Via the Twitter:

Boy Scouts of America vote to allow openly gay youths to join: on.cnn.com/13NfEgZ

— CNN (@CNN) May 23, 2013

From CNN:

Delegates to the annual meeting of the Boy Scouts of America made a monumental statement Thursday, voting to allow openly gay youths to join scouting.

The organization’s 1,400-member national council voted for the policy change, which will take effect January 1.

“No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone,” says the approved resolution.

The BSA will maintain its ban on gay adult leaders.

Expect an exodus from the organization soon, and the creation of a more conservative alternative.

And then look for that group to be vilified.

Say what you want about Medea Benjamin, but her moonbattery is at least consistent:

Benjamin didn’t really get to say much, but one thing she said is absolutely correct. She said:

It’s not Congress. It’s you, sir.

That’s right. Obama had just finished blaming Congress for Gitmo being open, but he could close it right now if he wanted.

She continued:

You’re the Commander in Chief. You could close Guantanamo today.

…

You have the ability to do this.

He does. From those right wing hacks at Slate:

In his press conference Tuesday, President Obama repeated that he wanted to shut Guantanamo Bay but blamed Congress for stopping him. “They would not let us close it,” he said. But that’s wrong. President Obama can lawfully release the detainees if he wants to. Congress has made it difficult, but not impossible. Whatever he’s saying, the president does not want to close the detention center—at least not yet.

The relevant law is the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA). This statute confirms the president’s power to wage war against al-Qaida and its associates, which was initially given to him in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed shortly after 9/11. The NDAA also authorizes the president to detain enemy combatants, and bans him from transferring Guantanamo detainees to American soil.

The NDAA does not, however, ban the president from releasing detainees. Section 1028 authorizes him to release them to foreign countries that will accept them—the problem is that most countries won’t, and others, like Yemen, where about 90 of the 166 detainees are from, can’t guarantee that they will maintain control over detainees, as required by the law.

Breaking…

JUST IN: IRS official who took the 5th amendment yesterday in congressional hearings placed on administrative leave

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 23, 2013

Also, this:

Lerner on Thursday afternoon sent an e-mail to employees in the exempt-organizations division she oversees stating, “Due to the events of recent days, I am on administrative leave starting today. An announcement will be made shortly informing you who will be acting while I am on administrative leave. I know all of you will continue to support EO’s mission during these difficult times.” She concluded, “I thank you for all your hard work and dedication,” adding, “The work you do is important.”

Bill O’Reilly made yet another appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

During the show, Jon Stewart said this:

“Just to be lumped in with people based solely on one factor is unfair … It’d be like let’s say somebody committed an act of terror and we took their whole religion and we lumped them all in for special singling out.“

O’Reilly tried to break the argument. I think he failed.

Let me give it a try.

If targeting Muslims for extra scrutiny because of the acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam is wrong, then isn’t making every American get a background check before buying a gun wrong too?

I mean, just to be lumped in with people based solely on one factor is unfair, right? Is that a universal, or is it just if Muslims?

Stewart was surely against gun control, right?

Wrong.

In Stewart’s world, there’s nothing wrong with making everyone in the country jump through extra hoops based on the actions of a few, but it’s wrong to submit Muslims to a little extra attention based on all the acts of terror committed in the name of Allah.

Therefore, I made this:

If it’s wrong to profile Muslims, then it’s wrong to profile gun owners.

There’s plenty of attention on the IRS targeting of conservatives, but when you have that scandal along with Benghazi, the snooping on AP reporters and the criminalization of basic journalism, it’s easy to overlook something as mundane as a Secretary of Health and Human Services scandal.

But this could be a big deal, considering how closely it resembles the Iran-Contra scandal.

First, a little background:

Current and former administration officials have taken on leadership and fundraising roles for Enroll America, a nonprofit aiming to make sure people sign up for new coverage options. As the ties grow deeper, the organization has come to feel like “just an arm of the administration,” said one official who works closely with insurers.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has already come under fire from congressional Republicans because she has raised money for the organization.

They say it puts inappropriate pressure on insurers, who will need the department’s approval to sell their products through a federally run insurance exchange in more than half the country.

“Companies and organizations should never be pressured for money because it sends the message that contributions are necessary to secure favorable regulatory decisions — creating a ‘pay to play’ environment — or to avoid regulatory reprisals,” Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee said in a recent letter to Sebelius.

The White House and the Health Department have defended Sebelius, saying her fundraising is legal and consistent with the George W. Bush administration’s effort to publicize Medicare’s prescription drug benefit when it came into effect in 2006.

Her fundraising is legal?

Not according to Lamar Alexander:

The Washington Post quoted an HHS spokesman last week saying, “We requested additional money [from Congress] . . . but we didn’t receive any additional funding for the exchanges. So we had to come up with Plan B.”

My immediate thought was: Isn’t “Plan B” what got Oliver North in trouble during the 1980s?

Basically, yeah:

North came into the public spotlight as a result of his participation in the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal during the Reagan Administration, in which he claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons via intermediaries to Iran, with the profits being channeled to the Contras in Nicaragua. He was reportedly responsible for the establishment of a covert network, which funneled those funds to the Contras. concerned about human rights violations by the contras, the US Congress passed the Boland Amendment (to the House Appropriations Bill of 1982 and subsequent years) which prohibited the appropriation of U.S. funds by intelligence agencies for that purpose. The money was passed through a shell organization, the “National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty,” to the Palmer National Bank of Washington, D.C. and then to the Contras.

Alexander explains:

Last week, chairmen and ranking Republicans on five congressional committees in both houses of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to find out the facts. Is Ms. Sebelius raising funds for a private entity and then coordinating with that entity to do something Congress has refused to authorize, or for which it has refused to appropriate funds? And is she raising money from organizations she regulates, in violation of ethics laws?

If the money being raised by Ms. Sebelius is being spent to do an end-run around Congress, then the Obama administration had better brush up on its Iran-Contra history.

Independent Women’s Forum: Hobby Lobby Goes to Appeals Court Today

Tim Carney: Apple becomes latest target of the Beltway Shakedown

Kung Fu Quip: Perspective on the Growth of the Federal Government in Four Simple Charts

Quin Hillyer: The First Amendment, Threatened

CNSNews: IRS Misses Filing Deadline: Fails to Comply With Congressional Demand for All Communications With WH About Targeting Conservatives

Free Enterprise: Report: Total Regulatory Burden Hits $1.8 trillion Annually

Commentary: The Case foe Drones

Some are calling this a terrorist attack.

I call it savagery:

Two suspected terrorists were shot by armed police after attacking a pedestrian, believed to be a soldier, with a machete-style knife close to military barracks in an ‘Islamist attack’.

…

The BBC reported sources had told them the men were shouting “Allahu Akbar” as they carried out the attack and had filmed carrying it out.

One witness, called James, told LBC radio: “We saw clearly two knives, meat cleavers, they were big kitchen knives like you would use in a butcher’s, they were hacking at this poor guy, we thought they were trying to remove organs from him”

“These two guys were crazed, they were not there, they were just animals. They then dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road.

“They took 20 minutes to arrive, the police – the armed response.”

Not only did they kill this man in broad daylight, but while they waited for the cops to show up, they did an interview:

Wal-mart has pledged to donate a million dollars to the tornado recovery effort in Moore, Oklahoma.

This should make liberal heads asplode:

Walmart says it is pledging $1 million for the recovery from the tornado that devastated Moore.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company said Tuesday that it will make donations of cash and materials equal to $1 million.

Walmart is also sending truckloads of food, water and other basic items to serve as immediate aid.

Meanwhile, leftists are whining because some senators want the disaster aid from the federal government to be offset.  To them, that’s an act of terror.

No.  Seriously.

Meanwhile, charity is pouring into Moore.

Nice work, Walmart.  I’ll be visiting you this evening.

Photo Credit: Walmart Corporate

Guess who’s back?

That’s right. Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner is running for Mayor of New York City:

That’s a great video. I mean, I’m no fan of Weiner, but I appreciate the production value of that video.

And I think he’ll pull it off.

After all, look at Mark Sanford.

Rep. Jim Jordan not only asked former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman if he’s selling the Congress a pack of lies, but back hands him with his testimony from a year ago where he claimed there was no political agenda in the IRS.

Shulman’s response to that is awesome:

“Excuse me?”

What? Were you not paying attention?

Hat Tip: NRCC