: IRS Also Targeted Conservative Hispanic Groups … But I Guess this Was Not Politically Motivated

Hot Air: Video: Gas prices hit $4.39 a gallon in the Twin Cities

Riehl World View: Retired Cop Richard DeCoatsworth Honored by Obama, sat with FLOTUS – Arrested For Raping 2 Women

Scared Monkeys: UK Police Announce New Leads in Missing Madeleine McCann … Missing Since 3/6/07 in Praia da Luz, Portugal

Fire Andrea Mitchell: New York City Democrat Vito Lopez to resign due to sexual harassment scandal

Poor Richard’s News: 4th grader embarrasses New York City’s DOE with hidden camera documentary about their dishonest lunch program

Fire Andrea Mitchell: IRS abused Tea Party & Christian groups gave Muslim groups easy treatment

iOwnThe World: Steyn Warns of ‘Serious Secession Movements’ if Drift Toward Socialism Not Reversed

Newsbusters: Leno: It’s Gotten So Bad for Obama Fox News Changed Its Slogan to ‘See, I Told You So!’

Bob Owens: Grief-pimp Bloomberg exploits mother of murder victim for PR stunt; pushed against bill that might have saved her son.

Riehl World View: Video: Sparks Fly as US Airways/Piedmont Airlines flight 4560 forced into belly landing at Newark Airport

The Astute Bloggers: RUSSIA SUPPLIES SYRIA WITH ANTI-SHIP MISSILES

Weasel Zippers: North Korea Fires Three Short Range Guided Missiles Into Its Waters

United Liberty: Holder Promises Gun Control Through Regulatory Fiat

small dead animals: Benghazi: The 10pm Phone Call

Michelle Malkin: IRS gave Obama foundation fast, retroactive non-profit approval while stalling conservative applications

Breitbart: CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION GRACES COVER OF SOCIALISM 2013 CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Gateway Pundit: Nice. Latest Democratic Ad Has Gun Firing at GOP Opponent’s Head (Video)

Weasel Zippers: Obama Administration To Sign U.N. Arms Trade Treaty “In the Very Near Future”…

Jihad Watch: Egypt: Over 20,000 Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” attack Christian church with birdshot and bricks

This Ain’t Hell: Magpul & Sheriffs sue Colorado

Bonus Video:

When the Internal Revenue Service asks about your prayers, that’s a sign they’ve gone too far:

Remember, according to the former acting IRS head, this isn’t illegal.

I love me some irony:

Police say it all started at around 2pm Tuesday when three men broke into a home in the 8200 block of Braeburn Valley Drive and assaulted the resident.

After a brief scuffle, the hapless perpetrators shoved the man into a closet, not knowing that there was a gun in there.

When the homeowner thought the burglars had left, he went downstairs, carrying his gun in case the suspects were still around, the Houston Chronicle reported.

On the first floor, the man confronted one of his assailant and the two exchanged gunfire, according to police.

The resident, who shares the house with his parents, escaped unharmed, but the armed suspect was much the worse for wear after being struck in the shoulder and leg.

He fled on foot down the street, but did not get far before he collapsed. His two suspected accomplices took off from the scene in a Chevrolet Tahoe.

The wounded man, believed to be in his 20s, was heard crying out in pain as he lay bleeding on the pavement. He was taken to Ben Taub Hospital for treatment.

Hat Tip:  The Right Scoop

IRS scandals, Benghazi cover-ups and spying on reporters can’t stop the music:

The event will be held in the East Room of the White House and honor singer and songwriter Carole King, who will be awarded the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. King will be the first woman to receive the award, the White House noted in their announcement.

The program — to be streamed on the White House website and broadcast on PBS stations the evening of May 28 — will also feature performances by Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, James Taylor, Trisha Yearwood and King herself.

In 2002, Carole King sang, “You’ve Got a Friend” to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

So, of course President Obama honors her.

Using the power of the IRS to target groups based on their political ideology is, according to the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service, not illegal.

You read that right:

“It is absolutely not illegal,” Steve Miller, the acting commissioner of the IRS who resigned this week because of the scandal, said while being questioned by Georgia Rep. Tom Price.

A number of legislators let out bursts of “wow” at his answer.

Wow, indeed.

I remember talking/writing about this when it was happening, but the shine was still on the President then and he was given a lot more benefit of the doubt.  Following the revelation of the IRS targeting Tea Party groups, that shine is gone and the answers to the questions we asked then are even more important now:

Republicans Mike Kelly (PA-03) and Jim Renacci (OH-16) circulated a letter Thursday requesting Treasury Secretary Jack Lew release documents detailing the process and methodology the Automotive Task Force used to shut down General Motors dealerships in 2009 during the automotive industry crisis.

Renacci’s Northeast Ohio Chevrolet dealership was closed in 2010 after losing a battle with General Motors. Congress loaned General Motors $50 billion in 2009 after declaring bankruptcy, which resulted in the federal government owning a majority share of the company. Roughly 2000 dealerships received “wind-down” agreements, and while hundreds were able to survive an exhaustive arbitration process, Renacci-Doraty Chevrolet in Wadsworth did not. Renacci, then a Congressional candidate challenging incumbent John Boccieri, placed the blame squarely on President Obama.

“I jumped into the campaign because of what happened to the car business,” Renacci said in 2010. “This is another example of the devastation of this administration’s massive government intrusion into the private sector.” He went on to describe the government takeover of GM as “the Obama Administration dictating to small-business owners whether they can continue to operate privately owned businesses.”

Mike Kelly has a similar story. He decided to run for Congress when it was announced that Obama’s Automotive Task Force slated Wayland Chevrolet in Butler, Pennsylvania for closure. The dealership was started by Kelly’s father in 1953.

Now that it has been confirmed that the Treasury Department unfairly profiled conservatives around that time, the Congressmen are wondering if that could have been a factor in the selection of certain dealerships for closure.

Lt. Col. Allen West spoke about this on Fox this weekend:

Is there any doubt the political ideology of the dealership’s owners played a part in the closing? If there was, there shouldn’t be any more.

This isn’t just unAmerican. It’s downright insanity:

a popular pork-focused restaurant in the Upper Haight must close its doors Friday following months of failed negotiations with neighbors over neighborhood concerns about porcine aroma and grease disposal.

Department of Public Health officials say the owners of Bacon Bacon, located at 205A Frederick Street, have had months since opening the space to address these and other concerns. But following their failure to do so, the restaurant must shut its doors.

…

Residents were able to express their concerns following the location’s change in ownership. Neighbors took the occasion to raise concerns with the lack of a filtration system to alleviate the aroma of bacon, illegal parking of a related food truck on a residential street and claims that bacon grease was dumped directly into the sewer system, according to their attorney Ryan Patterson.

The neighbors — whom Patterson declined to name — have been willing to work with the new business owner, but they’ve not seen the same response, he said.

“Alleviate the aroma of bacon.”

Dude, that’s a perk. In marketing that’s known as a

You put that on the listing for your house if you ever sell it.

“It’s a really expensive neighborhood, but that’s because it smells like bacon.”

SOLD AMERICAN!

As for dumping bacon grease in the sewer, that’s just bad business. You bottle that bacon grease and sell it!

I’d buy a jar, but I already have quarts full of the stuff.

Photo Credit: photosteve101

Behold the First Amendment in New Jersey:

How dare this man attempt to be heard?! Who does he think he is?

Now about the applause. I don’t think the people were applauding his removal. I got the feeling they were applauding him the way people applaud an injured ball player as he’s helped off the field.

I base this on the groaning heard from the crowd as he was first declared out of order.

They weren’t applauding the fact he was removed, but the stand he took.

Potentially dangerous…to a student’s permanent record.

Given the opportunity to show that common sense exists in the public school system, the parents of a second-grader suspended for biting a Pop-Tart into a pastry gun appealed the boy’s suspension and asked for it to be removed from his permanent record.

The lesson?  Common sense has been purged from the educational industrial complex:

The family of a second-grade boy suspended from his school in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County for chewing his Pop-Tart-like pastry into the shape of a gun has lost a bid to have the episode expunged from the child’s record, according to the family’s attorney.

Attorney Robin Ficker met with school system officials Wednesday after filing an appeal asking that the suspension be reversed or that the child’s record be cleared. Schools officials did neither, and the family now plans to go to Superintendent Kevin Maxwell to argue that the boy, now 8, was simply playing, Ficker said.

“No one was hurt,” he said. “No one was scared.”

True, but he did not conform.

One of the best political cartoons I’ve seen applies directly to this situation.  I can’t find it, but it had a teacher going from one student to the next, sawing their round thought bubble into squares, just like hers.

I know its generalizing.  I know not all teachers are like this.  But we are putting our children in the hands of the machine when we send them to government run schools.

There are still alternatives, where common sense still exists.

Consider them.

Hat Tip:  Alphecca

The good news: The woman at the heart of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups is no longer in the non-profit division of the IRS.

The bad news: She’s running the ObamaCare office.

Exactly:

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

If this isn’t enough evidence to prove to you that Obama thinks you’re stupid, please tell me what it will take.

No, seriously.

Team Obama actually expected you to accept the resignation of a guy who’s been in the job a week as a sign people were being held accountable.

I guarantee this guy hasn’t finished moving into his office yet and we’re supposed to be all, “You tell ‘em, Barack!”

It’s insulting, and it adds even more contempt to a situation that’s already overflowing with contemptibility.