‘The Hive’ – Please Talk Amongst Yourselves

Here is our weekend discussion thread, where comments on the general topics of the day are very welcome.

But please remember to post and comment on specific news items in the ‘Reader Selected News’ thread below or via the ‘News Selected By Our Readers’ link found in the sidebar.

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Reader Selected News, Week May 18 – May 24

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news articles that might not warrant their own thread.

Posting Guidelines

To make the articles as readable as possible, please:

  • Only post news from established news media outlets.
  • Avoid editorials or opinion pieces unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Avoid items that most people most likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Post articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread as a comment there.
  • Always spell out the name of the source and post a link to it.
  • Always post less than one quarter of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines may be edited or deleted.

Thank you.

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Venezuela Is Now Running Out Of Toilet Paper

From a very understanding Associated Press:

Now Venezuela is running out of toilet paper

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ and KARL RITTER | May 16, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities — toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls to boost supplies.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.

"This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in downtown Caracas.

They are running out of straws, too?

One supermarket visited by The Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper.

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Job’s Widow Backs Amnesty, AGW, Gun Control

From a gushing New York Times:

Steve Jobs’s Widow Debuts on Philanthropic Stage

By PETER LATTMAN and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER | May 17, 2013

… Now, less than two years after Mr. Jobs’s death, Ms. Powell Jobs is becoming somewhat less private. She has tiptoed into the public sphere, pushing her agenda in education as well as global conservation, nutrition and immigration policy. Just last month, for example, she sat down for a rare television interview, discussing the immigration bill before Congress. She has also taken on new issues, like gun control…

So the New York Times will have to end their jihad and go back to loving Apple again.

“She’s been mourning for a year and was grieving for five years before that,” said Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund who is an old friend of Mr.

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The House Reaches ‘Tentative Deal’ On Amnesty

From Reuters:

House lawmakers reach tentative deal to revamp immigration

By Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Prospects for passage of a major immigration bill improved on Thursday when a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives declared they had reached a tentative deal, resolving disputes that had threatened to torpedo negotiations.

The breakthrough came at the end of a two-hour private meeting of seven Republican and Democratic negotiators. The eighth negotiator in this so-called House Gang of Eight was unavailable after undergoing surgery on Wednesday.

The final sticking point, according to congressional sources, was over whether illegal immigrants now in the United States who gain legal status under the bill could participate in the new healthcare law known as "Obamacare," which Republicans want to repeal…

Which is laughable.

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GOP Wants IG Probes For Sebelius And The EPA

From the Politico:

GOP: GAO should investigate Kathleen Sebelius

By GINGER GIBSON | May 16, 2013  

A group of Republican lawmakers called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius over her fundraising for a nonprofit supporting Obamacare.

That is to say, they are calling for the GAO’s Inspector General to investigate her. So how many inspector generals are there now investigating various agencies under the most transparent administration in history?

Republicans are criticizing news that Sebelius sought donations from health care companies for a group working to encourage more people to enroll in Obamacare programs.

“The Secretary’s actions show an apparent disregard for constitutional principles and may violate the Antideficiency Act, the prohibition against augmenting congressional appropriations, and executive branch ethics laws,” a letter from several Republicans to the comptroller reads…

Republicans argued that Sebelius could be violating the constitution by seeking funds from sources other than Congress to implement the law.

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The Anti-Tea Party Union That Controls The IRS

From Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator:

The Liberal Union Behind the IRS

By Jeffrey Lord | May 16, 2013

Obama, IG Report refuse to touch powerful Treasury Employees Union headed by ex-IRS agent.

The President couldn’t even bring himself to breathe a word of the truth. He could fire some hapless Acting Commissioner, but last night Mr. Obama never came close to discussing that which must never be discussed.

The IRS? It’s about a union: the National Treasury Employees Union. The NTEU. A left-wing union representing 150,000 employees in 31 separate government agencies, including the IRS.

A union that not only endorsed President Obama for election and re-election, but a union whose current president, Colleen Kelly, was a 14-year IRS agent and now is both union president and Obama administration appointee (of which more in a moment).

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Obama Picks His Sequester Manager To Head IRS

From the Washington Post:

Daniel Werfel replaces Miller as acting IRS commissioner

By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Aaron Blake | May 16, 2013

Daniel Werfel, a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget, has been named acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, according to a White House official…

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said he wasn’t familiar with Werfel but would be open to considering him as a permanent commissioner.

“If I was the president I would find the very best business man I possibly could who’d be willing to take it over and have the authority to be able to straighten the mess out,” Hatch said. “I don’t know whether Werfel has that kind of dimension or not, but I hope he does.”

Does Obama even know any businessmen, apart from Warren Buffett and Jeffrey Immelt?

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IRS Tax Exempt Head Now Runs IRS Obama-Care

From ABC News:

IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

By John Parkinson, Steven Portnoy | May 16, 2013

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…

And here is a possibly related story, from the Washington Examiner:

IRS tax exemption/Obamacare exec got $103,390 in bonuses

By Mark Tapscott | May 16, 2013

Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harrassment [sic], got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012…

Ingram received a $7,000 bonus in 2009, according to data obtained by The Washington Examiner from the IRS, then a $34,440 bonus in 2010, $35,400 in 2011 and $26,550 last year, for a total of $103,390.

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ICE Released 32 Illegals With ‘Multiple Felonies’

From Fox News:

ICE admits hundreds of illegal immigrants with criminal records released

May 16, 2013

Hundreds of illegal immigrants with criminal records were released earlier this year as the Obama administration prepared for budget cuts, according to newly released data that challenged claims the program involved "low-risk" individuals.

Even this sentence is very misleading, since these releases were done before the sequester was a done deal. Besides, we already know that the minuscule sequester cuts should not have required any releases, anyway.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released the figures to two top senators, after a three-month delay and under the threat of congressional subpoenas.

Which is typical of the ‘most transparent administration’ in history.

Of the 2,226 detainees that were released in February, the department revealed, "622 have been identified as having some type of criminal conviction."

Lest we forget, Obama pretends that he has suspect deporting illegal aliens in general, in order to concentrate on deporting those with criminal records that might be a danger to public safety.

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DOJ Lost Track Of 2 Terrorists In Wit-Sec Program

From Jake Tapper at CNN:

First on CNN: Witness Protection Program lost two ‘known or suspected terrorists’

By Jake Tapper | May 16, 2013

The U.S. Marshals Service lost two former participants in the federal Witness Security Program “identified as known or suspected terrorists,” according to the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN.

The Marshals Service has concluded that “one individual was and the other individual was believed to be residing outside of the United States,” according to the summary.

A Justice Department official said in response to follow up questions about the matter by reporters that the pair had left the program years ago and had been accounted for. It was not clear when or for how long the Marshals Service lost track of them.

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O-Care Will Hit Union Health Plans With 40% Tax

From the Washington Examiner:

Obamacare socks union health plans with 40% tax

By Paul Bedard | May 15, 2013

Deep in the list of taxes that the president’s Obamacare plan will hit Americans with is a 40 percent excise tax on health plans typical union members have, especially in Midwest states, according to a new analysis.

The Obamacare tax won’t take place until 2018, but when it does it will smack high cost, or so-called "Cadillac" health insurance plans, according to the group Americans for Tax Reform.

Whoops! That wasn’t supposed to happen to Obama’s peeps. Still, wouldn’t you like to see Richard Trumka’s face reading this?

But don’t worry. There will be a union carve out just in time for the next elections.

"This tax will most directly affect union families and early retirees, who are likely to be covered by such plans," said ATR in a review of upcoming tax cuts in the health reform package set to go into effect in January.

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