21. May 2013

Jon Bon Jovi to Justin Bieber: Stop Being an Asshole and Get Your Crap Together

Jon Bon Jovi has had enough of Justin Bieber’s crap.

If you missed his appearance at the Billboard Music Awards the other night, Bieber was booed by the audience and delivered a childish “I should be taken seriously!” speech to a crowd of legendary artists.

Bieber, who wore sunglasses throughout the ceremony, seemed like a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. Which Bon Jovi didn’t hesitate to point out.

“Every generation has guys that do that, none of that is new,” the 51-year-old Bon Jovi told the newspaper during a tour stop in Vienna on the European leg of Bon Jovi’s Because We Can tour.

“They run the risk of disrespecting their audience members who have worked hard to pay for their ticket, to give you the permission to take two or three hours of their lives—or in that kid’s case, 80 minutes of their lives.”…

“Do it once, you can be forgiven,” the “Bad Medicine” singer said. “Do it enough times and shame on you. They won’t have you back. Then it just becomes a cliché. It’s really not cool—you’re an a–hole. Go to f–kin’ work!

Well said.

Bieber is king of the entitlement generation that assumes it deserves your respect simply because it exists and does what it wants to do. Enough already.

21. May 2013

IRS Worker Used Taxpayer Money for Years-Long Shopping Spree

This is what happens when your government gets so big that it takes years for anyone to notice corruption.

MAY 21–Entrusted with a government credit card, an Internal Revenue Service worker allegedly used the plastic for a years-long Amazon.com shopping spree that netted her hundreds of items, including a chocolate fondue fountain; Bollywood movies; Pampers; Harlequin romance novels; Omaha Steaks; Apple Bottoms skinny jeans; mango body wash; and a Ginsu knife set.

Yetunde Oseni, 37, was named this month in a U.S. District Court felony complaint charging her with embezzling government funds. Oseni has worked since 2000 as a secretary in an IRS office in Lanham, Maryland.

According to a court filing, Oseni was given a Citibank MasterCard for the “purchase of office supplies for her business unit.”

She faces 10 years in prison if convicted.

21. May 2013

Top IRS Official to Plead Fifth in Growing Scandal

Senior IRS official Lois Lerner, who was the first at the agency to publicly acknowledge the illegal targeting of conservative groups, will tomorrow invoke her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions from Congressional investigators.

Her defense attorney, William Taylor III, confirmed in a letter that Lerner would refuse to explain to investigators her role in the growing scandal or why it was never disclosed to Congress. Lerner heads the division of the IRS that was responsible for the political persecution.

20. May 2013

How to Help Oklahoma Now

You’ve no doubt seen the disaster unfolding in Oklahoma. A terrible tornado system has taken more than 51 lives, including – terribly – dozens of children who were sheltered in an elementary school. There are countless homeless and more than 120 hospitalized.

We’re Americans and our first instinct when seeing tragedy like this is to find a way to help. Authorities say they have enough rescuers on scene for now and want to keep the roads clear, so any help we can provide would have to be from our own parts of the country.

Here’s what you can do now:

  • Donate to the American Red Cross either online or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 (donation will be charged to your cellphone bill). 
  • You can also donate to the Salvation Army. You can do that online or by texting STORM to 80888 (same goes with $10 charged to your bill).

Basically they need donations to keep supplies and disaster response operations going for now. If there’s anything else that comes up, I’ll update.

20. May 2013

IRS to Employees: Talk to Media, Get Fired

ABC News has an explosive report on the Internal Revenue Service’s in-house response to the unfolding scandal.

According to employees who spoke to ABC, they’ve been informed that if they speak to the media they’ll risk losing their jobs.

At the IRS office on the fourth floor, a woman who answered the buzzer referred reporters to officials in Washington, though they were not returning very many calls. That staffer also said she was not allowed to speak to anyone – a line that was repeated by agency personnel during the week.

The agency officially denies, but:

Asked whether employees were reminded of the official media policy this week, the spokesman said “no.”

Not so, said IRS folks in Ohio.

One of them, who asked not be named, told ABC News that security guards did remind employees of the official policy not to talk with the press – a warning cemented by the punch line “or risk losing our jobs.”

Even leaders of the local union that represents the IRS workers under fire took the admonition to heart, hanging up on reporters who wanted to ask questions about the scandal. One longtime IRS worker and union member called the response by the National Treasury Employees Union “dazzling.”

And that’s not all. ABC News reporters tried to get answers and speak with employees willing to talk about the scandal. When the reporters tried, they were trailed by armed security.

As we traveled the public hallways of the building – watched over by security cameras – an armed uniformed police officer with the Federal Protective Service followed us. We were looking for a particular office—of someone who would not want to be seen talking to reporters–but chose to bypass it because of our official babysitter.

Asked why we were being escorted in a public building, the officer identified himself as Insp. Mike Finkelstein and said he was only trying to make sure that the newsmen were not a “nuisance.” He brushed aside further questions. The cop said a supervisor would call to explain.

No supervisor ever called.

20. May 2013

White House: Senior Staff Knew About IRS on April 24th, Decided Not to Tell Obama

So here’s what just happened: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, delivering his daily press briefing, admitted senior White House staff — including White House Counsel and Chief of Staff — knew of the IRS scandal on April 24th. That’s new information the White House is only now conceding.

But, according to the White House’s new spin, all of these senior staffers got together and decided to not tell Barack Obama. Which means senior staff, employees of the president, conspired to deny the president important information about an investigation that would alter the news cycle and hurt his presidency.

That’s if you believe the spin. I don’t, but let’s assume – for argument’s sake – it’s true. (It’s not, but for argument’s sake.)

Put yourself in Barack Obama’s shoes. Wouldn’t you be pissed? If you found out about a major scandal that would hurt your presidency, and then found the people who work for you kept that information from you, wouldn’t you be pissed? Wouldn’t you fire at least the ringleaders? Forget morality and decency for a moment. They hurt you and your administration. You’d fire them.

But no. No firings. And the White House is still trying to cover-up exactly who knew what.

20. May 2013

Obama’s Justice Department Spied on Fox News Reporter, Read His Emails

Yeah, time for Attorney General Eric Holder to either resign or be fired.

They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.

The case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, the government adviser, and James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, bears striking similarities to a sweeping leaks investigation disclosed last week in which federal investigators obtained records over two months of more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the Associated Press.

By the way, this great leak? Rosen reported that if sanctions were imposed on North Korea, the communist state would likely respond with more nuclear tests. That’s it. For that the Obama Administration spied on him and read his personal emails.

Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, tweets:

If James Rosen’s “clandestine communications plan” were illegal, every journalist in Washington would be locked up. Unreal.

Also obvious from search warrant: DOJ already had Kim completely nailed. They didn’t need to get Rosen’s emails.

Yep. This was retaliation for undermining them, not a serious national security leak investigation. As with the Associated Press investigation, this was just DoJ under Eric Holder trying to get even with reporters for reporting.

19. May 2013

White House Spokesman: “The Law Is Irrelevant”

Seriously? Seriously. This guy, Dan Pfeiffer, was sent out by the White House to speak for Barack Obama.

I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.

“The law is irrelevant”? Whether those involved were merely acting inappropriately or committing felonies is “irrelevant”? Whether they were violating constitutional rights is “irrelevant”?

No wonder employees of the Internal Revenue Service saw nothing wrong with politically persecuting Americans. They have a boss who considers the law of the land to be “irrelevant” so long as he condemns what happened later.

17. May 2013

First Degree Murder: Man Charged With Tricking Girlfriend Into Taking Abortion Pills

A Florida man who forged his father’s signature on a prescription and tricked his pregnant girlfriend into taking abortion-inducing pills has been charged with first-degree murder.

According to a federal arrest affidavit, Welden swapped out his girlfriend’s antibiotics with abortion pills, specifically Cytotec.

“I was never going to do anything but go full term with it, and he didn’t want me to,” explained Remee Lee, 26, Welden’s now ex-girlfriend.

On Easter Sunday, Lee went to an area hospital complaining of severe cramping and excessive vaginal bleeding. Doctors told Lee her unborn baby no longer had a heartbeat.

His father’s a doctor and he allegedly forged the dad’s signature to acquire the abortion pills. He then allegedly changed the label indicate the pills were antibiotics for her.

Lee said when she learned she was pregnant, Welden took her to see his father, who is an obstetrician in Lutz. A sonogram and blood test confirmed Lee was six-weeks pregnant.

The next day, Welden called his girlfriend with bad news. Her blood test apparently showed she had a bacterial infection and she would need to take Amoxicillin to clear it up.

On Good Friday, Lee said Welden showed up at her Tampa home with a care package that included the bottle of antibiotics. The label said the pills were A moxycillin .

“He told me to keep taking them. I was supposed to take three a day for days,” she recalled of Welden’s instructions.

Those pills, of course, were the abortion-inducing Cytotec.

“Everyone dreams of becoming a mom. This was my chance,” she said.

First-degree murder is a capital offense, and Florida — where the crime took place — regularly imposes the death penalty as punishment.

17. May 2013

Treasury Officials Knew of IRS Targeting in 2012

Officials at the Treasury Department knew the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was engaged in political targeting back in June 2012 – months before the presidential election – and kept it quiet, according to testimony by the Inspector General today.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative groups, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

And yet the IRS only went public with this information last Friday, and even then the admission only came because the Inspector General was set to go public with his investigation.